Sweet Revenge

Happy Halloween!!!!

 As you get older, Halloween is celebrated so differently from when you were a kid. Back then, it was all about the coolest costume and how much candy you could acquire in a single night. You'd look forward to Trick-or-Treating with the same, overwhelming amount of anticipation that you'd feel on Christmas morning. I remember my favorite costumes were the ones my mom made - Princess Jasmine from Aladdin and Pocahontas (but way before Disney came out with their movie). I definitely wore those a few years each!

 This year, my Halloween encompassed going out on Saturday night in a costume cobbled together at the last second with my regular wardrobe. Yup, I was a "cowgirl", in my plaid button-down shirt, jeans, a leather boots. Sorry, I didn't even have a cowboy hat to make the ensemble work. We visited two bars, neither of which was very busy or having a Halloween party. It was a complete reversal of last year's Halloween festivities in downtown -- every place was packed with costumed people, it took forever to get a drink, and we had to park blocks away.

 And my plans for tonight, Halloween Eve, are to hit up the grocery, then hang out at my apartment with my roomie, watching a Halloween movie on tv. Not a scary movie, though, since I'm such a chicken. We were planning to enjoy the first case of Ohio-issued Yuengling, since it was scheduled to be released today in southern Ohio. Sadly, though, the release date in stores has been pushed back to mid-November...so we'll be prematurely (by one day) celebrating Dia de Los Muertos with Rogue Dead Guy Ale. [side note: I love the colors and traditional imagery of Dia de Los Muertos - and I've always loved the idea of a day to celebrate the lives of your ancestors.] Sounds perfect to me! Plus I get to eat all the candy I bought, instead of giving it away to kids. Ha, okay, I will eat some of it, but I'll try to incorporate most of it into some baked goods, like cookies or something. Sigh. Behaving is such a challenge...

 Unlike my Halloween festivities, my celebration of fall-inspired cooking are in full swing.

 Two weeks ago, I made a pumpkin pie from scratch, meaning I chopped and roasted a small pie pumpkin instead of scraping it out of a can. I learned that I prefer the ease and bright orange color of the canned pumpkin puree to my sad, pale brown pie. Both taste quite good, though.

 Last week, I took the leftover roasted pumpkin and pureed it for a Pumpkin-Ginger Bread Pudding, with raisins and a hefty dose of cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom. Very tasty, especially when warmed and drizzled with heavy cream. Okay, what doesn't heavy cream make better? And there was plenty of heavy cream and gruyere cheese in the fennel-potato gratin I made, which was such a comfort dish, I know I'll made it again this winter.

 This past weekend, I was a baking fiend. I'd postponed some of the baking I'd meant to do during the week and had to get it done on the weekend, so that my ingredients didn't go bad. I made: baked mac and cheese with ricotta and squash puree, brownie cookies, brownies (with the leftover batter from the cookies), and Alton Brown's Super Apple Pie. Yup, that's right, I made my second attempt at the apple pie that had so disappointed and frustrated me a few weeks ago. This time, I came in armed with a brand new pie bird (an adorable white and blue rooster with red rooster trimmings!) and a springform pan (in lieu of the 2 inch deep tart pan AB recommends). I made the dough for the pie crusts over 24 hours before I made the pie, so they had plenty of time to firm up in the fridge. This pie takes a bit more time than I usually commit to pies, thanks to peeling and slicing all the apples, then coating them in sugar and letting them drain out some of their juice for 30 minutes. The task was made even more difficult by the ancient peeler my mom owns, which took some serious pressure to get peeling. Naturally, that brings about a serious fear of injuring myself with said peeler. I actually longed for the lovely, sharp oxo peeler in my apartment (nerd!).

 I was worried I'd have a repeat of my previous frustrations, or an entirely new set of difficulties to deal with; it'd be my personal Halloween horror story, made worse by the need to re-try baking the pie. I cannot let a silly pie recipe defeat me!

 The chilled crust rolled out nicely. The filling had more liquid than I thought was a good idea, so I added a bit more flour. It didn't seem to do much...but it was worth a shot. I even took the time to arrange the apples around the pie bird in a manner similar to AB's demo video, though I didn't arrange them nearly as neatly as he did (this young grasshopper has no patience!). The head of this wee pie bird poking out of the top of the pie was a strange sight, and he looked as if he might be screaming "Nooooooo!" I almost felt bad. There were only two minor problems with assembly: 1) the edges of the crust were difficult to seal together in the springform pan. I did my best, but it wasn't a pretty job, and 2) the reduced apple juice was a bit too reduced, almost like candy syrup, so it didn't brush across the crush. My lack of artistry is apparent in the smudges of candy-apple-juice around the emerging head of the pie bird.

 In the looks department, this pie isn't going to win any awards. In the arena of taste, though....mmmm! This pie has it. A tender, flaky crust with just a hint of apple from the applejack brandy. Apples kept juicy with apple jelly and apple cider, complete with a subtle hint of spice from the addition of grains of paradise. And a fresh acidity underlying it all, thanks to the lime juice. Marvelous! Definitely a Super Apple Pie. My revenge on this recipe was complete and so very delicious!

 Happy Halloween!
And Feliz Dia de los Muertos tomorrow!