A is for Apple

Today begins the April A - Z Challenge and I will attempt to write every day this month. I'm still trying to nail down the exact food items I want for each day and cook and photograph as needed. I have some photos already that I've taken over the last year of eating at home. Since Mark and I are now empty nesters we enjoyed eating out regularly with our friends . . .UNTIL March of 2020 when the world came to a screeching halt. From March until June, we didn't even order and pick up take-outs. Since March of 2020 the majority of our meals have been consumed at home or packed in our lunches and eaten at our desks.

Over the year, we have enjoyed trying out different varieties of apples. Did you even know that there is a variety of apples called Twist? We had never even seen Twist apples in the store before but one week I ordered Honey Crisp from Costco and our Shipt shopper texted that there were no more Honey Crisp apples and he asked if he could substitute. The Twist apples are awesome and are a combo of Honey Crisp and Pink Lady apples. From what I've read, the Twist apples are grown in the Pennsylvania area and are one of the last apples to be harvested.

Over this last year, we've also consumed Honey Crisp, Pink Lady, Envy, Fugi, Kiku, and many others and all are good. I never buy Red Delicious anymore and I feel sort of bad for them!! Kikus are also one of our newest apples to eat and they are crisp and sweet.

We've eaten many of the apples in their natural state - raw! Every once in a while, I wanted a different texture or I had apples that were starting to crinkle - does that ever happen at your house? I would wash them and slice them. Then I cook them one of three ways. I either put the apple slices in a paper bowl, sprinkle with a teaspoon of water and zap them in the microwave for a couple of minutes until soft. I like to sprinkle a little cinnamon on top before eating.They are fine this way and if I'm just cooking one apple for myself, I cook it in the microwave. I use one of the other two methods of cooking when using several apples. You can preheat the oven to 350, spray a 9 X 13 dish with pam and place the apples in the pan, add a tablespoon or two of water, cover with foil and bake until soft -- I usually leave them at least 30 minutes and sometimes closer to an hour. The last method is equally as easy BUT when using this method, it is easier to burn the apples. 

You can put the apples in the oven and go walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes and not worry about them. If you cook the apples on your stovetop . . .you need to hang around. Once again, you can tell when they are done - you might like your cooked apples to have some crunch or you might enjoy a softer version.

You might be wondering why I don't add sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice, butter, etc. Three years ago, I decided to give up desserts, candy bars, etc. for Lent and I've never started back eating those things. If I add sugar and butter . . .these plain apples become dessert. Since I rarely eat sugar, the apples taste very sweet to me. I like to sprinkle cinnamon on mine but hubby doesn't. I've cooked the apples and made overnight oats using fat free plain Greek yogurt, a tablespoon of oats, apples, repeat layers. When I make that I do add some stevia simply because the yogurt is so tart. I don't heat the oats. I eat it cold for breakfast. For those who love sweets, you could make a simple dessert by serving vanilla ice cream topped with warm apples.

I have a wonderful recipe for Apple Roll and you can read about it on an older post in my blog. This is old recipe and has lots of sugar and butter and crust and deliciousness. I highly recommend serving vanilla ice cream on top of the apple roll. Mark would say to add "squirt whipped cream" on top of the ice cream.

What are your favorite varieties of apples? Do you have a favorite recipe using apples?