This has been a fantastic year for apples here in MN, and our front-yard apple tree is no exception. Not only did we get a much larger-than-average yield, the individual fruit have been enormous - some nearly grapefruit sized. We don't do much to the tree other than to thin the fruit in mid-June (and keep it more-or-less trimmed), so I hadn't planned on dealing with so many apples.
Fortunately, our neighbors and friends have been enthusiastically helping with both picking and processing. I think in another few weeks we'll be finished.
Last weekend, we harvested our first fruit with our next-door neighbors. Those apples turned into several batches of apple butter (I started them in the evening, took off the lid before I went to work, and then canned the resulting butter the following evening). I mostly followed the recipe from Not Your Mother's Slowcooker. I also put up a batch of Apple-Mango Chutney from The Joy of Pickling.
This weekend some other friends came over and helped with both picking more apples and peeling/slicing/coring (truthfully, my friend Niki liked this so much she did probably 90% of the processing).
In addition to applesauce (which I pretty much just winged - one batch was sweeter and had an orange in it; another was unsweetened; a third was lightly sweetened with honey), I also put up apple pie filling. I'm especially pleased with how it came out, and am very much looking forward to a winter of delicious apple pies. (Recipe from this Better Homes & Gardens cookbook.)
Mostly just putting this here for myself.... to make a pie using this filling:
Preheat oven to 375F. Pour a quart of the filling into a 9" pie crust. Dot with butter and put on the top crust (I love a lattice top). Seal and flute edge. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until crust is golden and filling is "singing."
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Sunday, September 15, 2013
just some menus
I'm still hoping for more time to write here, but for now I would settle for just keeping decent notes so that I can find recipes later (...which is the point of this blog, after all). To that end (lunches are in square brackets*):
Week of Aug 25
Su: [tomato, basil, mozzarella salad]
grilled veggies; left-over chicken
M: [couscous salad]
out
T: [out]
out
W: [EFM]
pasta with red sauce
R: [soba salad with orange-sesame dressing and wakame]
yogurt chicken; pesto potatoes
F: [leftovers]
out
Week of Sept 2
Su: [tomato, basil, mozzarella salad]
out (P & P)
M: [banana pancakes; bacon]
hot dogs; quick pickles; roasted CSA veggies
T: pizza with mozzarella and red sauce (smitten kitchen pizza dough recipe)
W: lemon-garlic yogurt chicken; pesto potatoes (J & A)
R: challah (Rosh Hashana dinner with D & M)
F: out
[also made lime curd tart, plus added sweetened cream cheese as a base and golden raspberries]
Week of Sept 9
Su: [tomato, basil, mozzarella salad]
grilled sausages; roasted CSA veggies
M: [leftover sausage and veggies]
pesto pasta
T: [EFM]
out
W: [out]
yogurt-marinated "Vindaloo" chicken; rice; left-over roasted veggies
R: [leftover chicken, etc.]
out
F: [more leftovers]
out
* (an "EFM" is an "Exciting Frozen Meal")
Week of Aug 25
Su: [tomato, basil, mozzarella salad]
grilled veggies; left-over chicken
M: [couscous salad]
out
T: [out]
out
W: [EFM]
pasta with red sauce
R: [soba salad with orange-sesame dressing and wakame]
yogurt chicken; pesto potatoes
F: [leftovers]
out
Week of Sept 2
Su: [tomato, basil, mozzarella salad]
out (P & P)
M: [banana pancakes; bacon]
hot dogs; quick pickles; roasted CSA veggies
T: pizza with mozzarella and red sauce (smitten kitchen pizza dough recipe)
W: lemon-garlic yogurt chicken; pesto potatoes (J & A)
R: challah (Rosh Hashana dinner with D & M)
F: out
[also made lime curd tart, plus added sweetened cream cheese as a base and golden raspberries]
Week of Sept 9
Su: [tomato, basil, mozzarella salad]
grilled sausages; roasted CSA veggies
M: [leftover sausage and veggies]
pesto pasta
T: [EFM]
out
W: [out]
yogurt-marinated "Vindaloo" chicken; rice; left-over roasted veggies
R: [leftover chicken, etc.]
out
F: [more leftovers]
out
* (an "EFM" is an "Exciting Frozen Meal")
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)