Friday Five: Applesauce and other fine fall treats!

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Deb, over at RevGals offers this Friday Five, after canning applesauce and apple butter:
1. What’s your best homemade treat? Is it worth all the effort? (It doesn’t have to be something canned. ) I make a lot of food from scratch. I tend to be seasonal in what I make - potato salad, cole slaw, a mixed veggie sautee of zucchini, tomato, kale, onion and garlic, refrigerator pickles, and salsa have been favorites this summer. I have also made several amazing zucchini bundt cakes and layer cakes with dark chocolate chunks. I have a good recipe for a dark chocolate layer cake with zucchini that is a family favorite. Heading into fall I like to make oatmeal cookies with dried cranberries (or cherries) and white chocolate. 
2. At our house, applesauce and football are the harbingers of fall. What are they at your house? In the fall we cease grilling and begin to make roasts and pot-roasts, chili, and stews. I like to play around with chili and make it with different kinds of beans, seasonings, and meat (or no meat). Spicy white bean and chicken is a favorite or black bean with pork roast. 
3. Someone gave me an “automatic” apple peeler from one of those home cooking product shows. (It doesn’t work all that great.) What’s one kitchen contraption or tool you’d gladly trade me for it? I can't think of anything I'd trade for an apple peeler - although it would be really great if someone would invent a good, but reasonably priced apple peeler and corer and cherry pitter. 
4. Whose the best chef in your home? Why? Well, that would have to me because I do all of the cooking. My husband grills and assists me. 
5. Cider, apple juice, or hard cider? Discuss. None of them, all too harsh for my stomach, too acidic. My son does like a hard cider now and then but if I drink alcohol it's just a glass of wine. 
BONUS: Recipes! You know we love ‘em! I adapt this recipe for my dark chocolate zucchini cake

Comments

Deb said…
Ooooh!!! I'm going to try that chocolate zucchini cake. I might even be able to sneak the zucchini past my kids that way. ;)

I am also a crockpot kinda gal in the fall... just haven't gotten mine out yet because it's been too warm.

Thanks for playing! :)
9/26/2014 10:00 AM
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