My New Toy

I am just a fool for these new fangled ideas. On the other hand, I do like waffles and so I had a look at this one. There is an organisation in Switzerland called Betty Bossi, and this ficticious super cook is reponsible for all new ideas in the kitchen. She writes cook books, develops new cooking appliances and sends a magazine once a month. Of course I belong to the club, like all good Swiss housewives. Ask a Swiss housewife, who is Betty Bossi, and she will know. Part of the modern education for Swiss housewives. I am a Betty Bossi fan, must admit. Her cook books are full of good ideas. 

Being a member of the club, I am on line with my orders (Betty Bossi) to see what is new. Anyhow I decided to order this wonder work (with some other stuff as well) and on the day it arrived I even used it in the afternoon. I was convinced. you even get a recipe book with it. I was surprised that it was not metal, but some sort of silicon construction, bendable, almost like rubber, but Betty Bossi assured me it withheld temperatures of 220°C in the oven.

First of all the recipe. There were about 8 different recipes, some sweet, some savoury, some wholewheat etc. etc. I went for the basic sweet one. 

230 grammes flour
1/2 desert spoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
80 grammes sugar
1 packet vanilla sugar
3 eggs
3 dl cream

Just throw it all in a mixing bowl (also from Betty Bossi, my special mixing bowl) and switch on the electric mixer. You get a sort of thick sauce and just pour it into the mould. Stick the mould in the lowest part of the oven on a baking tray and bake for 15 minutes. You even get a special instrument (something like a plastic skalpel) to remove it from the form.




This was the result. I was convinced I was on the right path. Now what to with this new creation? As already once informed on one of my blogs, I have an apple glut from my tree. So I peeled, cored and sliced four apples, tossed them into a micro wave proof bowl and threw some sugar over them. After ten minutes in the micro wave they were ready. They were nicely cooled down by the time the waffles were ready to be eaten.

So for desert we had waffles with apples and topped with whipped cream (from the aerosol - if you think I spend time whipping cream, then forget it). You get 8 waffles at once. Just stick the ones you don't eat in a airtight tin. Today I put two in the toaster to warm them up a bit (Betty Bossi said reheat in the oven, but sometimes my ideas are better). With butter and jam perfect, Mr. Swiss found. I had a second helping with apples and so did son No. 1. Here is the finished result.

Apples anyone?

I like apples, but like all things in small doses. The problem is that I have had my apple tree for the last ten years. At the beginning there were no apples, but in the third year I did a happy dance when I got ten apples from the tree. At last my own fruit orchard. Unfortunately my family got smaller over the years and the apple tree grew and produced more apples each year. Over the last few years I have exhausted every apple cake/pudding/pie recipe you can imagine. I am getting to the end of the list and the apples keep coming, starting in September through to beginning November, and there are a lot of apples (roughly 200 per year).

I used to give some to my neighbour. She had two small boys and they were glad for the apples. Unfortunately our neighbour built their own house and moved away a month ago. They now have a large garden, so will probably be planting their own apple trees.

I remember when my apple tree first saw me and I saw him or her. It was in the local supermarket, apple tree seedling for only 29 Swiss Francs. Mr. Swiss was a bit worried, imaging that it would grow to a height competing with Jack and the Beanstalk. Of course I prune it back every year in Spring to make room for more apples every year. It is a wonderful sight when flowering. If we have a good year, with not so much rain, the apples develop and develop and develop. This year we thought it would reach about 100 apples, but that mark  has already been overtaken and the apple cooking/eating marathon as now begun again. The type of apple is known as Fiorina, which probably means big, juicy, fleshy and fruitful in reproduction. 

Today I attacked a few apples and made sort of apple fritters. I did not fritter them, to much smelly oil in the kitchen. No, I have a special cooking form that looks like this.




The idea is you peel the apples, remove the core and cut them in rings. You put the rings in each copartment. You then make a thick liquid with one  eggyolk, three spoons of melted butter, and 70 grammes of plain flour with a pinch of baking powder. Mix it and then whip the egg white until stiff and fold into the mixture. Pour the mixture over the apple rings and bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 200° C. OK, simple enough. When they are baked you lift the baked fritter apple rings out of the form and turn them in a mixture of cinammon and sugar. This is the result.




As can be seen not every apple is identical to the other. Not all so perfect, but I was not competing for a winning place in master chef, just wanted to dispose of the apple glut. Anyhow it was a success. No, I did not make a vanilla sauce to go with them. I had to clean my kitchen after this cooking effort. It was whipped cream from the canister, but it was a unanimous decision in the family that I can make them again - am thinking it over. I spent five minutes cleaning the stone tiles on the kitchen floor afterwards as a mixture of sugar and cinammon tends to get sticky when falling on the floor. 

Of course I could demolish the tree and replace it with a non producing fruit tree, but the bees woud be homeless next year and I would have less photo subjects in the garden. My youngest son was visiting this week and I asked if he would like some apples to take home. "How many" he asked with a suspicious look. I told him a plastic bag full but he felt he would not have the time to eat them all, being a working man and travelling around in the world now and again. I gave up. We have now deposited a glass with vineager and washing liquid on the table in the kitchen to keep the fruit flies at a minimum (we also have grapes, but not ours, from the supermarket).

I think I have written a blog about this stupid fruit producing machine every year. Looking at my photographic records, it is a very photogenic tree.

Apples

It was really an apple year this year. I have had years that have been quite good, but this year beat them all. The three bowls of apples above are only part of the harvest. We have already eaten two bowls full and I have given some to neighbours and friends (relations? - not really as I don't have any on this side of the channel and the Swiss bunch have their own apple trees).

I had a look at the tree this evening to see what was left, and found that there were still some apples to come.

What do you do with so many apples. I do have a dehydrating machine, but it takes time to peel and slice the apples and being a working woman I don't really want to spend my week ends with the apple harvest. I could make apple pies and apple tarts (a Swiss speciality), but not every day. Apple wine or cider is also a possibility, but for that I would need a distillary and probably council permission living in Switzerland (you need a permission for everything here - except for cats). I think we will just have to eat them. I was very surprised that there was very little livestock in the apples. Very few worms had found their home in the fruit and there were also practically no apples laying on the ground. It was just perfect weather this year for apples.

So while I was taking a walk around my estate this evening, I noticed that my reeds had flowered this year for the first time properly. Up to now over the last 5-6 years I was lucky to find a stray blossom somewhere hidden in the stalks, but this year there is one display of wheaty ears.

Then I took a walk into the field bordering on our estate. There are a few odd bushes which had been planted by the corporation that built the estate where we live. One of them has blue berries in Autumn, but not the edible kind, but they do look quite attractive.

So that was a quick update on the tabbynera estate in Autumn. Our cats enjoy this time of year especially. It was quite an adventure taking the photos making sure that a dead mouse wasn't lying in the way. We have had quite a dry and sunny Autumn although the temperatures are now quite low at night. And now I must go and eat an apple or two or three or maybe four.

Apples

It's slowly going towards Autumn, the Summer came early this year and brought plenty of rain, so the garden started growing fast and furious. This had advantages and disadvantages. The snails quite enjoyed theirselves this year. It is not one of the top meals that my cats enjoy - they actually avoid snails. It think it might be because they stick to their paws when they touch them. Nera, my big black fat cat, just squashes them when she lays on them. They dry up in her fur and that was one of the reasons she has a fur shave now and again under sedation at the vets.

Anyhow the weather seemed to do my apple tree good this year. Actually I have a soft spot for my apple tree. When we moved in ten years ago, we just had a lawn with a hedge round it. I then got to work on digging up the lawn, but the first plant I bought was my Apple Tree. Our local supermarket chain, called Migros in Switzerland, had a special offer going for apple trees. At thirty Swiss francs it was quite reasonable so I took it home. My other half was not so keen on the idea, having the vision of a five foot tall apple tree blocking the light from all the windows. I reassured him that it would grow taller than me (actually I am 1 m 75 cm, and the label said two meters, but 25 cms doesn't really make a big difference). I had to be patient - although the tree did flower from the first year I got my first two apples three years later. Over the last ten years it has had good years and not so good years. This year is quite good and looks like an over 100 apple year. The problem with having one apple tree is that it cannot make apples itself and you need a second one. I decided not to try to persuade my other half a second tree was necessary and just hoped that a neighbour had one that would flower at the same time.

I was lucky, just round the corner there is a small garden with an apple tree. I was doubly lucky as the bees and flying insects actually found their way to my garden, and the result was my first harves. I also have a smaller apple tree growing next to this one, which I have grown from a pip. That will probably be bearing the first apple in five years.

As it is now going towards end September, I decided that harvest time was getting near. I fought my way through blackberry/raspberry bushes that seem to have started taking over, and found that yes, there were apples looking ready to be eaten. Hubby found a few on the ground, some the victim of wild insect life, but a few looking quite healthy. I decided to try one and found it quite good. So it is now apple time again.