By Tanya Manus

The apple trees in our backyard are giving us the most abundant crop I can ever remember, and we’ve been busy finding ways to use them all.

We’ve got an apple pie in the fridge, enough homemade apple pie filling in the freezer to last us through at least Thanksgiving, and next week’s project is apple butter. Then, the cool, windy weather inspired me to bake, so I pulled out a pumpkin apple muffin recipe I’d been wanting to try.

The recipe makes moist, slightly spicy muffins studded with apple chunks. Although this recipe calls for a streusel topping, our family agreed that next time, we’ll skip it. These muffins don’t need any embellishment, except maybe a good cup of tea.

Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffins

2-1/2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 cups peeled, finely chopped apples

Streusel Topping (recipe follows)

In large bowl, combine first five ingredients; set aside. In medium bowl, combine eggs, pumpkin and oil. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients; stir just until moistened. Stir in apples. Spoon batter into greased or paper-lined muffin cups, filling 3/4 full. Sprinking Streusel Topping over batter. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Makes 18-20 muffins.

Streusel Topping:

In small bowl, combine 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon. Cut in 4 teaspoons butter until mixture is crumbly.

By Tanya Manus

One of the great pleasures of summer is picking berries and eating them, sun-warmed, straight from the vine.

When I was little, a visit to my grandparents’ house in Bremerton, Wash., was never complete without picking blackberries and raspberries with my grandmother. Their 1/4-mile-long driveway was lined with berry bushes, and after we picked them, my grandmother washed them and seasoned them lightly with sugar. We’d eat them by the bowlful for breakfast. I’d love another one of those mornings.

My passion for blackberries is shared by the entire city of Bremerton which, every summer, hosts a Blackberry Festival. I had the pleasure of attending it a few years ago and left with mini cookbook chock full of ideas for enjoying blackberries. Some of the recipes from the Blackberry Festival are perfect for us in the Midwest because they make use of frozen berries.

One of my favorite uses for blackberries, because they are scarce here, is to use them as garnish and show them off. A few fresh berries from the grocery store - and maybe a pesticide-free pansy or two from the garden - nicely dress up a lemon cake. I’ve also used individual berries as simple, colorful decorations on coconut cupcakes.

Or douse some fresh berries and fruit in wine and make yourself a nice sangria (recipe follows).

Getting a berry craving yet? Try these, from the Blackberry Festival’s “A Berry Nice Cookbook.”

For frozen berries:

Blackberry Cobbler

4 to 6 cups frozen blackberries

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

1/3 cup cornstarch

Bring to a boil in a saucepan, stirring constantly. Pour into a 10- by 12-inch baking pan. Drop topping by spoonsful onto berry mixture.

Topping:

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup oil

1 cup buttermilk

Mix dry ingredients together. Add liquid. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes.

For fresh berries:

Black Sangria

Cherries, blackberries and seedless black grapes

1 strip of peel from a whole lemon

1/2 cup strongly brewed black tea

1 bottle dry red wine

club soda (chilled to taste)

Place fruits and lemon peel in a 2-1/2-quart pitcher. Add the tea and enough wine to cover. Chill remaining wine. Before serving, pour remaining wine in the pitcher. Stir and add ice and club soda to taste.

By Tanya Manus

It’s rhubarb season, and several of my co-workers have been talking about their best rhubarb recipes, the ones that are tried-and-true favorites every summer. Thanks to my friend Irma and her namesake aunt, I’ve got a good old-fashioned dessert to add to the list.
Rhubarb Dumplings have been a treasured treat in Irma’s family for 49 years. The recipe was passed down from aunt Irma Davidson to my friend, Irma Koan, and her mother, Clo Trout, who love to make this each summer when fresh rhubarb is in the garden.
“As soon as the rhubarb gets tall enough, we pull some,” Irma said. “We also make strawberry rhubarb jam and rhubarb upside-down cake.”
Rhubarb Dumplings are a treat to make on a lazy summer day when you’ve got plenty of time. This dessert starts with lots of chopped rhubarb, and with pie crust made from Clo’s recipe. The pie crust dough is rolled out and cut into squares. The squares are filled with rhubarb chunks, topped with a sugar syrup and baked.

Irma and her family enjoy making the Rhubarb Dumplings. “It takes time, but it’s fun. We like to sing … and cook at the same time,” Irma said.
The end result is a dessert of flaky crust and tender rhubarb that “tastes like apple pie, but better,” Irma said.
I got the pleasure of sampling Irma’s family’s Rhubarb Dumplings just a couple of weeks ago, warm from the oven, served with vanilla ice cream. They’re very rich and hearty, and one recipe makes a plentiful batch. Irma sent me home with leftovers, and I enjoyed them the next day as a decadent breakfast pastry, too.

Rhubarb Dumplings
Roll out pie crust dough (recipe follows) flat and thin in a big sheet. Cut into squares about 3 inches by 5 inches, not too thick but not too thin.
In a bowl, mix 1 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon and 2 tbsp. flour. Stir well with a fork.
Cut rhubarb into 1/2-inch chunks. You will need 6 to 7 cups of rhubarb chunks. Put a small handful of rhubarb chunks, 1 pat of butter and 2 tbsp. of the flour mixture on each square of dough and pinch dough shut. Put each one in a buttered cake pan, pinched dough side down.
Make a thin syrup: In saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar and 2 cups water. Heat on low and stir. Carefully pour syrup on dumplings in pan.
Bake the syrup-topped dumplings at 350 degrees until light brown, about 35 minutes.

Clo’s Pie Crust
3 cups flour
1 level cup Crisco
Use your fingers to combine until mixture feels like cornmeal. In a separate bowl, beat one egg, 1 tsp. vinegar, 1 tsp. salt, and 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. cold water. Add egg mixture to flour mixture; stir with fork. Mix with fork and knead three or four times.

By Tanya Manus

Who doesn’t love the semi-homemade craze?

A few store-bought ingredients, some creativity, and you end up with food that looks and tastes homemade, but cuts down on the time you spend cooking.

Cake mixes are great starters for semi-homemade treats. And just because the box says you’ve bought a cake mix, you don’t have to use it for cake.

Recently, when I was getting ready to entertain a group of friends, I was trying to find something different to serve. Usually, at our weekly gatherings, we take turns bringing dessert. I was rifling through my cupboards when I came across a box of Nana’s Apple Cake Mix from Tastefully Simple. I started with cake mix but ended up with a cobbler that left my friends raving. Rich and sweet, it was terrific paired with vanilla ice cream.

Cherry Cobbler

21 oz. can cherry pie filling (or any flavor pie filling you like)

1 box Nana’s Apple Cake Mix

1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter

Spread pie filling into greased 8- by 8-inch baking dish. Cut cake mix and butter together until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over pie filling. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes. Serves 9.

Nana’s Cake Mix in particular is what gave the cherry cobbler its extra-good taste, but if you don’t have that in your pantry, try this recipe from Cooks.com.

Quick Cobbler

1 can of your favorite pie filling

1 stick butter

1 small box (enough for 1 layer) white, yellow or spice cake mix (such as Jiffy cake mix)

Pour pie filling into 1-quart casserole dish. Sprinkle cake mix over pie filling. Cut cold butter into pats and arrange over top. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 1 hour. Serve plain, with ice cream or whipped cream

P.S. We’d love to hear from you! What are some of your favorite recipes?

By Tanya Manus

It’s baby shower season - today I went to a shower to celebrate the upcoming birth of a co-worker’s baby, then arrived at home to find an e-mail announcing the arrival of a friend’s niece.

All these springtime parties and celebrations call for festive, mom-and-baby-friendly menus. For today’s shower, I took a basket of fresh, cut-up fruit accompanied by Creamy Coconut Dip. Lightly coconutty, this whipped concoction just nicely complemented an array of strawberries, bananas and pineapple.

This recipe is easy, but makes a lot! You’ll have plenty for your next party and some tasty snacking the next day, too.

Creamy Coconut Dip

1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese or neufchatel cheese, softened

15 oz. cream of coconut (you’ll find it in liquor department)

1 (8 oz.) tub Cool Whip, thawed

Beat cream cheese and and cream of coconut in large bowl with wire whisk until well blended. Add whipped topping; gently stir until well blended. Cover. Refrigerate for several hours or until chilled. If desired, garnish with toasted flaked coconut before serving.

Serve with fresh, cut-up fruit or graham crackers. Makes 48 (2 tbsp.) servings.

By Crystal Hohenthaner
Journal staff

On Saturday nights my father and I usually attempt to make dinner for my mother. I secretly think it is our guilty attempt to make up for the decades of food service she has provided for us. Whatever the reason the result is usually a culinary experiment.

This past Saturday we experimented with the grill. Dad put a new twist on his chicken kabobs with baby bell peppers and I tried my hand at grilling stone fruit. In  my opinion, the experiments were not a success.

First of all the baby bell peppers were an interesting twist. They were a bit more flavorful than regular bell peppers. But the thing about grilling something is that often it can make the flavor more intense. So the baby bells were already more intense and then we intesified the intense on the grill. This made the red ones incredibly sweet — which was interesting, but didn’t go with the chicken — and the yellow ones were actually bitter.

In the future maybe we will marinate the peppers or sautee them slightly before grilling them. But, honestly, I won’t mind if we skip the baby bells altogether from now on.

Okay, grilling the stone fruit was really a whim. What is stone fruit you ask? Well, according to what I’ve heard and seen on the Food Network stone fruit is fruit with a pit — like peaches and plums. My stone-fruit-grilling-whim occured because my mom had just bought plums and dad had the grill on. I had also seen Bobby Flay do it so I thought I’d give it a try.

So I cut the fruit in half, removed the pit, brushed it with olive oil and sat it on the grill for a few minutes. Easy, right? And the result — me no likey. Yeah, my brain really couldn’t handle the idea of a hot, smokey plum. Also, grilling the fruit made it mushier than it was to begin with and my plum had started off quite ripe.

I do think I’ll try grilling stone fruit again, but next time I’ll get some nectarines and maybe apricots in on the action. I also think I will start with some fruit that is a bit underripe. My mom suggested we leave it on the grill longer too — so that the sugars in the fruit maight have a chance to caramelize a bit.

So how about you all? Has anyone had any bad cooking or grilling experiments lately? Or maybe you have an experiment that went right. I’d love to hear all about it.