Apple Time

In my back yard I have what real estate agents would call a "family orchard." One apricot tree, 2 plum trees and an apple tree hardly qualify as an orchard in my mind, but in terms of pounds of fruit they produce in the fall, the yard feels like a commercial-sized orchard in the San Joaquin Valley.

When I first planted those fruit trees, I was incredulous when my landscaper insisted that apple trees would grow in Southern California. Most varieties of apple require 500-1000 hours below 45 degrees in the winter to produce good fruit, but there are a few varieties that get by on a fraction of that. Enter Anna, Beverly Hills, Fuji, Gala and Granny Smith, a variety that has adapted to low-chill areas.

Late September is when my Granny Smith tree ripens and that's when I scramble to pick as many shiny green apples as I can reach. It's hard to find a cool place to keep them chilled (September can be brutally hot, even in the garage), so I usually start cooking with them before they start to deteriorate.

This year, I make a couple of pans of apple cake that I can freeze and bring out during the holidays when the family visits. I refrained from adding chopped walnuts because a certain six year old in my life is in his nut-hating stage. But they really are a nice addition to the recipe, otherwise.


Granny Smith Apple Cake

3 Cups chopped Granny Smith apples
3/4 Cup vegetable oil
2 Eggs
2 Cups granulated sugar
2 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
1 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 Teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 Teaspoons baking soda

Glaze:
1 1/4 Cups packed brown sugar
1/3 Cup milk
1/2 Cup butter

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease and flour a 9 x 13" pan.

Chop the apples fine and place in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, beat eggs and oil together and pour over the apples. Let stand while you mix the dry ingredients.

In a medium bowl, mix the sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and baking soda. Fold into the apples and mix well. The batter will be quite thick. Pour into the prepared baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Glaze while the cake is still hot.

Sharing a Pizza

Although we are longtime friends going back almost 40 years, it had been way too long since KT, JM and I had met to visit and catch up. One had spent half the summer in Idaho, the other was in and out of town on short vacations, and the third was laying low, hobbled by a bad back and a broken toe. On a magnificent summer day recently, we met at Ojai's popular new restaurant, La Fonte Pizze, for lunch and conversation. We sat in a quiet corner on the restaurant's back patio so we could talk, and talk, and talk.

After much deliberation (their menu is lengthy), we decided to split a large salad and a pizza, and we agreed on their specialita del giorno, a chicken pizza adorned with sliced fresh peaches. I don't think the others were as enthusiastic about this dish as I was (maybe because I was the one laying low with the bad back and not getting out much), but I thought it was inventive and delicious. Delivered on a wooden peel, the thin-crust pie was piled high with chunks of white meat chicken and local yellow meat peaches, garnished with fresh basil.

This, I thought, probably wouldn't be too hard to do at home. I own a pizza peel, and the ingredients are easily available. So, why not? Well, because my homemade pizza would not come with two cherished friends and chit-chat refined over 4 decades. That is what can never be replicated.

Drying Garden Herbs

Here in sunny California, the weekend has been overcast and cool, Mother Nature's confirmation that Autumn is indeed here. Not that there aren't plenty of warm and sunny days left; in fact, October can be down right hot. But I also see a change in the garden. Most of the herbs have flowered and been cut back at least twice during the summer, but they are growing more slowly now and I already miss the blowsy, unkempt drifts of oregano, tarragon and lemon verbena.

Before the herbs hunker down for the winter, I'm going to try preserving some of their fragrance and flavor to use in cooking during the cold weather. I don't have a dehydrator, but there are plenty of options I could try: air-drying, microwaving or freezing. I've always liked the look of greens hanging on pot racks in the kitchen or rafters in a barn, so I opted for air-drying.

To start the experiment, I clipped off several 6-8 inch sprigs of the most tender lemon verbena branches, rinsed them thoroughly in cool water and let them dry on a cotton towel. I then bundled them up into a bunch about an inch thick and tied them together with cotton string. I left a length of string long enough to tie the bundle for hanging upside down.

The key to success, I'm told, is to let herbs dry away from direct sunlight where there is good air circulation but no dust, so I tied my bundle to the iron frame of my kitchen lights and waited.

After a couple of weeks, the lemon verbena leaves were crispy-dry and ready to be crumbled and stored in a glass jar. The reward? Lovely cups of hot lemon verbena tea.