Baked Apples

One of my purchases at the farmer’s market last weekend was a five pound bag of Pink Lady apples.  It was an absolute bargain at $2, and so I was not surprised (though a little disappointed) that the apples appeared to be windfall apples (a bit old with many bruises and soft spots).  I had decided that I would try grilling them for a nice summery dessert, but with the air being positively chewable with all the smoke this entire week, I was not tempted to sit outside and baby-sit the grill.  So I turned on my oven and threw this dish together.

10 small apples, cut in fairly thick wedges (I’d say this yields a good 5-6 cups)
Juice of two lemons
2 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs vanilla
Cinnamon to taste
1/2 cup raisins or other dried fruit
1/4 cup shredded coconut
2 TBS butter

Mix everything except the butter and coconut in a large bowl.  Dump into a casserole dish.  Dot with the butter.  Bake in a 375 degree oven until apples  start softening (I’d say about 15 minutes).  Top with coconut.  Bake another 15 minutes until apples are totally soft and coconut is nice and brown.

I discovered I like this quite well warmed and topped with a little vanilla soy milk, but for those whose gag reflex kicks in at the thought of anything soy, I’m sure it would be fabulous over ice cream, too.

Saturday at the Market

Today I had the luxury of a free Saturday morning, so I decided to go down to my local farmer’s market.  This is actually a summer tradition for me.   I LOVE farmer’s markets, but because I’m usually teaching on Saturday mornings, I rarely get to go.  And, as is standard for my first visit, I went on a spree.

I had conceptualized before going that I would maybe put a gazpacho together, since the weather has been getting warm.  A nice, cool, refreshing soup, with, perhaps, some grilled corn sounded perfect.   I was envisioning visiting my favorite tomato vendor and picking up a pint of their rainbow cherry tomatoes (a basket with a multitude of varietals in it) to put in it to make a beautifully colorful dish.  I arrived at the market, but no tomato vendor! In fact, tomatoes were fairly few and far between.  And where was the corn? Then I realized…I was a month early.  My classes usually end in July, my first visit to the market has historically been in mid-July, when, of course, both tomatoes and corn are plentiful.  So, I abandoned my plan, and browsed the stalls.  I still managed to fill my bags.  Here’s what is busting out of my fridge:

Green bell peppers
Grape tomatoes
Zucchini
Yellow squash
Red and golden beets (I’m tossing around the idea of grilling them, and serving them with their slightly steamed greens).
Cherries (Bing and yellow)
Apricots
Pink Lady apples
1/2 flat of strawberries

I can make a killer salad with the beets (even if I don’t grill them – I’ve discovered that raw beets are actually really tasty), peppers, and tomatoes.  I’ve also decided that I’m going to make a Mexican casserole with tortillas, beans, cheese, roasted peppers, and the squash.  I will top it with nonfat Greek yogurt, which I think makes a great substitue for sour cream.  Most low or nonfat sour creams have gelatin in them, plus they tend to be a unitasker in my kitchen- once I’ve finished dolloping it on my burritos or fajitas, I have a tough time finding other uses for it.   On the other hand, I was never wild about using ordinary plain yogurt as a sour cream substitute (which is a regular recommendation in vegetarian cook books) because it’s too thin and a lot tend towards sweet rather than sour.  And yes, I realize I can solve the texture problem by making yogurt cheese, but that’s a long process for a condiment.  Trader Joe’s recently started carrying nonfat Greek yogurt, which works perfectly as a sour cream substitute: it has a nice bite and is lovely and thick.  Plus, the leftovers can be used as yogurt: in parfaits with all my lovely fresh fruit, or with a little honey stirred in. 

An extra bonus for being free on a Saturday morning: the new bread bakery I’ve fallen in love with is open.  Actually, it was predestined that I would love this place – I’d been drooling at their window for the year long process it took them to open.  They are, alas, closed on Sundays, so when I AM able to pop in, I stock up.  With the weather being as warm as it has been, I decided on the fly to make kind of a mock egg salad with tofu.  I wanted a nice, hearty bread to put it on so that it wouldn’t fall apart from the moisture (I can press the dickens out of tofu, but it still has a tendency to waterlog bread).  On the store’s recommendation, I picked up a loaf of bread that had caught my eye before: a dark, seedy bread shaped in a triangle.  It had apparantly just come out of the oven because the salesclerk was a bit reluctant to slice it for me, and even now, almost an hour later, it is still warm to the touch.  I also selected a pumpkin bread because I liked that fact that it was totally covered in pumpkin seeds.  And finally, because I was absolutely starving by this point and the deliciously buttery aroma of the store was making my mouth water, I selected a hazelnut swirl pastry.  I figured I could pair it up with some berries when I got home for a tasty late breakfast (and it was).

Off to the kitchen!