Gingerbread and Cranberry Flavors in a Tart

Perhaps it's boring, or maybe just traditional, but I love having pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. One of my sisters has her birthday close to Thanksgiving and her favorite pie is pecan. Those are the two pies that I make most often at Thanksgiving time.

This year Sweetie and I were invited to join friends in Healdsburg for Thanksgiving and I offered to make the dessert. Imagine my surprise when the hostess asked that it not be pumpkin. At first I was going to go with the second usual pie, but then I made one for a birthday gift for my sister, so I was open to the idea of something different.

In the Washington Post there was a recipe that was new to me, sounded delicious, and seemed like it would make a festive dessert for the Thanksgiving feast. It's a Gingersnap crusted Cranberry Tart. Sweetie loves gingersnap cookies and I had just bought a bag of fresh cranberries, plus some oranges, so I had most of the items needed. I did have to purchase some fresh ginger for the filling but otherwise I was good to go.

This is a wonderful tart! The nice thing is that you can bake the crust the day before and the filling gets cooked on the stovetop and doesn't need to be in either the oven or the fridge on Turkey Day, so it's a great one if you are cooking a lot of the meal in your kitchen. It is really impressive, delicious, and tart enough that it's refreshing at the end of turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Surprisingly, it also goes well with a spicy red wine.

As with most recipes, it's good to read this through at least once, and to have all of your ingredients prepped before you start. The filling part is given before the crust part, so if you are making the crust the day before, help yourself and print it out, then highlight the crust ingredients and instructions.

Hope you enjoy this as much as our Thanksgiving crew did! I skipped the cookie-fruit crumble topping and just added some whipped cream decor as I served each piece. Easier and everyone seemed to enjoy it that way.

Cranberry Tart With Gingersnap Cookie Crust

By Aaron Hutcherson   in The Washington Post
Servings: 8 (makes one 9-inch tart)

Ingredients

For the cranberry curd - make the morning of serving day- very early

·         1 pound (455 grams/4 cups) fresh or frozen cranberries

·         1 1/4 cups (250 grams) granulated sugar

·         Finely grated zest and juice of 1 orange (about 1 tablespoon zest and 1/2 cup juice)

·         One (2-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

·         Pinch fine salt

·         3 large egg yolks

·         2 teaspoons cornstarch

·         4 tablespoons (55 grams) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces and at room temperature

For the gingersnap cookie crust - can make one day ahead of serving day

·         8 tablespoons (113 grams/1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

·         1/4 cup (55 grams) packed dark brown sugar

·         1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar

·         1 large egg yolk

·         2 tablespoons molasses

·         1 3/4 cups (220 grams) all-purpose flour

·         2 teaspoons ground ginger

·         1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

·         1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

·         1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt

For the cookie-fruit crumble (optional) - make while filling is setting up

·         1/2 cup (50 grams) crumbled gingersnap cookies

·         1/4 cup (50 grams) diced crystallized ginger

·         1/4 cup (50 grams) diced candied orange peel

Directions

Time  -Active: 30 mins     Total: 3 hours 30 mins

1.     Step 1

Make the cranberry curd: In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the cranberries, sugar, orange zest and juice, ginger and salt and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Adjust the heat to maintain a very gentle simmer, cover and cook until all the cranberries have burst and started to shrivel, about 10 minutes. (I found that with fresh cranberries that it took longer than 10 minutes.)

 2.     Step 2

While the cranberries cook, in a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and cornstarch until smooth. Transfer the hot cranberry mixture to a heatproof blender. Immediately add the yolk mixture, cover loosely (see Notes), gradually increase the speed to high and blend until smooth, about 1 minute. Let the mixture cool, uncovered, in the blender until a skin forms and it registers 120 to 125 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, about 1 hour 30 minutes. Make sure that you have soft butter ready.

3.     Step 3

Make the gingersnap cookie crust: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and brown and granulated sugars on medium-low speed until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes.

4.     Step 4

Increase the mixer speed to medium, add the egg yolk and molasses and mix to combine. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl thoroughly. Add the flour, ginger, cinnamon, allspice and salt and mix on low speed until fully incorporated and the mixture looks like crumbly cookie dough, about 1 minute.

5.     Step 5

Turn out the dough into a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Use your fingers to press it evenly across the bottom and up the sides. Loosely cover with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight.

6.     Step 6

When the crust is ready to bake, position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Dock the crust across the bottom with a fork and blind-bake (without pie weights), until evenly golden brown, 20 to 22 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before adding the filling. (I lined the tart bottom with foil, shiny side down, that I had coated with a thin layer of butter - on shiny side - after docking crust bottom, but before baking. When I removed crust from oven, I used the foil to press down on the bottom of the crust since it had risen some during baking. Then I removed the foil and returned crust to the oven for 3 minutes, then removed from oven and cooled it.)

7.     Step 7

When the cranberry puree has cooled, add the softened butter and blend until fully combined, about 30 seconds. Pour the puree into the crust and smooth with an offset spatula into an even layer. Let the tart sit at room temperature for at least 2 hours.

8.     Step 8

Make the cookie-fruit crumble: If desired, combine the cookies, crystallized ginger and candied orange peel in a medium bowl and sprinkle all around the edge of the tart. Slice into wedges and serve at room temperature.

Substitutions

Dark brown sugar >> light brown sugar.
Gingersnap cookies >> graham crackers.

Notes

If you’re not sure your blender is heatproof or you don’t have one, you can use a heatproof food processor or immersion (stick) blender instead. To use a heatproof food processor, transfer the cranberry mixture to the bowl of a food processor, add the yolk mixture and process until smooth, about 1 minute. To use an immersion blender, add the yolk mixture to the cranberries in the pan and puree until smooth, about 1 minute. Be careful not to splatter the hot cranberry mixture. With either method, let the mixture cool, uncovered, until a skin forms and it registers 120 to 125 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. After the mixture has cooled, add the butter, as directed, and puree or blend again. If desired, strain the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer, pressing the puree through with a rubber spatula, before transferring to the crust.

When blending the hot puree, be careful to not fill the blender pitcher more than halfway. Remove the center ring from the lid and place a kitchen towel over the opening as you blend. This will allow steam to escape and protect you from splatters.

 

Make ahead: The crust must be refrigerated for at least 30 minutes or overnight before blind baking. The baked crust can be allowed to cool completely and stored loosely covered at room temperature 1 day in advance.

Storage: Leftover tart can be covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Black Bean and Pork Stew is Perfect for Cold Weather

My dear sister-in-law Anne once brought a pot of this stew to our Christmas gathering and it was a hit. She gave me the recipe and I made it once, but then lost track of it. Because it calls for cooking black beans from scratch, it becomes the kind of recipe that I'm not going to put on rotation...takes too much time. But it is still a fabulous recipe.

A few days ago I decided to see if I could make it using canned black beans. Having already-cooked beans shortened the time needed for making it...but would it still be delicious?

Sweetie thinks it's even better! I used four cans of organic black beans, rinsing the beans in each can in turn to get rid of the excess bean liquid. That liquid can contribute to gastric discomfort and we didn't have any Beano on hand.

Because the original recipe calls for cooking the beans with aromatics like onion, garlic and red pepper, I decided to heat up the three of the cans of the beans with those after I had sautéed the onion, garlic and red pepper in some olive oil. Then that mixture went into a Dutch oven and I added a cup of water. After stirring that around, I strained out the liquid and used it later to puree the last can of beans. 

Because the beans and aromatics left too much residue for my liking,  I rinsed out the cast iron skillet before I used the cast iron skillet to cook the meat. The cooked meat went into the Dutch oven, too. Then I deglazed the pan with the orange juice and wine and cooked it down a bit, then put that into the Dutch oven. Last, I pureed the final can of beans with the liquid from the beans and aromatics, then put the puree into the Dutch oven, and then stirred it all together. It smelled wonderful! After adjusting the seasonings, the covered Dutch oven went into the preheated oven to bake for 30 minutes. Once the stew was out of the oven I checked for flavor and texture and decided that another 1/2 cup red wine helped both. You can also check for salt and pepper, need for a bit more orange juice for the acid boost, etc.

At this point you can serve the stew with the orange segments, perhaps over saffron rice, or you can do what I did and let it cool in the pot a bit then refrigerate for a day or two. This allows the mixture to blend flavors and mellow - a normal thing when onions are involved, in my experience.

When I reheated the stew the evening I served it, I just put the pot of stew over low heat and stirred it frequently until it was hot. I forgot about the rice and just served it with the fresh orange segments. Sooo good! Depending on appetites and if you serve it with rice, this makes 4, 6, or 8 servings. It's hearty, full flavored, and delicious. I still had a lot of pots and pans to wash up, but the time cooking was reduced quite a bit. You can start it by about 4 in the afternoon and have it on the table by 5:30 or 6 if you serve it the same day. Enjoy!

Pork and Black Beans over Rice
Based on a recipe in Paula Peck's Art of Good Cooking
Serves 6

4 cans cooked black beans, 15 oz. each, rinsed in cold water
1/3 cup olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, minced
1 large bell pepper (green, red, yellow or orange), seeded and diced
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon coarse black pepper
1 1 /2 pounds unsmoked pork tenderloin, cut into 1 inch cubes
¾ pound fresh pork sausage - Sweetie bought Italian style, which ended up OK
2/3 cup orange juice
½ cup dry red wine
2 -3 fresh oranges

Open the cans of beans and rinse under cold water (I used a fine-mesh strainer and rinsed a can at a time. Reserve the contents of one can to be pureed later, but do wash the beans in that can before pureeing.

Heat olive oil in a skillet. Add garlic, onion and bell pepper and sauté’ until tender. Season with salt and pepper. Add the onion mixture, three cans of rinsed beans and 1 cup water to a Dutch oven or large, heavy-bottomed pot that can go in the oven. Cover the pot, and simmer about 5 minutes, then strain out the liquid and reserve.

Return the drained beans to the pot and cover to keep warm. Puree’ the remaining 1 can of beans with as much reserved bean liquid as necessary in a blender. Stir bean puree’ into cooked beans and keep warm.

Brown pork cubes and sausage in their own fat in the skillet. (Rinse the skillet if desired after cooking the onion mixture and before cooking the meat.) If very lean, use a little olive oil. Pour off fat when meats are golden all over, and, if in casing, cut sausage into 1 inch pieces. If not in casing, break up sausage into chunks. Add both meats to beans; season with additional salt and pepper if needed.

Pour orange juice and wine into the skillet that the meats were browned in, and cook over high heat until liquid is reduced to less than half, scraping any brown bits in the pan into the sauce. Pour into the bean mixture and stir to combine all flavors. Place in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings. If desired, add more wine and/or orange juice if taste or texture would be improved by the addition.

While pork and beans are cooking, peel the oranges, slice an inch thick and separate into segments…you’ll have about 1 ½ cups of triangles of orange.

Serve over saffron or steamed rice, if desired. Garnish with orange segments. The uncooked, juicy, sharpness of the fresh orange is essential to this dish...the rice is great, but optional.

A Hearty Veggie Soup with Friends

Some of my friends and I have reached the age where it is not uncommon to lose a spouse to death. Often it's the wife who is left to find her own way through grief and towards a new life without the love of her life. Fortunately I still have Sweetie to enjoy time with and, even more fortunately in some ways, he is sweet about having a dear friend who lost her husband six months ago come and have dinner with us now and then. If you are used to eating with others it's tough to face eating alone night after night. So much more fun to eat with friends.

We had the pleasure of Paula's company tonight, but this time she insisted on bringing a main dish soup, and the dessert. Usually we provide the main dish and dessert and she brings a salad or side dish, so it was fun to turn it around, plus, she brought a wonderful, hearty, veggie packed soup that sounds like it is easy to make. We served it with freshly baked corn bread and a salad of avocado, cucumber and some of the last of our home grown tomatoes, dressed with a balsamic dressing. 

I suspect that you could play around a lot with this soup, adding and subtracting a bit with the ingredients as you like, and it would still be a winner! I plan on making it myself soon.

Paula's Veggie and Sausage Soup
Serves 6

1 already cooked sausage...chicken apple is good, but Italian would be great, too
1 tablespoon olive oil or ghee butter
1/2 white or yellow onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 teaspoon (4 cloves) minced garlic
1 cup mixed frozen vegetables
1 can Amy's Hearty Minestrone soup
1 can Amy's Low Fat Minestrone soup
1 can baked beans (she used Bush's Vegetarian Baked Beans)

 In a skillet sauté  the onion with the sausage (which you have cubed) until the onion is soft. Add the minced garlic and cook over medium-low heat for 2 minutes, stirring often.

Transfer the sausage mixture to a soup pot and add the mixed veggies, the canned minestrone soups, and the canned baked beans. Add water until the consistency you like. Simmer for 30 minutes. Serve hot.

A Flaky and Delicious Savory Handpie

Inspiration comes from many places. I get newsletters from a few cooks and bakers and sometimes I use the recipes that are included. A few days ago my email had a newsletter from Lukas Volger in Family Friend and the recipe was for a filo, blue cheese and spinach dish which he was suggesting as a vegetarian entree for Thanksgiving. It is something that you can make the filling for ahead of time, the dish can bake at the same time as rolls or even a casserole, and it would also taste fine at room temperature.

As is often the case, I used this as a jumping off place for my own dish. I had most of the filling ingredients on hand except for the leek and the parsley, but I didn't have any filo dough. I had the frozen spinach, ricotta, and blue cheese, but I also had one leftover chicken thigh, already grilled, that needed using up...so this wouldn't be vegetarian. I had a roll of ReadyCrust pie dough, so that was an easy substitute for the missing filo. This also meant that I didn't have to use any melted butter.

I used half an onion instead of the leek, some dried thyme instead of the parsley, and I made this as two large hand pies. You can cut each of them in half to serve, so this serves four and uses half the quantities of the filling. It does take a bit of work, but I think you'll enjoy this entrée. The photos show the baked but uncut hand pie. If you are really hungry, don't cut them...in which case this recipe will serve 2, not 4. I served ours with a mixed greens salad with lots of veggies in it and a balsamic dressing. The sharpness of the dressing was a good foil for the fairly rich and cheesy filling and buttery crust.

You can make this vegetarian by leaving out the chicken. If you make this after Thanksgiving and you roast a turkey, you can make small cubes of cooked turkey to replace the chicken and it will still be delicious...and use up some leftover turkey!

Spinach and Blue Cheese and Chicken Hand Pies
based on the Spinach & Blue Cheese Phyllo Pie in Lukas Volger newsletter Family Friend

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 large onion, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon table salt
5 oz. frozen spinach, thawed
1 large egg
1/2 cup whole-milk ricotta
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
black pepper to taste
2 oz. blue cheese, crumbled
1 cooked chicken thigh, cut into 1-inch dice
1 round ready made pie pastry like Pillsbury ReadyCrust, at room temperature
1 teaspoon flour
egg wash of 1 egg plus 1 teaspoon water, beaten together

In a skillet over medium heat add the oil once the skillet is hot. Add the chopped onion and the salt and stir to coat with the oil. Cover and steam for about 5 minutes, then uncover and continue cooking until the onion is soft, 5-7 minutes more. Set aside.

Drain the thawed spinach and then squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Add to the onion mixture and stir. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, then whisk in the ricotta until smooth. Add the  thyme, black pepper, blue cheese, chicken and spinach/onion mixture and combine. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the pie dough circle. Using a rolling pin, increase the size to about 12-inches in diameter. Using a sharp knife or bench scraper, divide the dough in half, cutting across the middle.

Take one of the half circles and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Mound half the spinach filling mixture on the one side of the half circle, leaving a little more than an inch of uncovered dough all the way around. Flip the half with no filling over the half with filling, matching the straight side with straight side and the curved side with curved side. Use a pastry brush to brush some egg wash on the uncovered dough next to the filling. Press the top dough down all around to seal all sides. Use the tines of a fork to press the edges to seal completely. Use the pastry brush to coat the top of the hand pie  and the sealed edges with egg wash.  Cut a steam slit of about an inch and a half in the center top.

Repeat with the second half circle and the rest of the filling.

Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown and the filling bubbles a bit at the steam vent. Cool for about 10 minutes. Slice each hand pie in two to make two pie wedges. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.

For a vegetarian version, omit the chicken.

More Cookies!

The orange cookies in the previous post were delicious and the recipe is a new one from King Arthur Baking, but sometimes I find recipes in old magazines or in cookbooks that have sat on the shelf for a while. Today's cookies are from just such a book, butter, sugar, flour eggs by Gale Gand from 1999.  I love bar cookies because they usually go together quickly and don't require a lot of fussy decorating. This one is fun because you make the shortbread style dough, freeze it, and then grate it to create the bottom and top crusts. In the middle is a layer of raspberry jam, although I suspect that you could use any flavor and it would still be wonderful. I tried to grate the dough on a box grater, but found that using the large hole disc on my food processor worked just as well and went far more quickly. Frozen dough requires a lot of muscle power to grate on a manual grater!

I used the plain version of this dough, but you can also sub in some cocoa powder for some of the flour to have a chocolate-raspberry combo. Do try this one...so easy and so delicious! You probably have all of the ingredients on hand already.

Austrian Raspberry Shortbread Cookies
From butter sugar flour eggs, by Gale Gand, Rick Tramonto and Julia Moskin, 1999

This rich, ladylike cookie goes well with tea, particularly a flowery tea like rose hip.

1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
4 egg yolks
2 cups granulated sugar
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup raspberry jam, at room temperature
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

Cream the butter in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer) until soft and fluffy. Add the egg yolks and mix well.

Mix the granulated sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt together. Add to the butter/egg yolk mixture and mix just until incorporated and the dough starts to come together. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and form into two balls.

Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and freeze at least two (2) hours or overnight (or as long as a month for later baking).

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Remove one ball of dough from the freezer and coarsely grate it by hand or with the grating disk in a food processor into the bottom of a 9 x 13-inch baking pan or a 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Make sure the surface is covered evenly with shreds of dough.

With the back of a spoon, or a flexible spatula, spread the jam over the surface, to within 1/2-inch of the edge all the way around.

Remove the remaining dough from the freezer and coarsely grate it over the entire surface. (If using the food processor, grate the first ball of frozen dough and spread that over the bottom, spread the jam,  then grate the second ball of frozen dough and spread that shredded dough evenly over the jam, all the way to the pan edges.)

Bake until light golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes. As soon as the shortbread comes out of the oven, dust with the confectioners' sugar.

Cool in the pan on a wire rack, then cut into bars with a serrated knife.

I lined the pan with parchment, leaving an overhang on two ends to help removed the baked and cooled cookies from the pan, then used a long, serrated bread knife to cut the cookies into squares.

NOTE:
To make this a chocolate shortbread cookie, substitute 1 cup cocoa for 1 cup of the flour.

Starting to Look at Christmas Cookies

Perhaps Christmas seems far away to you, but we are one month and a couple of days away from when our daughter and her family will arrive for the holidays, so I'm starting to think about what I'll bake. When you  get older it seems to take much longer to do anything, so planning for Christmas will surely take longer than it used to, too.

I've already started. King Arthur Baking had a refrigerator cookie recipe that I saw recently and then made. It's a slice-and-bake cookie with orange flavors from candied orange peel and orange oil. You roll the dough log in sparkling sugar, which gives some shine and a lot of crunch to the finished cookie. I like them, but I think for Christmas I'll use candied ginger and some powdered ginger instead, plus I'll use red and green sanding sugar to give a bit of Christmas colors to the cookies. One of my family is allergic to orange, so ginger will be a better bet, plus it's a great flavor for winter. If I do try it that way I'll try to post about it, giving the changes. Do note my findings at the bottom of the recipe, about baking time and heat. Every oven is different, so adjust the time and temperature to suit your oven.

These are pretty easy to create. Like most slice-and-bake cookies, the dough can either be chilled before baking or frozen. The latter lets you start early...a bonus when you are getting ready for the holidays! They are also delicious, citrusy cookies, so it's great to bake them right away, just to enjoy.

Orange Sparkle Slice-and-Bake Cookies

Yield: 6 dozen cookies

3/4 cup (75g) Candied Orange Peel
2/3 cup (132g) granulated sugar
2/3 cup (76g) confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon Orange Citrus Oil
1 3/4 teaspoons table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
18 tablespoons (255g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large egg
3 1/4 cups (390g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (113g) Sparkling Sugar/sanding sugar

 If orange peel is the least bit dried out, place in a small bowl and cover with hot water. Cover and set aside. If peel is very moist, just set aside.

 Beat together the sugars, orange oil, salt, and extracts until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

 Add the butter and beat on medium-low speed until smooth, 3-4 minutes. Scrape the bowl and beaters, add the egg, and beat until fully combined, about 1 minutes.

 If you soaked the orange peel, strain it and press gently to removed excess moisture. If the peel was very moist, get ready to add it.

 Add the flour and orange peel, and beat on LOW speed until combined, about 30 seconds.

 Transfer the dough to a clean work surface. Divide the dough in half (about 500g per piece) and shape each half into an 11-inch long log.

 Spread the sparkling sugar across the middle of a piece of parchment, then roll each log in the sugar to completely coat.

 Wrap each log in a long piece of plastic wrap and refrigerate until very firm, about 1-2 hours. Alternately, freeze for up to two weeks.

 When ready to bake, remove any frozen logs from the freezer and allow to thaw for 1 hour. If refrigerated, remove from fridge, unwrap and you are ready to slice and bake.

 Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

 Take one log of unwrapped (and thawed if necessary) dough and slice into 1/4-inch thick rounds. Rotate the log about 90 degrees every few slices to maintain a neat circular shape.

 Place the sliced on two parchment-lined baking sheets (I used baking sheets with a light spray of butter flavored baking spray instead of parchment), placing the cookies about 2-inches apart.

 Bake for 14-18 minutes, or until edges are golden brown. Let cookies cool on the pan for about 10 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely before serving. Repeat the slicing and baking and cooling with the remaining dough, or save in the fridge to slice and bake later, up to one week.

 I found that 400 degrees F and 14 minutes were too long for my cookies, so keep an eye on the first batch since you may need to remove them from the oven a lot sooner than 14 minutes. You can see from the photos that mine were a darker brown on the edges than 'golden' and the centers were the golden brown color.

Chicken Tortilla Soup Perfect for Rainy Weather

It was a rainy weekend in the Northwest last weekend and I was happy to be there...I love the rain. I took a walk with Aaron along the river and it started raining as we walked.  The ducks didn't mind getting rained on.

The next morning I took another walk around the neighborhood and it started raining about half way through my walk. I noticed that the red leaves of the maples looked even more red against the dark, rain soaked bark of the trees.

One evening while I was visiting we made Chicken Tortilla Soup using the Instant Pot. We combined a few recipes from the Internet and it was delicious, flavorful soup! It's based largely on the recipe at Kristine's Kitchen, so I think Kristine for a great, easy recipe. If you don't have an Instant Pot, you can achieve close to the same results in a soup pot but it will take longer. Just sauté the onion and garlic in the olive oil in the soup pot, add the liquids, seasonings, and beans, then bring them to a boil. Add the chicken, cover, reduce to simmer and simmer for about 30 minutes. Take a piece of chicken from the pot and see if you can shred it with a fork. If not, return to pot and simmer another 10 minutes. Shred all the chicken, return it to the soup pot. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer another 10 minutes to heat everything through, then serve with toppings on the side.

The soup base is created by cooking onions in olive oil, then adding garlic and letting the residual heat cook the garlic. To that you add tomatoes, seasonings, beans and chicken broth. This liquid mixture is used to cook the chicken, which is eventually shredded once cooked.

After the chicken is cooked, you add corn and a few more seasonings to the soup. I think that the addition of lime juice takes it to a higher level. An array of toppings makes it possible for each person enjoying the soup to tailor their toppings to their taste.

As we get closer to winter I'm sure that you'll find that this soup is just the thing to warm you up when the evening is chilly.

Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup
Serves 6

 2 teaspoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped fairly small
4 cloves garlic, minced
1  14.5 oz. can fire roasted or regular diced tomatoes in their juice
1-2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1  15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
4 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 6)
1 cup canned or frozen corn, drained if canned
juice from one large (or two small) lime(s)
salt and pepper to taste

 Serving toppings: crumbled tortilla chips or strips, sour cream or plain Greek yogurt, shredded cheese, avocado slices or dice, fire roasted diced green chiles, chopped cilantro.

 Instructions:

Add olive oil to Instant Pot insert and turn on sauté function. Add the onion and cooking, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes. Turn off Instant Pot. Stir in minced garlic.

 Add the tomatoes, chili powder, cumin, black beans and chicken broth. Stir well, scraping up any bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. Nestle the chicken into the liquid.

 Place the lid on and set it to the closed position. Move the steam valve to the sealing position.

Set the Instant Pot to manual/pressure cook, high pressure, for 9 minutes. The Instant Pot will take about 20 minutes to reach pressure and then the cook time will start counting down. When the cook time is done, allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes. Then, carefully move the steam valve to the venting position to release the remaining pressure. Can do this with the handle of a long spoon.

When the float valve drops down, the pressure has been released and it is safe to open the Instant Pot. Carefully remove the lid. Remove the chicken to a clean plate and let it rest for a few minutes.

Stir the corn into the Instant Pot, along with the lime juice. Cover and let it sit for 5 minutes. While this is happening, shred or cube the chicken.

Return the chicken to the pot. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper, chili powder, and/or hot sauce. Serve with toppings as desired.

Leftover soup can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Amazing Caramel Apple Pie

I love apple pie, but Sweetie usually doesn't. He prefers berry pies or custard pies or stone fruit pies.

This past weekend I visited my family in Redmond, WA and my grandson and I made a great apple pie that even Sweetie likes. You bake it in a cast iron skillet (if you have one), use pre-made pie crust dough, and you combine the apples with a caramel sauce that's easy to make. I suspect that the caramel sauce is the key to why this pie is so amazing. There is even some left over to drizzle over the pie slices when served. You can even add a scoop of ice cream for total decadence. That's what Aaron and Raine did and it does look wonderful. (see photo above). I had mine with just the sauce...and it was awesome.

The most time consuming part of this recipe is the baking...about an hour, but possibly a bit less...but the next hardest is preparing the apples. I recommend using apples that don't release a lot of juice but have a good, tart/sweet flavor of apple. If you know that your apple will release lots of juice, pre-cook them in the microwave until barely limp, then drain them before adding the caramel sauce. Reserve the drained liquid for another use if you like. Thickened up it could make a nice topping for pancakes.

                                             Mixing caramel sauce with apples

Because you mix some of the sauce with the apples, you get the flavors of the sauce. I like to have both Pie Spice, which is a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice, and vanilla. I also like you to be able to taste the salt for that sweet-salty combo, but you can reduce it to 1/2 or 3/4 teaspoon if you like. The bourbon is also optional, but it goes really well with the apples and spice.

This is a great pie to bring to a holiday gathering, so bookmark it for November and December, if you like.

Skillet Caramel Spice Apple Pie
a variation of a recipe on myrecipes.com
Serves 8

1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick, 8 tablespoons)
3 tablespoons non-dairy creamer (I use Vanilla Silk Soy Creamer) or 1/2 & 1/2
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon Penzey's Pie Spice, or cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon bourbon (optional)
1 set of prepared pie crusts (I used Pillsbury ReadyCrusts)
3 pounds apples, peeled and cut into 1/2" thick slices (we used Galas and Honeycrisp)
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 lg egg yolk, lightly beaten (reserve egg white for sealing crusts)
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon sanding sugar (optional)

In a medium pot melt the margarine or butter. Stir in the brown sugar, , soy creamer or 1/2 & 1/2,  salt and pie spice or cinnamon. Over medium-high, cook the mixture, stirring until it bubbles. Continue cooking, stirring for 2 more minutes until mixture begins to thicken. Remove from the heat. Stir in the vanilla and, if using, the bourbon. Cool almost to room temperature, about 30 minutes, stirring at about 10 minutes to keep a skin from forming.

Fit one pie crust in the bottom and press up the sides of a 9" cast iron skillet. Put in the refrigerator to chill.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees, making sure that one rack is in the bottom position in the oven.

Toss apples with 2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch in a large bowl. Pour 1/3 cup cooled caramel sauce over the apples and toss to coat.

Remove prepared crust from the fridge. Pour apple filling into prepared crust. Place remaining pie crust over apple filling. Seal by lightly coating the exposed side dough in the skillet with egg white and pressing the top crust to it. Crimp crust edges together.

Use a sharp knife to cut 6 - 8 one inch slits in top crust to let steam escape ( I goofed and only cut two steam vents). Whisk together egg yolk and water and brush over crust. If desired, scatter sanding sugar over.

Bake on bottom rack of preheated over for 55 minute - 1 hour. After about 30 minutes, shield crust with foil if needed to prevent excessive browning.

Bake until crust is golden, apples tender, and filling bubbly. Transfer to wire rack and cool completely 3 hours. Serve & enjoy.