High-Low Carbs: Heavenly Biscuits, Quick Crescents & Apple Pie Secrets 🍎🍏

 

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High

Dan was away in Boston and Maine last weekend for work and a short family visit. Punchy was out. I had a yen for the Lo's Fried Chicken carryout dinner for two from Turtle + The Wolf, a beloved Montclair restaurant. I wanted the chicken, but what I really wanted was the featherlight buttermilk biscuits. I ordered this dinner package once during that lonely, dark pandemic to share with Punchy. It is not cheap but honestly, the salad was enough for two nights and the 10 pieces of cult-favorite chicken took me through a few lunches/dinners. (You have to order ahead.) The creamy mashed potatoes, yum. (I resisted the Chocolate Peanut-Butter Tart with toasted fluff but had it once with Dan at the real restaurant table.) The hot biscuits were perfection, four small, light, leavened-in-heaven beauties lined up and presented with a little cup of honey. Golden tops and tender, fluffy insides. Omigosh, butter from my fridge, and honey from the cup. Excellent. 

Low 

The Pillsbury rolls contain flour, shortening, water, baking powder--and possibly palm oil.

By contrast, I went to ShopRite with Punch last week when she was hungry. She wanted to make a Seafood Boil, and that was nice, with snow crab, fresh mussels, baby potatoes, corn on the cob, shrimp and plenty of Slap Ya Mama and Old Bay Seasoning. I also allowed her to chose some kid things like chocolate milk, fruit punch (one of each), waffles and Pillsbury Original Crescents rolls. She made them after school today. "I love snacks," I heard her say on the phone to a friend. I was surprised at how good the crescents were, again with butter and honey (her idea). Also, food science at work. Processed, I know, but took me back to my girlhood, round biscuits in a tube, arranging them in a metal pie pan in our 1950s green Dumont kitchen, setting the table for my mother. Today's crescent dough triangles are rolled up so neatly, the directions so clear ($3.49 for an 8-ounce tube).

Apple Pie Secrets

I just wrote a story about Apple Secrets for Food52. I'm proud, and have been sending along more ideas. I've wanted to work for/write for that site ever since one of my idols, NY Times food columnist Amanda Hesser (Cooking for Mr. Latte book), co-founded it. Here is the link:

https://food52.com/story/apple-secrets-baking-cooking-fall

Still chasing my dreams at age 64, and why not? (Bobbi Brown and Katie Couric shared at the 92nd Street Y talk Wednesday night that they are both 68, and nothing's stopping them.)

My apple story intro mentions a tube of biscuit dough. That came first, before we bought the crescents.

Have a good night. 🍎🍏🍎🍏

91 Degrees in Maine, Note from Belfast Co-op

I just stopped here again [let's face it, every chance I get] to get some provisions for the Hurley family's Fourth of July grill/picnic at Moose Point:

• a jar of cold pickles
• tiny local raspberries from Bear's Berries in Montville
• blackberries
• a pint of farm cream from Great Hopes Farm in nearby Brooks
• chorizo
• whole-wheat hotdog buns
• plant-based, compostable cups and spoons [to eat the berries and cream]
• Alba anti-bug spray
• a large whoopie pie, Maine tradition, from Wildflours Bakery [it happens to be gluten-free]
• And for the kids--Annie's graham crackers, organic milk chocolate and vegan marshmallows [this is the health-conscious store]

I also paid my $15 annual co-op membership fee and got Figgy another gift, a nice tube of Alba detox scrub. She loves stuff like that. She is having some friends over in Montclair and they are going to MSU fireworks. She has been so earnest and good, going to calculus [!] class, working, watering thirsty garden and taking poor Sug to the vet [she had plumbing problems, to put it delicately].

Everyone in the family is bringing something and my mother-in-law, Mary, made her beloved potato salad.

I have to do a couple of work emails! My editor has been prodding me, rightly so, about fall issue deadline. I have a nice iced coffee by my side. Then I have to scoot to Moose Point. Dan and brothers already there, others trickling in. It's superhot--even on the coast of Maine. It should be better on a picnic bench by the ocean.

Happy Fourth of July! 

Good Night, Veggies

Had homemade roasted golden and purple beets, with feta on the plate—and roasted yellow cauliflower from the Montclair Farmers Market. Oh!--and the new Pumpkin Pie Bowl from Juice Culture, rich in antioxidants, made with pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, apple slices, banana....yum. I got the half size. Score three points for healthy eating. :) 

Food52 & Chia Seeds

I like food52.com and saw on its insta feed this morning a recipe that involved toasted chia seeds and pistachios over strawberries and yogurt.

I pan-toasted superfood chia seeds, coconut and walnuts and spooned over farmers' market strawberries and fresh ricotta, because that's what I had.

Pretty good. Feel like a superhero now.

Good night. Prayers for this world, for the families and friends of the Orlando shooting victims, for the misunderstandings that lead to such loss.

TGIF

TGIF, though still have to rise by 7:15 for last soccer game of season. Sweet dreams.

TCOY

1. Made Key Lime Smoothie w unsweetened coconut milk and coconut flakes, fresh lime peel and juice, flax seed, frozen banana, etc. Figgy, Punchy and I all liked it. Punchy liked it so much, she took some on ice in her water bottle to school. Mango smoothie on deck for tomorrow. That one calls for chia seeds, and the bag was pretty pricey, so these smoothies aren't cheap.

2. Boot camp in park, beautiful day.

3. Ice water, salad, fresh tomato and basil.

4. Bath in lavender bubbles.

Punchy w the Key Lime Superfood Smoothie. 

Green Monster

Punchy liked it. H. and Figgy balked.

Today's mint chip smoothie looked more like spinach swamp bc I upped the ratio of frozen spinach and instead of frozen banana, I used mixed frozen fruit, which darkened it. There is also the possibility that the luscious mint green foto in book was slightly retouched for a beauty shot.....btw, those are superfood cocoa nibs on top.

It tasted ok, actually pretty good, with the fresh mint leaves. Tomorrow, I'm making Key Lime, with coconut milk, fresh lime juice and peel, flaxseed [I couldn't find hemp seed at Kings], frozen banana, dried unsweetened coconut and more. 

I like this focus on color, fruit, vegs, vitamins, superfoods, natural ingredients, new things and energy. I do feel more energized, can-do and upbeat. And I think this TCOY smoothie making points me in the right direction, day by day. 

Good night.

TCOY

1. 7 a.m. support group. Helpful and inspiring.

2. Good dental and skin care.

3. Nap.

4. Weeded garden and planted nasturtium and sunflowers.

5. Read. 

6. Went out for vegan dinner w. Figgy  and our friends.

Apples

So much I'd like to write but too tired. Grated lots of misshapen found Cape Cod apples for H's birthday cake. Used his mom's recipe for Fresh Apple Cake. Gnite. And peace all around.

Great Vacation Reading

Reading is a big part of a relaxing vacay for me and H. I know, we sound old. But we love to crack our books open and get lost in them.

I want to blog but am at really good part of novel called Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan. Plus tired/relaxed from biking to pond and back, finding heirloom apples on an old overgrown trail and going to Sunday Mass. Good night to you.