Sometimes, when a man and a woman meet and they love each other very, very much, they decide to have a baby. Sometimes the baby comes out of the Mommy’s tummy, and sometimes it comes out of both the Mommy’s and Daddy’s tummies.
Our baby is from both our tummies, and like all the very luckiest babies in the world, also comes from our hearts. She is a Love Child, the product of our passion for cooking and our pleasure with being in the kitchen together. We haven’t officially named her yet, but for now we call her Baby Book, or BB for short.
Some days, it seems that all we think about and all we talk about is little BB. How could such a tiny creature– not even two pounds!- take all our psychic energy? Some days, it isn’t just the “psychic” part of us she takes; she can do a number on our knees and back and sleep. Like those two days we re-did the recipe for bacon popcorn twelve times, or the Days of Marshmallow Hell: too sticky, then too fluffy, then too dense– until finally their Goldilocks moment arrived and they were just right. (Later, we marveled at all the ways in which marshmallow over-indulgence might compare to cocaine use).
Giving birth to a cookbook is not easy. (Right, or everyone would do it.) Writing a cookbook with your spouse is also not easy, but it is better than going it alone. Most of the time. The day he made me promise to make this brisket for our next holiday dinner was a good one, as was the morning he caught me putting his peach cake topping in my yogurt. Then there was the time I tasted his something and shook my head no and even though he knew it was ‘no’ he might have pouted a while; or when he didn’t say a word after tasting a spoonful of a certain sauce, and perhaps the confirmation made me sullen.
When these mistakes happen early in the day and you can run to the market yet again and start all over, and still hope to get it right on that very same day…well, then it is alright. But when you are on your fifth batch and it is 9 pm and you fantasize about how nice it would be to just put your feet up and play Candy Crush (and you wonder how it got to the point that playing Candy Crush was part of your fantasy life), then it is far less alright.
Sometimes the two of you concentrate very hard together on one dish and you will it in to something so right and balanced that it is like your kid just got 780s on his SATs. And then the next dish is a burst of pleasure, surprise and delight — like your teen writing a masterful, witty one-act play. Then there are the days you feed the kitchen garbage pail far too much for its own good and you ask yourselves where you went wrong.
In the dark of the night while the dogs gently snore in their beds next to yours, you whisper it aloud: what if you write it and no one cares? And the other one says, “That rack of lamb was really something”, and you smile and drift off to sleep.
We have not forsaken all other cooking and recipe development for BB. Take a look at this month’s Every Day with Rachael Ray, where a little pull-out “cookbook” in the front of the magazine is filled with recipes you’ll need in order to deal with all those Thanksgiving leftovers. Or check out more recipes we create together at Anolon.com
Here’s a little something I have been making without (and for) Ebo and our real, live human children for as long as I can remember. Make it once and you will never again need the recipe. Use any kind of apple you like– including mealy apples with good flavor but texture you could do without. Baking will right that wrong and transform the apples into a lovely autumn dessert.
Maple Walnut Baked Apple
These are wonderful right out of the oven, but may also be re-heated or eaten cold.
¼ cup walnuts, chopped
¼ cup oats
¼ cup maple syrup
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoon cold butter, cut in bits
4 apples
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8 x 8 baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Combine the nuts, oats, syrup, salt and cinnamon in a bowl.
3. Peel the top third of each apple. Using a melon baller or paring knife, cut out the core, taking care to leave a “floor” about ¼-inch thick. Spoon the nut mixture in the center of each apple; dot with butter and bake until apple is very tender, about 50 minutes. Serve with pan juices spooned over the apples.
Makes 4 servings
Nutrition for each serving: 290 calories, 2 g protein, 43 g carbohydrates, 5 g fiber, 14 g fat, 6 g saturated fat, 151 mg sodium
Birth of any kind is never easy. But yum Baked Apples!!!!
This looks like tonight!
I love baked apples and this looks like a great recipe to try! No doubt it would hate to have a scoop of ice cream plopped next to it.
Good luck with the cookbook project. I wrote my own little Ecookbook and know how much work went in to that so my thoughts and prayers are with you on a much bigger project’s success. If it’s as good as your blog your success is assured!
Delightful writing!