Recipe Review from 10/20/08

It seems hard to believe that we are already through October. The weather has remained, for the most part, absolutely fantastic. We've had some rain and cool nights, but I think I've counted only 4 day's where nighttime temps were 30*. Even this weekend with The Big Storm bearing down on us. What was predicted to be a snowy blustery day became a very blustery day with scattered rain showers. The Dad and the Husband fit in a trip to Menards for landscaping supplies.

But I digress. I thought I made more last week but it looks like I have only two recipes to review.

Three-cheese Mac n' Cheese (Ckng Lght, Sept 08) 4.0
The Husband helped with this one - I grated the Gruyere, Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses while he chopped the onion and started the pasta. Then I prepped the flour, salt and bay leaf while he sauteed the chopped onion. So really it was a tag-team event.

I had two issues with this recipe, the first one being the directions were out of order. It takes time to get water heated up, so WHY do they put the "prepare pasta according to directions" as the second paragraph after chopping and grating and sauteing? It should be number one. The pasta will remain warm until the cheese roux mix is prepared.

My second complaint was this ended up on the dry side, not as creamy as either of us would have liked. I think this was in part because the cheesy roux was done and we were waiting for the pasta to finish. Oh well. It still had good flavor and made a comfortable amount for two people with leftovers for the coming day.

Joe over on Culinary in the Country also made this dish and you can read his review here.

Cranberry-Apple Pie (modified from Cooks Illustrated) 4.0
About a year ago, Cooks Illustrated had a recipe for a Cranberry-Apple pie. I made it, but I had to modify the recipe - it called for cooking the apple in a microwave and I don't have a microwave. The resulting pie was good, but not great, and it was way more work than I wanted to deal with when I had several other pies to make.

The Husband recently requested a cranberry-apple pie, and this recipe has been floating around in the noggin. I pulled it out and decided to do it my way. I took 2 cups of cranberries, 1/4 cup oj, sugar and a splash of salt and boiled the mixture until it made a jam like consistency and set aside. While that was going on, I pre-baked my bottom crust. I let the crust cool for a bit then spread the cranberry sauce in the bottom. I peeled, cored and sliced 2 Cortland's, 2 harlesons, and 2 red barons. Tossed these with a mixture of 2/3 cup sugar, 2 tbsp flour, 1 tbsp corn starch, 1/4 (1/2?)tsp cinnamon and 1/8 all spice; then layered over the top of the cranberries and tucked everything in. Baked for 1 hour.

Result? Very good. The tartness of the cranberries was offset by the sugar (I think I would do less next time) and the apple juices mingled with the jam enough so all the yummy flavors melded together. My one mistake was not using my deep-dish pie plate, so I wasn't able to fit in all the apples. I wish I had taken a picture.