Posted by Deb Puchalla
Apples and autumn just go together. Every year I drive with my family to a mom-and-pop orchard in Connecticut and pick more bags of Cortlands and Macouns and McIntoshes and various Deliciouses than anyone could ever want. Seriously, it's greedy -- like 50 pounds greedy. Sometimes more is indeed more.
I bake with some apples, cook with others, and dole out the proverbial one a day to keep doctors away (Diane has more on that) to my husband and kids. I eat more than my share but share more than I eat. This year, our weekly recipe swap with Margaret from A Way to Garden -- did you see her on "Martha"? -- and our cast of merry cooks from bloggerworld will be my source for all sorts of sweet and savory ways to get the most out of this mainstay fruit. Cate, a fellow Twitterer, already went apple picking, and she needs some ideas tout de suite, so here goes.
A few weeks ago, I posted about fruit desserts that bridge summer into fall, with apples starring in the latter part of the show. Now that some leaves have a golden cast and others are crunching underfoot, apples take center stage. It's easy to think of them as dessert food, so let's go there first. There are so many apple pies I've known and loved (in addition, of course, to Mom's): deepest dish apple pie, old-fashioned apple pie, and one of my favorites, apple crumb pie, which combines the tradition of a bottom crust with the indulgence of an oaty crumbly topping. Apple crisp is a perennial favorite, too. But a showstopping caramelized apple tart is a force to be reckoned with, without much fuss. If I make all of those, I'll be several pounds in. But we'll be picking more, so what else?
Posted by Regan Burns
Posted by Alison Sickelka
