fig spread, pear & brie flatbread

OH MY FREAKING GOD I WANT TO EAT THIS ALL DAY LONG. Heck, I would bathe in this if Katie let me. Mmmmmm delicious sweet, savory and buttery loofa. I digress. We both had some ideas on how we wanted to use the pears, figs, and some brie on top of some crusty bread, and those ideas progressed over a few hours and this is what came out. If we have a party, or attend a pot luck soon while figs are in season, I guarantee that this is what we will be bringing on top of some crostini. It was easy, relatively quick for making a fruit spread, and completely blew our minds.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp olive oil
10 figs, trimmed and cut into eighths
1/4 white or yellow onion, 1/4" dice
2 pinches dried thyme
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 pear cored, thinly sliced
1/2 lb brie, sliced (We used Fromager d'Affinois)
BIG and CRUSTY bread
salt to taste


Heat olive oil in a small sauce pan on medium-low heat. Toss in your onions and go take a break; watch some TV, do some dishes, make fun of Rachel Ray, whatever makes you happy. Just stir them every 5 minutes or so. Once the onions are caramelized, about 16-20 minutes, add the figs, thyme, lemon juice and a pinch of salt, cover and repeat the exact same process again; stirring every 5 minutes while saying "Yumm-O!" in silly voices until the figs are also caramelized and the whole product looks like fig spread, approximately 20 minutes.

Smear the resulting product on to some thick sliced crusty bread, top with sliced pears and brie and put it in the toaster oven for a few minutes until the brie gets melty. Seriously the best thing I have put mouth in a hot minute. I have eaten it 3 times since we made it, and everyday its more amazing than the last. I really want to eat this everyday until I have a heart attack.

fruit compote

We had just finished eating the potato gratin, and I (Kenny) got a severe sweet tooth craving. Sure, I could have gone to the corner store and bought candy, cookies, or an It's It, but that's just silly. We had some amazing pears and apples sitting right in front of my face, so I decided it was time to make some easy, but still decadent.

Ingredients:
3 small ripe gala apples, cut into 1/2 dice
2 ripe bartlett pears, cut into 1/2 dice
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup chopped almonds
1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
pinch of salt

I preheated the oven to 350 degrees and buttered the inside of a pyrex loaf pan. Toss in all of the fruit and nuts, add the spices and mix. Top with sugar and dot the mixture with the remaining butter and bake uncovered for 20 minutes. Eat it as is, or top with ice cream. We even threw some crumbled pretzel pieces on top to add a little salt and crunch since my Grandmother sent a Lancaster County care package complete with Hammond's Pretzels (my favorite) this week.

best salad ever

Tonight we made huge salads from the head of romaine lettuce, 1 red pear, 1 green pear, 1 apple, some pine nuts and marinated baked tofu. Dress it with a little Annie's Goddess dressing and cut up some fresh whole wheat baguette... uhhh this is the best salad ever.