Fallen Souffle

Now that the days are getting shorter and everyone is getting busier preparing for the holidays, it is time to pull out the slow cooker. I usually associate this appliance with cooler weather, yet it has been in the 70’s here in NC. I am dedicating this week of entries and recipes to the faithful crockpot.

I am starting with a condiment that reminds me of family trips to Pennsylvania Dutch country. We used to drive almost on a yearly basis to Reading, PA, home of the mecca of outlet shopping and no taxes on clothing. It is every shopper’s dreamland…DisneyWorld for the bargain shopping. We would make the trek for jeans, dance leotards and underwear. After marathon shopping trips we would stop by a restaurant called “Good and Plenty.” It is a family style restaurant with traditional Amish food. You would sit with other families and help yourself to anything on the table. I always remember the sweet, thick apple butter on the warm biscuits. There is nothing better, and would make the 6 hours drive worthwhile.

I had planned to make baked apples for the Thursday Night dinner party, but I opted for the Vanilla Pumpkin Pie, which we all know how that one turned out. So I was left with a bag of Gala apples. I decided to chop them up, throw them in the crock pot with some sugar and cinnamon and see what happened. I had about 10 small apples, 2 cups of sugar and maybe 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. I put it on high for an hour, then reduced it to low for about 12 hours or so. I tried to stir it every once and a while to help break it up. I did this overnight, and I wish I had done it during the day, because a bit of it burned and stuck to the edge. I think I have a super-powered cooker now because I have never had this problem in my older, much cheaper cooker.

Anywho… I was going to process this is pint jars but wasn’t sure if I liked the flavor. I did throw this in the food processor with a bit of vanilla to smooth it out. Once it cooled a bit I slathered it on some fresh bread…and it was just swell. A great start to an “autumn” morning.

So stay tuned for 5 new, slow cooker meals. I have never tried any of these recipes…so it will be an adventure for us all!

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 6th, 2005 at 5:58 pm and is filed under Bread. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.