Autumn Meal @ Rochelle's

"Bread is the king of the table and all else is merely the court that surrounds the king. The countries are the soup, the meat, the vegetables, the salad but bread is king."
Louis Bromfield, American novelist (1896-1956)

the view from brad and rochelle's porch.

I love to cook...and I love to eat. I'm not sure which one I like better - they're tied. Everyone {impressed, ahem} is always asking me how I learned my way around the kitchen. Well, there are a select few to thank for that: my parents- who both love to cook, Mary Schmeltzer, and Rochelle. I'd love to expand on the knowledge I've gotten from my parents and Mary, but today we'll just focus on Ro - afterall, she's the one who cooked me dinner last night. We started with homemade chips and the most epic roasted onion dip. Then, fresh out of the oven, was some homemade bread! BAH! BREAD! MY FAVORITE! It didn't need anything - but I still dipped a few hunks of it into olive oil...and the onion dip!

There is nothing better than homemade bread...
I repeat, there is nothing better than homemade bread.

MmMmMm Roast Chicken...

For dinner we had a chicken that was roasted with lemon, garlic and thyme, along with Cauliflower and Fennel. MmMmMm. She did a white wine gravy. And just when I thought that I was so stuffed and couldn't fit in another mouthful - the Rustic Apple Crostata with a Cheddar Crust came out of the oven!


The recipe came from a Martha Stewart recipe, so after scouring the WWW I found this one, and I'm pretty sure it's spot on....

Apple Crostata with Cheddar Crust

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart
Total time: 2 hours 45 minutes
Makes 1 11 inch crostata

Cheddar Pie Dough
1 1/4 cups flour
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/5th cup ice water
1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Crust
1 disk Cheddar Pie Dough
Flour, for surface
1 large egg, lightly beaten for egg wash
Filling
2 tart apples plus 2 McIntosh apples, peeled, cored, seeded, and sliced into wedges
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnomon
1/4 cup warmed apricot preserves

Directions for Cheddar Pie Dough

1) Pulse flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a food processor until combined. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal (10 seconds). Drizzle the water evenly over the mixture.
2) Pulse until mixture just begins to hold together (dough shouldn’t be wet or sticky). If dough is too dry, add more water. Add cheese and pulse until combined.
3) Shape dough into a disk; wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until chilled, 30-45 minutes.

Directions

1) Make the crust: Roll out the dough to a 13-inch round (about 1/8th inch thick) on a lightly floured service. Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
2) Make the filling: Toss together the sugar, apples, sugar, flour, lemon juice, and cinnamon.
3) Spread the filling over the dough, leaving a 1 1/2 inch border. Fold the edges to form a crust and then brush with the egg wash. Refrigerate until edges are firm, 30 minutes.
4) Preheat the oven to 375.
5) Bake the crostata until the apples are tender and the crust is golden, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let cool and then brush with apricot preserves. * I added the preserves into the filling before it was baked.

I'm going to make this for Thanksgiving, but I'm going to use whole wheat flour and spelt flour instead of the white, and instead of using the 1/2 cup sugar I'm going to use a 1/3 cup of agave nectar :)