Sometimes when we are having some friends over and they have kids in tow, I will slice up an apple while they wait for me to get dinner ready. I am usually astonished at how quickly the apple vanishes, and how soon they ask…
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Archive | Apples
Sweet Apple Cider Jelly
Apple season at Weaver’s Orchard means the cider press is in full swing! In fact, since apples store so well during the winter months in our cold storage, we have a fresh supply of apples to keep the cider press running every year from…
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5 Crazy Easy Apple Appetizers for Fall Parties
At a cooking class in June 2014, I heard Phoebe Canakis of Phoebe’s Pure Food describe fillo shells as “a nice cheat.” This kind of shortcut is a sanity saver when it comes to entertaining. When you’re throwing a big party and have to…
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Apple Dumplings: From Failure to Success
My husband often talks about one of my most spectacular kitchen failures. But he speaks of it fondly, and almost dreamily, because sometimes even the messiest kitchen mistakes are still quite edible. Here’s what happened. I was trying to make apple dumplings. It’s a…
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12 Labor Day Picnic Recipes
“There never was, and never will be, such a remedy for the tired, overworked human body as the pure, fresh air of the country,” wrote an author known as Mrs. A. Sherman Hitchcock in an article published in 1911. Picnics were nothing new at the time,…
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EDIBLE HISTORY: Amish Half-Moon Pies
Whoa?! Where did you get that? A museum? That’s the kind of reaction I get when I pull out my cell phone. It’s a heavy black Samsung flip phone, probably designed for people who are not in their 30s like I am. Such technological…
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Desserts and Appetizers for Christmas Parties
Some of my favorite Christmas parties have involved white elephant gift exchanges. I have usually come back with gifts I love, but perhaps this only shows my capacity to be charmed by strange, low-budget gifts. At one white elephant party while my husband and…
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Apple Dumplings & The History of Pennsylvania Orchards
This year, Weaver’s celebrated its 85th anniversary. In 1932, Daniel Weaver started Weaver’s Orchard on the same site where I now love to shop and pick fruit. But what was this part of Pennsylvania like before 1932? How common were orchards in the early…
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20-Minute Mini Apple Fritters with Granny Smith Apples
In high school, some friends and I volunteered at the Hay Creek Valley Fall Festival at Joanna Furnace, around the corner from Weaver’s Orchard. The Hay Creek festival recreates early American arts, like blowing glass, pressing cider, and cooking over an open fire. It…
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Pancakes with Cinnamon Apple Topping
I love pancakes. Unfortunately, making them from scratch takes time. Since I stick to a pretty strict morning routine to get some things done before work, I don’t usually have time to make pancakes for breakfast. Oatmeal or peanut butter toast are more my…
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