AUTUMN IS FOR APPLES, BOOKS AND RAMBLES

©CamilleAubrayLLC

At book events for my novels COOKING FOR PICASSO and THE GODMOTHERS people always ask me, "Do you cook all those great meals that you put in those stories?" The answer is, of course! Food and books have always gone together for me, and every season brings its own delights.

Just when the fabulous fruits of summer are gone, along come fall's glorious apples! They arrived at my local farmers' market, beaming with the rosy cheeks of someone who's just gone for a brisk walk in the dappled autumn sunshine.

The folks at the farmers' market told me that these apples come from the private orchards of fashion icon Diane von Furstenberg. What I love about them--apart from their "real apple" taste--is that each one is unique, with its own little markings, reminding me of Joni Mitchell’s 'seventies song "Big Yellow Taxi" extolling the virtues of apples unmolested by chemicals.

New York, the setting of my novel THE GODMOTHERS, is Big Apple country. For centuries you could buy them almost anywhere from street vendors, eventually even candied ones.

As a little girl, I had a great adventure when my father took me to Manhattan to show me off at his office (I was enthralled by the pink sidewalks of Park Avenue) and then he and I went to lunch at a swanky restaurant. The maitre d' knew Dad and ushered us to a special red-leather banquette shaped in a semicircle around the table.

I don't remember the main course, but I vividly remember my father telling me, "For dessert, we are having apple pie à la mode." I watched wide-eyed as my fancy dessert was brought to me--which to my delight turned out to simply be a great slice of apple pie with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream.

On Saturdays my parents took me on a day trip to a cider mill in Armonk, where fresh apple cider was sold with donuts and served at outside picnic tables in the crisp new autumnal air. The taste of hot cider and powdered sugar on my lips will always be October to me.

Whenever I cook with apples, I have many Proustian moments. My mother made wonderful baked apples and apple pies. So when I wrote COOKING FOR PICASSO I described my own Quick and Easy Apple Tarte Tatin; see the full recipe on my Recipes Page:

http://www.camilleaubray.com/recipes-1/2018/10/21/camille-aubrays-quick-apple-tarte-tatin.

Apples aren't just for dessert. For a savory main course, try my Chicken, Apple and Onion Recipe: sauté some flattened chicken breasts in foaming sweet butter till browned, then add a bit more sweet butter and chunks of apple and thinly sliced onion until they get caramelized, finishing with fresh pepper and a splash of white wine or chicken stock to briefly simmer until the chokcen is cooked.

Of course, you don't even have to cook apples; try Camille's Apple Salad by slicing them in thin half-moons into a lettuce or spinach salad, dressed with fresh pepper, olive oil, lemon juice or some nice sherry vinegar. Add raisins, walnuts and chunks of cheddar cheese if you have them!

Or, just curl up in a chair by the window with an apple and a book! Think of Jo March in "Little Women", seated on an old sofa in her attic and writing away, with a bowl of apples nearby to munch on for inspiration. Alcott's father taught her to revere apples, for he was a bit of a Johnny Appleseed himself.

In literature and folklore, apples were always prized, hence the expressions, "Apple polishing" as a gift for a teacher, or "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" . . . And, of course, the poor misunderstood mother of us all, Eve in Paradise unable to resist eating an apple off the tree. Well, for heaven's sake, the question for me was never why Eve ate the apple, but who wouldn't eat one? How could anyone invent an apple tree and then tell his children not to eat its fruit? Something must have been lost in translation there.

So, "How do you like them apples?" My final word: don't forget to go for a nice walk in the autumn, rain or shine! Apple trees may look crabby and a bit spooky, as in the movie "The Wizard of Oz", but they are actually very agreeable company, as are all trees at this time of year. So eat, read, and walk your way through autumn's pleasures!

Camille Aubray’s novels THE GODMOTHERS and COOKING FOR PICASSO are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Booksamillion and all fine independent bookstores.