Comfort Foods

#3 and #4: Nagano no Ringo to Ichijiku

I was lucky enough to get these beautiful apples from a friend. She picked them in Nagano!


The apples were huge! Perfect for an apple-loving girl--especially when they tasted so delicious!

I was also given some figs that very same week from someone else!

As with chestnuts, until recently I had mostly only heard about figs from Christmas songs (though I had tried Fig Newtons--does that count?). It's really too bad I missed out on them all those years! Figs are wonderful fruit.

After gently rinsing our little ichijiku, we decided to try them first as they were:

The flavor was lovely! It kind of reminded us of the texture and taste of plums.

Next, I threw together my own adaptation of a few recipes I saw online for figs. First, I cut each fig into quarters, leaving the quarters attached at the bottom. Then, I added a small tab of butter to the centers, drizzled them with honey and added a few almonds before toasting them in our oven. After warming, I served them with a bit of Greek yogurt. Divine!

(Yes, that's butter oozing out.)

Might not compare to the great dishes you created for Thanksgiving, but we sure found it a yummy treat! Have you tried making any new recipes lately?