Apple and Pear Recipes

We lived in Walla Walla, Washington for two years, about 15 years ago. It is in a valley, surrounded by rolling hills and the Blue Mountains, and yes, they do look blue at certain times of the day or year. When we lived there, most of the the rolling hills were wheat fields. It was really very beautiful. They are also well known for their Walla Walla Sweet Onions. We lived just on the outskirts of town and as May/June drew closer, the air was filled with the wonderful smell of onions. Actually, I used to say it smelled like really good sour cream and onion potato chips!

We loved the onions, but they also had the best apples that we had very eaten in our lives! Very shortly after we moved there, we came across an apple orchard that belonged to an elderly man. He was very interesting to talk to and we learned a lot about the area and apples from him. He accredited his amazing apples to the water from the creek that ran through his property. They were the biggest, juiciest red delicious apples ever! The juice literally ran down your face while you ate it! A few years ago when we went back there, we were sad to see that apple orchard was gone and was now a housing development. I hope someone saved some of those trees!

We were first introduced to Fuji Apples at Davis Orchards in Milton-Freewater, Oregon, which was just across the state line from Walla Walla. We were really impressed with the Fuji apples and often took boxes back to Portland with us to share with family and friends. The following recipes are from their store, where they sold all of their apples, apple cider and miscellaneous baked goods.

The following recipe was given to me by a good friend, Melissa. I made it one year for Easter over 16 years ago and everyone loved it!