Fall Dinner Party

Happy Monday! It's hailing here in NYC this morning but I have a giant coffee and some scrambled eggs with toast to keep me company while getting through this gloomy morning. This past weekend, in addition to indulging during the Giants and Jets game, Shaun and I hosted our first official dinner party in our new abode! With lots of help from my mom, we decked the place out with fall flair in preparation for the party. Oh and did I mention that the food was abundant and delicious to boot?

This week I'll be wrapping up some specifics for you, but today let's start with the menu. My mom and I wanted a sort of Americana theme so we dished up some comfort classics. Here's the breakdown:

Hors d’Oeuvres
Shrimp Cocktail
Buffalo Chicken Dip (Shaun’s specialty)
Cheese Board
Smoked Salmon with cream cheese & capers (more on that here)

Dinner
Mixed Greens with Beets & Pomegranates
Pulled Pork & Shredded Turkey
Macaroni & Cheese
Stuffed Peppers

Dessert
Maple Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Apple Pie
Molten Chocolate Cake
Chocolate Chip Cookies

If it seems like a lot, well...it was! Needless to say that with all of this delicious food, Shaun and I are sittin' pretty with lots of leftovers to get us through the week. In fact, yesterday was so full of lounging, recovering and eating that my breakfast consisted of a cupcake and a healthy dose of Teavana's Earl Grey Creme.

Is there anything more comforting on a lazy Sunday morning while catching up on Barefoot Contessa eps? Anyhow, for today's tidbit, I'm showing you how to pull together a quick and easy cheese board. I simply picked up a few of my favorite cheeses, including Blue, Aged Cheddar, Garlic and Herb Goat, and a giant wheel of Brie. I spread them out on a large cutting board and created tiny flag labels out of scrapbook paper, toothpicks and tape so that all the guests would know exactly which variety of cheese they were about to get down with. 

I also included a small bowl of honey which is absolute heaven when drizzled on a wedge of blue cheese atop a multigrain cracker. The sweet and savory combination is to die for! I could eat this all day every day...and sometimes do. I served a plate of crackers and melba toast to complement the cheese and the smoked salmon platter. Any cracker of your choice will do!

So there you have it. A sneak peek into our first dinner party in our new home. Stay tuned for more recipe roundups this week. So what I want to know is: What is your favorite hors d'oeuvres? Is it a creamy dip? A basic cheeseboard? Dish in the comments!

Getting in the Holiday Spirit

The Halloween holiday spirit, that is. Today I'm happy to report that my Dexter cupcakes went all Halloween today as they are featured on City's Best - New York City as one of their Top 7 Killer Cupcakes for the upcoming Halloween holiday! Check it out, along with some other yum-inducing Halloween cupcake ideas from around the city that I will surely be pulling from for the party at my sister Kimberly's place this weekend.

Meanwhile, I mentioned that Shaun and I have been getting in the spirit since this past weekend. While I baked up some goodies to share with all of you later this week, Shaun whipped up this little beauty of a jack-o-lantern to deck out our living room:

 

I know, it's amazing. He is really the creative and artistic one in the family! Since I can't let anything go to waste, and I'd always wanted to try them, I dug out the pumpkin seeds from the innards of our jack-o-lantern and was determined to get my roast on with these little guys. After carefully plucking, rinsing, rinsing again and roasting, I have to admit...I don't really get what the big hullabaloo is over pumpkin seeds. They seemed like a lot of work for little reward. I roasted half with only olive oil and kosher salt and the other half with olive oil and pumpkin pie spice (typically the cure-all for anything!). My feelings after completion? They were just eh. Does anyong else feel this way?

 

Oh, and remember how I was telling you yesterday that Shaun made a delicious dinner on Monday night so that I could get my butt to the gym? Well I did remember to snap a pic of this delicious meal, and one of my favorite comfort food dinners - grilled cheese and tomato soup!

I realized that this could be great Halloween fare as well, since the tomato soup is orangey red (and those are homemade croutons people, crafted by a one Shaun Humiston) while the grilled cheese just oozes bright yellowy-orange. In fact, the grilled cheese could even be cut into smaller, bit size pieces - perfect as party finger food, while the soup could be put into tiny cups for a warming sip of soup for guests!

And last on the agenda for today is a photo I came across while sorting through my picture library on Sunday ( I swear, one of these days I will organize my photos and then my life will be complete!). It's one of my first Halloween costumes - Raggedy Ann!

The costume actually spawned from a life size Raggedy Ann doll and was born when my mom realized that the dress on the doll actually fit me too! Add a sweet wig and I was on my way. I'm not sure what age I am here...Mom?

So there you have it, a little roundup of what's been going down at the Humiston household to prep for Halloween and get ourselves in the spirit. So what about you? Have you been decorating? Gravitating towards orange and red foods, as we have? And bonus question: what were you for Halloween as a child? Any fun costumes?

Two Girls, Two Guys, Four Pies - The Finale

Today we're wrapping up our Two Girls, Two Guys, Four Pies series with some apple pie superlatives and finally getting the guys' points of views on this little experiment of ours where we turned these gorgeous, juicy apples...

Into a full blown table of autumnal awesomeness...

Along with my friend Lindsey (this whole 1950's style playdate was here idea in fact), we baked up four pies, each of which using different ingredients and techniques. Our mission? To finally put to bed what makes a great apple pie.

And since our own opinions just weren't enough, we also roped our significant others into this experiment and charged them with participating in a blind taste test of all four pies. Somehow, I don't think they minded.

Shaun is no stranger to the taste test. He is and has always been my ultimate recipe tester and diligently gives me feedback whenever I request it. Coming home from work to a plate full of pie and an apartment smelling of apples wasn't too shabby either. And since he's typically not a dessert lover, I pracitically jumped for joy when I saw him breaking out a pen and paper to take notes on each pie. I call him the 'Alton Brown' of the family.

So let's get down to what you've been waiting for, shall we?

Best Crust
Rachel: Grandma Mary (#3) with special shoutout to Grandma Ople (#4) I made it myself after all!
Lindsey: Grandma Mary (#3) with special shoutout to Grandma Ople (#4)
Shaun: Grandma Mary (#3) with special shoutout to Grandma Ople (#4) I love the carmelization!
Eric: Grandma Mary (#3)

 

Best Filling
Rachel: Tie between Grandma Mary (#3) and The Joy of Cooking (#2)
Lindsey: The Joy of Cooking (#2) Maceration was the unexpected trick to performance balanced apples!
Shaun: The Joy of Cooking (#2)
Eric: Grandma Mary (#3)

Best on Day After
Rachel: Grandma Mary (#3) It was just as perfect as Day 1!
Lindsey: I didn’t have any more pie after that first day!
Shaun: Grandma Mary (#3)
Eric: Grandma Mary (#3) The apples weren't too syrupy and the crust held!

Best Overall
Rachel: Grandma Mary (#3) It's really hard to not be biased, but it was darn good!
Lindsey: Do I have to choose? I just love pie! But I love the way #4 cooked...especially the crispy top!
Shaun: Grandma Mary (#3) But maybe with #2’s filling
Eric: Grandma Mary (#3)

So while we all had varying takes on different aspects of the pies, there are a few things that Lindsey and I took away from this:

• Most importantly, baking pies all day would be the best, most fun job in the entire world, especially if we could do it together! That and making jams and soaps.

• Macerating apples seems to be a very important step in creating the perfect pie filling. Though Pie #3 was the most appley of the bunch, Pie #2 (the macerated version) had the perfect amount of sweetness, tartness, and texture of all the pies.
• In addition to the right technique, the right apples are key! You don't want a pile of sweet mush (not in this case, anyway). Tart apples are best for baking! We used a random mixture of Cortland, Macintosh and Spencer and we thought they were tops!

• Though we debated on the value of the homemade crust up until that very morning - is it really necessary? We've heard good things about Pillsbury premade crust! Do people really want to spend the time to make their own crust? Will it make that much of a difference? - we came to the conclusion that for proper research we must be able to taste both. And we were psyched that we did. Our final stance on the to-crust or not-to-crust issue? Making your own is completely worth the time. However, if you cannot make it, be it a time or pure intimidation issue, the refrigerated, premade kind is completely fine and was still extremely delicious. Just not as delicious as the real deal. And my tip on making your own crust? Just follow the instructions and do it slowly and carefully! Like many things on this blog, if I can do it, so can you!

To sum it up, we all had varying opinions on different parts of the pie, and the bottom line is that I think a few things could be combined to make one super pie! I can't wait to try my grandmother's homemade crust with macerated apple filling and a lattice top that's carmelized with a buttery sugar mixture. It could be like a super pie! And of course, I'll document the entire thing if you want to follow along.

So there you have it. Our lengthy roundup of 4 amazingly delicious pies. And the truth of the matter? You can't really go wrong with any of them, since as we tasted each one, one was just a bit more delicious than the next. As Shaun said, The barbershop couldn't split hairs this thin!

If I had to recommend the best for ease of use? I'd say go with Pie #2. To get a little more fancy but still use the premade crust, I recommend #4.

Now I want to know, what's your favorite apple pie recipe? Have you ever made a recipe over and over in different ways to try and get it right?

And our bonus question is...what should be next in the Two Girls, Two Guys series?

Psst...want to see the Two Girls, Two Guys, Four Pies series from the beginning? Check out Part I, Part II and Part III!