With very little reception on my phone I found myself completely disconnected from the outside world and in the midst of a Melissa’s Produce Apple Tour.  I reveled in the thought of pretending to be Snow White lost in the apple forest.  I wondered what it would be like at night if I snuck out there in the middle of nowhere or as they call it, Cuyama Orchard’s – Organic Apple Farm,  located near Ojai just on the other side of the Santa Barbara Mountains.  A place where the golf-ball sized sweet Crimson Gold is grown on dwarf trees to ensure all the apples get plenty of sun.  We learned directly from the farmers about the measurement of sugar through brix and how they pick the apples.  Did you know when an apple is ready to be picked it will come off the apple tree with very little pull?

It was a great day of apple adventures and we got to bring a bounty of apples home with us to make apple recipes galore.  At first I made an Oatmeal Crumble Apple Crisp, and now I made Apple Pecan Cinnamon Buns (Recipe to listed below).  Enjoy a few photos from my day on the farm and then bake some buns.

Ingredients for Apple Pecan Cinnamon Buns:

• 1 – 17.03 oz box puff pastry (2 sheets)
• 1/2 – stick room temperature butter (plus a little more to grease pan with)
• 1/2 – cup dark brown sugar
• 1 – teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 – teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 – cup chopped pecans
• 1 – cup Melissa’s Produce Crimson Gold Apples or Gala Apples (peeled, and chopped into 1/2 an inch bite size pieces)
• 1 – egg
• 1 – tablespoon water

Ingredients for Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 1/2 – stick butter (room temperature)
• 4 – oz cream cheese (room temperature)
• 3/4 – cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 – teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 – tablespoons whole milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit

Lightly grease an 8-inch cake pan with butter or a non-stick cooking spray. Set to the side.

On a clean surface, unfold both sheets of puff pastry and spread with 2 tablespoons of butter each. Set to the side

In a little bowl mix sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg together until well combined. Then divide it evenly among the two butter lined puff pastry sheets, and spread it even.

Then top both with a 1/2 cup of diced apples each.

Carefully roll puff pastry into a tight neat roll. With a fork press down all along the seam of the roll.

In a small bowl mix egg and water to make an egg wash. Then brush apple cinnamon roll with egg wash along the fork impressed seam.

Next, with a sharp knife cut roll into 1 1/2 inch pieces and place in the greased 8-inch cake pan. Both rolls will fit into 1 pan. Leave a little room between each roll, as they will expand during baking.

Then sprinkle top with pecans.

Bake for 30 minutes on middle rack.

You could eat them like this or you could make the frosting for the top.

For the frosting, combine all ingredients in a mixer and beat for 5 minutes. Dollop over the top of your buns! Enjoy!

Halloween holds such joyous memories for me.  I equate October with creativity, imagination, family closeness, traditional sweet confections, and the kick off to the official holiday season. However you decide to mask your face, as a ghost, mummy, witch, sexy nurse or last years vampire…. make sure you leave enough room to stuff your face with my Halloween Caramel Apples.  Why? Because they are FREAK-ing delicious and simple to make!

Ingredients for Halloween Caramel Apples:

7 – Melissa’s Produce Granny Smith Apples or Pears

7 – popsicle sticks

2 – tablespoons milk

1 – package of caramels (about 50 unwrapped pieces)

melted chocolate of your choice

royal icing or frosting

 Directions:

1. Wash and dry apples and/or pears

2. Insert stick into apple or pear

3. Over a medium low flame in a sauce pan add milk and caramels. Stir until completely melted.

4. Line a platter or cookie sheet with a piece of buttered wax paper.

5. Dip apples into caramel until completely covered, and place on lined platter.

6. Place apples/pears in refrigerator for 1 hour to set.

7. Melt chocolate of your choice, White works well for decorating purposes.

8. Dip caramel apples/pears into chocolate and place back into the fridge for an additional 45 minutes.

9. Once the apples/pears are set remove from fridge and decorate with royal icing or frosting to make a spook-tacular frightfully delicious apple!

10. Enjoy and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I would like to thank Melissa’s Produce for suppling me with all the apples and pears.

Video and photos by: Mando Lopez

Spicy is one of the preferred flavors in my library of taste, I reach for it and crave it more often than not. This is not a trait I was born with, but a preference I developed. Spice comes to me in an assortment of ways, and pickling happens to be a tradition both sides of my family have enjoyed for years. My Great Grandma Presley use to make her own pickles, and my Grandfather Sandoval always ate a pickled guero chile with his sandwich. My pickling recipe is a mish mash of many flavors pulled from my upbringing and travels rolled into one.  I used onions and veggies for this pickling and added a Red Savina Habanero Pepper from Melissa’s Produce to bring on the heat. Now my sandwiches, and veggie burgers…. will be complete.

Ingredients for Spicy Pickled Onions and Veggies:

1 – Red Savina Habanero Pepper (even a half of one will bring heat)

2 – cloves of garlic (smashed)

3 – 1 inch cubes of watermelon

2 – radish (sliced)

1 – carrot (sliced)

1 – red onion (sliced)

1/2 – teaspoon coriander seeds

1/4 – teaspoon cumin seeds

1/4 – teaspoon oregano

1/4 – teaspoon black pepper

1/2 – teaspoon salt

1 – 8.5 oz bottle of Red Wine Vinegar

a large jar.

See video for instruction.

Store in fridge for 2 days minimum before eating.

Video shot with my iPhone by: Mando Lopez

Those gorgeous New Mexico Hatch Chiles are once again in season from NOW to mid September.  My friends over at Melissa’s Produce sent me a bunch of hot and mild chiles to roast and use for savory spicy dishes. I couldn’t be satisfied with hatch chiles as a seasonal treat so I decided to preserve them for an all year round indulgence. Check out my cool video below to see how.

Drool worthy Hatch Chile Corn Bread Strata….. Click here.

Want to learn to roast Hatch chiles… Click over to Shockingly Delicious.

Photo and video shot with my iPhone taken by: Mando Lopez

In an ideal world, everyone would eat Lamb.  It would be the first meat of choice that people grabbed for.  We tend to to be repeat buyers stuck in the beef and chicken section of the market…. If only we explored our options.  I’m a HUGE CRAZY LAMB LOVER and am always surprised by the people around me who don’t eat lamb so much or have never tasted it at all.  These words send me into action, I immediately jump on my soap box and tell them how much they are missing out on, and to be ready to become fanatical.  I can’t help it, I utterly enjoy turning people on to deliciousness.

Take these Chipotle Grape Lamb Skewers for example….. My fiance’s mom is an older Mexican woman who has never cooked with Lamb.  Why?  She’s scared of it?  Not experimental?  Not really exposed to lamb dishes?  Who knows.  It could be any of these reasons.  I recently made these Lamb skewers and offer her some.  What do you think happened?  She went NUTS COOCOO bananas over them.  Asking a trillion questions about the preparation and what I used in the marinade.  I guarantee you she went out and bought some Lamb that night to make her own skewers.  My job was done here.

Ingredients for Chipotle Grape Lamb Skewers:

3 – pounds of Cedar Springs Butterflied Leg of Lamb (Chopped into 1 1/2 inch cubes)

3 – tablespoons of basil olive oil

2 – lemons (juiced)

1 – onion sliced

1 1/2 – tablespoons of chipotle powder

1 1/2 – cups pinot grigio

2 – cups Melissa’s Produce Muscato Green Grapes (smashed)

4 – garlic cloves (peeled and smashed)

2 – teaspoons of salt

15 to 20 bar-b-que skewers

Start by cutting your lamb into 1 1/2 inch cubes.  Place in a bowl.

In a another bowl add grapes and smash put to pop grapes. Place to the side.

Now add all ingredients to Lamb chunks, and mix well. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to marinate in the fridge overnight.

1 hour before you are ready to grill…. soak skewers in water for at least 20 minutes.

Then remove lamb from fridge and skewer 4 chunks of meat per skewer. Once all skewers are prepared….Toss them on the grill.

Grill on each side for 4 to 5 minutes….. Heaven!

 Do you want to grill some Lamb?

This giveaway is now closed!

Rules for the giveaway:

Leave a comment below letting me know how you like to eat lamb or if you have never tried it, tell me why.

Like Presley’s Pantry on Facebook!

Follow Presley’s Pantry on Twitter!

Tweet:  I just entered to WIN a butterflied leg of lamb @PresleysPantry !  Wanna win one? Enter here! http://wp.me/p1mJLS-1or

You can have up to 4 total entries each; however, please note that you have to comment back and let me know which of the actions you took, so that I can keep track of them.

Open to U.S. Residents only.  No PO Boxes, please. Must be 18 years or older to enter.  Contest ends August 17th, 2012 at 11:59 PM, PST and one winner  will be randomly chosen from all entries through random.org.

Congrats to Liz Serna…. she is the winner. 

Disclosure: I was provided with Lamb by Cedar Springs to aid this recipe and giveaway to a reader. Melissa’s Produce also provided me with grapes. The combo of these two were heavenly.

Photos by Mando Lopez

If I could float away into the world of soda and ice cream I would.  I love the foamy substance a float produces up top, it makes scooping out the ice cream with a spoon and gulping down the soda with a straw a heavenly experience.  I’ve been feeling rather peachy lately and it isn’t a coincidence that Melissa’s Produce and I are on the same wave of sentiments.  They were kind enough to send me over a batch of stone fruits. Pictured below.

After sinking my teeth into their skin and marveling over the sweetness of their flesh I wanted to enjoy them as many ways as possible.  I recently had a delicious float and was inspired to make a peach version.  Something to cool down my summer and quench my sweet tooth at the same time.  Peach and cream float with ginger cookie crumbs would definitely do the trick.

Ingredients for Peach & Cream Float:

peach ice cream

1 – peach (cored and sliced)

cream soda

ginger cookies

In a big cup add 3 to 5 scoops of ice cream.

Then take your sliced peaches and add them in!

Then pour cream soda over the top till filled, then crumble ginger cookie on top!

Stick a straw and a spoon in it, and SLURP till your heart’s content!

All photos taken by: Nicole Presley and Mando Lopez

What a difference in perspective you gain from seeing where fruit comes from 1st hand. I’ve been to the Farmer’s Markets a million times but still didn’t gather all that goes into the care and growth of the fruits or vegetables.  You sort of take things for granted when it is packaged and sold at your local convenient store or Supermarket.

I was recently invited on an adventure for ‘the citrus lover’ up to Ojai to get a first taste/tour of their exclusive “Pixie Tangerines” (they will be in the markets starting March 10th).  In accepting this invitation I was able to walk the farms where the citrus is grown and learn all types of interesting facts along the way.  Did you know that the tangerines get their color when the temperature drops at night and the weather turns cold????  I didn’t.  Like most Americans  I like seedless fruit and most of the citrus we sampled was seedless including the tangerines.  Nothing prepared me for the exquisite taste of these tangerines…..  I called them “jewels for the mouth” a burst of candied citrus tangy-ness with hints of berries and honey…… the PERFECT specimen.

First stop: Friend’s Orchards … this is a Father daughter team ran by Tony and Emily Thatcher.  In addition to the delicious Pixie tangerines they grow, they also produce some of the BEST tasting ‘W. Murcotts’ I’ve ever known.  Here are some pictures of their orchard.

Next stop: Churchill & Brennis Orchards….. Jim Churchill and Lisa Brennis , a husband and wife duo.  Their orchard has been CCOF- Certified Organic since 2007.  They have many acres of pixie tangerine trees and also produce the cute sweet little “Kishu”, look for it… only in season for a few more weeks.  A little photo diary of our visit.

From L to R: Me, Ericka of Nibbles and Feasts, Dorothy of Shockingly Delicious, Nancy of A Communal Table, and Priscilla of She’s Cookin.

The great news is you don’t need to go all the way to Ojai to get your mitts on these citrus gems, Melissa’s Produce will be bringing them to you.  Keep an eye out for this packaging….. when you see it grab away!

 Photo Credit: Group photo taken by Robert Schueller.  Photo of me by tangerine tree taken by Nancy Buchanan. All other photos taken by Nicole Presley.

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored or compensated post.