Autumn’s bounty is vibrant, varied, and delicious. Apples of all varieties are now available at farmers’ markets and supermarkets, including crunchy, sweet Honeycrisp, gorgeous Galas, MacIntosh mottled with both green and red, pale yellow Ginger Golds, and dark, dusky Paula Reds.
Apples are the perfect snack, satisfying and sweet. Try slicing an apple, place the slices in a plastic baggie, sprinkle liberally with cinnamon, close the bag, and shake until the slices are well coated with cinnamon. The apple slices will stay crisp and white for several days in the refrigerator. Perfect for grab and go school lunches, picnics or work from home snack breaks.
A versatile cooking ingredient, apples go well with both sweet and savory components. Combing apples with plums, cranberries, figs, raspberries or blueberries will yield particularly pleasing desserts, such as pies, puddings, tarts, cobblers, and crisps. Whether baked, poached or sautéed, apples lend marvelous layers of flavor to breads, sauces, slaws, salads, stuffing, coleslaw, chutney, and relishes.
As the weather turns cooler, what could be more comforting than the scent of apples roasting in the oven, mingling with spicy cinnamon. Apples enjoy an easy association with all manner of spices, including allspice, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg.
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Bartlett Pears
Bartlett pears are the only pears that change color when they’re ripe. Eat them out of hand like an apple, slice them onto a salad, or present on a platter with cheese & nuts. Poach them in fruit juice, or bake them into tarts, quick breads, or muffins.
In 17th century England, a schoolmaster named John Stair sold some pear tree cuttings to a grower named Williams, who quite narcissistically named the variety after himself. The Williams Pear became a staple variety, and when brought to the New World at the end of the 18th century, one Enoch Bartlett of Massachusetts planted it on his farm. Mr. Bartlett named it after himself and, from then on, throughout the United States, the Williams Pear became known as the Bartlett Pear.
“Work With What You Got!”
© Victoria Hart Glavin Tiny New York Kitchen © 2015 All Rights Reserved
