The Other Woman Cooks

Came home late last night from Austin, Texas. Had a blast but have no time to tell you about it today. There are apples everywhere here. I've been at it all morning. Canned 'em in cinnamon sugar, made applesauce and baked yet another galette . Raspberries instead of blueberries added for color and taste because our backyard raspberries are abundant this week. As for my adventures in Texas: for a hint go ahead and google "Pinetop Perkins " and I will regale you tomorrow or Tuesday - once the apples are under some kind of control! Cinnamon Sliced Apples 4 cups sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ginger 3 teaspoons cinnamon 10 cups water 3 tablespoons lemon juice Half fill a large pan or bowl with cold water. Slice a whole lemon and drop into cold water. Peel, core and slice enough apples to fill 6 quart or 12 pint jars already prepared for home canning. Drop sliced apples into the cold lemon water as you go until you have enough slices to begin packing. Make a syrup of s...

My husband, Farmer Paul (aka Fisherman Paul, Hiker Paul and all variety of other vigorous and productive activities), and I sat on the patio after dinner (The Silver Palate Cookbook, page 187 - Red Snapper with Butter and Shallot Sauce), sipped a little white wine and admired our garden. A plopping sound cut through the quiet. "Apple down," he said, jumping up to snatch a beautifully ripe and pretty big Macintosh from the grass under the laden branches of our supposedly (another story for another day) dwarf variety of self pollinating apple tree. "Let's go in and bake a pie." I haven't made an actual pie in a long time. My youngest son hasn't lived home since college and a whole pie is just too big for three of us to eat before the crust goes soggy. What you see in the picture here is a piece of last night's Apple Blueberry Galette with a side dollop of homemade creme fraiche. Galettes are my specialty. Sounds fancy, doesn't it? So around here...