FFwD: Marie-Helene's Apple Cake

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The apple is the most cultivated tree fruit and the most used by humans.  There are more than 7,500 known variety of apples. The United States grows 2,500 of these, but just 100 of them are grown commercially. Apples are grown in 36 U.S. states, but six states — Washington, New York, Michigan, California, Pennsylvania and Virginia — produce the vast majority.  

Want to impress your friends with your uncanny knowledge of this autumn favorite?

  • Apples float because 25 percent of their volume is air.

  • It takes nearly 40 apples to make 1 gallon of cider.

  • You could eat a different apple every day for more than 19 years, and never eat the same kind twice!

  • The “Delicious” apple variety is the most widely grown variety in the United States.

  • An apple tree has to grow for four or five years before it will produce an apple.

  • Bobbing for apples started as a Celtic New Year’s tradition to determine whom you would marry.

  • In ancient times, apples were thrown at weddings (instead of rice or birdseed, like today … ouch!).

  • The apple belongs to the rose family.

When you Google “apple recipes” you are bound to get more than 40,900,000 hits.  There are a lot of people using a lot apples out there.

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Almond Flounder Meuniere Birthday Surprise!

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When I started Sweetbites I wanted to join a baking club in order to entice me to baking more.  I stumble upon Tuesday with Dorie, a huge group of bakers that were baking their way thru Dorie’s Greenspan book: “Baking: From my Home to Yours”.  By the time I found them, the group was closed and was not accepting new bakers.  I was totally bumped out, but I decided to send an email to Laurie, the group founder and moderator, to let me know when there were opening in the near future and that I was super interested in joining the pack.

A month went .. then two, then three and then, I got an email saying that a couple of spots opened up and that I was in if I was still interested!

I was in faster than you can raise your hand.

It has been amazing to bake along side the group for the last nine months.  I have made friends and found so many great blogs that inspired me with their words, photography and the level of cooking creativity.  I look forward to every Tuesday with anticipation, knowing that for a couple of hours I get lost in the sea of storytelling and eye candy photography.

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FFwD: Hachis Parmentier

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Ok guys, we are entering the forth week of cooking from the new book by Dorie Greenspan - “Around my French Table”.  This is my third contribution, since I skipped last weeks choice, the Vietnamese Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup.

But, this week I could not resist, because mashed potatoes and meat, in this case chopped meat - are like a great marriage.  

In France this is the equivalent of the English Shepard pie. “Hachis”, which means a dish in which the ingredients are chopped or minced, come from the same root as the English word “hatchet”.  I did not use a hatchet of course, but I like the mental picture of it.  The rest of the dish is named after Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, a French pharmacist, nutritionist, and inventor who, in the late 18th century, was instrumental in the promotion of the potato as an edible crop.

Let’s all stand up right now and thank THAT MAN!

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