I am not the neatest person. I am not however the messiest– comfortably lived-in is what I like to call it. There are always stacks of paper lying about my desk. Pens don’t always have caps. The coffee table can actually be used to hold a cup of coffee, and sometimes hours will pass before I pick the empty cup up and bring it to the sink. I guess this bleeds over into how I am in the kitchen as well. My counters are always wiped clean, my utensils pristine, but as I write this, the coffee pot has not yet been cleaned-out, still holding the latest murky brew, and there is a package of graham crackers sitting out from last night’s snack. So be it.

I always keep a small pad of paper with me. Tucked into my bag it becomes an invaluable resource. I jot down things that occur to me throughout the day: books to read, shopping lists, recipes to try. And when I am at home, the electronic Post-It for the computer, is similar to my pad of paper. They are a thing of functional beauty for the pack rat in me. The only problem with this method, is the desktop of my computer becomes so littered with small yellow “sheets” of paper it looks like a autumn has arrived at my desk.

All of this would be fine if I routinely checked my amassing of notes, but I stack up the tiny Post-It notes, burying ideas one on top of the other. Well, no more! At least no more for this week– I did a bit of spring cleaning. There were recipes, and food combinations by the bundle. Some actually seemed tasty, some just seemed odd (what was I doing when I though of that?), and some seemed to be both. Like this one:

“Apple bruleed with marshmallows.” Hhmm, sounds interesting enough, don’t ask me when this particular doozy occurred to me, but since we are still in apple season (she writes, annoyed), I’ll give it a shot. I’m not really sure if I originally intended to make apple sauce, and then brulee a coating of marshmallows like a meringue– but that is what I did.

I don’t have to tell you, marshmallows can be cloyingly sweet, so I made my apple sauce from the tartest apples that I could find. I simmered my apple chunks in a bit of water and a vanilla bean. Leaving the sauce still chunky, I put it in a ramekin, then topped each with a small handful of mini marshmallows. Popping the whole mess under the broiler, I let the marshmallows bloat and blister, before removing and eating up.

Well this was strange– good, but strange. The nearest thing I can equate it to, would be mochi, another chewy, delightfully strange dessert. Contrasting the tart apples, the crispy marshmallow topping melted over the sauce, creating a unique melange. So the next time you’re up for something a tad bit bizarre, give this brulee a try and tell me what you think.