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Apple Grape Crisp

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Apple Grape Crisp: A new spin on an old classic.

A few years back, when making some pork chops, I came across a recipe on Google – goodness knows I can’t remember where it was from! – that had roasted red grapes along with the pork chops. Relatively high grape prices be damned, I got myself a bunch. I followed said recipe. I took a few bites and was impressed by the flavor profile! A roasted grape has very similar notes to a roasted or cooked apple.

A few weeks back, I wanted to make an apple pie – ’tis the season for Millennial women to do something with apples and / or pumpkins – but was too lazy to go out and get more apples. I thought adding some red grapes would be a great addition! Well…we didn’t have grapes in the fridge either – my mistake – so I made Adam go out and buy me some.

I win.

Though great in pie form, the mixture was a little too liquidy; I added cornstarch and cooked the mixture to allow it to thicken before adding to a pre-baked pie crust. Delicious, but still a wee bit too mushy at the bottom.

In comes the magical crisp! It gels a little thicker, and the crispy buttery top is to die for!

This dessert might be my new ace – in – the – hole.

FYI: Crisps are NOT easy to photograph or style, so I’m going “rustic”. HA!

Apple Grape Crisp

Ingredients:

Apple Grape Mix:
– 4 baking apples, peeled and sliced (I prefer Macintosh)
– 1 cup red seedless grapes, halved
– 1/2 cup sugar
– 2 teaspoons cinnamon

Crisp Topping:
– 1 cup rolled oats
– 1 tablespoon sugar
– 2 teaspoons cinnamon
– 4 tablespoons butter

Before We Get Started…

– My favorite trick, which I got from my father, is freezing butter and then shredded it with a box grater. This gives you an even amount of butter to spread throughout your crisp topping mixture. See here for an example!

Directions:

1.) Preheat oven to 400°F.

2.) Slice apples, halve grapes, and add to a large bowl. Add sugar and cinnamon and toss to combine evenly.

3.) In another bowl, combine oats, sugar, and cinnamon. Cut in butter with a fork or pastry cutter until butter is in fine even pieces; see Before We Get Started… for a tip on how to use grated frozen butter!

4.) Lightly grease a baking dish; I used a 12″ diameter ceramic dish. Add fruit filling. Cover evenly with crisp topping. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and try not to eat it all at once!

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Hey, y’all! I’m on BuzzFeed!

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Just wanted to post a lil’ note here: I’m currently featured in a BuzzFeed list: 21 Single-Serving Meals You Can Make In A College Kitchen!

My shakshuka has proven, once again, to be a recipe y’all like, and I couldn’t be happier! 💗💗💗💗

Be sure to check out the link, and thanks for the continued support! While I’ve been down on doing recipes – I’ve been busy all summer and currently moving on a 95°F day 😆 – I can’t wait to get into the groove again while I have a new large kitchen in my newest sublet. It’s the little things. Ha!

Hope you guys are having and awesome summer, and be sure to keep up on my ever-busy Instagram: seeksatiation ! ✌🏻

A Lovely April Update!

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I feel like a change is a’comin’.

I think it’ll be a good one!

Though my background in project management is limited, I know that projects have scopes, and, on occasion, those scopes can change during its course.

My original scope of Seek Satiation – both the blog and my Instagram feed – was to be strictly recipes I created. For the blog, that has been pretty consistent. For the Instagram, that has absolutely morphed. It has become an amalgamation of photos of my own recipes, recipes I’ve made for other outlets – heyyyy, Candace! – and photography of food PR events I’ve become involved with over the past few years.

Any blog owner wants their audience to continue to remain engaged. Though my single-serve shakshuka recipe still keeps my traffic consistent – bless that recipe, HA! – I still want interesting content for both my regular readers and people that stumble across this lil’ thing. One thing that shocks me is how often a friend will mention that they do like *insert recipe here* from this blog, or how they can’t wait for a new recipe to be posted! It’s humbling, but almost puts a modicum of pressure upon me to log onto WordPress with some fresh stuff! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: It is not easy to run a food blog on the side if you have a full-time 9 – 5 job like I do, and though some people can pay the bills with their food blogging, that ain’t happening with me. (Well, at least until food blogging can provide me with comprehensive health insurance, a 401k, and pension, AND a living wage! 😆) Instagram is seemingly easier to update with new non-recipe-related content…so…

I’m going to take a stab at adding occasional restaurant and product reviews here!

Astako Makaronada

Because I’m all about that Astako Makaronada from Voula NYC.

I took a poll on Instagram Stories – because I like to keep things as statistically correct as possible, clearly – and it seems like most of y’all would be amenable to this new content! YAY! 85% said “YASSS!” to new non-recipe content, and 69% said that restaurant content would be preferred over product content. I’d likely do both, but it’s good to know where the consensus lies.

Nothing I plan to post will be too outside of my own personal scope of what I do and don’t like – if Frito-Lay offered to pay off my student loans to review their newest type of Doritos, I’d sadly decline, though later kick myself for it – but I’m excited to see what new content I can share will y’all.

Boba Guys

And I also love a good bubble tea from Boba Guys!

I just hope you like it, and feedback is always welcomed!

Stay hungry!

Happy Thursday!

– Al

 

rosemary chocolate bark

Rosemary Chocolate Bark

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OKAY. Fourth chocolate recipe in a row! I’m even going to stop myself. Believe it or not, and much to my father’s chagrin, I’m not a huge sweets person. I’m not a huge chocolate fan, despite this blog’s seeming evidence to the contrary. If given the choice, I’d take a family-sized bag of Utz potato chips and a lifetime supply of Cabot Seriously Sharp Cheddar Cheese over a chocolate bar or a donut. Still, every December, a switch flips inside of me, and I become ravenous when it comes to sweets!

Luckily, as I type this, I’m eating a very Instagramable bowl of diced sweet potato, avocado drizzled with EVOO and garlic powder, and a 7 minute-boiled egg that is exhibiting mass amounts of #yolkporn.

img_8820

I can still keep myself balanced. Ha!

Yesterday, I met up with my friend Nicole; she’s a former co-worker that trudged deep through the silos and warehouses of infection control data along side with me…though she eventually left me to take a job at the city’s DOH. (RUDE.) After we had a lovely Sunday afternoon slurping Xiao Long Bao in St. Mark’s Place and drinking Thai iced bubble tea out of a plastic lightbulb at Spot Dessert Bar, we decided to take a spin through the Union Square Holiday Market before heading off on our respective ways. I have a love / hate relationship with NYC’s multiple holiday markets. The feeling of Christmas joy is almost tangible, but I’m also gripping my bottle of Xanax in my purse as I weave through the tight crowds. At one point, I had to pull over into a booth before I got too irritated, and I spotted some wonderful looking chocolate bars. As I know I’ve mentioned, I love something slightly spiced mixed with my chocolate, such as cinnamon or a mild curry. (SO good.) Before pulling back out to deal with the crowds again, a rosemary chocolate bar caught my eye. WOW! For the past 24 hours, I have been thinking about how I wish I bought it.

rosemary chocolate bark

Then I realized…hey! I could make it!

rosemary chocolate bark

If you know how to make a basic chocolate bark recipe, you can go innumerable directions with it.

rosemary chocolate bark

I’m glad I’m on vacation from work until January 3rd. It’s so nice to have time to develop recipes and do my photography during the week…while using precious natural light. Haaa.

rosemary chocolate bark

Rosemary Chocolate Bark
(Makes roughly 12 pieces, depending on how you choose to break it up!)

Ingredients:

– 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips; aim for 40% – 60% cacao.
– 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, finely chopped and divided into two 1 tablespoon portions
– 1 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt, divided into two 1/2 teaspoon portions
– 1 cup water

Before We Get Started…

– Do not substitute milk chocolate or unsweetened chocolate in this recipe.

– To make this recipe 100% vegan-friendly, make sure to use dairy-free chocolate.

– I have not done this recipe with dried rosemary, so I can not speak to if it will work.

– If you do not have a double-boiler to melt your chocolate, the glass bowl – over – the – saucepan method always works! Please follow this video from Real Simple for instructions.

Directions:

1.) Place a piece of parchment paper on a large baking sheet and set aside.

2a.) If using a double-boiler to melt the chocolate, add water to the lower portion and bring to a boil before reducing to a simmer. Place top portion of double-boiler into place. Add chocolate to top portion and slowly melt. Once chocolate has melted, stir in 1 tablespoon of rosemary and one 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir well to combine.

OR

2b.) If using a medium saucepan and heatproof bowl (Please see Before We Get Started…), add water to sauce pan and bring to a boil before reducing to a simmer. Place heatproof bowl on top of saucepan, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Add chocolate to bowl and slowly melt. Once chocolate has melted, stir in 1 tablespoon of rosemary and one 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir well to combine.

3.) Pour chocolate mixture onto parchment paper and spread until even. Sprinkle chocolate with remaining rosemary and salt.

4.) Set chocolate mixture into refrigerator for one hour to cool. Remove and break into pieces.

Chai-Infused Hot Cocoa [Single Serving]

Chai-Infused Hot Cocoa [Single Serving]

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Chai tea is a weakness of mine, and I really like going for the good stuff. Hey, I’ll admit it: I was an ardent lover of whatever Starbucks was slinging for years. Growing up in the sticks, I would always excitedly go to Starbucks whenever I visited my family in NYC just for their amazing chai. It was such a novelty for me! Then, as I got older, I saw what real chai tea was (thanks, in part, to the dearly departed Chaiwalla in Salisbury, CT, my Yelp review circa November 2010 still shining bright); while always good in a pinch, my love for mass-produced sugar-laden chai concentrates largely fell by the wayside. Brewing chai with black tea and aromatic spices, such as cinnamon, cloves, anise, black pepper, and cardamom, is so warm and satisfying. It’s far more guiltless as the amount of ingredients can be controlled. Less sugar? Plant-based milk? More cardamom? Experiment as you please!

I also love a good cup of hot cocoa. I love how I preached steering away from aforementioned chai concentrates in the preceding paragraph, yet I’m about to drop this gem: I LOVE DUNKIN’ DONUTS HOT COCOA. Good lord, that stuff is addictive! I occasionally throw caution to the wind. I think to myself, “Is it bad to consume Silicon Dioxide and Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate every so often? Is it?” Okay…well…yeah, it’s not. Ha! Regardless, it fills a hole in my soul every now and then. However, at the end of the day, I always try to eat recognizable ingredients; I often make my own cocoa at home, where the ingredients are merely milk, cocoa, sugar, homemade vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt. That I can recognize. I don’t recall where I got this recipe from, but I’ve been making it this way ever since I was in high school. It’s definitely tried and true!

Chai-Infused Hot Cocoa [Single Serving]

I love putting a hit of cinnamon into my cocoa every now and then, when I remember to grab a little before drinking it. The slightly sweet spice really brings out the richness of the cocoa. Then I started conjuring all of the flavors that border on sweet and savory that complement chocolate so well: curry, coconut, pepper, salt, et al. Why couldn’t a nice chai mix work well in cocoa?

Chai-Infused Hot Cocoa [Single Serving]

SOMEONE REMIND ME to repost a clearer shot of this photo one day…ha! 

I have often made my own chai mixes with individual spices and black tea, but I’m Sandra Lee-ing this recipe with some chai tea bags. Trust: It’ll make life easier. Be sure to check the ingredients! I found this Pure Leaf Chai Tea on sale at my local grocery store, and the ingredients are solid: black tea, cinnamon, ginger root, cardamom, chicory root, cloves, black pepper, and marigold petals.

Chai-Infused Hot Cocoa [Single Serving]

By the way, best mug ever right? RIGHT.

Enjoy your cocoa, friends.

Chai-Infused Hot Cocoa [Single Serving]
(Serves One, but of course!)

Ingredients:

– 8 – 10 ounces milk, dairy or non-dairy (milk amount depends on your mug size!)
– 2 tablespoons cocoa
– 1 – 2 tablespoons sugar or sweetener of choice, to taste
– 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
– Dash of salt
– 1 chai tea teabag (I used Pure Leaf)

Before We Get Started…

– Of course, it’s very easy to expand the proportions of ingredients to make this with multiple people! I have not tried; I’ve only developed this single serving recipe. If you have success making expanding the serving sizes of this recipe, please share in the comments!

Directions:

1.) Place a small saucepan over medium heat and add milk; bring to just below boiling, then whisk in cocoa until combined. Add sugar, vanilla, and salt and whisk to incorporate. Lower heat to low and add chai tea bag. Seep tea bag in milk for 3 minutes, then remove from heat. Allow tea bag to steep for an additional 3 – 5 minutes. Remove tea bag and pour cocoa into mug, preferably a cute one with some cheeky illustrations or phrases.

2.) Enjoy!

– – – –

NOTE: This post was not sponsored by Pure Leaf, but I’ve got to give them a shout out because their chai blend worked wonders for this recipe!