AN OLD FASHIONED DESSERT

I have decided that Thursday's are going the be Recipe days - at least for a little while...  What is the use of having a garden patch of vegetables, if you don't intend on cooking with the food you grow?

So, I'll start off with this one...




Remember the days when our Mother's canned fruit grown in their own yard, like Raspberries - or from purchased fruit in season, like Peaches, Pears?

I don't think many women have time to can like that anymore - and kudos to those who still do.

But it got me thinking.  I was raised on home-canned fruit.  It was so good - not near as sweet as the canned fruit you buy in the stores, and you knew that the fruit that was used was as fresh and as perfect for canning as it could possibly be - perhaps that is why it tasted so much better.

We always had dessert after our main meal - but it wasn't always flour based, like cakes or cookies or other baked goods - sometimes it was just a fruit nappy ( now there's an old term) of  Mom's canned peaches.

I was going through a book I found at the recycle shop last year called Herbal Treasures, by Phyllis V. Shaudy's  The book is from the 1990's but it full of wonderful ideas of growing and using herbs in everyday living.  It has really great recipes in it as well for all kinds of things, like Herb dressings and vinegars, herbal teas.  Main courses that accommodate fresh and dried herbs - and even crafts made with natural and herb elements.

I stumbled upon a recipe that the moment I started reading it, had me sitting back in my Mother's kitchen as a child, waiting for supper, so we could get to dessert!

This was a particular favourite dessert of mine - and Oh My Goodness - why did we ever stop making it?

This recipe is not exactly like Mom's but even so - I am going to try this one just as soon as I can get out to the store and get the ingredients.

This is good healthy eating, for sure!

Baked Apple with Fennel

6 apples

2 tablespoons raisins

2 tablespoons walnuts

3/4 teaspoon fennel

Cinnamon

Honey

Butter

1/2 water

Preheat over to 300 F.  Core apples and place them in a baking dish.

Combine the raisins, walnuts, and fennel, and divide the mixture into 6 even portions.  Stuff the mixture into the apples.

Top each apple with a dusting of cinnamon, a drizzle of honey, and a pat of butter. 

Pour water into the pan around the apples.

Bale for 1 hour, or until apples offer no resistance when poked with a fork.

Can you imagine the flavours in this...

Tart apple ( I would use Macintosh apples), sweet raisin, with a hint of Licorice ( fennel), the beautiful spice of cinnamon, made just a bit crunchy from the nuts, honey and butter.

OH MY GOSH....My mouth is watering!

If you make this - let me know how you liked it!

Enjoy!