Fall Kick Off Breakfast: Apple Pancakes

I keep waiting to have a Fall kick-off dinner, but it's just too darn hot. If I walk outside at noon, it feels a lot more like July is coming and not October. I'm going to forget about sewing Halloween costumes and starting lighting fireworks instead if this keeps up. I've been checking the daily weather in Cairo, Egypt (getting ready for my trip in a few weeks), and it is cooler there than here. I mean it! I might have to host my Fall kick-off dinner in the Sahara desert since it is more pleasant than my corner of the southwest. Pumpkins and pyramids, anyone?

There is a saving grace to all this afternoon heat: the mornings are celestial. Breezy and cool, not a degree above seventy. Heaven must have the thermostat set at sixty-eight, don't you think? So this year, I've postponed my Fall kick-off dinner and we had an outdoor Fall kick-off breakfast instead. I served applesauce pancakes, with a hearty side of buttery cinnamon apples and some smoky bacon on the side. You'll think you've died and gone to heaven for breakfast. You might want to stay all day, since it's going to be a scorcher.

PS I'm going to the egg farm tomorrow morning. Really this time. I'll be back with lots of details.

Money Saving Tips:

Buy apples in bulk while they are cheap. Make your own applesauce by placing peeled apple slices in the slowcooker with some cinnamon and sugar. Bonus: Your house will smell amazing!

Apple Pancakes

Estimated Cost: $5.00 for 4-6 servings

2 cups flour

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1 and 1/2 taplespoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

4 tablespoons melted butter

1 and 1/2 cups applesauce

For Sauteed Apples

2 tablespoons butter

3 apples, peeled and sliced

2 tablespoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, powder, cinnamon, and salt. In a separate medium bowl, combine eggs, milk, and butter. Pour wet ingredients over the dry and mix just until combined. Stir in applesauce. Cook pancakes on preheated gridle in melted butter. Serve with maple syrup. Meanwhile, prepare sauteed apples. Melt butter in medium skillet over medium heat. Add apple sauces. Cook for three minutes. Turn and cook an additional three minutes, or until apples are golden and softened. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and cook until syruppy, about two minutes longer. Serve with pancakes.
Next Up:

West's Easy Cheese Pizza

Dutch Oven Apple Crisp

I am here, right where you left me. I haven't moved an inch, other than to take Sailor to her voice lesson and run by the grocery store for a few eggs. Eggs. Remember on Sunday when I wrote that I was leaving in the morning to Oregon to tour an egg farm? It turns out I was a whole week early. Thankfully I discovered my error early enough to avoid a trip to the airport. But please excuse me while I wipe a little egg (ha!) off my face. Did you know that I make dozens, maybe even hundreds, of little mistakes every day? If you didn't know, then I'm telling you now. I hope you'll love me anyway, flawed as I am. If you want a good laugh and a hearty helping of self deprecating humor, then I'm your gal.

A couple of weekends ago, we packed up a late afternoon picnic and headed up to the mountains with my parents, and my sisters Heidi and Mary Kate with their families, 11 charges total. Kids + dirt +rocks = everlasting happiness. We noshed on chips and dips, sandwiches, and s'mores, but the Quiet Man got it into his head that he wanted to make something in the Dutch Oven. I'll never ever ever tell you this since it would be bragging, but that husband of mine is pretty amazing with a Dutch Oven. (He inherited this outdoorsman skill from his Dad, the Quiet Grandpa.) Since fall is coming (three more days, officially) it had to be an apple crisp. Now, you can make this toothsome treat in your oven and it will be every bit as tasty, but there is something especially-special about making food out in nature. So go out and have a fall picnic, would you? Just tell me when to be there. You better write it down twice, because I've been know to confuse a date. Or two. But I hope you'll love me anyway.

Money Saving Tips:

Do you have a pick your own orchard? Head over and stock up. I buy apples in bulk for tuppins in the fall-they keep for at least a couple of months in a cool place.
Dutch Oven (or not) Apple Crisp

adapted from Joy of Cooking

Estimated Cost: $3.00 for 8 servings

8 apples, peeled (I like Golden Delicious and Granny Smith's for baking)

3 tablespoons sugar mixed with 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 and 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

3/4 cup old fashioned oats

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter, softened
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a nine by thirteen dish. (If using a Dutch Oven, do not grease. Light 24 charcoal briquettes and wait until they are covered with ash, about 15 minutes.) Layer apples in pan and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. In a medium bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and oats. Blend in 1/2 cup softened butter with fingertips, just to evenly distribute. (It's Ok to have some pea-sized clumps.) Cut remaining 2 tablespoons butter in pieces and dot the top of the apple crisp. Bake in oven for 50 minutes, or until apples are bubbly and topping is browned. (If using Dutch oven, bake for 20-25 minutes.) Serve with vanilla ice cream or a drizzle of cream. Delicious!

Next Up:

Easy Pasta Pommodoro

Honey Vanilla Caramel Apples

Photo from Rachael Ray Magazine We've been studying Greek and Roman mythology, Sailor and I. She's quite smitten with the ancient world, thanks to this series. This week, we read about Perseus and his bold quest for the head of Medusa. The maidens that guard the golden apples tell Perseus where to find the snake headed beast, but first they sing him a song about golden apples. Their poem compares the apple tree to the passage of time and to the joys and sorrows of life.


We sing of the old, we sing of the new-
Our joys are many our sorrows are few;
Singing, dancing
All hearts entrancing,
We wait to welcome the good and true.


The daylight is waning, the evening is here,
The sun will soon set, the stars will appear,
Singing, dancing,
All hearts entrancing,
We wait for the dawn of a glad new year.


The tree shall wither, the apples shall fall,
Sorrow shall come, and death shall call,
Alarming, grieving,
All hearts deceiving,
But hope shall abide to comfort us all.


Soon the tale shall be told, the song shall be sung,
The bow shall be broken, the harp unstrung,
Alarming, grieving,
All hearts deceiving,
Till every joy to the winds shall be flung.

But a new tree shall spring, from the leaves of the old,
And many a blossom its leaves shall unfold,
Cheering, gladdening,
With joy maddening,
For its boughs shall be laden with apples of gold.

What was true in the ancient world is true in the moden world. Readers, I hope that your joys are many and your sorrows are few, but either way, here are some delicious caramel apples to entrance the heart and enliven the palate. May all of your boughs be laden with apples of gold.

Honey Vanilla Caramel Apples from the September Issue of Rachael Ray Magazine

Estimated Cost: $4.o0 for six

Notes: Be sure to use a big pot, since the syrup foams up at first. Green apples are just as yummy as the red, so use a combo, if you like.
4 medium red apples, such as braeburn, cortland or fuji, chilled
Ice water
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Directions:
Line a baking sheet with parchment. Skewer each apple stem with a lollipop stick or thick bamboo skewer. Fill a large bowl one-quarter of the way with ice water.
In a 4-quart, heavy saucepan, heat the cream and salt over medium-high heat until steaming hot. Stir in the honey and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Lower the heat to medium and continue to boil, stirring constantly, until the mixture registers 260° on a candy thermometer, 30 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and add the vanilla. Place the pan in the ice water, stirring the caramel with a wooden spoon until it’s thick enough to coat the apples without running off, about 5 minutes. (If the caramel thickens too much, return the pan to medium heat and stir.)
Wipe the chilled apples dry. Working with 1 at a time, hold the apple by the stick and dip into the caramel, tilting the saucepan and twirling the apple to coat all but a 1-inch border around the stem. Place the caramel apples on the prepared baking sheet and refrigerate for 20 minutes before serving.

Next Up:

Fall is Coming Tamale Pie

Golden Delicious Apple Raspberry Crisp

Yesterday's comment section got a little, um... feisty. I just want to say that I love the lovers and I love the haters. I hope we can all love each other. Because what the world needs now is love, sweet love. And apple crisp, preferably with a brown sugar oaty topping, and maybe a few raspberries sprinkled in.

You're in luck, because today is Tuesdays with Dorie, and I've got some apple crisp to share that fits your parameters exactly. Isn't that a lucky coincidence? Now there will be peace. Ohm.

I used my own recipe here even though Dorie's apple crisp was the TWD assignment. I love the recipe that I already have and I must make it at least once a year. It's fast. It's easy. It's cheap. It's divine. It's yours, tonight if you'll give it a try.

Money Saving Tips: Use any baking apple that you can find on sale. Granny Smith or Honey crisp would work well here. Use fresh or frozen raspberries, or cranberries if you've got them. You could also leave them out. Watch for butter to go dirt cheap over the next few weeks as stores try to lure in Thanksgiving shoppers. This would be a great alternative to pie for Thanksgiving, especially since you wouldn't have to make a crust.

Some pics: Mix the fruit in the dish.

Top it with streusel and it's ready to go. It's good. Oh yeah, it's good.

Golden Delicious and Raspberry Apple Crisp

Estimated Cost: $6.00

2 pounds Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, sliced (about 4 large apples)

3/4 cup raspberries (I used frozen)

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup old fashioned oatmeal

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

8 tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces

Butter a 9 inch square baking dish. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put apples, raspberries and sugar right into the prepared baking dish and stir them around. In a separate medium bowl, combine oats, flour, brown and cinnamon. Rub in butter with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Bake until mixture is bubbly and topping is browned, about 40 minutes.

One last thing before you go. It's time for me to again humbly ask you to vote for my French's recipe. I've made it to the semi finals, along with 20 other recipes. 5 of us will make the cut and be invited to the spring Cook-Off in NYC and be eligible for a shot at the $25,000 prize. But I need your help. Just click here and vote for lucky number seven, that's me. You can vote every day until November 25th. Thank you so much, good and kind readers.

Next Up:

Best Ever Tortilla Soup

Apple, Pecan and Cheddar Spinach Salad with Sweet Maple Dressing

Today is Tuesdays with Dorie, my weekly baking club day. It is outrageous to see a leaf of spinach here on Tuesdays, or anything green-unless it is tinted frosting. Instead, you should see butter, sugar, and flour emerging from the oven in a variety of tempting creations. But I confess that I never have the heart for extra sugar in the days following Halloween. Bear with me.
This is my sugar free-est week of the year. For some reason, the sweet magic ends on Halloween night for me, and it's a very good thing, since I'm hoping to never weigh 682 pounds. Up until October 31st, I raid the cupboard of all our tricks and treats. The charges always catch me-those darn crinkly wrappers!-and then I have to share. Quiet Man finds the open bags and digs in too, filling his pockets on the way to work. I'm forced to buy more candy (my favorite kinds, of course)...then we eat that too. Please don't tell my new dentist. But then when Halloween is over, the sugar monster can be kept at bay. Yesterday West and Sailor actually chose apples out of their treat bags OVER the candy. It isn't because they are virtuous and self-denying; we're all maddeningly sick of candy. And in case you are wondering, it's still safe to get an apple for Halloween in Smalltown, USA.

And speaking of apples, here's my latest and greatest favorite salad showcasing Fall's most winsome fruit. I've shared variations on this salad before, but I think this is the best version. It's decidedly American in flavor, with creamy cheddar, crunchy pecans, and crisp apples, in a sweet maple dressing. If you're off candy, give this salad a go. If you aren't off candy, give it a go anyway. I think it would make a very nice appetizer to a Reese's peanut butter cup. Just not this week.

Money Saving Tips: If you don't have pure maple syrup, sub in a little pancake syrup. Compare the price of bagged spinach with the loose and buy for a bargain. Any apple you've got on hand will work well-even a baking apple -since it will be coated in sweet dressing. It's a great idea to double or triple the dressing and use it all week long.

Spinach and Apple Salad

Estimated Cost: $4.00 for four servings

1/4 cup light flavored olive oil, or vegetable oil

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon maple syrup

about 6 cups baby spinach

2 small crisp apples (I like Gala and Golden Delicious)

2 ounces cheddar, diced

1/4 cup paper thin onion slices

In a small bowl whisk oil, cider, vinegar, sugar, and syrup. (I love to throw mine in the blender and let it get nice and thick.) Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper. Combine salad ingredients at the last possible minute. Drizzle with dressing and serve.

Next Up:

Classic Cheddar Mac and Cheese

Have you ever seen an apple turnover?

If you were lucky enough to go to Scott Avenue Elementary School in Whittier, California, then you might have had Mr. Lentine for fourth grade. I did.
Mr. Lentine was the kind of teacher that brought out his guitar when math got boring. What fourth grader wouldn't rather sing "Froggie Went a Courtin" over reducing fractions? He was the kind who'd read Shel Silverstein poems after lunch with theatrical voices. He was the kind of teacher that helped my little brother Roy when he came to school crying because his hair was sticking up in the back. Mr. Lentine used his own back pocket comb to smooth down Roy's alfalfa hair. He was the kind of teacher who taught you how to square dance, draw aspen trees, shade geometric figures, and basically how to thrive. He'd probabably get in big trouble now for not pounding READING WRITING ARITHMETIC all day long. But I just adored him, and school too while I was under his tutiledge. One afternoon, while he strummed guitar as background music, our class thought up phrases with double meanings, like "Have you ever seen a horse fly?" or "Have you ever seen a star burst?" "Have you ever seen a donut box?" "Have you ever seen a high school dance?"
And I still remember the one that I thought of: "Have you ever seen an apple turnover?" I was so pleased with myself that day.
Which brings me to this week's assignment: Flaky Apple Turnovers for Tuesdays with Dorie. I'm pleased with myself again today, but Dorie should really get all the credit. These are truly stupendously delicious. They require a bit of work and a heap of patience, but the reward is well worth it in the end. The crust is flaky and slightly tart a perfect foil for the sweet cinnamon apples. I made a half batch and then made half sized tarts, by cutting circles from a teacup top. (Click here for the recipe.)Doesn't a little apple turnover just seem so timely for a bitty September after school snack? I wish I could bring a big tray to Mr. Lentine, as a thank you for a rich and meaningful 4th grade education. Some things you never forget. Some things can never really be over because they become a part of you.
Yep, I've seen an apple turnover.

How about a Fall Kick Off Dinner with these turnovers for dessert?

We'll be having cider and maple braised pork chops, buttermilk mashed potatoes, and spinach salad with sliced apples and swiss. Come on back all week for the recipes.