apples – Harmonious Belly

December 3, 2013December 15, 2013

Slow Cooker Apple Butter is Easy and Delicious

The other day a Facebook friend of mine posted an update stating he was going to make apple butter in his slow cooker, with a link attached. I am always interested in learning about new slow cooker recipes, and I thought that making apple butter this way was a brilliant idea! Turns out it’s pretty awesome—delicious and easy, which is always a super combination. And I have a bunch of apples from my CSA, so this is a great way to use them.

I made a half recipe, since that’s what fit into my slow cooker. It starts with peeling and coring apples—I core my apples with a melon baller, which does a fantastic job of scooping out the seeds and stiff parts of the apple. And since I just got my knives sharpened, it was a breeze to peel the apples, though I would love to have one of these apple peelers; when I was younger, my grandmother had one and I thought it was magic! Continue reading “Slow Cooker Apple Butter is Easy and Delicious”

January 7, 2012January 7, 2012

Food Lover’s Cleanse 2012, Day 3

Day 3 of the Food Lover’s Cleanse went well! I started out using the set schedule, with a two egg omelet with caramelized onions. I finished it with some of the wonderful paprika salt from my friends at Gardenfreude. I love this salt – it is my favorite of the herb salts they prepare. It has an earthy sweetness that I find irresistible.

I found this omelet to be pretty filling, so I wanted something light for lunch. So I chose to eat Day 2’s snack for lunch, along with half an avocado with meyer lemon juice. Pictured are CSA apples, AkMak crackers with VT chevre, kalamata olives, and slices of spicy pork sausage. It was perfect! I think my favorite flavor combination was the sausage and apple.

Dinner was the beet soup and the salmon from Day 2’s dinner. Now, I was hesitant when I saw the 5 Spice Beet Soup as part of the menu – last year it was there and I found it lacking in flavor. I had to doctor it up with extra spices and everything. Well, this year something changed – likely, it’s my taste buds. I loved the soup this year!

Continue reading “Food Lover’s Cleanse 2012, Day 3”

October 17, 2011October 17, 2011

A Hard Cider Revival at New Amsterdam Market

Yesterday (Sunday) I made my way over to the New Amsterdam Market for A Hard Cider Revival, one of their fall events on top of their weekly market. Sunday also marked the start of the inaugural Cider Week here in NYC, and there will be lots of events throughout the city celebrating cider – hard and soft – and the apples behind it. A Hard Cider Revival involved cider tastings, tapas, and sampling of different kinds of apples (some rare).

About the New Amsterdam Market – it is a very neat weekly outdoor market that focuses on local, seasonal, artisanal foods. It is located down by the South Street Seaport on the east side of Manhattan. From their About page:

New Amsterdam Market is a reinvention of the Public Market, once a prevalent institution in the City of New York. Revived for our present times and needs, New Amsterdam Market will incubate a new and growing economic sector: small businesses such as butchers, grocers, mongers, and other vendors who source, produce, distribute, and sell foods made with regional ingredients as well as carefully selected imports. We are also reintroducing and developing the concept of market fare prepared with regional, seasonal ingredients.

I won tickets to A Hard Cider Revival tasting via twitter, which was very cool. I rarely win things, so I was seriously psyched at my win here! I was given two sets of 5 tickets each; each ticket equalled one drink or tapa. It was cool being able to have access to a variety of hard ciders, along with some tasty treats from Marlow & Sons (a Williamsburg restaurant that focuses on local, seasonal, organic food).

I tried a few things and really enjoyed them. My favorite of the ciders is the Northern Spy from Eve’s Cidery. It’s made from green Northern Spy apples, and I enjoyed how it tasted like a dry sparkling wine but with a distinct apple flavor. It’s what I think hard cider should taste like.

Continue reading “A Hard Cider Revival at New Amsterdam Market”

September 15, 2011September 16, 2011

Hellgate CSA Week 14

This week we definitely got a glimpse of fall – enter the winter squash! Exciting, to say the least – I am a huge fan of winter squashes. Additionally, we got:

1 bunch carrots
1 pound green beans
1 head escarole
1 pound sweet peppers
1 pint mini tomatoes (not shown)
(1 acorn squash)
2 pounds apples
2 pounds pears
2 pound concord grapes

The carrots will be fermented; the green beans turned into dilly beans. The tomatoes have just been eaten out of hand pretty much. The escarole is quite bitter, so I’ll likely braise it somehow, perhaps with bacon!

I plan to pickle the grapes.

Apart from these fruits and vegetables, I received a tomato canning share – 20-25 pounds of plum tomatoes.

They look and feel great so far, and I plan to make crushed tomatoes with them. If they do as well as I expect they will, I’ll order another box for next week! Slow roasted tomatoes, yum.

This week was a meat & dairy week, so it was great to replenish my stock of ground beef and turkey sausage. I also ordered two cheese from Nettle Meadow Farm – Kunik and Three Sisters. Both are excellent, but Kunik is out of this world! A very luxurious cheese.

Also, I ordered a batch of “Battenkill Brittle,” which is a kind of crunchy, sweet, seedy brittle. It’s sweetened with brown rice syrup and maple syrup, though it’s not super sweet at all.

Quite a week this week!

September 9, 2011September 8, 2011

Hellgate CSA Week 13

This week was marked by a huge fruit share – awesome. Summer veggies are still with us, but fall arrived with some amazing crispy apples and succulent pears. In total, we got:

2 pounds of tomatoes
1 eggplant
1 pound green beans
1 pound peppers
1 bunch leeks
1 head lettuce
1 pound plums
2 pounds peaches
1 pound nectarines
2 pounds apples
2 pounds pears

I’ve been enjoying the tomatoes in quesadillas, with patties of turkey sausage (from the CSA), and I’ve also eaten them with the eggplant and peppers for a delicious saute (punctuated with home grown basil). I’ve been snacking on the apples and pears. The nectarines turned into a fruit crisp, the recipe for which I’ll post next week – it’s all naturally sweetened, with sprouted flour in place of the white flour.

I may end up making another shrub with last week’s peaches – needless to say, things got crazy last week, so no Week 12 will be posted.

Here’s to continued good eating!

August 29, 2011August 28, 2011

Hellgate CSA Week 11

This past week brought us many delicious vegetables and fruit. We got:

1 pound japanese eggplants
2 pounds tomatoes
1 bunch leeks
1 head lettuce
1 pound summer squash
1 pound green beans
2 pounds apples
1 pound nectarines
1 watermelon (missing)

Sad news about the watermelon – it kind of died. Hard to describe, but it was very sad. I’ve also been on an apples and peanut butter kick, which is a terrific, satisfying snack.

The tomatoes went into tomato jam. Everything else has been eaten as is, sauteed and such together – all these summer veggies go so well together! Except the lettuce, which is languishing in the fridge. So much lettuce.

August 22, 2011August 21, 2011

Hellgate CSA Week 10

Week 10 Collage — Share from Week 10 of the Hellgate CSA

We continue to get classic summer vegetables and fruit mid-August. Summer squash, beans, and tomatoes, especially. And more. This week we got:

1 pint mini tomatoes
1 pound summer squash
1 cucumber
2 peppers
1 bitter melon
1 eggplant
1 cantaloupe
2 pounds plums
2 pounds peaches
2 pounds apples

I have no idea what I’ll do with the bitter melon. It is a mystery to me. The tomatoes are gone, eaten in part with the cucumber. I think I’ll pickle the peppers. The eggplant was made into baba ghanoush – quite garlicky this time around.

I made the peaches into peach cobbler on Sunday, and it is quite tasty! The sprouted flour gives it a bit of a crunch. I may make this instead of crisp topping in the future, as I can get around the need to soak grains this way, plus it’s much less sweet. It’s sweetened with sucanat, which goes great with the peaches. It’s so far my favorite recipe in which to use sucanat.

I’ve been eating the apples out of hand. Sadly, the plums bit the dust after sitting out too long. Our plums this year have been a bit problematic, arriving over ripe to begin with. Still, the ones I’ve been able to eat have been fabulous.