Apple Tea!

Fall is my absolute favorite season of all.  And we haven't experienced fall and the changing of the seasons in years... so I'm extremely excited for fall this year. 

Fall time means apple season, and apple season means apple festivals.  I remember going to the Bayfield Apple Festival in Bayfield, WI when I was younger.  We'd get up early, the mornings were cool, we'd drive for a few hours on country roads surrounded by colorful trees, the drive alone was an amazing experience.  Then we'd arrive in Bayfield and there would be apples everywhere.  They would sell apple bratwurst, apple dumplings, apple pie, apple cobbler, apple sauce, apple butter, apple everything!  I loved going home with loads of apples (and cranberries too!).

Since I loved that festival so much, I found one that we could go to in Cincinnati and it happened to be yesterday.  Nick and I arrived with empty bellies and apples on our mind.  Unfortunately, this festival did not meet our high expectations.  We got there and the only food was deep fried nasty fair food.  They had a few apple dumplings, but they didn't look good at all.  We ended up staying only an hour, but we did get a small load of apples and an apple candle, which kept us happy.  After the festival, we went out for Sushi.  That definitely made things better. 

Today, I woke up raring to make some apple delights with all of the apples we got.  I had planned on making apple pie french toast casserole, but the bread at the grocery store is nasty, so I'll have to make my own and get back to you.  I did make this wonderful Turkish Apple Tea though and it is so yummy!  I like apple cider, but it's so full of sugar and I wanted something more mild.  This tea is supposed to boost your metabolism and help you lose weight.  Not that that was the selling point for me, I think it was the 4 ingredients, though I didn't have whole cloves... oops. Instead of whole cloves, I used about a tablespoon of ground cloves.  I do NOT recommend this.  It's too "clovey" and turned the tea brown.  Next time I'll just skip the cloves and use the cinnamon stick.  Anyway, here is the recipe! Enjoy!

Turkish Apple Tea

Ingredients:

2 Apples (I used McIntosh)

1 medium sized orange

1 cinnamon stick

2 whole cloves

4-5 cups water

Directions:

Cut the apples and orange in 4's, leaving the seeds and skins/peal on.  Place all ingredients into a large sauce pot and bring to a boil.  Turn down to simmer and let simmer until the fruit is tender.  Strain through a fine mesh strainer, pushing the juices out.  Serve hot.  You may add a tsp of honey if you like your tea sweet.