On The Road: Recipe - Sal's Road-Side Sliders (or Kristen's "Double Double" Burgers)

Kristen's always been a meat-eater after my own heart - pun not intended - I remember her saying to PopEater "I think I could have eaten 16 double double burgers in a day" during filming of The Yellow Handkerchief.

So how could I resist cooking up some sliders to coincide with Part 1, Chapter 4 of our On The Road read-along? Especially as they're oh so easy to make as well as Sal getting deep into the American mid-west, home of red-meat eaters:

"We all shambled after them to a restaurant run by a bunch of women, and sat around over hamburgers and coffee while they wrapped away enormous meals just as if they were back in their mother's kitchen."

Sounds tasty :)

Vegetarians beware - click to cook after the cut!

On The Road: Recipie - Kristen's "Mean" Apple Pie... packing punch with pastry!

Bam!

Back in her interview with Harpers Bazaar for their December 2009 issue, Kristen said how she makes "really good pie. Apple pie — it's the best."

How could I resist the urge to bake one for our On The Road read-a-long?  Especially as Sal just got to the heart of the midwest where he "ate apple pie and ice cream - it was getting better as I got deeper into Iowa, the pie bigger, the ice cream richer".

Now, I'm not going to be so ambitious as to make my own ice-cream (yet) especially as making my own pastry is challenge enough - I wouldn't judge you for using ready-made here - I usually make apple crumbles so I can trick myself into thinking it's healthier due to the oats :)

I'm working from a friend's tried and tested recipe, with which she won a competition back in the day and has been baking ever since.  To give it that "mean" feel I'm adding an extra squeeze of lemon (must be all that fan fic) and feel free to throw in an extra apple or two if you're feeling particularly Iowanian ;)

Click to cook after the cut!

On The Road: Recipe - NYC Cream Cakes... I bake therefore I blog :)

Beatnik Breakfast in New York, late 1950s. L-R: Larry Rivers, Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso (back of head), David Amram, Allen Ginsburg - via source

I'm not one for usually documenting my culinary "creations" - I more usually bake on a whim - that is to say, when I've been given a foodie idea that I just can't get out of my head until I eat it... in Kristen's Lit case, this is looking to become a regular occurrence :)


In Part One, Chapter One of On The Road, Jack (Kerouac) writes about eating "glazed cakes and cream puffs" with Dean and Marylou when they first arrive in New York.

As homage to this, I decided that NYC Cream Cakes were top of our "Stew's Cooking" list!


What makes them "NYC" style, similar to NY Cheesecake, is that I've added cream cheese to otherwise standard plain cream filling.


The cakes themselves are adjusted from a tested recipe I researched at the JoyOfBaking... I'm glazing them just so they fit in better with our story ;)

Click to cook after the cut!