I am a sucker for those big old bushel barrels of local apples that dominate farmer’s markets in my area each fall.

Every year I load up the kitchen fridge with crisp orchard fruit, and every year my family wonders incredulously at how we are supposed to consume a wholesale quantity of apples within a reasonable period of time.

Ha-ha…They never learn!

Now, if you just go about trying to eat through that barrel of apples in the conventional way you’ll never see the bottom – but I’m no overexcited farmers market apple buying newby…I will throw apples into every nook and cranny of recipes in my kitchen for a solid month; and we will get through that barrel!!!

Anyway, just in case you also share my predilection for the over-purchase of Macs, Spartans and Cortlands, here are some ideas to help you make it out the other side.

Fall Apple Recipe Ideas

The following are merely inspiration – you’ll have to Google down a recipe if needed elsewhere…

• Baked Apples (just core an apple and toss in some butter, sugar and cinnamon. Put into a low oven as you sit down to dinner and serve with vanilla ice cream for a warm and fragrant dessert
• Chile spiced applesauce
• Salad of greens, apple slices, almonds, dried cranberries in vinaigrette
• Plane Jane apple slices with sharp cheddar cheese
• Apple crisp
• Apple pie
• Slow braised German cabbage with apples (on the side of some lovely bratwursts, preferably)
• Apple muffins
• Apple cake
• Homemade apple cider
• Apple root vegetable soup (Sautee some carrots and squash with onions and apples and boil in chicken broth – purée and add some cream and salt…that’s it)
• Sautéed apples on pancakes
• Apple and cabbage coleslaw
• Apple and spice oatmeal

Foods that go well with apples

Here is a list of foods that compliment apples. Pair these flavors in any recipe and you can’t go to far wrong.

• Cinnamon
• Almonds
• Cabbage
• Cheese (tart cheeses)
• Pork
• Black pepper
• Raisins
• Sauerkraut
• Rum
• Dried cranberries
• Cheddar

Is it a cooking apple or an eating apple?

I never pay much heed to this one ( I can never remember and I don’t care all that much if the apples in my pie get mushy…but according to the Farmer’s Almanac, the best cooking apples available in America are:

• McIntosh
• Fuji
• Jonathon
• Granny Smith
• Winesap
• Newton Pippin
• Rome Beauty
• Rhode Island Greening

Cooking apples tend to be tarter than eating apples, and have firmer flesh.

Nutritional info (per apple)

An average apple has:

• 17 Grams of carbohydrate
• 85 calories
• 5 grams of fiber
• A good source of potassium