Heights Eats

We got a bunch of apples from City Fresh lately that were too tart for eating, but I didn’t want to bake something at 400 degrees for a half hour when our house was already hot. Viola! Apple crisp on the grill.

The basic recipe is from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything.

Smoked Apple Crisp

6 cups peeled and cored apples, sliced or chopped (I subbed blueberries for some of these), peels reserved
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Juice of 1/2 lemon, rind reserved
2/3 cup brown sugar
5 tbsp cold butter, cut into bits, plus butter for greasing the pan
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup nuts (optional)
Wood chips or wood plank (optional)

1) Preheat grill and soak smoking chips or plank. Use a mild wood like apple, cedar, cherry or oak.

2) Toss the apples with half the cinnamon, the lemon juice, and 1 tbsp of the brown sugar (or more if you’re using especially … continue reading

Recently we made Pan Bagnat from Moosewood Cooks at Home. It’s a really simple, versatile recipe that basically allows you to use any seasonal vegetables you have on hand, and we’ve had plenty of those lately. While the sandwich is quick to assemble, the key is letting it sit, preferably weighted down, for a few hours to let all of the flavors–especially the garlic, olives and tomatoes–meld and saturate the bread. It’s perfect for picnics or fishing.

Here’s a quick version of the recipe:

1 baguette (we used one from Whole Foods, but On the Rise might be even better) 1 garlic clove olive oil tomato cucumber onion olives salt and pepper

optional: mild cheese (we used fresh mozzarella), hard boiled eggs, vinegar, fresh or dried herbs (we used basil), pesto, peppers, capers, or whatever else sounds good.

Slice bread in half lengthwise and rub cut or pressed garlic on cut sides. Slather on generous amounts of … continue reading

As previously promised, here’s a recipe for Red Velvet ice cream using the technique outlined by Jeni Britton Bauer in her book. The inspiration for this recipe also came from here as well as Jeni’s beet ice cream. No one will notice the beets (or at least no one who tried this did) but, along with the buttermilk, they add a subtle, almost fruity counterpoint to the cocoa and vanilla that makes the ice cream especially appealing. They’re also much preferable in my mind to the bottle of food coloring typically used to color a red velvet cake.

Red Velvet Ice Cream

1/3 cup pureed cooked beets 1 ½ cups whole milk 1 TB + 1 t. cornstarch 2 oz. cream cheese 1/8 t. sea salt 1 ¼ cups heavy cream 2/3 cup sugar 2 TB light corn syrup 3 TB cocoa powder ¼ cup buttermilk 1 t. vanilla 1 t. vinegar

(1) Combine 2 TB whole milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl. Set aside.

(2) … continue reading

We decided to check out the recently opened Market Garden Brewery as it looked like a fun place to eat and drink.

We reserved a table for 6:30pm on a Saturday, and it was relatively crowded. The place looks and feels like a traditional British/American brewpub with a strong emphasis on wood in the design and plenty of information about the beer.

We started our meal with the barbecue popcorn ($3), which was outstanding. I’m not generally a huge popcorn fan, but the sweetness, subtle spice and mild cheesiness (?) made this an addictive starter.

We also ordered the cheese plate ($10), which wasn’t bad but not really notable either. Even the smoked blue cheese, which sounds like a bold flavor combination, was a bit on the bland side. This would be less of an issue if Bar Cento across the street and plenty of other Cleveland restaurants didn’t have such impressive meat and cheese selections.

The accompanying pickle selection was good, although we wished the menu had … continue reading

I have been a huge fan of Jeni’s Ice Creams (and sorbets) for years and was counting down the days until the publication of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home. I picked it up at Barnes and Noble, and they actually took a while to find it because the books had just arrived and weren’t shelved yet.

The book is beautifully designed and organized by season with an emphasis on artisan local ingredients including dairy (e.g. Snowville Creamery), fruits and vegetables. The recipes are the most important element, though, and that’s where the book really delivers.

I’ve been making ice cream at home for almost ten years and consider this the best ice cream book on the market. Apparently Jeni Britton Bauer made 75 versions of her ice cream base until she perfected it. Much of her introduction details the science of ice cream making. Eggless confections tend to be icy, but with custards the flavor of … continue reading

We’d been fishing for almost a year with very little luck (or maybe skill). There were a number of things we eventually realized we’d done wrong–knots that came undone, incorrect bait, bait incorrectly placed, etc. But even though we seemed to be improving, we’d been catching very little lately. The last time we’d gotten a fair amount of bites was at Shadow Lake last fall, and even then just crappies that were too small to eat.

So we figured we’d get more fish if we went out on Lake Erie on a charter boat. We booked a Saturday 2-8pm trip at Wildwood Marina off Euclid Beach. Another rider who was next to us, Jim, suggested that people often have “beginner’s luck.” That might have been an understatement, but it was equally distributed throughout the boat.

We arrived at about 1pm as suggested in the guidelines, bought bait (70+ minnows), and boarded the boat at 1:45pm. Sarah forgot her license but got a one-day license for $4.… continue reading

Monthly Archives: July 2011

Smoked Apple Crisp

Pan Bagnat

Red Velvet Ice Cream

Market Garden Brewery

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home

Charter Boat Fishing