The Apple With a Pig In It's Mouth

A few weeks ago I had a girls day out with two of my kindred spirits, Nia and Elsa. I've never done the stereotypical girls outing, so it was definitely and adventure for me from start to finish. There was food and nails and gossip and shopping. I can definitely see why it's so popular. I'm also relieved that I have two great friends that are completely down with being thrifty because I got way more for my money at Savers than I would have if we had gone anywhere else. One of my lucky finds was a complete set of double sided knitting needles and a knitting loom, so I decided to take up knitting this month.

Now, I've crocheted and quilted with the best of them and I even have some talent with dressmaking, but I've never knitted before. So today, thinking how hard could it be, I sat down with a glass of wine, the needles and some yarn and tried to knit myself a cute scarf to add to the collection. (I'm a huge scarf and tacky keychain collector.) What on Earth was I thinking! I never even got to touch the wine. My fingers got tied together more than once, (there were knots everywhere now that I think about it)and I still can't tell the difference between a purl stitch and a knit stitch. I'm happy to say I can now successfully cast-on to the needle since I had to start over so many times. Needless to say, I got so frustrated and put the work aside to try some other time.

Having been through all that frustration, I wanted to make something easy for dinner I could enjoy a good glass of wine with. Being as it's fall, apples are cheaper than ever. I'd run across a recipe for Lebanese Stuffed Apples in Aliza Green's Starting with Ingredients during one of my cookbook reading sprees a few weeks back. I didn't particularly care for the recipe, which I found too sweet, but I did fall in love with the concept of stuffing fruits with savory ingredients. So here's my take on some savory stuffed apples that go great with a good Pinot Grigio.

*This recipe uses the smaller schoolbag Granny Smith apples. If your apples a larger, you'll want to double your stuffing ingredients.

**I spaced the fork punctures every 1/2 inch or so. It really helps the diner to tell where they can slice the apple. Also, it's super important to keep an eye on the apples and check on them every 2 minutes. I went through three apples exploding my first time because I didn't pay attention to them. You don't know horror until you've scooped apple guts out of a microwave. They harden and stick to the microwave faster than a kids tongue on a frozen lamppost.