I need some "apple" lovin!

Yesterday, we had the chance to go to Graves Mountain‘ s Apple Harvest Festival with my in-laws. My three year old went apple picking several weeks ago with her preschool class. She LOVED it. They taught them to “twist and pull” the apples to pick them from the trees. So when she realized that we were going to pick apples she started going nuts. We got the festival and walked around and had lunch but all that Grace wanted to do was to pick apples. So we walked up to the orchard to pick apples. A long walk with three kids and the double stroller later, we walked back down the mountain side with two 1/2 bushels of apples. They had York and Winesap left so that is what we got. My husband decided to see how many apples we actually got this morning and weighed them on the scale. His estimation is that we have 40 lbs of apples sitting on our dining room table right now. It was one of those decisions where you think two 1/2 bushels of apples sounds nice without thinking about what you are going to do with two 1/2 bushels of apples! oops!!

So that begs the question of what to do with all of these apples. My girls will eat some of them but not enough to put a dent in that amount. I still have half of an apple cake (one of my all time favorite cakes!!) on my counter that I made on Saturday morning. Even at that, the cake only takes 3-5 apples so I would have to do some major apple cake baking and giving away. I know my husband is plotting out how many apple pies he will make and freeze so we can eat them around the holidays. Then there is the ole standby of applesauce. But to be honest, there is still canned applesauce from last year in the pantry!

All that being said, the real point of this post is to ask for help! I am asking you to give me your favorite apple creation, dish, baked good, whatever. I need a Bubba Gump shrimp list but for apples!
If you give you me an idea and we make it and love it, I will feature your recipe or tip here in the coming weeks. If you have a blog, I will link to as part of my love back to you.;)

So give me some ideas for all of these apples … please!!!