Variety is the (Apple) Spice of Life

I'll admit it.  I'm really not at all an apple fan.  When I think, "Mmm, I'd really like to eat a piece of fruit right now," apples are usually my last resort (except for melons. Melons I won't touch).  I don't know where this apple prejudice comes from.  I really have no good reason not to like them.  Is it the taste, or the texture?  Do they remind me of that horrible night in college when I tried Apple Pucker for the first time?  I thought participating in the Apple Challenge 2011 would help me squelch my biases.  It was time to give the apple a fighting chance.

And, after eight days of eating them, I figured it out.

I prefer cooked apples over raw apples.  Cooking an apple just makes it so much more delicious than eating it right out of the fridge.  I think it has something to do with the juices being released.  And they become much more fragrant.

So great, I thought.  All I have to do is diversify my apple recipes over a year.  There are around 1,000,000 varieties of apples, so there has to be literally a ton things I can do with them in the kitchen, right?

Apparently, wrong.

Everyone on the Internet, and all of my cookbook authors, only want to put apples in desserts.  That's great, except for the times when you have to eat an apple a day for a whole year.  Sure, there are suggestions to pair apples with just about any type of pork; apples with cheddar cheese; apples in salad.  But where are the REAL savory recipes?  What delicious dinner dishes are there where I can incorporate apples?  Slim pickins, Internet, and I am disappointed in you.  So I've resorted to experimenting.

I like spicy things, so I thought I'd try apples with jalapenos.  On Tuesday night, I made Southwest-style chicken 'n' cheese with fajita-style apples, onions, and jalapenos on the side. Not bad.

The chicken IS under there, somewhere...

Tonight, I made another chicken dish: baked chicken with green beans, jalapenos, and apples, all smothered in a good country helping of hot jalapeno mustard from Grandpa's Cheese Barn.  Much better, if I do say so myself.

 What other exciting savory recipes for apples can you find, that don't call for pork or cheese?  (Although I must say I'm particularly excited about this one from KitchenDaily.com...which involves both cheese and a pork product...)

Let's get creative!  Only three hundred and forty-five days left to go!