First thing you gotta do in the Fall is go apple picking. This year the wife and I went to Honey Pot Hill Orchards in Stow, MA (check 'em out here Honey Port Hill Orchards - quality joint.) where we stocked up on what I was told was a half bushel of macintoshes. Mostly I ended up just eating them throughout the day, but I like to make some kind of apple device as well. This time it was mini apple tartlets, I'm all about the minis lately, maybe cause I feel less guilty about eating three at a time rather than a half a pie?
I'll let you check out the original recipe here Novel Eats - Mini Apple Pies; I like it because the creator originally only had a few apples to work with, so you don't need a ton of ingredients. Here are a couple of glamour shots of the final product:
Yes, these are cat cutouts. Yes, I'm comfortable with that.
You gonna get eaten.
They were pretty awesome, I would usually grab one for breakfast on my way out the door.
Second Fall thing one must do, carve a pumpkin and use it's innards for a snack! I picked a lovely little gourd, nice n round n fat and took him home for his ritual disembowelment. Also wanted to really get in the Halloween spirit, so I decided to down some pumpkin beer as well.
It's the ciiircle of liiiiiiiifeee!!!! Get it? Cause it's pumpkin beer and I'm
gonna carve a pumpkin? It's funny if you don't think about it.
Picking a design is the hardest part. Is your pumpkin fiercesome? Goofy? Does he have buck teeth or fangs? Triangle eyes or big circles? So many shapes to choose from! Also, I'm lazy and not as deft with a kitchen knife as I'd like to be, so the simpler the better.
I went with a mix of both, trying to carve out what I hope was cute and endearing fangs, with some matchy-matchy triangle nose and eyes to really give him some pop!
Oh, hai! Did you scoop out my brains? Cause I'm feeling kinda sleepy...
Once le guts are scooped, I gave em a rinse making sure all the gooey parts were gone and let them dry a little bit. Then I tossed them with a tablespoon of melted butter, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.
We really don't even have to cook these, butter makes everything edible...
Toss, toss, toss, then onto the baking tray with them. Spread em out, sprinkle a bit more salt and pepper and then pop them in the oven (325 degrees) for 25 minutes, checking every ten minutes or so.
I couldn't resist...
Honestly, I really apologize for not having a finished seed pic, but once we got them out of the oven it was like a feeding frenzy. Just a blur of butter, salt and singed pumpkin seeds . Trust me though, they were good....
Luckily, I did manage to get a pic of little Pumpkin head here before bounding off to swim through a pile of toasted pumpkin seeds a la Scrooge McDuck. Observe:
One last need for Halloween? A little friend for your pumpkin.
No one should go trick or treating alone!
Til next time, happy holidays!
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