Apples & Scale

 ©Robin Edmundson, 'Apples & Scale', watercolor, 9x12 inches.

I've discovered how much fun a still life can be.  I love this crop where you have a sense of what the scene is, but the focus is just that one red apple in front.  

I took some heat for that from a few people in my critique group, but I stand by the decision.   You don't have to show everything.   

Sometimes a poem is just as powerful as a novel.

An Apple a Day

Apples.  4x6 each.  Watercolor.  January 2016.

This was a homework assignment for the Craftsy class by Mary Murphy on Watercolor Techniques.

Goals:  Practice glazes [multiple layers of colors].  Use gouache for highlights.  Practice using masking fluid.

Execution:  Used many glazes to achieve the colors on the apples. Start light, work darker.  Used white gouache for the reflections on the apples.  Used masking fluid for spots on apples.

Learned: It's OK to start dark with some layers.   I think I got the best color on the top left apple, and that was the one where my first glaze was 'way too dark' on the bottom of the apple.  Also, masking fluid takes a long time to dry so have a hair dryer close by when you use it or wait for hours. 

Another thing I learned was that I'm good at thinking in terms of subject and shadow, but I have a big empty space where 'backgrounds' is supposed to be in my art brain.    If anyone can point me to a resource that specifically teaches how to think about backgrounds [not just composition in general], I'd be grateful. 

Apple Slices

So I was telling you that I made a bunch of apple pie filling, but I ran out of the Perma Flo long before I ran out of apples.   There were a lot of apples left over.  A veritable Everest of apple slices.

So.  

Yeah.   

I could have made pie filling to freeze [Choose your favorite recipe, put the dried stuff in the sliced apples, toss and put in freezer bags in the freezer.  Easy squeezy.]    

But I'm trying to can more and freeze less.  

So I took that mountain of apple slices and canned them plain.   Just jars of apple slices.    Since this was a first time for me, I went to the National Center for Home Food Preservation and mostly did it their way.     I used vitamin C tablets to keep the the apples from browning [same way I do peaches.] and I put them in a light syrup.  

A word about syrup.    The reason that fruit is canned in syrup is not that food companies want you to eat more sugar.    It is that the sugar helps stabilize the cell structure of the fruit and keep it firm and not mushy.   It helps keep fruit beautiful.  And those companies know that you are much more likely to buy pretty food than mushy shreddy food, so they keep it beautiful.

I've canned fruit both ways. Sugarless fruit loses its shape and looks ragged pretty fast.  This time I did not want applesauce, so I used a light syrup to keep the apple slices as slices in the jar.   [You could even use a very light syrup.]

Those apple slices are fabulous!   We loved them in our favorite coffee cake base.    We used the same cake that's in the pumpkin cream cheese coffee cake recipe and left out the cream cheese and pumpkin.   Use the apple juice from the jar to replace the milk.   Add the apples by either dumping them in the batter and mixing them in entirely  - OR, you can put them on top of the batter in the pan and swirl them around a bit before baking.   Either way, YUM!

Apple Pie Filling

It's apple season.   

I love apple season.   So sweet, so tart, so firm.    A good crunchy apple is a very satisfying thing.  

This year I got a couple of bushels of apples from Freedom Country Store [highway 231 just north of Worthington, Indiana].   One bushel was jonathans, one was zestars.   

Zestars are fabulous!   Those went into sauce.   Delicious sauce!   I will warn you that when you're pressing the sauce, it oxidizes and goes gray.   Don't worry.   When we processed the jars of gray goo, it magically turned back into a beautiful pale pink sauce.  

The bushel of Jonathans went to pie filling.    I used this method this year from the National Center for Home Food Preservation and am happy to report that it was easy and produced fabulous pies. 

[NCHFP is a site full of information, but crappy in organization.  The search feature is not obvious.  Look on the left sidebar of their site.  The third thing down is the SEARCH.  It takes a sec to pull up.]

I used Perma Flo instead of the product they recommend, because I can't get what they recommend.   The Perma Flo is easy to use, comes in a bulk package and lasts.  I'm so happy that it stores decently through our damp springs/falls and hot summers.  I used the rest of the stuff I got last year and had zero problems.   I used every last drop of it to make as much pie filling as I could.

The only problem was that I had more apples.   Hmmmm.   What to do with them.....

Apple Dumplings

I'd never made apple dumplings before and then Suzanne McMinn posted this recipe over at Chickens in the Road and I decided I had to try it.  

Oh. My. Freaking. Holy. Mother of Carbohydrates.     It's the syrup that makes them to die for. 

It started out as a huge recipe from a friend of hers and Suzanne cut it in half.  It's still a big recipe, so I cut it in half again to make 'only' 8.    This is the recipe that I used and they were still super sweet.   Next time, I'd leave out the sugar inside the pouches completely and just let them soak up the sweet from the syrup. 

Apple Dumplings a la Chickens in the Road
www.rurification.com.   Original double recipe from www.chickensintheroad.com

Yield:  8 large dumplings
Prep time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 55 minutes
Oven: 350 degrees

Syrup:

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 3 Tablespoons butter

Dough:

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup shortening
• 2/3 cup milk

Filling:

• 5-6 apples, peeled, cored and cut into small pieces
• 8 Tablespoons sugar [I'd leave this out next time]
• cinnamon

Deal with the apples first.    You want pieces small enough to chew politely in the pastry.  You'll have about 8 cups.  Set the apples aside.   Find some cinnamon that's easy to sprinkle and set it near the apples.   If you're going to add the extra sugar in each apple pouch, then have a bowl of sugar and a tablespoon ready next to the apples and the cinnamon. 

Syrup:  Combine ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Stir until sugar is dissolved.  Reduce heat and simmer for a few minutes.   Remove from heat and set aside.

Dough:   Combine flour, salt and baking powder well.   Cut in shortening until the mix resembles sand.   Add milk and mix with fork or your hand until just combined.   [If you handle the pastry too much, it gets tough.]     This is a great pastry recipe, easy to deal with.  

Assembly:  Divide the dough into 8 equal balls.   Roll each ball on a floured surface until you have a circle about 8 inches across.   Put a cup of apple pieces into the center of the circle.   Sprinkle with a dash of cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of sugar.   [These are really sweet!  You don't need the sugar here.  I'd omit it!].    Bring the sides of the circle together and form a pouch.   Press the edges together if you can, but if you can't, don't worry about it.    It's fine if they're open.

Place assembled dumplings in a greased baking pan.  [9x13 holds 8 dumplings].   Pour the syrup over the dumplings and bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes.   They should be golden.  

Green Tomato - Apple Crisp

Yes, you read that right.   Green tomatoes.

Try not to think about it too hard.

We have loads of green tomatoes and I hate to let them freeze on the vine but I don't have the room to pull up the vines and hang them until the tomatoes turn red.

I needed another idea. 

I'd heard rumors of a terrific green tomato mincemeat recipe and I wanted to use my abundance of green tomatoes for that.   So, we made some regular mincemeat bars with a jar of canned mincemeat to see if the kids would like mincemeat at all.

Um.   No.

Scratch the green tomato mincemeat.

But it did get me to thinking about spicy apples and green tomatoes together.    I wondered if an apple pie filling would have enough spice to trick young tastebuds into thinking green tomatoes were apples.

It worked.   This really does taste just like regular old apple crisp.

Try it.   Do it when no one else is around.    Don't tell anyone what's in it.   They'll love it.   My kids loved it and they knew about the tomatoes.

Green Tomato - Apple Crisp

Filling

• 1/4 cup butter
• 5 small apples
• 5 green tomatoes about the same size as the apples
• 1 1/2 cups sugar [brown or white or a combination of the two]
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 T lemon juice

Melt the butter in a pan and add the rest of the ingredients.  Cook until everything is soft and the liquid starts to evaporate some.    Let it get as thick as you want.  Pour into greased 8x8 inch pan.

Topping:

• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 cup oats

Blend all ingredients except the oats with a pastry blender to combine well.   Add oats.  Stir well.    Sprinkle over hot apple filling.

Bake at 400 degrees until topping is brown.