I know a girl who doesn’t really like apples.  Well, she is from California.

Apples are such an English thing.  But what can one do with an apple, other than peel it?  You would be surprised what a brilliant addition apples can make to a hell heck of a lot of dishes.

For a start apples make cider, and one can do a hell heck of a lot with cider.  First up this week we have maple apple cider from the very cute Tieghan Gerard at Half Baked Harvest.

Maple Apple Cider

Also from Tieghan at Half Baked Harvest there’s crockpot cider braised short ribs with sage butter mashed potatoes.  Very nice and very nourishing on a cold autumn evening.  And, following last week’s Food on Friday you should all know just exactly where your slow cooker is.

Crockpot  Braised Short Ribs with Sage Butter Mashed Potatoes

There are thousands and thousands of recipes for food and drinks involving cider, but with Halloween coming up, here’s something only a real witch could drink.  From KC’s Bookshelf, via hocuspocus13, we have this stupifying concoction, a perfect fall wine.  This recipe includes the superfood beet juice.  (On your own head be it.)

A Perfect Fall Wine

Cider will eventually turn into apple cider vinegar, (cyder).  This stuff is excellent in so may ways, but you should really look for the genuine organic article.  My friend in Orange County swears by Bragg organic raw apple cider vinegar.  Want to turn your apple cider vinegar into a perfect basis for a salad dressing and a complete restorative body-cleanser and cure-all?  Well then, make a tincture of apple cider vinegar with rose hips and rosemary.  I’m lucky, I can collect great wild rose hips and rosemary right near the garret.

Apple Cider Vinegar with Rose Hips and Rosemary

I couldn’t possibly do a post about apples without including an apple pie, and this apple cranberry pie from Andrea at Cooking with a Wallflower looks delicious.  Sadly, I have a complete blind spot when it comes to baking, so I may not ever try this wonderful recipe.  Also from Andrea we have a great autumn breakfast; pumpkin Dutch baby pancake with caramelised brown sugar apples.  Nice.

Apple Cranberry Pie

There’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that says I can’t bake.  Maybe I should try.  Maybe I should try this recipe from Elise Bauer at Simply Recipes ~ a wonderful apple coffee cake.  Never even heard of this, but it looks delicious, and I so like the idea of using apples in a cake.  Apples seem so much better than the idea of carrots in baking!

Apple Coffee Cake

It’s autumn, and for a lot of us that means soup. Heather Christo has this parsnip, apple soup with bacon fried apples, you could turn this into a vegan dish by missing out the bacon.  I love parsnips, and I’m going to make this soup over the weekend.

Parsnip, Apple Soup with Bacon Fried Apples

Even though this dish from The Kale Box is called pumpkin spiced fall medley, it’s less pumpkin and more sweet potato and apples, which suits me fine.  Looks a great change from our average vegetable side dishes.

Pumpkin Spiced Fall Medley

This next recipe may only use a couple of apples, but I tried this last Sunday, and you can take it from me, those apples make all the difference in the world.  For a dish with a truly international flavour, English girl Amanda, who lives in rural France, offers us Tuscan roast pork, from her site Chez Le Rêve Francais.  I love Tuscany, and I loved making and eating this dish.  (I must admit that these days I roast everything inside a roasting bag, which means that I retain a lot of juices with the meat, which always make a fabulous sauce.)

Tuscan Roast Pork

And finally for this week, from Cookie and Kate, (Cookie is the dog), we have a vegan recipe for apple steel cut oatmeal.  In England we call this porridge, and I’m not usually a fan.  This looks like a great breakfast.

Apple Steel Cut Oatmeal

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A big big thank you to all the great cooks featured this week.

jack collier

jackcollier7@talktalk.net