About 10 years ago, we put an addition on our house. This scrawny, 3-foot-tall apple sapling was in the way, so the contractors dug it up and relegated it to the trash heap.  We rescued it and lovingly replanted it in a sunny spot in front of the house. The next year it was a little taller, and a couple of years later, it actually bore fruit (about six little apples). Fast forward to this year, and we are knee-deep in organic apples from the 9-foot tall tree we've named Frankie. I like to think she's giving back because she's so happy to have been saved.

I have 6 bushels packed away to store for the winter; I've made 10 pints of applesauce and enough filling for 5 apple pies; have given away apples to friends and the local soup kitchen; and I still have 3 or 4 bushels to do what with? Apple-ginger chutney? More pies? Apple clafoutis...definitely yes. And maybe even some apple butter.

This is so easy to make and freeze.

Apples
Water to cover
Honey, optional ( if your apples are very sweet, you may not need additional sweetener)

1. Core apples, but do not peel (you'll get a lovely pink sauce from red apples). Cut into chunks.
2. Put apples in large pot and add water to just cover the fruit.
3. Bring to a boil and simmer until apples are soft.
4. Put apples through a food mill and discard the peels.
5. Taste applesauce and add a little honey if you think it needs sweetening.
6. Pour into wide-mouthed freezer jars to fill-line and freeze. Enjoy with a roast chicken or turkey this winter.

O.K., the filling is easy, but more about that in a minute. I have been making the delicious Double Crust Apple Pie from Lisa Yockelson's book, Country Pies, since 1988, when the book was published. No, I take that back: I have been making the filling from this recipe since 1988 and then popping it between two ready-made, store-bought frozen pie crusts. They were good enough and, despite my many years in the kitchen, I was completely intimidated by pie crusts....especially since pie crusts made with lard had the reputation of being the best, and given my somewhat ambivalent relationship with pork (see Breakfast, Part 2, below)...Anyway, true confessions: Before I switched to Paleo, I don't remember ever making a pie crust. But now, if I want pie, I have to.

The pie crust recipe I like the best is the one with a lattice crust from Gather: The Art of Paleo Entertaining, by Haley Mason and Bill Staley. I've made a couple of changes, though, substituting palm sugar for maple sugar and lard (yes, lard) for palm shortening. So, just so you should know from the get-go, this pie crust is a pain in the butt to make...and one of the most delicious pie crusts ever, Paleo or no. Probably because I used lard that was room temperature, I had to use a ton of arrowroot, a lot of which ended up on my kitchen counters and floor, and dogs do not clean up spilled arrowroot off the floor the way they clean up say, spilled turkey gravy or ice cream. The dough was not very stiff, so making a lattice top crust was out of the question. The strips I cut looked like a kindergartner had snipped them with plastic scissors. So, I abandoned the lattice and used a cookie cutter to cut out dough flowers for the top, instead. They don't exactly look like flowers, but I think the pie looks kind of rustic. The important thing, though, is that it tastes fabulous. So, come Thanksgiving, I'll roll up my sleeves, do some yoga breathing, and tackle this pie again.

Now, about that easy filling: one of the things I did with our apple bounty was to make enough filling for six pies and then freeze the filling in aluminum pie tins, and then put the filled tins in freezer bags. When it was time to bake the pie, I just popped the frozen filling into the partially-baked crust, no need to defrost it. This is a handy hint from Janet Chadwick's book, The Beginner's Guide to Preserving Food at Home. Of course, you can also make the filling fresh.

Filling (adapted from Country Pies)

1 TBS plus 1 1/2 tsp arrowroot powder
2/3 cup palm (coconut) sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
4 cups peeled, sliced apples (about 5 large apples), tossed in 1 TBS fresh lemon juice

1. Combine arrowroot, palm sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl. Add apples and toss (filling may be frozen at this point if you are not going to use it right away).

Crust (adapted from Gather: The Art of Paleo Entertaining)

3 cups blanched almond flour
1 1/4 cup arrowroot, plus more for dusting (lots more, trust me)
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup palm sugar
1 TBS vanilla extract
1/2 cup lard (I use Fatworks Pure Lard, ordered online. If you don't want to use lard, you can use the same amount of palm shortening. The recipe from Gather calls for melting the shortening, but I would use the lard at room temperature or cold)
2 eggs, whisked
1 egg white for wash on top of the pie

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Combine almond flour, arrowroot, salt, baking soda and palm sugar in a bowl.
3. Add vanilla and lard and mix in.
4. Add whisked eggs and combine.
5. Make a ball out of the dough and add arrowroot as needed to make it "rollable".
6. Lay out parchment paper and dust with arrowroot. Place dough on paper, dust with more arrowroot and cover with another piece of parchment paper. Roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thick.
7. Remove top piece of parchment paper. Place the pie pan upside down on the rolled-out dough and cut around the rim of the pan, leaving half an inch of extra dough. Remove the excess dough and use for topping.
8. Carefully turn over the pan with the dough--it will sink into the pan. If you need to make repairs, you can use some of the excess dough. Crimp the edge of the crust.
9. Prick the dough several times with a fork, and bake crust for 15 minutes.
10. While it is baking, roll out the remaining dough, using the same method as in Step 6, above. Cut shapes out with cookie cutter.
11. Remove crust from oven and fill with fresh or frozen pie filling.
12. Carefully place cut out dough on top of the filling, with pieces overlapping each other (don't worry if they break, you can always roll and cut them out again)
13. Brush top of pie with egg white, put back in the oven, and bake 15-20 minutes until crust is golden brown. Cool on wire rack.

                  Whew! It took me most of the afternoon, including washing the floor and counters. But so, so good. My husband and I ate 1/3 of the pie the first night, and finished it off the next two nights. We did not even share it with the dogs...we were so greedy!

So, anyway, in order to keep from getting tired of this meal, I follow a few simple rules...hmmm, I seem to recognize a pattern here: Simple...Easy...:
   1. Make it beautiful: We eat with our eyes as well as our mouths. Herbs and edible flowers can turn
everyday salads into delicious works of art.
   2. Make it big...in fact, make it humongous. You can always finish it as a snack later in the day (although that's never been an issue for me...I eat every last mouthful at lunch).
   3. Vary the ingredients--the more veggies the better, and change up the protein and garnishes.
   4. Whenever possible, grow your own salad and go for the unusual. That means you need to plan ahead. When you are drooling over the seed catalogues next winter ( and judging from the temperature in Maine this morning, that's going to be sooner than we think),opt for the exotic like tatsoi, mizzuna, arugula, mesclun, mustard greens, as well as romaine, kale, and some of the more unusual lettuces. And don't forget the herbs...I especially like mint in salads.

Choose an assortment from each category, below:

Greens: Kale, romaine, lettuce, mesclun, arugula, mizzuna, tatsoi, etc., washed, dried and torn into pieces

Other vegetables: Carrots, cucumber, fennel, radishes, sugar snap peas, haricots verts, leftover roasted vegetables like beets and cauliflower, and avocado ( yes, I know it's a fruit)

Herbs: Mint, dill, parsley, savory, etc.

Add-ins: Sliced apples, raisins, raw sunflower seeds, raw pumpkin seeds, raw nuts, dried cranberries (only without oil, and sweetened with fruit juice), and edible flowers such as nasturtiums and marigold petals

Protein, choose one: Canned wild-caught sardines in water, drained; small can tuna or salmon in water, drained; hard-boiled eggs, leftover chicken, meat or fish

1. Toss the greens in a salad bowl
2. Add your choice of other ingredients from the list, above
3. Toss with "The Only Salad Dressing You'll Ever Need ( and the easiest, too)

Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 TBS olive oil ( I like Trader Joe's Sicilian Olive Oil)
Pinch of coarse sea salt

1. Shake ingredients together in a jar and pour over salad and toss ( or, if you don't feel like getting a jar dirty, just squeeze the lemon juice onto the salad, drizzle the olive oil over it, add a pinch of salt, and toss...see, I told you it was easy).

One of the easiest dinners ever, and also one of my husband's favorites. The only cooking you have to do is hard-boil the eggs, cook potatoes in a little salted water, and ditto the string beans.

You will notice that there are both potatoes and tomatoes in the accompanying photo. While tomatoes are technically o.k. on Paleo, if you are experiencing inflammation, joint pain, etc., best to steer clear of all nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant and peppers). The Paleo jury is out on potatoes ( but sweet potatoes are definitely a Paleo staple), but, again, if you are avoiding nightshades, best to skip them, too. I skip them both, but serve them because my husband could live on potatoes and tomatoes. But not to worry, there are enough
ingredients in this salad so that you will never miss them.

In addition, you can add sliced radishes, avocado slices, canned artichoke hearts (drained), hearts of palm, pitted black olives.

1. Place greens on platter
2. Arrange other ingredients on top of greens
3. Serve with "The Only Salad Dressing You'll Ever Need", see recipe above.

Surprisingly, zucchini did not run rampant in my garden this summer. Not so the pattypan squash: Every day, there would be at least 2 to 3 bright yellow frisbee-sized squash waiting for me. You can make this soup, an adaptation of Molly O'Neill's recipe from the NY Times Cooking website, with any summer squash.

2 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 medium ( or one giant) zucchini or pattypan squash, diced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric
Pinch cayenne
1 tsp sea salt
Ground pepper to taste
4 cups low sodium chicken broth (I use Imagine brand)
1 can unsweetened coconut milk (I use Native Forest Classic, not low-fat)
2 tsp chopped mint

1. Heat oil in large pan. Add onions and cook for 5 minutes.
2. Add zucchini and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Stir in the salt and spices, then stir in the broth and coconut milk. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until squash is soft, about 25 minutes.
4. Use immersion blender to purée soup
5. Serve with chopped mint to garnish.