Alternate Title: I’ll dutch your baby anytime, hot stuff.*
*Because a dutch baby is a kind of big, fluffy baked pancake often filled with apples. Not because I’m trying to come on to you. Although if I knew you, I’m sure I TOTALLY would.
The only person I recognize in the current season of “Dancing with the Stars”: Cloris Leachman. Because I am seven thousand years old.
What is it about going fruit picking that causes otherwise normal people to lose all perspective on the amount of fruit they are feasibly able to consume before the picked fruit starts to rot and turns into the launching pad for a fruit fly junta in their kitchens? I mean, I love an apple, especially a fresh, crisp, non-mealy, non-pesticidey, fresh-picked Jonathan apple. But do I love these apples 13 pounds worth? I’m really not sure.
So I’m eating an apple a day, and will continue to do so despite the fact that they’re having no bearing on some upcoming doctors’ appointments I’m not particularly looking forward to,* but I still need more ways to use up the apples. I have some plans for muffins and maybe a tarte tatin, but 13 pounds is a LOT of fucking apples. So: apples for dinner, form of spiced maple apple compote over pancakes.
*Transvaginal ultrasound, anyone? How many apples a day do I have to eat to keep the radiologist trying to stick a wand up my hoo-ha away? Probably that’s more like 6 or 7, and I just can’t take all that roughage.
I will admit it here: I do not know who the Jonas Brothers are, nor do I give a half, or even a quarter of a shit.
Breakfast for dinner is usually a pretty easy way to go cheaper. I may actually have already pulled this, but I’m pretty sure I don’t give a crap.
I peeled up some apples (NOT ENOUGH OF THEM) and tossed them into a skillet with some butter to soften.
Oh shit, Lance Bass is on “Dancing with the Stars”? Snap!
After 5 minutes or so, I added a few turns of the pan of maple syrup, some dark brown sugar, ground ginger, a splash of lemon juice and a pinch of salt and let the sugar, syrup, butter and apple bubble into a fragrant dark brown sauce.
Are any of you still wasting your money on Grade A “fancy” maple syrup? If so, you should stop, Grade B is cheaper and has a richer maple-y flavor without being overpowering. Also, if you’re using Ms. Butter-worth’s? Stop that too. It’s embarrassing.
I left my pan on the stove’s simmer burner and got out of the way while Brian made the pancakes; I like to get out of the way whenever he’s engaging in a project, because then I get to skip the frustration that’s seemingly inherent to his process and show up at the end to enjoy the spoils. Also because I was in the middle of a book I really wanted to get back to. The upshot is that I have no photo of pancake production and I’m relying on your abilities to successfully recall the appearance of pancakes you may have had in the past.
(Hopefully no one is like, “I was totally on board with this recipe, but WHAT THE FUCK IS A PANCAKE, HELP ME, PLEASE.” Flip ’em when you see the bubbles forming on top, that’s all I can tell you.)
2 apples: $.99. Flour, sugar, salt, butter and baking soda: Pantry staples. 1 egg: $.33. 1 cup of milk: $.75. 1/4 c. maple syrup:$1.25. 1/4 c. dark brown sugar: $.15. Total cost $3.47, or $1.74 per eater. Use the leftover cash to buy yourself something nice, you deserve it.
For those interested in such things, the pancakes came from Bittman’s How to Cook Everything, which you should all get especially since the paperback is only, like, $11. Brian used the”basic” recipe, which makes a pretty tasty but dense pancake; I think we’ll try the “light and fluffy” next time.
The gingered maple apples tasted like autumn, making this an awesome “Welcome, Fall!” dish. The fruit still had some bite, the ginger added warmth, and the syrup and sugar worked nicely in tandem, each deepening the other. The squeeze of lemon kept it from getting too cloying, and the butter made things delicious because it’s butter.
I kinda wish I had made extra of the compote because it would be excellent with a warm bowl of steel-cut oats, mixed into some quinoa for breakfast or poured over some homemade cinnamon ice cream; unfortunately, I just didn’t have enough apples.
Oh wait, that’s someone else I’m thinking of.
Also: BONUS PORK! From a weekend BBQ at my B & SIL’s. Look at those fucking pink smoke rings and then just TRY not to weep:
I drink your milkshake.
Gingered Maple Apples
This will make extra for your oatmeal.
4 crisp-fleshed apples, like Empire or Great Northern (or whatever you like, really), peeled and cut into a large dice
4 tbsp. unsalted butter
1/3 c. grade B maple syrup
1/3 c. dark brown sugar, packed
2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. salt
Juice of 1 lemon
Melt the butter in a wide skillet of medium heat. Add the diced apples and cook for 4-5 minutes, until they begin to soften.
Add all the other ingredients except the lemon juice and simmer for another 10 minutes until the apples are soft but not broken down and the butter, syrup and sugar have cooked together to make a sauce. Sauce should simmer vigorously but not boil.
Stir the lemon juice in during the last few minutes of cooking. Taste, and adjust the salt and lemon if needed. Serve immediately or later, over everything.
Thursday Night Smackdown 
Steel cut oats, you say? Hmmm…my hubby LOVE
Dangit, I pushed enter too quickly! I was going to say that my hubby LOVES steel cut oats! Imma have to try this one for him! Thanks!
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2008/05/09/puff-the-magic-pancake/
There’s this fantastic pancake place by us that has Dutch babys bigger than my head (which actually isn’t saying very much since I have a pretty small head…but they’re bigger than most people’s heads)
I went to an orchard a week and a half ago and bought a full bushel of apples. I am married. We live by ourselves. It has been the most apple filled week I have ever known. I have made and jarred apple butter and apple sauce, I’ve made 2 apple crisps, 1 apple cake, a German apple pancake, apple and bacon cornbread stuffing, and gave about 1/4 of one of the bags to my parents, and I still have about 12 apples rolling around in the bottom of that stupid bag.
Allie: Actually your first message got the full message across, surprisingly…
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Ymmm…pancakes or waffles for dinner is one of my childhood “happy times”.
There’s not enough bonus pork in my life . . .
I don’t think there is ever enough bonus pork. Could there be?
I’m pretty sure that apples are unrelated to transvaginal ultrasounds – I was never given the option of apples per day instead. As medical tests go, it isn’t all that bad.
And just look at it this way – at least you aren’t in your 30s getting ready for a tonsillectomy. I’d gladly undergo 12 transvaginal ultrasounds if it meant that I wouldn’t have to worry about scar sloughing in my throat (I know. How exciting is THAT?) and having to figure out how in the world you are supposed to not eat anything acidic for about a month. No tomatoes. No lemon. No lime. Nothing spicy. No vinegar. Particularly when you (me) are allergic to poultry, so chicken soup is not an option. Fun, right?
Oh Yum! I can think of a thousand uses for those yummy apples!!! I have some rotting on my counter and may just have to make this!
There are many things I love here:
*Cloris Leachman reference
*Dancing with the Stars commentary
*Apples and maple syrup
*Pancakes
*Use of the phrase “transvaginal ultrasound” – always a crowd pleaser
*Bonus pork
Man the pork was lovely. I did try, but I did weep.
I totally understand the whole fruit-picking brain fart. I went berry picking two years ago and ended up with more raspberries than two people could ever consume in a normal amount of time. Even after making tarts and smoothies I still had more than I could use.
allie, we got it the first time!
katie, that’s a fine looking dutch baby, except…no apples. the dutch baby must always be filled with apples and sugar. i have spoken on the matter.
kristin and julianne, so sad, so true.
jodi, can YOU explain DwTS to me? because from what i saw, it just looked like a bunch of terrible dancers.
rachel, you’d think we would have learned, because we just had the SAME THING happen with raspberries! i meant to individually quick freeze ’em, but they got moldy and we had to chuck ’em.
I’m in the same leaky rowboat as Jodi. I was also unable to NOT weep.
Looks like a great way to use all those gala apples showing up at our farmers’ market! And yum for ginger.
I did the same thing with peaches last year at a u-pik-em place… I still have trouble buying them now, such was the overload.
corporette took the words right outa my mouth. i hate it when she does that…
We have a New Zealand edition of DWtS. Our C-list celebs make your B-list celebs look like…some kind of letter representing excellence that hasn’t even been invented yet.
That maple-apple-ginger stuff looks and sounds delicious 😀
I cannot explain DwTS to you unfortunately. It is (especially in the beginning) a bunch of terrible dancing. But there are so many rhinestones! I can’t look away!
allison, right? those fucking rings.
laura, yikes. but i’m pretty sure the US version uses D- and sometimes E-list celebs. B-listers wouldn’t touch that show with a 40-foot pole.
jodi, dammit. you are no help.
I still feel like you’re cheating on me by taking pictures of another man’s BBQ. And posting it on your website? Have you no shame?
By the way, those ribs are delicious two days later. The dogs love ’em too.
I never watch Dancing With…whatever. I might, though, now that I know Cloris is on it. She kicks ass.
There’s nothing wrong with Mrs Butterworth. Stop hating.
You know my motto–It’s always a good day when there’s bonus pork involved.
Gotta try this with all the apples lying around here. Having two young daughters, I’m unfortunate enough to know who the Jonas Bros are. Lucky, lucky me.
Also, love the new look around here!
As a student (okay, as of like, five days ago) pancakes for dinner sounds like a brilliant plan. Looks like that’s my new few meals sorted XD.
I’ve had a craptastic day, truly. But then, I logged on to my laptop, stumbled to this site, and read the funniest thing I’ve read in weeks: “I will admit it here: I do not know who the Jonas Brothers are, nor do I give a half, or even a quarter of a shit.”
Just letting you know that I heart you, and you’re in my will now, because I didn’t think ANYTHING could make me smile today, much less make me laugh til I cried.
You’re a doll. =)