I chose a recipe from Simply Recipes because it called for ground almonds and I had half a bag sitting in my cupboard. Overall, it was easy to prepare, but I had to make the caramel topping twice. I didn’t let the first batch boil long enough on the stove and the sugar didn’t dissolve, so I let the second batch boil for the full recommended four minutes.

The pineapple slices fit just right in the pan.

And after pouring in the batter and baking for an hour and 15 minutes, the cake released from the pan the moment I flipped it over. It was a bit off center, but I was too terrified to move it.

This is what victory looks like:

It started with a grapefruit sliced in half.

But I needed to place the grapefruit in a pan that was safe for broiling. See this glass pan? While pretty, it’s not the best for broiling. And by “not the best,” I mean it could explode in the oven under the extreme heat. (I remembered this important fact as I took the photo below.)A quick switch to a metal pan and all was right again. I ran a paring knife around the edge of the grapefruit flesh and between every segment to loosen things up.

I drizzled each half with melted butter, sprinkled with brown sugar, cinnamon, and ground ginger, and broiled for about seven minutes. The result: A warm, satisfying breakfast in a city covered in snow.

Broiled Grapefruit

• 1 cold grapefruit, right out of the refrigerator
• 1 tbs. butter, melted
• 1 tbs. brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger

1. Pre-heat the broiler.

2. Cut the grapefruit in half crosswise and place in a broiler-safe pan with the cut side up. If the grapefruit won’t stay upright, slice a small portion off the bottom. Run a paring knife around the edges of each grapefruit half and between each segment. This will make it easier to eat once cooked.

3. Drizzle each half with butter and sprinkle with brown sugar, cinnamon, and ground ginger. (Feel free to add more to your taste.)

4. Broil for 6-7 minutes, or until the sugar begins to caramelize. Let cool for 2-3 minutes and serve.

As I sprawled on the couch and watched back-to-back episodes of Sherlock on Netflix streaming—spoon in one hand, sorbet in the other—I wondered how I could make my very own blood orange sorbet or similar frozen treat. It couldn’t be that difficult. A little fruit juice, sugar, and time seemed like the three main components, and I had plenty of all three.

I looked through my cookbooks and searched the web for a guide, but I encountered a roadblock with almost every recipe I found: I don’t own an ice cream maker. With limited cupboard space, how many apartment dwellers have room for one? (Sure, I have a waffle maker and salad spinner, but I count those among my practical kitchen tools.) The recipes that didn’t call for an ice cream maker instructed me to stir the sorbet every thirty minutes or so to make sure it didn’t freeze solid. All warned of large ice crystals forming if I didn’t get it right, and none of them promised the smooth, airy results I’d get if I’d just sacrifice some additional shelf space.

So rather than seek out a way to create a smooth sorbet, I went in the opposite direction. I decided to make a granita, which is a semi-frozen dessert that’s akin to a chunky Italian ice. I just needed to combine juice, simple syrup, and a splash of liquor to keep it from freezing all the way. A quick stir with a fork every half hour would create the texture I needed, and if I forgot a stirring appointment, it wouldn’t doom the whole dessert.

Once I recovered from my sickness, I went to the store and picked up a whole bunch of blood oranges to juice. I also wanted to give the granita a little bite, so I bought ginger root to infuse into the simple syrup.

I may have taken too many blood orange glamor shots. For example, here are some oranges sitting in a chair:And more sitting on the coffee table:

Waiting to be juiced:

But enough with the oranges. On to the recipe.

Blood Orange and Ginger Granita

• 2 1/2 cups fresh blood orange juice (you can substitute regular orange juice or your favorite citrus fruit)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• Fresh ginger root about the length of your index finger, peeled and sliced fine
• 1 shot of tequila

1. Combine the water and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Add the sliced ginger and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and set aside for about 30 minutes.

Strain the syrup into a bowl and set aside to finish cooling.

2. Pour 1/2 cup ginger syrup and all of the orange juice into a large glass container. Add a shot of tequila and stir to combine. (The tequila will help prevent the mixture from freezing solid.) Continue adding the ginger syrup to taste, keeping in mind that the mixture won’t taste as sweet once frozen. (If you don’t use all of the ginger syrup, it can be kept in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for about a month. It’s great in cocktails.)

3. Place the container, uncovered, into the freezer. Stir the orange and syrup mixture once every half hour with a fork, scraping the icy portions off of the sides of the container. Repeat this for about 2 hours, or until the entire mixture has become flaky, pink ice crystals.

4. To serve, scrape the top of the granita with a fork and spoon into serving bowls.

When the packs of runners tapered off, Ramsey and I walked up to the farmers’ market where we spotted our local dog celebrity, The Lazy Dachshund. I bought kale and apples, Ramsey bought a tub of pickled vegetables, and we were back in the apartment by noon. I was ready to cook.

My menu for the day included my favorite carrot soup for lunch, and then kale, applesauce, and spiced pork chops for dinner.

The carrot soup only called for few ingredients: chopped carrots, onion, rice, chicken stock, butter, oil, salt, pepper, and a pinch of sugar.

More photos after the jump…

Once the onions were tender, I added the chicken stock, covered the pot, and got to work on the applesauce. Cue apples, spices, a quarter cup of sugar, and cider.

After the apples were mashed and tucked away in the refrigerator, I took a break for a bowl of my finished carrot soup. I pureed it with a hand blender right in the pot (a risky move in the Le Creucet, but I was careful) and topped it with a little parsley.

The rest of the soup was divided among single-serving containers. Some went in the refrigerator for lunches this week while others went in the freezer.

A few hours of reading and internet surfing later, I started on dinner. Two bunches of rinsed kale went in the salad spinner.

(I am very sensitive to onion fumes. Yes, I have a pair of onion goggles. No, I am not ashamed. Yes, I asked Ramsey to take a photo.)

I also roasted a few baby sweet potatoes and learned a valuable lesson. If you always remove the skin on sweet potatoes, roasting six small ones instead of two large ones is just more work. Don’t fall prey to adorable vegetables.

The final meal: kale with sauteed onions, sweet potatoes with a little butter, applesauce, and boneless pork chops with a cumin, chili powder, brown sugar, black pepper, and salt dry rub. The chops were broiled about 5 minutes per side until internal temp was just over 140°.

Refusing to be defeated by one of the simplest fruit dishes out there, I looked to Martha Stewart to correct my baking errors for a second attempt. It turns out I used the wrong type of apple, my sugar levels were way off, and my use of melted butter made the baked topping soft. For the second try, I used Gala apples, upped the sugar, and cut cold butter cubes into the dry ingredients. After an hour in the oven, it came out bubbling and golden brown. Perfect.

Apple Crisp
(adapted from Martha Stewart)
Serves 6

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup light-brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes
• 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 4 Gala apples, peeled, cored, and sliced into 1/4 pieces
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• Juice of 1 large lemon

Equipment:

• 9″ square baking pan (glass preferred)
• 2 large bowls
• 2 knives or a pastry cutter

1. Pre-heat the oven to 375°.

2. Mix together flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Cut the butter in using two knives or a pastry cutter. Mix in the oats using your hands until clumps form. Place bowl in the freezer to chill.

3. In a second bowl, toss apples with lemon juice. Mix in granulated sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves until apples are coated. Pour the apples into a buttered baking dish and evenly top with the oatmeal mixture. Place on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for about 60 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown.

4. Let cool for 10-15. Serve with ice cream.

It was a banner weekend: dinner on the Upper West Side on Friday night, the farmers’ market in Grand Army Plaza on Saturday morning, shopping and macarons in SoHo in the afternoon, beer and tacos in Sunset Park at night, and finally on Sunday, manicures, pints of pumpkin ale, and lots of cooking in Park Slope. It felt the way a New York weekend should, with just the right balance of adventure and absurdity, and enough scenic views for a Woody Allen film. Much of it also revolved around food, so it was natural to wind down by baking a pie Sunday afternoon with my well-manicured hands.

I wanted to go recipe-free to make an apple cranberry pie, so I tried to remember as many techniques as I could from last year’s apple pie adventure and winged the rest. The pie was a success, but I forgot to add flour to the apple mixture which resulted in a little excess liquid. I’ve corrected it in the recipe after the jump.

Apple Cranberry Pie
Crust
-2 1/2 cups flour
-2 tsp. sugar
-1/4 tsp salt
-1 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/2″ cubes
-5-6 tbs. ice water

Filling
-4 large Jonagold apples (or baking apples of your choice), peeled and sliced into 1/4″ wedges
-Juice of 1 large lemon
-2/3 cup dried cranberries
-2/3 cup sugar
-1 tbs. ground cinnamon
-1 tsp. allspice
-1/2 tsp. vanilla
-1/4 tsp. almond oil
-2 tbs. flour

1) Mix flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add butter and cut in using two knives, slicing the butter into small pieces throughout the flour (alternate: add ingredients to a food processor and pulse until it’s a course meal).

2) Add 2 tbs. of ice water and mix in with a fork. Continue adding water until the dough is lightly moistened and can form into a ball. Form it into two disks, place in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 30 minutes.

3) While the dough is chilling, mix the apples, cranberries, lemon, sugar, vanilla, almond oil, cinnamon, and allspice in a large bowl. Pour the mixture into a large sieve over a bowl and let sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.

Once 30 minutes have elapsed, pour the excess liquid into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook until it becomes a syrup, just thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, and set aside.

4) Preheat the oven to 350º. Remove the dough from the fridge and let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes. Lay out a sheet of wax paper, coat with flour, and place the first disk in the center. Sprinkle more flour on the dough and place another sheet on top, then begin to roll the dough into a 12″ circle, about 1/4″ thick. Repeat this process with the other disk of dough.

5) Place one sheet of dough in the bottom of an ungreased pie pan, taking care not to let it stretch. Toss the apple mixture with 2 tbs. flour, then add on top of the dough. Drizzle the mixture with the apple syrup you boiled down earlier, then top with the other sheet of dough. Cut away the excess dough from the edges and crimp with your fingers or a fork to seal them together. Also, cut in three vents in any pattern you’d like (My vents pictured below were not large enough).

6) Place the pie on a baking sheet to catch any drippings and bake at 350º for 1 hour. Keep an eye on the crust edges and if they brown too quickly, cover them with a layer of aluminum foil. Once baked, let the pie cool for an hour before serving.

I tried to make a peach and blueberry galette on Sunday and failed miserably. The tart’s sugar levels were off and crust wasn’t rolled thin enough, turning it into a rock hard biscuit surrounding a pile of roasted fruit. This happens from time to time when I’m making up recipes and trying new dishes, but usually Ramsey offers a comforting, “Oh no, it doesn’t look that bad, I’m sure it tastes fine.” However for the galette, he conceded that there was no way to spin it.

Feeling defeated, I turned to one of my favorite simple desserts: roasted stone fruit. I usually serve them with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream, but I made a cinnamon whipped cream instead and I think it worked well. Plums, peaches, and cinnamon feel like a natural combination, and they can all be thrown together and cooked in under 30 minutes.

Roasted Stone Fruit
-2 peaches (room temperature)
-3 plums (room temperature)
-1 tbs lime juice
-2 tbs honey
-1 1/2 tbs. butter, cut into small cubes

1) Pre-heat oven to 350º.

2) Toss fruit, lime juice, and honey in a 9″x9″ baking dish. Once the fruit is evenly coated, top it with the butter.

3) Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until fruit is tender and easily poked with a fork. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, but serve while still warm topped with whipped cream or ice cream.

Cinnamon Whipped Cream
-2/3 cup whipping cream
-2 tbs. sugar
-1/2 tsp. vanilla
-1 tsp. cinnamon

1) Add ingredients to a large bowl. Use a whisk or whisk attachment on an electric mixer to begin whipping at the lowest setting. Increase the speed as the cream begins to thicken and stop once it can form a soft peak.

I only cooked one night this weekend for a dinner party to celebrate the visit of my friend Inbal. She moved to Israel last year, but she’s back for the month to visit friends in all corners of New York State and she spent the weekend on the lovely futon in my living room. (Lovely is a bit strong. Creaky and lumpy may be more appropriate adjectives.) I decided to keep things simple by using existing recipes, so we made salsa, salad, and a summer tomato tart. We finished the night with cookies from Momofuku Milk Bar and a tasting of our friend Sean’s amazing home brewed beer, along with a few rounds of Rock Band.

This afternoon was my first time back in the kitchen, and as I assessed the contents of the fridge, I was faced with a wall of questionable leftovers. The three items that held up were the blueberries, figs, and a forgotten lemon (it should have been zested for the tart), so naturally I thought, “Muffins.”

These muffins are a take on the traditional blueberry muffin with pureed fresh fig and a dash of lemon zest. I think they have just the right level of sweetness, but you could get away with cutting down the sugar to 3/4 cup. They’re also a great way to use leftover ingredients if you make the Fig and Goat Cheese Salad I posted last week. Recipe after the jump.

Blueberry Fig Muffins
-1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
-1 cup sugar
-2 eggs, lightly beaten
-1/3 cup milk
-1 tsp. lemon zest
-2 cups flour
-1/2 tsp. baking soda
-1 tsp. baking powder
-1 tsp. salt
-1/2 cup pureed fresh fig (5-6 small figs sliced in half and pureed food processor or blended with 2-3 tbs. water)
-1 1/4 cup blueberries

1) Pre-heat the oven to 375º and lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin.

2) Cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add the eggs and beat until smooth, then add the lemon zest. Finally, add the milk and stir until fully incorporated.

3) Mix dry ingredients together in a small bowl. Add to the batter in three separate parts and do not overmix.

4) Gently fold in the fig puree and blueberries using a spatula. Once evenly distributed, fill the muffin tins. Sprinkle with sugar, if desired.

5) Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the tin and cool on a wire rack.

As a child, I despised Fig Newtons more than any other lunch bag item. I couldn’t stand the mealy texture of their filling or the moist cookie surrounding it, even though the commercials hailed them as a refined confection. They had no animated mascot or commercials featuring rebellious kids with fruit heads. All I wanted was a pack of Dunkaroos or a bag of Gushers before running off to band practice, so more often than not, the Newtons would end up traded to an unsuspecting 2nd grader or in the trash.

This hatred of Fig Newtons resulted in me never trying a fresh fig until last year. They were easy to avoid in the Northeast, however when I came across a fig and prosciutto salad during my lunch hour, I decided it was time to grow up and I’m so glad I did. Fresh figs are nothing like their mashed and mangled cousins in Fig Newtons. They’re incredibly sweet and have a texture unlike any other fruit I’ve tried.

I was inspired by this salad from Last Night’s Dinner and I made my own version for dinner today. It’s a combination of figs, goat cheese, blueberries, and greens that come together with a balsamic vinaigrette. Recipe and more photos after the jump.

Fig and Goat Cheese Salad
Inspired by Last Night’s Dinner
(Ingredient amounts for the salad are up to you, but I’ve provided general guidelines based my on preferences for two servings)
Salad
-4 figs, quartered
-1/2 cup blueberries
-1 oz goat cheese, cut into chunks
-2 cups arugula or mixed baby greens
-Sprinkling of walnuts (if desired)

Dressing
-1/2 cup olive oil
-1/8 cup balsamic vinegar
-1/2 tbs. Dijon mustard
-1/2 small minced shallot
-Salt and pepper to taste

1) Toss together salad ingredients in a medium bowl.

2) In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar and mustard. Whisk in oil in a steady stream, then add the minced shallot. Add salt and pepper to taste.

3) Add desired amount of dressing to salad and store the remaining vinaigrette in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to three days.

Despite temperatures in the nineties, I continued my trend of incredibly easy desserts this afternoon by making a blueberry crisp. It’s cheap, it’s fast, and you can usually make it without having to run out for special ingredients as it follows a simple formula of fresh fruit + sugar + oats, flour, and butter topping. If you’re really lucky, blueberries will be very ripe and on sale at the local market (a whopping 3 pints for $5 was what I found today). You can also get away with eating it for breakfast, however adding a scoop of ice cream in the morning may go too far. A dollop of whipped cream might be the perfect compromise. Full recipe after the jump.

Blueberry Crisp
Fruit Layer:
-4 cups blueberries, washed and dried
-Juice of 1 lemon
-1/3 cup white sugar

Topping Layer:
-1 cup rolled oats
-1/3 cup flour
-1/4 cup brown sugar
-1/4 cup white sugar
-1 tsp. cinnamon
-1/2 tsp. nutmeg
-1/2 tsp. ground ginger
-5 tbs. butter, chopped into small cubes

1) Pre-heat the oven to 375º. Lightly grease the bottom of  9″ x 9″ baking dish with unsalted butter and set aside.

2) Toss together blueberries and lemon juice in a large bowl. Add the sugar and toss until the berries are fully coated. Pour them into the baking dish, creating an even layer.

3) Rinse and dry the bowl. Add all of the dry ingredients and stir together, then cut in the butter using two knives or your hands. Pour the crumble mixture over the berries.

4) Bake for 35 minutes, cool, and serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.