Today was apple picking, a half bushel of sweet/tart MacIntosh apples.
The orchard is one that friends of my parents owned when I was a child,
lots of memories there, running down into the orchard to pick an apple
for a snack, talking to the migrant Jamaican apple pickers, hide and
seek, apple fights (ouch), my brother peeing on the electric
fence...typical kid stuff. ;0) But what I remembered most about the
orchard were a few trees with some unusual varieties of apples, sadly
those trees are now gone. The tree that produced "cannonballs" apples
weighing over 20 ounces each is gone too, two were enough for a pie.

So far, I've made two apple crisps with my grandmother's recipe. Yeah,
yeah, I know Macs are for eating not cooking, but I like how they cook up.

There are still pies and pancakes to be made. Will make another trip
for inexpensive utility apples for apple sauce and apple butter.

I also intend to try an Apple Brownie recipe from _Cooking Downeast_,
Marjorie Standish, 1969.

1 stick margarine
1 c sugar
1 egg
2 medium apples, pared, cored and chopped fine
1/2 c chopped nuts
1 c flour
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t soda
1/4 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon

Cream margarine. Add sugar gradually. Beat egg until light and beat
into mixture until creamy. Mix in the chopped apples and nuts. Sift
flour and measure. Sift together with powder, soda, salt and cinnamon.
Stir lightly into apple mixture.

Turn ital a buttered 7 by 11-inch pan and bake at 350 degrees for 40
minutes. Cool, cut into bars.

Jessica