A is for.....Apples

I know, I know....apples....yeah, not very original, but too bad....because I have a thing for apples.  One year, I collected 25 different varieties of apples from various orchards and farms markets, and I could tell them apart just by looking at them.  It probably sounds kind of strange, but it was for my fall party trivia game and I had fun with it.  Several of the varieties I had that year I had never heard of before and I haven't managed to get my hands on one of them again.  One of those varieties was a Sheepnose, a variety which according to my mother grew in the cow pasture on the farm she grew up on.

That strange madness that led me on that wild exploration to collect all those apples, has left me with an appreciation of different kinds of apples and their different uses.  As far as eating apples goes, it all seems to depend on my mood what apple I am looking to chomp into...but usually it is a fuji, however I also like Jazz and Gala.  However, hands down my favorite for applesauce is Cortland, something about its beautiful pink color just makes it look so fresh when pulled out of the freezer on a mid winter day.

So, when I offered to make dessert for Easter, it just so happened I had a bag of apples sitting around.  This particular time, it was a bag full of Jonagolds, typically not my first pick, but at my local bulk foods store it was one of two choices the day I was shopping - Golden Delicious or Jonagolds...so Jonagolds it was.  What did I make?

An apple thyme tart/pie.  A rather different combination, but I was looking for something a little lighter - it always seems we have little room for dessert till it arrives...and my mom happened to have a thyme plant that was sprouting out green leaves for the new spring season.
Not saying it was a "to die for pie" or that I would be excited to drive 3000 miles for a piece, but it was good, and I would make it again in the right setting, definitely unique...of course, maybe if I had used Kanzi apples like it asked for instead of Jonagolds, maybe it would have been a "to die for pie", but I had never heard of a Kanzi apple before and had no idea where to go to get my hands on one.... but then again according to wikipedia, the first limited group of Kanzi's only reached the US in 2014 and I don't exactly live in a booming metropolis that would be on the frontline of that, so I settled for I had, and it turned out just fine, but if I ever happen upon a Kanzi (you know that is Swahili for hidden treasure) I will have to test it out.

One last dish of Cortland applesauce before I have to wait for next fall.