October 17, 2020

WEEKLY MENU 10.18.20

We’ve got a classic fall meal and a complete surprise on the Weekly Menu 10.18.20 ~ keep reading for deets!

Apples embody fall to me. Sure, you can eat this perfect snack year round, but they’re so abundant in the fall you can’t help but plan your eating around them! Here are some fun facts:

Apple trees take 4-5 years to produce their first fruit. A standard size apple tree starts bearing fruit 8-10 years after it is planted. A dwarf tree starts bearing fruit in 3-5 years.
It takes about 36 apples to create one gallon of apple cider.
There are more than 2,500 varieties of apples grown in the United States, and they come in all shades of red, green and yellow.
Bobbing for apples? 25% of an apples volume is air, which is why they float.
Johnny Appleseed (real name John Chapman) was yes, a real person, and yes, he planted apple trees all over parts of the United States, and he wasn’t poor.
Apples are members of the rose family.
The average person eats 65 apples a year.
Apple Holler

Sixty-Five a year?

Okay. Sixty-five apples a year seems a little high, even if you include apple pie. And bobbing for apples has always been pretty gross, but now-a-days it seems life threatening. I would not recommend.

Menu time~

The Weekly Menu 10.18.20 includes apples in the main course. Apples and pork go together – just ask Peter Brady. We’re caramelizing onions then introducing the apples stove-top, so the apples don’t get mushy. The roast will be seasoned simply with salt and pepper before roasting.

The appetizer on Sunday will be an easy mix of cream cheese, shredded sharp cheddar, nuts and green onions. They’re selling the same type of mix at the grocery store, but they’re charging an arm and a leg for it, so we’re making our own. I’ll prep that early in the day so it can sit in the fridge and the flavors will marry. We’re serving it on crostini – which are basically little toasts.

That’s Sunday night eats!

Bert offered to be a guest chef this week, but won’t tell me what he plans on making. Hence our Mystery Meal on Tuesday night. I usually include Mexican (hello Taco Tuesday!) but all bets are off this week. Anything goes – as long as it’s not on the menu for the rest of the week. I’ll post a picture of whatever he makes. I usually do the cooking and Bert does the grilling (to perfection), but he is a fine cook. I’m looking forward to a night off!

Because the grill has been (mostly) covered for winter, we’re having Chopped Burgers on Wednesday. The pictures on the post aren’t the best (I’m not sure why capturing ground beef is so difficult) but this is one of our favorite ways to eat ground beef. It’s ridiculously easy and fast from start to finish. The beef caramelizes and tastes like BEEF! Plus, the whole not forming them (dump and go, Baby) works for any night.

WEEKLY MENU 10.18.20

The Cowboy Cookies are from Baker by Nature. I found the best Butter Chicken at The Kitchn. The Zuppa Toscana is in my cookbook The Well Seasoned Mom… Begins, but I’ll be doing a post on it soon. It’s a super easy sausage and potato soup. How bad could that be?

What were we eating last year at this time? Glad you asked. Click on the link for full menus.