Cooking with Us: E3: Apple Picking and Smoke Salmon Crostini

Hi!

I hoped to have this vlog up last week, but the past couple of weeks have been crazy, not least of which due to the fact that this past weekend was mine and Theron's one year wedding anniversary! 

That pic on the right is from one year ago, October 13th 2012. Don't we look happy? :)

For our anniversary we went to Chicago (of course!) and picked up a replica of the top tier of our cake, which was awesome and apple-spicy!

Speaking of apples! This post is about apple picking, and something you can make with them that is not apple pie.  

Also in this video, I included an attempt at apple sauerkraut (a simple recipe I found online) that was truly an utter failure!

And then we made something truly delicious - which was of course - a total win!

As usual, I suggest viewing this at high quality and full screen. :)

The transcript and recipe will follow, but I wanted to tell you a little about the day. 

First of all, it was an absolutely beautiful day to be picking apples in such a gorgeous orchard.

As you might have guessed, this is a screen grab from my podcast. How awesome is that apple tree?

Also Theron loved my apple picking outfit.

Complimented by a string of (fake) pearls, and super-obviously

fake Chanel earrings, but who is judging? :)

First we tried to make a recipe I found online for 'Apple Sauerkraut' which tasted, well, like sauerkraut. 

Fail!

Perseverance won out, however, and we ended up with something super delicious.

Smoked Salmon crostinis!

As my friend Peter would say, "Yum to the umms!"

The only hard part was to get Theron to stop making me laugh long enough to make the dang things!

But I think in life, there are worse problems :)

Here is the super simple recipe:

- 3 TBSP creme fraiche
- 1 lb (ish) smoked salmon
- 1 large apple
- 1 bunch green onions
- bread for toasting (I used Italian bread)

Simply dice the apple, chop up your onions, and mix well with the creme fraiche. Toast your bread and top it with the apple mixture - as much as you like.  Then top all that with smoked salmon.
As I said, it's a very easy recipe that will have you and your friends super stoked at how yummylicious it is!!

Enjoy!
-Val!

The transcript follows:

- 

Today we're going to an apple orchard that my friend found for us in Sheboygan falls so we don't have to drive that far, and we're gonna pick our own apples, and we're taking Brigly with us, so it should be a lot of fun. See you there!

That's why I'm not wearing heels, because we're going apple-picking and we'll be on the grass.

Well we have our basket, and we're gonna pick three types of apples. So we were told that everything with the orange flag are Cortland apples. Let's go.

The ones up high, I can reach those!
You gotta get those ones up there!
Hey that came off easy!
Oooh look, this one!
These are awesome trees!! They'd be so fun to climb, right?

Wow, this is a gorgeous day!  Hence the long sleeves.

Got one!

I wonder what they are...
apples.
Would you like an apple?

Hi

I like your apple-picking outfit.
I see your wore your pearls for apple-picking.

Oh good job!
Did he bite it?
No, that would be awesome though, right?

Kitty Meow

Well we have our apples, we're gonna go get them weighed, and then we're gonna go home and make stuff with them!

So what we're gonna make today are pork chops with apple sauerkraut.

So Theron has cut up all three of our apples so we can taste them and see which one's the sweetest, because I think that's the one I'm gonna put with the sauerkraut because obviously that's sour.

A pound of sauerkraut which we will be using.

So now we're going to saute two and a half apples with a pinch of ground allspice.

Isn't it supposed to taste like all the spices combined?

All the spices in the world? mhm

A pinch of sugar.

See that's a lot of sauerkraut...
It's a pound.

It seems like they're soft so we're gonna add our sauerkraut.

That is a lot of sauerkraut...

It called for a pound.

I know but it's so weird.

This tastes like sauerkraut... with.. nothing you can't even taste the apples.

So now you're eating sausage?

yes.

Brigly sack take one.

That was a bigger piece than you gave him last time...
He's just like lookin' at me like 'umm'.

He's an alligator.

Was it supposed to taste sweet?

I don't know why the apples were in it, you couldn't even taste the apples.
Maybe it was the apples we got. No.

Well we tried a recipe, and then I tried to fix it, and then I did fix it, and then I ruined it so....

So I am going to make some creme fraiche smoked salmon crostinis that involve apples...

What's cookin'?
I'm toasting some bread..
Where's my cannoli?
Oh god you had donuts you don't need a cannoli.

Chop puppy, chop!
Ok

Smells good... smell.

So we put in three tablespoons of creme fraiche because I love it.
One fairly large apple we've obviously minced up. (Yep one apple).
A bunch of chives, you know, as much as you can use. And that's it.

Smell that it smells like smoke.
It does smell like smoke.

This is smoked salmon that we got in Kohler.
We're going to take this mix we made so this goes like on this, however you want it.
Top it with the smoked salmon.

Hm.. mm...Wow.

Wait, is it one more, one more hm? Hm hm wow or hm hm hm?

It's interesting cause all the flavors go really well together. Rock on!
This is awesome - yayyyy!

Please try your crostini so we can end the podcast. Yes
Never!
please!

Oh god, what is wrong with you...

Hmmmhmmmm

That's a lot...
That was a really big bite.

It is really good.
That's so much better than the first thing we tried to make.
That's REALLY good.
Right?
Dayam.

Thank you for being patient with us on cooking with us, and um I hope you try this because it's actually really good. And um, next time my husband will behave himself.  Ciao.

I wish this was 1080p.
I wish we had a hundred thousand million dollars.
And now we do!!