Food

My Grandmother’s Apple Crisp Turned Gluten Free

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Making apple crisp after picking apples in the country was a tradition I grew up with. Now, years later, I make a gluten-free crisp with apples I’ve picked in my home town.

Here’s my favorite recipe, adapted from the one my mom and my grandmother used to make.

Ingredients

4 medium, peeled, sliced, tart apples (Granny Smith or Cortland)
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup gluten-free flour
1/2 cup gluten-free oats (I used Bob’s Red Mill quick gluten-free oats)
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/3 cup softened butter

Method

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a square baking pan. Place the apples in the pan. Combine the butter, flour, oats, and spices together into a crumbly mix. Sprinkle over the apples. Bake 30 minutes or until the apples are tender and the topping is golden brown. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream. Yum!

Making Tomato Confit

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How do I prolong the fresh taste of sweet local tomatoes? A friend recently shared with me her recipe for tomato confit. Before the tomatoes are gone from your favorite local farm stands, check it out.

Tomato Confit

First, buy or pick a bunch of tomatoes (for this recipe, you’ll need a dozen), plus two heads of garlic, and fresh herbs, such as oregano, basil, or thyme. You’ll also need some coarse salt and some good quality extra-virgin olive oil.

Tomato Confit Recipe

Ingredients:

12 Roma tomatoes or small meaty tomatoes
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme (or herb of your choice)
2 cloves garlic, sliced fine (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Bring a pan of water to a boil. With a sharp pairing knife, score tomatoes. Place tomatoes in a large bowl.

  1. Pour boiling water over tomatoes; let sit until skin is easily peeled, about 15 seconds. Drain tomatoes and cover with ice.
  2. Peel tomatoes when cool enough to handle. Halve lengthwise and place, cut-side up on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil; season with salt, pepper, thyme. optional garlic.
  3. Roast until tomatoes are dried halfway through, about 5 to 6 hours. Let stand until cool.
  4. Transfer tomatoes to a storage container; pour oil from baking sheet over the top. Refrigerate for up to 1 week.

 

 

 

An Insight into Lesotho

/ Tara Taft / 2 Comments

Visiting a place and getting to know its people makes the world smaller and increases our sense of community, even when that place may be far away. Or at least it does for me. My family visited the tiny country of Lesotho (pronounced li-soo-too) just three years ago.

Highway in Lesotho

So last week, when I heard of Lesotho’s attempted military coup, I could picture the people and the place, a country where over 90 percent of the women are literate, according to UNESCO, but half the population lives below the national poverty line, and 40 percent of the people suffer from malnutrition.

Village People

Lesotho housing

For more photos and travel stories of our trip to Lesotho, check out these blog posts:

Adventures in Lesotho, Sleeping in Lesotho, Eating in Lesotho, Orphans in Lesotho, Visiting Our Sponsored Child in Lesotho, and Washing Clothes by the River.

Trip taken August 2011.

Where Can You Get a Good Steak in South Dakota?

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When you’re in cattle country, there’s not much you should eat but steak. Unless it’s fresh water fish caught in a nearby stream or river. So when we wanted steak, our local friends told us to dine at Cattleman’s Club Steakhouse east of Pierre, where steak is the menu.

Cattlemen's

With sawdust on the floor and a view of the Missouri River, the restaurant has a lot of atmosphere. Don’t be surprised if you find the place filled with hunters and cowboys, exchanging stories over a steak and a beer.

Inside Cattlemen's

Choose your favorite steak (prime rib, sirloin, porterhouse, t-bone, or ribeye), the size, and the degree of doneness. You can get the prime rib in 10, 16, or 20 ounce cuts and the top sirloin in a 8, 12, 16-ounce cut. Determine your degree of doneness. Do you want it rare (red cool center), medium rare (red hot center), medium (pink hot center), medium well (very little pink), or well done (cooked through)?

Add grilled onions or mushrooms. If you don’t want steak, they do have burgers and shrimp. But whatever you have (unless you’re gluten free!), be sure to try the breaded green beans served with cucumber ranch wasabi sauce or the fried dill pickles. Yum!

Steak and Onions

When Ice Cream is Retro

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Ready for a little retro ice cream? This place was discovered (well, revisited) one hot summer evening while I was in Pierre, South Dakota.

Zestos

After a visit to the Flaming Fountain Memorial at the Capitol Building, we walked less than half a mile down Capitol Avenue to get some ice cream. Although they offer shakes (for $5.25) and banana splits (for $4.75), I was happy with my $2 vanilla and chocolate twist.

Zesto’s is the only place around to get an ice cream cone from March to October so be prepared. The lines are long but well worth the wait.

Trip taken July 2013.

Chiggers and Chokecherries and Jelly

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Chokecherry

For those of you who don’t live out west, and don’t live where the chokecherries grow, chokecherries are tiny berries with a big pit (relative to the size of the berry) and tart, but flavorful juice, good when made into jelly. I learned about chokecherries when I spent a summer in South Dakota as a teen.

With buckets in hand, we walked along the railroad tracks and along the Bad River searching for the tiny berries. It took awhile (at least in teenage time), but finally we had enough and stopped picking berries for a much needed swim. At home, my grandfather painted our chigger bites with nail polish to relieve the itch their tiny bites inspired.

We spent the next afternoon around the stove of our friend’s kitchen. I remember seeding the berries (that was a job!) and watching the big pot of bubbling juice. I remember skimming off the white foam and pouring the juice into the sterilized jars.

We brought jars of our chokecherry jelly home to California. Last summer, my brother discovered a jar of chokecherry jelly for sale at the general store in Custer State Park. He bought the jar and the memories it provoked back to California. I went home to Massachusetts and make Concord grape jelly instead.

If you live where the chokecherries grow, here’s a recipe to make your own jelly.

Chokecherry photo by Cindy Zackowitz licensed by CC under 2.0.

Eating Buffalo

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When you’re traveling out west, in places like Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and South Dakota, you’ll likely find buffalo burgers on just about every menu. Some places offer beef burgers as well, but when I’m in cowboy country, I usually opt for a burger made from the American bison. That’s right, a buffalo burger.

Bison

Why? They’re leaner, healthier, tastier and just a little different than a burger made from beef. Buffalo burgers are lower in fat and lower in calories, and higher in protein, iron, and vitamin B-12.

Although at once near extinction, (there were less than 300 in North America in the early 20th century), the American bison has made a come back, now numbering about half a million, according to the Defenders of Wildlife. There are now several  ranches and farms in North America’s west that raise the animal specifically for consumption.

Check out this recipe, if you want to try making buffalo burgers at home. (You should be able to find the ground meat next to the natural beef at your local supermarket.) Just don’t forget to wear your cowboy hat!

Buffalo Burger Recipe, Bison Burger Recipe | Simply Recipes.

When Can You Eat Pie for Breakfast?

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When we’re on vacation, sometimes our healthy diets go on vacation, too. So, when I discovered the Purple Pie Place in Custer, South Dakota, I knew we were destined to go at least once. And we did, but not just once …

Finding the Purple Pie Place in downtown Custer was easy. We just looked for the only bright purple building on the main street.

Purple Pie Place

The Purple Pie Place is locally famous for its bumbleberry pie; a blend of berries, such as: blueberry, raspberry, strawberry, plus apples and rhubarb. But they offer other pies as well: apple, peach, cherry, rhubarb, strawberry rhubarb, blackberry, blueberry, peanut butter, raspberry rhubarb jalapeño and a cream pie of the day. While the pie selection does not include any of the gluten-free variety, there is an ice cream bar for the gluten-free intolerant.

We ate our bumbleberry pie a la mode. The crust was flaky, the filling bursting with the flavors of different fruits all bumbled together. The pie was so good that we ate it for dessert one night, for dinner another night and another time for breakfast before we left the Black Hills.

Bumbleberry Pie

If you’re interested in going, the Purple Pie Place is located at 19 Mount Rushmore Road in Custer, South Dakota, just 13 miles from Jewel Cave National Monument (see related blog post).

If you won’t be visiting South Dakota in the near future, try making your own.

Bumbleberry Pie Filling Recipe (from allrecipes.com)
Makes 1 pie

Ingredients:

2 pie crusts

2 cups apples – peeled, cored and chopped
1 cup chopped fresh rhubarb
1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 cup fresh raspberries
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup white sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 tablespoon tapioca
1 egg yolk, beaten
2 tablespoon water

Method:

In a large bowl, combine apples, rhubarb, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and lemon jiuice. Mix together sugar, flour, and tapioca. Gently toss with fruit mixture. Spoon into your favorite home made or store bought pie crust. Cover with top crust. Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg yolk beaten with 2 tablespoons water). Cut a few slits in the top to allow steam to vent. Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes or until filling is bubbly in center and top is golden brown. Trip taken July 2013.

How to Cook and Eat a Padrón Pepper

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Eating a Padrón pepper is a little like playing Russian Roulette, less than 10 percent of the peppers are spicy, but watch out if you bite into one of the spicy ones! Called Padróns because they originate in northwest Spain in the town of Padrón, these small peppers are green and less than 4 inches long.

I first discovered them on a trip to Santa Barbara, a town with many Spanish influences, including the architecture.

Padrons

Simple and easy to cook, these little chili peppers make for an easy side dish. The best way to prepare Padróns is to saute them dry or in a little olive oil before adding a little sea salt.

Sauteed Padrons

Look for Padróns from May to September at farmers’ markets and at places like Whole Foods. But be sure to buy them green, if you wait until they’re red, 100 percent of the peppers will be spicy!

Trip taken August 2013.

When the Badlands Aren’t So Bad

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Thunder in BadlandsIf you were driving a stagecoach or on horseback and came across this expanse of arid rock, you might call it a “miserable gully,” but if you’re interested in geological features and you have plenty of water, this 244,000-acre national park in South Dakota is worth exploring.

Hiking

I’ve been to Badlands National Park several times in my life, but the most interesting and rewarding experiences have been the times I’ve stayed in the park. Last summer, we stayed in brand new cabins with AC.

Cabin IMG_1963

When the sun’s rays are not quite as intense, the light colored formations are not as blinding. I no longer have to squint.

And when the sun sets (as late as 8:30 p.m. in the summer), the spires take on their own personality. There is an evening program every night at 9 p.m. followed by night sky viewing through large telescopes. Every morning, just before it gets really hot, there is a ranger-led walk at 8:30.

Ranger

Be sure to check out the Ben Reifel Visitor Center where, besides learning about the rock formations and nearby floral and fauna, you can see real paleontologists working on fossils.

Badlands Visitor Center

The gift store at the Cedar Pass Lodge is one of the best in the area for finding unique and quality South Dakota items, everything from books to jewelry to herbal tea.

If you’re hungry, check out the Cedar Pass Restaurant. In addition to the Sioux Indian Fry Bread and Taco, the restaurant includes South Dakota steak and fish and many gluten-free items.

Trip taken July 2013.