Every year as Columbus Day weekend ends, the comments and message pick up: Help, I picked 50 pounds of apples. What do I cook? This year, we did it too. I made a pie on Monday with the first 4.25 pounds of them; it barely made a dent in our haul. Thus, this week's newsletter is for you, but mostly for me: eight recipes to help decimate your apple oversupply, from breakfast to dinner. Plus a few dinners that go really well with early fall weather.
Cheers,
Deb
FRESH AND NEW
crispy spinach pizza Please do not judge this pizza by it's smooshed Oscar the Grouch-like appearance. Spinach leaves crisp over a small but mighty layer of cheese, a complex salty, stretchy, funky three-fer of mozzarella, pecorino, and gruyere that anchors the spinach to the crust and together, they so perfectly hit the spot, we cannot get enough of this.
TOO MANY APPLES? WE'RE HERE TO HELP.
mom's apple cake My mom's apple cake is an avalanche of apples, a tiny bit of batter, and a cascade of cinnamon baked into a hulking mass of October awesomeness that everyone will demand you make again and again. It's also dairy-free and gets better the longer it lasts. Shall we?
apple mosaic tart with salted caramel Friends, I think this should be your new go-to fall dessert. It's as simple as puffed pastry, apples, butter and sugar. It tastes, however, like the highest calling of all four.
breakfast apple granola crisp Psst, if you make this, you can have the first serving with a scoop of ice cream for an above-average treat, *and* have enough left for a week of unexpectedly good breakfasts with a dollop of yogurt.
apple cider doughnuts You know those apple cider doughnuts that are impossible to resist at all of the farm stands/apple orchards/hay rides? These are so much better. (And I bet much easier to make at home than you'd expect.)
apple strudel A delicate flaky shell of buttery pastry wrapped around vanilla, cinnamon, lemon and rum-kissed apples and raisins, with or without a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream trickling down the sides, from the most user-friendly and unintimidating recipe I've ever seen. Trust me, I once made four in a single week.
apple slab pie The ideal format to use pounds of apples at a time and redistribute them to dozens of friends as something like a giant, flaky/buttery/tender pop tart. Or, you could pack it up to take with you when you do it all again next weekend. Learning your lesson is overrated; slab pie is not.
apple and cheddar scones Gently roasted apples and a small heap of cheddar bake into a craggy, toasted-edge, soft-centered scone that tastes like a wedge of October bliss. Breakfast, anyone?
DINNER THIS WEEK
miso sweet potato and broccoli bowl Wild rice, deeply roasted sweet potatoes and broccoli and a miso-ginger-tahini dressing all piled into one bowl make this one of my favorite kid-approved weeknight dinners -- the kind you'd eat *despite* how healthy it sounds, just because it tastes awesome.
silky cauliflower soup This is one of my favorite simple soups: it has five ingredients you probably already have around, takes about 30 minutes to make, and tastes incredibly rich for something so light and simple.
homemade merguez with herby yogurt Crispy, spiced patties with yogurt sauce, pitas, and sometimes a little tomato-cucumber salad too take all of 30 minutes to make and are always a good idea.
