Hey there Florida Foodie friends,
It is I, the Rip Van Winkle of the internet, Thomas Mates.
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Thanksgiving has come and gone. I don’t know about all of you, but I am exhausted — much like this cat posted to PinIt!
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My holiday was great — relatively low stress and a lot of good food, including my first attempt at baking a pie.
I didn’t do a great job with the crust, but it wasn’t bad. We ended up blending it with some vanilla ice cream to make pecan pie milkshakes, which were pretty great.
Now, with all of that behind us, I am ready to nap for about a month.
Unfortunately, there is no rest for the wicked and we are running full spring toward the end of the year. There is a lot to do between now and 2024 and not nearly enough time to do it.
Just a reminder, we don’t have a new episode of Florida Foodie. Our production team needed a little break in our recording schedule to deal with some of our other holiday projects, such as Angel Tree. So we are going to have a little podcast hiatus, but don’t worry because new episodes will be back in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, you can also find every episode of Florida Foodie on YouTube.
OK, let’s dive in.
Old school eats🥪
The food-service industry can be pretty fraught and it is rare to see a restaurant hang on for generations. There are a few spots around Orlando that have become cornerstones in their community, maintaining their mom-and-pop charm.
We’ve put together a list of some of these iconic spots around the City Beautiful. You can read all about them and what makes them so enduring, just click here.
Small Bites🥞
KISS goodbye🎸: The legendary rock band KISS is getting ready to perform their final concert, and the event is going to be live-streamed at Rock & Brews locations across the country, including three in Central Florida. The chain was founded by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. Read all about the event here.
Best slice in Florida🍕: Some snobs would argue that you can’t get a decent pizza in Florida. I disagree. I have found many prime pie spots around our area. That being said, the best pizza in The Sunshine State is apparently in Gainesville. Click here to find out where.
Taco throwdown🌮: A weekend filled with tacos and tasty treats is heading to Brevard County. The 321: Tacos & Treats Throwdown is happening Saturday and Sunday. Click here for all the details.
Something to try at home 🍽️
This week, I’ve got a really simple dessert recipe. It’s a rustic apple tart originated by legendary chef Jacques Pepin, but I came to it by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt.
It is very easy and uses pizza dough as the base.
Ingredients:
- pizza dough, either store-bought or homemade - you can find a recipe here
- 4 medium apples, golden delicious or something equally tart
- 5 tablespoons of sugar
- 2 tablespoons butter
- apricot jam
Step 1: Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. While the oven heats, spread about two tablespoons of sugar onto a sheet pan. Stretch your pizza dough over the top of the sugar on the sheet pan and let it rest for about 10 minutes.
Step 2: Core and slice your apples. Once the dough is rested, give it another little stretch as it may have contracted. Shingle on your apple slices all around the dough. It doesn’t need to be tidy.
Step 3: Dust your apples and dough with the remaining three tablespoons of sugar. Dot the top of the tart with pieces of butter.
Step 4: Bake your tart for roughly 45 minutes or until the crust is golden and the sugar is caramelized. Once it is removed from the oven, brush the top of the tart with apricot jam while it is still warm and then allow to cool slightly before serving.
It is just that simple. It is a rustic tart, so it doesn’t have to look super neat and you can whip this together in about an hour (provided you have some premade pizza dough on hand).
That’s it for today.
Please, send me your recipes so I can share them with everyone. My email is tmates@wkmg.com.
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