Roasted Beets with Balsamic Glaze

Fall and winter mean root vegetables. Sometimes you just can't think of another way to make beets. That's where this recipe comes in handy. It's a great side or an addition to a fall salad.

Roasted Beets with Balsamic Glaze via Serious Eats:

Serves 4

6 medium beets (2 bunches, or about 3½ lb.)

1 tsp. kosher salt

2 Tb. extra virgin olive oil

1/3 c. inexpensive balsamic vinegar

1 Tb. maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Remove the leafy stems and roots of the beets and peel each one with a vegetable peeler. Cut the beets in 1 1/2-inch chunks. Place the cut beets on the prepared baking sheet and toss with the olive oil and salt. Roast for until the beets are tender when pierced with a thin-bladed knife, 35 to 40 minutes, tossing once with a spatula midway through.

Meanwhile, combine the vinegar and maple syrup in a small skillet. Cook over medium heat until the liquid is reduced by about half (it should lightly coat the back of a metal spoon). Pay close attention and be sure not to over-reduce it; it goes from sweet and syrupy to burnt and hard very quickly. Toss the glaze with the roasted beets and chill until ready to serve.

Easy!

Apple Dutch Baby

Dutch babies are a nostalgic breakfast for me. My mom used to always makes them for me for special breakfasts and whenever I visit, I can get one. The classic way to make it is to make a huge one in cast iron pan and share it, but you can do individual sizes. I made a smaller version to share with Aaron and did it in a casserole, which made it thicker than usual, but still tasty. Apple is a classic combo with the Dutch baby.

Apple Dutch Baby:

¼ c. milk +

¼ c. flour

for every egg

1 – 2 eggs from one person

3 – 4 for more

1 apple

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place enough butter to coat casserole. Warm in oven until melty.

Mix milk and flour with beaten eggs. Cover the bottom of the casserole with apple slices. Pour in batter and cover top with apple slices.  For a one egg baby, bake for 8-10 minutes. For two eggs, 10-12 minutes, and 12-15 for three eggs.

Remove when top is puffy. Serve with maple syrup, sour cream, and jam.

It’s easy, but still seems like a fancier breakfast. It would also be a welcome addition to a potluck brunch.

Aaron's Birthday Chocolate-Bacon Cupcakes

Aaron did a 30 day no red meat challenge from mid-January to mid-February. Because of this, he was talking about missing meat a lot. One day at his volunteer shift at the library he mentioned this and was pointed to a cookbook, called simply I Love Bacon!. Yes, the exclamation point is a part of the title. So, with his birthday shortly after the end of his challenge (it was Monday of last week), I decided to make him a bacon themed dessert. What I learned from this? Bacon makes for ridiculous frosting. Just check out the name: maple-brown butter-bacon frosting. Yeah. It’s like that. Another thing I learned? It makes a lot of frosting, so have another plan for it, like turning this cake into a chocolate version and covering it with this frosting.

Oh, and that if you don’t have any crème fraiche (and don’t have time to make any), you can sub in half heavy cream and half sour cream. That’s knowledge you can use for cupcakery.

Aaron’s Birthday Chocolate-Bacon Cupcakes from I Love Bacon!:

Makes 12

For the maple-brown butter-bacon frosting-
8 slices ¼“ thick bacon, diced into ¼“ pieces
1 c. butter
¼ c. milk
¼ c. heavy whipping cream
2 Tb. crème fraiche (or 1 Tb. heavy cream and 1 Tb. sour cream)
1 Tb. vanilla extract
3 Tb. maple syrup
1 tsp. salt
3 c. confectioners’ sugar

For the cupcakes-
8 Tb. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 c. flour
2 Tb. unsweetened cocoa powder
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ c. granulated sugar
¾ c. packed brown sugar
½ tsp. salt
2 large eggs
½ c. buttermilk, at room temperature
3 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3 Tb. old-fashioned oats
1 tsp. coarse sea salt
To make the frosting, in a large sauté pan over medium heat, cook the bacon until crispy, about 10 minutes. Using a mesh sieve, drain the bacon bits by pouring the rendered bacon fat into the bowl of a mixer. Set the bacon pieces aside.

In the same sauté pan, melt the butter and cook until it turns brown and gives off a nutty fragrance, scraping the bottom of the pan occasionally so the butter doesn’t burn. When the butter is dark and begins to burn, immediately remove the pan from the heat, scrape all the browned bits loose, and transfer the contents to the mixing bowl with the bacon fat. Refrigerate the bowl until the butter is cold. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, mix together the milk, cream, crème fraiche, vanilla, and maple syrup; set aside.

Fit your electric mixer with the paddle attachment. When the browned butter is cold, cream it on medium speed with the salt until blended. Add the confectioners’ sugar and continue to cream at medium speed until fluffy, about 8 minutes. Slowly add the milk mixture and continue mixing until smooth and homogenous. Refrigerate until cold.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with your amazing silicone liners.

To make the cupcakes, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Put the butter, the sugars, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Cream on medium speed until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the machine running, add the eggs, one at a time, and mix until well incorporated, about 2 minutes.

Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, turn the speed to low, and add ¼ of the dry ingredient mixture. When no traces of flour remain, add 1/3 of the buttermilk and mix until incorporated. Continue evenly alternating the flour mixture and the buttermilk, ending with the flour mixture. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix in the chopped chocolate and oats. Divide the batter between the 12 muffin cups; each cup should be ¾ full. Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Remove cupcakes from the muffin tin and cool completely on a rack.

When the cupcakes are completely cool, fluff the cold frosting with a small offset spatula until soft and spreadable but not runny. Place about 3 tablespoons of frosting on top of each cupcakes, then sprinkle on about ½ teaspoon of bacon bits and a pinch of sea salt. Serve immediately or after an awesome birthday dinner.

These are so flipping good! The frosting is one of the best I’ve ever had. I know I say that a lot, but this really is. The flavor combination is out of this world. If you want to go bacon free on this one, it’d be pretty easy to do and I may try it at least for the frosting in future recipes. But if you want to make a different cupcake, I’d highly recommend this one.

Maple-Orange Cranberry Sauce

This Thanksgiving was an ambitious one for me. I decided on making several different things, most of which I had never made before. Go big or go home, right? For example, I have never made cranberry sauce before, but I love it. I think I’ve only had the stuff in the can once and was not impressed. Like most things in the kitchen, if I think I can do it, I’m going to try it out. As I have mentioned before, this usually works out for me fairly well.

This sauce was supposed to be Maple-Tangerine Cranberry Sauce (original here), but as I couldn’t find tangerines, decided that orange was just fine. I honestly didn’t try that hard to find them. I think it worked out well just the same.

Maple-Orange Cranberry Sauce modified from Maple-Tangerine Fresh Cranberry Sauce from recipegirl.com:

Makes 12 servings

2 c. orange juice (I did half fresh squeezed/half concentrate)
3 c. fresh cranberries (one 12 oz. bag)
½ c. packed brown sugar
½ c. pure maple syrup
1 whole cinnamon stick
1 tsp. finely grated orange zest
pinch of kosher salt





In a 10” skillet, combine all of the ingredients. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat and then reduce to maintain a gentle simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has thickened somewhat and looks slightly syrupy, about 30 minutes.
Remove the cinnamon stick and let the cranberry sauce cool in the pan- it will thicken a bit more as it cools. Serve slightly chilled or at room temperature.



I made this on Monday night for Thursday and it was fantastic. I’d actually recommend making this a day or two ahead of time because the flavors really deepen. The orange pops in this recipe and the maple just gives it a little something wonderful. For my first time out in cranberry sauce land, I got a winner.

[I just realized, while doing some editing, that I never posted this. Wow. So I'm being a total cheater and backdating it because I did mean to and this is really delicious.]