Happy Thanksgiving to All

Wishing all our faithful Marketgoers a Happy Thanksgiving! I already have Should-Have-Bought-More Remorse from the last Market of the season because I bought my first bottle of Finnriver's Blueberry Wine after sampling it, thinking I'd give it as a gift. Well, I didn't hold out, and busted into the bottle the next night.

Man, oh man. Buy this next year! Rich and delicious, straight from the bottle, or so very good poured over vanilla ice cream. Since we didn't save it for my in-laws, whose house we're going to for Thanksgiving, we at least managed not to drink the whole bottle, so they could still try some! What I'm not sharing, however, is the bottle of hard pear cider I picked up the same day. All mine.


I also wish I bought more honey, especially after I made this cake for a potluck. If your family doesn't do pies, or if you do pumpkin and someone still has a craving for apple:

Honeyed Apple Torte (adapted from Cooking Light magazine)

  1/3 cup Market honey (do not use the nasty stuff that comes in a plastic bear)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
3 apples, peeled and cut in 8-10 wedges each (I used a mix of apples from Collins Family Orchard)
3/4 cup (scant) sugar
6 Tbsp softened butter
1/4 cup packed brown sugar

[Cooking Light pic]

1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
another dash of lemon juice
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Topping:
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon



Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9-inch springform pan. (A 9-inch cake pan would also work, but you won't be able to serve it looking as pretty.)

In a skillet, combine the honey and lemon juice and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add the apples and cook 14 minutes or until almost tender, stirring from time to time. Set aside.

Beat butter, sugars, and vanilla with mixer until well-blended. Add eggs and lemon juice and beat well.

Mix dry ingredients and add gradually to butter mixture, beating at low speed until blended. Spread batter in pan.

Remove apples from skillet with slotted spoon and arrange in a spoke-like patter in batter. Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle over.

Bake for one hour until cake is browned and springs back lightly to touch. Cool in pan on wire rack. Cut in wedges using a serrated knife.

******
I made the cake a day ahead and refrigerated, letting it come to room temperature again before I served it. No one complained. No one, that is, except my kids, who weren't allowed to have a piece.

I'll keep this post brief, since I hope you'll all be off cooking. So discouraging to be in Trader Joe's yesterday (buying breakfast cereal, the expensive, processed-food bane of my existence) and to see everyone in line with their packaged, pre-fab Thanksgiving foods. Come on, everyone! This is the ONE real food holiday of the year, the time to make it from scratch, if ever. Put down the assembly-line pies and stuffing mixes and gravy boxes, the vegetables washed and chopped in their non-recyclable plastic bags. Try one recipe this year. You won't regret it.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.