Apple pie filling and the Great Beef Experiment

If you live in Western New York, like I do, each fall you go into an apple picking, apple eating, apple buying frenzy. It is a sickness, really. New York is the second largest apple producer in the country and damn proud of it. So in the fall, people tend to go a little crazy, apples are cheap, and beautiful, and delicious. We went out to a local apple farm last weekend to go on a  haunted hayride through the orchard. See? I can be a nice mommy every now and then. Unfortunately, when we got there the orchard was too muddy for the hayride. How to make it up to the kids? Easy, buy them fresh pressed cider, donuts, and apples. Of course, we got a little carried away with the apples. And then a friend told me she had gotten carried away with the apples and she was bringing some my way. Before I could protest, I had nearly half a peck of apples. (How much is a peck, anyway? It's a lot of apples.) So I am making lots of apple recipes, quite a few of which I have written about before. I decided today that I had so many apples I needed to preserve some of them. I had already made apple butter and home canned apple sauce tastes like baby food. So what to do? I remembered that the same friend who gave me the apples likes to cook her apple pie filling before she puts it in the pie. She says you get more appley goodness. I have been a little skeptical, but I thought, well, I've got all these apples and if I make it, then I can freeze it. So I looked up a recipe. It looked a little gruesome to me. Why the need for so much water and cornstarch? It seemed like a miserly amount of cinnamon to me. No nutmeg. So, I revised. First, instead of water, I used apple cider. I had a lot! But I only used about 4 cups of apple cider instead of the ten cups of water it called for. I also had only had the patience to peel and cut 16 cups of apples, so I went with that. I added only about 1/3 cup of cornstarch, tripled the cinnamon, added a half a tsp of nutmeg, and reduced the sugar to three cups. Here is a picture:

Now, don't get me wrong, it tastes good. Really good. But it does taste a little like canned apple pie filling. And that is where I think the online recipe person went wrong. She was trying to be thrifty and use fewer good ingredients and more filler. Hence, a cup of cornstarch and 10 cups of water. She was making thickened apple flavored water for her pie. Mine has to be thicker than hers or at least have more apples. Therefore, I win. As usual. Should you try it? Probably only if you have so many apples they're coming out your rear. Otherwise, stick to normal apple pie. I'm going to have to ask my friend to make me an apple pie so that I can judge her recipe. Shhh, don't tell her I have a blog.

On a completely different note, MY COW CAME TODAY! I split a 1/4 of a cow with a friend. Grass fed, no antibiotics, no hormones, local beef. Will it be any good? Don't know yet. I'll let you know. So far, my research tells me you need to be sure not to overcook it. Sear it, lower the heat, cook until barely warm in the middle. If you like your meat anywhere past medium rare, you're a heathen. you don't deserve my fabulous beltie beef. Tonight, I am going to pan-sear a t-bone. I don't usually buy t-bones, but several arrived and so I shall cook them. Why don't I cook t-bones, you ask? Because they are just like Porterhouse, ONLY WITHOUT THE FILET. Here are some pics of my booty. I'll let you know how it tastes.

 

 

Pork and Apples

So I probably haven't done enough rhapsodizing about pork, but I can't really think of anything too entertaining to say about it. I'll just give you another recipe instead.

Italian sausage with apples

Heat 1 T olive oil in a saute pan and add whatever amount of Italian sausage you want. Just make sure you don't crowd it too much. Brown. Reduce heat and add 1/2 an apple per serving. (For those of you who are math challenged: if you put in 1 sausage, add a half an apple, if you put in two sausages, add a whole apple. Now multiply). Cook until the apples are soft and the sausage is cooked through. Stir in 1 T cider vinegar. Eat. Preferably with soft polenta.

Soft Polenta

• 6 cups water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 3/4 cups yellow cornmeal
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan
• 3/4 cup whole milk
  
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Bring the water to a boil in a heavy large saucepan. Add 2 teaspoons of salt. Gradually whisk in the cornmeal. Reduce the heat to low and cook until the mixture thickens and the cornmeal is tender, stirring often, about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat. Add the cheese, milk, butter, and stir until the butter and cheese melt. Makes a lot. You can cut in half if you want. You can alsocut the leftovers into slices (it hardens as it cools, so serve it immediately) and  fry in oil and serve with fried eggs for breakfast.

Apples!

If you are lucky enough to live in upstate New York, like I do, then you know we are full-tilt into apple season. If you haven't had the presense of mind to go to your nearest orchard in the last couple of weeks, you'd better get off your duff and do it soon. I have my own apple tree, which this year yielded enough apples for me to make six pints of apple butter. Yup, lots of small, teeny tiny apples. Lots of work. But worth it! Next year, I am going to spray the tree so that I get bigger apples. So this year, I am heading to the orchard. With some beautiful panoramic views of the valley below and the crisp fall air and some great chilled cider and fresh fry cakes, what could be better? So get goin'.

Now what do you do with all of those bushels of beauties once you have them? Well, there are countless things, of course, like the apple butter I just mentioned. But if that is too much work for your lazy butt, here are a few simpler, quicker ideas.

Apple Sauce
Yes, I know you probably already know how to make applesauce. You peel and core a random amount of apples and put them in a pan with a little water. Then you cook until they are soft and mash them with a potato masher so that they retain some chunkiness. Add brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla to taste and put on top of potato pancakes. REALLY good.

Apple crepes
I serve apple crepes a lot. I cut and core apples (no need to peel) and saute them with butter until soft. Then I add brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg and serve them inside freshly made crepes and top with whipped cream. Yummy.
Crepes
Sift:
3/4 C flour
Resift with:
1 tsp salt
3 T sugar
1 3/4 tsp baking powder

Combine:
2 eggs
3 T melted butter
1 to 1 1/4 C milk
Mix the wet ingredients quickly into the dry. Cook by swirling 2T batter into a hot, well- greased 7" skillet or crepe pan. Or adjust the amount to fit the size of your pan. You just want to swirl the batter around in order to get the thinnest possible crepe. Cook just until top is set, then flip and cook for about 5 seconds on the top side.

Apple cake
This is my mother's recipe and a family favorite. Pretty simple to prepare

2 C sugar
2/3 C oil
2 C flour
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt C chopped walnuts
5 green apples, thinly sliced

Beat eggs and oil until foamy, Add rest of ingredients. Bake in a greased 9 x12 pan 45 min. at 350 degrees.

Frosting

Beat 2 C powdered sugar. 3 Tsp melted buter, 2 tsp vanilla and 6 oz cream cheese. Frost cake. Eat. Enjoy, Then eat another piece.



And here is a fabulous recipe from the Original Pancake House. Make it. You will never regret it. Except that you waited this long in your life to eat this.