Palmabella's Passions

I am proud to have two veterans and graduates of the United States Air Force Academy in the family. Brad graduated from USAFA in 1970, and Casey in 2000. In the above photo you can see the beautiful Chapel in the background.

Here are Brad's memento's from his 5 years in the Air Force:

I was able to visit the Air Force Academy for Casey's graduation in 2000. It is a gorgeous campus in Colorado Springs. According to tradition, Brad was honored to pin on Casey's bars at the ceremony when he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant.

Books I read in October:

Plain Truth by Jody Picoult
That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo
Testimony by Anita Shreve
The Pawn by Steven James
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

My favorite was Peace Like a River. It was a family drama, set in the 60's, where the teenage son becomes an outlaw by shooting two boys who are bothering the girls in town, including his little sister. He runs away from the law, and his loyal family takes off across country to look for him.

November Books:

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
Mudbound by Hillary Jordon
The Recipe Club by Andrea Israel and Nancy Garfinkel
The Tenth Justice by Brad Meltzer
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Last book club was at Barbara's. She made a great salad, and I brought the rest of dinner. I made a broccoli-cheddar quiche, and parmesan-caprese tart, and she had yummy Halloween cupcakes from Bristol Farms!

Fall colors are so beautiful! For me, seeing brilliant fall leaves are right up there next to poppy fields and miles of sunflowers. It is tough to do living in the California desert. I began my annual "fall colors hunt" in September when we were in Seattle! Here were the early photos I got there.

Three weeks ago, I had a little "fall fix" in Orange County when I found these:

I CRAVE seeing those fall colors! The weather has cooled off in the desert, so it FEELS like fall, and I am finally wearing jeans and sweaters (I know, it is still in the high 70s), cool in the mornings and evenings, but there are no fall leaves! All the traditional "spring flowers" are blooming, and it is beautiful to see lots of pansies, geraniums, snap dragons, petunias and impatiens, but where are the colorful autumn leaves??? I hit a jackpot of color on our recent visit to Oak Glen, in the San Bernadino mountains. I made Brad stop the car at least a dozen times for a leaf shot!

Here is my FAVORITE! Isn't nature's paintbox amazing? There's an idea! Maybe I shall paint some autumn leaves of my own!

Our day trip to Oak Glen was an apple adventure! We TASTED lots of different varieties of apples.

They sure made it easy to buy bags of apples!

I don't think I've ever SEEN so many apple pies!

Now there is good apple pie, and not-so-good apple pie. We brought this pie home, and had great hopes.

Look at all the air under that big dome top.

We cut and tasted a piece. The crust was tasteless, and the apples had SO much cinnamon, we couldn't even taste the apples. I love cinnamon, but this was NOT a good piece of pie! The whole thing went straight to the trash! At least we didn't waste any ice cream!

So there we were, all geared up for apple pie, and so disappointed. Brad started coring and peeling, and I quickly put together my FAVORITE cheddar pie crust for a rustic apple pie. After an hour of chilling the dough, we were ready to go.

Apple-Cheddar Rustic Pie
From: Better Homes and Gardens Our Best Holiday Menus 2007

2 2/3 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 c. sugar
3/4 t. salt
3/4 c. butter
4 oz. grated cheddar (one cup grated)
3/4 c. cold water
2 1/2 lbs. apples, cored and cut into slices (6 Granny Smith or 8-9 honeycrisp)
1/4 c. sugar
2 T. lemon juice
2 T. flour
1/2 t. cinnamon
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 T. suagr, or sanding sugar

Pastry:
1. In a large bowl, stir together 2 2/3 c. flour, 1/4 c. sugar, and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until pieces are pea-sized. (I do this with my mixer.) Stir in cheese. A tablespoon at a time, stir in ice water, moistening a section of the flour mixture with a fork. Push moistened pastry to side of bowl. Keep repeating until all the flour mixture is moistened. Form pastry into a ball, then flatten into a large disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refridgerate at least an hour or overnight. Let pastry sit at room temp a few minutes before rolling it.

2. Preheat oven to 350. On a slightly floured surface, roll pastry to about a 15-16 inch circle. Carefully transfer pastry to either a 10-11 " oven-proof skillet, or a 9-10" deep dish pie pan.

3. For filling, in a large bowl, toss apples with 1/4 c. sugar, lemon jiuce, 2 T. flour, and cinnamon, until combined.

4. Mound filling into crust, and bring up edges of pastry toward center, pleating dough as necessary to keep it flat against the filling. Brush top of pastry with a egg, and sprinkle with sanding sugar (or regular sugar). Cover filling that is showing with foil, and bake for 30 min. Remove foil, and bake 30-35 minutes more, until crust is golden.

5. Cool slightly, and serve warm or at room temp. If desired, serve with vanilla ice cream.

Now THIS was a good apple pie!

Last weekend, we visited Oak Glen, California. Just a 40 minute drive from home, is this cute town in the foothills where APPLE farmers abound. There are several little "villages" set up with apples of all kinds (16 varieties), shops, bakeries, "pick your own" apples, or buy them clean and shiny in bags of various sizes. You will also find lots of cider, pies, fall leaves and beautiful scenery. Who knew there were so many kinds of apples? It was a fun afternoon!

After some apple tasting, we chose a bag of honeycrisp apples and some delicious cider at Los Rios Farm.

They have a BBQ set up with delicious scents of BBQ tri-tip, chicken-apple sausage and pulled pork. It was time for lunch!

Besides the apples, there were lots of food items, gourds and pumpkins!

Now, what to do with all those apples? How about an apple-stuffed pork roast?

Apple-Stuffed Pork Roast
one boneless pork loin (2 1/2- 3 1/2 pounds)
2 T. olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
2 apples, peeled, cored and chopped
8-10 sage leaves, chopped
3 slices crisp bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 egg, beaten
2 T. melted butter
four slices raisin bread, cubed (dried or toasted in oven before cubing)
1/2 c. chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste
6 slices of raw bacon

Heat oil, and sautee apples, onions sage and crumbled bacon until apples and onions are soft.

Remove from heat. Add bread cubes, egg, butter, broth, salt and pepper. Combine and let cool completely.

Butterfly a 2 1/2-3 1/2 pork loin roast. This link is very helpful, if you have never butterflied a roast.

Lay butterflied roast on flat work surface. Cut three lengths of kitchen string about 18" long under the roast. Spread a rounded mound of stuffing across the width of the roast, and roll meat, jelly roll style, tying strings tight to hold stuffing in place. Use toothpicks to secure ends of meat. Move roast to a roasting pan with a wire rack, seam side down and fat side up. Wrap roast with 6 slices of raw bacon.

If you have extra stuffing, bake it for 45 minutes in a small baking dish along with the roast.

Heat oven to 375. Roast the pork in a preheated oven for about 90 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer registers 160 degrees F. Remove from the oven and let rest for 15 minutes before slicing. Garnish with fresh sage.

Tomorrow: Apple Pie!