Mrs. Chernic's Apple Cake

In honor of apple season, I'll share a family recipe for Apple Cake. I've been eating this particular cake my whole life. The smell of it baking reminds me of home, family and holidays. Now, if we are Facebook friends you might even be familiar with this recipe as I posted it over the summer. But this recipe is so good, it needs to be shared again.

This recipe came to my family when we lived in Shenorock, NY. Our house was Cape Cod style, white with black shutters. We had a screened-in porch, a garden in the back, a yard to play in, and a neigbor with a fabulous aboveground pool. We also had brown tap water that looked a little like Coca-Cola (although, no fizz), and according to the town was perfectly safe to drink.

Mrs. Chernic is the recipe's author and she lived down the street. She was older, retired, widowed, and always drank bottled water. My grandmother actually found her as she was surveying the neighborhood when we first moved to the area. My grandmother, who didn’t live close by, was looking for a kind neighbor to perhaps help my mom from time to time. And Mrs. Chernick could not have been any kinder. She did lots of babysitting. It was particularly cool that she cut my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on a diagonal. Impressive. And now, the Apple Cake:

3 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 medium apples, sliced and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. Use whatever apple variety you like best.

Mix dry, then add the wet ingredients. No need to mix the wet ingredients before adding to the dry.

You must have a hand mixer. This batter is very very very thick. Mix for 5 - 6 minutes

Slice two medium apples and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

Spray bundt pan with nonstick spray. Then alternate adding batter and apples in layers. Start and end with batter.

Cook at 350 for 55 minutes.

When you're in Baltimore...

...Please check out my friends Mark & Kristina Bachman at their beautiful new wine bar V-NO in Fell's Point on Ann Street. The ambiance is lovely and their selection is perfection PLUS they are geniuses, having grouped their wines by flavor spectrum as opposed to grapes or regions. Farewell, snobby, overpriced wine shops. Hello V-NO. I have a sneaking suspicion that I might become a regular. Clear off a bar stool for Norm...I mean, Kristin.

V-NO 905 S. Ann Street (with beautiful, waterfront outdoor tables, natch), Fell's Point, Baltimore.

Our Most Favorite or Funniest Food Memories

"Tuna and Seagulls" by Beth

The beach is one of my favorite places to eat. I love a cooler filled with sodas, beers, chips, sandwiches, etc. Everything tastes better at the beach. It's one of those rare places where I show no regard for my caloric intake. I never eat chips, but when I'm at the beach I am happy to take down the whole bag. Who cares?!? I mean, I am at the beach. I grew up in southwestern Connecticut. We would go to Calf Pasture in Norwalk, and Compo and Long Shore in Westport. It was lovely, even if it was a little rocky. My mother grew up in Long Island, and my Aunt and cousins still live there. Robert Moses and Jones Beach will always be special to me.

I recall one day going to the beach with my mom and my two brothers, Greg and Vince. My mother had packed tuna fish sandwiches on rye bread. And not just any rye bread, but rye bread from the venerable Walls Bakery in Hewlett, Long Island. I can easily devote an entire post to this bakery, but today I'll stay the course on my story :)

Before lunch we swam and worked up a good appetite for lunch. My mother handed out the sandwiches along with cans of Coca-Cola. I, always the most eager to eat, dove right in, devouring my sandwich and sucking down my coke. The rye bread was sour and dense and the tuna fish was perfectly salty and smooth. It was a heavenly combination. I didn’t even notice the seagulls gathering and circling us. My mom noticed first, and plainly told us to ignore them, and not to feed them. Duh! Why would I feed them my luscious sandwich? My brother Vince had not even begun his lunch when one of the birds droped a load squarely on his sandwich. We were all silenced, and just stared at his sandwich. My mother sprung into action with a paper towel, wiping down the sandwich. We looked at her like she was crazy, she was actually trying to salvage the sandwich covered in bird poop. She kept repeating, "It's fine, It's fine, I'll just wipe it off." Vince said nothing, but it was clear he was not about to eat that sandwich. I mean, who could blame him? My mom even suggested just removing the top slice of the sandwich. Even I, who loves to eat, knew that was no solution. I think my mom even thought of taking a bite herself to prove the sandwich was okay, but she put it down before it made its way anywhere near her mouth. She gave up, the sandwich was lost.

What strikes me most about this memory is not the bird poop on my brother's tuna sandwich, but my Mom's reaction. Her first thought was saving the tuna on rye. She almost brought a whole new meaning to the 5-second rule. And while eating the sandwich would be totally disgusting, I admire my mom's instincts here. Walls wasn't exactly around the corner, and that bread was special. A good sandwich is hard to find.

Chicken Shawarma

Here's a recipe that's inspired by a Middle Eastern restaurant near my home.

Shawarma can be found in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean countries. It's traditionally cooked on a vertical spit. Sadly I don't have one, but I'm in discussions with my husband about installing one in our apartment.

But even without the vertical spit, I think I've done justice to this dish. It's really all about the marinade, and the tahini sauce.


Serves 4

1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast (cut into bite size 1 inch pieces)

Marinade
1 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup vinegar
3 garlic cloves minced
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp curry
1 tsp turmeric
Juice of 1 lemon

Sauce
1 cup tahini
1 1/2 cups water
2 garlic cloves crushed
Juice of 2 lemons
2 tablespoons yogurt
salt/pepper to taste.


Combine ingredients for the marinade. Marinate chicken overnight.

Mix ingredients in blender for sauce, and refrigerate

Brown chicken in large skillet.

Serve this over rice, or serve in pita bread with shredded lettuce, tomato, and cucumber slices.

And of course pour desired amount of sauce on the chicken : )

Getting to know you...

We here at Salty Sour Spicy Sweet figure that if we are going to be encouraging all of you to use some of our recipes and stuff that you should know a bit about us. Here are some of our favorite things. If you feel compelled, we'd love to hear about some of your favorite things too. Just click the comment button below to weigh in!

Favorite cooking show?
Beth: Barefoot Contessa! By far! I love her home in the Hamptons. I want to be her friend very badly. Additionally, all of her recipes are simple and straightforward, and I love that.
Kristin: I am partial to Boy Meets Grill with Bobby Flay. I can't tell you how much I appreciate his willingness to grill virtually EVERYTHING and I love that he's not too snobby to use a gas grill sometimes while he does it. I'm all about a grill. I covet his sprawling rooftop NYC terrace. I want to be invited over for dinner. And, despite my struggles with high school chemistry, I sort of can't get enough of all the science-y factoids on Good Eats with Alton Brown.

Who is your favorite celebrity chef?
Beth: I really want to say Anthony Bordain. I mean he's great, but he falls apart quickly for me. I think of him as food writer more than a chef. And someimtes I find his trash talk of other chefs a tad grating even if sometimes I agree with him.
I am going to go with Mario Batali. He always kicks ass on Iron Chef America. I've also been to one of his restaurants, so I can honestly say I've eaten his food, or at least ate food that he at one point perhaps might of made. I mean, that's something, right???
Kristin: If it were not for his well documented distaste for my fair Baltimore, it would be Anthony Bourdain, hands down, because I like some attitude. However, because he has bashed Charm City up one side and down the other, he takes a backseat to the silver fox, Eric Ripert. He's so pretty, plus, unlike Mr. Bourdain -- who is also sort of silver fox-y -- he is gracious and French and the genius behind NYC's Le Bernardin among others. However, he is not snobby...he is strangely enthusiastic about cooking in toaster ovens. Foxy, indeed.

What are you most likely to order at a Steak House, sides included.
Beth: Ribeye (Medium to Medium Rare) and creamed spinach. Creamed spinach can have a baby food like quality, but I like that.
Kristin: I'm a New York Strip kind of gal, medium rare always, and I've never met a potato that I didn't immediately want to know better. I've been known to order more than one kind of potato at one meal, usually mashed and scalloped or fried, however I eschew the steak fry.

Favorite dinner as a kid?
Beth: Flounder filets lightly breaded and fried, baked potato (lots of butter) and Le
Sueur peas. My mom served the fish with a wedge of lemon and tartar sauce. As a kid I thought tartar sauce was the most awful thing ever made. Of course, now I know that I was a fool.
Kristin: OK, this is wacky considering that my mom made everything BUT this from scratch, but she used to make me Italian fondue for my birthday...it was literally a pound of crumbled Italian sausage, a jar of Prego (no joke), onion, some spices and about 4 cups of shredded cheese. It is served with 1" chunks of hearty Italian bread, fondue-style. I think there was usually salad involved. I've eaten it once or twice as an adult and it is sooo much fun but sooo rich and heavy. It is amazing what a child can consume...I used to wash it down with chocolate mousse, my birthday dessert of choice. Almost makes me shudder.

Favorite Dinners as an adult?
Beth: Mussels and frites and mayonnaise for dipping. And some nice crusty bread as a side. I like mussels cooked all ways, but my favorite is in white whine and shallots. Plus there are many places in DC to get a nice big bowl of steaming mussels. I pray the trend continues!
Kristin: I don't even know how to begin to answer this. Honestly, I'll go really far out of my way for and debate passionately about the perfect cheeseburger. My husband makes a rather epic version that just might make it onto this blog someday. However, if I had to choose my last meal on earth, I'd like to eat tapas-style: some nice, cold oysters on the half shell; sushi-grade tuna diced raw and seasoned with lemon zest, grey salt and capers; duck-fat french fries and a really good BLT.

Have a question you want us to answer? Send it to us! We'd love to hear from you!

Have a different answer to the questions above that you'd like to share? Please do!

Who you callin' Jerk?

So, here's the thing. for Mother's Day this year, my husband bought me some plants for our tiny Baltimore City backyard. He bought me Rosemary, Cilantro, two delicious varieties of basil and some innocent looking pepper plants.

"You liked having the jalapeno plant last year, right?" he queried. "Well, aren't these cool? This one's a habanero, and this one's something else like that...a Caribbean Red Hot or something."

"Like, Scotch Bonnets, maybe?" I countered.

"Um, maybe...yeah," he said, to which I replied "Wow...thanks, baby," all the while thinking oh no! He's trying to kill me.

Because here's the deal...my dirty little foodie secret...I have an esophageal ulcer. That's right...you heard me. Although it shames me I cannot eat whatever I want.

Eager to appear appropriately grateful, I said nothing about my pepper apprehension. The husband sensed my fear.

"What?" he said. "Don't you like them?"

"Of course I do," I replied honestly." It's just...well, I mean...the ulcer. Will I be able to eat them?" I asked rhetorically.


"They're not that hot, are they?"

"Yes, babe...they're literally the hottest peppers in the world."


"Oh...sorry. Happy Mother's Day."

Determined to remain appropriately grateful (they were from not only my lovely husband but my lovely little girl as well, mind you), I got my work gloves out and dug into the soil and planted the death peppers side-by-side in a little terra cotta rectangle. For weeks, we watered them, moved them from spot to spot in our little yard so that they might receive optimal sun and warned my toddler sternly to please, please, please not even think about putting them near her mouth.

Two short months later, perfect, glossy, firm little demon peppers began to emerge. Gradually, they turned from innocuous, pale green to dazzling shades of red and orange. Determined not to let them wither on the vine, but equally committed to avoid hospitalization from eating one, I began to brain storm about what to do with them. The obvious answer: Give them away!

I know! I thought. My brother & brother-in-law are all about eating things that might kill lesser mortals. I'll give them to them. They forgot to take take them home when last they visited.

Better still, I thought, I will send them to my sister-in-law in Florida! She's a Texan! She brings her own hot sauce to restaurants! She can take the heat! I neatly packed three of each variety in little tupperware cases and sent them to her in my mother-in-law's luggage. Done.

But the pepper plants had other plans. There were more of them now...lots of them. There was no keeping up. I cowered in my kitchen, glaring out my back door at the death peppers, when something deep inside of me began to stir.

Kristin, you're better than this. You will not be defeated by a pepper plant, by fear, by your ulcer. You must rise up. You...must...cook... with...THE...PEPPERS!

So, herewith, I bring to you my new recipe for Authentic Jamaican-style Jerk Marinade. If you go for the heat and use the habaneros and scotch bonnets available in lots of specialty markets these days, please do wear some gloves when you're cutting and seeding the peppers. Not joking...get a habanero seed under your fingernail and tell me you don't want to die just a little bit. However, the Jerk is good. Use it on pork or chicken and slooooow grill or roast it since the jerk might want to catch fire due to the brown sugar & the lime juice. I'm not going to lie to you...it's not even that hot. I think next time I might even leave the seeds in one or two of the peppers. Maybe my husband's not trying to kill me after all. Really, he'd be a fool. Who else would feed him like this?


Authentic Jerk Marinade for Chicken, Pork or Shrimp
Makes about 3 cups of marinade which is enough for at least two or more cut-up chickens, 4 pork tenderloins or more shrimp than you can shake your tongs at.

Ingredients:
6 scallions, cleaned and chopped into 2" segments
4 large cloves of garlic
1 small onion
4 - 5 Scotch Bonnet or Habanero Peppers or any combination of both, seeds and white ribs removed (wear gloves! You've been warned!)
2 T. Brown Sugar
1 T. Kosher salt (you can probably use regular salt, but why?)
1 1/2 tsp. frech ground nutmeg
2 bay leaves, center ribs torn out
1 T. fresh thyme leaves
2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. espresso powder
2 tsp. fresh ground ginger
2 T. Olive Oil
2 T. Mt. Gay rum
2 T. Soy Sauce
3/4 c. fresh squeezed lime juice

Instructions:

Place all ingredients into a blender or food processor and pulse until smooth. Place meat into zip-lock bags and cover with marinade. Seal bags tightly, pressing out excess air. Marinade in the fridge OVERNIGHT. Remove meat from bags; discard used marinade. Grill over medium heat until meat reaches desired internal temperature, being careful not to let marinade catch fire! Enjoy!


Leftover marinade can be stored in the fridge for about 2-3 days or frozen for 6 months.

Welcome to Salty Sour Spicy Sweet. If it has ever occurred to you that you might have an unhealthy relationship with food, you're about to feel a lot better about yourself. Somewhere along the line, cooking and food snuck waaaay up on our list of priorities. So far up, in fact, that important stuff like work, reality television and our our own well-being were replaced by things like farmers' markets, our quest for the region's finest charcuterie and Beth's new pasta maker. We've designed our blog to bring you our favorite recipes and deepest food-related musings, as well as a bit of inspiration ... food is sustenance, food is sharing and food is love, but it is not brain surgery. So put down that take-out menu and cook something. We've already done all the obsessing for you.

And, lest you think this is all about us, we really want to hear from you ... a lot! We're not here to offer restaurant reviews or critique the pros (although we might from time to time). We're all about the home chef. We are in this for the simple love of food in the most everyday settings (seriously, you should see our kitchens; together, they are the size of a reasonable master bath). We promise to keep the recipes coming as long as you promise to try them. Hope you're hungry! We can't eat all of this by ourselves!

Prosciutto & heirloom tomatoes,
Beth & Kristin

And now, a few words about the bloggers.

Meet Beth:
My name is Beth, coauthor of Salty Sour Spicy Sweet, and I've always loved to eat and cook. To my parents' delight I always out-ate my older brothers. My mom has many stories of my childhood eating, including one where I was served only one slice of pizza at a birthday party. I mean, the one slice seems like the most ridiculous part of the story, but that's not the point. As the other children ran off to play I stayed back to help clean up by eating all the pizza crusts left by my friends. I was 15. HA! No, no, I was 4 years old.

My interest in food took a break in college, as I needed to concentrate on cheap wine, chain-smoking and bad take-out. I'm sure many of you can relate. As I got older, and I had my own kitchen and a few dollars to spend on groceries, my passion for food developed. It helped to have a foodmate like Kristin. Our friendship began in the summer of 1998. We had lots in common like drinking and eating, and a few other things like, um ... I can't remember. We drank a lot. But from there we started our culinary journey with discussions of all things food, from scrapple to oysters. We love it all.

Meet Kristin:
As Beth mentioned, my name is Kristin and I too used to eat microwaved things after consuming excessive quantities of cheap booze. But, all along, I knew better. I was raised by a woman who made her own Bisquick and, for a time, baked all of our bread from scratch, God love her. I don't think I ingested a store-bought cookie until I was old enough to go to school or stay at a friend's house. I was probably the only 12 year-old in my sixth grade class who could appreciate the finer points of a raw bar. Upon my arrival at college, I was shocked to find that things like Rice-A-Roni and Kraft Mac-n-cheese were actually eaten by people I knew. Lots of them! Frightened by some of my roommates' abusive relationship with Heinz Ketchup, I folded and let the microwaves wash over me.

Also like Beth, I have matured and, while some cheap booze still sneaks its way in every now and again, my microwaving days are behind me. I can nearly pinpoint the moment when my attitude towards food shifted. Shortly after college, I sat in a particularly elegant bar and watched Beth dribble an arrabiatta sauce, redolent with crab meat, down the front of her white shirt and I had an "A-ha!" moment. This was food as it should be! So, my pockets falsely heavy from waiting tables, I began to dabble in food snobbery. It was no big deal at first ... a simple shunning of national chain restaurants, a sudden interest in upscale kitchen wares, a casual curiosity about brioche. Fast forward a few years and here I am -- a full-blown junkie. Don't judge! When I say snob, I don't mean a truffle-hoarding, champagne-swilling bore (although who hasn't hoarded some truffles?). I mean that I want food to be the best it can be, whether it's a french fry or a perfectly seared baby lamb chop. And what I really want is to make it myself and then feed it to people and have them swoon just a little. Is that so much to ask?

We're really looking forward to sharing our favorite recipes and indulgences with all of you! Please be in touch...there will be recipes, laughs and more soon!