Like so many of the stories shared in Jenny Rosenstrach’s Dinner: A Love Story (the cookbook) and in her Bon Appetit column, this funny, insightful post resonated so well. I’ve been reading Jenny’s latest, How to Celebrate Everything, a book about the importance of rituals—about celebrating not just big holidays (though those are included, too), but day-to-day events, too—the birthdays, a lunch with dad, the homework hour, a sleepover breakfast. I loved this passage from the introduction: On Sunday, I came to the recipe for grilled cheddar, apple and mustard sandwiches, then whisked the kids in the car—the window for a favorite fall ritual, I realized, had nearly closed. We headed to Riverview Orchards, a fairyland of apples, cider, farm animals, clown fish, candy, and bees, that also happens to make some of the best apple cider donuts around. After saying hello to the chickens, pigs, and sheep, we made our way to the orchard. We passed a group of children celebrating a birthday on an idyllic knoll, a pyramid of cider donuts towering on a nearby picnic table, the Mohawk River in view snaking through banks of orange-, red-, and yellow-leaved maples. Wagon in tow, bags in hand, I was feeling blissful—virtuous!—and we had yet to pick a single apple. As we walked on, however, we noticed we had the orchard nearly all to ourselves. Ben waved down the tractor pulling the hayride to ask if we should head to a particular spot, and then we received the news: There were virtually no apples left. The man pointed us to a promising row, our best shot to not leave empty-handed. We found, I am certain, the 6 remaining apples still hanging from the limbs not half-eaten by animals. Alas. We returned home with a bushel of (purchased) apples, a gallon of cider, and a dozen hot-off-the-fryer donuts, the best treat in the entire world. As I heated the cider, I assembled un-grilled apple, cheddar, and yellow mustard sandwiches for the children, and griddled apple, cheddar, and grainy mustard sandwiches for Ben and me. Dinner took all of about ten minutes to throw together and disappeared about as quickly—something, at last, to celebrate. PS: DALS Slow-cooker Beans with Tomato and Pancetta.
Recipe for this Grilled Apple, Cheddar, and Mustard Sandwich is below.
Some snaps from our orchard adventure:
Warning: Upon seeing the cover of How to Celebrate Everything…
any nearby children might decide to sneak a peak … and then proceed to make some requests. You won’t be sorry they did. The un-grilled apple, cheddar, and yellow mustard sandwiches for the children:
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