Oh, my avocado tree...

...you exist only in my head, for I live in the cold North, but were I further south and avocado treed, I would snack on your fruit (salted, peppered, and hot-sauced) as often as possible. And I promise I would never climb your fragile limbs or tire of your delicious ripe offerings.

Oh, my imaginary avocado tree. I dream on.

Apples equal pie.

(Photo credit: DanF)

The orchard we visited had at least one apple for every child visiting that day, who numbered roughly a bazillion. We only brought one child, who was too tiny to pick apples but found the day tiring, nonetheless.



What the orchard lacked was signs announcing which apples were which variety. I think I may have come away with mostly Galas. Delicious.

Anyway, I have already mentioned the trip (where we were and so on), so I'll skip ahead. Pie is what matters now.


(Photo credit: DanF)

That's an in-progress shot of what became two (one for home; one for work) apple pies with a cheddar cheese top crust (no bottom crust). The recipe can be found on Epicurious.com.

I do love cheese, but somehow I've never been interested in eating apple pie with a slice of cheese on top. When I read this recipe calling for cheese to be baked into the crust I was more intrigued. And the results were excellent, despite how fiddly and fragile the crust was (it took two people and a pastry cloth to flip each crust onto its pie plate).

Slices got good reviews from friends, family, and coworkers. An autumnal success!

Snack + Snack + Snack + Snack = Dinner!

Shop at the farmer's market for beautiful ingredients and then cook and consume until you're full. This is how I like to eat. Tonight we made dishes and dined with Tony, working collaboratively to create a veritable feast of:

1. Kale, blanched, fried in garlic and olive oil, and dressed with white wine vinegar.
2. Molly Katzen's Salita (relish or diced salad) of strawberry, avocado, lime juice, apple (my substitute for jicama), and crystallized ginger.
3. A salad of Fennel bulb sliced with onion, lemon, olive oil and basil.
4. Crash-Hot Potatoes, recipe originally here, but found by me here.
5. Honey-Apricot Parfait With Greek Yogurt, Walnuts and Cinnamon from the NYT website but brought to my attention by Serious Eats.

Accoutrements: San Francisco sourdough loaf from the farmer's market, Brie, vinho verde picked up at Trader Joe's because I wanted to try vinho verde (sour in a good way, I thought), and white wine (which I think was from Ian and Christa, but before that from New Zealand).

None of the dishes took long, and I say any one of these things would make an excellent snack. I'm planning to make everything again someday, but especially these potatoes, which can be spiced with anything you like.



The photo above is from a previous incarnation. Tonight, they were seasoned with pepper, shallot salt and Zatar, a Middle Eastern spice blend with sumac, thyme leaves, white sesame seeds and salt.