I'm moving!

Just the site, not in real life! I've gone and gotten myself a brand new, real-deal website where I will continue to blog just like I do here, but it will also be the home for my professional portfolio.

Come visit (and update your bookmarks and RSS feeds!):

AMYPALANJIAN.COM


It's still a bit of a work in progress as I transition content over and get everything retagged, but the blog will be up and running any day now!

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Easy DIY Apple Chips

 

When I was little, we ate a lot of dried apples. At one point we even got a dehydrator to make it easier (I'm pretty sure that was around the time there was an infomercial about them that played repeatedly...). We made all sorts of things for a period of time and it was so much fun to transform regular fruit into its dried version. I never realized that you could do the same thing with an oven—but with the piles of fruit that we have to use up since we don't really have great cold storage for that large of a quantity, I decided to give it a try.

What you see above are the results of my efforts: crunchy, flavorful, and deliciously sweet apple chips. They are 100% apples. I didn't add anything to them because I thought I'd start with the basics. All I did was to slice them thinly using my mandoline, then I placed them on parchment lined baking sheets in a 175 F oven for 4ish hours. If you check them earlier than that you'd get something closer to dried apples. One batch I made went as long as 6 hours and they were still delightfully crispy. (I saw a few recipes that called to leave them in for 10 hours, but that length of time seems unncessary).

I made two sandwich bags full and will probably try to make a few more while we have the apples because I have a feeling that we'll be eating these faster than we can make them!

Farm Anatomy by Julia Rothman: Blog Tour and Giveaway!

 

Today I'm delighted to be part of a blog tour for a new book, Farm Anatomy by Julia Rothman, that I absolutely adore. I've known of Julia's illustration work for years (she worked with us at ReadyMade) and I love the subject matter of this book, so in my mind that makes for a perfect combination. If you, like me, are interested in sustainable living and knowing where your food comes from—and yet haven't really spent much time on farms or around folks who really know farms—this book will make you happy. I'm pretty sure it would also make kids happy too.

You can WIN A FREE copy!

How to Enter:

To celebrate the release of the book, Storey Publishing is kindly offering to giveaway a copy of the book to one lucky reader. To enter, post a comment by 8 am central time Monday October 17 saying why you love farms. Or animals. Or tractors. Please use your email address to register so that I can contact you. 

I'll choose a random winner and will announce it on Monday.

And now, Julia was kind enough to do a little Q&A so that we could learn more about the making of the book. 

Where did the idea for the book come from?

My husband Matt grew up on a farm in Iowa and I grew up in the Bronx in New York. I never experienced farm life and so I've always been intrigued by his childhood. I had already worked with Storey publishing on illustrating some cookbooks and when they approached me to work together again, we came up with the idea of making an illustrated book all about everything farm related. I was excited to get a chance to really learn all about the tools, animals and food my husband grew up with and to have his family farm be the inspiration. The first illustrated spread shows his farm and all the buildings on it. I also grew up looking at the book Living on the Earth which my mother treasured. My idea for hand writing the text definitely came from appreciating those pages. 

What was your favorite part of putting it together?

 Definitely the drawing part. I love drawing lots of objects so doing the old-fashioned kitchen tools spread, the toolshed spread and all of the vegetable varieties was so much fun. There are 224 pages of drawings in this book, so while I was working on it, there wasn't a moment I wasn't drawing. I carried my sketchbook and research images everywhere I went and drew while watching television, in subway stations and airports, or while hanging out with friends. I remember I drew the barn cuploas page when I was at jury duty because some guy started asking me about it. It was probably the least inspirational place to be drawing something from picturesque farm life...

Was the topic something that you've been interested in for a while?

Before I met Matt, I don't think I really thought about it too much. My parents have friends who have a sheep farm in Maine and we visited them a bunch of times when I was a kid. I've always loved animals and my sister did as well. We grew up with all kinds of pets – from rabbits to parrots. My sister now studies primates in Uganda. 

How did you do your research?

Most of my research came from other Storey publications. They have a huge range of books on every topic related to country living that you can think of. There are thick books just on timber frame construction and building chicken coops and raising goats and making maple syrup. It was hard to go through so much information and just pick out what I felt was important. While I merely skimmed the surface on all the topics, I tried to get a bit of general information on everything. Then I added some of the more curious tidbits in between. There was also visits to Matt's farm and advice from Matt's dad ("and you'll need to add water pumping windmills for sure...") and farmer's market shopping for the best looking vegetables to draw. After the book was totally sketched out, Storey had expert Carol Ekarius look everything over. She filled in some blanks for me and corrected anything that was out of order.

What do you hope readers learn or experience from the book?

I hope when they flip through it that it brings to mind the smell of animals or eating fresh apples or laying in hay or riding past endless fields. I want the book to evoke good memories of farm life. I also hope people learn something interesting from reading the text or try some of the recipes or projects.

How much time have you actually spent on farms? Just had to ask!

Not enough, that's for sure! I hope to continue learning and drawing about country life.

What's next for you?

I hope to do more big projects like this book. Some sort of sequel would be fun : )

Thanks so much for sharing with us Julia. Here's the full blog tour schedule so that you can follow along for more chances to win books and to hear more about the project:

10/10 – MintDesign 10/12– Growing with Plants 10/14 – Things we Make 10/15 – Print and Pattern 10/17 – Small Measure 10/19 – SF Girl by the Bay 10/21 – Pikaland 10/23 – The Spunky Coconut 10/24- Pitch Design Union 10/25 – Reading my Tea Leaves 10/27 – Book By Its Cover 10/28– Design for Mankind

Some of the Family Harvest Arrives in Iowa

 My other half was away out west for a whole week, but like the good man he is, he came home bearing treats—lots of treats! His parents have fruit trees of all kinds in Montana and this was the first time that we've gotten to enjoy some of the harvest. There is an assortment of already canned goodies including applesauce, cherry preserves, huckleberry preserves, canned cherries and plum butter. There is even a gallon of freshly pressed apple cider hanging out in the fridge (which I plan to drink as warm cider if it ever cools down again). I am so ridiculously excited for all of these things, especially the cherries. I already have plans to eat them over vanilla ice cream...

 But he also brought three whole boxes filled with fruit. There are these lovely apples.

 Stunning bosc pears that even the most upscale market would clamor to sell.

 

And more apples. We haven't decided what to do with it all conclusively yet, but I'd like to try to make some dried fruit, along with (probably) more applesauce and perhaps some pear butter. I've also tossed out the idea of trying to can pie filling, which could be fun later in the cold months. 

I am quite sure that I'll have many updates about the fruit as we put it to good use, but until then, I'm just feeling really grateful that all of this came from family—and that Josh made it home safely.

Almond Butter Dark Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats

 

I was wanting to make trail bars last weekend, but wasn't feeling quite up to shopping for the long ingredient list. So I dug out my battered copy of Cooking the Whole Foods Way by Christina Perillo, which I've had for years and years (and may have stolen from my sister a decade ago...oops, I just looked and it was even signed by Christina for my sis—sorry Katie!). It's one of those classic vegetarian and macrobiotic cookbooks that has recipes for desserts like kantee, in addition to an awesome assortment of nearly everything else you could be in the mood for. I remembered that there was a rice krispie esque treat in there that was rather simple and I decided to tweak it a bit to make it my own.

Almond Butter Dark Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats

Makes 12-16 squares depending on how large you cut them
I actually store these in the fridge since I like them when they are slightly chilled.

1 1/4 cups brown rice syrup

1/2 cup almond butter
3 cups crispy rice cereal
1 cup rolled oats (I used gluten free)
2 tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup dark chocolate chunks

Heat the brown rice syrup and almond butter in a small saucepan over low heat until creamy. Add the chocolate and stir until melted. Place the cereal and coconut in a bowl together and gently stir in the warm syrup mixture until well combined. Press into a shallow, square baking dish and allow to set until firm (put it into the fridge to speed things up if you'd like).

Day in My Life: Working in the Test Kitchen

Apologies for my absence around here this week. Our home internet has been out and I finally was able to get an appointment yesterday to have it fixed—squirrels had chewed through the exterior cable line! Hopefully they find something else to amuse themselves for a while...

Earlier this week I was able to spend two days working in the Better Homes and Gardens Test Kitchen as a way for me to see how they work. As part of my job as a food editor, I'm always sending down recipes for them to test and then attending taste panels to try the foods. I figured that it would be good for me to have a solid understanding of how they do their work, and also to see how taste panels for the different magazines vary, so I was entirely ready for my two days in the kitchen.

 

 I made a cornflake crusted chicken (and learned the proper temperature to cook chicken to since Josh is in charge of the meat in our house) that was served with a fire roasted tomato sauce. The photo at the top of the post was my plated serving size, and my amateur attempts at food styling. Here is the table in the middle of the test kitchen where food goes after panel—so other folks can try dishes (and have snacks when they need one!).

 My station was all set up for me when I came in in the morning, which I am pretty sure was special treatment.

 

I've decided that having one of these handy recipe holders in my home kitchen would be super helpful. I'd also like to figure out a way to bring their amazingly helpful assistants who take care of the dirty dishes home with me but that might take a little more effort!

 

 After the chicken, there was a mango and peach salsa, a salad of arugula and various fruits with grilled steak (something else I never ever am in charge of at home) and of course, dessert. These were blondies with a caramel and chocolate drizzle.

 

 I was pretty proud of my drizzling skills! All in all it was a great change of pace from sitting at a desk and I loved getting to know the culinary specialists, as they are known, better. I was trying to figure out a way that I could spend one day a week cooking (instead of doing my actual work) but I'm not sure that will fly with my boss...still, I realized that I have a pretty fun job, even if I stay on the side of just getting to taste the food.

Weekend Highlights: Digging Potatoes at Our CSA Farm

Over the weekend our CSA farm, Grinnell Heritage Farm, hosted a root digging afternoon and potluck. And for someone who has never dug up a potato—or really had a firm grasp on how they grow—it seemed like the perfect opportunity to learn a bit more about the food that I'm regularly eating. And if you think that potatoes are boring, you should know that the ones we get in our CSA are so delicious—they arrive in shades of purple, red, blue, yellow, and orange and each has a unique flavor. It makes fall that much more exciting.

There was a group of about 10 folks ready to help in the field. Andy, one of the framers, would drive the tractor, running a metal piece (I of course forgot what it's called) under the row of potatoes to turn the dirt over. We'd then squat or kneel and find as many potatoes as possible.

We filled crate after crate and I was amazed at how easy the process was—though I can say that my back is definitely not used to that kind of manual labor and I've been a bit sore ever since!

The potatoes will go into CSA shares, to farmers markets and maybe even to  New Pioneer in Iowa City. Along with that lovely butternut squash.

After we dug up two rows of potatoes, we gathered for a potluck in the packing shed as the sun set over the fields outside of the door. I have learned that if you ever have the chance to go to a potluck at a local farm, you definitely should—the food is pretty much guaranteed to be stellar. We had beets and sweet potatoes that were roasted in foil packets on the grill, beef hot dogs (from the farm too), assorted raw peppers and carrots, beef stew, homemade grape juice and komboucha, two kinds of apple pie, and one apple cake.

 

I made an apple pear pie, using apples from the farmers market and pears that we'd been gifted from a friend. It was the perfect way to spend a Saturday evening (though next time I won't forget the whipped cream!).