Apple Muffins—savor now or save for Thanksgiving week

For me, a new cookbook with untried recipes inside operates as though it were a giant magnet pulling me into its pages. I start purposing to try out each suggestion and to write my comments in the margins after the item is prepared. The fresh-produce recipe book from the Southwest Chili Peppers Nutrition Task Force (mentioned last week) is one such lure. The highly basic nature of the recipes—designed to help people learn to cook produce in the most elemental manner—appeals to me.

I wanted to try its recipe for Pear Muffins but had only apples (of course!) and not pears in my produce bin. So I merely subbed 1 cup diced apples (about 2 medium ones) for the 1 cup diced pears it called for; for a little spiced-up flavor I also added 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. The zest of 1/2 orange (you also could use the zest of 1 lemon or 1/2 grapefruit, the recipe says) plus 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans) are nice additions. I think its flexibility is the thing I like most about the recipe—it allows for various adaptations. If you don’t have a particular ingredient on hand, try similar one that is available to you.

Tempting to devour all of these now, but they were soon spirited away to the deep freeze to save for Thanksgiving week. Apple-y and spice-y, they represented an easy way to put a little fall away for some family time later.

Apple Muffins (adapted from the recipe for Pear Muffins)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

1 cup milk (I used skim)

1 egg beaten (I used egg substitute)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

zest of 1 lemon, 1/2 orange, or 1/2 grapefruit

1 cup diced apples (about 2 medium apples, peeled)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat together milk, beaten egg, oil, and zest of lemon (or orange or grapefruit). Mix apples and nuts into flour mixture. Gently stir milk mixture into dry ingredients. Batter should be lumpy and not smooth. Do not over mix. Spray muffin pans with nonstick spray. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes until tops are browned. Remove from pan immediately; serve warm. Makes 12-14 muffins.

A salad so splendid, it instantly nets "Thanksgiving-worthy" label

“Thanksgiving-worthy!” That was the pronouncement of both Hubby and me when we began sampling Apple-Pear Salad with Lemon-Poppy Seed Dressing, a new dish I’d put on the table to go with our Turnip Green Stew from a few days back.

After you take a few bites of this combination, you’ll think you’ve been transported to the most elegant multi-fork restaurant on the planet. This truly was one of the best salads I’ve sampled in a long, long time. That’s why we immediately assigned the recipe to accompany the holiday bird—one menu item that I can say without a doubt will be found on our Thanksgiving dining table.

Thinly sliced apples and pears are tossed with dried cranberries and romaine (I subbed with spinach for the greens). A smattering of cashews (what recipe can go wrong if it has cashews in it?) and shredded Swiss cheese are added. The Lemon-Poppy Seed Dressing is divine and makes enough to be stored and be poured over additional salads.

The instructions, furnished by myrecipes.com and listed as springing from a March 2007 Southern Living issue, state that some grilled chicken could be added to transform this salad into a main course.

Thanksgiving, we’re marching toward ya! Only 20 more cooking days left until that dinner of dinners! Gotta get busy.

Apple-Pear Salad with Lemon-Poppy Seed Dressing

1 (16-ounce) package romaine lettuce, thoroughly washed (I used spinach pieces)

1 (6-ounce) block Swiss cheese, shaved

1 cup roasted, salted cashews (I used unsalted)

1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries

1 large apple, thinly sliced

1 large pear, thinly sliced

In a salad bowl toss together all ingredients. Serve with Lemon-Poppy Seed Dressing (recipe follows). Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Lemon-Poppy Seed Dressing:

2/3 cup light olive oil

1/2 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds

2 teaspoons finely chopped onion

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

Process 2/3 cup light olive oil and remaining ingredients in a blender until smooth. Store in an airtight container in refrigerator for up to 1 week; serve at room temperature. Makes 1 1/4 cups.

Very orange (and nutritious) drink for a very orange evening

On Halloween night, Hubby was pacing . . . no trick-or-treaters yet. I reminded him that most of the neighborhood

Halloween parties had occurred the previous night (Sunday) . . . that it was Monday night, a school night, and that kids go door-to-door later in the evening here than in other places we’ve lived (45 minutes after I mentioned this fact, we had quite a few callers). So while he waited, he decided to fix himself one of his famous smoothies from a recipe suggestion I had placed on his desk. Hubby hates nothing worse than having little pieces of paper on his desk; he’s always eager to get things cleared away.

Power Gold Smoothie was a good choice for Halloween night because (despite the name) it was very orange—and with good reason. Its main element included two cups of chopped or grated carrots (this amounts to about two large carrots, grated), combined with unsweetened pineapple juice, honey, ice cubes, and yogurt. The power

part of the title pertains to the fact that carrots are fat- and cholesterol-free, a good source of fiber, and high in beta-carotene and vitamin A. In other words, it’s pretty power-packed.

Incidentally all this information, including the recipe, was furnished by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension program. The printout on Power Smoothies included this interesting factoid: in Roman times carrots were purple or white, but in the 16th century Dutch growers bred the vegetable to grow in the colors of the House of Orange. Well, who knew that?

Onto Hubby’s smoothie, which he was sipping when our first candy-seekers finally arrived. He pronounced it quite excellent, though with a chunky texture, since it contained the grated-up carrots. The recipe noted that if you want a smoother texture, microwave the grated carrot with 1 tablespoon water in a covered microwave-safe dish on high for 2 to 3 minutes. Drain water and proceed with the recipe.

Now, with the smoothie made, Hubby has one less stray piece of paper on his desk and a lot more power-ful nutrition in his tummy.

Power Gold Smoothie

2 cups carrots, chopped or grated or cooked in microwave. (This amounted to

about 2 large carrots, grated.)

1 1/2 cups pineapple juice (I used unsweetened)

3 tablespoons honey

3-4 ice cubes

1/2 cup vanilla non-fat yogurt

In blender combine all ingredients. Blend until smooth. Makes 4 servings.

An enticing brew of Turnip Greens Stew goes with the Halloween season

Halloween just feels as though it should call for a big, bubbling pot of stew. My mother always believed a wee trick-or-treater should have something warm in the belly before venturing out door-to-door.

An enticing brew of Turnip Greens Stew made the Southern Living September 2011 pages in the article about lightened-up Southern favorites. It stated that lean ham and fat-free broth offer the same good flavor as the original, heavier Southern staple but without the saturated fat. The beans boost the fiber content.

This turned out to be as tasty as can be. We had just brought in a new crop, from our garden, of our own green and red Bell peppers. These fresh-from-the-garden additions added to the flavor.

Our in-town grandmunchkin momentarily was due for trick-or-treat (a day early), so in advance of that, we enjoyed this hearty Halloween meal even though we weren’t the ones going door-to-door.

Turnip Greens Stew

2 cups chopped cooked ham (I used the lower-sodium variety)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

3 cups fat-free chicken broth (I used the lower-sodium variety)

2 (16-ounce) packages frozen chopped turnip greens (could also use fresh)

2 (15.5-ounce) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

4 cups diced onion, red and green Bell peppers, and celery (can use the frozen, packaged

variety or a combination of whatever fresh you have on hand)

1 teaspoon sugar (or sugar substitute)

1 teaspoon seasoned pepper

Sauté ham in hot oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Add broth and remaining ingredients; bring to a boil Cover; reduce heat to low, and simmer, stirring occasionally for 25 minutes. Makes about 10 cups stew.

Apple Crisp and a crisp, fall morning—just what we’ve been waiting for

I had a new cookbook and was rarin’ to go with some new ideas. I didn’t have to look further than the first recipe—a highly simple version of Apple Crisp . . . and me still with an abundance of fresh apples on hand. What’s more, these apples didn’t have to be peeled—the most time-draining portion of many apple recipes. Just wash, core, slice, and place in the dish.

The cookbook was from the Southwest Chili Peppers Nutrition Task Force and was designed to instruct people in some of the most basic ways of preparing fresh fruit and vegetables. For people who know that fresh is best but don’t know where to start, this colorful, spiral-bound volume presents one illustrated, highly simple yet interesting recipe suggestion for each item of produce.

I loved the simplicity of this Apple Crisp—loved the outcome, as well, but found I needed to increase the cooking time beyond what was specified. Likely my apple slices were a little too thick and just needed some extra oven time, but after the recommended 20 minutes, they weren’t tender. I merely covered the baking dish with a sheet of foil and let the apples steam without over-browning the topping. An extra 10-15 minutes gave them the doneness they needed. Then I removed the foil for the last few minutes so the Crisp could get . . . well, crisp.

What a good little bowl of breakfast bounty (I didn’t wait for the dessert part) on this “Fall-Seems-Here-to Stay” morning! Warmed and served with a sliver of sugar-free whipped topping crowning it, it got a Friday morning kicked off well.

Apple Crisp

4-5 medium apples (I used a combination of Golden Delicious and Gala)

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup quick-cooking oatmeal

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a square pan. Remove the cores from the apples. Slice the apples. (Leaving the apples unpeeled adds to the nutritional value and is recommended, but some cooks might prefer to remove the peel as well.) Spread the sliced apples on the bottom of the pan. Cut the butter into small pieces and place in medium-sized bowl. Add the oatmeal, flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Using two knives cut the margarine into the mixture until it looks like small crumbs. Sprinkle the mixture over the top of the apples. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes. (May need to bake longer, with a sheet of aluminum foil over the top, for at least 10 more minutes to be sure apples are tender. If you find you need to cover because of increased cooking time, be sure to uncover for a few minutes at the end to allow the topping to get crisp.) Makes about 6 servings.

Pumpkin-Apple Muffins with streusel topping transport me to Amish country

I had some fresh pumpkin left from yesterday’s dish; I also still had p-u-l-l-en-ty of fresh apples. So I tippy-typed an Internet search to find something that would combine the two.

Up turned a website, www.bbonline.com (Bed & Breakfast Inns Online), that listed the most memorable recipes of B&B’s nationwide. I loved it. Where can you find better, more original cooking than in a good ole B&B? I had to try some of their ideas.

This particular recipe, Pumpkin-Apple Muffins, was presented by Fields of Home Guest House and Cabins in Millersburg (Holmes County), OH. After reading this recipe and the promo about the inn ("Enjoy log-cabin comfort, quiet country fields, and flower gardens in the heart of Amish Country!”) I was ready to throw my toothbrush in a travel bag and head out driving for there. If you’ve ever spent any time in Amish Country, you know the meals make memories to linger the rest of your life. Sounded delightful!

But since traveling there wasn’t possible, my next-best option was to enjoy these muffins, which I proceeded to do. Simple recipe with the chopped apple folded in (Hubby did this part. He enjoyed himself so much over the weekend with his cooking spree when I was under the weather, he volunteered for more. Is he the perfect Hubby, or what?)

Well, these muffins turned out to be absolute sweethearts. The apple bits tucked into the spicy pumpkin batter were just exceptionally yummy. Then to top it all with that divine streusel—what can I say? This was a great Internet find. I’m depositing at least half of them into my airtight container to preserve in the fridge for Thanksgiving-week breakfasts. Apple and pumpkin will make a healthy start to the morning. And the rest? Hubby is already seeing to putting them away.

Pumpkin-Apple Muffins

2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

3 teaspoons pumpkin-pie spice

1 teaspoon soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

2 eggs (or 1/2 cup egg substitute)

1 cup canned pumpkin (I used fresh pumpkin puree)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 chopped peeled apple

1/4 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter

In large bowl combine flour, sugar, pumpkin-pie spice, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In separate bowl combine eggs, pumpkin, and oil. Make a well in the dry ingredients, then insert the moist ingredients. Stir together until dry ingredients are just moistened. Fold in apples. Fill greased muffin cups almost full. For streusel topping combine 1/4 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Over each muffin sprinkle 1 heaping teaspoon of topping. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until done. Cool in pan 10 minutes before you remove to a wire rack. Makes 12 muffins.

Easy to go a little nutso over this pecan-pumpkin sticky bun recipe

Normally the event would have left me tearful and despairing. I was using my last two cups of pecans produced from our own pecan trees—once so ample but recently rendered almost nonproductive because of drought and fickle weather conditions. I had hoarded the last batch like a miser and thought I might could hold onto it for my Thanksgiving pecan pie, annually made using my Nanny’s handwritten recipe. But then I saw these sticky buns in the “pecan issue” of a recent Southern Living magazine and had to try them. There went the absolute last of the last of my supply. The whole situation could have left me weeping.

But then Hubby found them—as he was picking up branches from the weekend’s strong winds and rain. “I’ve actually seen some brown nuts,” he reported rejoicing as he returned from the portion of our yard that’s on the south side of the house. Those trees usually are our nominal producers; they drop the smaller pecans that we usually let pecan-seekers take home for their own, since they fall near the public alleyway and we usually have plenty to spare.

But our prized paper-shell tree near the house has shown no signs of promise. We’ll take the tiny ones on the south side and get there first before the pecan-happy outsiders can stake their claim. My own fresh nuts for our Thanksgiving pie this year, even if we have to scrounge for a cup full!

Now to the Sticky Bun Pumpkin Muffins that prompted me to fork over the LAST of the LAST. Southern Living said this was from among the best pecan recipes its staff had ever tasted. I had to agree. Fifteen ounces of fresh pumpkin puree (I could also have used a 15-ounce can of storebought) made these little buns super-moist. A mixture of toasted pecans stirred into a butter/brown sugar/corn syrup topping went into the bottom of greased muffin cups; the pumpkin batter went on top of that.

On emerging from 25-minutes of baking, the muffins had to be turned out (the pan inverted) immediately, topping-side up. Then they cooled on a wire rack so that things could solidify. Any extra topping that remained in the muffin pan was spooned over the muffins so that not one drop of that sweet, gooey stuff was wasted.

Cute little muffins on the outside, smooth and spicy on the inside! I was glad I tried them—and even gladder that making them hadn’t had to bring on sackcloth and ashes after all.

Sticky-Bun Pumpkin Muffins

2 cups pecan halves and pieces

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2 tablespoons light corn syrup (I used dark brown; worked just fine)

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 cups granulated sugar (or sugar substitute)

1 tablespoon pumpkin-pie spice

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin (or 15 ounces fresh pumpkin puree)

1 cup canola oil

4 large eggs (or 1 cup egg substitute)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake pecans in a single layer in a shallow pan 8 to 10 minutes or until toasted and fragrant. Stir halfway through. Stir together melted butter and next 2 ingredients. Spoon 1 rounded teaspoonful butter mixture into each cup of 2 lightly greased 12-cup muffin pans. Top each with 1 rounded tablespoonful pecans. In a large bowl stir together flour and next 4 ingredients. Make a well in center of mixture. Whisk together pumpkin, next 2 ingredients, and 2/3 cup water. Add to dry ingredients. Stir just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin pans. Fill three-fourths full. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center emerges clean. Invert pan immediately to remove muffins. Arrange muffins on wire rack. Spoon over muffins any topping remaining in muffin cups. Let cool 5 minutes. Makes 2 dozen.