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Get ready for arrival of fall recipes

And time marches on! We are entering the last week of September. Our thoughts and plans should be on the coming season and the holidays. Are we ready? I’m not! It will come on schedule, ready or not.

Some folks are attending arts and crafts shows to get ideas for their own decorating and/or getting a head start on Christmas shopping. Ripley had a great show last weekend and towns and villages all over our valley are having the regular fall festivities.

If you have never made Apple Butter the old-fashioned way and most folks haven’t, do go to one of the festivals where it is being made.

That is a good lesson for the young ones to see how their grandparents worked to provide the sweeter things in life for their families. Somehow, that biscuit topping just tastes better when it is cooked outside. Those old memories couldn’t be the source of this preference, now, could it? (If we kids were really good, Grandma would give us a few of the cinnamon candies to eat as she added others to the kettle.) Good memories.

Recently, there was an article about how the work we do, even today, will be taken over by robots in the coming years. Scary, isn’t it? I am not ready for “driverless” cars, either. It seems technology is moving faster now than it ever has and we have to wonder if that is all good. There are too many folks who are having trouble finding a meaningful job now; what will they do when the robots do everything for them? What if, somehow, someone finds a way to insert thinking powers into those robots? I can’t image robots making Apple Butter in a big kettle over a wood fire. Or my feeling safe riding in a car without a driver, for that matter. Time, and technology, march on — but it is hard to keep up with it mentally.

As you read this, we should be on the road returning from a shortened vacation to our favorite place, the Catskills. Husband Norm needs a rest from the office and I need one more (from lots of things). The only drawback to a restful few days away is coming home and seeing the stacks of projects that need finishing. They will have to wait, though, as it is my favorite time of the year — Cookbook time in our valley — and that comes ahead of everything else. After the recipes that the good cooks in our area have submitted, they are painstaking typed by the workers in the paper’s office and given numbers. That way, the judges can’t know what cook submitted what recipe, so it is completely fair. It is very difficult to judge one recipe against another as they are usually all good. The “tasting party” is next month and is the highlight of the contest. Then the printed cookbook of all recipes submitted, for your cooking pleasure, is available to everyone.

I am looking forward to this annual event.

What I’m not looking forward to is the clearing of the garden area. That garden has been a disappointment for me this year (can’t be because age has kept me from keeping it like I wanted.). When those seed catalogs start arriving in a couple of months, I will still be tempted to dream about what I would like to plant next year. Some old “farm folks” just can’t give up the habit of digging in the dirt.

But for now, it is time to do whatever decorating one plans for the fall and Halloween.

Kids, young and older, do like to “dress up” for that holiday. The days of using Mom’s old sheets to make ghost costumes seems to have passed and the new “holiday stores” have taken over to provide “modern day” outfits. Kids, you are so lucky if you have a Grandma who can still make you the costume of your dreams.

This month’s magazines are full of ideas for food and decorating for Halloween and fall, and for costumes, too. Meringue Bones for treats caught my eye.

Fall is a wonderful season, so enjoy it with food and flowers (corn stalks, anyone) and start planning for the rest of the year. Enjoy the apple recipes I have for you this week. They are all family favorites.

Don’t forget to help, in any way you can, the folks who have had their lives disrupted so much in the past few weeks with the weather. We are so fortunate in this valley to have been spared this disaster. It should remind everyone what is really important in life. Count your blessing, hug your kids, and keep your family close. Pray for those who have suffered and those who help them. God Bless.

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APPLE MINT JELLY

2 cups apple juice

1/4 cup dried mint leaves (dry fresh leaves in a slow oven)

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon butter

3 1/2 cups sugar

Green food coloring

1 3-ounce pouch liquid pectin

In a good-sized stainless steel or enamel pot, heat apple juice to a boil, then remove from heat. Stir in mint leaves, cover and let stand for 10 minutes. Pour mixture through a jelly bag or a cheese cloth lined strainer.

Squeeze out and reserve all liquid. Discard mint leaves. Rinse pot and return liquid to pot. Stir in lemon juice, butter, sugar, and several drops of food coloring. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Add pectin, all at one and return to a full rolling boil. Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Pour into hot, sterilized half-pint jars and seal. This will make about 4 jars. Don’t double recipe — it is better to make small batches.

***

NORTH CAROLINA FRESH APPLE CAKE

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter or margarine

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

Juice of 1/2 lemon and zest

1 teaspoon salt

3 cups flour

1 1/4 teaspoons soda

1 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

3 cups peeled and chopped fresh apples (Golden Delicious or Honey Crisp are good)

Optional ingredients — raisins or, dates or, pecans

Combine sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and zest, and salt in a mixing bowl. Beat well. In another bowl, combine flour, soda, and spices and add to first mixture and beat well again.

Add apples and any optional ingredients and mix well. Bake in a greased and floured pan in preheated 325-degrees oven for 1 1/2 hours.

***

GLAZE FOR APPLE CAKE

1 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup milk

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 teaspoon vanilla

Pinch of salt

Combine, bring to a boil, then cool before pouring cake.

***

MERINGUE TOPPED BAKED APPLES

6 large baking apples

1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup walnuts, finely chopped

2 tablespoon butter, melted

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Syrup:

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup water

1 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Pinch salt

Meringue:

2 egg whites

1/4 cup sugar

Pinch of salt

Peel a 1-inch strip around stem end of apples. Core, being careful not to cut through to blossom end. Place in a buttered 12x8x2-inch baking dish. Mix together graham cracker crumbs, nuts, butter, sugar, and cinnamon. Spoon into center hollow of each apple. In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar, 1/3 cup water. 1 tablespoon butter, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and salt and heat to boiling.

Pour over apples. Cover and bake in preheated 375-degrees oven for about 45 minutes, basting several times during baking. Cool.

Beat egg whites until foamy. Beat in sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, then beat in salt. Beat until this mixture is of meringue consistency. Frost top of each apple with the meringue. Bake in preheated hot 425-degrees oven for 5 minutes or until nicely browned.

***

APPLE DUMPLINGS

(As written in Mom’s cookbook)

Dough — 2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3 tablespoons butter or margarine or vegetable shortening (about)

Enough milk to make a nice dough — one you can handle and roll out

Sliced apples — peeled and cored before slicing

Cinnamon

Syrup — 1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 stick butter or margarine

2 cups water

Make dough and roll out and cut into 6-inch squares. Put sliced apples on dough square and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bring corners of dough square together at top and squeeze together. Pinch dough edges together to enclose apple slices to form dumpling. Place in greased baking pan. Combine syrup ingredients and bring to a boil. Pour over dumplings and bake in preheated 325-degrees oven for 1 1/2 hours.

NOTE: The dough is made like a biscuit dough. The amount of sliced apples depends on the size of the dough squares. They don’t have to be exactly 6 inches. The apples can be peeled and cored, sprinkled with cinnamon, and then placed whole on the dough, too.

These were so good served warm, with milk (or ice cream in later years). They were our supper meal sometimes when we were kids. They are still one of my favorite desserts when the fall apples start appearing at the farmers’ markets, and I still use them as a one-dish meal.

***

Patty Christopher is a food columnist for the Parkersburg News and Sentinel.

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