One of my very favorite things about fall are the apples. I grew up in a little town in Indiana that had its own festival – The Apple Butter Festival – which I went to every year. There they had, among the strange “garden art” and other questionable kuntry stuff, apple butter.
For those of you who do not know, apple butter is basically processed apples with spices and sugar, and goes famously on toast or with peanut butter. The smell of apple butter can easily wrench me back to falling leaves and pumpkins on porches, even in the bright spring sun.
Fall in southern Indiana means apple bins bursting with golden delicious, honeycrisp, gala, macintosh, braeburn, granny smith and jonathan apples. Usually each orchard will have its own barn to fill with apples. Apple barns smell heavenly.
In those barns are the apple bins, of course, situated right across from jars of apple butter, honey combs, persimmons, popcorn still on the cob, peanut brittle, and caramel. I always, no matter how far away I have moved, go back to my favorite orchard every fall and buy an apple that has been dipped in caramel and rolled in peanuts.
One of my favorite recipes:
Take a tart apple. Pare a thin strip of peel around the circumference. Core out the top of the apple but do not core out completely. Leave a bit of apple to keep the goodness in.
Heat oven to 350. Pack the apple with a teaspoon of butter, a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg, and a tablespoon (or two) of brown sugar. Fill it to the top!
Place the apple in a shallow baking pan in the stove. Pour in water to a depth of 1/2 inch. Bake for one hour.
Remove apple gently, do not spill the sugary stuff. Take a couple of spoonfuls of your favorite granola and put it into the apple, so the sugary goodness is all soaked up. Whip some real cream and dollop a plentiful spoonful on the hot apple.
Serve it to a friend, or keep it to yourself 
Perfect for breakfast!
Anyone have any recipes?
I am specifically looking for one to make the caramel apples I spoke of earlier, but any will do
