Cookie’s stewed apples

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.
Martin Luther

I don’t know about where you live but the temperatures are starting to take a bit of a nose dive. We actually had our first frost last night here in northwest Georgia as the thermometer dipped into the oh so low 30’s. The nightly weather reports have been dotted with the stories of the early snows throughout much of the country—news of such always puts me in the mood to be in the kitchen working on something warm, comforting and heavenly.

I had gone a bit overboard at the grocery store the other day buying, en masse, the beautifully displayed apples. I don’t know if I thought the apocalyptic end was in sight or that I wanted to keep every doctor within miles away but I found myself buying more apples than I really needed.

And there they were this morning, a bevy of beauties sitting all nestled in the bowl on the counter–waiting… waiting for me to do something magical with them….

I know!! Let’s make stewed Apples—Cookie’s delightfully fall stewed apples…talk about a bite of fall in one’s mouth…..

First, let us gather our supplies shall we…..

You’ll notice the base will be: Apple Cider, and of course we need Calvados or any good Apple brandy; I had some leftover coke, why not; the juice from an orange, cinnamon, my delicious cinnamon simple syrup, cardamon–pods crushed or the powder; nutmeg–freshly grated; Vermont Maple Syrup (I order mine each year from Taft’s Milk & Maple Farm in Huntington, VT –talk with Mary–she is a wonderful person http://www.vtmaplesyrup.com ), honey (my son’s fiancé brought me a jar of Beekman’s Vanilla Creamed Honey–talk about decadent…it is laced with vanilla seeds and is truly heavenly–use sparingly as it’s just too good) Plus about 7 or 8 nice size apples. I mix varieties as some will turn to mush as they cook and others will hold their shape…providing a nice variety which is great for the “stew”….

I used a naval orange but you may use any type, even a tangerine—I’ve been known to use a lemon if I didn’t have an orange–you just want a little citrus….

Now you know I’m not one to measure so this may really throw some of you more exact folks out there a big curve–I measure with my eyes and my tastebuds…it’s from being the art teacher for all those years—eyeballing things just took over. And here is where I throw my Jessuit friend William, over on teilharddechardin.wordpress.com, a curve ball as to whether I am a type A or type B personality—-but in the kitchen my “little bit of this and a little bit of that” just works…..

Using a large deep saucier or soup pot, pour in probably about 2 cups of the apple cider, probably 1/2 to 3/4 cup Calvados, part of the left over Coke-if you don’t have a Coke or don’t want to open one for this, don’t–it’s not crucial. Squeeze half or both halves of the orange, pour in approx 3/4 cup maple syrup–we’ll probably need more later. Pour in 1/2 cup of Cookie’s cinnamon simple syrup if you made it, if not just add more ground cinnamon and maple syrup. Several shakes of ground cinnamon, cardamon, a couple of gratings of the fresh nutmeg– bringing it all to a boil–now reduce to a simmer while you prepare the apples.

Wash your apples—I like to spray them with “Fit”–it is a fruit and vegetable spray/wash that helps to remove that waxy business the producers like to coat the fruit and veggies with….yuck…. Spray with the Fit, rub all over, rinse well.

Next you may use an apple slicer which makes this little chore rather effortless or you can simply cut into 8ths. I do not peel my apples as the skin adds such a nice textural quality to the end product but if you want to be a purist, peel away.

Once the apples are sliced, place them in the pot of simmering deliciousness. Your house is smelling really good right about now…..

Bring the mixture, complete with apples, to a boil, stirring to coat the apples with the liquid as we don’t want them turning brown. Reduce the heat, cover (don’t fret if the lid doesn’t fit all the way down yet, the apples will shrink down)–allow to simmer about 20 to 30 minutes…stir ever so often. After about 30 minutes taste the liquid as the apples will now have released their heady juice—here is where you may need to add some more Maple syrup or honey. Just keep adding a little, tasting until the level of sweetness works for you.

At this point you can cut off the heat, allowing the apples time to ‘sit in their juices’ as it were–breaking down and absorbing flavor. I usually let them sit on the stove until later when everyone wants a bowl– I will then heat them back up, as serving them warm just seems best. You may certainly use them as a side if serving some sort of pork or on their own as a desert. I’ve been known to heat a bowl for breakfast or ladle over oatmeal…so versatile, healthy and oh so heavenly divine.

Serve them warm in a bowl topped with vanilla ice cream or a little whipped cream, or serve plain….this is what the doctor ordered on a chilly day…can’t get much better than this……

Let’s get cookin’ with cookie

Do you hear that boiling pot of goodness? Can you smell the heady scent of the amalgamation of garlic, onions, celery, basil and tomatoes simmering away? The end product of an entire day of blanching, peeling, seeding, chopping what seems to have been thousands of tomatoes??—(truth be told it was probably 40). What does one do at this time of season when there seems to be just too much from the vine for one family to eat?? Get creative, that’s what!!!

There is the evening salad…a little snippet of herbs, a handful of fresh peas, a splash of white balsamic or champagne vinegar, a good dousing of a smooth extra virgin olive oil, sprinkling of sea salt, a little cracked pepper and voila

Or there is the oven dried plum tomatoes that can be served as a lovely little appetizer stuffed with a little goat cheese or simply chopped and served over pasta or saved for later, packed away in a jar of olive oil stored in the fridge……

Line a baking pan with parchment paper or foil and spray with Pam or simply rub with olive oil

Preheat the over to 250º F. Slice 20 (or in my case, 50 or so) plum tomatoes in half lengthways, removing the seeds. This is easily done by hand.

Place cut side up. Sprinkle with a little sugar, salt, cracked pepper, drizzle with olive oil and add slivers of sliced garlic and rosemary sprigs.

Place in the oven and roast away for approximately 3 hours. I turned mine after an 1.5 hours. Roast until shriveled (when the skin looks a little prune like)

Remove and cool either serving stuffed with goat cheese and topped with a sprinkle of chives or thyme for a colorful and flavorful appetizer–or chop, tossing on top of homemade pizza, or store in a clean glass jar, covering with olive oil and store in fridge till ready to use—they will last about 2 weeks or so in fridge.

So until next time when we discuss what to do with all that squash, enjoy those lycopene rich tomatoes

A redemptive faux pas kind of day

I have decided I must redeem some part of this day…first it was my husband walking in the house, in the wee hours this morning, having been to survey the rain saturated garden before leaving for work. In his hand he carried a green club. “Oh my gosh, how in the world?!” I had scoured those plants the day prior. It was a zucchini—a huge zucchini—like the zucchini that ate Manhattan kind of zucchini.

He just shook his head. “I’m telling you I went over every inch of that garden, I have no idea where that one was hiding!!” He just shakes his head with that annoying little grin like “sure you did” kind of grin–which annoys the crap out of me…..”shirking on the job are we?”, he asks as he makes for his coffee and keys….ugghhh….

Of course he thinks it funny but I’m actually annoyed with myself. The excessive rains this summer are making for a poor poor crop—vegetables bursting before ripening due to all the water, plus you need a little sun to make things ripen and blooms to open before just rotting off the vine…so any little veggie I can pluck before it gets ruined is pretty precious. How I managed to let a zucchini get past me long enough to mature into a small mallet is beyond my soul.

I call them zucchini clubs and there is just one thing they are good for—not unless you have some cows who don’t mind being hand feed a nice tasty green club every once in a while…..our neighbor a couple of years ago kept some cows in the pasture behind our house. On the evenings I’d be out working in the garden, the cows would amble over to the fence and if I found the baseball bat zucchinis, especially if we’d been out of town for a few day with the garden getting ahead of us, I’d hold out the zucchini and they’d eat it all gone 🙂

A Chocolate Zucchini cake—that’s the answer!

Now that won’t fix my stupidity this morning for accidentally clicking the “like” button on my own post—who does that?? So Julie seems to like Julie’s post—hummmmm… No, not exactly but how do I take that back…one of those computer savvy questions no doubt. Then there was the conversation with Joanne who I referred to as Katherine—the name of her post….I know she is Joanne, and yet…my feeble brain jumps to the blog name instead—what’s up with that brain??

I blame it on the rain—I’ve had a sinus headache for the past two days—the kind that Motrin or Advil does not touch. So I wisely decided that before going to bed last night I would take half a pain pill (a whole one is just too potent) to make my head and sinuses stop hurting. Makes sense, right? These little goodies are left over from my husband’s oral surgery on a tooth…..
Maybe I was a little groggy this morning….

Anywhooooo, here is what I am offering in the way of redemption for all of you out there—those who think cookie suddenly got a little full of herself, for Joanne who thinks I’m turning into my dad, and to my husband who thinks I am no candidate for master gardener…….please find the recipe below…..

Chocolate-Zucchini Cake

2 eggs
1 ¾ cups sugar
1 cup buttermilk
½ cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 Tablespoons Coca (Hersey’s special dark for a really rich chocolaty taste)
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 ½ cups flour
1 package of Instant vanilla pudding mix (I use the 3.4 oz. box)
2 cups finely grated zucchini (grate into a dishtowel and ring out the excess moisture)
1 cup mini chocolate chips (or whatever kind and type you have on hand, even white chocolate is nice)
Optional ½ to 1 cup nuts—I don’t do the nuts, as I’m not a fan of nuts in sweets….

Cream together the first 5 ingredients. Sift together the next 5 ingredients—then add to the creamed ingredients. Add pudding and zucchini, mixing well. Pour into a greased and floured (Baker’s Joy spray) 9 x 13 inch pan. Sprinkle chips and nuts on top. Bake in a preheated oven at 325° for 40-45 minutes—until a toothpick come out clean.

Serves 14-16
Perfectly easy

here it is in the pan before heading into the oven

and here it is…missing a piece…how did that happen 😉

Please make this and enjoy my faux pas apology!!! Add a little ice cream if you think I’ve been really stupid 🙂

A wicked thistle this way comes

So I’ve been watching this particular thistle, out in the pasture, sprouting upwards for the past couple of weeks– intently monitoring it’s progress towards “blossoming”. It is a most wicked looking plant– or weed. And herein lies the conundrum—is it a plant, an herb, a vegetable, or a noxious weed? If you ask any local farmer, they will be quick to say “A WEED!!”, the bane of any pasture to be sure.

I think they are unusual and kind of pretty in an almost deadly sort of way. I come upon them in our yard/pasture (remember we sit in the middle of 5 acres–part yard, part pasture sans any type of farm animals), just as they are coming up out of the ground, looking definitely weedy, I’ve been known to reach down to pluck them right up out of the ground, with that dandelion mentality, but quickly remember why that is such a bad idea. These things are nothing but spines and pokes. Painful spines and pokes. They are even known to cause a type of reaction similar to poison Ivy–a type of contact dermatitis. Not so much a rash but more of an immediate stinging as if you’d just gathered up a handful of fire ants (hate them).

The Thistle is the symbol of Scotland—and as my maternal great grandparents came to the US from Scotland, I am most proud of my Scottish roots (unfortunately Sylvia Kay has no idea as to her real roots…see the post “Who in the heck is Sylvia Kay and what have you done with her?!” but I digress). The lowly Thistle has represented the Scottish people since the reign of Alexander III (1249-1286) with the story going back to the Norse invasions of this northern end of the British Isles.

Seems some unsuspecting marauding Viking, who must have been barefoot, was attempting to sneak up on the Scots in order to do that thing that they do so well, pillage– when he stepped on a thistle, letting out a Viking yell of agony and therefore alerting the Scots of his presence. The pillaging was put to a fast halt. The rest is history.

I’ve not exactly been excited having this particular thistle in my yard/ hay field, but did want to see it through to blooming before taking spade in hand and digging up the whole lot only to remove it to the rubbish pile—all before it has a chance to turn from purple bloom to the infamous white cotton top and spread its deadly little seeds.

You should know however that I’ve done a little research on these pretty little pesky weeds—did you know people actually eat these things?! I suppose it’s rather kin to eating an artichoke—a little pokey but eventually a tasty reward. However, anything I have to go gather wearing combat gloves and “skin” before preparing just isn’t my cup of tea. And speaking of tea, I think it must be sort of like those who gather nettles for tea–beware of the pokes!

Here is a link to a most informative website all about the lowly thistle and how to go about gathering, preparing, adding butter, and digging in—with a fork that is. I’ll just leave the gathering and preparing to others—I’m not ready to sauté a plate of thistle

http://www.eattheweeds.com/thistle-touch-me-not-but-add-butter-2/