What a great edition of last Sunday's New York Times: An article in the travel section touting Ann Arbor as "the ultimate college town" and a recipe section in the magazine devoted to easy ideas for cooking with apples.

Now I don't have to run to the store for groceries — I have all of the ingredients for one of Mark Bittman's suggestions, which uses apples and brussels sprouts, at the ready. He calls for sage, but fresh thyme is flourishing in the garden, so I'll substitute that.

I also changed the cooking instructions; I know my apples will be cooked long before the brussels sprouts. I also omitted the Parmesan.

I served this with a main course of baked chicken thighs and barley.

Yield: 4 servings
Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 pound Brussels sprouts, halved
1 1/2 pounds thinly sliced apples (select apples suitable for cooking)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, plus extra sprigs for garnish

Directions

1. Heat oil and butter in a large saute pan over low heat. Add brussels sprouts. Cover and cook ten minutes.
2. Remove cover and stir in apples and thyme; turn the heat to medium high, and cook, uncovered and occasionally stirring, an additional ten minutes or until apples and brussels sprouts are tender. Season to taste with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.