Eating From the Ground Up

MENUMENU
  • About
  • Recipes
    • By Category

      • Bites
      • Breads and Crackers
      • breakfast
      • drinks
      • Home Dairy
      • Mains
      • On the Side
      • Pickles and Preservation
      • salads
      • Sauces, Dressings and Spreads
      • snacks
      • soups
      • Sweets
    • By Ingredient

      • apples
      • asparagus
      • Beans
      • Beef
      • beets
      • Berries
      • Broccoli and Broccoli Raab
      • brussels sprouts
      • cabbage
      • carrots
      • cauliflower
      • celeriac
      • Cheese
      • Chick Peas
      • Chicken
      • chocolate
      • corn
      • eggs
      • Fish
      • garlic
      • Grains
      • Herbs and Flowers
      • kale
      • leeks
      • lentils
      • pasta
      • pears
      • peppers
      • Pork
      • potatoes
      • Quince
      • radishes
      • rhubarb
      • stone fruit
      • summer squash
      • Tomatoes and Tomatillos
      • winter squash
      • yogurt
  • Coaching
  • Not Recipes
    • Family
    • Politics and Activism
    • The Writing Process
    • travels
    • Kids in the Kitchen
    • My Berkshires
    • 1st of the Month
    • The Garden
  • My Books

    • Signed copies from my local bookstore
      From Amazon
      From B&N


    • From Amazon
      From B&N
      From Powell's

    • Front cover The Homemade Pantry
      From Amazon
      From Barnes and Noble
      From Indie Bound

  • Yogurt
  • contact
  • Blog

vanilla cardamom baked apples

Sunday, October 13, 2013 by alana

DSC_0031

When Sadie was tiny, we took her to visit our friends in Cambridge for her first big weekend away. We were all less than a year out of college, but our friends (on the brink of marriage and children themselves) were good enough to embrace the seismic shift in our identities along with massive amount of parenting supplies we deposited in their living room to get us through the weekend. We had another friend from school who lived in the city, and he promised he’d drop by to say hello.

At least, he thought that’s what he would do. But what really happened was that he walked in the front door, took two steps forward, and froze at the sight of Joey and the tiny human slung over his shoulder.

“I’m sorry. This is too much for me.” And he ran away.

DSC_0018

That night, Joey and I walked around the city with Sadie sleeping against his chest in the front carrier.

“When we’re 35,” I said, “everyone else will start having kids, and then we’ll be the smug old folks who have already been around the block. People will stop feeling freaked out by the fact that we’ve had a child, and instead they’ll ask for diaper advice.”

I’m a few months from 35, but it seems I did predict the future after all. Just last week, I delivered two dinners to the families of two separate babies, each just six days old. They got warm flats of mac and cheese, and baked apples with maple yogurt. Those babies join others who arrived last month and are just starting to smile. The summer babies are just starting to laugh.  There is a baby to hold at every party, and I am always happy to open my arms and throw them over my shoulder, rocking, rocking. I am Auntie Alana, and just the sound of the name (“Na-na”, “La-ma”) from one little friend who’s already running around gives me the tiniest hint of what it might feel like if my own girls have kids. Sadie’s even started her first mother’s helper job.

DSC_0023

The other day, Rosie was doing her dance moves in the living room, and she hopped up on the couch and did that thing where she kicks her legs up in a headstand while the couch cushions support her legs. She was wearing a stripy shirt and blue leggings and somehow the color combination and her exact position on the couch sent me entirely into a polaroid that lives in one of our dusty top-shelf photo albums. In the photo, Rosie is upside down, looking through her own legs (can you see it?). She’s wearing a stripy green pair of those Hanna Anderssen wiggle pants, the only pants that actually fit over a cloth diaper. I just had gotten my first computer when Rosie was born, and I’d spend hours with Rosie at the boob, me obsessing and scouring ebay for those pants. Anyway, this kind of flashback doesn’t happen to me much, but with that firework in my peripheral vision, she was a year old again, rascally, not talking, cheeks twice as big as they are now. And I was so glad for the moment of being back there, because most of the time, when a friend hands me their tiny newborn and asks me how I got the girls to sleep, or whether cloth diapers or disposable diapers are better, I try to make something up so I can be good and helpful. But I have to admit that I have absolutely no idea. I don’t remember.

I do remember that every challenge and issue and new stage felt big and permanent. But where my predictions have failed me is that I haven’t, in fact, smugly been around the block. Mostly all I’ve learned is that children change faster than the weather. That no one’s joking when they say that time flies. Still, to this day, when friends, raw and open from the start of their new families, ask for advice, Joey and I offer the same words that came to us just before Sadie was born. It’s all we have.

No one can tell you how this is all done. Avoid the dogma, and do what’s right for you.

But in this wave of babies, with every meal I bring to a new family and every sweet- smelling, yawning baby I get to hold and rock to sleep while their exhausted mom takes a shower, that simple attempt at advice has shifted and changed. In my story, parenthood has become some sort of forest. At the entrance to those wild and tangled woods, there is a wooden sign. And the following message is written with nail polish, and band aids, and calligraphy pens.

Welcome to the world of the lost. There is no path, but there are endless ways to travel through it. Just keep your eyes locked on theirs, and somehow the way will become clear. At first, those eyes will be like a mirror, and you’ll see yourself reflected. But then, slowly, day after day, you’ll see less and less of yourself, and more of who they always were, and have grown to be. And as they can, and as they emerge, they’ll tell you where to go.

That’s all I have. That, and a flat of mac and cheese and a few bursting, spiced baked apples for your dinner.  But I promise the moment I figure the rest of it all out, I’ll let you know.

DSC_0037

 

Baked Apples with Cardamom and Vanilla

serves 4

Baked apples are forgiving in every way. Double or triple the recipe for a dinner party, or just make a single apple for yourself. Swap out the almonds for another nut, the currants for whatever you have in the pantry, or the liquid for wine, port, juice, or just water. Just make sure you serve it with something a little creamy. The one tool that makes this easy is an apple corer, which at first glance might seem like a useless tool in your drawer, but once you have it, you can make baked apples all the time, which is a good thing. (It makes quick work of your maple apple chips, too.)

1 vanilla bean
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons currants
1/4 cup chopped, toasted almonds
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

4 large apples, cored
1/2-2 cups apple cider (depending on the size of your vessel)
5 cardamom pods
squeeze of lemon
splash of maple syrup
2 tablespoons butter

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Use a small paring knife to open up the vanilla bean lengthwise. Then, use the tip of the knife to scrape the sticky inner seeds of the bean into a small bowl. (Save the vanilla bean pod for the next step.)

Add the brown sugar, currants, almonds, cardamom, cinnamon, and salt to the bowl and stir to combine.

2. Set the apples up in a baking dish or roasting pan with the holes facing up. Stuff the holes to overflowing with the fruit/nut mixture. Pour the apple cider into the pan so that it comes about an inch up the apples. Throw the vanilla bean pod into the liquid, along with the cardamom pods, the splash of lemon, the maple syrup, and the nob of butter. Bake the apples, uncovered, until they are soft and bursting, about an hour. Remove the cardamom pods and vanilla bean pod from the liquid. Serve with lots of the baking liquid, topped with maple yogurt, whipped cream, or vanilla ice cream.

 

 

 

Filed Under: apples, Family, Sweets Tagged With: bits of wisdom, Favorites, Raising good humans

« from the past, good for right now
your list »

Comments

  1. Ems says

    Sunday, October 13, 2013 at 4:37 pm

    Beautiful.

  2. Liz says

    Sunday, October 13, 2013 at 6:57 pm

    This looks absolutely scrumptious. I can relate to your story as well. I had my first child at the tender age of 19, so I have quite a few more years of parenting under my belt than the majority of my friends. ha! (I’m 31 now)

    Can I ask you: Where do you purchase your vanilla beans? They can be expensive at the store and I was wondering if you had a good…what’s the word…supplier? Thanks in advance!

    • alana says

      Tuesday, October 15, 2013 at 11:30 am

      Thank you, Liz!
      I usually buy vanilla beans from here: http://www.beanilla.com/madagascar-vanilla-beans, and when I just clicked over to get the link, I saw that they’re having a free shipping deal right now, too. Also, if you have a store with a bulk section, sometimes there’s a little jar of vanilla beans hiding in there, and they often end up being really inexpensive that way too.

  3. Meg says

    Sunday, October 13, 2013 at 7:17 pm

    So much love.

    • alana says

      Tuesday, October 15, 2013 at 11:30 am

      You remember that weekend, Meg? xo

  4. Shanna Mallon says

    Sunday, October 13, 2013 at 8:47 pm

    Sounds like pretty good (hopeful, encouraging, wise) advice to me.

  5. Anna says

    Sunday, October 13, 2013 at 11:25 pm

    My summer babe is sleeping right now and baked apples seem perfect for the weather that has just recently taken on a chill. I don’t know when I’ll make them, but I really appreciate your thoughts and advice. Maybe I missed it but I’m pretty sure no one tells you that most concrete baby/parenting information is conflicting and that you just have to trust your self. At the start of every parenting book and every time someone googles a question about their baby it should first say, Trust yourself. You’ll figure it out. Of course I’m still just a few months into this and trying to remember that and figure it out if I can.

  6. Tara says

    Monday, October 14, 2013 at 9:27 am

    6 weeks away from being ‘lost’ myself (Baby’s due around about Nov 26th), I loved this post! Thank you 🙂

  7. thelittleloaf says

    Monday, October 14, 2013 at 9:39 am

    You have such a beautiful way with words. My Mum used to make us baked apples when we were little, even though she can’t stand them herself! They bring back many fond childhood memories.

  8. Erin says

    Monday, October 14, 2013 at 12:58 pm

    I think that is the best kind of advice. And I always say the same is true for marriage–take all the advice you get with a grain of salt because only you know what works for you.

  9. Anna says

    Monday, October 14, 2013 at 1:24 pm

    You always know just what to write don’t you? I’m anxiously awaiting my first due this Wednesday(!) and I am already overwhelmed with the advice. I will try to remember to just follow my instincts and take the other advice with a grain of salt. How lovely to have someone reinforce this for you and not just tell you it’s their way or completely wrong…

  10. Beka says

    Monday, October 14, 2013 at 1:31 pm

    We were one of the first couples among our friends to have a baby too. I remember wondering every day if I was doing it right. Now people ask me if they’re doing it right. I offer whatever bits of my own experience I can recollect. But ultimately I tell them to trust their gut instincts. After all, intuition and ancestral tradition were all anyone had to go on for countless centuries before we had blogs and books and experts telling us how to parent.

  11. Susan says

    Monday, October 14, 2013 at 7:57 pm

    I would add to the advice of “trusting your instinct” to remember that you are NOT alone and that it does take a village to raise a child…and to remember that the village may not contain who you traditionally might think it would (your helpers in the woods may be people you’ve never met face-to-face, or may not be related to you, but they are there!)

  12. moll says

    Tuesday, October 15, 2013 at 1:42 am

    As if maple (!) cardamom (!!!) baked apples weren’t enough?

    The forest. Fantastic, Alana. Truly.

    xo,
    Molly

  13. Liz says

    Wednesday, October 16, 2013 at 10:17 pm

    I remember walking around New York with an infant Sadie! Can’t believe the time that’s passed. These apples look amazing.

  14. Julie says

    Friday, October 18, 2013 at 6:24 am

    This. This is what you do best…… ah the truth, the life, the verbal pictures you paint. (The photos are nice, too.)

  15. Carol says

    Wednesday, October 30, 2013 at 6:22 am

    love

  16. Guinnevere says

    Tuesday, November 12, 2013 at 11:27 pm

    What a lovely post. It inspired me to offer parents a 4 month visit instead of a newborn one, with a casserole and baked apples. A lone shower is still a luxury then 🙂

  17. Just A Fan says

    Sunday, November 24, 2013 at 2:07 am

    this is so lovely and reminds me of cozy winter days. i love it 🙂

  18. Margaret B. says

    Wednesday, February 19, 2014 at 1:35 am

    I was referred here by Mollie of Remedial Eating. Yes, I know baked apples are a bit out of season right now, but after 2 unsuccessful attempts at baked apples last autumn, I am still craving them (I know… how can one fail at something as simple as baked apples? somehow I managed.)

    Can’t wait to try again, and I love the “print this” function…
    Thanks!
    mb

    • alana says

      Wednesday, February 19, 2014 at 12:56 pm

      Welcome, Margaret! Any friend of Mollie’s is a friend of mine, for sure.


Welcome!

I’m Alana, and I write about food, family and the wonderful chaos that ensues when the two combine. If you’re new to the site, here are a few good places to start, or learn more about me on my about page.

Follow me on Instagram.

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
Become a Sponsor

One_Alana_Ad 2016

alanachernila

The Homemade Pantry, The Homemade Kitchen, Eating From The Ground Up 🍳

Instagram post 2337331591407595410_13442450 Sending off my taxes today with intention and prayer that they will be used to support programs for the most vulnerable, and that my little contribution will join with others to help move us towards the country I know we can be. #taxmagic ✨
Instagram post 2335726864949371764_13442450 Goodies en route to @north_plain_farm today for pickup! Word about town is that LOTS of moolah was raised for BRIDGE in this little #bakersagainstracism bake sale. Thanks to North Plain Farm and @raisinporpoise for the organizing, to everyone who bought and bid, and most of all to BRIDGE for the essential work they do. (Want to learn more about BRIDGE? Head to the link in my profile.)
Instagram post 2332756427273440195_13442450 So technically you’re not supposed to send food when trying to find an agent, but I did it it. 10 years ago, my granola helped seal that deal, and he insisted I send it to publishers when we were selling The Homemade Pantry (another general publishing no no) That Landed-a woman-with-no-platform-a-book deal Granola is up for grabs in this amazing bake sale, as well as goodies by some of my very favorite bakers (@madeinghent , @raisinporpoise , and @thedooryard to name a few). Oh and maybe my favorite item in there are the magical @susanspungen ginger chocolate cookies I mentioned a few weeks back, made by Sadie herself. All of this is to support the work of @multiculturalbridge , and the order form is up in my bio. Get to it! #bakersagainstracism
Instagram post 2330317921708403058_13442450 My friend @afgoldfarb has been part of a team of people working on this vital project. The link to learn more and help out is in my profile.
Instagram post 2330131706816229761_13442450 I’ll be baking up a storm for this! Local bakers- there’s still room for more! Let @north_plain_farm know that you want IN.
Instagram post 2324845496300301430_13442450 To those who ask here? In Great Barrington? YES. In Great Barrington.
Instagram post 2324091364266290851_13442450 I know there are so many resources out there right now, but I want to share one that’s been really helpful for me in the last several months. There are many seasons of this podcast, but I recommend Season 2 on Whiteness as well is Season 4 on Democracy. #sceneonradio
Instagram post 2322615811734696638_13442450 Black lives matter.
Instagram post 2319329508599466327_13442450 I did not bake these cookies, as I am no longer the cookie baker in this house. But this is the second time that  Sadie has made @susanspungen ‘s Triple-Ginger Chocolate Chunk Cookies (and also the second time I’ve talked about a recipe Sadie has made from the #openkitchencookbook), and I think these might actually be the best cookies I have ever had. I’m often looking for the perfect ginger cookie and this is it, and I’d also choose it over a chocolate chip cookie (or let’s be honest-any other kind of cookie) any day.
Instagram post 2316311882260313364_13442450 No matter how many rulers and pizza cutters and other magical tools I use, it seems that the straight line will always elude me.
Instagram post 2314127252740427104_13442450 Living it up. 💥
Instagram post 2312088043104000827_13442450 Every day my neighbor’s yard gets prettier.
Instagram post 2311325683330503572_13442450 @paulaperlis sent us @susanspungen ‘s new book and of course the first recipe Sadie picked is marked with the *project* heading. She’s been cooking all afternoon and the house smells like ✨✨✨ (With gorgeous images by @gentlandhyers ❤️)
Instagram post 2311141543964321092_13442450 When I took on a day job a few years ago, I found that the first thing to go was all the homemade stuff I’d been making and writing about over the years. I’m still going out to work most days, but I’m finding now with a full and captive house and more downtime in general that those things I love to make are back. For me, it’s granola, yogurt, bread. Hello, old friends!
Instagram post 2308503311808232748_13442450 All the things in the house pasta: roasted cauliflower, a few sad leaves of kale, one jar of fancy tuna saved for a special occasion (how about Wednesday?), Rosemary, homemade breadcrumbs from the freezer fried in butter, crispy sage leaves, pasta water, salt, so much pepper. Success!
Instagram post 2307412630968777107_13442450 @artbywoodgy made this beautiful thing for me for Mother’s Day. All the veggies are on Velcro so I can plan to my hearts delight.
Instagram post 2306345003953662730_13442450 Happy Mother’s Day to my brave and beautiful mom, who birthed two different humans in such different times in her life. With me she was so young, and she figured it all out just as she was learning how to be an adult. This picture was taken nineteen years later, when she was pregnant again and I was almost an adult myself. Thanks for keeping at it, Mom, and for always showing up with love. ❤️
Instagram post 2304888771283579843_13442450 What we do for cake.
Instagram post 2302665269449083186_13442450 It’s a magnolia year for sure.
Instagram post 2295808104927071821_13442450 A long time ago, Joey talked about his crush on this particular alien-like flower with a good friend of ours. Months later, little bulbs arrived in the mail. We put them in the ground last fall, and now they are everywhere. If that isn’t some kind of magic, I don’t know what is. ✨ (🙏🏻 to @wildflowers1 for the cool vase, too.)
Follow on Instagram
This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: API requests are being delayed. New posts will not be retrieved.

There may be an issue with the Instagram access token that you are using. Your server might also be unable to connect to Instagram at this time.

Error: API requests are being delayed for this account. New posts will not be retrieved.

There may be an issue with the Instagram access token that you are using. Your server might also be unable to connect to Instagram at this time.

My books!

Signed copies from my local bookstore/Amazon/Barnes & Noble

Front cover The Homemade Kitchen

Amazon /B&N /Powell's


Front cover The Homemade PantryAmazon
B&N
Powell's


Tense moments

failed cornbreadPan shattered in the oven? Jelly didn’t set? Trying to find a solution for a problem in the kitchen? Let’s get through the tense moments together, starting here.

Classes and workshops

My latest book!

Learn more about my latest book, Eating from the Ground Up. It's perfect for all you vegetable lovers out there.

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

COPYRIGHT © 2025 EATING FROM THE GROUND UP.