Spiced Apples

Apples are delicious and versatile. Baked or roasted apples are easy to prepare and they make great side dishes or desserts for many meals. Apple and pork go particularly well together.

I was inspired to create this dish the last time I barbecued a pork loin.

There are several types of apples with varying degrees of sweetness or tartness, and some maintain their firmness better than others when cooked. Braeburns are a favorite cooking apple.

Ingredients

1 Apple (Breaburn or other variety suitable for cooking)
1 Whole Cinnamon Stick
1 Cardamom pod
1 Whole Clove
3T Turbinado Sugar (aka Sugar in the Raw)
1t Orange or Tangerine Zest
3T Cointreau (or other orange liqueur)

Core the apple and leave the peel on. Begin to wrap the apple in aluminum foil. Place cinnamon stick, crushed cardamom pod, and whole clove in center of apple. Mix sugar and zest, then fill remainder of core with sugar mixture. Pour Cointreau into cored center until full. Finish wrapping the apple with foil to seal in ingredients.

Place apple on barbecue in indirect heat or 350 degree oven. Cook for 20-25 minutes, or until sides have softened. Allow time to cool. Remove apple from foil, discard spices, slice into sections and serve. (All of the alcohol evaporates.)

May be served as a side dish or desert. It goes particularly well with vanilla ice cream. Drizzle any liquid within the foil on top before serving.

Feel free to experiment with the spices. You can substitute ground spices for whole, just mix them with the sugar before adding them to the apple.

1 Spiced Apple servers 1-2 people.

Enjoy!

Instant Pudding Part 2

When I started this blog, I never expected to write about instant pudding--at least not twice.

I prepared a slightly different version of the instant pudding describe in my last entry. This time I added about 1/4-teaspoon of real vanilla to the pudding mix. This gave it a more authentic vanilla flavor. To that, I added a trace of freshly ground nutmeg.

When preparing the actual dish, I started with a base of three banana slices, added the pudding, and topped it with another banana slice.

During my last visit to Costco, it seems a rather large back of semi-sweet chocolate chips crept into my cart. (This bag was recently seen in a Facebook post.) It seemed a shame not to add some to the top of this dessert. So the pudding was generously topped with chocolate chips and another sprinkle of fresh nutmeg.

My wife insisted that I add this embellishment to my blog...so here it is! Enjoy!