Autumn Almond Apples-Gluten Free and Vegetarian

This past weekend was most likely the last, gorgeous, warm one we'll have this fall until next spring.  With so many apples and a wonderfully, simple dish idea originating from Manger (one of my favorite visual food/fantasy life blogs www.mimithorisson.com), a beautiful breakfast/dessert from the Medoc region of France was born.  If there was ever a place and lifestyle we could aspire to live, Bordeaux would be it, bien sur.

This is super easy and fast and a great-tasting use for almond flour*--Gluten-Free, vegetarian and organic, if you choose to make it so.  Better than apple dumplings and definitely not going to kill any diet you might be on or thinking about.  Aren't we always?

Autumn Almond Apples

Preheat over to 350

1 TBSP honey
1/3 c almond flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 egg yolk
1.5 TBSP butter
2 apples--choose flavorful types such as Jonagold, Fuji, Pink Lady
small handful of chopped pecans

Rinse and dry apples.  Cut the top 'hat' off of the apples and set aside.  Core apples which in my case require a corer, knife and spoon and managing to not cut off a finger.  Put apples in baking dish.  If they fall over, level the bottom of the apples with that sharp knife.

In a small bowl, mix almond flour with cinnamon, egg yolk, honey and 1 TBSP butter.  Fill cored apples with flour mixture, top with chopped pecans and apple hat.  Dot with remaining butter.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until apples are tender.  Serve hot.

I should have made twice as many so be warned.  They are that good.

Bon pomme!

*A special note about where I buy
Almond Flour:  www.pureformulas.com is a wonderful website, free shipping and great prices on everything they sell, including coconut oil, vitamins and almond flour.

Cider Smoked Sausage

Grilled, smoked sausages simmered with pears in a rich sauce on a chilly fall night will put some much needed heat in your belly especially if you add some chipotle or jalapeno peppers--completely optional.   

Lately, doesn't there always seem to be something missing, wrong, disgusting or plain silly in some of the ideas today's so-called chefs/cooks come up with?  Everybody that gets their face on TV or in a magazine tries their best to complicate things.  Sometimes you don't have to add anchovies or macadamia nuts to come up with a great-tasting dish.  And to add to my media misery, if you live in the country, on a farm or just discovered organic vegetables, you're an expert with a 30-minute show on the Food Network.  Do we really need another cooking show?  On the ridiculous end of the gamut, you can watch 'chefs' running around in a grocery store like out-of-control kids racing grocery carts and then cooking in a makeshift kitchen next to a checkout lane.  Seriously?  That's almost worse than the ladies at the 'club' stores giving out free samples where I'm too embarrassed for all y'all standing in lines to taste a thimble-sized sample of Cheeze Whiz or chicken nuggets to get in line behind you.  Now if this bassakwards state ever passes laws to give out wine samples, I might push you out of the way, however.

Cook this, serve it up with a baked or mashed potato and whatever else you want and you'll have an easy, delicious hearty meal.  We splurge on the weekends and indulge ourselves with carby potatoes and hot bread. We're crazy like that.

Cider Smoked Sausage

optional--1 chopped chipotle or jalapeno pepper

2 pears of your choice, cored, sliced and chunked
3/4 c apple cider
1 TBSP stone ground mustard
12-16 oz smoked pork sausages or brats
2 TBSP butter

In a skillet, saute pears in 1 TBSP butter for 2-3 minutes, stir the mustard into the cider and pour over pears.  Add peppers if you desire the fire.  Cook about 10-15 minutes over high heat until sauce has reduced and thickened.

While pears are cooking, heat grill and cook sausages.  When sausages are done, add them to pears in skillet, cover and cook another 5 minutes.  Just before serving, stir in remaining butter.

You could also use pork chops in place of sausage.

Now, butter those potatoes, throw on a chunk of bread and stay warm.

Bon Petits Cochons!

Apple Cider Crumble

 

 

How y'all been doin'?  You're probably thinking I fell off the face of the earth.  No, I didn't (obviously), or stopped cooking or ran off to Paris never to be heard from again, mais non!  (we can wish).  I've just been busy as a cat in a birdcage these past few months.  With vacations, baby showers and Halloween, there's hardly been time to do anything even though I thought about a lot of stuff I should have been doing...just didn't do it.  

A trip to Florida with The Best Husband in the World just made us want to stay there and that alone is not conducive to doing anything except sitting by the pool with a tiny, little beverage to while away the days soaking up sun and listening to the water.
 
With the upcoming granddaughter's arrival in January, we threw one heckuva Halloween-themed baby shower and that alone took weeks of preparation.  We don't do 'small' around here so our efforts were much impressed by those in attendance.  I made a fondant baby mummy cake (and unless you make your own fondant, it is hideous and gross-tasting but so pleased with my first effort even though we threw it away later!)  Decided before hubby tossed those faded pink flamingos, I should find the artist in me and make Skelingos and if I do say so, the Salvador Dali transformation was worth the effort.

We have just put away numerous crates of scary decor just in time to start pulling out yet even more numerous crates of holiday decor--a truly big ordeal in this gorgeous, old house.  So, bear with me while I get back in the saddle and start messing in the kitchen and doing those domestic holiday things we do around here.

When the last days of fall are quickly disappearing, it's time to put away the charcoal grill, swimsuit cover-ups and pool floats so we can focus on apples.  Forget about pumpkins--they're just too much trouble for me to bother with so we'll just skip the pumpkin pie recipes and move right on to apples.  The ones that crowd the shelves every day of the year just don't have the flavor like a good, crisp, fall apple that's been shipped from the north and somehow not turned to mush by the time it arrives in buffalo country.   I'm sure there are folks out here who have their own apple trees, but we aren't one of them.  Who am I kidding?  We couldn't get a darned cucumber or cantaloupe to grow this summer so fruit trees are out of the question.   I'm still picking tomatoes, however midgetious and scrawny.  Well, there I go again...drifting onto a whole 'nother topic of angst and disappointment. 

Now, if you don't normally put apples on the top of your fruit list as a favorite, well, me either. However, this easy, mostly kinda sorta low(er) calorie breakfast or dessert dish must be tried--and when I say lower calorie, you decide if a small portion will sit on your rear end or if you can get by with a bowlful of indulgence.   When I started making this, I was just going to make applesauce with the four apples sitting on the counter.  But, it seemed only natural to cook them in apple cider with some spices and just a teeny smidgeon of sugar and Stevia (because I always feel less guilty about adding sugar if I cut it with a natural sweetener).  When these started to cook down, I simply could not smoosh them into applesauce and decided some oats, brown sugar and butter with chopped pecans would be so much better.  I was right, of course.  The cider gave a whole new flavor to the apples.  It's done in half an hour and I'm betting you have everything you need right in your cabinets.  Ok, so we don't usually have apple cider sitting around either but it's easy to get your hands on this time of year.

I do wish we had some hard cider...the kind the Europeans and English have with a little kick and the 'Surprise!...you fell off your stool' kind of cider.  However, this recipe is stone, sober so feel free to serve it to your kids, grandmothers and any other non-imbibing acquaintances.

APPLE CIDER CRUMBLE
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

4-5 apples for 3-4 small servings--any type apple except Delicious--they are sooo boring
cut apples in quarters, remove seeds and cut into chunks
1/4 c sugar
2 tsp Stevia or whatever measurement your natural sweetener calls for (honey would also work)
1.5-2 c Apple Cider
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp apple pie spice mix (or more cinnamon, nutmeg and ground ginger if you have some)

Mix all in medium saucepan, cook over medium heat covered for about 10 minutes, then remove cover and continue cooking until cider has reduced about half and apples are fork tender.  Set aside.

Mix 1/2 c steel cut or old-fashioned oats with
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c melted butter
Add 3/4 c chopped pecans

Put apples in 9" square (or approximate) glass or metal pan with a small amount of juice.  Save the remaining cider for a hot, toddy cup of yum.
Top apples with oat mixture, place in oven and cook for 20-30 minutes until top browns.

I'm bettin' Johnny Appleseed never had apples like these--delish.

Bon appletit'

Bonita Beach, Naples FL