Show (Megan)

The most wonderful terrifying thing has happened to me.

I have a show!

Nov. 2 at Sora's Asian Dining. The show is part of the Gallery Stroll that happens on first Friday's.

I'm really nervous so the more people I know that come the better. The emphasis of it will be many of my ceramic pieces, hopefully with a few glass as well. I'm going to keep it clean and uncomplicated. I hope to see you there!

Cast Iron Skillet Apple Crisp (Caroline)

I used a 9" cast iron skillet for this batch of apple crisp. If you choose to do the same, or to use an 8" pan, halve the recipe below. If using a 9"x13", make the full batch.

I recommend a variety of apples from the list below. Around here (Utah), I think the best places for produce are Winco, "whole"/organic food grocers, and the local farmer's markets. Winco is cheap, the whole/organic grocers tends to have higher quality, locally grown, organic, etc. produce, and the farmer's markets have the best of both worlds-- local, usually organic, and cheap. 

• Pink Lady
• Gala
• Fuji
• Golden Delicious
• Granny Smith
• Honeycrisp

The first time I used this recipe, I made it with Jazz apples, left out the liquid, and it was a bit dry, and the apples went slightly mushy. I had the best results with this recipe when I used some locally grown Golden Delicious and Pink Lady apples and I used homemade apple cider as the liquid instead of water. With the batch in the pictures, I only used Granny Smith (because I have a TON from when we went to the farmer's market and I don't like to eat them plain). The problem with this was that I think the Granny Smith's released more water while they were baking than the other varieties of apples. So, if you use Granny Smith, I recommend leaving out the extra water that this recipe calls for. 

Also, I like spices. So, I'd say I'm liberal when I'm adding spices to my apple crisp. Feel free to adjust the measurements of spices depending on your taste. 

Ingredients: 

For the apple filling: 

8-10 medium/large apples, peeled, cored, sliced thinly (I usually get 16 slices out of 1 apple)

1/2 c sugar

1 tbsp all purpose flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp clove powder

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 - 1/2 c water or apple juice or apple cider 

For the crisp topping: 

1 c brown sugar

1 c all purpose flour

1 c oats (I use rolled, but quick oats should be fine, too)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 c melted butter

 While I'm slicing my apples, I like to keep the finished slices in a large bowl with enough water to cover all of the slices and a teaspoon or two of lemon juice. This keeps the apples from turning brown while I mix up the other ingredients. When I'm ready for the apples, I drain them and place them in the pan.

In a small bowl, combine 1/2 c sugar, 1 tbsp flour, and your spices.

In another bowl, combine 1 c of flour, brown sugar, and oats, along with the baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir them together, then mix in 1/2 c (one whole cube) of melted butter. 

Keep it chunky.

Take your sugar and spice mixture and sprinkle it evenly over your apples, then pour the water/apple cider/juice over the top. 

Sprinkle the crisp on top, bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes (depending on the thickness of your apple slices) and enjoy!

White Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream (Caroline)

Not all cupcakes made from a boxed mix are equal, so here are some tips for getting good cupcakes from a boxed cake mix, or even cupcakes that you make from scratch. 

Whip the cake mix. Don't over-whip it, but when I use my kitchen-aid, I whip it on med/high for about 30 seconds and then turn the power to the highest setting for about 10 seconds. 

Use cupcake liners. I made cupcakes without liners once... 

Fill your cupcake liners evenly. This is hard. It took me forever to get the hang of this, but this is how you get cupcakes that puff up above the liners juuuust a bit without overflowing. Like I said in my last post, I usually get 18 cupcakes per box. So if the number you end up with isn't within the 16-20 range, your cupcakes are probably going to be too big or too small. The box says to fill the cupcake liners 2/3 full, but I fill mine closer to 3/4. To see if you have more batter in one liner than in another, get on your knees or squat down and look at the cupcakes from more of a horizontal perspective. From this perspective, it's a lot easier to see how much empty/full space you have in each cupcake liner. 

I bake my cupcakes closer 325 degrees Fahrenheit, rather than the 350 that the box recommends. 

Don't open the oven while your cupcakes are baking until after they've baked for about 15-18 minutes at least. If you open the oven before then, you risk cupcake craters. 

Set your timer for 15 minutes. Check your cupcakes. Bake for only 1 or 2 minutes at a time from then until they're how you want them. For these white cupcakes I made last week, I left the first pan in for 18 minutes and they got a bit dark around the edges, but and I took the second pan out after 16 minutes and the tops were still gorgeous and white and hadn't started browning yet. This is how I think white cake should be. 

Remove cupcakes from your cupcake pan to keep them from continuing to bake after you've taken them out of the oven. If you took your cupcakes out slightly early, this isn't a big deal, but if you took them out when they were just on the brink of being too overdone, then you'll want to remove them from the pan. If I'm feeling invincible, I just used my hands, but usually I take two spoon to lift each cupcake out. 

Lemon Buttercream: 

Just following up the last cupcake post with a lemon variation on my butter-cream recipe. It's the same recipe as the butter-cream I used on the butterfly cupcakes, I just added 2 tsp fresh lemon juice and a little more powdered sugar (like half a cup-ish) to compensate for the extra liquid. This turned out to not be quite lemony enough for me, so next time I think I'll try adding some lemon zest and a little more lemon juice.