Red Cabbage & Apple Slaw with Toasted Walnuts

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Cabbage and Apple Slaw with Walnuts

There are situations in life that just call for slaw.  I’m thinking any meal that involves bratwurst, is centered around fried items, or involves copious amounts of cheese.

My sister invited me over for cheese fondue this past weekend and I was put on salad duty.  It’s a strange fate to be dealt; normally when given dinner party salad responsibilities, I’d want to show off and make something flashy with gobs of blue cheese or rounds of melty goat cheese.  But when cheese is already the star of the evening, you’ve got to regroup.  You’ve got to eliminate any thoughts of dairy.  You’ve got to go light, fresh, crisp, acidic.  You’ve got to slaw!

Seeing how we’re smack dab in the heart of fall, I opted for a red cabbage slaw with honeycrisp apples and toasted walnuts.  It’s a refreshing counterpoint to rich dishes.  It’s simple, it’s pretty, and I think it’d be a hit at any fall dinner.

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Apple Cake with Caramel Sauce

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French Apple Cake with Caramel Sauce

My mom makes a great apple cake.  It’s baked in a tube pan, loaded with cinnamon, and drizzled with a brown sugar glaze.  Anytime I go over for dinner in the fall, it’s the dessert I expect/demand.  She’s made it all my life and it tastes like home.

But it’s her cake and I’m grown; it’s time I find my own apple cake.  An apple cake that tastes like my home.

So I’m on the prowl for apple cake recipes.  I’m looking for unfussy, rustic cakes, that can be pulled together in a moment’s notice.  I’m looking for the kind of cake you can quickly mix up when you get a “is it alright if I stop by in an hour?” call.  The kind of cake you can have in the oven 10 minutes after that call, its aroma filling your house with everything good about fall as you race around, shoving unmentionables under the bed and attempting to eliminate the dog hair tumbleweeds from every corner.  

My first contender is a (slight) adaptation of a French apple cake that I found on David Lebovitz’s website but is actually from one of Dorie Greenspan’s cookbooks.  It’s a dead simple apple cake that is made with ingredients you will most likely already have on hand.  I chose to serve it with caramel sauce this time around, but I think it would be just as nice plain with your morning coffee or an afternoon cup of tea.

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