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.

When I think of pie, my mind immediately goes to setting up a workstation complete with flour, ice water, a rolling pin, and plenty of wax paper. I recall the careful waiting game of chilling the dough, then rolling it out (but not too much!), and trying to place it into a pie dish without ripping it. It’s a rewarding but stressful process that I’m not always prepared to undertake.

Enter the graham cracker: a buttery, sweet angel to the rescue of those who want to bake a pie but don’t want the hassle of a flour-based crust. It’s the crust of choice for chocolate and banana cream, but it’s most notably found lining the pans of key lime pies everywhere.

I made my first key lime pie this weekend for a small gathering of friends. Although I had consumed more than my weight in the pie as a child visiting my grandparents in Florida, I’d never even looked at a key lime recipe before. This was the simplest version I could find, as I wanted to skip the meringue topping.

Overall, it was one of the easiest baked goods I have ever made, save for the labor involved in squeezing the limes. No stress, no rolling pins. I was unable to find key limes in Greenpoint, I so I used regular limes, a dash of lemon juice, and 1/2 tsp. of lime zest in the filling to make sure it had the right balance of tart and sweet. My only recipe suggestion is lightly greasing your pie dish with butter because the graham cracker crust may stick a bit.

In place of photos from my baking process (I was frazzled getting ready for company and forgot to document), I offer you photos from a yo-yo competition I attended the following day at South Street Seaport.

I went to a cookout a few weekends ago in a backyard in Queens. There was grilled corn, burgers, and the standard cookout foods, but my favorite had to be the mango avocado salsa that someone brought to share. It was light and refreshing in the afternoon heat, plus it involved my absolute favorite fruit. The salsa was served up with a bag of multigrain tortilla chips, but I could see it working with tacos or with a grilled chicken breast that’s been marinated in lime and cilantro for a few hours.

I finally made my own version of it today for an afternoon of TV viewing with friends and it went well with discussions about the worst series in the Aaron Sorkin canon. It’s simple to make and you can easily modify the ratios to meet your taste, or add more peppers for extra heat.

Mango Avocado Salsa
-1 mango, chopped into 1/4″ by 1/4″ pieces
-2 avocado, chopped into 1/2″ by 1/2″ pieces
-1/2 medium red onion, diced
-1 clove garlic, minced
-1/4 cup cilantro, rough chopped
-1 tbs. chopped green chiles
-Juice of 1 lime
-Salt and black pepper to taste

1. Combine ingredients in a medium bowl and gently mix with a large spoon.