Sasha's Kitchen: Fall Apple Salad with Maple Vinaigrette

I love apples in the fall, and Honeycrisp - the crispest, tart apples out there, are my favorite variety. This salad is quite simple and really nothing more than throwing together a few of my favorite fall ingredients.  My favorite apple salad is still this one with the caramelized apples and spicy orange or tangerine vinaigrette, but this salad is much easier to make in a pinch. 

I have a bunch of exciting recipes on tap for this weekend and next week, including a new tuna dish, several new squash recipes, new cupcakes, and pumpkin ice cream using my new ice cream maker. So stay tuned!

Sasha's Fall Apple Salad with Maple Vinaigrette

Mixed organic greens

2 Honeycrisp apples, peeled and diced

Crumbled goat cheese

Dried Cranberries

Slivered almonds

1/2 cup Canola Oil or Olive Oil

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

3 T Vermont maple syrup

pepper to taste

Preparing this recipe is really simple. Saute the apples in canola oil to soften for about five minutes (don't use any sugar). Combine with the other salad ingredients. Make the vinaigrette by shaking the Canola oil, balsamic vinegar, Vermont maple syrup and a bit of pepper to taste.

Sasha's Kitchen: Fall Apple Salad with Maple Vinaigrette

Sasha's Kitchen: Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Maple Buttercream

I've been waiting to make pumpkin whoopie pies ever since I picked up my copy of Sarah Billingsley and Amy Treadwell's Whoopie Pies. Like summer, fall is such a great time for cooking and baking but in totally different ways. My two favorite ingredients for fall are New York State apples and pumpkins. I make a mean oatmeal-pumpkin chocolate chip cookie that I can't wait to share with you, and tomorrow night I am trying out a new apple parsnip soup using some of those famous New York fall apples.  But tonight is all about the whoopie pies that I made yesterday which feature two ingredients that go so well - pumpkins and Vermont maple syrup that I bought over the summer when we were in Vermont.  The combination was spot-on, and just ad good as all of the other Whoopie Pie recipes that I tried from the book. I improvised a bit on the frosting, and it was still delicious, just a bit more maple-flavored than the original recipe called for.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies With Maple Buttercream (from Whoopie Pies)
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 (1 stick) cup of unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Maple Buttercream
1 stick of unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
3 tablespoons of heavy cream
2 tablespoons Vermont maple syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

To prepare the whoopies, combine the fry ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Beat the butter and brown sugar for a few minutes on medium high using a stand mixer. Add the pumpkin, then the egg, beating well. Add the vanilla and beat until combined.   Add the flour mixture until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl.

Preheat the oven to 350. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a tablespoon, drop one heaping tablespoon for each whoopie, a couple inches apart. Bake each sheet, one at a time, for about 15 minutes.  Allow to cool completely.

Beat the ingredients for the maple buttercream on high speed with the stand mixer.  Place a large dollop of the buttercream between two whoopie cookies to make the whoopie pie.

These whoopies were delicious and perfect for fall. They had just the right combination of pumpkin and spices, while the maple was a stellar combination. If you want an even stronger maple flavor, you can use some maple extract.

Sasha's Kitchen: Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Maple Buttercream

Sasha's Kitchen: Chipotle-Horseradish-Maple Syrup Glazed Veal Chops

Tonight's dinner was a simple meal that was quite enjoyable.  I much prefer the taste of veal to chicken, which is generally my least favorite meat.  However, veal chops can be expensive and often dissapointing because they are usually too fatty and require quite a bit of work to get to the meat around the bone in the chop.  Tonight, I was able to prepare an excellent veal entree using boneless veal chops that I purchased online from Fresh Direct.  Most of the meats I have ordered from Fresh Direct over the years have been high quality and reasonably priced.  Thus, this is an excellent source of meat in the New York area.

Tonight's veal recipe was inspired by one of my favorite Food Network chefs, Bobby Flay from his Mesa Grill Cookbook.  However, I modified the recipe by adding the smokiness of chipotle.

Marinade:

1/2 cup maple syrup
2 T dijon mustard
2 T gold's horseradish
2 tsp chipotle
1 T ancho chile powder

Coat four veal chops in oil, salt and pepper. Grill the chops on medium-high on a grill pan for about five minutes (adjusting the time depending on the size of the veal chops).  Turn over the veal chops and reduce the heat to medium for seven to nine minutes, covering the chops with an aluminim foil tent.   Glaze the veal chops with the marinade about three minutes before they are done cooking, using a pastry brush. Voila, an easy and delicious veal dish! This is a great dish to make if like me, you had a long day but still want to cook, yet don't have hours to spend preparing the perfect meal.

Sasha's Kitchen: Chipotle-Horseradish-Maple Syrup Glazed Veal Chops