The Other Woman Cooks

Who says fruits are just for sweets? This year's bumper crop has me searching for new ways to use the big orange berries (yup, they're berries).  While poking around our local Williams Sonoma store last week, I came across a jar of pumpkin braising sauce ... I have pumpkins, lotsa pumpkins. I read the ingredients and decided to give my own adaptation a try. I used a rosemary pear conserve canned last year (and a concoction I hadn't quite figured out what to do with) instead of applesauce but I am quite sure applesauce will yield just as yummy a result. Bake your pumpkin and prepare your potatoes ahead of time (nuke the potatoes for five or warm them in the oven for twenty minutes or so before suppertime). Prep time of about about twenty minutes is all you need and then relax while the slow cooker makes magic. CROCK POT PUMPKIN PORK ROAST 3 pound bone-in pork shoulder roast Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 small yellow onion,...

The lights flickered but never went out at our house but lots of friends and family were left powerless from Saturday's Halloween Blizzard. My nearly 80 year old mother held out stubbornly for two nights wrapped in a sweater and a comforter flipping through magazines by candlelight. It took promises of hot cocoa, Captain America on DVD and the recliner. She's camping out here until her power is restored so we're making the best of it. And enjoying every bite! MOM'S APPLE CRANBERRY GINGER CAKE 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup olive oil 2 eggs 2/3 cup molasses 1/2 cup applesauce 1/4 cup whole berry cranberry sauce 2 1/2 cups cake flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground ginger 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves Dash salt 1/4 cup hot water Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 inch round (or square) pan using baking spray with flour. In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and oil. Beat in eggs, molasses, applesauce and cra...

Only one ingredient matters when making applesauce. Pick sweet apples like Gala Fuji, McIntosh or Honeycrisp – forget Granny Smith's. They make great pie but sour applesauce. Use at least two different varieties. I have McIntosh apples and Bartlett pears from our own trees so I add a pear or two instead of a second variety of apple to enhance taste. I didn't need to add any sugar. You can pick your own, or buy them at an orchard or grocery store. Here in western Massachusetts, the UMass Cold Spring Orchard  reasearch and education facility sells all kinds of apples. If you are buying your apples from a commercial orchard, ask for "seconds" or "drops". Apples with a bruise or odd shape make great sauce and cost less than perfect apples. Not all orchards sell "seconds", but they're a bargain when you can get them. A half bushel of apples will yield about 12 pints of sauce. Get the jars ready before you start cooking the apples. The dishwashe...

Paul peeled while I cooked and crushed about a half bushel of apples into apple sauce. Our first failure of this canning season happened when the apple jelly wouldn't gel. Four eight ounce jars of what has the consistency of maple syrup instead of toast ready jelly. We might try it on pancakes this weekend. The whole apple cooking and canning endeavor kept us busy for several hours and still, we've barely made a dent in the fruits of our harvest. As much as we've given away is replenished daily. I'll miss the bounty when it's gone but for now it's slightly overwhelming. All this talk about apples probably has you wondering what's up with the pizza picture. There was no time for flipping open The Silver Palate last night. It was pizza right out of the Almost Homemade cookbook instead. One of our local bakeries sells great dough for two bucks, add a jar of supermarket sauce, a handful of shredded mozzarella, crumbled goat cheese, a few fresh toppings from the ...