Dunk & Crumble

Recipes

Kale, Coconut & Persimmon Salad

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Well.  Are we ready?  Are our pie doughs made and our turkeys brined and our cranberries good and sauced?  Are our potatoes peeled?  Are our pant-waists elasticized?

It’s time.

It’s time for too much pie and wine and family.  Time to play some chilly football, wholly half-heartedly, and then self-stuff with stuffing.  And roasted birds and Brussels with bacon and squash in all forms and biscuits.  And more biscuits.

It’s time!  It’s time and I am ready.

Are you ready?  Not entirely?  Doing some last minute oops-it’s-Thanksgiving-already-and-what-should-I-even-make-anyway dances?  Don’t stress.  Make this salad.  It’s tasty and seasonal and, most importantly, supremely easy to throw together, willy-nilly and easy-peasy.  Can’t find persimmons?  Try substituting chunks of fresh mango or even sliced pears.

And here are a few more ideas for you, if you’re looking for that last dish to round out your Thanksgiving table….

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Cheesy Leek & Delicata Squash Tart

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There’s an old man who sits in my local coffee shop all day.  I probably didn’t notice him the first few times I ran in for a latte, but I bet he was there.  He’s always there.  Reading a newspaper and holding a pen, sometimes making notes in the margins.  He wears thin silver glasses, wispy white hairs, a navy blue sport coat over a blue striped shirt and a navy blue ascot around his neck.  I think that’s what made me notice him, at first – the ascot.  I didn’t think much about him, initially.  Just, you know, cool ascot.  But the coffee shop days wore on, and I started noticing.

I noticed that he likes ginger cookies.  His thin lips rarely smile, and his Roman nose is always gloriously beet red.  His thin pocket square slumps down in his breast pocket like a deflated dream, barely visible except when he leans over his paper to catch the small print.  He’s always getting up and sitting back down, teetering around the coffee shop with a slow purpose, it seems.  He chews with his mouth wide open and throws stray pastry crumbs on the ground.  He’s got lots of stray crumbs.

This man often makes me smile, as I sit and work and sip.  He also makes me sad.  Who is this man?  What are his stories?  Why does he sit in this coffee shop, day after day, wearing his sport coat and ascot?  What is he writing in those margins?  Letters?  Short stories?  Nothing at all?

I don’t know.  He interests me.  I hope his life is happy.  I hope he’s got a nice family.  Somehow, I’m not sure that’s true.  Watching him makes me thankful for my own life, loves, family.  I guess that’s all I really mean to say.

All of which has nothing to do with this cheesy leek and Delicata squash tart, except that I made it for my love of a sister, who was here visiting over the weekend.  We ate it warm for dinner alongside bowls of creamy carrot potato soup, then snacked on it cold the next day, like leftover pizza.  It’s definitely better warm, but when you’re snacking and gossiping with your visiting little sister, it turns out it doesn’t much matter.

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Tricksy Treats

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(Circa 1992.  My aunt made my clown costume and we all (pretty, pretty obviously) did our own makeup.  You’re welcome.)

Happy day-before-Halloween!  Or rather, as it’s called this year, crazy-nuts-hurricane-clean-up-day.

I hope you’re all staying high and dry and doing some fun Halloween treat-making.  Or baking.  Or eating.  If you have electricity, I mean.

Need some candy-coated inspiration?  How about some homemade marshmallows?

Totally toast-able.

Here, bowls of pumpkin patchy brown sugar vanilla bean pudding.

Chocolate peanut butter candy cake?

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Baked Cinnamon Sugared Pumpkin Doughnuts

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These doughnuts are baked and not fried, cinnamon-sugared and not plain, eaten and not saved.  Both dunked and crumbled.  Take the leap!  Make some doughnuts.

Other leaps worth taking, while we’re on the subject:

Write things, even if you feel silly writing them.

Get up and out of the house.  Take a walk.  Wander.  Travel somewhere far!  If you can.

Send somebody a letter.  Like, in the mail.  (The mail, mail.)  What’s better than getting a nice letter written by hand?

Talk to that guy you think is so-o-o-oo cute.  Call him maybe.

Pause for a minute.  Look around.  Ok, go.

Wear something you think you can’t pull off.  If you’re wearing it (and walking tall in those boots), you’re pulling it off.

Use real butter.  Just, please do.

Be a friend.  A real one.  Everyone needs those.

Just a few leaps to keep in mind.  Mostly reminders to put yourself out there – socially, personally, professionally.  Mentally?

Sometimes I need a little extra push, a voice that says “go!” and “YOU can do it.”  Because things don’t always work out, but sometimes they do.  When they do, you’ll be glad you wrote that letter, or wore that skirt.  And when they don’t?  Well, then we get up, dust off, move on.  And either way, there are doughnuts.

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Nana’s Cheese Biscuits

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I spent the weekend in Tennessee, near Chattanooga; it’s where Ben’s Nana grew up.  We were there to celebrate the life of this amazing Southern lady, to smile at her kindness and spirit, to cry because we’ll miss her.

When I met Nana, she was 92.  Her hands were pale and fragile, but her eyes sparkled and her smile came warm and easy.  At the sight of Ben, her face lit up like fairy lights at Christmas time; though Nana was once a Lookout Mountain cotillion queen and a sharp and witty newspaper columnist, her very favorite role was that of unconditionally doting Grandma.

Much like someone else I know (hint: me), Nana showed her love through cooking.  A cake for every birthday, a feast for every Friday, a cookie (or four) for every little thing.  A true southerner and generous in every way, her recipes weren’t complete without multiple sticks of butter, shortening, cream.  She made a habit of tall and creamy pies, fried chicken, cheese biscuits, lush layer cakes, cornbread.  Her recipe journals are rich and full of whimsy — reading them helps to fill in the gaps for me, a friend who came late into her life.  Her jaunty words help to paint a picture of the vibrant and gracious woman responsible for bringing “Elegant Sour Cream Pound Cake,” “Truly Southern Pecan Pie” and “Especially Good Corn Pudding” into the lives of all she loved.  The notes for her lime chiffon pie recipe read as follows:

“Lime Chiffon Pie is such a special favorite of my family, and even many friends.  It is so delightful on steamy summer nights to end a dinner filled with recipes renowned in the South – of vegetables, just picked from the garden.”

I knew Nana for one year of her 92 total, so it’s fair to say I missed a lot.  But I’ve made her lime chiffon pie, I’ve made her cheese biscuits and apple cake.  I’ve got her words and stories to keep me company as I sift flour, roll out dough, melt another stick of butter. And for this I feel so lucky.

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Chunky Peanut Butter Brownies

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A few things that are true:

1. Sharks can (sort of) sense fear.
2. Pumpkin patches in California are dusty and meltingly hot, even in October.
3. I’m having dinner with my Uncle Bob tonight.
4. My Uncle Bob lives in Minnesota.
5. Brownies are sometimes best with peanut butter.

I made these a few weeks ago, right after I got Dorie Greenspan’s baking bible which, incidentally, is called Baking.  It’s a fantastic book, covering everything from scones and muffins to loaf cakes and cheesecakes and special occasion cakes, too.  Hearty cookies to delicate French tarts.  Crisps, crumbles, custards, puddings, ice creams.  Also brownies.  Dorie writes neatly and enticingly, and her recipes are notoriously flawless.  Especially, I find, when they involve a bit of peanut butter.

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Salty Caramel Thyme Dip

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I’ve been wanting to tell you about this caramel recipe for awhile, but then it was suddenly upwards of 90 degrees here and I was too busy panting my way up the stairs (four flights, come on!) and standing directly in front of the table fan.  Which took hours, you understand.

But!  The caramel.  It is good.  And now it’s starting to feel appropriately fall-ish here in the Bay.  I’ve got sunflowers in miniature vases and miniature pumpkins on the coffee table.  I’m into miniatures, apparently.  Also caramel.

Do you say cah-rah-mel?  Car-mel?  What’s the appropriate pronunciation, anyway?  It’s probably best to just eat it, and leave the pronouncing to someone else.  Is what I always say.

This caramel is for dipping and dunking and eating straight off the spoon.  The thyme gives it a subtle and pleasant earthiness, and the addition of cream cheese (a happy accident, the result of not having any heavy cream in the refrigerator and needing a suitable replacement) results in a creamily thick, smooth, and subtly tangy caramel.  Car-mel.  Whatever.  Lay off.

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Grilled Cheddar, Peach & Arugula

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Let’s get right to the point here: you don’t need me to give you a recipe for grilled cheese. You also don’t need an extra thick coffee milkshake, but wouldn’t your day be better if you had one right now?  Sometimes we want things that we don’t need.  Like milkshakes and pie cutters shaped like acorns and recipes for grilled cheese.

I had this for lunch two days in a row.  We’ve been lucky enough to still have some peaches at the farmer’s market (slim pickings, but I’m holding on to peach season with white knuckles), though I imagine this would be just as delicious with pears or apples, or even sweet plums.

And if you’re looking for a comfy tomato soup recipe to round this whole thing out, I’d suggest a hearty bowlful of Moroccan-spiced tomato soup.  Yum.

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Autumn Redux

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I fall for fall.
Same time every year, it seems,
Every old time.
Do you fall at fall-time?  I bet you do.
There’s cider and cocoa and cotton wool.
Firewood and firesides and fading sunlit breezes.  Boots, too.
Tall ones and short ones, stomp stomping, crunch crunching,
The deep and dusty leaves, all reds and mustards and ochres and sages,
And who says that has to get old, anyway?

It’s the first day of fall today.  Happy autumn!  Like most everyone else, it appears, I’m into this particular switching of seasons.  From shorts to tights, cotton to corduroy, peaches and berries to eggplant, apples, squash.

Here, a redux — some of my favorite cozy fall time recipes to remember as you swap your printed neon Toms for those earth-toned corduroy ones:

Try some roasted acorn squash and arugula, above.

Or chicken barley soup with kale.

Pumpkin ginger cake with salted maple glaze!

Mustard roasted potatoes & pears are the perfect compliment to any simple and hearty roast.

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Lemon-ish Berry Berry Muffins

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“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”

“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”

“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.

These are what’s happening exciting today.

Lemon-ish berry berry muffins, only faintly sweet and fortified with lemon zest, Greek yogurt, whole wheat pastry flour and (likely) the last of summer’s sweet berries.

These could be what’s happening exciting tomorrow, too!  Lemon-ish.  Breakfasty.  Berry Berry-able.  Muffinosity!

And if you wanted to make things extra exciting by bedazzling these with a simple lemon glaze, I wouldn’t be the one to stop you.  Just saying.

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