Snow Day+Sheet Pan=Apple Butter

Howdy Folks!  Looks like we are opening late again today. We will open today at 10:30 a.m. and will close at 4:30 to avoid the ice over. 

The boys and I were busy badgers yesterday and took (gulp) the Christmas tree down, and did laundry of the world. I also made some apple butter with chai spices using my friend Meg Shelton’s amazing apples! It was pretty yummy on homemade oatmeal bread!

Where we live our neighbor has a pretty good hill so we sent Logan over with 3 large sheet pans for the boys to try their luck on the hill! (I used to ride down my grandma’s stairs on a home use size sheet pan and it was terrifying but fun!)  This was a a partial success but they ended up switching over to the inner tube.

Have you ever read M.F.K.Fisher of Elizabeth David? Their writings are pithy, witty food writings from days gone by that are still in someways applicable today. One of the repeated mantras was utilizing oven space and never throwing food away-two things which i appreciate and attempt to do. So in that spirit I threw in a potato, spinach, sausage casserole (from homemade sausage, thank you) and a dinner apple cobbler (apples from Meg www.vintageviriginaiapples.com) that I served with sharp Cheddar from Brennan’s in Wisconsin (thanks, Shelly!). Both things got tucked into a low heat oven with some large cow bones for the hounds and cooked for 3 hours. Come dinner time, everybody was warm, fat and happy!

Dinner Apple Cobbler-feeds up to 6-this is is less sweet than a dessert cobbler and works well with pork or chicken.

6 excellent apples peeled, cored and sliced thin

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp Singing Dog Vanilla Vanilla Bean Paste

1/2 tsp Red Ape Cinnamon

1 1/2 cups Self-Rising Flour

1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp heavy cream.

Toss apples in sugar and spices and let rest. Lightly butter a square baking pan. Pour apple mixture into bowl.  Combine cream and flour in same bowl and then smear dough over top of apples. Cover with tin foil and bake in a slow oven until apples wilt, caramel thickens and biscuit topping is steamed. Serve with thin slices of sharp superb cheddar.