Tomato Apple Bacon Soup

I love soup. My favorite part about fall is that I can start eating more hot soup. Starting around the end of October, I usually make a big pot of soup on Sunday and use it for lunches or snacks (sometimes breakfast) throughout the week. I usually freeze a portion or two too.

I've been making Tomato Apple Bacon soup since I found the recipe online in about 2005. The recipe I originally used was from Allrecipes, although I modified it significantly really from the first time I made it. Originally I would make this soup using two cans of condensed tomato soup, two cans of beef broth, celery, bacon, and apples. Eventully I came around to a recipe which is more similar to the one that is posted on allrecipes, though mine is still a bit different.  I like navy beans, but you could substitute any bean or leave them out altogether if you want.

A note about salt: You'll notice that this recipe doesn't call for salt. I have always found that the stock and bacon make it plenty salty.  You can always add some if you want, but I would wait until the soup is almost finished before deciding. I also cook my beans with no salt, so using canned beans may cause the soup to increase in saltiness.

Tomato Apple Bacon Soup (Adapted from AllRecipes)

4 slices thick cut bacon

1 medium onion, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

28 oz can crushed tomatoes

32 oz Beef Broth (low sodium if possible)

1 1/2 cups cooked navy beans (or 1 can beans, drained)

bay leaf

1 tbsp italian seasoning blend: mine contains oregano, thyme, marjoram, basil, rosemary, and sage

ground black pepper to taste

1 apple, peeled and thinly sliced

1/2 cup apple cider or red wine

grated parmigiano-reggiano to taste (I like about 2 Tbsp per  bowl)

thinly sliced unpeeled apples for garnish

Cut bacon into small pieces; saute in stock pot until crispy. Remove bacon with slotted spoon. If there's a lot of bacon grease you will want to drain some of that too. Leave about 2-3 tbsp of grease in the pan. Saute onion, garlic, and celery in bacon drippings until soft; about 3-5 minutes. Add tomatoes, stock, beans, bay leaf, and italian seasoning. Bring to a boil, then let simmer.

Cook apple and cider in small saucepan until apples are starting to soften. Add apple, cider, and bacon to the soup. Continue simmering for another 20-30 minutes. Season with pepper (and salt if necessary) to taste. Remove bay leaf. Garnish with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and apple slices. I serve this with biscuits and it makes a great meal.

Like (almost) all soups, this is better the second day.  If you want to freshen it up the next day you can add some fresh-cooked crumbled bacon. 

Memories

Last week, some friends and I drove to Palm Springs for a girls weekend. We stopped in Vegas for one night, went shopping on the strip the next morning, then finished the drive to Palm Springs. Marilyn Monroe was there to welcome us.

 Unfortunately, late that night one of my friends got food poisoning. She was sick (or tired and weak) for most of the trip, so we stayed pretty close to our hotel most of the time. My other friend and I walked around downtown Palm Springs and returned frequently to check on her. Palm Springs is a beautiful, fun place.

The day before we had to leave, we packed our still sick (but feeling much better) friend in the car and drove about an hour and 45 minutes to Niland and Salvation Mountain.  

Salvation Mountain is a huge sculpture created by Leonard Knight. He lived on the site from 1984 until late last year, when he had to move to a nursing home. He created the mountain from straw bales, adobe, and tens of thousands of gallons of paint. He's also painted several cars and trucks. I've wanted to see it since I first heard about it around 10 years ago, and it absolutely did not disappoint. It was a hot day, and since my friend was sick we only stayed about 45 minutes. But it was mind-blowing to spend time in a place where someone had dedicated such a huge portion of their lives working on one thing.  

We had lunch at the Buckshot Diner, and it was possibly the best meal of the trip. Great, great cheeseburgers. 

On the way back we stopped at the Salton Sea, the largest lake in California. It was a little smelly but incredibly beautiful. The history of the Sea is fascinating. We had the whole beach to ourselves, and I wish we had more time to explore the sea, but we had just stopped on a whim and were only able to stay about 20 minutes. 

Puff Pastry Baklava

When I was in graduate school we had a guest speaker in class who happened to own a Moroccan restaurant. The topic he spoke on was unrelated to his business but he brought huge pieces of baklava for us. It was, without a doubt, the best baklava I have ever eaten. Maybe the best dessert I've ever eaten. I eat some kind of dessert almost every day, so that's saying something. It's at least in the top five desserts of my life.  I love honey, nuts, and pastry, so of course I would love baklava. If it's on the menu at a restaurant or I see it at a bakery I have to order it. 

But until last night I never tried to make it. I have cooked with phyllo dough before and didn't find it too difficult, but baklava seemed so complex. I was sure I'd mess it up. Certainly lots of bakeries and restaurants  make terrible baklava. I didn't want to waste the nuts, which are expensive, if I was going to make something that wasn't very good. 

Last night I was thinking about baking something and happened to come across a picture of baklava on pinterest. I remembered that I had a package of phyllo dough in the freezer and decided to take the plunge.  I was getting really excited to try and had found a bunch of tips on how to make great crispy layers. Then I opened the freezer and discovered that what I actually had was puff pastry dough. It was basically the worst tragedy to ever befall anyone. 

So as I always do in my time of need, I turned to the internet for guidance. I googled "puff pastry baklava" and found several recipes. I ended up using the pastry as a base and top with only nuts in the middle. This made it less crispy and flaky than traditional baklava but beggars can't be choosers.  So here is what I made, with inspiration from The Hazel Bloom, Bon Appetit, and NEONWILLIE's recipe at allrecipes. The reviews on that last recipe, in particular, are helpful. I learned that I should make the syrup before baking the baklava and then let it chill in the fridge before drizzling it over the finished pastry, which will help it be crisp. I also got some good tips for when I try to make it with phyllo dough. I also learned to cut through only 3/4 of the way before baking and adding the syrup, which will help the syrup absorb without just sitting in the bottom of the pan. 

Puff Pastry Baklava

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 1/2 cups water

2 cinnamon sticks

3/4 cup honey

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or 1/2 split and seeded vanilla bean)

1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 1/2 cups pistachios

1 1/2 cups walnuts

1 tsp cinnamon

1 box (two sheets) puff pastry, defrosted

Combine the sugar and water over medium-high heat. Boil until sugar is completely dissolved. Add cinnamon sticks, honey, vanilla, and lemon juice. Simmer until thickened, about 20-25 minutes. Remove from heat, let cool slightly, then place in fridge. 

While the syrup is cooking, toast the nuts for 10 minutes in 350 degree oven. Let cool a little, then chop finely.  Combine with 1 tsp cinnamon and set aside. 

Butter the sides and bottom of a 9x13 baking pan. Unfold the defrosted puff pastry. Roll out to fit pan (you shouldn't have to stretch it out too much).  Lightly brush the top of the pastry with butter.  Spread the nut mixture over the pastry.

 Top with the second sheet. Brush the top with butter and cut into pieces, only cutting 3/4 of the way to the bottom (leaving the bottom pastry layer uncut as much as possible). I tried to cut mine into diamonds but it didn't work out that well.  

Bake for about 25 minutes at 350 until the tops are light golden.

Immediately after removing from the oven drizzle the syrup over the top of the pastry. It might take a few minutes to soak in. 

Let them cool completely before taking them out of the pan. 

I took mine out of the pan and then place them on a rack above a cookie sheet in order to let any excess syrup drain. I only did this after they were COMPLETELY cooled and I knew they had absorbed the syrup as much as possible. I forgot to take a picture of this step and to be honest I'm not sure it was completely necessary. I just wanted to make sure that they didn't get soggy. And they're not, so I guess it worked out okay. 

I covered the leftovers loosely in tin foil and kept them in the fridge. They're better if you allow them to come to room temperature instead of eating them cold right out of the fridge.  I think they turned out okay, but I definitely missed the flaky layers between the nuts. Next time I'm at the grocery store I'm going to pick up some phyllo dough to try the real thing. 

Cherry Preserves

I've been sitting here trying to think of something insightful to say about cherries, but I have nothing, so I'll say this: I like cherries. A lot. Sweet or sour, in jam, in pie, in black forest cake, in chutney, in ice cream. Growing up we had three cherry trees in our backyard and my mother would can what seemed like hundreds of jars of cherries every year. We ate them all winter. Now, though, my parents have moved from that house and their backyard has nothing but a dwarf peach tree which we're beginning to think will never actually produce fruit. There's a family-owned cherry orchard near my house, and I was able to get my hands on 10 pounds of bing cherries for around $30.
After they were pitted (which took about an hour and a half with a cherry pitter) I measured them into three 8 cup portions. I made two batches of cherry preserves and one of cherry jam.

For the preserves, I chopped about half the cherries in a food processor and left the rest whole so they would seem more preserve-y with whole pieces of fruit. I adapted a recipe from The Cilantropist for these preserves. I added a vanilla bean and substituted 1/4 tsp of almond extract for the amaretto, but otherwise the recipe was the same.

 This is what they looked like once they were cooked. It took a bit longer for the preserves to set than it said in the recipe, probably because I chose a humid day to make them.  This recipe made about four half-pint jars.

The preserves were great on toast, though a little sweeter than I usually like jam. They would be amazing on ice cream (or swirled into homemade ice cream) or pancakes.

For the jam, I used the recipe posted by Sugarcrafter. The only change I made was to use 1/2 tsp of rum extract instead of 2 tbsp of rum. I love this recipe, and it was exactly the right sweetness for toast or a sandwich.

All in all, I ended up with about six half pint jars of jam and nine of preserves. Total cost was about $45, including the cherries and jars. I borrowed my mother's water bath canner. Everybody's getting preserves for Christmas!