One of my favorite things to do when planning for the Holidays is to peruse my local food markets for recipe inspiration and to hunt and gather some unique new delicacies that will truly be a surprising treat for my holiday guests. This is the one time of year that I feel is appropriate to splurge a bit and buy things that don’t grow local in Minnesota, so when I saw these with these darling, little, lilliputian apples at the Mississippi Market last week during one of my excursions, I fell in love! I could just imagine how pretty these little, bright, red, and gold apples would look upon a holiday salad.
These tiny crisp, sweet apples are one of the best tasting yet perhaps least known apple varieties called Crimson Gold. They grow in little clusters like grapes on the Cuyama Organic Apple Orchards in California. Even though these apples look like the sour crab apples, one bite and you won’t believe something this miniature can taste this magnificent. Snap! Now thats the magic this hostess is looking for during the Holidays!
When I serve this festive salad to family and friends, and especially grandchildren, I will make it an opportunity to spin a tasty tale at the table — a tale about the sweet, tiny elves growing tiny apples in their magical little orchard in the middle of the winter just for our Christmas salad. Seasonal salads can design memories and traditions. Begin a new tradition with your family by adding this simple magic to your holiday celebrations!
The Red Barn Family Farms makes a fabulous, New Zealand-style, raw milk, cheddar cheese (rBGH-free) called Edun. It is described as “buttery and smooth. Made with raw milk, raw cream, vegetable rennet and salt. A simple recipe to highlight the deliciousness of our quality milk produced by healthy cows.” www.redbarnfamilyfarms.com If the Red Barn Family Farm’s Edun is not available, the Organic Creamery in Wisconsin has a delightful, sharp cheddar that is aged at least 180 days. The Organic Creamery describes their sharp cheddar as having a “wonderfully full and complex flavor with a pleasant sharpness that is developed through careful and natural aging,” www.organiccreamerycheese.com The Milton Creamery crafts one of my very favorite cheddar cheeses called “the Prairie Breeze Cheddar Cheese” and I just happened to see a mountain of it displayed proudly at the West 7th street Mississippi Market. www.miltoncreamery.com
Happy Holidays from the Salad Girl Family
Photographs, Article, and Recipe by Pam Powell
