Fall is Apple Season

"Let's All Cook" cooking classes are off to great start! Thanks to all the kids and parents for a really successful and "delicious" class today. Our recipes today were based on the new crop of apples now appearing in our New England orchards - Apple galettes ( a free form apple pie made with a cream cheese pie crust) and Homemade Pop Tarts (made with the same pie dough). If you've never made a cream cheese pie crust, please give this a try, especially if you've had problems rolling pie dough. The cream cheese makes the dough really malleable and forgiving and is quite fail safe. Always try to refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes, this gives the butter a chance to harden up and will make the crust more flaky.

If you're cooking with your kids, it's always a good idea to make individual portion recipes if you can. Kids really don't to wait for over one hour for their food to cook, so many of my recipes are for individual servings, such as pies or mini cheesecakes, which take less than one hour to prep and bake.

This recipe for Apple Galettes is great for kids, once the dough is made, each kid gets to roll out their own piece, fill it with apples, form the pie and then glaze it with egg white and sugar. It's their very own pie from start to finish and they are usually more likely to eat it!

Looking for great family day out? Try pick-your-own apple picking in one of our many orchards in Massachusetts. I've only lived here for 6 years and so this activity is still a novelty for my family and me. I have visited several in the Acton area, namely Carlson orchards and Westward orchards in Harvard, and Berlin orchards in Bolton, which even has a hayride and pony rides. For a more comprehensive list of orchards, see pickyourown.org and don't forget to visit the local pumpkin patches and corn mazes later in the month.

My mom Shirley at Carlson orchard.