My Momma’s Apple Pie

I promised I’d post some recipes this weekend – so here we go!

First off I have to credit this recipe to the Pillsbury Kitchens’ Family Cookbook published in 1979! My mom has all her own recipes kept in a little box in the kitchen (which is what I use as I am still starting out) but this one was credited to another book. This is the most battered and used cookbook I’ve ever seen, but it reminds me of home. My mother got it as a wedding shower gift back in 1982 and she uses it at least once a week.

8″ Apple Pie

Double-crust pastry (I bought mine :X but my mom always makes her own)

5 cups peeled and sliced apples (about 7 apples)

2/3 cup sugar

2 Tbsp. flour

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Dash of salt

1 Tbsp. butter

Start by preheating the oven to 425 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine the apples, sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt and toss lightly to mix. Turn the mixture into the lined pie pan. Cut up your butter into little squares and place randomly on top of the apples. Add the top pie crust, seal and flute edges. Make sure to cut slits for the steam to escape. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until juices start to bubble through the slits.

Enjoy! xox

The UMass pastry chef is my new favorite man

I was pleasantly surprised last Wednesday when my friend texted me to come to an event the Food & Beverage club was putting on. She told me the UMass pastry chef was making a presentation. I was already in my pj’s waiting for the new episode of Top Chef to come on, but I knew I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to hear about food! (I also was convinced there would be some free samples.)

Ten minutes into the presentation, I was convinced I will now someday go to culinary school. Let me tell you, this was the most inspiring man I have ever heard speak. He actually brought me to tears as he talked about how proud he was to wear his chef coat and how he irons it every morning. Now that’s love.

 

Pumpkin Cupcakes

It’s official – I have a love affair with cupcakes. I came home from school this weekend, and of course, had to bake something sweet! So in honor of fall and my roommates 21st birthday, I made Pumpkin Cupcakes! If you follow my blog you may know this is a big deal because with the name “RosieCakes” you’d think I’d make a lot of “cake” but this is technically my first!

There really isn’t a story behind this recipe. I was planning on making my mom’s pumpkin bars recipe but came home from a busy day out to find 2 eggs in the fridge instead of 4. So of course I resulted to Pinterest and found me a pumpkin recipe that required only 2 eggs! Success! And here it is, with all the credit given to Life With Cake.

Makes: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups flour

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/2 cup softened butter

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup canned pumpkin

3/4 cup buttermilk

3/4 chopped walnuts or pecans (I used walnuts)

Preheat oven to 375 F

Sift together flour, baking power, soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. In a separate bowl blend butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and pumpkin. Alternate stirring in the sifted ingredients and the buttermilk, blending until smooth. Stir in the nuts.

**I measured out whole walnuts into a plastic bag and lightly pounded them so they became smaller but not completely dusty.

Fill lined muffin tins 2/3 full and bake for 25 minutes.

Once all the cupcakes are cooled, you get to FROST! I probably ate 2 cups worth of frosting today from all the times I caught myself licking my fingers (is that sanitary?). For the cream cheese frosting I used my mom’s recipe.

8 oz. cream cheese (the kind that comes in a block)

3 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 Tbsp. softened butter

Blend all ingredients together in a medium bowl.

This recipe made A LOT of frosting, which is great for dipping in your fingers and lathering it on the cupcakes, but it also allowed me to play :) After frosting all the cakes I decided to experiment a little, since this is my first time frosting stuff. First I wrote my roomie’s initials:

Then I made a cookie monster with frosting from the tube (not as delicious as the cream cheese frosting though):

Then my mom mentioned I should make them into little pumpkins, which I guess was pretty obvious considering they’re are pumpkin cupcakes! These are my favorite!

I had so much fun baking and decorating all afternoon – I hope you try this recipe out and enjoy a nice fall day!

xoxo Rosie

Fitzwilly’s; Northampton, MA

From Fitzwillys.com

Last weekend I went on a little “date night” to Fitzwilly’s in Northampton, MA. We wanted to get out of Amherst and my mom recommended this place where she and my dad used to go, so we figured why not? We pulled up at 8 and the place was packed, but luckily there were only two of us so we sat immediately. The restaurant was neat inside and to me felt like a maze. The hostess sat us in a hallway on the second floor filled with tables of two, which Jeff and I called the “date section” because it was all couples sharing plates of spaghetti (kidding). The one thing I was a little apprehensive about was that the bars that sided the railing next to me had a lot of room for things to fall. Me, being a klutz, had to make sure I kept my knife and drink were on the opposite side of the table because really, what would I have done if I had dropped those on someone below!

The menu was huge and one of the hardest decisions was deciding not to get Chef Willy’s Nachos, because honestly, I’d rather get dessert, and theres no way I’m eating three courses. The waitress had to come over three times before I decided on the Grilled Salmon Citrus Salad and he on a Bacon Cheeseburger, which was lated dubbed as “the best burger I swear I’ve ever had in my entire life”. A salad for me was shocking because I’m usually all about the french fries but I was trying to be healthy since my body hadn’t had a workout in the first two weeks back at school.

The food luckily came quickly because we had both been fasting since lunchtime. My salad was the perfect size, consisting of greens, apples, oranges, craisens, fennel, wontons and a perfect vinaigrette. Everything on our plates was devoured in minutes and was absolutely delicious!

The night ended with a stroll around downtown Northampton, a pit-stop in Urban Outfitters, being attacked by a group of 8-year-olds throwing rocks at us me (that was really fun), and of course, ice cream (with hot fudge).

In case you decided to keep reading this far, as you could probably tell this was my first “restaurant review”. I’ll get better as I continue. I promise.