Winter Keepers

I've been trying to follow my own advice, and use produce I have on hand before it gets away from me. This includes apples from our trees. We have several boxes in the garage. I need to go through them every week or 10 days, to pull out any that are starting to get soft spots or show bruises. So, what do you do with a box of "immediate" apples? I put up seven pints by waterbath canning, for future desserts, and made a big pan of Apple Pandowdy:

Apple Pandowdy

Amounts for a 12x8 baking pan

4 1/2 cups washed, cored, sliced apples (I don't bother to peel, and they're fine)
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4-1/3 cup sugar, succanat or brown sugar
5 Tbs butter
1/3 cup sugar, succanat or brown sugar
2 small or 1 large egg
3/4 cup brown rice flour plus 6 Tbs millet flour (or use 1 cup plus 2 Tbs unbleached or whole wheat flour)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Arrange apples in bottom of pan, sprinkle with spices and sugar, bake 30 minutes. Meanwhile, cream butter and sugar together, stirring in egg(s), then add flours, salt, and baking powder and milk, stirring to mix. Remove apples from oven, spread batter over apples, sealing to sides as possible. Return to oven for another 30 minutes baking.

This will remind you of a baked pancake. Lots of fruit for the amount of cake. Very nice with ice cream; we just had it plain and it was yummy. A traditional American dish.

Wild West Beans

2 cups dry navy beans, picked over and soaked overnight
1/4 lb sliced bacon or rinsed salt pork, diced
1 Tbs cumin seed
1/2 cup chopped onion
6 juniper berries
1/2-1 tsp chipotle chile powder (to taste)
4 sliced cloves garlic
1 tsp dry oregano
1/4 cup tomato sauce
salt to taste

Drain beans and cook in fresh water until about tender. In another pan, cook bacon or salt pork until fat starts to flow, then add cumin and onion, saute 5 minutes. If there is still a lot of water on the beans, pour most of it off, leaving water to just cover; or if necessary, add water to just cover. Stir in bacon and seasonings including the fat, juniper, chipotle powder, garlic, and oregano. Simmer 1 1/2 hours, covered. Make sure it doesn't go dry. Then add tomato sauce and salt to taste, and cook another 15 minutes.

Finally, what do you do with those black radishes? ("I thought radishes were red?") If you aren't lucky enough to have black radish, you can use daikon in a similar way.

Black Radish Slaw
2-3 black radishes, or 1 lb daikon, peeled and grated
3 cups finely cut cabbage
1 cup coarsely grated carrots
1/2 cup sliced green onions, or slivered shallot or leek
2 tablespoons lemon juice or good cider vinegar
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp sugar or honey
2 tablespoons fresh herbs, if available--could be parsley, mint, marjoram, cilantro, or you could use 2 tsp dried herbs of your choice
freshly-ground black pepper to taste

Put veggies in a big bowl. Put lemon juice, oil, and sugar in a little jar and shake well, then pour over veggies. Sprinkle on herbs and black pepper, toss well. Taste and add salt, more lemon juice, more pepper, or whatever you think you'd like.