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September 2020 Trail Bytes: Pumpkin Spice Apples, Baked & Dehydrated September 30, 2020 |
| Hello, It’s that time of year. You’ve arrived at the outlet mall to purchase a new pair of hiking boots. The associates at the store await you with the latest footwear and wool socks that will carry you up the hills into the fall colors. Walking towards the store, you imagine you might spring for a pair of Italian leather boots with Vibram rubber soles this year. They’re going to be expensive, but they will smell so much better than the old running shoes you’re wearing, the one’s that splashed through all those puddles in the spring, and melted a bit by the fire. But wait, there’s another scent in the air. You first notice it as you round the corner at Starbucks. Something cinnamony wafting from the lattes. Then you pass the Yankee Candle store. The corridor fills with a menagerie of ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Finally, you reach Williams Sonoma, the kahuna marketer of all things pumpkin spice – essential oils, hand soaps, lotions, bread mixes, cookies, hot chocolate, coffee, and more. Get your Air Wick pumpkin spice air fresheners on aisle four.
If you were born before there were malls and indoor football stadiums, you may have noticed a man standing near you at the game, pouring hot-spiced apple cider from a thermos. That was my dad. Rumor has it, there may have been a shot of rum in the mix, to ward off the cold. Before pumpkin spices – cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves – became the dominant scent of fall merchandise, old-timers knew the rightful place for them was in pumpkin pie and anything made with apples.
Which brings us back to the present with a new recipe… Dehydrated Pumpkin Spice ApplesThe recipe is included on a new web page that covers all the ways we dehydrate apples: fresh sliced, fresh grated, precooked on the stove, blended into applesauce leather, and now – baked in the oven with pumpkin spices.
Find the recipe on the new page: Dehydrating Apples.
You’re going to love these pumpkin spice apples, rehydrated with hot water, out on the trail during the cooler months. Or maybe you will enjoy them at home with a scoop of ice cream. We sure did.
Dominique and I wish you good times and memorable meals hiking into the fall. We closed out the summer with a week of hiking in the south of Switzerland. As is our custom, we carried rehydrated hot lunches in our thermos food jar. I had dried and vacuum sealed the meals back in March.
Lac des Dix, a glacier fed lake behind the world's tallest dam.
Dominique ahead of me, hiking up through the forest on Le Fou.
Lunch spot just below the top of Le Fou.
The kind of place that makes you want to sing.
See you next month. Gute Gesundheit,
Chef Glenn & Dominique P.S. To contact me, please reply to this email or use this contact form. 
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