The many exciting uses of apples

I promised an apple recipe post, and I always follow through on my relatively easy promises. I wanted to be revolutionary and offer you a selection of unique apple recipes like the creative and intrepid food blogger I sometimes aspire to be. I had high hopes. But then everything I could think to add to mix things up a little just seemed like it would detract from the simple, delicious flavor of apples. So instead, this post will be less of an informative, edgy look at the newest in apple recipes, but rather a softer, less thought-provoking answer to the question: what would I do if I had a large quantity of apples at my disposal? The first three things you think of are likely the first three things I thought of, and therefore, the things that I made. I did try a couple of dinner dishes that involved apples which I'm including here, but I'm sorry to say that neither of them really tasted like apples. Oh well, at least I've gotten through all my apples this week with no spoiling! The only downside is that there is an impromptu apple pie bake-off at my office on Monday, and I no longer have the goods to compete.

Apple recipe 1: Apple sauce

Seeing the big bag of apples, my first thought was to conden

se as many as possible. The quickest way to do that was to make apple sauce. I have a crock pot, so it was easy enough to do even while away at brunch and discovering the magic of $9.90 jeans at the new Uniqlo Flagship Store. I didn't use a recipe but

here is the approximate measurements of what I did.

Crock Pot Apple Sauce

7 apples cored and peeled (I'm not sure what kind as they all go thrown in the same bag, but it was some combination of Macoun, Macintosh, Jonamac,

Empire, Granny Smith, and Golden Delicious).

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1 T brown sugar

1/2 water

Stir all ingredients in crock pot and then cook on high for 6 hours on low. At this point apples should be easy to mash with a fork or potato masher un

til substance resembles apple sauce. I took a picture of this final product but frankly apple sauce is not a particularly photogenic food. It was hard to tell rather I had cooked the apples or they had been regurgitated by a pelican. Nevertheless, i

t tasted delicious.

Apple recipe 2: Turkey Meatballs

This is one of those apple dinner recipes I mentioned above. While it didn't get me through a large quantity of apples, I did manage to find a recipe that involved one. You couldn't really taste it, but it still counts. More importantly it allowed me to use my crock pot a second time in the same week. I won't post this recipe because I followed it almost exactly from here. My only change was to use chopped fresh onions instead of onion powder, simply because that's what I had on hand. Sadly, this was not the first time I attempted this recipe. Last week, I bought all the ingredients and got up early to make these. It was a Tuesday, when I have tin whistle classes and don't necessarily want to come home and mak

e dinner right away. Sadly, I forgot the most important step to coming home to a delicious meatball dinner: turning the crock pot on. Thus making these meatballs with a freshly picked apple was something of a redemption. They turned out okay, but a little dry. I promise I took a picture, but it's nowhere to be found right now. You'll just have to trust me; they looked like meatballs.

UPDATE: I came back to this post and realized it isn't very good. The least I can do is dig up a picture!

Apple recipe 3: Butternut Squash Apple Soup

This recipe was the inspiration of receiving a butternut squash in my farm share. It turns out adding a couple of apples transforms a traditional creamy butternut squash soup into a delicious fall medley. I didn't take a picture of this one because I realized that most apple dishes really aren't that showy. Or maybe it's that most soups that I make (because I care more for immediacy than for garnish) aren't that showy. Suffice is to say, I passed up the opportunity to make a nice showy apple tart, and that is probably the reason my food blogger aspirations will never be realized. That and the fact that even when I take photos, I can't seem to upload them.

At any rate, here is the soup recipe, I used and highly recommend. It's autumn in a bowl.

Apple recipe 4: apple crisp.

There isn't much to say about apple crisp. I'll be honest and say I haven't even tried this one yet, and moreover, I didn't even make it. That said, it is an apple classic, and I'm convinced is a slightly healthier alternative to straight up apple pie, assuming you don't serve it with ice cream. Here is the one that was used (with no assistance from me whatsoever!). I have no doubt that it is delicious.

That about does it for my apple-ful week. I have two remaining that I will likely just eat in slices with peanut butter per my usual treatment. I hope you have found this, unfortunately visually lacking, post an inspiration. If you come up with some totally original apple recipe that involves wild, previously unconsidered combinations like apples and chile powder, feel free to share in the comments section.