They looked at each other now, husband and wife, with such a depth of feeling that the eight feet separating them shrank to nothing. Then, slowly, with a darkling gleam in her eye, Mrs. Marquis raised her plate above her head...and let it drop. A canvasback bone flopped free, the stewed apples few straight up, and the plate blew into a dozen pieces scattered across the red linen tablecloth.
-The Pale Blue Eye [1] by Louis Bayard
Edgar Allan Poe has always been one of my favorite poets. His poems, while dark and often morbid, have a certain draw to them. I guess I am not much for flowery poems - anyone can write that sort of thing - but Poe's poems are other-worldly and mysterious. So when I saw that there was a novel out there to be consumed that had Poe as one of its main characters, I had to grab it. I'm glad I did. This fiction of crime was written in a style that is more reminiscent of authors who wrote novels decades ago, and it had very unexpected twists. Poe was an interesting fixture; he seemed like one of those guys in high school or college that just doesn't fit in, but goes on to amaze people later in life. He was not the main character, however. That was left to an older, charming man (Gus Landor), who, sadly, probably never existed in real life. This murder mystery was an easy read, and hopefully we'll see Poe and/or Landor again. Good job, Mr. Bayard. I'm sure to read more of your novels.
Last evening when I was making the stewed apples I kept referring to them as stewed tomatoes. My husband couldn't resist, so for at least ten minutes I kept arguing with him that I had never made stewed tomatoes and that "tonight is the first time I've ever made stewed tomatoes!" He kept proclaiming that we eat them all the time, and that he had just made some last week (which he had).
Finally I realized my error, and while funny, hopefully I won't repeat it here.
I looked online at several different versions of stewed apples, but the recipe that follows is an approximation of what I wound up doing.
Stewed Apples
- 5 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and thickly sliced
- 3 Tbsp. butter (I used Soy Garden)
- 3-4 Tbsp. sugar (I used organic turbinado sugar)
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- A dash of nutmeg
- 1 cup water
In a large pan (frying pan would do), melt the butter. Add the apples and saute for a few minutes over medium heat. Add the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg and stir together. Add the water, and when the mixture starts to boil lower the heat and let the water reduce to a syrup. Continue cooking until the apples are at a consistency that you prefer. Mine were still a little crunchy when I finally stopped cooking them, but some were also mushy.
This turned out better than I thought it would. I have never been a big fan of eating sweet items at a meal, unless it is breakfast or time for dessert. So what I wound up doing was put this on top of some bread that I had made over the weekend (which I'll share later). It was really good - similar to putting applesauce on bread.
Even though I enjoyed it, I'm not sure I'll go to the trouble of making this again. Usually when I use apples in recipes, they wind up in apple crisp, salsa, or smoothies. Or I just eat them plain or with peanut butter. Still, I'll continue to enjoy my stewed tomatoes, er, apples for the next day or two.