Cooking for Men: Cinnamon Baked Apples
A good friend of mine called last night around 6PM. The conversation went like this:
Him: “What are you doing?”
Me: “Writing.”
Him: “Wanna get dinner”
Me: “I’m writing. I’m reheating something I made yesterday.”
Him: “What?”
Me: “Pulled pork.”
Pause, and then the question he was waiting for:
Me: “Do you want to come over? I can make you a plate. But you can’t talk to me, because I’m working.”
Him: “Can I watch the game?”
Me: “Yes.”
Him: “I’m at the door.”
He’s not the only man I’ve last-minute-cooked for this week; I’ve been testing a lot recipes, and inviting friends to partake. The friends are men, mostly, and I’ve noticed something remarkable that happens when I invite them for food.
They come to the door more tentatively, and they're usually carrying a gift. They've put on a better shirt, and they're more formal with me than usual, like when they politely for seconds. And boy are they helpful, as in: Can they take out the garbage? Walk the dog? Do the dishes? They insist on clearing the table.
They look in my eyes when they say “thank you”, and they say it more than once, as if they’re eleven years old, I’m their best friend’s mom, and their mom told them to mind their manners, be polite and mind their please-and-thank-yous.
We've been friends for a while, but when I play in the kitchen and share, these men go all sweet.
It’s not a boyfriend/girlfriend thing, it’s more of a gender thing. These days, many of the men I know have almost been conditioned out of thinking that a women might enjoy cooking for them. When we when do, they get woozy. They look at me with a cocked head, the way my dog does when she comes across something she didn't expect.
My friend was halfway through his pulled pork when he said, “Allison, today I walked around the neighborhood, calling the women I know, and telling them I was nearby. They each invited me over, gave me something to eat, and told me about their love lives. I think it was the best day of my life.”
A drizzly, rainy Brooklyn day. A day for baking pies, lazy reading and slow cooking. And for this guy, a day to go door-to-door with his empty stomach and friendship.
Cooking is much more fun when there’s an appreciative someone who enjoys what you’ve made. And when that guest is as unexpected as the cooking, it’s a happy coincidence.
Cinnamon Baked Apples
Serves 6
6 small (4- to 6-ounce) baking apples (such as Golden Delicious, Braeburn or Rome Beauty)
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/3 cup (packed) brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped pecans (optional)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup apple juice, plus ½ cup water
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Using melon baller, scoop out stem, core and seeds of apples, leaving bottom intact. Using vegetable peeler, peel skin off top half of each apple. Arrange apples, cavity side up, in 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish.
2. Stir raisins, sugar, pecans if desired and cinnamon in small bowl to blend. Pack about 2 tablespoons raisin mixture into cavity of each apple. Sprinkle any remaining raisin mixture into dish around apples. Pour juice over and around apples. Dot apples with butter.
3. Bake apples 15 minutes; baste with juices. Continue to bake until apples are slightly puffed and tender, basting every 10 minutes, about 40 minutes. Transfer baking dish to work surface; let apples stand 10 minutes, basting occasionally.
4. Transfer apples to bowls. Spoon pan juices over and serve warm.
Nutritional Info (without pecans):
Calories: 192 / Fat: 4g / Carb: 42g / Fiber: 3g / Protein: 1g
Him: “What are you doing?”
Me: “Writing.”
Him: “Wanna get dinner”
Me: “I’m writing. I’m reheating something I made yesterday.”
Him: “What?”
Me: “Pulled pork.”
Pause, and then the question he was waiting for:
Me: “Do you want to come over? I can make you a plate. But you can’t talk to me, because I’m working.”
Him: “Can I watch the game?”
Me: “Yes.”
Him: “I’m at the door.”
He’s not the only man I’ve last-minute-cooked for this week; I’ve been testing a lot recipes, and inviting friends to partake. The friends are men, mostly, and I’ve noticed something remarkable that happens when I invite them for food.
They come to the door more tentatively, and they're usually carrying a gift. They've put on a better shirt, and they're more formal with me than usual, like when they politely for seconds. And boy are they helpful, as in: Can they take out the garbage? Walk the dog? Do the dishes? They insist on clearing the table.
They look in my eyes when they say “thank you”, and they say it more than once, as if they’re eleven years old, I’m their best friend’s mom, and their mom told them to mind their manners, be polite and mind their please-and-thank-yous.
We've been friends for a while, but when I play in the kitchen and share, these men go all sweet.
It’s not a boyfriend/girlfriend thing, it’s more of a gender thing. These days, many of the men I know have almost been conditioned out of thinking that a women might enjoy cooking for them. When we when do, they get woozy. They look at me with a cocked head, the way my dog does when she comes across something she didn't expect.
My friend was halfway through his pulled pork when he said, “Allison, today I walked around the neighborhood, calling the women I know, and telling them I was nearby. They each invited me over, gave me something to eat, and told me about their love lives. I think it was the best day of my life.”
A drizzly, rainy Brooklyn day. A day for baking pies, lazy reading and slow cooking. And for this guy, a day to go door-to-door with his empty stomach and friendship.
Cooking is much more fun when there’s an appreciative someone who enjoys what you’ve made. And when that guest is as unexpected as the cooking, it’s a happy coincidence.
Cinnamon Baked Apples
Serves 6
6 small (4- to 6-ounce) baking apples (such as Golden Delicious, Braeburn or Rome Beauty)
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/3 cup (packed) brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped pecans (optional)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup apple juice, plus ½ cup water
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Using melon baller, scoop out stem, core and seeds of apples, leaving bottom intact. Using vegetable peeler, peel skin off top half of each apple. Arrange apples, cavity side up, in 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish.
2. Stir raisins, sugar, pecans if desired and cinnamon in small bowl to blend. Pack about 2 tablespoons raisin mixture into cavity of each apple. Sprinkle any remaining raisin mixture into dish around apples. Pour juice over and around apples. Dot apples with butter.
3. Bake apples 15 minutes; baste with juices. Continue to bake until apples are slightly puffed and tender, basting every 10 minutes, about 40 minutes. Transfer baking dish to work surface; let apples stand 10 minutes, basting occasionally.
4. Transfer apples to bowls. Spoon pan juices over and serve warm.
Nutritional Info (without pecans):
Calories: 192 / Fat: 4g / Carb: 42g / Fiber: 3g / Protein: 1g
posted by Allison Fishman Task at 12:02 PM
3 Comments:
I'm thinking of making this for the day after t-giving..I'm having a houseful. Thanks for including the nutritional breakdown. I really like that.
YKW
Allison,
When Angela's fixing something just for me (which is less often now that she's on an Italian cookbook project with an agroturismo farm outside of Rome, so cooking is work), she goes through steps:
1. Cookbooks out. Planning, imagining. Here, I am just a part of the equation.
2. Shopping. I help. Sometimes I'm in more of a hurry than she is, because she pokes and prods things, and of course smells them and spends moments (which accumulate) looking dreamy or concerned.
3. Prepping. Here, I help, and I'm just part of the equation.
4. Cooking. I might as well be on Neptune.
5. Serving. It's a rush. But we're both giggly happy.
6. First bite. Oh my god. I don't know if it's about me, or her, or the food. Things just sort of dissolve into how-did-we-get-so-lucky type feelings.
7. I thank her and honor her profusely. It's about her.
8. Then, at the end, "You really like it?" she asks, sincerely concerned. And of course I love it.
9. And she is pleased, and I am pleased.
I wash up while she's on Facebook, or working on her cookbook. I hear typing and laughing, or nothing at all, from her room. She hears clanking and running water.
Food is about so much more than food.
Paul
PS Love your YouTube videos. 2 minutes of smart, cheerful, intelligent, beautiful woman+food.
Sometimes it is just special when a lady (or a man for that matter) makes something that is just for you. The clean shirt, or repeated thank yous just show appreciation. Isn't it nice to make someone feel so special?
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