Fall Dinner Menu

Evidently, this has been the month that my blog has turned into a food blog. I just seem to be all about food right now, which I guess is apropos, with Thanksgiving around the corner and all. Plus, there have been other food events this month, like the fall breakfast I organized with a lot of my mommy friends (more on that in a later post) and having another family over for dinner. Anyway, I suppose November has certainly helped to beef up my little recipe index.

For the dinner we had with friends, I put together a very fallish menu, and I thought I'd post it here. We had that pumpkin dip I told you about, a yummy salad with pears and candied walnuts, maple-buttermilk bread (from The Bread Machine Cookbook), beef stew, and apple cranberry crisp. Yummers.

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Salad with Pears and Candied Walnuts

1 package field greens or baby greens, or one head of tender leaf lettuce, chopped
2 ripe pears (I like mine a little on the soft side so they're sure to be sweet), sliced
1/2 cup candied walnuts
fruity vinaigrette dressing

For the salad, I toss the greens with the dressing, then I arrange them on the bottom of the salad bowl. Next, I fan the sliced pears on top, then sprinkle the candied walnuts on top of everything. If you can eat unpasteurized cheese (unlike me at the moment), I would add some gorgonzola, too. (Though I bet I could find some pasteurized gorgonzola if I looked for it.)

To make the vinaigrette, simply whisk together two parts extra-virgin olive oil and one part fruity vinegar with a little salt and pepper. The vinegar I've been using lately is the Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar from Trader Joe's. It's perhaps a bit summery, but I like it with this salad because it's fruity, which I think compliments the pears.

Candied walnuts are actually really easy to make, but you have to keep your eyes on them, or they'll burn. The problem is that you're cooking sugar, which can turn bad really quickly. You may remember the fiasco that ensued when Nathan tried to make caramel last Thanksgiving (though it pales in comparison to the five-foot fireball that I created). Anyway, all you do is toss about half a cup of halved walnuts into a skillet over medium heat. Let them toast for a minute or so, then add a tablespoon of butter and let it melt, coating the walnuts. Sprinkle a tablespoon of sugar over the walnuts and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is no longer grainy. The nuts will look like they have a thin coating of shiny syrup on them. It's okay if the sugar turns a little dark (I like it to be a little caramelized), but if it starts to look as dark as, say, milk chocolate, take the pan off the heat, because it's quickly on its way to burning at that point.

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Beef Stew

This is actually a recipe I adapted from Williams-Sonoma, except that I nixed the chestnuts and added more veggies. You do have to commit to a fair amount of prep time, mainly because you have to cut up the beef and brown it, but I would definitely not skip the browning. It makes for a much deeper flavor in the stew. To save time, I chopped all the veggies the night before, stored them in the crock pot, and just stuck the whole thing into the fridge overnight. That way, all I had to do was brown the beef and add the final few ingredients the next morning.

3 lbs. boneless stewing beef, cut into one-inch cubes
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
salt & pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil (or more if you need it)
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
8-12 oz. new potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1-1/2 cups beef broth
1-1/2 cups red wine

In a large bowl, toss the beef with the flour, salt, and pepper until coated. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Warm 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil until just smoking. Add half the beef (or however much will fit in your skillet) and brown on all sides, 3-4 minutes total. Transfer to a slow cooker. Add the remaining olive oil to the pan and brown the rest of the beef. Add all the rest of the ingredients to the crock pot except the red wine, and stir to combine.

Off the heat (Be sure the heat is off! Remember my five-foot fireball!), add the red wine to the pan. Turn the heat back up to medium high. Bring to a simmer. With a wooden spoon, stir, scraping all the browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Add the wine to the slow cooker, and cook on high for 6 hours.

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Apple Cranberry Crisp

This recipe comes from a parents' yahoo group that some friends are a part of in their town. I am sure crisp recipes vary very little from one to another, but I like this one a lot because it incorporates cranberries, which give it some nice tartness. This is a very New England recipe.

Topping:
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Filling:
2 lbs. apples, peeled, cored, and sliced thinly (Granny Smith apples would be good in this; I used Cortlands)
2 cups fresh cranberries
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

To make the topping, mix all the ingredients except the butter in a bowl. With your fingers, rub the butter into the flour mixture. You could also use a pastry blender for this, but I find it easier to sort of pinch the butter into the mix. The topping can be made a day ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator until you need it.

Preheat the oven to 375. Butter a baking dish (something that will hold approx. 8 cups). Mix the filling ingredients in a large bowl, then transfer to the baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and crumble the topping over the apples. Return to the oven and bake until the apples are tender, the juice is bubbling thickly at the sides, and the topping is golden brown, about 35 minutes longer. Let stand at least 10 minutes before serving. Top with vanilla ice cream, if you like.