Tuesday June 05, 2012

Heirloom Meals Radio:
Belinda DiGiambattista

You may be able to take the girl out of the country but you cannot take the country out of the girl!  Belinda Di Giambattista is a living breathing example of that quote!  Belinda grew up in North Carolina and was exposed to farming and farmer's markets as a little girl. She went off to pursue her brilliant career in finance and found herself craving  more spiritual and meaningful work.  Belinda still lives in NYC but she has found a way to connect with her farming and healthy eating roots.  She started a business making healthy food for kids called Butterbeans Kitchen.

I aksed Belinda for her grandmother's "Apple Moon Pies" and in true granny form, we got the "non-recipe, recipe!" Here's her note to me:

Hi Carole! My Granny wrote me the following note:

"They were dried apple fried pies, I never had a recipe. If you put a cup of firm pack dried apples in a sauce pan and a cup of water then bring it to a boil turn the heat down to low, you might have to add more water just a small amount depending on the apples, cook to mush, stir often. When cooked enough add spices and sugar to taste, I used bread dough. Take a ball the size of a walnut and roll it like a thin pie crust, spread the apple mix on 1/2 of the dough not to the edge of the dough, fold the other 1/2 dough over the apples with a fork press the crust together to seal in the apples then lay it carefully in a frying pan with some oil and fry that side then turn the pie over cook.  I used to make a big stack of pies and my family loved to eat them."  Izula Fentress

I thought it would be better to leave her version of the recipe as is to preserve how she thinks of it instead of writing it in a traditional style."

I spyed some dried apples at the farmers market last week and will pick some up on Friday and try to create a recipe to share this weekend.  SOostay tuned!!  In the meantime, here's her interview - enjoy!!