Monday, October 26, 2009

More Autumn in PA

Since we started doing color covers, it has almost given me new eyes. Now the beauty of every bud, berry, bean, and blossom is even more apparent. Our brother also has a long history of photo manipulation with different computer programs, and he's toying with some small business ideas he can do from home. We are really happy to see him excited about something, btw.
With those things in mind, we set off in search of beautiful things yesterday. This clear yellow is spectacular. Sometimes the maple out back glows this particular color into my sunporch, and it changes my mood. This year the weather wasn't right. So the larger shot of this might become a screensaver.For some reason mushrooms are just so darned cute sometimes. I don't forage or identify them, I just look at them and enjoy the way they look.Looking up through the trees, this struck me as an amazing vision. All the colors and the sky, and the size of the trees, it took my breath away.The churchyard at the Mount Hope church. I'm thinking that at dusk on a foggy night, this could be pretty darned spooky.Eeyore in the flesh! This is a very young little burro. S/he headed over to the fence right away, and I hurried away so that there would be no electric fence accident to repay the friendliness.We sat on a little one lane bridge while I snapped this out the window, with my siblings squawking about oncoming traffic.Still some firey leaves across a new crop of soybeans.One of the larger farms in our part of the county, just over the crest on the other side of a field.
And if you stayed this long, here is a luscious yet simple dessert from Michele Brown of Possum Creek Herbs, published in the Nov/Dec '06 issue of The Essential Herbal.
Baked Apple with Vanilla Bean Crème
You can make as many of these as you like. They taste best fresh from the oven.
Core a large, crispy apple and peel the top portion of the apple.
Set the apples firmly on their bottoms in a baking pan with sides.
Sprinkle cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar over the tops of the apples and add a little bit of water around the bottom of the apples.
Bake in a 325 degree oven until tender. This usually takes 30-40 minutes.
While the apples are baking, whip up some heavy cream and add one vanilla bean (scrape the inside of the bean for the delicious meat).
Stop whipping the cream before it gets stiff peaks. You want to be able to pour the thick cream over the hot apples after they come out of the oven.
Bring the apples out of the oven and let them sit for a moment or two.
Put an apple on a pretty plate and pour the cream mixture over the top.
Take some of the spice drippings from the baking pan and drizzle over the cream.
Enjoy.
Note: In PA we'd set the apples on a square of pie dough, bring it up and fasten at the top, and call it an apple dumpling.

4 comments:

Comfrey Cottages said...

so glad john is happy and excited with new ideas! i love little eeyore:) cracking up about taking the pic with sibling squacking! lol your countryside is so beautiful tine. very glad you are getting out and enjoying the colors and smells of autumn. and good for you occassionally just enjoy something like the mushrooms cause they are fun to look at instead of running the usual herbalist thoughts of identification, uses, etc etc through your brain! it is hard to do though once you have got yourself trained to do so isn't it? thank you for sharing:)

Comfrey Cottages said...

okay i just made a nice post and it disappeared:( bummer! just wanted to say so happy john is happy and excited about future projects and i am very happy you have taken the time to enjoy the sights and smells of autumn! love little eeyore too!

Tina Sams said...

It went through, but I've had to moderate for the time being. Spamming blogs seems to be the thing to do at the moment - grrrr...

Today we visited a very old graveyard. Stay tuned for another non-herbal post :-).

Bridgett said...

Beautiful pictures!

)O(
boo