The fourth episode of With Love, Meghan opens with a simple ritual. Apples ripen in the garden, hummingbirds dart overhead, and Meghan stirs apple butter in her kitchen. Her guest, celebrated chef and writer Samin Nosrat, arrives not just to share a meal but to exchange stories of heritage, tradition, and community. What follows is a rare blend of cooking, memory, and hospitality. The intimacy of family recipes and the joy of passing them on define the hour.
Meghan Revives a Family Recipe
Meghan begins by drawing on her grandmother’s legacy. She turns a harvest of Anna and Fuji apples into jars of spiced apple butter. Step by step, she explains the process: a pinch of clove, a splash of apple cider vinegar, and careful canning in sterilized jars. The gesture feels larger than a recipe. It is an offering to Samin, a gift of continuity and memory.
The tartines she prepares—layered with ricotta, apple butter, and fresh slices of apple, create a bridge between past and present. When Samin tastes them, her delight underscores the point. Recipes endure because they carry family history into new hands.
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Meghan Makes Lavashak for the First Time
Before Samin’s arrival, Meghan took on the challenge of making lavashak, the Persian fruit leather beloved in her guest’s childhood. She simmered apples, pomegranate juice, and lemon, sieved the fruit into a purée, and spread it onto a baking sheet for its slow transformation. Later, she presented the glossy strips to Samin, offering a taste of something both deeply familiar and newly reimagined.
This is Meghan’s first time preparing the snack, yet she chooses it deliberately. She wants to offer her guest something meaningful. When Samin bites into the tart, chewy lavashak, her face lights up. The flavor reminds her of her grandmother’s suitcase once filled with homemade treats. In that exchange, hospitality becomes something larger. Meghan reimagines memory and culture in a new kitchen, and the connection is profound.
Community Around the Table
The episode soon shifts from recipes to rituals. Meghan and Samin prepare a passion fruit vinaigrette salad with leftover roast chicken. As they cook, the conversation turns to gathering. Samin describes her Monday dinners with friends, a weekly ritual that has grown into a chosen family.
Meghan reflects on her own joy in hosting. Whether bookbinding in her craft room or harvesting herbs with her children, she finds meaning in simple acts of bringing people together. “I used to work at Paper Source,” she recalls, noting how she once taught classes in gift wrapping, calligraphy, and bookbinding. That professional past slips naturally into the episode, connecting her current passions to earlier work. Both women emphasize that meals are never only about ingredients. They are about connection, tradition, and the creation of everyday joy.
Final Thoughts
How ’bout Them Apples is more than a cooking show segment. It unfolds as a meditation on memory and community through apple butter, lavashak, and a shared salad. Meghan’s roast chicken tutorial adds another layer of teaching. She makes the process look approachable—fun, delicious, and economical. There is enough to share, and enough to stretch into future meals. We will definitely be doing this recipe at home.
Samin’s weekly dinners with single friends also inspire. They show that food builds chosen families as much as it preserves inherited ones. By centering heritage, hospitality, and practicality, the episode demonstrates what With Love, Meghan continues to excel at: showing food as a true language of love.
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