Stephanie Kaye Turner

I had a few extra apples left over from my Green Bean produce bin this week, and since they were kind of mediocre snacking apples, I decided to dry them.

You can peel and/or core the apples before doing this, but in the interest of minimizing waste (and effort), I decided to do neither.

I just sliced them. The seeds pop out and you're left with these neat sand-dollar shapes:

I don't have a dehydrator, so I dried them in the oven. I found a site that suggested using cooling racks or screens, set on cookie sheets. I have these neat stacking cooling racks, so I used two on one cookie sheet:

I heated the oven up to 200 F, and put them in there. And left them. For a loooooooong time...about five hours in all. Until they looked like this:

They were still pretty chewy, kind of like fruit leather. If you want them crispy, slice thinner than I did.

I like how the seed holes stayed really clear cut:

Let cool and store in an airtight bag or container. Happy snacking!

One of my occasional Sunday treats is listening to Lynne Rosetto Kasper's Splendid Table on our local public radio station, WVXU. This Sunday, a chemistry teacher called in to say he had asked a student to bring him some curry spice from Qatar, and what should he do with it? Lynne gently reminded him that curry is from India, not the Arab world, and advised him to try making his own curry. The process sounded fairly simple, so yesterday, staring at a bunch of random leftovers, I thought I'd give it a try. I take no credit for the recipe or technique, I just thought it would be fun to photoblog.

Caveat: if you want to try this, give yourself about two hours. You'll see why...

You will need:

• Vegetable oil
• Onions
• Ginger
• Garlic
• Curry spice mix
• Whole-milk yogurt
• Chicken or vegetable broth (optional)
• Whatever fresh veggies or protein you want to add

Step 1: Heat up a tablespoon or so of vegetable oil in a wok. Slice the onions and add them. Sauter until they start to brown. I used half an onion here, because that's what I had.

Step 2: Grate some fresh ginger (I used about a tablespoon) and chop some garlic (about a teaspoon) and add those in.

Step 3: Add the curry spice. I used a heaping teaspoon here for my experimental batch. Let this cook on low heat until the curry starts smelling really aromatic. Your house is going to smell like an Indian restaurant after this, by the way.

Step 4: Add some whole-milk yogurt. I used about half a cup.

Let that gently cook until the fat separates and the yogurt is absorbed, as in this photo:

Step 5: Here's where I started to feel really hungry and wanted to rush things a bit. Lynne says add more liquid, in the form of yogurt or broth. I threw in a dollop of yogurt and a cup of chicken broth. I think if I had added more yogurt separately, then gradually added the broth, my sauce would have been a bit thicker. Next time...

Step 6: I chopped up some baby carrots and added those in. Again, I was hungry, so I put the lid on the wok, to help the carrots cook faster. Yes, it worked, but my curry sauce got watered down instead of thickening up.

Step 7: Once the carrots were tender, I added in a bag of prepared chicken cubes and stirred until they were warm. I then served it over a bed of rice, with slices of soft baked sweet potato on top, but I was so hungry at this point I forgot to take a picture. My darling husband said it was good; it was definitely edible. But I'll take more time, next time.

Mmmmm....baked salmon. What could be better for Easter dinner? How about a flavorful walnut topping to make it special? This is my go-to dish for company.

For two to three people, you will need:

• About 1 lb salmon fillet
• 2/3 cup walnut pieces
• 2 tablespoons bread crumbs
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract
• salt and pepper or other seasonings; I used ground coriander this time to boost the lemon flavor
• About 2 tablespoons of Dijon-style mustard

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 425 F and prepare the pan. Use a nonstick pan, or line with nonstick foil. Spread a little olive oil on the bottom with a pastry brush, and set the brush aside for later.

Step 2: Prepare the topping. You can make this in a food processor, but for such a small job, I like using my mortar and pestle. Crush the nuts, then add the bread crumbs, olive oil, extract, and seasonings. Crush together.

Step 3: Put the fish in the pan, skin side down. Paint the mustard evenly on the fish with the pastry brush. I like to use a dishwasher-safe brush, like the basting brush shown here, for easy cleanup.

Step 4: Add the topping, spreading it evenly over the fish.

Step 5: Bake the fish, about 15 minutes. Don't overcook.

I like to serve this on a bed of rice. Add some fresh asparagus and a baked sweet potato for a lovely spring meal! In fact, the asparagus can roast right along with the salmon, the timing is perfect. Just snap off the woody bottoms, spread the spears in a shallow pan, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with coarse salt and pepper.

A simple but flavorful and hearty spring soup! Adapted for the stovetop from this recipe at epicurious.com.

You will need:

• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 bunch (about a pound) of carrots
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 tbsp fresh citrus juice, such as lemon or tangerine
• 1 tbsp freshly peeled and grated ginger, or minced pickled ginger
• 1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
• 2 cups water
• Salt and pepper to taste

Step 1: Melt the butter in a medium-sized saucepan while you prepare the carrots.

Step 2: Cut the tops off the carrots, rinse and scrub them, then slice thinly. If you use a food processor, you won't have to wash it until you've pureed the soup at the end. (You may want to the save the carrot tops for this Carrot Top Pesto recipe.)

Step 3: Add remaining ingredients to butter. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer about 30 minutes, until carrots are totally tender.

Step 4: Remove the soup from heat, taste and season.

Step 5: If you have an immersion blender, you can puree the soup in the pot. If not, let it cool a few minutes, then puree in batches in your food processor or blender. Be sure to follow safety precautions for blending hot liquids: remove the center vent from blender lid, or put the lid on loosely.

Step 6: Return all the soup to the pot, mix, rewarm if needed. Garnish with sour cream, plain yogurt, chopped fresh parsley, or -- as I did -- carrot tops! Enjoy!

Hello folks,

Winter rages on, which means citrus fruit is still in season. I got some lovely Meyer lemons in my latest Green Bean Bin, so I made more lemon extract, and lemon caramel --  more on that later.

Here is yet another use for citrus peel. In France, whenever I saw orange givrée on the menu, I wanted to order it: orange sorbet, served in a hollowed-out half of an orange. How refreshing it sounded! But it was invariably frozen too hard to enjoy. So, I thought I'd give it a try myself, and results were miam, miam!

You will need:

• Sorbet, sherbet, or other frozen dessert of your choosing
• Citrus halves (grapefruit for mega-servings; oranges for normal servings; clementines, tangerines, etc., for mini-servings, like palate cleansers between courses, or a selection of several sorbets)

Step 1: Wash the citrus fruit, cut in half, and juice.

Step 1A (optional): If you have an ice cream maker, use the juice to make your own sorbet or sherbet. I used blood oranges, and made Mango and Blood Orange Sorbet. Isn't that a gorgeous color??

Step 2: Use a spoon to scoop out all the pulp and as much pith as you can from the citrus halves, without tearing them.

Step 3: Scoop sorbet or other frozen dessert into shells, and freeze.

Step 4: Remove from the freezer a few minutes before serving, to allow sorbet to soften. Serve in a glass bowl, or shallow dish, so your lovely natural container may be admired.

Okay, now that I have served my hubby the SURPRISE tiramisu, I can reveal how I made the chocolate shavings between the layers of Cointreau-and-espresso soaked ladyfingers (aka Savoiardi biscuits).

Making this weekend’s over-the-top dessert, with the recipe from Patricia Wells’ excellent cookbook, Trattoria, I thought up a new and easy way to make simple chocolate shavings.

You will need:

• A bar of high-quality chocolate
• A vegetable peeler
• Something to catch the shavings: the dessert, or wax paper

Step 1: Take the chocolate out of its outer wrapper, and remove just part of the inner foil wrapper.

Step 2: Hold the bar by the remaining foil wrapper over the food or piece of wax paper.

Step 3: “Peel” the end of the chocolate bar.

Yum! Especially good on tiramisu, cheesecake, etc. Don’t try to do this directly over coffee cups or other small targets, unless you want a chocolate mess on your countertop. Catch in wax paper, then transfer.

Multi-spice mixes

One of my go-to dishes for using up lots of veggies is Thai coconut curry. This requires half a dozen spices. (Mmmmm…) Which requires a lot of measuring. So every other time I make it, I measure twice: I make a batch for the current curry (the dish on the left), and I make a batch to store for next time (the little jar on the right).

I store it in one of my favorite kitchen items, a little glass jar. If you layer the spices as you go, you end up with a pretty painted-sand effect.

What to do when you run out of bouillon

Ooops. A few days ago, I used up the bouillon…but did not IMMEDIATELY put it on the shopping list, as I must do if I want to remember to buy something. And here I am making Thai coconut curry, with no broth. So I scanned the kitchen cabinets and found: Campbell’s Homestyle Chicken Noodle Soup.

Step 1: Open the can.

Step 2: Drain off the liquid into a measuring cup. I got about 2/3 cup, and I needed 1 cup, so I just added 1/3 cup water.

Step 3: Put a tight cover (I used a baggie + rubber band) over the open soup can and store in the fridge.

Step 4: Later, when you have bouillon or broth and are ready to use the soup, fill the can back up with water. Dump the can of soup into the soup pot or bowl. If you have bouillon cubes or powder, then use the can to measure the amount of water you need to make broth and nuke it up in a microwave-safe bowl. If you have broth, just use the can to measure the right amount of it. Enjoy your reconstituted soup!

This item fits right in with our pickled ginger and candied citrus peel. Another great use for citrus peel is extract: you know, those little glass bottles of flavoring that you can buy. But why not make your own? It's just intensely flavored alcohol.

You will need:

• A citrus fruit. I have done this with a lemon, and plan on trying it with an orange and a lime.
• A zesting tool or vegetable peeler.
• A small glass jar.
• Vodka.

Step 1: Wash the citrus fruit. You want this to be extract of citrus, not of whatever bug spray or other pollutant it might have on its skin. In fact, organic would be a great choice here.

Step 2: Zest the fruit. I use a zesting tool that creates very thin strips of zest, the colored (and flavorful) part of the peel. If you don't have a zester, you could also use a vegetable peeler. Be sure to get just the top, colorful layer of the peel. If you use a peeler, you'll probably want to cut the zest into thinner strips, too.

Step 3: Put the zest in the jar and add enough vodka to cover. Refrigerate several days before using, shaking it every few days.

Step 4 (optional): If, after a few weeks, you haven't used your extract up, you'll notice that the color has been leached out of the zest. At this point, if you like, you can strain off the extract and discard the zest.

Uses:

• Lemonade and adult beverages: I'm looking forward to making lime extract to add an extra pop to mojitos.
• Baking: this lemon extract definitely made a difference in the lemon-shortbread cookies I made at Christmas. I'd love to try orange extract in muffins or carrot cake, along with some of my chopped candied orange peel!

I love candied citrus peel: the yummy bright fruit flavor of citrus, made sweet and chewy with syrup. But I was dissatisfied with the method out there for "harvesting" the peel. I happened across this, and it works pretty well.

Most recipes have you use a vegetable peeler to peel off the zest of the citrus fruit. This is pretty tedious, and then what do you do with the fruit? It becomes nearly impossible to juice, so you have to eat it right away, before it dries out.

I was juicing and sectioning clementines for a fruit salad, and decided too late that I wanted to make candied clementine peel. Too late, because it's nearly impossible to remove just the zest from the peel after the peel has been removed from the fruit. But what I found is that after juicing the citrus fruit, the pith (the white, slightly bitter inside of the peel, the stuff you don't want in your candied peel) is actually easier to remove. 

You will need:

• peel from 3 oranges, or 4 tangerines or clementines, or 2 grapefruits, or mix and match.
• 1 cup sugar
• one or more glass jars

Step 1. After you cut the fruit in half and juice it (or cut it and use the sections in fruit salad, whatever), remove the leftover pulp.

Step 2. Cut the peel halves in half, so you're dealing with quarters.

Step 3. Boil about a quart of water. Add the peel and simmer for six minutes. Drain and rinse.

Step 4. When the peels are cool enough to handle, turn them inside out, and use the dull back edge of a knife blade to scrape away as much pith as possible without cutting yourself. Here's a picture of two peels, before scraping (left) and after:

And here's a pic of all the pith I scraped:

Step 5. Cut your peels into tiny matchstick-width strips.

[Step 5a. Go out and get sugar because you forgot you ran out.]

Step 6. Put one cup sugar and 1/3 cup water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Swirl to make sure all sugar is dissolved. Cover the pan and let boil about 5 minutes, until the drops that fall from a metal spoon form a thread (this step borrowed from Julia Child’s The Way to Cook.)

Step 7. Remove the syrup from heat, and add the boiled, de-pithed peels. Stir them around to make sure they are well covered with syrup. Let steep one hour.

Step 8. Put the candied peel into cute little glass jars, making sure to include the delicious syrup, and refrigerate. Use within a couple months.

Suggestions for use:

• Chop and add to muffins, scones, zucchini bread, carrot cake, etc.
• Use both the candied peel and the yummy golden syrup to garnish pancakes, waffles or ice cream.
• Add chopped peel when making homemade ice cream (orange or tangerine sherbet is a natural fit).

As you may or may not know, I am writing a memoir about my family, particularly my mother. So today I pulled out a big plastic bin in which I keep old letters, diaries, and other memorabilia, to look for a sympathy card I received from my mom’s first boyfriend when he found out she had passed away. Not only did I find that I had received not just a card but two letters from him, which I had forgotten about, I also rediscovered my old dollhouse furniture – which I hadn’t forgotten – and got totally sidetracked. I cleared a shelf in my study and set it all up.

I was not a big doll fan as a kid. I wasn’t exactly a tomboy, because I was not at all interested in athletics, but I was into subjects considered more “boyish” at the time: science – archaeology and astronomy in particular – and architecture. I loved building dollhouses, but not playing with dolls. My little brother had an indoor slide, basically an open-sided wooden box with a ramp, that we turned into an apartment building, with some kind of pulley system we rigged up as an elevator to take tiny toys to the top.  

My only real dollhouse (oh, I wish I had a picture of it, I can’t believe I don’t!) came from Tammy Van Milligan. Tammy was a year ahead of me in school and rode my bus. Sometimes she got off at my stop, even though she didn’t live that close, so she could walk with me. Why, I’m still not sure. I guess she had some kind of self-esteem problem and it made her feel good, as a fifth-grader, to argue with me, a fourth-grader, and always win. We argued over the pronunciation of “miscellaneous,” for instance, which I had just learned to spell for the spelling bee, and was pronouncing as “misk-ellaneous.” Tammy was not above stopping a random adult in the street to resolve the debate, which she did. I was indignant: “But it’s spelled with a c!”

Anyway, Tammy Van Milligan had this wonderful dollhouse that she was “too big for.” It was two stories, pale green with a red roof (funny; I now live in a home whose interior walls my husband chose to paint pale green, with accents in “picnic table red”). Each room had different wallpaper. I loved and coveted it. Tammy and I were always trying to raise money, and one time we decided to have a yard sale in front of my apartment building and sell our unwanted toys. Her big item was the dollhouse, and every time someone looked at it, I despaired of ever having it. My mother chronicles this event in my baby book:

"March 1980 Disappointed again! [The previous entry was about how I went to hear Alex Haley speak – I’d read Roots half a dozen times – but wasn’t able to get his autograph.] The yard sale she [me] & her friend Tammy VanMilligan [held] only netted her $2.65 whereas Tammy made about $11.00."

Happily for me, though, the dollhouse didn’t sell, and I saved and saved and pestered Tammy until she let me have it for some ridiculously low sum like twenty dollars. I was on cloud nine. We took my brother’s slide, which he was getting too big for, removed the ramp, turned it on its side, draped it with an old sheet, and enthroned the dollhouse on top. I started saving my money again, this time to furnish it. My parents would take me to Kay-Bee Toys (before they changed the name to K-B), and I’d spend my allowance on one thing at a time, agonizing over the choice. I’m certain the bookcase, dresser, and bed came from there.

The blue coffeepot set came from some little mail order catalog like Harriet Carter: I’d save up my money, carefully total up the price with postage and tax, and give it to my mom, who would write me a check. That way, I saved a quarter on the money order.

Some of the things I made: the candles are cut-down birthday-cake candles that I stuck on little wooden disks. The white “glasses” with blue roses are actually cylindrical beads. I rolled the balls of yarn and stuck them with straight-pin “knitting needles” in the tiny sewing basket. I sewed the tiny cushion and wove the green yarn on the straight-back chair.

But just over a year later my parents decided to move to Cincinnati, and now I was the one selling the dollhouse in a yard sale. I carefully packed my furniture away and kept it, I’m not sure why, but I’m glad I did. If you know a child (or adult!) who would be thrilled to have these miniatures, let me know; I would be thrilled to pass them on.