I spent much of the day today up in our apple tree picking this year’s harvest. It’s an excellent year and I now have six large laundry baskets full of winter apples, and again as many on the ground beneath the tree that I’ll take to the apple juice makers.
Is there a specific word for a year that had a particularly bountiful harvest?
[quote author=ilka link=board=what;num=1035147893;start=0#0 date=10/20/02 at 17:04:53]
Is there a specific word for a year that had a particularly bountiful harvest?
Bumper crop is a common idiom for a bountiful harvest. I’m not aware of a term for the year itself, but I suspect there’s one in French that’s connected to grapes.
[quote author=ilka link=board=what;num=1035147893;start=0#0 date=10/20/02 at 17:04:53]
P.S. Anyone have any good apple recipes?
An easy favorite (in US measurements)- disproportionately delicious, considering the effort:
8 apples, peeled and sliced
1 to 2 tsp cinnamon (to taste)
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, melted
Toss apples and cinnamon in pan (large rectangle). Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder and egg in bowl; pour over apples. Pour melted butter over dry topping.
I have a similar recipe, but it doesn’t have eggs in it.
After coring and peeling, you slice Granny Smith apples and layer them in a pie pan; after each layer sprinkle lemon juice on top. Then crumble on top when layers are about an inch or two heigh: brown sugar, butter, flour, cinnamon. Bake until top is golden brown and bubbly. (Around 350 F - can’t remember exactly. Same with the measurements - I just sort of wing this one.)
*having flashbacks to plum tickling* I hate harvesting fruit. Anyone got any good plum recipes? Only one tree full of ‘em this year, the other two or three are with our bach in Tokaanu. (By Lake Taupo.)
*grin* PLUM TICKLING! lol. What it is is basically just harvesting plums. How you know they’re ripe is, they fall off the tree if you tickle them. (You do it with your hand under them if you don’t want to drop them.) There are quicker ways to do it but that’s what I always remember, tickling the ripe ones first so that they don’t fall down when you pick the other ones. And of course, I’m the only one light enough to climb the tree but with a long enough reach to get to the plums…I have a picture of me in a plum tree that makes me look like a dryad or something. (I even have the long wavy brown hair, lol.)
Tamisaac, I have to tell you, that was about the most magical creation that ever emerged from my kitchen. I confess I was very dubious at first, with the dough all crumbly and unmixed as I pushed it into the oven. But ...abrakadabra… out came a perfect creation with a crunchy, candied crust over moist cakey insides that had absorbed the liquid from the apples. Absolutely delicious. Incredibly easy to make. Uses up lots apples. And tastes great cold, as I can verify at this very moment!
Kalasin, this recipe would be perfect for your plums, too.
dgale, I often make something similar to your recipe, adding nuts or rolled oats or using spelt flour, which gives it a nutty flavor.
Ah, apple crumble. I’ve never made it with plums before…apples, pears, apricots and peaches, but never plums. Maybe I’ll suggest it this year.
I don’t think the recipe is an apple crumble as we know it as it has baking powder, egg and melted butter. Apple crumble calls for flour and sugar into which you rub butter.
Rhubarb would be another very yummy ingredient in the recipe given.
[quote author=ilka link=board=what;num=1035147893;start=0#10 date=11/16/02 at 09:48:03]Tamisaac, I have to tell you, that was about the most magical creation that ever emerged from my kitchen. I confess I was very dubious at first, with the dough all crumbly and unmixed as I pushed it into the oven. But ...abrakadabra… out came a perfect creation with a crunchy, candied crust over moist cakey insides that had absorbed the liquid from the apples. Absolutely delicious. Incredibly easy to make. Uses up lots apples. And tastes great cold, as I can verify at this very moment!
It’s amazing, isn’t it? I’ve been considering writing a cookbook—Shhh… don’t tell… it’s The Dump and Bake Cookbook or something like that. :) (Before I started thinking, I spent a good bit of time in the kitchen, perfecting my cooking skills.)
If you’re interested in cooking, I can’t recommend Cook’s Illustrated highly enough. They are cooking perfectionists and test every variable (and crazy suggestion) for each recipe. (I even picked up a recipe for beer can chicken (which they tested on a lark) from them—DELICIOUS!!) Whatever you make, you can be sure it’s good. There are a good number of fascinating chemistry lessons too—in the magazine at least. I’ve learned why egg whites turn white when they cook (has to do with the popping and rebonding of protein coils), why whole wheat breads need extra gluten to rise well (three reasons—gluten is a protien that makes sheets that trap the air bubbles (given off by the yeast) that raise the bread, and the sharp edges of the bran that’s present in whole wheat flour cut through the gluten strands, the germ and bran in whole wheat flour displace some of the gluten-containing endosperm, and the type of wheat ground to make whole wheat flour naturally has less gluten than bread flour) and (yak, yak, yak) so much more…
;D
Ingredients:
5 peeled apples
4 eggs
0.5 can of condensed milk
lemon grind
vanilla essence
sugar (just a little)
Grate the apples and mix in a square pan with the condensed milk, lemon grind, egg yolks and a few drops of vanilla essence. Set your oven at 180 C degrees and (without waiting or pre-heating) put the pan for 20 minutes.
While the mix is in the oven, use the egg whites and a bit of sugar to prepare a meringue. When the apple mixed is cooked, spread the meringue on top of the pan. Put the pan back into the oven (this time using the grill) for 2 minutes (or until golden).
Very yummy and quick. Total time (including preparation and cooking) ~ 35 minutes.
Anyone got any good plum recipes? Only one tree full of ‘em this year, the other two or three are with our bach in Tokaanu. (By Lake Taupo.)
