It's the first Monday of the month. Around here, that can mean only one, momentous thing: it's time again for another Small Measure Giveaway! For those of you new to the contest, or to this blog, I'm staging a giveaway each month from now until the release of my book, Homemade Living: Canning & Preserving with Ashley English. Each month one lucky person will win an artfully crafted canned item featured in the book and made by yours truly. From my pantry to yours, this month I'll be giving away a jar of Cardamom Apple Butter. This is the apple butter you will think about when doing laundry, or raking leaves, or walking the dog. This is the sort of apple butter you will ponder uses for when far from it, like when you're picking up pet meds at the Veterinarian's office, or buying an ink cartridge from the office supply store. Once in its presence, this is the sort of spread that might render you unable to continue on with any previously held apple butter restraint.
"This toast looks naked," you might exclaim. "Hand me the cardamom apple butter, STAT!" you'll yell. Or, "Whatever shall I adorn my buttery slice of pound cake with?" you might find yourself wondering. "Cardamom apple butter, that's what!" Don't be surprised if you find yourself thinking aloud "My spoon has nothing on it. It needs APPLE BUTTER!" From ham sandwiches to currant scones, this apple delight will brighten up your taste buds while bringing a smile to your lips. It's a personal favorite. Clearly.
To enter: Simply leave a comment to THIS specific post by telling me your favorite way of cooking, serving, or simply eating apples. Your comment MUST link to your particular blog or web site (and therefore to your contact information) or include your e-mail address. Otherwise, I won't be able to get in touch with you if you win! Any entries that do not include some way of getting in touch will be disqualified.
Deadline: Comments must be received by midnight EST October 19th, 2009. Odds of winning will depend on the number of eligible entries received.
Other rules:
1. You must have a mailing address in the United States of America (Sorry international folks!)
2. Only one entry comment per person.
How it works: Each comment will be assigned a sequential number. The winning number will be selected from a random number generator, so there'll be no favorites, simply a game of chance.
Keep coming back each month to see the next tasty item up for grabs!
114 comments:
It's a toss up between buttery apple sauce and a good apple brown betty... Or perhaps my grandmother's caramel apple cake... Or a wine poached apple topped with cardamom-spiked whipped cream... I'm so fickle.
hi ashley,
i am an apple butter junkie. by the spoonfuls please...but i think that my favorite apple delight is left over from my childhood. an apple crispy and sweet sliced and spread with crunchy peanut butter(cept now i do almond butter). that's it, nothing fancy...
Oh, German Apple Cake...how I love thee! Perhaps I love thee most when the sweet apples are chunked and wrapped in the thick, eggy, sugary german cake batter, just as you are popped into the oven! The streusel on top melting and simmering in the butter and fresh apple juice pooling on the top from the baking fruit...or maybe I love thee more when the ice cream is layered on top at the end! :)
Homemade applesauce with heaps of cinnamon, or just a really nice, fresh apple cut up with peanut butter and cheese!
I like to get a variety of apples, one each, and slice them up with a chunk of cheese and do a tasting. It's amazing how different the varieties can be!
Well, if it's a MacIntosh apple, then I want to eat it straight off the tree. The taste and smell of that apple is heaven to me!
I also like to core it and stuff it with raisins, walnuts, a little brown sugar and honey and bake it. Yum!!
i absolutely adore this apple upside down cake recipe i clipped from a newspaper long ago. you first caramelize the apples in a cast iron skillet on the stove top and then you pour the cake mix right on top and pop it in the oven. eaten warm it is absolutely divine!! feels like autumn every time. ;)
I love apple butter, but I think my all time favorite way to eat apples is simply dipped in peanut butter. I had forgotten how much I loved that snack until I rediscovered it this weekend!
It would have to be homemade apple crisp... straight from Mom's kitchen. Nostalgic, warm, and delicious.
I have three favourites! I can't decide between them.
1. Diced apples baked with squash and other root vegetables and then eaten with mushroom gravy.
2. A "last minute" apple crisp, whipped up quickly and baked while we eat dinner so we'll have something nice for dessert.
3. Cut into slices, covered with peanut butter. Best snack, ever.
:)
J.
Hello!
Other than straight off the tree, nothing beats a good old apple pie. For the colder months, in addition to the traditional apple sauce, we’re canning them in brandy- here’s hoping they come out well!
Thanks,
Lora
Apple crisp from the New York Times Cookbook is the only dessert recipes I can't screw up. And it's DELICIOUS every time, especially with cream whipped into soft peaks.
I love anything wonderful that happens to have cardamom in it. It makes everything that much more wonderful. And when it comes to apples, I like them as-is--that's my favorite!
Mmm, your apple butter sounds heavenly! I love reading your blog and can't wait for the books to be published.
Oh this sounds wonderful!!!
My favorite way to eat an apple is slices on a plate with just a drizzle of agave nectar over top...simple and delicious! And as a runner up, a crumb top apple pie can never do any wrong in my eyes :)
One of my favorite ways to eat an apple: take one perfectly crisp, ripe apple (preferably a just-picked Gala or Fuji) and cut it into 8 even slices. Cut away the core and put the slices onto your favorite small plate. Put a generous spoonful of natural peanut butter onto the plate. Dip the apple into the peanut butter. Crunch away slowly. Enjoy.
This year I've been making roasted apple sauce and freezing it. I can't wait to eat pork chops and apple sauce this winter!
We lived near an awesome German bakery when I was kid that made the best apple strudel- I still think about it sometimes. Now, I love to bake apples and eat them with everything, especially oatmeal. Of course, I love apple butter!
betsymarsh@yahoo.com
Yum, my all time favorite is a classic French country apple tart, but don't tell my Grandma! Her old family recipe for Norwegian Apple Pie will always have a special place in my heart.
I love to just eat an apple - simple no fuss. Some times though I like to dip it in carmel sauce, it reminds me of carmel apples. Yum!
Rae
mikeandrae@sbcglobal.net
Apple crisp hands down - with the perfect mix of Golden Delicious and Granny Smith :-)
Hi!
I'm loving your blog! My favorite way to eat apples is in their natural state, preferably while lazing under the apple tree when I can eat as many as I want!
We just made our annual trip to Skytop Orchard in Flat Rock, NC this past weekend, and came home with quite the haul of apples. This year, I'm going to try my hand at making some apple butter. But, in the past, my favorite apple treat has always been my family's recipe for apple pie. I make it every year for Thanksgiving. YUM!
I have an ooey gooey apple recipe I like to make. It involves sweetened condensed milk and makes my taste buds recoil, but I love it nonetheless!
Loreneshaw at gmail dot com
Definitely apple strudel. There was a pastry shop nearby while I was growing up that closed and I haven't found an adequate replacement. Just in case you need it: penuchi at gmail dot com
Very possibly sauteed in loads of butter and cinnamon and served over pancakes. Or else baked into pie bars and drizzled with glaze. Or else eaten with a dollop of peanut butter. Lovely.
My favorite way to eat apples is a pumpkin apple pie that will forever coined "floor pie" after we dropped it on the floor before baking. We have clean floors :) so we scooped it into a different dish, baked it, and it turned into our new favorite treat! StephanieSchilling@gmail.com
Thanks for a wonderful contest and blog!
I have a recipe for apple cake that is incredibly delicious. The apples are layered at the bottom of a spring form pan and the very buttery dough is poured on top. The cake is so moist, but then you pour heavy cream on it to make it even better. Clearly it is not a "healthy" apple recipe.
By the ay, I really love your blog. I am so glad I found it and when your new book comes out, well, I am all over it!
Mmmm apple crisp with crunch brown sugar oaty topping. I like it warm, served with ice cream (or pouring cream, as the english do) ... and then eat it cold with yogurt for breakfast the next day! (I like apple pie too, but crisp is so much easier, I make it all the time!)
Apple pie for me, Apple Crisp for hubby. Or even just peeled and sliced with a sprinkling of salt.
Hey~ I think there is nothing more perfect than a honey crisp apple off the tree and UNadorned!!!
Apple pancakes. And warm apple crisp with ice cream. And your apple butter sounds terrific!
kristinLmarsh@gmail.com
in vancouver, canada, there is a little bakery called fratelli, where you can get appleturnovers that you will never, ever be able to cease thinking of. they are a dream of spices and butter and cream and lightest pastry, and of apple nestled in contentedly. when i was pregnant with my first child i wrote a song for those appleturnovers. humming it is a request, and a devotion. if you are not very, very careful, it is easy to come up with reasons not to share any of the four appleturnovers you have bought for your friends.
now i live far, far away from those pastries, and must learn to make my own.
I love fresh apple cider. We go to a pressing party every year and that first taste of cider just means fall to me. Also, Apple turnovers. Biting through gorgeous flaky pastry to a jewel of gooey apple filling....mmmm. sign me up. Also, I really like your blog.
mallory_griffith@hotmail.com
I visit a nearby orchard, get their freshest apples straight off the tree, come back home, and commence making me some yummy applesauce. It just starts the season of fall off right.
If I could have it again it would be my mom's best apple pie. It really was good.
Apple Pie!
Oh man, I'm doomed with all of these good recipes (and such great blog company - "What Possesed Me" - cool!)but here goes:
Sautet some sliced tart Granny Smith Apples in butter.
Cook some really good quality sausages and serve them with the apples and some cous cous.
But here's the real key - have the whole thing with quality beer! So good!!
This sounds absolutely amazing. I would love to win this to put on the next pound cake that I make :-) And failing to win, I can hunt up some apples and a recipe to make my own.
i like eating apples cut up in some plain yogurt, with a banana in there too. add some honey, flax seeds, cranberries, a little granola or sunflower seeds...yum! what a great breakfast.
jessica
jess.luna@gmail.com
My most favorite way to serve apples ever is straight from the tree to my kids (who especially like to go apple picking perched on someone's shoulders). We we pick them ourselves they eat them out of hand like nobody's business. We're also pretty fond of apple crisp. And cardamom is my hands-down favorite spice.
I pack what my children call "lapples" in their lunch boxes. They are simply sliced apples with lemon juice. Yummy and a fovorite in our family!
I love making homemade apple sauce with lots of cinnamon. The apples cooking down on the stove is the perfect start to Fall. I got a bushel of apples this fall and froze a ton of it to last through next fall!
We just love apple pie, my husband Bat and I. This year for the first time I made canned apple pie filling -it will be so easy come christmas to have a pie with our ham.
I always wanted to do a giveaway -now I know how.
Thanks for information
vickie
Apple slices with Peanut butter are a top favorite snack with everyone in the house. Kid friendly and no cooking!
I love apple slices with peanut butter. Yum! Also, this time of year I will indulge in a caramel apple (or two).
It might not be the safest but my favorite way to eat an apple whole and while driving. I love the sweet juice that comes out after each bite...I also enjoy eating the WHOLE apple, core and all.
I'm excited to try your apple butter!
Definitely apple dumplings for me! But that apple butter sounds pretty good too.
Absolute favorite: fried, in butter, with cinnamon and sugar, and laid on a plate next to a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Oh my. Runners up? Sliced-thinly in a sandwich, in baked brie topped with honey and walnuts, or pressed down into cider. Sigh. What an addition to our lovely world.
A granny smith cut into wedges... but the absolutely BEST part about my apple snacks these days... hand-feeding the cores to my chickens! They LOVE them!!
my favorite is getting a big bag of "seconds" from the local orchard and cooking them down into some chunky apple sauce. a little lemon zest, some cinnamon and very little sugar - i like mine tart!
-sara
(http://littledynamitephotography.com)
My fav way to have apples. Hmmm... first is straight off the tree (or ground if I am being lazy) second is...straight off the tree cut into slices with peanut butter ontop then rolled through rice crispy cereal. Third, in an apple bread. Nice and warm apple bread. My next trial in the kitchen is either apple acorn bread or banana acorn bread.
Nice blog by the way. Never been over here before!
crftychk13@yahoo.com Jenn
Hi
These are a few of my favorite things: Apple pie, apple crisp, apple sauce, apple butter, just plain fresh apples while walking down a wooded path, but my favorite apple that I never can pass up: Taffy Apples! With nuts, or candy sprinkles, or crushed peanut butter cups, or just thick homemade caramel! Yum!
I like almost anything apple but my favorite is frying them in butter with red hots! Old family recipe.
Apples sauteed in butter in a cast iron skillet w/a smidge of sugar & cinnamon & nutmeg. Quick & easy dessert at my house.
I guess I'm a simple girl but I like to cut the apple into 8ths, put a thin slice of aged cheddar on it and a tiny sprinkle of sea salt. This is my pick me up afternoon snack.
Hmmm..that's hard. I really like to just bite into an apple. When I was a teenager, I had braces for 5 years. The first thing I ate when I got them off was an apple. It was heaven to just bite into it. I remember that feeling every time I have one. I also love apple slices with different cheeses.
I understand your passion for apple butter because hands down my favorite thing to do with apples is to make apple butter! It's this deep, gut-wrenching love for the stuff that makes me want to eat it out of the jar with a spoon. But, aaaah, cardamom! I should have thought of that when I made my batches this year. I would so love to try yours... :-)
I love a Pink Lady apple dipped in warm caramel. Yum!
My daughters (3&6) pick one out of the backyard orchard, i pull out the pocket knife and everyone gets a slice including the rabbits and the chickens. The core goes to our dog and voila, no mess, no waste. Instant gratification and dessert is never under or over cooked.
orchard17@yahoo.com
It might sound generic, but I love making apple pie. However...I want to try making caramel apple cheesecake soon.
erinrages@yahoo.com
The apple butter sounds amazing! I can't wait for your book to come out!
Old-fashioned apple butter from one of my Mom's cook books (can't tell you the name, the cover and other identifying information fell off a long time ago...). My email is sarahmac999@yahoo.com
Also, if you like cheese, you should check out the Ripshin Goat Dairy in Happy Valley, NC, (www.ripshingoatdairy.com). I work there and it is the most amazing place ever. The makes chevre, feta, and camembert from goat milk.
Every fall I make a fresh apple cake with homemade caramel sauce. Served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream! yum...
pine-ridge@triwest.net
I love them fried in butter and nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice. {we do the red hots for Thanksgiving} I have an apple almost daily, dipped in peanut butter. Nothing better than muffins baked with apples! I could go on and on...
I love apple wine! There are some ladies here in Washington that make the best!!! Plus, I love love love anything with cardamom (it's my Scandinavian roots)!
That's a tough one - apple cake and apple pie are always good. Then there's apple sauce. And then a couple of year's ago a friend introduced me to apples, halved and cored, filled with a litle bit of butter, brandy, cinnamon and nuts, then baked. Yummy goodness with vanilla ice cream, and it cooks while we're eating dinner, so we can eat it straight out of the oven :-)
kmfukuda13@att.net
Mmm...Apple cider donuts or mom's jewish apple cake. To die for. Yum.
I love making German apple pancakes in a cast iron pan, dusted with powdered sugar. Yummm!
Mmm, cardamom apple butter! I'm hoping to go apple picking soon to make some apple-pie-in-a-jar. Love the site, and congrats on the upcoming book!
I like a good Macintosh while reading your book naked in the bath tub!
Baked apple :). Core an apple and throw some butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and walnuts inside. Bake for twenty minutes and enjoy with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Mmmmmm.....drooling thinking about it.
My favorite use for apples will always be my Grandma's apple pie recipe. She was raised on a Dairy farm in New York and her pies are to die for! My Blog is: http://ourlittlehomesteadinthesuburbs.blogspot.com/
Right off the tree, thank you very much - especially a Honeycrisp...
Maple Apple crisp, in which the only sweetener is pure maple syrup. YUM!
Reading this post made me sad, because I can't enjoy my absolute favorite way of eating fresh apples anymore....
Years ago, my parents, and all eight of my brothers and sisters would go apple-picking. My Dad, being raised on a farm, would insist that the best apples were at the top of the tree. He would teach us how to climb the tree, or a rickety old ladder to secure ou prize; the sweetest, reddest, most perfect apple that we could find. My mother would teach us how to sort through our pizes to keep only the best, and let us eep one in our hands for the ride home. Both of my parents, as well as on brother have now passed on, and the rest of us are spread throughout the country. Oh, how I miss those days.
Matt Quill, NY
mxq315@adelphia.net
I love to make Georgia Girl's Apple cake which is soaked in buttermilk syrup after it is baked - delish!!
I think my favorite way to eat an apple is cut into wedges and then eaten with slices of sharp cheddar cheese.
This is why I also really like a slice of cheddar cheese on my warm apple pie.
Mmm . . . .
Katy Wolk-Stanley
"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."
Hot apple cider. From October until we can no longer find local product Hubby and I have our church-basement style percolator filled. Usually with some ginger, cinnamon, maybe cranberries, dried cherries, maple or brown sugar.
Hard cider comes in a close second - but only if we can find dry, not sweet (Blackthorn is the fave)I have yet to attempt my own.
applesauce. best is homemade. ;) i love love applesauce.
apples spread with slightly warmed homemade nutella are definitely the tops, but apple pies and the like are pretty close behind.
first off, can't wait to see your books!
Second...appples....... the fav way overall in the house is by just snacking on them sliced with peanut butter. For myself though... chopped with slivered almonds and dill, a little mayo and tuna! Yum!!
I love to eat my apples with peanut butter!
I was raised without knowledge of apple butter but recently discovered its amazingness- I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to win yours and taste it!
p.s. I found you through Jenna at CAF. :)
NorCalRN@gmail.com
We press most of our own apples into cider, but I also tossed some gleaned summer apples with cardamom sugar and dehydrated them for the coming oatmeal season, though regular apples are great in oatmeal too. I use quartered apples in the cavity when roasting chickens, and I love an apple smeared with old fashioned peanut butter. Then there are apple-raspberry crisps and apple pies with pecan streusel. I can't say which is my favorite way with apples, but they are definitely one of my favorite fruits! Thanks for the chance to win this delicious sounding apple butter.
Honestly.... I love any apples any way...except for mushy ones!! I make a dip that is great.
I black of cream cheese
3/4 brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
chopped pecans...as much as you want
Mix all together and dip your apples in...YUM!!
My way of cooking, If it is easy I am good!! Love this time of year...doesn't last log enough.
Tink mwtink@aol.com
What can I say, I'm a traditionalist. Nothing beats homemade Mennonite Apple Crumb Pie. It is the end all, be all of my apple creations!
A close second would be homemade apple sauce, warm and fresh!
My favorite way to eat apples is drinking them actually as in when you're done pressing the cider with you sister and children all about when making it into hot spiced wine! Delish!
Favorite way to cook or eat....
Well, if I had my choice most of the time, I'd just bite into one as my favorite way. But I got to that crummy age I didn't see coming where I'd lose part of tooth if I did. So, now, yikes, I have to slice them.
And the baking I am most used to is my Dad's apple kuchen, which he has made for as long as he's been Dad!
Apple butter sounds great too!
kate
kat23f (at) hotmail (dot) com
My favorite ways to eat apples....
....at a fall fair, candied on a stick or Granny Smith's sliced served with caramel dipping sauce or my Nanny's Brown Betty.
Yum!
yum. it definitely is apple crisp for me. one of my favorite all time fall desserts (or midday snacks)
I love apple butter and am looking forward to the last weekend of the month for the annual festival to purchase fresh apple butter.
However, my favorite apple recipe involves tart Granny Smith apples and a block of Cabot Sharp cheddar made into muffins! One of my favorite recipes from Cook's Country about a year or so ago.
My favorite varieties are honey crisp and gala apples. We often polish them of by themselves or sliced with peanut butter! Apple crisp is a favorite on a cool autumn evening too! Yum!
Hi Ashley, I love your blog! I love apple butter but I've never made it myself - I'm planning on trying that soon. I also love making homemade applesauce from the apples off my tree in the backyard.
Amber
davenam@juno.com
Love, love, love apple butter. Just made an apple cobbler, but my favorite is a baked apple with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon inside. Oh so simple and Oh so good.
Kim
oaklanefarm189@msn.com
I love brie and apple butter with berries on the side yum!!!
It's kind of a toss-up between applesauce (I have some cooking in the crockpot right now) and apple-butter (my mom's recipe). Not only do they taste wonderfully tangy-sweet, but they make the house smell fantastic. bhlocavore@gmail.com
I am a big lover of just plain old apple pie. It's a recipe that's been in my family forever. It's so simple yet elegent!
My favorite way to use apples is to bake them into apple cake, using my grandmother's recipe.
Grandma used to bring this cake to any fall potluck or gathering. Invariably, she would be asked for the recipe. She began carrying copies of the recipe with her, so that when asked she could just pull the recipe right out.
I like to tell the husband that I will be making apple pie. I get all my ingredients ready, make an awesome filling, say "oh no, i forgot to make the crust" and just heap the warm apple-pie filling goodness onto vanilla ice cream, topped with whipped cream, cinnamon, and honey.
I don't think I've EVER had apple butter. I'd love to try it!
Last night we had baked apples. Tonight we had apple crisp. Tomorrow I'm making sauce and butter with the WHEELBARROW full of apples we picked yesterday. A friend is drying some.
My favorite? Jeez louise, I can't pick one. Oh! I'd some in a nice pie crust and make an apple dumpling. Mmm. Apples.
Granny smith...core it...stuff it with a mixture of butter, sugar, cinnamon, and walnuts. Put them in the crock pot on low for 4-5 hours. Serve with ice cream. Amazing.
Core a few granny smith apples. Mix softened butter, sugar, cinnamon, and walnuts and stuff it into the apples. Sit them in a crock pot on low for 4-5 hours. Serve with ice cream. Amazing!
Hmmm this is a hard one... I think top of the list is Apple Crisp with an oatmeal topping. Second would be apple sauce fresh off the stove. I like to use several varieties of apples together so there's a lot of different textures. Last is a fab Medieval Apple Tarte recipe that everyone always loves. This is an awesome blog btw and I can't wait for the books to come out.
Baked apples on a cold morning, still steaming, on the breakfast table.
I love apple butter...I have since I was a child...but it was only a couple of months ago that I actually had HOMEMADE apple butter....how fantastic! The other way I love apples is cut in slices with peanut butter....and apple pie....and right off the tree...and and and....
bradshawcelia@yahoo.com
I have never had apple butter but it sounds yummy! My favorite way to eat apples is sliced with thin slices of aged cheddar.
I am lacking in the culinary skills department, so I haven't cooked much with apples. But there's nothing better than hot apple cider in the fall, and my mom's apple pies over the holidays!
apples are spectacular just as they are (the ones out of my family's orchard or pink ladies are my favorites). however, when i am feeling particularly sinful, an apple crisp is just what the doctor ordered!
I'm happy to just eat apples out of hand, but nothing's better than my homemade unsweetened chunky applesauce--I just made some last night!
I think either in an old fashioned apple cobbler/crisp or made into fresh, homemade apple cider! Yay for apple season!
I love sauteing sliced apples from my local orchard in butter and a fresh fresh sage leaves. It makes a great, quick & easy side dish or snack, and smells fantastic, like Fall.
Oh, this one is exciting!!! I long for apple butter several times a year. I don't make it though because for some reason I don't feel I can make it as good as the many home made versions I've had.
Just made a fresh apple cake so close to the one my mom & grandma made I feel alas, I've finally found the one! Miss & crave Apple butter. For the holidays I make little hand size apple pies and am about to embark on making another long lost recipe... apple dumplings (yum!). These are made of spiced apples parceled up in pie pastry.
Had 3 different apple varieties on our property while growing up(those pippins are so hard to find).
http://nevertoomuchbeauty.blogspot.com/
My mouth is already watering. I crave apple butter several times a year.
I love apple cake & just made one that's close to the one I had growing up. Am embarking on making another long lost recipe: apple dumplings. Spiced/sweetened apples parcelled up in a pastry bundle baked in their gooey sweet juices.
Miss the apple/pear sauce I had growing up (could eat it everyday).
Had a few variety of apple trees while growing up. My dogs and I would eat our pippin apples right off the tree which are so hard now to find in the Bay Area.
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