Crockpot Apple Butter

I love fall! Living in Phoenix, we get the delayed pleasure of brisk mornings, crackling fires, and cozy sweaters. Autumn flirts with us for about a month, before it finally kisses the city with delicious cool weather. Until then, people in the valley buy Pumpkin Spice Lattes, and drink Apple Cider in tank tops and flip flops, waiting with great anticipation until the fulness of the season arrives. :)

As for me, I am on a similar track, trying to bring the sensational aromas and tastes of fall into my home, patiently waiting for my favorite season to stop and sit a while. :) Yesterday I noticed that I had a lot of apples to use, along with a couple of ripe delicious pears. I had already put it in my mind to make apple butter and had pinned a couple of tantalizing recipes on my Pinterest board. So, I took a look at a few, and then decided to make up my own recipe, including all of my favorite spices beyond cinnamon and cloves.

The result is divine! All night I slept with the heavenly aromas of apples, cinnamon and exotic spices swirling through the air. In the morning I blended the yummy brown apples, and put it in mason jars for my family and friends. I hope you like it as much as we do!

Ingredients:
12 of your favorite kind of apples (or a mixture of apples and pears)
1 cup of brown sugar
1 cup of real maple syrup
2 cups of apple cider or apple juice
1/2 cup of Bragg's Apple cider vinegar
1 tspn of kosher salt
**Optional** 1/4 cup of rum, brandy, or vanilla vodka (the alcohol completely cooks out, but gives it an amazing flavor)

Spices:
4 pieces of  cinnamon (i had the added bonus of using cinnamon from Ethiopia!)
1 star anise
1/2 tspn anise seeds
2 cardamom pods
1 tspn of whole cloves

Directions:
1. Cut and core apples into big chunks. Place them in the crockpot.
2. Take all of your spices and grind them for 30 seconds in a clean coffee grinder. Add to the crockpot.
3. Add the brown sugar, maple syrup, apple cider, apple cider vinegar, kosher salt and optional alcohol. 
4. Set your crockpot on low for 18 hours and stir occasionally. Your home will smell like a fall heaven!!!
5. In the morning you will notice that the apples are brown and condensed into a lovely mixture waiting for you to blend. You can use an immersion blender, or a regular strong blender. I used my Blendtec, and it did a great job.
6. Divide it into mason jars, seal, let it cool, refrigerate and enjoy! This should make plenty for your own family, and a few jars left over to bless people.

Happy Fall!

Date Fig Cake with Whipped Honey Goat Cheese Spread

When I think of Sukkot, I think of the fulness of God's promises,
the ingathering of the beloved ones, and the inexpressible joy we have in His presence. It is my absolute favorite holiday foreshadowing the end time harvest of souls, the salvation of Israel and the nations, and the sheltering of the redeemed in the presence of Yeshua. Oh, how I love this holiday! (see Revelation 7 for more of what I am talking about).

One of my favorite parts of Sukkot is having Ushpizin, or honored guests come into our sukkah. There, in the cool of night, with the twinkle lights and hand made decorations, we shev (sit/ dwell) together in unity as it is commanded, and rejoice, laugh, feast and fellowship- enjoying the presence of our LORD and strengthening the close relationships we have with one another. 

I love to cook, and I love to entertain. I don't think that's any secret. Something else that I love is creating new culinary expressions of traditional flavors, taking classics to a new and refined level. Earlier last week, I had an inspiration to make a cake infused with the flavors of date and fig, reminiscent of the seven species promised to Israel (Deuteronomy 8:8). 

This cake is one that incorporates 3 of the seven species of Israel, featuring dates, figs, and wheat. It also incorporates warm feel good spices that are a *must* for the autumn season. The spread is both savory and sweet and adds an unexpected twang from the goat cheese, taking this from an yummy spicy cake to an international delight.  The goat cheese and honey also are reminiscent of the promise of the land flowing with "milk and honey."

I purchased my unique ingredients at my local Asian grocery store that also sells middle eastern foods.

Ingredients:      

4 eggs   
2 1/2 cups of fig preserves
1 cup of coconut oil, or softened butter

2 cups of date syrup

3 cups of bread flour

1 tbspn of baking soda

2 tbspns heavy cream

1 tbspn apple cider vinegar

1 tbspn of vanilla extract

1 tbspn cinnamon

1 tspn ground cloves

1 tspn ground anise

1 tbspn of kosher salt 

*Optional 1/4 tspn ground cardamom

Directions:

1) Beat eggs lightly; add fig preserves, coconut oil and date syrup. 

2) Sift flour and soda into the mixture. Mix well.

3) Add heavy cream and apple cider vinegar. Mix until incorporated. 

4) Add the spices: cinnamon, ground cloves, anise, and kosher salt. 

5) Grease and flour your pans. Pour into a bundt pan, or 3 loaf pans. I put 2/3 of the mixture in a bundt pan and 1/3 of the mixture into a loaf pan. Honestly, I just wanted to taste it before tonight's guests came over. ;)

6) Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 mins to 1 hour or until golden brown. 

For the Honey Goat Cheese Spread:

1 package of goat cheese

12 oz of softened cream cheese

1 stick of softened butter

1/ 2 cup of honey

Whip it together in the kitchen aid till it is light and fluffy, sweet and delicious.  

Serve with a dollop of whipped honey spread and garnish with dates, figs or fresh herbs.  Drizzle a light portion of honey over the plate and enjoy! :)

Suncatchers for Sukkot

I confess. I am a Pinterest-er. I like fun, trendy things. I enjoy my home reflecting the fingerprint of my soul, displaying my style, ideas, design and faith. If you follow me, I apologize for sea of pins that comes up once or twice a week about midnight Arizona time. :)

One of my most recent pinning sprees came from a need to incorporate new ideas into our Sukkah decorating.  I wanted to find a craft that would uniquely display the handiwork of my children, and bring a new twist to decorations we've done in the past. Among other great craft ideas, I stumbled upon this citron sun catcher from The Shiksa. I just love her!! I found her craft to be fun, easy, trendy and beautiful- everything I love!

 I started to look for ideas on pomegranate sun catchers, to incorporate some more traditional fruits, colors and symbolism for Sukkot, but I couldn't find any. So, I thought, hey, I can do that.

Materials:
Red card stock or construction paper  
Scissors
Tissue paper, I got mine from World Market. ;)
Glue
String
A Stapler

Directions:
1) Use a small round object to trace a circle. The one I used was a glass tealight holder that was about 2 1/2 inches in diameter. It really can be any size though.
2) Add the little sepals to your circle, giving it the pomegranate shape.
3) Cut it out. Then fold your pomegranate in half and cut a smaller circle inside, leaving your paper to display the outline of a pomegranate.
4) Place a thin bead of glue on the edge of your pomegranate paper, and add your tissue paper. After the glue dries, cut off the remainder of the tissue paper. Staple some string to your sun catcher and hang it up in your sukkah!

You can also make many varieties of the craft I just explained. You can add another pomegranate outline to the back, so it looks "finished" on both sides. Or you can combine several pomegranate outlines together to make a 3D version.

 Here 's my 8 year old son's sun catcher. Cute!

 

My husband even made one. He of course had to do a fancy, 3D one. It looks really nice. 

 All the sun catchers for our sukkah and one Mexican fighting mask!

 

Warm German Potato Salad

Being that we have entered the month of September, and had a cold front in Phoenix today, (with the high of 90* F), combined with grey rainy skies- I had to do something to celebrate! ;) I was scrolling through facebook with a delicious cup of earl grey tea in hand, when I came across some random advertisement picture of potatoes with bacon. That's all it took to inspire me. Hmmmm...

Within 5 seconds I had an urge to make a warm German potato salad. I had never made one before, but hey, there's always a first time, and it could turn out to be a hit. I looked around my kitchen, gathered ingredients in my mind, and gave it a whirl. Here's what I did.

Ingredients:
12 medium sized white potatoes, cut into bite sized chunks
2 packages of turkey bacon
1 big bunch of garden fresh dill
1/2 red onion, minced
1 small bunch of green onions (chives)


Dressing:
1 cup of organic mayonaise
1 cup of greek yogurt
4 tbspns of dijon or whole grain mustard
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
pinch of kosher salt
2 pinches of freshly ground black pepper
10 cloves of garlic

Directions
1. First, I brought a big pot of water up to a boil. While that was heating, I cut up my potatoes into big nice size chunks. I got about 16 pieces from each potato. After the water was boiling, I placed all the potato chunks in at the same time and set the timer for 20 mins.
2.  Then I chopped up 2 packages of turkey bacon and cooked it on medium low heat, stirring occasionally until they were all browned and crunchy.
3. While the potatoes and turkey bacon were going, I chopped up a big bunch of fresh dill, minced half of a crunchy sweet red onion, and diced up a small bunch of green onions (chives).
4. After the potatoes boiled, I drained them and set them aside while I made the dressing. Make sure to test your potatoes about 15 mins in. You don't want them to be falling apart. You want them soft, but still in tact, holding a nice shape.
5. For the dressing:
Place all of the ingredients in a really good blender ( I use blendtech) and give it a whirl. That's it! Give it a taste and adjust it to however you want it. :) Don't make it too salty. Remember you have the salt of the turkey bacon.
6. Combine the potatoes, enough dressing to lightly coat the potatoes, and half of the fresh dill, half of the turkey bacon, and all of the minced red onion and green onions. Save the rest of the sauce for something else. You could use it for a number of things, like pouring it over chicken and baking it, or using it to make another batch. Depending on how you " lightly coat" the potatoes will depend on how much you have left over. :)
7. Finish the presentation by laying the remainder of the dill down the center of the warm potato salad, followed by the remainder of that hot crunchy turkey bacon.

That's it folks. It serves 12-14 and is perfect for an entire meal. You could serve it individually on a bed of baby spinach, with a nice glass of hibiscus lemonade (that's what I did). ;)  If you want a little more twang, you could also add some capers. Have fun, make it your own and enjoy fall! :)

P.S. It's good! Really good!