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.

The apple that doesn't fall from the tree

This weekend, I did the very fall activity that I did this time last year (or rather one week earlier, this time last year). As you can see here, I am nothing if not predictable in my autumn outings. I traveled with many of the same friends, and then went to the exact orchard we went to last year (mostly because we didn't want to do any research). However, apparently going one week later into the end of apple season makes quite a difference. Last year, I remember us basking in the sun by the farmer's market pumpkin patch eating our donuts. This year, it was windy and cold, and we opted for hot cider to go with our donuts because apple cider donuts are lovely and some things are not dependent on the weather.

More importantly as regards apple picking, this year when we got there, they informed us they were out of apples. They claimed this wasn't just because it was late in the season but because the apple crop had been short this season due to storms (I'm looking at you, Hurricane Irene--months later and still ruining my outings). Interestingly, this information did not make it to their website which my friend had specifically checked when she heard rumors of apple shortages.

The thing is, they weren't fully out of apples, they just weren't on the trees any more. They'd taken the last of the crop and put it in big baskets for you to pick from. At first we weren't sure how this was different from choosing apples from the basket at the grocery store, but at least we were amongst the apple trees and a beautiful hour drive into the Hudson Valley. Fall foliage was starting to turn and the air was crisp. Also, as we walked the orchard, my friend Kim quickly discovered that there were in fact a few apples left on the tree waiting for the few and the bold who were willing to climb for them.

Kim climbs to great heights and acquires a single Macintosh for her efforts. Normally, Macs aren't my favorite, but these were crisp, tart, and perfect.

Kim assails yet another tree with apple in her mouth, simultaneously breaking the only two posted rules for the orchard: 1) No climbing the trees, and 2) No eating the apples. The rest of us watch awestruck from the ground.

Those of us with poor climbing foot wear and short limbs as well as those who were recovering from a cold, chose our apples from the bin as instructed. They didn't taste quite as sweet as the hard-won tree apples though.

The orchard also had a pumpkin patch. Those of us attending our Halloween party in a couple of weeks should look out for these bad boys done up Martha Stewart style.

Apples or no apples, it's just nice to get out of the city on a cool fall day.

I now have a mess of apples and am trying to figure out what to do with all of them that is a bit more health conscious than my usual fatty, sugar-filled apple pie or crisp (not that I won't do that too!). Look forward to an apple recipe post soon!

A cupcake a day keeps the cravings at bay

Er, so this whole "being out of town the first 10 days of July" thing means I likely won't make my self-imposed blog post quota for the month. Luckily, I'm pretty sure that only matters to me, because my readers are all forward-thinking, dynamic individuals whose lives do not revolve entirely around my blog. Nevertheless, I'm an online publication junkie and if I don't publish at least a few each month, I'll develop some sort of twitch brought on by the delusional certainty that someone, somewhere might be desperately wanting to know what cupcakes I made this week.

Well, wait no longer, cupcake-loving reader! This week was a co-worker's birthday, so I naturally made some mini cakes. I don't actually know the birthday girl that well, but then when have I let that deter me from an excuse to bake? The only thing I knew about her cake preferences was that she didn't care for chocolate, and preferred fruity sweet things. As luck would have it, I'd just encountered a delicious looking apple cupcake recipe on The Sweetest Kitchen. I skipped out on the dulce de leche filling (not because I don't think it would by transcendently good, but because I got home late and was lazy), but otherwise followed the recipe precisely, so I'm not going to bother posting it here as well.

I made no changes to the composition of the cupcakes, but I did make a couple of cosmetic changes. Yes, the simple pecan on top of cream cheese frosting background is understated and elegant, but office birthday parties require more panache than elegance. I went a different way with it:

They're little apples! Which you can't really see that well because I haven't fully figured out the simple photography concept of "proper lighting." But each is red frosted with a chocolate covered pretzel 'stem' (I figured the chocolate hating b-day girl could overlook this small detail for the greater good), frosting leaves, and a gummy worm half peeking out. Actually in some ways, this picture is an improvement because the hue seems somewhat apple-y. In real life, these were more of a hot pink. I kept adding red food coloring and yet never achieved a rich, red color. After the 20th drop of food coloring, I started to have images of lab rats dying of cancer and settled on cotton candy colored apples.

So there you have it, readers: apple cupcakes. Not quite as healthy or fiber rich as their unadulterated natural counterpart, but I maintain that anything with gummy worms on it is good for one's inner child.