November 9 Meal: The Best Apple Pie

This was an unexpectedly successful night.  I wasn't sure what to expect from Linguine with Tuna, Arugula, and Lemon and Radicchio and Arugula Salad with Dates, Hazelnuts, and Feta.  The one safe recipe was going to be Apple Pie with Oat Streusel, but even that turned out so much better than I thought it would.  The pasta and salad made for a very quick dinner with a lot of flavor and something out of the ordinary.

Linguine with Tuna, Arugula, and LemonThe main thing that didn't sound quite right about this recipe was canned tuna.  It's not often you find canned items on an ingredient list in Bon Appetit and tuna is probably one of the more rare of these products.  There are just a couple steps.  First, cook the linguine.  Second, while the pasta is cooking, saute garlic, dried crushed red pepper, and tuna.  Combine the tuna mixture with the pasta and add some lemon zest, lemon juice, and arugula to everything.  The arugula and lemon give the flavor a nice freshness.  I was scared the meal would be a little too fishy, but it was great.

Yumminess: 8 out of 10
Cost: Approx. $6.75 for 3 servings
Time: Bon appetit said 15 minutes for prep and 30 minutes total.  It took me about 5 minutes in prep and 20 minutes total.
Was it worth it?: Yes, this is a very easy meal.

Radicchio and Arugula Salad with Dates, Hazelnuts, and FetaThis challenge has taught me that I should pay more attention to salad recipes.  I always skip over them because I like the salads I make and don't really think to try others.  I love this salad!  It's a good combo with the pasta above because both require arugula, so you can buy one big package to use for both.  The other components are easy to put together: chop some radicchio, cut up some dried dates, toast some hazelnuts, and crumble some feta.  The dressing is red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil.  I'd never thought to combine those two vinegars before, but it was very tasty.

Yumminess: 10 out of 10
Cost: Approx. $6.50 for 2 servings
Time: Bon appetit said 25 minutes for prep and 30 minutes total.  It took me about 15 minutes for prep and total.
Was it worth it?: Yes, this is going in the do-again pile.

Apple Pie with Oat StreuselThis may just be the perfect apple pie recipe.  I'll admit, I'm pretty proud of how it turned out.  The apples were stacked perfectly and compressed so that each slice came out clean, no apples falling all over.  The crust was just right, too.  First, the crust is the Pie Crust recipe in the same section, but when you roll it out you add some oats and roll with parchment paper over the crust disk.  It grinds the oats right into the crust.  The filling is made with Granny Smith apples, sugar, brown sugar, butter, flour, allspice, cinnamon, and salt.  The only challenging part of making the filling is peeling all those apples.  I usually peel the whole apple then use an apple corer-slicer, then slice the pieces in half again.  You can also slice the whole apple with the peel on and then peel the slices.  Last, the topping, which has flour brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, salt, allspice, butter, and oats.  When you pour the filling into the pie crust you may be concerned that it is too much.  It's mounded very high, so I just pressed down a bit to compact it.  Then just add the topping.  The oven does the magic of compressing everything a bit.

Yumminess: 10 out of 10
Cost: Approx. $9 for 8 servings
Time: Bon appetit said 25 minutes for prep and 30 minutes total.  It took me about 15 minutes for prep and total.
Was it worth it?: Definitely, this is the best apple pie I've made.  Even my office mates and Shaun agree.