Breakfast/Brunch, Sweet Snacks

Harvest Spice Apple Cake

Apple picking starts this weekend in my neck of the woods. I didn’t go, but that means that local apples are available, so when I found some local Honey Crisps, I decided to make this lovely apple cake. It’s not a *pie*, but a *cake*. Perfect for either breakfast coffee cake, or for afternoon tea. The spices are cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and just a touch of cardamom. PS: You don’t have to put the apple rings on the top… I just thought it would look nifty. Now I think it looks a little like octopus tentacles.
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Dinner, Lunch

Pesto di Noce (Walnut Pesto)

I have a glut of basil this ear. Seriously, I am overrun. The plants come up to my waist and they are thick with delicious basil leaves. There are a number of different sorts, but mostly it is your standard Italian sweet basil. And lots of it.

So what does one do with a glut of basil? Make pesto of course. I have made lots and lots of Pesto alla Genovese (the standard green stuff that one thinks of first when one hears ‘pesto’). It freezes very well so my I am well stocked for a while. So I thought that I would make this Pesto di Noce (Walnut Pesto). It’s not as pretty as it’s Genovese cousin (for starters, it’s brownish, despite 2 cups of basil leaves in it), but it of so amazingly yummy. Pair it with giant ravioli and a few more walnuts and you have an amazing dinner (or lunch, in my case).
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Desserts, Sweet Snacks

Blueberry Pie with Buttermilk, Lemon and Ginger

There must be a dozen blueberry pie recipes on this here site. Overall, I am guessing there must be at least 50 blueberry recipes in general, but given how much I love them, this isn’t a surprise. Each time I make a new pie, I do a little bit of a twist, whether it be “warm spices” (cinnamon, clove), or with a crumble top, etc. This time I went for a bit of a tart twist, with buttermilk, lemon and ginger. Quite lovely and fresh.
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