An Apple a Day

We had some friends over for dinner on Friday and we thought why not have another themed party? So, due to September being 'back to school' month, and the offical time for Fall, we had an apple party with J's school friends - you know, give your teacher an apple for a present? Anyway, i thought it would be a fun way to try out some fun recipes.

We asked everyone to bring a few apples with them so we could try out some apples that we don't usually have, or really know the difference between. We sampled each apple and i loved how into it we got. It was like we were offical apple testers! With all these apples, We started off the night with them as appetizers. We accompanied that with hummos, flatbread, and some cheeses for the non-vegans (brie and Oka). On the apple front we had Fuji, Royal Gala, Red Delicious, Honey Crisp, Mutsu, Granny Smith, Cortland, and some others i already forget. My favourite: Honey Crisp for its muted texture, tart/sweetness and juiciness.

Can't have a dinner party without drinks, now can we? Of course, being the party host i am, we had alcoholic apple ciders and made appletinis with apple juice, green apple vodka, goldschlagger, and creme de cacoa. Yum yum.

For dinner, we had spinach salad with warmed apples and pecans to start. We even found apple cheese (again non-vegan for those that wanted it) - there sure are a lot of apple-infused foods out there! Next we had grilled tempeh strips with spiced apple mango chutney,roasted potatoes, with rapini and portobello mushrooms.

I thought i'd venture out of my usual vegan chocolate dessert and make creme brulee. I have never had the 'real' version (obvious reason being all that egg and cream) so i didn't really know what to expect. J made the 'real' version and it was a success supposedly. I made the vegan version with silken tofu. Of course, to make it fit with our theme i added apples coated with cinnamon on the bottom. The vegan version was not as mmmmm.....voila as i wanted, but it was nice. The carmelized sugar on top was the best part of course - fun to make - we got a torch and ramekins from our celebration. I can't wait to carmelize more sugar now!