grape and ricotta latkes

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i’ve just returned from about 40 hours in new york and i feel like a blob that just ran a marathon. not that i would know what a marathon hangover feels like, but when you adjust to a stationary life in a driving town and then briefly return to your city lady semi-roots that are heavily influenced by a complete aversion to riding the subway so you spend a ton of your time walking and eating and walking some more, and because shoe shopping is not your favorite you do it all in terrible shoes that lack proper arch support, you feel a little hurty the next day. it’s ok! i got this new matchy katniss everdeen sweat suit that feels like a continuous hug so i think i’m going to be just fine!

most of my time was spent with the deeelightful humans at apartment therapy and the kitchn for their 10 under 40 maker talk! we built gingerbread houses (here’s the glittery one i built with gaby and 1/2 of sir kensington!) which was easily some of the most fun i’ve had collaboratively building an edible dwelling since sunday school when we made pretzel sukkahs. and then at night we had to give speeches in front of an audience and i did not barf on stage even though i was almost positive i would, therefore i consider the event a success. 

the rest of my time in the city was spent eating bagels with jonah hill (rather, splitting lox with donny and siobhan while we stalker stared across the room at the back of jonah’s head while he drank orange juice), hummus with 1/3 of my bridal party, condiments in the facebook cafeteria with talia, popcorn with lior at the beautiful food52 holiday popup, shakshuka focaccia with a side of triumph at breads (because do you know how many times i have been to breads looking for that shakshuka focaccia and they’ve been sold out???), and a kasha knish from yonah. 

now i am back just in time for the last few nights of hanukkah, so i’m squeezing in one more latke for you! it’s nothing too crazy, just a simple twist on a classic. it’s the same combination of crispy/salty/sweet/creamy elements that you get with the traditional sour cream and apple sauce latke, but i’ve subbed out sour cream for ricotta and apple sauce for grape jam to give you another way to keep the eight nights of latkes exciting.

grape and ricotta latkes

1. make a batch of ex-boyfriend latkes

2. top them with a healthy plop of ricotta and a sprinkle of salt

3. make a divot in the ricotta to hold the jam

4. fill the divot with grape jam (i'm loving this ancho chile grape jam!)

5. enjoy!

-yeh!

thank you so much to grapes from california for sponsoring this post!

peanut butter and grape galette

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haiiiiiii!!! did you all have a nice fourth of july???

i did. i cleaned, and did yoga, and substituted coconut oil for canola oil in challah (which turned out to be surprisingly super gross, but i'm doing yoga now so i'm *letting it go*). and then when it finally started to get dark out, which is so obnoxiously past my bedtime up here in winterfell, we went over to emily's house and mingled in the presence fireworks and live smooth rock from the town square down the road. it was great! side note: emily is getting married in five days and she's still hosting parties and taking down potato chips with generic brand french onion dip like a champ. so much admiration. 

in other news: mum is coming for a visit this week! yayayayay! she's going to help me with emily's wedding cakes and we'll probably eat at the blue moose and maybe even take a day trip to bemidji. i'm so excited. every time she visits though i have to get all of the peanut butter out of sight because she's allergic. i make eggboy convert to almond butter for the two days preceding her arrival, (sweat out any remaining peanut residue that might be left in his pores... jk, but srsly), and then bury all the jars in the back of some cabinet or try and use it all up in some baked goods to give away.

so i made a galette over the weekend when my coconut oil challah failed me!

it's a fancy pb + j sandwich. it's the easiest thing in the world. and it's the best warm out of the oven with a big dollop of yogurt or whipped cream. 

so if you have a bunch of grapes that are about to go bad, a peanut-allergic mum who is about to come to town, and/or a hankering to bake something simple yet satisfying, then this is a recipe for you. get to it!

peanut butter and grape galette

makes one galette

ingredients

1/2 c creamy peanut butter*

2 tb honey

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 lb pie crust

12 oz california grapes, halved

1 egg yolk, lightly beaten

1 tsp sugar

a pinch of flaky salt

*i use all-natural pb that's unsweetened and lightly salted. if you're using unsalted, i'd recommend adding a pinch of salt to the peanut butter mixture.

powdered sugar and yogurt or whipped cream, for serving

clues

preheat your oven to 400f. 

mix together the peanut butter, honey, and vanilla extract. roll out your pie dough on a piece of parchment or silpat and then spread on the peanut butter mixture, leaving about a 1-inch border around the edge of the crust. lay down the grapes in an even layer, leaving about a 1-inch border around the edge of the peanut butter (so you have three concentric circles), and then fold up the edges of the crust around the grapes.

brush the crust with the egg yolk and then sprinkle the entire galette with the sugar and a pinch of salt.

bake until the crust is golden brown. begin checking for doneness at 25 minutes. finish with a sprinkle of powdered sugar and serve with yogurt or whipped cream. 

-enjoy!

-yeh!

thank you so much to grapes from california for sponsoring this post!

grape + ricotta focaccia

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it's becoming easier and easier to wake up before the sun and i love it so very much. especially now that i have a fluffy robe because waking up before the sun and then being cold is the worst. but waking up before the sun, wrapping myself up in my robe, and then shuffling out to the kitchen to latch my arms around eggboy while he pours berries into an overflowing pot of steel-cut oats is my favorite way to wake up these days*.

*(these freakishly crazy days that begin with frost on the ground and end with piles of leftovers and more dishes than will fit in our dishwasher.) 

so it's good freakishly crazy.

good freakishly crazy.

i cooked venison for my new friend sam last night. well, correction: i coated venison loin with grey salt and smoked cinnamon, seared it a bit, took a shot of whiskey, and then had him help me with the rest, because the rest is what scares me. we finished it in the oven, drizzled it with its juices, hit it with more cinnamon, and then ate it with lefse and egg mama's tater tot hot dish. a table full of eggs and a wonderful crew from the times, eating supper in our little farm house (!!!!), i wanted to capture the moment and put it in a snow globe.

so this weekend, after last week in new york and this week working with sam and his crew, life goes back to wedding planning and cake making and treadmilling in front of cupcake wars. soon there will be snow on the ground and one night i'll catch up on homeland, but i guess today is halloween so tonight is not that night.

here's some focaccia that's inspired by emiko's schiacciata all'uva, anne's perfect basic focaccia, and a gorgeous ricotta squash loaf from izy's book. i've been loving using grapes in places where i'd otherwise put tomatoes-- pizza, savory crepes, and anything with ricotta. the grapes make this focaccia a perfect morning time bread. it's soft, sweet, and cozy, just like my fluffy robe.

grape + ricotta focaccia

makes one large loaf

ingredients

1 3/4 c warm water

1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) yeast

3 tb sugar

5 c flour

1 tb kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling

1 c olive oil

1 1/2 c california grapes

3/4 c ricotta

clues

combine water, yeast, and 1 tablespoon of sugar in a small bowl and let it proof. 

in a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, combine flour and salt. add 1/2 cup of olive oil and the yeast mixer to form a dough. knead for 7-10 minutes until it is no longer sticky, adding more flour as needed.

transfer to an oiled bowl, cover with a damp towel, and let it rise until doubled in size, 1-2 hours.

pour most of the remaining oil into a 9-inch by 13-inch casserole dish, reserving a few tablespoons for drizzling on top of the dough. divide the dough in half and press one half into the dish to cover the bottom. sprinkle the top with 1 cup of grapes and the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. flatten out the remaining half of the dough and place it on top, sealing in the grapes. scatter the remaining 1/2 cup of grapes on top of the dough, and dollop spoonfuls of ricotta on top as well. sprinkle with salt and remaining olive oil.

let rest for another hour. preheat oven to 425. bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown. slice into squares, spread with more ricotta if desired, and enjoy!

 

-yeh!

p.s. no friday links this week :( but major internet hugs to freya for having me be part of her "one day" series, and lynn and ashley for putting together this epic halloween post in which i am a drunk cartoon. also steph and lindsay did a tortoro week this week that is so beyond.

this post is sponsored by grapes from california. all opinions are my own!

grape crepes with brie and bacon

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sugar beet harvest starts at midnight tomorrow, my pops gets in tonight for a quick little visit, and we have just passed the three month mark until our wedding!! here is what this calm before the storm looks like:

a very very large pile of laundry, removed from the bed in our guest room and plopped somewhere else, so my dad can sleep there.

lots of wedding post-it notes taped above my desk that read things like "sprinkles, [personalized] egg cups (?), local whiskey"

 the most delicious wash of cloudy light falling so perfectly into the kitchen on our newly swept floors interrupted only by the tick of the toaster (because there actually is a literal storm coming...)

all of these storms are going to be great storms.

mark my word, i am quite excited for sugar beet harvest this year. last year was unfathomably crazy because it was my first one, i was working hours that were completely opposite of eggboy's, and some of the fields were wayyy far away. like canada far away. but now i'm a seasoned vet, and the fields with the beets are just down the road, so if i want to bring eggboy some pumpkin loaf or go say hello, i can do that easy peasy. and as for the wedding, lots of the big decisions have been made, so now i'm working on really fun things like: what color sprinkles should we have our guests chuck at us as we recess down the aisle? and would my bridesmen like whiskey or gin in their welcome basket? and are shoes with panda faces on them at all ok to get married in???

and obvi can't wait for my pops to get here! we're gonna book it to the one n only and i'll probably make him go on a tractor ride and take a bite out of a sugar beet. weeeee!!!!!

so this all calls for cake! of the pan variety. but make it dainty, so: crepe. and because whenever i ask eggboy what i should make next, he responds with a rhyme (see: saskatoon macaroon), let's make a grape crepe.

these crepes are salty, sweet, bacon fatty, and earthy. they're gooey, crispy, fluffy, and bursty (or whatever the texture of grapes is). and they contain all of the major food groups except for vegetables. you could throw a caramelized onion in there though, that would be good. you know what else would be good would be to infuse the milk with rosemary or something cool like that before adding it to the batter.

grape crepes with brie and bacon

makes 6

ingredients

12 strips thick cut bacon

1 c flour

2 tb sugar

3/4 c milk or buttermilk

1/2 c water

2 large eggs

butter

6 oz brie, thinly sliced

1 1/2 c california grapes, halved

clues

crisp up your bacon and reserve the fat. set the bacon aside while you make the crepe batter.

let the fat cool slightly, measure out 3 tablespoons of it, and whisk it with the, flour, sugar, buttermilk, water, and eggs. you could also do this in a blender. cover the batter and refrigerate for 1 hour.

heat some butter in a skillet over medium high heat. add 1/2 cup of the batter and tilt the pan so that you get a large even circle. cook for a few minutes until the top is set. place brie, 2 slices of bacon, and 1/4 cup of grapes in the center, cook for a minute or two so that the brie starts to melt, and then fold the two sides of the crepe in towards the center. serve immediately or keep it in the oven (set on warm) until ready to serve.

repeat with remaining batter, adding more butter to the pan as needed, and enjoy!

-yeh!!!

this post is sponsored by grapes from california. all opinions are my own! brie provided by president, linens provided by stitch new york.