Nothing beats home-grown. Anyone have any apple-based recipe ideas to share?
Our lovely and much appreciated food parcel 🙂
Even though I love living in the country, there are some days, like today, when the long commute in and out of London wears me down. That was until I finally got home and was reminded of this … a food parcel from my brother-in-law which he brought over on Sunday.
None of my husband’s family are avid gardeners – neither are we – and we all have typically small-ish English gardens. However, have space, will plant…
Our garden and cat
I like to think of it as tinkering because we all don’t really have big enough gardens for vegetable plots so we just experiment. It might be an attempt to grow one squash here (we tried that last year but failed), or try and grow some leeks in amongst the flowers (that failed miserably too…) This year, we noticed a fennel sprouting from in between the paving and our rosemary bush but we decided not to pull it out to eat. Instead, we’re letting it go to seed and seeing if we can plant the seeds elsewhere in the garden next year.
Our surprise fennel. No idea how it ended up growing in our garden
You don’t actually need much garden space (if at all) to grow your own yummy edibles like tomatoes or beans, as pots will do just fine. However, these beans, tomatoes and apples did come from my brother-in-law’s garden and were lovingly grown by his girlfriend (thanks Marta 🙂 !)
No recipe for you guys tonight though. We sliced these runner beans and dunked them in boiling water for just under 3 minutes. They’re so unbelievably fresh, sweet and tender that they didn’t need any further cooking. A sprinkling of maldon sea salt over the top (no butter!) was the only finishing touch required. We were so hungry that we dove straight into the beans before I remembered to snap a shot, sorry!
Those cherry tomatoes are heading straight into my salad tomorrow and I can’t wait to do something with these apples this weekend. If only I didn’t have 3 more working days to get through! Never mind, at least I won’t notice the commute so much as I think about what to do with them… any ideas, anyone?
No idea what type they are but they're definitely half cooking apples and half some other variety...
They came from an apple tree that was already planted in the garden when my brother-in-law bought his house. They look like a cross between a cooking apple and a Cox’s. If anyone thinks they know which variety they might be, please do let me know! Meantime, I feel some kind of cake and bake weekend is required!
Thanks Jeff!
Lots of love
thebigfatnoodle
thebigfatnoodle 
I’m also facing this problem. Our Apple tree is laden with apples, but we have nothing to do with them. I’ll have to get my thinking cap on too, and keep an eye of this blog!
This bread is hugely popular, at least in the midwest parts of the United States.
http://www.food.com/recipe/apple-bread-226677
These look yummy. I think I’m going to try a variation of this over the weekend. Thanks every so much!
Hello, I took your advice and made an apple bread! I did however add bananas and walnuts and it tastes soooo good. Here’s the result from my cake and back weekend. Thanks again for the idea! http://wp.me/p1ExmL-gR
Since you mentioned baking I suggest my Apple Ricotta Coffee Cake.
Sounds interesting but I couldn’t find the recipe on your blog? Hope you won’t mind but I’m not a big fan of coffee but I can easily think of replacing something that I like more, like maybe chocolate! 🙂
Well just started the blog and haven’t covered it yet but I can email it if your interested. I just made it up a few weeks ago. And Coffee cake like the breakfast cake not actually made from coffee
Oh yes please! Baking’s not my forte but I’m really keen to do more and my husband loves cake! Me too 🙂
Sent.
This is one of our favourites and very simple:
http://hopeeternalcookbook.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/apple-mousse/
Enjoy!
hopeeternal
‘Meanderings through my Cookbook’
This is one of our favourites and very simple:
http://hopeeternalcookbook.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/apple-mousse/
Enjoy!
hopeeternal
‘Meanderings through my Cookbook’
What about a good old Apple and Blackberry crumble?
I have a good one but its from a kids book, but you can adapt….
The kids and I love it, Seans not a fan….
Will email
When we had a bounty of apples growing up my mom would make applesauce – nothing like homemade applesauce and pretty much can eat anytime of the day. You could consider canning or making jam but probably a little more labor intensive.
Apple sauce is fantastic. We still have 3 large apples left so we’ll probably make some this weekend 🙂