How Do You Like Them Apples?

I don't post many recipes on my blog, primarily because I'm not the most innovative cook around. I'm a follow-the-recipe-precisely kind of gal, except when I'm out of a key ingredient, in which case I'll try to substitute something else, often disastrously. Nonetheless, I feel compelled to share two apple-related Thanksgiving recipes that I look forward to all year long!

Because my parents always had two apple trees in the backyard while I was growing up—and I now tend to one of my own—apples often figure in to our fall cooking schedule.

This first recipe is a scrumptious dip Elizabeth Dillow shared with me years ago. It's now a must-make on Thanksgiving, and often Christmas too. Here's a helpful tip: to keep apples from turning brown throughout the day, submerge them in Sprite or 7-Up right after cutting, drain, and place on your serving tray!

The second recipe, for Spinach Salad with Apples and Pomegranate Seeds,  is one I patched together from several recipes found on kraftfoods.com last year. This was one instance where a vast series of substitutions was delightful rather than disastrous. I've truly been thinking about this salad all year long. Yummy!

Here's a cute photo of my niece Breanna seeding the pomegranate last year, and trying not to ping red seeds all over the kitchen. (Slippery little suckers.)

About my recipes...
Whenever I deem a new recipe important enough to keep for all eternity, I write the recipe on the lovely recipe cards you see above—always including a short caption about where the recipe came from or why I love it—and slip it into my beloved C.R. Gibson recipe book.

I have several other printed cookbooks, with various extra recipes scribbled in the margins, but this is the book  that houses all my favorite, tried-and-true, never-want-to-forget dishes. It has a very scrapbooky feel about it, and I like that. And, I just discovered that there's a matching recipe box. Fun!

About this post's title...
Yes, that's a cliche, and yes it's a grammatical nightmare, and yes I feel just fine about using it. I've got a whole month of cliche fun planned for the future, but in the meantime, I'll share a bit of background about this one:

"How do you like them apples? Meaning: What do you think of that (usually in contrast to something else)? The term probably originated in a comparison of certain apples with others in a marketplace. By the 1930s, it was serving for almost any comparison. In Edward Albee's play, The American Dream (1961), Grandma says to Mrs. Barker: 'They wanted satisfaction; they wanted their money back.' Mrs. Barker responds, 'My, my, my.' Grandma says: 'How do you like them apples?'"

Fun, eh? The source is Dictionary of Cliches: Over 2,000 popular and amusing cliches—their meaning and origins by James Rogers.

Now to figure out where "How Now, Brown Cow" came from...

Comments

[Jori]

I am going to try both of those! Thanks for the warning about the "slippery little suckers" Happens all the time....

[elizabeth]

I have almost as many apples on my counter right now! It makes me happy that Mrs. Root's butterscotch dip lives on in UT : )

Tip: do the pomegranate de-seeding (de-ariling?) in a bowl of water... the rind stuff floats to the top and you can skim it off much more easily, and the arils don't shoot around the kitchen making it look like a crime scene.

[Barb]

I love the recipe book. What a great idea to tell the story behind the recipe (which friend or family member gave it to you)... that's what family keepsakes are about. Happy Thanksgiving, Angie! :)

[Abbie]

Angie, I don't think I've ever seen so many apples piled into a kitchen sink in my life! That picture is priceless!

Also, don't forget about my favorite use of "How do you like them apples"... Good Will Hunting! Love that movie.

Happy Thanksgiving!

[Rachel Marquette]

hehe. I just had to comment - I know Mrs. Root. She is my sister in law's mother. My boys call her Nonnie. And that apple dip is amazing!

[Jennifer Larson]

Thanks for the tip on the recipe album. My recipes are disintegrating, and I am starting to think of how to sustain them. And my favorite use of your title has to be from Good Will Hunting.

[Missy]

Yay for Nonnie's apple dip! Yummy stuff. Oh, Mrs. root is my sister in law's mother too...hee heee.

[Nancy]

Well, I had to chime in. So glad the apple dip is traveling. It is great stuff. Mrs. Root is my mom, and I can't wait to show her this post. I love that the dip has been named after her!

[Angie Lucas]

Wow! I'm so thrilled to see so many Mrs. Root relatives sharing the apple-dip love. Now I think I need to meet Mrs. Root myself!