Happy Halloween! I hope you have a delightfully spooky day full of festive decorations, scary movies, laughter and of course delicious food. To help give you a little Halloween inspiration I compiled a list of the best Lemon & Mocha recipes for your Halloween party, pre or post trick-or-treating meal, or quiet night at home. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and that’s probably 99% due to my extreme love of candy. The rest is a result of all my great Halloween memories, such as dressing up in matching clown costumes with my dad, building a crazy haunted house with my brother and going on a nighttime ghost tour in Salem with Matt. So make some great memories this Halloween, as well as some tasty treats to go along with them!

Halloween Witches’ Cauldron Cupcakes. Spooky, whimsical and indulgent, these fun cupcakes will bring a smile to everyone’s faces- especially after they bite into them.

Pumpkin Hummus. This smooth hummus is perfect with cinnamon pita chips. Could the color be any better for Halloween? Beautiful!

Croissant S’mores. Use the leftover Hershey bars (or maybe even a Reese’s peanut butter cup!) to make these indoor croissant s’mores.

Spiced Sweet Potato & Apple Soup. Cozy up with this flavorful and healthy spiced sweet potato and apple soup.

Leftover Halloween Candy Cookies. Eating candy is great, but eating candy stuffed inside a chewy cookie? Way better!

Crispy Baked Kale Chips. Munch on a healthy snack that is crispy and salty to keep your hand out of the candy bowl.

Spiked Hazelnut Hot Chocolate. Warm up with this velvety hot chocolate. Spiked for the adults and regular chocolately goodness for the kids!

Pumpkin Risotto with Roasted Asparagus. Load up on fall flavors with this pumpkin risotto with roasted asparagus. Perfect for filling up before a big trick-or-treat session.

Peanut Butter Apple Bars. My second ever Lemon & Mocha post, these peanut butter and apple bars scream fall, coziness and wow-pass-me-5-more-please.

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October and the following two months often become a slippery slope for me due to my sweet tooth and general food obsession. There’s my birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, holiday parties, work potlucks, and Christmas, making it incredibly hard to try and eat well.

I’m sure most people can relate so with Halloween coming up tomorrow I got to work trying to come up with a healthy snack. Well, healthier than bags of candy bars.

Then it dawned on me to make a homemade trail mix full of delightful fall flavors. You can mix and match with whatever you have on hand or enjoy. I loaded mine up with dried orange cranberries, spiced pumpkin seeds and blanched almonds.

I of course snuck in just a little bit of chocolate because Halloween wouldn’t be the same without it. But it’s dark chocolate so it’s healthy! Thank goodness for those antioxidants.

My mom always used to pack us homemade trail mix when we would go hiking and I’m sure she would love this mix. Perfect for on the go, munch on some during your next road trip, movie night or to avoid eating all the leftover Halloween candy.

Fall Trail Mix

 

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Yield: 4-6

Ingredients

• ¾ cup pepitas
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ⅛ teaspoon allspice
• 1 cup blanched almonds
• ½ cup dried orange cranberries, or another tart dried fruit of your choosing, such as dried cherries
• ⅓ cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Toss the pepitas with the vegetable oil then spread evenly on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until the pepitas browned and crisp, about 10-15 minutes, making sure to stir every 5 minutes. Once browned, remove the pepitas from the oven then toss with the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. Let the seasoned pumpkin seeds cool.
3. Toss together the cooled pumpkin seeds, almonds, orange cranberries & chocolate chips.

Notes

You can find dried orange cranberries & pumpkin spiced pepitas at your local Trader Joe's.

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My brother and I are very different from one another, but there is definitely one thing we have in common: we both LOVE to eat. We also share a lot of favorite foods. I’m talking to you macaroni and cheese, sushi, and asparagus!

Another item high on the list is smoked salmon. Man, we can seriously chow down on smoked salmon. Toss us a platter with toast, hard boiled egg and some red onion and we are very, very happy campers. Or happy diners. I wouldn’t suggest bringing a smoked salmon platter camping, but that’s just me. When the two of us walk into a buffet we… oh you got the point already? Okay then, I promise all this raving about our cravings has a point.

And it is this amazing smoked salmon salad. All the balanced flavors you love from a traditional smoked salmon platter with an added freshness. Refreshing leafy greens are piled with salty smoked salmon, fluffy hard boiled egg crumbles, crunchy mini pumpernickel croutons and red onion.

The whole salad is lightly drizzled with a lemon and shallot vinaigrette that brings an extra pop of acidity and brightness to the dish.

So a special happy early birthday to my brother who inspired this outrageous dish! I hope you get to eat all your favorites on your birthday.

Smoked Salmon Salad

 

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Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients

for the salad

• ⅔ cup ½ inch cubes of pumpernickel bread
• 8 cups mixed greens
• 6 ounces smoked salmon slices
• 2 hard boiled eggs, crumbled with a fork
• Thinly sliced red onion

for the dressing

• ½ shallot, minced
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon parsley flakes
• 1 teaspoon capers, optional
• ¼ cup olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Directions

for the salad

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Very lightly toss the bread cubes with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place evenly on a pan and cook until crisp, about 10 minutes.
2. Place the greens on a medium serving bowl or platter. Layer the smoked salmon, hard boiled egg crumbles and sliced red onion on top. Drizzle the salad dressing on top then serve.

for the dressing

1. Combine the shallot, lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, parsley and capers, if using, in a small bowl or liquid measuring cup. Whisk in the olive oil until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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Five minutes into making this soup I knew I had a winner sitting on the stovetop in front of me. Intense smells swirled around me while the softening onions took on a rich color from all the spices. I don’t get cravings for soups unless they pack a lot of flavor and this sweet potato and apple soup hits the mark so I am extremely pleased to be posting it for as the second post in my fall apple series.

This soup does take a shortcut by using applesauce instead of whole fresh apples, but you could easily turn your apple picking finds into an impromptu applesauce by peeling, coring then crushing them. And then making this soup of course.

The original recipe uses curry powder, but since I didn’t have any on hand I substituted with what was in my cabinet. Feel free to use my version or substitute with curry powder according to the notes in the recipe. The soup has that delicious warming quality that all fall soups should have as well as an exciting complexity of taste.

Finishing the soup with a splash of curry butter really deepens this complexity. You might think, “Oh, it’s just a garnish, I’m going to skip the curry butter,” but do not make this mistake my friends! Although it’s just a simple concoction of butter, spices and apple cider vinegar, it adds a final richness and tang to the soup.

The apple chip pictured in the soup photos is the perfect crunchy texture addition and I’ll be sharing the recipe later this week in my third apple post.

Spiced Sweet Potato & Apple Soup

 

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Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

• ½ teaspoon cumin powder
• ½ teaspoon ground coriander
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• ⅛ teaspoon cinnamon
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 1 2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• 3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
• 4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
• 1¼ cups applesauce
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Directions

1. Combine the first 5 ingredients in a small bowl then set aside.
2. Place the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Once warm add the onions and garlic then cook until the onions are soft, about 6 minutes.
3. Add the ginger, additional nutmeg and 1¼ teaspoons of the spice mixture that was set aside in the first step. Cook for 1 minute.
4. Add the sweet potatoes and vegetable broth then cover and bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low. Stir in the applesauce then let simmer, covered, on medium-low for 20 minutes.
5. When the potatoes are tender, puree the mixture until smooth with an immersion blender or food processor. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep warm while you prepare the spiced butter.
6. In a small skillet over medium heat melt the butter then add the remaining ¼ teaspoon of the spice mixture. Stir over the heat until browned, just a couple minutes, then remove from the heat. Mix in the apple cider vinegar then drizzle over each serving of soup.

Notes

If you are using curry powder instead, substitute 1.5 teaspoons curry powder for the first 5 ingredients.

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Recipe adapted from September 2010 issue of Food Network Magazine.

Lauren Uncategorized 0 Comments

To celebrate fall I am doing a series of four posts featuring a quintessential fall ingredient: apples! Every year Matt and I go apple picking with his parents at an orchard near their house. For us, this annual ritual signifies the official transition out of summer. In typical New England fashion, some years it is still sunny shorts-weather while other years we have three different layers on trying to stay warm. But what is always the same is the overwhelming fresh smell of apples.

Although we haven’t had a chance to go yet this year between other people’s weddings and our own exciting planning, I wanted to provide some inspired recipes for all you fall apple-pickers out there. Whether you’re an apple-picker, seasonal farmers’ market shopper or price-savvy grocery store buyer, this caramelized onion and apple dip is a mouthwatering start to the season’s freshest produce.

Caramelizing onions mellows their taste while breaking down the natural sugars leading to a browned and slightly sweetened result. True onion caramelization takes around 35-40 minutes, however I used a semi-caramelized quick version in this recipe. The end result is just as delicious.

The onions are combined with tart Pink Lady apples, creamy herb cheese, salty shredded Parmesan and Gruyere before baked until bubbly. This hot dip is addictive on warm baguette slices, salty pretzel chips or grilled pork chops.

Caramelized Onion & Apple Dip

 

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Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 medium sweet onions, diced small
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
• 2 sweet-tart apples, such as Pink Lady, peeled and diced
• 2 ounces soft herb cheese, such as Boursin or herb goat cheese
• 1 cup shredded Gruyere
• 1 cup shredded Parmesan
• Salt and pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Place a cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Melt the butter in the skillet then add the onions and chives. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are softened and have started to brown about 10-15 minutes.
3. Add the apples. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes.
4. Stir in the soft herb cheese then season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Evenly sprinkle the shredded cheeses over top then bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or until cheeses are bubbly and browned. Remove from the oven and let sit 5 minutes before eating.

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