Apple Mania!

Last Thursday, at the start of the glorious Noreaster that swept through New York, I went apple picking. I had an image in my mind’s eye of the day: Sparkling sunshine, vistas of the trees turning bright colors, a sweater wrapped around my waist. Instead there was low cloud cover and I basically froze the entire time. Not the most ideal weather conditions, but a friend and I made plans and dammit we were going to keep them. As we climbed elevation in our Zipcar on the Taconic Highway to Barton Orchards and the rain turned to snow, two things crossed my mind: Thank god I brought my wellies and will there be any apples left?

Well, there were apples, but not a lot. Apparently, it wasn’t a great season. There was the June rain and then a hailstorm, which if it didn’t blow the apples off the trees, it severely bruised them. Still, if you got creative and climbed the trees, you could find some good ones.

Now, I have about 12 pounds of apples in my fridge. After going through the trouble to pick them and risk the swine flu while doing it, I’m sure as hell going to cook them.

First up: Pork chops and applesauce, said in a Peter-Brady-doing-Bogie voice. Um, BEST MEAL EVER! When was the last time you ate this? If you can’t remember, I strongly suggest you cook this tonight. It’s so so so easy, so so so comforting, and so so so delicious. First, I bought two boneless chops from the butcher, about ½ inch thick. (One for me and one for tonight.) I pounded them about a little bit and soaked them in milk and salt for about and hour and a half. I made breadcrumbs with panko, fresh thyme (that’s shockingly still alive on my balcony after having neglected to water it for over two weeks), salt and a mashed-up garlic clove. Fried it in butter and olive oil on the stove until golden. I mean, does this not look amazing?

Next up was a quick applesauce. I peeled and cored about five apples—a hefty portion for myself—cut them into 1-inch cubes and cooked them covered on the stovetop with a bit of sugar and a bay leaf.



Now the question is what I’m going to do with the remaining 10 pounds. Thoughts?
—Leslie