Henny Penny Farmette

What could be a healthier self-care act than eating an apple? On my way to do chores yesterday, I bumped against the Fuji apple tree, knocking off several. After finishing my chores, I picked up the apples and plucked a few more to take back to the kitchen. Fuji apples (like Cortland, Macintosh, and other firm varieties) are crisp and juicy and hold their shape during baking. Plus, they’re good for you.

Apples are a rich source of dietary fiber and are loaded with antioxidants. They are considered among the healthiest foods because apples decrease the risk for diabetes and thrombotic stroke as well as lower levels of LDL or bad cholesterol.

According to research done at Cornell University, eating an apple a day may help prevent breast cancer. Some compounds in apples are thought to aid in weight loss and lower blood pressure as well.

Inside the house, I ran through my apple recipes. Should I make pie, an apple crisp, crumble, kuchen bars, cake, or some other apple dessert? Pie seemed the simplest. Also, a pie only uses six or eight apples. I could keep the other apples as fresh snacks.

Instead of a regular pie crust, I made a pate brisee in my food processor and chilled the dough for a half-hour before rolling it out into the bottom crust. In lieu of a top layer of pie crust over the apples, I made a crumb topping using oatmeal and brown sugar with a little flour and butter.

The pie turned out delicious. The crumb topping added a little crunch to the softened apple filling and tender, flaky crust. I could have made it even crunchier with the addition of chopped walnuts or pecans.

APPLE PIE with CRUMB TOPPING RECIPE

Ingredients:

8 firm apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Pinch of ground mace

Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

2 Tablespoons of cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit

Position your pastry round over an 8-inch pie plate and press in place. Trim the pastry and crimp the edges.

Toss the apple slices with the spices and sugar and fill the crust. Dot with the butter. Cover the apples with the crumb topping and bake for 45 minutes (cover with aluminum foil during the last five or ten minutes to keep the topping from burning).  Remove from the oven and let cool before serving.

CRUMB TOPPING RECIPE

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) cold, unsalted butter

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup rolled oats

Directions:

Place butter and flour in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the mixture becomes like a coarse and crumbly. Add the oatmeal and brown sugar and pulse with the butter/flour mixture until combined. Cover pie with crumb topping.

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Eating apples is a healthy practice for self care. If you want to learn more about making self-care a priority, check out my latest offering available this fall in time for holiday gift-giving: THE SELF-CARE PLANNER, A  Weekly Guide to Prioritize You.

Learn how to schedule personal time to accomplish your dreams and goals for body, mind, and spirit. You’ll find prompts, reminders, and checklists to help you create and stick to your self-care routine. Put this book on your holiday list and find it online where books are sold and in traditional bookstores everywhere. This holiday season, remind yourself that self-care isn’t selfish. It’s an act of love.

Also, if you enjoy reading about country living, growing heirloom vegetables and fruits, and preparing delicious recipes, check out my cozy mystery series that is chocked full of craft ideas, foods, and wellness tips for humans and pets.

All novels are available online and in bookstores everywhere. They include A BEELINE TO MURDER, THE MURDER OF A QUEEN BEE, and A HIVE OF HOMICIDES (Kensington Publishing, NY).

The peaches are ripe now and beginning to fall from the tree. I decided to whip up a fresh peach cobbler from scratch. It’s easy and won’t take more than 15 to 20 minutes to get the cobbler made and into the oven.

Elberta peaches are firm and juicy. That makes them perfect for cobbler, pies, tarts, and jams.

All you need to make this super-simple summer dessert are a few fresh peaches and a basic cobbler batter.

The cobbler crust forms as the fruit and batter bake. The dessert is even tastier with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

RECIPE: FRESH PEACH COBBLER

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

pinch of salt

1 cup of milk

5 to 6 medium to large fresh peaches (peeled, pitted, and sliced)

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon cinnamon or ground nutmeg (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit

Select a baking dish that measures 13 x 9 x 2 inches and pour the melted butter to coat the bottom.

Combine in a medium bowl the dry ingredients (set aside 1 cup of sugar for the peaches). Pour the milk over the dry mixture and stir gently to combine to create a batter. Do not overmix. Pour the batter into the butter-coated baking dish.

Put peaches into a saucepan and cover with the remaining cup of sugar and lemon juice. Over high heat, bring the peaches to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and pour the peaches over the batter in the baking dish, but do not stir.

Sprinkle the cinnamon and/or nutmeg over the fruit. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. The cobbler batter will become a crusty topping through which the hot peach filling bubbles through. Serve it hot or cold, plain or with a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of rich vanilla ice cream. Serves 4-6

Sugar cookies iced in pastel colors

Everyone needs a little help during the holidays. An elf or two can make all the difference when you are trying to decorate the tree, hang stockings, and make all those special treats for Santa. I am baking dozens of batches of cookies to put into decorative tins that will then be tucked into baskets of other edible and gift items.

My book, Why Santa Wears Red, http://tinyurl.com/chp9sua (Fall River Press 2009), includes suggestions for things you can find in your back yard to decorate the house.  In that book, I also include recipes for traditional fruitcake, cranberry scones, and fragrant herbal tea. But sugar cookies and pumpkin spiced cupcakes are two of my favorite holiday snacks.

Pumpkin spiced cupcakes

Sometime during the summer, I purchased Nick Malgieri’s book, Cookies Unlimited and found a terrific sugar cookie recipe in it that I am using this year. It makes five dozen cookies per batch.

The ingredients are basic items (flour, sugar, and butter, for example) that you will probably have on hand if you like baking cookies. The texture is lovely and the cookies come out great every time. We iced them with a butter cream frosting and decorated with sprinkles before the icing could harden.

One of the twin elves in our family who likes to bake

I enlisted help with the baking this year from family members. They also did the decorating and I packaged everything into the gift baskets. Each basket contains a few different items, depending on the family to receive them. In some, I tucked in one or two of my books, packets of seeds from my plants (like sunflowers, nasturtiums, zinnias, and marigolds), jars of apricot, white peach, or strawberry jam, and honey.

Holiday baskets can be generic or highly personalized

You might also add candy canes, tins of fudge, cookie cutters, scone mix, measuring spoons, fresh fruit, bags of nuts, and myriad other treats or kitchen utensils. Friends say they love getting these baskets. I think they are well worth the effort, especially when family  members become helper elves in your kitchen.