Happy Apples: The pork party in disguise

This weekend Dan and I hosted our first dinner party in our Philly apartment with Philly people. While nothing can replace the dinner parties of the past, I had about 20 lbs. of apples that had to be consumed after we ran rampant on an apple orchard in Media, PA. I instructed the guests that they must bring something that is made with apples, something that can be consumed with apples, or anything relating to eating apples.

The turnout was great, we made apples 8 ways, and still had some left over to bob with...even though we didnt get to it despite Dan wanting to fill up the apple bobbing stations in the early afternoon.

For an appetizer, one of the MT grad students brought apple salsa and cinnamon chips! The apple salsa had both tart and sweet apples, apple cider vinegar, cinnamon, grapes, lemon juice, salt, and avocado. It was chunky and fresh and did not have a saucy consistency. Deelish. The chips were homemade too. They were made from tortilla chips, covered in coconut oil and cinnamon and baked. I did not get the specifics on this, but they were amazing. Could have been eaten as a dessert item as well.

For drinks, we had 3 varieties.
1. Mulled apple cider. There are many ways to go about doing this but we made a spice pouch of nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and lemon zest. Placed the spices in a saucepan full of apple cider (about 1/2 gallon), added apple slices and cinnamon sticks and a heavy pour of spiced rum (Capt'n of course). This was a great treat to sip throughout the night.
2. Hot whiskeys. Two shots of Evan williams in a mug with a lemon slice dotted with whole cloves. also a splash of simple syrup and top off with warm water.