Apple

Supposedly dating back to Colonial America, this old-fashioned dessert passes the test of time. For a modern spin, try it with a cool glass of rice or hemp milk, and watch for the smiles.

Buckwheat is such a great old-world flour. Its distinctive, slightly sweet, earthy flavor pairs extremely well with tart apple.

These muffins are scrumptious and chock-full of beta-carotene, phytonutrients, protein, and fiber, with no refined sugar. What better way to start your day than with a Morning Glory Muffin?

Tart chunks of green apple and warming cinnamon make this healthy and delicious cupcake the ideal after-school snack. Pack, unfrosted, in a lunch box along with a small container of Cream Cheese Frosting (page 95) for a special school-lunch dessert.

Though undoubtedly Indian influenced (it bears a passing resemblance to the traditional East Indian mulligatawny soup), this is actually an adaptation of a classic curried chicken stew recipe from the American South.

Peanut butter gives this soup a rich flavor. In my home, this is a fall favorite!

Make this soup a few hours ahead of time, if you can. The unusual combination of flavors benefits from having time to blend. You can use butternut squash instead of pumpkin, if you prefer.

I’m known for barbecue, not for baking. But there are times when I’m called on to produce a dessert, and I’ll tell you right now that there’s nothing easier to make than this apple crunch. It’s like apple pie without the hassle; you don’t even have to make a crust. If you’re really feeling desperate and in a big hurry, you can top the apples with half of the batter of a boxed cake mix; it’s good that way, too.

I love a chicken salad sandwich, but I like the chicken salad itself to be full of flavor and not plain and boring. So when I make chicken salad, I start with a whole chicken because I like both white and dark meat, and because I want to have a lot of chicken salad to go around. Then I put pickles, apples, grapes, eggs, and pecans in it, so that it’s a rich, filling salad that’s great on its own with Ritz or saltine crackers, or on a toasted English muffin, or on other bread as a sandwich. Should you have any leftover barbecue chicken (see page 31) or smoked chicken (see page 40), you can scale down this recipe based on what you have and make a smaller amount of the chicken salad with the leftovers.

I can’t resist making this special tart for myself when my Duchess apple tree in Vermont is laden with the most flavorful apples I’ve ever tasted. I’ve never sprayed the tree, so, yes, there are what we call wormholes, but I peel around them or dig out the dark tunnels with the point of a knife. If you’re using a frozen portion of your own tart dough, remember to take it out in the morning and let it defrost at room temperature. If you’re making up a new batch, be sure to make extra to put away for a repeat performance.

Try to get good country apples—firm, juicy, and with a tart flavor. This version of a baked apple includes some indigenous Northeast Kingdom products.

Every summer, I get my share of the syrup from my maple trees in northern Vermont that my cousin John taps in the spring. I particularly like the dark syrup he produces, and I devise ways to use it in old-fashioned desserts like this one. I also use the tart apples from a Duchess tree that embraces the house. So I consider this dessert a gift of nature, and I hope you’ll find your own good sources for its ingredients.

Crisps and crumbles—they are one and the same—were always a favorite in our family, and I miss having them on a regular basis. But I found it’s very easy to make just one portion in a small casserole dish (I use an onion-soup bowl).

Here’s a sparkling salad that makes superb use of that one-third or so of a plump fennel bulb that you couldn’t consume in one sitting.

Crystal’s nieces have nicknamed their mother “Butter.” This term of endearment for Karen stems from the fact that she cooks everything with butter. One of her specialties is this cake, and—you guessed it—there’s lots of butter! A cream cheese and apple mixture bakes up nice and gooey on top of a soft cake layer. Served warm, it just doesn’t get any butter—we mean, better.

This is a super-yummy cake that you can whip together easily once you’ve got your mise en place under control. Start by preparing all your apples at once—then just break off what you need to sauté for the cake first, and put the ones for the topping in a bowl off to the side. After you’ve grated the lemon zest for the cake, squeeze the juice from the lemon and toss it with the reserved apples for the topping—this adds flavor and keeps them from turning brown while you make the cake. If you really have it together, you can make the topping ahead of time and keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to serve the cake. You don’t even have to serve the topping warm, but I think it’s really special this way. Got leftovers? This topping is great over ice cream, on pancakes, or, of course, on second helpings of cake!

I’m a fan of anything called hash. When I was a kid my parents would make fried eggs for breakfast and bust out a can of corned beef hash—it was a huge treat. Now I jump at anything that reminds me of hash. In this recipe I mix together sweet potatoes, apple, onion, and, of course, a bit of bacon for my own take on hash—a bit sweeter and certainly healthier than anything from a can!