Apple Picking, and a Birthday Celebration

My birthday was last Saturday, and my whole fam-damily came to visit for the weekend--it was fabulous! It was one of those gorgeous, sunny, perfect October weekends, and we spent the bulk of Saturday picking apples at Granville Orchards. (My companion and I had picked there two years ago, and we loved it!) One perk is that you can check out Denison University's beautiful campus on the way out of town. We left with bags full of Fujis, Jonathans, Winesaps, Cortlands, Golden Delicious and Romes. Now, with the exception of the Golden Delicious, I can't tell them apart! Fortunately my companion seems to have sorted most of them out, so now we can get to work making a variety of apple concoctions. I already made a quick-and-easy open-face apple pie, which I drizzled with some melted caramels for dessert.


Every year, I seem to need a refresher on which apples are good for cooking and which are good for eating. Here's a pretty comprehensive apple guide.