caramelized onion tart

no funny stories here today... sorry.

it's been one of those weekends and it seems i have been having more and more of them lately and unfortunately it's starting to really wear on me. while none of the problems are huge in scope, it tends to grind you down and you wonder if some higher being is just toying with you because they have a twisted sense of humor. sometimes i think someone up there who is suppose to be in charge is into torture or a little bdsm just for shits and giggles. {if you don't know what bdsm is, google it, just don't click on any pictures... you were warned}

anyways... before i decided to really screw up a post and start talking a little theology and torture {apparently, a nice way to spend your monday afternoon...also a good way to make friends and not alienate readers, score one for krysta!} i saw this recipe in real simple this weekend and it was one of those things where it was NOT going to go away until i made it.



caramelized onion tart with fennel and apples: adapted from real simple magazine dec. 2009

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, sliced
1 fennel bulb, sliced
2 granny smith apples, cut into thin slices
kosher salt and black pepper
2 sheets frozen puff pastry (from a 17.3-ounce package), thawed
1/2 cup sour cream or even better!!!! thin slices of a mild cheese like fontina or havarti

Heat oven to 400º F. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and fennel. Cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Stir in the apples, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper and cook until just tender, 2 minutes.

Place each sheet of pastry on a parchment-lined baking sheet and prick all over with a fork. Spread with the sour cream or place cheese onto puff pastry, leaving a ½-inch border. Top with the onion mixture and bake until the pastry is crisp and browned, 30 to 35 minutes. Cut into pieces before serving.

tasting notes: sweet, savory, flaky crust... a good excuse to ingest high amounts of puff pastry. good, cold or hot. i liked the one with cheese better. katie liked the one with sour cream better. good for a light simple dinner served with salad. real simple has it listed under hors d'oeuvres. either way... it's good.

eggnog spice bundt cake

I wish I had a good stereotypical gay blogging friend. You know one who says, 'Oh no honey you cannot do that!' and when I start to argue, 'But...' He cuts me off and says 'No.' and takes the whisk out of my hands.

I need that kind of discipline in my life

You need people around you that have huge set of titanium cajones who can tell you with authority and under no circumstances... NO, just no. I can think of a few people who needed that. Britney and Lindsay come to mind. And Michael definitely did not have anyone who told him no. Come to think of it half the famous people in Hollywood do not have any friends or plastic surgeons who can tell them no either.

Case in point...



This recipe intrigued me from the start. I should have known better. Someone should have stopped me. All the while I was dumping ingredients into the bowl, I kept thinking this is all sorts of wrong. Did I stop? No. Was anyone around to tell me to stop? No. Would I have listened? Probably not.



It was like good ol' Beelzebub himself was sitting on my shoulder chanting, 'DO IT! DO IT! You know you want to.' and good lord did I ever want to. I couldn't stop dumping ingredients into the bowl. At one point I was looking over my shoulder afraid the Food Blogging Swat Team was going to storm my kitchen, take me down with a taser and yell...



[you were supposed to press play]

I was frothing at the mouth crazy with lust, power and a little dash of secret shame. I was like a mad scientist cackling wildly, 'It's alive. It's alive I tell you. Look at my creation!'



I have sat down before you and told you my secret shame. How will you judge me?



eggnog spice bundt cake: relish november 2009 newspaper insert

1 (18 1/4 ounce) box of carrot cake or spice cake mix
1 (4-serving) box instant cheesecake pudding
1 cup nonfat vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup light eggnog
3 eggs
1 1/3 cups toasted chopped pecans (optional)
Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350F. Coat a nonstick Bundt pan with cooking spray. Combine cake mix, pudding mix, yogurt, oil, eggnog, and eggs in a large bowl. Mix until creamy. Stir in pecans. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 40 to 45 minutes, until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. When cool, dust with powdered sugar.



Tasting Notes: It was good... really good. So bad it was good. If loving it was wrong, I don't want to be right.

Hanging my head in shame as I hand over my food blogging license. I'll be headed to court soon. The crimes are too numerous to list here.

persimmon cake

this recipe originally appeared on evil chef mom 12/15/08

if you want a new post... here's some pictures i took of mavericks and the california coast on sunday.



I normally dislike/loathe/feel very uncomfortable rerunning a post/recipe. [please excuse the over abundance of slashes in that last sentence.] It feels a whole lot like cheating but with persimmons coming into season and certain people I know who feel like persimmons are a waste of a fruit...*cough cough you know who you are* I just want to say give persimmons and this cake a chance, it will blow your mind.



*check out the fork from the Air France's Concorde Air Craft. My Uncle Babe took a supersonic flight once and all he brought me was a lousy fork! Cool.

fuyu persimmon cake: (recipe courtesy of Katie's Great-Grandmother (on her fathers side) Doreen. Doreen is by far one of my most favorite people on this planet. When Katie's dad and I broke up, I mourned the loss of her more than I did my whole relationship with Katie's dad. She's so cool that she's does Buddhist chants at the dinner table and all my kids know her as Grandma Doreen. Told you she's awesome!)

3 cups fuyu persimmons, chopped fine
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cup butter
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup walnuts, chopped finely

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a Bundt pan. Add chopped walnuts in an even layer to the bottom of Bundt pan. In a bowl, add baking soda and chopped persimmons and set aside. In a stand mixer, hand mixer, or another bowl, blend butter and sugar until creamy. Then add eggs, lemon juice, vanilla, flour, salt, baking powder, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix until well combined. Add persimmon mixture into the batter and mix together until blended. Pour mixture into the pan and bake for 55 to 60 until done. Cool in pan for 15 minutes then turn over and release cake from the pan.



Tasting Notes: This is a wonderfully moist cake and would make a great Christmas present. Spicy and sweet, almost like a carrot cake. You could add raisins if you wish to or bake it like a regular cake and add cream cheese frosting.

About persimmons:

Here and here.

learn how to pick out a good persimmon

Persimmon folklore:

Did you know that you can tell what this year's winter is going to be like by cutting a persimmon seed in half and looking at the seeds shape. If the seed is shaped like a knife it will be cutting cold. If the seed is shaped like a fork the winter will be easy and if it's shaped like a spoon the winter will be a heavy winter... lots of shoveling to be done.