The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Walking around my neighborhood tonight, I saw flyers announcing the opening of the Headhouse Square Farmers’ Market this Sunday, May 3rd.  Not a week too soon, I thought, as I can hardly wait another day.  Of course, the first few weeks of the market are limited (greens, greens and more greens), but the denizens of the root cellar can only go so far. 

Take apples, for example.  With some exceptions (like citrus from the Fair Food Farmstand), apples are nearly the only fruit I eat from Fall until late Spring.  Normally, I prefer tart, crisp apples.  In season, this is not a problem: North Star Orchard always has a few varieties that appeal to me.  At this point, even the golden delicious apples still available from Winter Harvest are not so tart or crisp anymore.  There’s nothing wrong with them, exactly, but they now mostly serve as a reminder of what I’ve been missing. 

So, what to do?  In this case, I bake them using only butter, nuts, and rum.  (I know the rum isn’t exactly local, but it was hand-delivered by my sister-in-law when she came home for Christmas.) 
Try these with ice cream, cream, or yogurt – or even just as they are.  If you wanted to make these a bit more savory, you could probably experiment with herbs like rosemary or sage.

Baked Apples

6 apples
Walnuts
Butter
Rum

Preheat the oven to 375.  Using an apple-corer or a melon-baller (which I use), carve out the core of the apple and placed the cored apples in a deep baking dish.  To each apple, add:  1 teaspoon of walnuts, ½ teaspoon butter, and 1 tablespoon rum.  Cover with foil and bake for one hour and fifteen minutes.  Remove the foil and bake an additional fifteen minutes.