September 26

John Chapman's Birthday
 

John Chapman was born in 1774 in Leominster, Massachusetts and died nearly 94 years later in Fort Wayne, Indiana where he was more commonly known as Johnny Appleseed. He was a true eccentric who often traveled barefoot dressed in rags and often wore a cooking pot for a hat. Chapman gathered apple seeds from cider mills and planted orchards throughout the Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Illinois  Many of the orchards that he planted were negligible since apple trees grown directly from seeds produce very poor fruit. However, when he revisited some of the orchards that he originally planted, he taught the nearby settlers the art of grafting which did allow the trees to produce quality fruit. 

However, it was his proselytizing of the Church of the New Jerusalem, a  religion based on the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish mystic The Swedenborgians emphasize one God, the Trinity, and that the new Jerusalem is symbolic of Plato's ideal society. One of John Chapman' s most endearing qualities was his wit. He once compared Swedenborg's idea of hell to the city of Newark, a comparison that has not out­lived its usefulness.

 

Michael Turay in the title role of the musical
Johnny Appleseed

His generosity, wit, religious fervor, bizarre dress, and spiritual reverence for animals contributed to the legend of Johnny Appleseed which produced countless stories, plays, poems, songs, and several annual Johnny Appleseed festivals in the  US including on in Sheffield, Pennsylvania that features a lumberjack competition and an apple pie contest. There is also the fantasy video game Wild Arms 5,  the musical, Johnny Appleseed by Nashville composer Billy Edd Wheeler, and a Disney film. In the 1948 Walt Disney feature-length cartoon, Melody Time, an angel appears to Johnny Appleseed, singing an apple song, setting Johnny on a Johnny at the moment of his death, followed by his resurrection in heaven and the commitment to 'sow the clouds' with apple trees.

The apple has been a focal point of legend for thousands of years. The most popular legend was that the apple was the fruit of the tree of knowledge and was the forbidden fruit that Eve gave Adam. However, this legend was allegedly created by St. Jerome in the fourth century. The book of Genesis does not name or describe the fruit. Scholars speculate that the fruit was either the pomegranate or the apricot. Some Muslims believe that the forbidden fruit was a banana.

The legend of the apple as the forbidden fruit of Genesis has given the fruit a reputation as the fruit of love.   The sexual aspects of the apple's symbolism are usually disguised.  The presentation of an apple by Paris to Aphrodite marked the world's first beauty contest and initiated the Trojan War. The English whose Victorianism masked the sexual realities of everyday life, used to call a woman's breasts "apple dumpling soup" and pimps "apple mongers."

To celebrate John Chapman's birthday, here is a apple-based dinner menu for the apple of your eye.

Sour Apple Martini
 
Ingredients
 
2 oz citrus vodka
1/2 oz DeKuyper Sour Apple Pucker schnapps
1/2 oz Cointreau orange liqueur		 3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
1/2  slice of a Granny Smith apple
 

 
Instructions
 
  1. Assemble all ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake well with ice
  2. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass, garnish with a slice of apple, and serve.

Makes one martini

Apple Soup
 

 
Ingredients
 
1 TB butter  
1 large onion, chopped
1 quart (4 cups) chicken stock
2 large green apples, cored, peeled and chopped
3/4 tsp curry powder or to taste
 		 juice of 1/2 large lemon
3 TB butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup half and half cream

 
Instructions
 
  1. Melt 1 TB butter in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and sauté until soft but not brown
  2. Stir in stock, apples, curry powder and lemon juice and bring to boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for about 10 minutes.
  3. Melt remaining butter in another large saucepan over medium heat until foam subsides. Blend in flour and cook 1 to 2 minutes stirring constantly. Gradually stir in soup until well blended. When mixture reaches boiling point, remove from heat.
  4. Strain into first saucepan, pressing apple and onion with back of spoon. Stir in cream  Cook just until heated through. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Serves four
 

Waldorf Salad
The song "You're the Top" from the Cole Porter musical Anything Goes
 contains the line: "You're the top, you're a Waldorf salad".
 
Ingredients
 
3 Fuji or Pink Lady apples, not pealed, but cored,
3 TB apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup home made mayonnaise*
3/4 cup walnuts 		2 stalks celery sliced on the bias
pinch of salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste
Green leaf lettuce (enough for one leaf per serving)
 

 * See April 19
Instructions
 
  1. Chop the apples into medium bite-sized pieces. In a large mixing bowl, toss them with the cider vinegar.
  2. Fold in the mayonnaise
  3. Add the celery and walnuts. Season with salt and white pepper to taste and toss.
  4. To serve, place a lettuce leaf on each plate and spoon the salad on the top.

Serves 2
 

Roast Pheasant with Apples
 

Ingredients
 
1 large pheasant
6 medium Granny Smith apples, cored, pealed, and    sliced
8 TB butter 		1/2 cup Calvados
1/4 cup whipping cream
salt & freshly ground white pepper to taste
 

Instructions
 
  1. Preheat oven to 350º F.
  2. Brown pheasant on both sides in 4 TB butter in a large casserole pan over medium heat.
    Remove pheasant and add remaining butter. Cover bottom of casserole with apple slices and place pheasant on top, breast down. Place remaining apple slices around pheasant. .Add Calvados, cover and bake for 1 hour.
  3. Turn bird breast side up. season with salt & pepper. Cover and bake for 30 minutes.
  4. Remove pheasant am apples from casserole. .Add cream to juices. .Add salt & pepper to taste.

Apple and Pecan Cheesecake
 

Special Equipment
 
10" springform cake pan
 
Crust Ingredients
 
6 TB melted butter
1-1/4 cup vanilla wafer crumbs
1/2 cup chopped pecans
 		 1/4 cup brown sugar
1 TB lemon zest

 
Filling Ingredients
 		 Topping Ingredients
 
2 lbs cream cheese at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
5 egg yolks
1&1/2 TB vanilla
1 TB Calvados
 		 4 large Granny Smith apples
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp Calvados
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans

 
Instructions
 
  1. Preheat oven to 350º F.
  2. Mix crust ingredients thoroughly in a small bowl. Press down on bottom of cake pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.
  3. Increase oven to 450º F.
  4. Place filling ingredients in a medium bowl  Beat with an electric beater for 8 minutes or until smooth.
  5. Peal, core, add slice apples. Place in a bowl with all topping ingredients  except nuts and mix gently to coat apple slices. Place apple slices in concentric circles, covering surface of filling. Sprinkle with nuts.
  6. Make an aluminum foil collar that will extend 3" above rim of cakepan, Grease inner side of foil and tie to pan with string.
  7. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350º F.
  8. Bake for an additional 75 minutes. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature. Remove foil collar.
  9. Chill for at least 2 hours or overnight before serving.