Dauphin Easy Apple Soufflé

Try it with Cream, or Not

Recipe adapted from Simplicity from a Monastery Kitchen

I’m on an apple roll this season. After spiced poached apples, old school apple cake, and pear crisp with apples substituted for pears, I’m taking it to the next level with a more esoteric recipe. From an upstate New York monastery, it's Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Loutourette's Dauphin Easy Apple Soufflé. Dauphin was the dynastic title  of the French heirs apparent during the 14^th-19^th centuries. It also translates to dolphin. What exactly Dauphin has to do with the apple soufflé remains a monastic mystery.

Old School Apple Cake

Apple Cake for All!

Recipe from Sunset Light & Healthy

It’s officially the holiday season. Let there be cake! I’ve tried many cakes in the quest to recreate my Gram’s Apple Cake, with a notable divergence into Amen Farms Apple Cake, a delicious go-to recipe. Old school apple cake differs from my past posts in that it contains raisins and nuts. I call it a 70’s recipe because it’s from Sunset Light & Healthy cookbook—and what’s considered healthy these days is different from when the book was published. This recipe is low fat and free of saturated fats. It is not low carb, low sugar, gluten free, dairy free or egg free. It tastes perfect without frosting, though you could sprinkle it with powdered sugar and cinnamon, or decorate it with edible poinsettias, roses, or glitter stars for holiday festivities.

Apples Poached with Spices

Option #1: Serve Chilled with Mint Leaves

Recipe from Unidentified Clipping

Between Halloween candy overindulgence and Thanksgiving pie decadence is a peaceful season where simple autumn desserts give our bodies a break as well as a lift.  While raw persimmons, pears, and pomegranates conveniently fill the everyday dessert bill, baked or poached apples provide more elegant treats for special occasions. And with very little fuss—10 minutes of prep and less than an hour of cooking time. Plus, an aromatic apple and spice smell issues forth from the kitchen, imbuing the entire household with an iconic fragrance of autumn.

Melinda’s Pear Crisp

Pear Pizazz

Recipe adapted from Sunset Light & Healthy

If you’ve got to work for a living, finding a job with people that you enjoy makes it easier. I lucked out at my job with Melinda, who is not only smart, energetic, and forever making me laugh, but also loves food and cooking. When her pear trees were in full fruit, she brought in a pan of pear crisp one morning, still warm from the oven. She said the recipe was reasonably healthy, and that she’d reduced the sugar. Unlike most crisps, it’s flavored with vanilla and nutmeg, not cinnamon. Originally “oatie peach crumble,” her tweaked recipe compliments pears perfectly.

Vegan Red Pepper Soup

Health and Happiness

Recipe from Women’s Health Big Book

In my quest for new smoothies this year, I came across a book with the rather intimidating title: The Women's Health Big Book of Smoothies & Soups: More than 100 Blended Recipes for Boosted Energy, Brighter Skin & Better Health. Although I liked some of the smoothie ideas, I looked askance at the blender soups, particularly those made with all raw ingredients that could be served hot or cold. Yet, Radiant Red Pepper Soup was compelling—especially with 5 red bells in the fridge due to a hot, long pepper season this year. I whipped up this soup as an appetizer, thinking that the flavor would be more healthful than delicious. Sometimes I love it when I’m wrong!

Pacific Rim Honey Grilled Pork

Nontraditional Octoberfest Food

Recipe from Letters from the Hive

BBQ season isn’t over, so my friends on both US coasts tell me. And they’re right. Golden October days are perfect for grilling, provided that we start early enough to avoid grilling after dark. Also, rake away those dry leaves from the BBQ area to keep it safe. Autumn grilling is especially good for roasting meats that pair well with seasonal homemade applesauce.  This sweet-savory pork recipe comes from an unlikely source. The book Letters from the Hive is an informative and rather sexy look at bees, honey, and beekeeping—see my Goodreads review for details. Essentially, the pork is saturated in an Asian-inspired honey-lime marinade, then grilled or broiled. This marinade also works on fish.

Ginger Glazed Winter Squash

Try it on Buttercup

Recipe adapted from Classic Zucchini Cookbook

One of the great loves of my life is butternut squash. I have whipped it, pied it, baked it, minestroned it, honeyed it, spiced it, saged it, saladed it, seeded it, puddinged it, muffined it, blondied it, and even microwave-steamed it in a motel room. And after all of this, I found yet another delicious way to serve it. Essentially, it’s baked, but adding sherry and ginger to the mix distinguishes it from the more usual cinnamon-maple syrup glaze. It’s a more sophisticated flavor that’s at home at fancier dinner parties and potlucks. So far I've glazed both butternut and buttercup squash.

Baked Tunisian Eggah

Eggah! A Fantastic Way to Eat Your Veggies

Recipe from Mediterranean Light

Eggah! I made it because I love saying it, and because bell peppers and tomatoes will soon be out of season. Tunisian eggah is technically an oxymoron, since eggah is an Egyptian dish, and the closest dish in Tunisia is called tagine (and is quite different that tagines from other Arabic countries). It’s called kuku in Iran, and Ej’jah in other places. It’s similar to Spain’s omelette, except it’s packed with festive red and green veggies rather than potatoes, and spiced up with cumin, cinnamon, and other lovely aromatics. It’s similar to a frittata, but thicker and more fragrant.

Fish and Corn Chowder

Late Summer Veggies Compliment Fish

Recipe adapted from Everyday DASH

It's odd to take a recipe from a healthy cookbook and add potatoes, extra flour, extra bacon, and half and half. But whoever heard of fish chowder without potatoes or cream? And so I padded this light recipe with traditional flavors. Just a small amount of half and half kicks up flavor and texture. Potatoes, though not the healthiest veggies, contain potassium and other minerals. Their high glycemic index is mitigated when eaten with lean protein, like fish and lowfat milk. The extra bacon adds indispensable flavor, and the amount is still less than one strip per serving.

Summer Corn and Tomato Salad

Summertime and the Living is Yummy

Recipe by Robin

The quintessential summertime meal is made with garden-fresh corn and tomatoes backed by toothsome barbecue. Late summer bell peppers and sun-loving herbs are the proverbial icing on the cake. For years I’ve wanted to create a corn and tomato salad. Finally this year I was spurred to action. Jeanne, a thoughtful librarian colleague, brought several pounds of flash-frozen halibut to work. Every summer her kids board charter boats in Ketchikan, Alaska to do some deep sea fishing, and she shares their fishy wealth with others. Her generous contribution inspired me to get going on the corn salad.

Baba Ganoush

Colorful Carrots are Delightfully Dipable

Recipe by Robin

About 25 years ago, my friend Bee turned me on to Baba Ganoush, the Middle Eastern eggplant dip that he calls Eggplant Baba. He uses just grilled eggplant, cumin powder, cayenne, garlic, salt, and “lotsa olive oil.” Since I can’t recreate his delicious concoction of just 6 ingredients, I’ve added the traditional lemon juice, tahini, and white pepper.  The key to authentic flavor is grilling the eggplant slowly till the skin is charred and insides are soft. I use a Weber grill for added charcoal flavor. Bee uses a hibachi, and also suggests grilling under a broiler or over a flame burner if it’s not barbecue weather.

Cherries Jubilee

Recipe by Robin

There are many fun facets to making Cherries Jubilee. It sounds and looks fancy, but doesn’t take more than 30 minutes. You get to start a fire and impress your friends with your flambé skills. The recipe is historical, supposedly created by August Escoffier for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee (1887), in honor of the queen’s well known love of cherries. And it’s served over ice cream, always a plus. But my favorite thing about cherries jubilee is that, unlike other cherry desserts, the cherries don’t need to be pitted. Liberation from a thankless and staining task!

High Protein Vegan Chocolate Fruit Shakes (Smoothies)

Chocolate and Fruit: A Summer Natural

Recipes inspired by Everyday DASH Diet

What’s better than summer fruit? Summer fruit with chocolate, of course! And better yet, how about a high-protein smoothie that tastes like a decadent milkshake? A delicious and protein-rich smoothie is an excellent pick-me-up for those who, like me, are only allowed short breaks at work. In 10 or 15 minutes, almost any small meal feels like force-feeding. But guzzling a smoothie in 15 satisfies hunger easily. For those who are working up to Green and Pink Smoothies for lunch, adding chocolate to the mix might make joining the smoothie culture more palatable.

Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins

My Mom Served 'Em with Butter

Recipe Adapted from The 250 Best Muffin Recipes

From ‘way back when I was a preschooler, I have two vivid memories of special breakfast foods. Though we mostly ate cereal and milk, like most kids of our era, every so often my mom would make us something special. In the winter, it was fresh squeezed orange juice, crafted with a special attachment on Mom’s Mixmaster. In summer, it was blueberry muffins: fresh, fruity, and unpretentious. This recipe tastes pretty close to what Mom used to make: not too sweet or buttery, loaded with beautiful berries.

Cherry Cobbler

Cherry Cobbler: Fabulous With or Wthout Cream

Recipe adapted from Crumbles and Cobblers

Throughout this short cherry season, I’ve failed twice at making a simple cherry dessert. My potluck chocolate cherry clafouti landed upside-down on the bedroom rug (don’t ask). And the flavor wasn’t chocolatey enough to try again. Next, Fresh Cherry Cobbler, a top recipe from the usually brilliant All Recipes website, tasted more like butter and sugar than cherries. So, back to my favorite cobbler resource, Crumbles and Cobblers, to adapt a Berry Cobbler recipe. Light pastry tops a just-sweet-enough base of cherries, and leftovers were solid enough to go car camping.

Chocolate Molten Lava Cupcakes

Molten Lava Demo

Recipe from Unknown Photocopy

Here’s a fast chocolate-y recipe that has never failed to delight. It’s a hit both at potlucks and at home. Chocolate lava cupcakes require only about 50 minutes of your time including baking and cooling. The only challenging part is that the batter, with its hefty dose of melted chocolate, is thick and sticky and tricky to get into the muffin tins neatly. Scooping with a soup spoon in one hand and a small rubber spatula in the other helps direct the batter somewhat accurately. If you can’t serve these right away, a short zap in the microwave will re-moltenize the cupcakes to gooey deliciousness.

Carrots and Parsnips Exupery

Recipe adapted from Simplicity from a Monastery Kitchen

I’ve spent the winter in a Monastery. Well, cuisine-wise anyway. In search of inspiration during a seasonal chef’s most challenging months, I discovered Simplicity from a Monastery Kitchen: A Complete Menu Cookbook for All Occasions. Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Loutourette, whose origins are obscure and whose abode is in upstate New York, has written many monastic cookbooks. My blog features only one parsnip recipe: delicious, nostalgic oven braised parsnips and carrots. So it's Brother Victor-Antoine to the rescue with parsnips in a sweet, buttery glaze spiked with dry mustard.

Rose’s Abe Lincoln Cake or Marbled Pound Cake

Recipe adapted from Aunt Rose's

A quick internet search on Abe Lincoln cake brings up numerous recipes for almond cake. But decades before the internet, my husband’s aunt was making this Abe Lincoln Cake from a family recipe for her children and their lucky cousins. Instead of almonds, it’s flavored with a touch of orange and nutmeg. Perhaps in a past generation, someone had a nut allergy, so the almonds were replaced with spices. The perfect proportions of butter, sugar, and eggs make what is essentially a pound cake a moist, dense loaf with thin and crunchy crust. This crust is the magic that makes this cake unusually addictive.

Vegan Smoothies: Green Drink & Pink Drink

Recipes inspired by Laurie

It’s the post-holiday season and a new year. Many of us have overindulged during the past weeks, consuming more than usual quantities of rich and caloric foods. We might have gained a few pounds, or just feel a bit sluggish after too many delicious but not-too-nutritious treats. New year = new start. Protein and veggie or fruit-based smoothies make satisfying breakfasts, lunches, or snacks. They’re delicious and vitamin- and mineral-rich, yet don’t cost too many calories.  My friend Laurie, an expert on liquid meals, shared her list of high-nutrition smoothie ingredients with me, and I came up with these basic go-to recipes. I invite you to add or substitute ingredients as you like.