About Us
Images Unlimited was founded in 1981 by Lee Jackson. Apple cookbooks and apple related country books are the specialties of this book division. Snaptail Press, a division of Images Unlimited, was started in 2001 as the children's section. Currently there are three books under this imprint but more are in the works! Bookmark this site for all your apple cookbooks and books for families, teachers, and parenting professionals.
Images Unlimited Publishing
P.O. Box 305
Maryville, MO 64468
Phone: 660-582-4605
Toll-free: 800-366-1695
Apples have been part of my life for many years. I guess I first became interested in their beauty and goodness when we had a few apple trees on our farm in Wisconsin while I was growing up. Of course everybody had a few apple trees then. This was in the rolling countryside of southwestern Wisconsin, much like the Weston and Amazonia area in Missouri. We had so many apples we didn’t know what to do with them. So I collected apple recipes.
When I taught home economics (family and consumer sciences) in high school and middle school we always had a unit on fall foods. However, the students had a hard time coming up with recipes other than pies and crisps. That’s when I began to pull together my collection of recipes. Gradually through the years they had been honed, culled, tested, and finally published. My first cookbook, From the Apple Orchard - Recipes for Apple Lovers came out in 1984 and has now been revised many times and expanded and is sold in apple orchards, gift shops, and other stores, as well as here on this website.
Following is my favorite Apple Betty recipe that I go back to time after time. It is so easy, really good, and you don’t have to grease the pan! It is found on p. 142 of the new and revised From the Apple Orchard — Recipes for Apple Lovers.
Incidently, if you have an old edition of that cookbook that is dog-eared (isn't that a strange description??) and covered with spills, you can take advantage of my trade-in special. Just send in the front cover of your old cookbook and $10.00 and I will send you the completely updated brand-new edition!
Favorite Apple Betty
4 cups cooking apples, peeled and sliced
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¾ cup hot water
Combine apples, sugar, cinnamon, and water. Simmer 5 to 10 minutes or until slightly tender. Pour into ungreased 9-inch pie pan. Sprinkle the following crumb topping over the apples:
Topping
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup shortening
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
Blend brown sugar, shortening, and butter. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Mixture will be crumbly. Sprinkle over apples.
Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Serve warm or cold.
Yield: 6 servings
These Cheese Bars are very popular where ever I take them, whether it is to book signings or bridge parties or whatever. This is a recipe that comes from Marilyn Hauser of Hauser’s Superior View Farm, Bayfield, Wisconsin, found on page 215 in Apples, Apples Everywhere — Favorite Recipes From America's Orchards, my second apple cookbook.
Cheese Bars
2 packages crescent rolls (8 in package)
2 – 8 oz. packages cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 egg, separated
1 teaspoon, vanilla
Topping
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup chopped nuts
½ cup chopped apples
Mix cream cheese, sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla until smooth. Stretch 1 package crescent rolls in bottom of ungreased 9 x 12 inch pan (or cookie sheet for thinner bars). Spread cream cheese mixture on rolls. Roll second package crescent rolls between wax paper to pan dimensions. Lay on top of cream cheese mixture. Beat egg whites until frothy. Brush on top of rolls, using all of the egg white. Sprinkle with topping. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.
This third recipe comes from Amy Houts’ cookbook, Cooking Around the Calendar with Kids — Holiday and Seasonal Food and Fun, which I published. Those who are diabetic or prefer less sugar will appreciate this recipe (and not even miss the sugar). Note that one pan does it all.
No-Sugar Date Bars
1 cup dates
1 cup water
½ cup butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup chopped nuts
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cut dates into small pieces, In medium saucepan, boil dates and water for 5 to 10 minutes or until dates are soft. Add butter. Mix and set aside to cool.
Add eggs and vanilla to the date mixture in saucepan. Measure flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to mixture in pan. Stir in nuts.
Spread in greased 7 x 11-inch pan and bake in 350 degree oven for 20 – 25 minutes.
Yield: 15 bars
For variation, add ½ teaspoon cinnamon and ¼ teaspoon nutmeg to flour mixture.
Thanks for reading — and hopefully you will try some of these recipes. Send me an email at: Lee@imagesunlimitedpub.com telling me how they worked for you — or send me your favorite apple recipe and we will add it to the website!
Best to you and enjoy apples!
Lee
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