An Apple-tastic Dinner

We seem to have found ourselves reaching to complete the apple challenge. Not sure why. Anyway, here is the result. In Alex's family, they used to often have salads with chunks of sharp cheddar cheese and apple pieces in them. We made these salads with red leaf lettuce, craisins, tomatoes, chunks of Vermont white cheddar that was on sale at Giant Eagle, the red apple on the right in the picture above, and a Morningstar Farms product called Chik'n Strips. For dressing, we used a balsamic vinaigrette on one and a shiitake vinaigrette on the other. The salads were awesome, except that we had intended to put almonds on them—Lisa found out that you can toast almonds in the microwave, so put them in there and forgot about them until after dinner.


For dessert, we had the idea to just get some puff pastry and make a sort of apple tart. We thawed the pastry and spread a thin layer of butter on it, then we sprinkled a bit of brown sugar. Next, we laid down the sliced apple (the green one in the picture above), and sprinkled more brown sugar and a bit of cinnamon. Finally, we put a couple pads of butter on top and folded the edges of the pastry around the filling, using an egg wash on the exposed bits. We served it topped with pecan pieces and a side of ice cream. It was, well, yum!