The autumn leaves are veined with gold in Wonderland…
Veined With Gold
Cinnamon-Tossed Mulled Self-Picked Apple Cider Marshmallows
Will you believe me if I tell you they taste even better if you make them with apples you picked yourself? Honestly, I have no idea if they do — the apples Jed and I picked will be saved for cheddar-apple pie and chai-spiced apple bread.
I use ready-made grocery store cider for mulling, because I don’t actually have the time or energy to press enough apples to get a decent quantity of cider. 
They still come out DELICIOUS.
Recipe here: https://serendibkitchen.com/2019/11/14/1859/
Thirty Seconds of Marshmallow-Making, 10 Minutes In
Thirty seconds of marshmallow-making, ten minutes in.
Thirty Seconds of Marshmallow-Making, 1 Minute In
Thirty seconds of marshmallow-making, one minute in.
Green Tomato and Apple Chutney
Savory Oatmeal with Shallot, Green Chili, Cheddar, and Egg
The flavors are pretty Sri Lankan — I was remembering eating cheese toast (maybe made with cream cheese instead of cheddar?) with onion and green chili on the beach with Yudhanjaya Wijeratne and Suchetha Wijenayake and Navin Weeraratne and Mandy Jayatissa, late at night while Kavi fell asleep with her head on the table. I miss Sri Lanka. Worrying about them.
*****
Start steel cut oats cooking in water. Slice shallot and green chili (in retrospect, I wish I’d done two chilies, but one is probably plenty for most folks), sauté in butter or ghee or oil, seasoning with salt and pepper. (I actually made a double batch of the oats and the shallot-chili mixture; I’m going to save it in the fridge and try the other half of it with different toppings tomorrow.)
Shred 1/4 c. of good cheddar cheese. When oatmeal is almost cooked, fry an egg sunny-side up (or over-easy, or poached, etc…) with salt and pepper.
Stir cheese into cooked oatmeal, top with egg, enjoy! I thought this was pretty good, though it may take a little while for me to get used to savory oatmeal.
*****
See us all on the beach back in 2018: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10159024822294616
Oatmeal Failure
Well, recent oatmeal was sort of a failure, because I was distracted when I was making it (always a danger cooking before the ADHD meds have kicked in), and I put in rolled oats instead of steel-cut oats, but set the timer for 20 minutes, so the oatmeal ended up kind of glue-y, which is NOT my favorite texture; I could only make myself eat about half of it.
Which is a shame, because the *concept* was good — crystallized ginger cooked in with the oatmeal, making lovely little soft ‘pings’ of gingery goodness, topped with cashew butter and banana. I’ll likely try it again sometime. Link in comments to a big bag of chopped up crystallized ginger, making it easy to add in.
But today I’m not in the mood for sweet, so moving on to attempting savory oatmeal. Stay tuned.
Fox and Owl Chicken Pot Pies
I’m getting better at using these molds — it took about 30 minutes to cut and fill 5 pies (plus one empanada-style with the leftover pie crust).
And I used a Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust, which meant that there was only about 45-60 minutes of active cooking time (take pie shell out of fridge, let thaw, make filling, roll out and cut and fill fox and owl, brush with beaten egg), and then bake about 30 minutes.
If you choose to cut the eyes and other parts completely out, rather than just leaving an impression, be careful not to overfill, or they’ll likely break apart while baking.
Rich and tasty dinner, paired with a citrus-spinach salad to cut the richness.
Fox and Owl Cheddar-Apple Hand Pies
No recipe yet, because I wasn’t entirely happy with the results — need to tweak. But I do like the little pie cutters — it took a little while to figure out how to use them, and it’s definitely fiddly and time-consuming to do this way, but the end result is so cute, I forgive it.
If anyone local wants to borrow these Sur La Table cutters for a weekend, let me know; I’ll feel better about buying them if they get more use!
(the last photo is the mangled pie that I made with the last bits of piecrust trimmings — it looks like a spooky face to me)
Oatmeal Experiments Continue
This morning, I tried cooking in dried fruit (diced peaches, cranberries, apricots, pears, nectarines, and raisins) directly with the steel-cut oatmeal; that worked, with the fruit nice and soft by the time the oatmeal was cooked. (Link to mixed dried fruit in comments.)
Stirred in chia seeds and fresh blueberries at the end — the end result was plenty sweet for me without adding any brown sugar or honey, and the blueberries were a bit tangy, adding a nice fresh contrast.
I didn’t feel like nuts or nut butter or bananas this morning, and this oatmeal was fine, but did feel a little less substantial than my other oatmeal breakfasts. Maybe I’ll eat a banana later today. 
