Apple Lettuce Salad

Apple Lettuce Salad

1/2 cup unsweetened apple juice
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons vegetable or extra-virgin olive oil
4 1/2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Dash of salt, pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg
1 medium red apple
1 medium green apple
6 cups torn green leaf lettuce
6 cups torn red lettuce

In a large bowl, whisk first ten ingredients until blended.
Add apples, toss. Place lettuce over apples mixture (do not toss).
Refrigerate. Toss right before serving.

Yield 12 servings

Aunt Polly's Apple Cake

Aunt Polly's Apple Cake

2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups oil
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix ingredients above together, beating for 3 minutes. In another bowl mix:

3 cups flour (sift 1 tsp. each of baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp. salt). 

Fold flour into sugar & oil mixture with spatula. Then add:

1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup coconut
3 cups apples, raw, diced.

Fold into mixture. Bake in a tub pan for 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees. When done, invert over a pop bottle to cool.

An Apple-a-Day Pesto

The neighborhood is busy with apple harvest. Pickers are filling bins with juicy, red, Fuji apples. The bins fill the back of semi-trucks who haul them to a nearby packing plant. There's nothing like a tree ripened Fuji apple! Its juicy water-core indicates a sweet and ripe apple. Our friendly neighbors are generous with their apples, so it is a perfect time of year to prepare foods with this delicious fruit!

An Apple-a-Day Pesto

1 1/2 cups basil leaves, fresh
1 cup parsley, fresh
1 cup Fuji apple, cored and quartered
1/4 cup almonds
3/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. apple juice concentrate
1 tsp. lemon juice, fresh
1 tsp. lemon zest, fresh
3 Tbsp. olive oil

Place basil, parsley, apple, almonds, and salt in food processor. Pulse until coarsely chopped. Stop pulsing and add apple juice concentrate, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Pulse food processor and then slowly drizzle olive oil into mixture. When blended, place pesto in a serving bowl.

Serve with apple slices, crusty slices of bread, and crackers. If you like to double-dip, add a bowl of peanut butter!

Enjoy!