It seems like every time I go to the grocery store, I see a little bin of cute Lady Apples. Every time I see them, I think of this absolutely fabulous meal I had in New York at the beginning of the year. Lady Apples baked with some sort of Italian Sausage that there’s no chance of me finding down here. The restaurant is Gottino, in NY’s West Village: http://www.ilovegottino.com/
Here’s a picture of those lovely apples that I think of every time I’m in the Teeter:
So, a few days ago I came across a recipe that called for a few simple ingredients: chicken thighs, bacon, and you guessed it, lady apples. I thought to myself, '”GREAT! Finally, I can pick up some of those cute little apples that have been taunting me every time I’m grocery shopping!”.
So, I drop Erin off at school, and head to the best Teeter in town, excited to finally get my hands on those cute little orbs. I push my cart with purpose through the produce section to the spot I know they occupy. Only, they’re not there. I push my cart not quite so purposefully up and down the produce section. I stop and ask the friendly produce man, “Where are my lady apples??”. He informs me that they are out, and they might, MIGHT have some more later in the week.
Well, I wasn’t about to abandon my dinner plans for the evening - mostly because I just couldn’t get the idea of chicken, bacon, and apples out of my head. So I went with plan B: I used some of the beautiful (albeit full size) Pink Lady Apples I had from the Farmer’s Fresh Market. I have the say, the results were still quite tasty, and rather pretty too!
The recipe is from epicurious.com and very straightforward. Cook your bacon until it just starts to brown, but is still pliable. Wrap around your lady apples, should you be lucky enough to have them. I wrapped my bacon around cored Pink Lady apple halves. Sear off your seasoned chicken thighs (bone in, skin on). Arrange in your baking dish in put in the oven. Using the same pan you seared your breasts in (ouch!) add apple cider and apple cider vinegar to deglaze and then a dollop of butter. Pour over your chicken and apples and continue to roast until the chicken is done.
I got a link to your blog from Kirk Wilson, Farmer's Fresh Mkt Manager. I just today [2.28] found out about it via a publication in Lake Lure. I've been looking for more local sources than A'ville which is an hour's drive ... great farmer's mkts but still 2 hours of driving round trip. He wrote: "We have a program in Charlotte where ladies volunteer to host a drop of boxes of the farm fresh produce in their neighborhoods. Right now they’re getting pork, beef, apples, carrots, goat cheese, sweet potatoes, honey, potatoes and eggs, etc." and suggested I might want to do that for Lake Lure and sent me your blog as a Charlotte hostess.
ReplyDeleteThe one great local food source I have found is Warren Wilson College; they sell beef and pork twice a year. WW supplies their pork to San Giuseppe Sausage Co out of Elon, NC. Italian sausage is one of the types they make / sell. There are just 2 in our household, we are not big meat eaters, so a little goes a long way but we have been very happy with the WW meat.
Link is: http://www.warren-wilson.edu/~farm/
On the left is a place to "join the mailing list" to receive notification about upcoming meat sales.
Will try the rice meatballs and other items. The Gottino link made my mouth water! Thanks for the inspiration.