Winter Salad With Fruit & Poppy Seed Dressing

I love adding seasonal fruit to a green salad all year long. In the winter, the trick is to use fruits readily available at your local market. Make this easy winter salad in minutes for a bright, refreshing recipe full of sweet flavors and crunchy textures you’ll adore. It makes a satisfying appetizer or salad not only for the holidays but anytime in the coming months.

Read More

How to Store Apples to Keep Fresh Longer

Last week we discussed visiting apple orchards and cider mills. I love a crisp, fresh apple. If you like to pick your own or buy from apple orchards, you probably know what I mean. My apple wish would be my apples always taste like that, but we all have eaten older, softer apples. They’re good but not great. I love the way a bowl of apples on the table looks, but do not love the apples after a couple of days. Kept at room temperature, whole apples will only stay fresh for about a week. Apples ripen six to ten times faster at room temperature than if they were refrigerated. How do the grocery stores sell fresh apples year round? Science.

Read More

Sweet Potato Apple Cranberry Bake

One of my favorite vegetables is a simple baked sweet potato.  They have so much flavor and nutritional value.  Sweet potatoes are a rich source of fiber as well as containing an array of vitamins and minerals including iron, calcium, selenium, and they’re a good source of most of our B vitamins and vitamin C.  Another favorite food is apples, crisp and sweet.  Some years ago I read a recipe for a sweet potato apple cranberry bake for November and the holidays, and I had to try the combination. What could be better than sweet potatoes and apples?  I guess the addition of tart fresh cranberries to mingle with the natural sweetness of apples and sweet potatoes.

Read More

Traditional Caramel Apples

When I was a kid, I’d go to the fair in September over in Knoxville, Tennessee.  Most of the time, they just had the red candied apples which wasn’t my favorite.  I prefer the taste of lush caramel plus when I bit into the red candied apple, the red coating often fell off. I’d be so happy when I saw caramel dipped fresh apples served on a stick.  Today I’m sharing a super easy traditional recipe for caramel apples for fall and Halloween.  It’s not really much of a recipe and only requires 3 ingredients plus what I call popsicle sticks.  Super easy and fast, caramel apples bring back the joy of childhood for me.

Read More

Slow Cooker Apple Butter

Let’s make your home smell like autumn AND give you a tasty treat.  Today’s recipe is an extremely easy apple butter made in your slow cooker.  Put everything in and let it cook for hours.  The result is a yummy spread that can be used in so many ways this fall and winter. I like it best simply on homemade biscuits.  You can also spread it between layers of a cake. Use it as a condiment for pork chops or pork roast. It is fabulous to use on fall thumbprint cookies. Have a cheese tray with sharp cheddar and crackers and apple butter on the side at your next party. Yum! Read More

Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Chips

Need a great appetizer filled with fresh fruit flavor? How about a great fruity dessert? Fruit salsa with cinnamon chips is the perfect answer.  Easy to make and loaded with the fruit of the season, fruit salsa is a great party food, dessert, or a snack.  I’m basing my salsa on fresh strawberries with apples and raspberries. Can’t find raspberries? Try a tropical twist with crushed pineapple. Yum! You can also substitute with the fruit of the season – peaches, nectarines, grapes, the list never ends.

 

Read More