Though I would never make it for our traditional Thanksgiving feast. I would be in big trouble for bucking tradition if I did. However, this is an absolutely delicious company crowd-pleaser and when served with my homemade crème fraîche, deadly. Drop dead deadly.

I wanted to show you how it looked before I put on the puffed pastry because the apples actually did cook faster than I expected, so I removed them, cooked down the caramel and placed them back in. “Stuff” happens.

It just so happens that on one of my trips to France a few years ago we stopped for lunch just 15 minutes outside of Lamotte-Beuvron where the Tatin sisters were from that supposedly created this tarte in 1888 by accident. I was told by the guide that the little place I lunched at had the best Tarte Tatin in the entire area. We were in a small place called La Ferté-Saint-Aubin. I ordered nothing else. Well, a strong French coffee and a slice of this beautiful tart. It arrived hot, as it must, to be properly served: right out of the oven and then ladled with crème fraîche. I savoured every single bite. I believe this one was just as good, except I disobeyed the cardinal rule and served it room temperature.

I now know I could have left the filling as in the photo above, and slapped on the icy cold rolled puffed pastry just 40 minutes before service. Live and learn. That is definitely what I would do next time.

Let it rest about 15 minutes before flipping onto the serving tray: be careful and pray.

I chose the rustic Jamie Oliver idea with more “refined” apple slices as I remember them from that fine sunny late afternoon in France savouring my very own slice of La Tarte Tatin.

It’s not baked because we froze them all. But, isn’t she cute? May I introduce to you, Christan, my new baking friend?

We will provide delectable, mouthwatering photos of flaky warm from the oven apple pies when we do our Pastry Tasting. That is currently booked for the last Friday of November. If you are interested in coming, you had better let me know! We will be comparing my pastry with my self-rendered leaf lard, Kevin’s pastry that I made with his self-rendered leaf lard, and pastry that I made with Tenderflake pastry lard. Won’t that be fun? As I said in the pastry making post, the self-rendered lard pastry certainly smelled meaty while the Tenderflake had a sweet non-descript flavourless aroma.

Christan arrived ready to bake: apron, knives, and miracle apple pie making tool… her apple slicer-peeler! I have seen these everywhere, but was not smitten. Contrary to what some may think (due to my consistent proclamation of undying love for my Thermomix) I am not a huge gadget person. I have effortlessly resisted buying myself one of these. How silly! I can peel an apple in 30 seconds. It takes me 5 minutes to peel 5 apples for a pie. Why would I ever want one of these.

Oh, my darlings… let me tell you the whys. We peeled and sliced, together, 33 apples in about 20 minutes: effortlessly! I am smitten. Smitten. That is all I am going to say. I do not usually make 7 pies at once, anyway. This was enough (barely) for 5 apple pies. We made it work. We could have had more. More! Yes, we could have had 7 or 8 apples in each pie. Wouldn’t that be fun?

Christan is not a run of the mill young woman. First of all, I didn’t know her at all before she accepted my invitation to cook together. That takes courage. Second of all, she was brimming with confidence. It was quite unexpected and really gratifying for me to bake with such a young gal so completely in charge of what she was doing. Talk about role reversal! I loved it, and learned a great deal. Don’t get me wrong. I know how to bake a mean apple pie, but so does Christan, and I got an entire evening to learn from her. Lucky me!

When I told her I usually put 5 to 6 apples in a pie, she winced and said that she usually put 8. Eight! How could one even fit 8 sliced apples in a pie? Well, pull up a chair and you will learn how!

Above are the apples we peeled. She actually used her gadget and I then double checked all cores and peelings to ensure there was nothing forbidden getting into our pies! Yes, they are starting to turn brown, but just for a minute. Christan needed a larger bowl and we found her one (below). Time to add the sugar. I had less that half of a bag of brown sugar and she was fairly sure it would be enough. I was very sure we would need more. We didn’t. In goes the sugar, little by little, as she tosses the apples to mix it in.

The last little bit is going in How did she determine the right amount of sugar for all those apples? Don’t you worry! She has her way, and was a very good teacher, too!

• It depends upon how tart the apples are: taste them.
• Now, add sugar, not too much, and taste them again; they should not taste sweet, nor tart
• More sugar; taste again

How do they taste, she asked? “A little too sweet at the front and a little too tart at the end.” Up went her eyebrows. On went her smile. Sparkle in her eye: “Perfect. Then we have enough. I hate sickeningly sweet pies.” She had me convinced!

“These apples are really juicy!” How can you tell? “I can feel it! Look!” I was very surprised by the amount of liquid in the bottom of that bowl already. Well, I was very surprised by her entire process. I make mine completely differently.

I cut my apples directly into the pie after dusting the bottoms with a sprinkle of sugar to keep the bottom crust crisp. The sugar and flour are sprinkled on top of each and tossed in, right inside of the pie shell. I usually only make two or three pies at once. Christan makes a lot. Every time.

She told me that her dad loves to cook and learned how to make a great crust from a friend who made the best crusts, and learned to make the best filling from another who made the best fillings. You got it! He makes the best pies.

Christan was really thrilled when her father taught her how to make the traditional family pies. From father to daughter, the tradition was passed along… until, she is now asked to make them for every family occasion. It has become her job. Clearly, she is good at it. How lucky am I to learn from her. Everything she is doing makes perfect sense, but is frighteningly different that how I make mine. I even use white sugar. But, who could argue with brown. I am curious!

And, cinnamon? Be prepared to use half a package! I am much more stingy with my cinnamon. Not because it is expensive (thought it is) or I am cheap (I am not), but because I find a couple of teaspoons a pie to be flavourful enough. I am sure there are a couple of tablespoons, or more, in each of her pies. Our pies. I am curious. Is this much cinnamon really necessary. She was very definite. “More! More!”

The filling is ready. Whew! It didn’t take long. After the sugar and cinnamon, in went a considerable amount of flour. How much? “It depends upon how moist the apples are and these are really moist. I will need a lot of flour.” She used enough to rid herself of the pool at the bottom of the bowl. It seemed like a full proof process to me.

After a little discussion about how I made the pastries, we sniffed them, and then got rolling. I always use a pastry cloth and a sleeve on my pastries and my shortbread. It is just easier for me. She usually uses brown paper from bags. Makes sense, too.

She forgot her rolling pin, and I only had one decent one. (It is not the one above.) We shared, rolling out each chilled disc to 1/4 inch thick, keeping a good dusting of flour (but not too much) under the pastry so it would life off the cloth easily.

Good thing my daughter had dropped over all the pie plates or I would have been in trouble! Beavie was excited. The pie making bee was moving along so fast, his little head was spinning! Do you see the apple peel bracelet he is wearing?

He loves getting in pictures! We were making an apple pie with each kind of pastry and a Saskatoon pie with each kind of pastry and then two extra apple pies with Tenderflake pastry: one for Christan and one for me.

We have all of the pies filled, almost, below. Beavie is ecstatic. I have rarely seen him laughing so hard. What was so funny?

Christan even had to have words with him. He was completely interfering with our process.

Whew! Almost done! Look at that sweet smile. I really had a great time!

Beavie was out with it as soon as we finished crimping the first pie: we had forgotten to add the butter! Yikes! The Tenderflake pie had no butter added. Oh, well. At least it was the only one! Actually, I think Christan’s pie missed the butter, too! So, this is how I add the butter: six teaspoons or so under the top shell. This is also how I sometimes move the top pastry over tot he pie. Usually I roll out both discs and use the best one for the top. Doing it this way, that is not an option. Lucky for us that all the pastry was really nice.

Christan also crimps very differently than I do. She brushes the bottom pastry with water, lays over the top (Here she rolled the pastry onto her rolling pin and unrolled it over the pie which is the second method I use, too), and then she starts crimping. The water glues both sheets together.

She actually doesn’t cut her overlapping pastry until she has completely finished her gentle crimping. See how she does that below? Above her crimping, I do cut off the extra overlapping and discard it, then fold up the extra to make a more pronounced decorative pinched crimp.

Christan has another trick up her sleeve! She cuts the pastry and rolls it back to make a decorative steam vent in her crust. Gorgeous! Isn’t that fun?

Below, my butter added to the left, and to the right, hers. We found we did almost every single thing differently.

Here is my crimping. Once the ridge of pastry is folded back on top of the edge of the pie plate, I use the thumb and forefinger of both hands to pinch the crimp into the edge in the upright position as seen below.

Mom taught me how to crimp, and her mother, and hers… and back and back and back. I am partial to my crimping. It is part of who we are… the rest, I am open to. I am eager to taste our results. We dusted the top with sugar for that lovely pastry crunch and decorative sparkle. She used less. I used more.

Christan with her own pie. She will come to the tasting, too, at the end of November. But, for now, she has her apple pie, and I, mine. We also made Saskatoon pies!

Thank you for such a wonderfully fun evening, Christan, and a great learning experience. If anyone locally is interested in learning how to make pies from Christan, let me know. I haven’t spoken to her about this, but I just got a good idea. She is a great teacher, and I feel a cooking class coming on!

Beavie might not be invited, though!

Geesh! She is giving me the evil eye! How am I supposed to sneak a little taste of pie????

I was so happy to have receive the wonderful gift from Loblaw’s to do my fall canning as part of their Grown Close to Home campaign this season.

And as I looked out at t=our gorgeous apple tree and the fragrant abundance weighing down the branches, I knew what we had to do. We had to learn how to crush our own apples to try to make the Nectar of the Gods that I had tasted at Zica, an ancient Serbian Monastery, in Northern Serbia, last summer. We had wound through narrow pathways up the rustic mountainous terrain to tour some of the oldest sanctuaries on the planet. It was at Zica that I decided I must have a hand-painted Orthodox icon of Vanja’s family’s patron saint: St. George and The Dragon. We asked to see the Monastery artist. She is actual famous throughout the religious icon painting world and was trained by an artist in the 60′s and the 70′s who has work in the Louvre. (I would give my eye-teeth for the notes I made, and verified, of this visit.) She offered us a drink in the Monastery dinning hall as we sat to discuss the painting she would do for us. And, it was the most incredible precious liquid that has ever graced my lips. She was very proud: we crush the apples. There is nothing else in it. Only apple juice from our Monastery apples. I had no frame of reference for anything like this. I was definitely under her spell.

We talked and sipped, and savoured. A few days later, we visited the parents of V, our Tuesday night dinner guest, and were served a very similar nectar. I was spellbound. Having this twice on the same trip left me determined to learn more about how to make it. And, do you see the glass below, to the right? That is what we made ourselves, last week!

A commission from a Monastery is a very precarious and precious thing. Art is something I must bring home to connect me to my travels. See the photo on the left, below? We had asked for that image of St. George, and asked for it to be the same size as her photo, in a square, about 1/4 inch thick, with only a gold halo. She took detailed notes. She was so lovely and so interesting. As we left, I knew that this was a rare experience, and I was eager to get our icon. Three months, she had said.

Six months later, it was delivered, as pre-arranged, to Vanja’s brother, Igor, in Belgrade. We decided to wait for the summer to pick it up. He sent us a photo. I was dumb-founded. It was nothing like we had ordered. It was what I didn’t want. It was about 1 1/2 inches thick, an arch shape, almost completely golden, and with printing on it. Hmmm. Vanja laughed when I said that I wanted to return it to the monastery for the one I had ordered. “I will send the sister the photo I took of the one we wanted.” He laughed some more. “You are lucky to get it.” was his comment. And, when I saw it, how could I not love it? The detail surpassed my imagination. It is maybe a bit “over-the-top” and a little tacky… to some, but to me, a precious keepsake of a very special sojourn through Northern Serbia exploring the ancient ruins of so many who had come before. And, it is hung at our front door, on the East wall, as it should be.

I cannot look at it without thinking of the apple juice. Look at our harvest!

In addition to this, there was one other huge bowl full. And, yes, they really are this red.

Vanja is not a committed gardener. He definitely gardens, but it is my passion. However, this tree, he claimed the day it was planted. He would count the apples every Spring. “My tree has 100 apples this year!” If the branch bears apples one year, it will not bear any the following year. This was the first year that we really had a lot of apples and the first year that they were as red as they are supposed to be. He is one proud daddy!

Aren’t they gorgeous? They are a flavourful eating apple. The flesh is crisp, but must be eaten the day it is picked, or becomes mushy, quickly. They do store for a considerable time, but I would only cook with them after the first day. They are best used the day they are picked for whatever you plan to do with them. I must admit, I am very proud of them, too. They are on the small side, but definitely much bigger than a crab apple. (I have been tweeting and trying to get some bright red tart crab apples, locally, to make Pomette with, but no one has responded. Hopefully, someone will read this and have some for me!)

Here is the gorgeous tree before and after the harvest.

I learned how to crush and press my own apples from reading Kevin Kossowan’s post on it as he crushes his to make his famous (delicious) homemade Apple Wine. We watched his videos and posts, we thought, carefully, and Vanja build a press equally as primitive as Kevin’s. We decided that the Thermomix would be perfect for the initial crush, instead of the garborator Kevin bought, because I had it, and I knew it would work. Boy, did it! Twelve to thirteen apples in the TM bowl, on Turbo less than a second twice, and then for 2 seconds, and they were completely crushed. All of the apples were done in thirty minutes. Talk about fast! And, I only used one machine.

Vanja’s set up is a little different than Kevin’s but worked well – at first. How can we be out on such a glorious day at the end of the summer and not take in our flowers?

I used two TM bowls; Vanja would fill it, pass it to me, and I would work the machine. Then, pass it to him, and take the other full TM bowl and work the machine again while he dumped, and refilled the one I just handed him. It worked like a charm.

This is how fine the apples (yes, core and all) were crushed in two seconds: below, left. Below, right, is how full we filled the TM bowl.

Vanja was worried that the mash was too fine. I was not. I loved how red it was…. and how fragrant and delicious.

We set everything up at the front of the house as it was too cold for me in the garage. And, better for taking photos outside in this sun, too!

This is how course the apples were when crushed for less than one second. Truly. I love my Thermomix!

After thirty minutes, this is how much mash we had from the apple harvest.

I am easily excited. I was so thrilled that we were doing this together. It was a lovely day and we were starting a new family tradition!

Vanja had used his BMW car jack…so, though it was definitely a primitive set up, we both laughed at this.

You must watch Kevin’s video and visit his site for the real “how to”. As, we did have more than our fair share of problems this day. Here goes the first batch, below. A bowl full of the mash is dumped into the cheesecloth and then pressed by hand to release the juices.

Gorgeous red juice. And I could tell there was a lot of it there.

The top of the bag was twisted and squeezed until we could squeeze no more, then placed in the white bucket away from the drainage hole. The extra cloth folded over it, and then a board placed on top to do the pressing.

From there, some plastic plumbing tubing was placed on top of the board, and then the jack was maneuvered into place to connect with the tube and press the board to release the juices from the apples.

Tongue placement does make a difference to your success.

We were very successful. That little package gave up an incredible amount of juice.

It is flowing into the jar!

This is how flat the mash looked after the pressing.

There was still some juice in it, thought, so I rearranged it, and we pressed it again. See the juice?

The colour was surprisingly vivid. Below is the juice from the next batch of mash.

This time, we poured it into the bucket and let it work its way into the bottle below.

So purdy!

This is how much we got from just the first batch and the hand squeezing of the second batch. I was over the moon. Below is the disc of pressed mash that has absolutely not one drop of liquid left in it. The compost sounds like a plan for this. Or… any ideas?

We found the jack was eating the tubing, so Vanja found a flat piece to use in between the jack and the tubing that really helped stabilize the tubing during the pressing. But, we had other issues. The top beam of lumber was being pulled away from the bottom beam at the top of the press when we pressed. So, we got out the C-clamps and tried to stabilize the press.

That didn’t work so well, and before we fixed it, the press was ripping through the fabric. Hmmm. So, we need more glass containers for the juice. Vanja thought that one bottle would be enough for the entire tree. (I was being a respectful wife, but did say I thought we would get a lot more than that from it.) Now we need more cheese cloth, and the top of the crusher is falling apart.

Mom and dad stopped by just as Vanja returned with the new items. We were so eager to show them what we were doing!

But, it didn’t work. I broke the bottle the juice was going into by tilting the crusher. The top of it was still pulling away from the beam the jack was screwed to. We needed to stop and redo a few things. (See the crusher below There are two pieces of wood on the top of it. The jack is screwed to the bottom one. That piece of wood was pulling away from the beam on the top.)

As we were rescrewing and rethinking, the calking on the white jug dissolved. Hmmm… So, it went to the white jug graveyard, and Vanja went back to the store. See the new white jug he bought, below, right?

The work continued. If we had done what we needed to do properly, the first time, we could have pressed all of the apples in about 2 hours, tops. As it was, it took the better part of a day. But, isn’t the juice beautiful?

We realized, in the end, 18 litres of apple juice. The big jug, the smaller one, and one litre and a half (below, right). We refrigerated the smaller jug and jars, and covered all overnight for the juice to clear.

But, it didn’t clear. Hmmm. An emergent message to Kevin resulted in some information I had missed on his video. One must add pectic enzyme to the juice the night before if you want clarity. He buys his here. He says it doesn’t affect the taste at all. If you watch his video, you will see the beautiful clarity he acquired the day after his pressing.

We would have had more if we didn’t syphon the juice. There was considerable spillage there. Not a huge amount. Just enough to make it a challenge!

The juice truly was the Nectar of the Gods. Seriously. We did it! It blew me away… but, it did have to be processed for storage. That was clearly going to change it. After much reading and research, I found that the best route would be to process all at 75°C, and then immediately chill each. I could not do that. I didn’t have the space. The next best way was to process all at 75°C and then sit on the counter to cool. That is what we did.

I filtered the juice with a cheese cloth when pouring into each jar. Ours had sat overnight, and not come clear like Kevin’s did. We were miffed. But, we proceeded.

I never rely on one thermometer.

This photo was taken at night. The pinker jars are the ones not processed. The yellower jars are the ones that have been processed.

The processed juice is nothing like the fresh juice. Nothing. I now need to find out how they process it in Serbia to keep that magic in the nectar. But, we did find out why the juice didn’t become clear. Kevin puts an enzyme in it after he fills each bottle. When it then sits, covered, overnight, the enzyme works to filter the juice and the thick bits fall to the bottom.

I am so happy that Vanja loves his tree and his apples so much because he is usually not into foodie things like  I am and this project would have been dead in the water without his enthusiasm and help.

And, St. George? He will be slaying dragons while I slay culinary problems… one at a time. Next year, we will definitely build a stronger press. I will never look at St. George without thinking about and tasting the Nectar of the Gods and the sweet darling Sister who painted ours.

And, Beavie? He is always in the way where good food is concerned. He had his little eager nose in this the very first pour!

I could swim in this stuff, Valerie... But, shouldn't you have made cider, with a little hit of alcohol, at least? I don't get any kind of a buzz from this!

Top Three: Granny Smith, McIntosh, Golden Delicious

Middle Three: Red Delicious, Sonya, Fiji

Last Row: Spartan, Ambrosia, Royal Gala

Top, left to right: Granny Smith. McIntosh, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Sonya, Fiji

Bottom, left to right: Royal Gala, Ambrosia, Spartan

Nothing is more compelling then perfectly ripe, flawless, gorgeous, fresh, juicy, crisp, and plump apples. Their perfume is intoxicating, and as my students filtered into the room, they were immediately captivated. “Where did you get these apples?” “Oh, my gosh! These are gorgeous apples!” “What are you going to do with so many apples, Mrs. Rodgers?” There was no other carefully planned strategy employed to get them interested in my planned learning activity. Providing students with an irresistible tasting experience that appeals to their senses is a critical part of the process necessary to motivate them to change what and how they eat.

Everyone was eager to participate in the peeling and the tasting of these apples; the aroma was compelling, and each pulsated irresistible appeal.

After a thorough washing of hands, and apples, the paper napkin was set out for the garbage. Garbage should never go on the cutting board. A bowl works well for this too. Then, the position of the knife hold was discussed.

See below how high the hand is on the knife handle, and actually holding onto the upper part of the blade? This is necessary to have control of a paring knife for peeling an apple. The next critical aspect of the hold is the use of the thumb on the hand holding the knife. It must be on the apple, and guiding the cut, as on both above photos.

It amazes me how quiet and focused students are when using a knife. They understand it is dangerous. They don’t want to hurt themselves, and they do enjoy learning knife skills. Everyone really focuses and helps one another.

Holding your hand, as above, while cutting the apple is also important. You will not get hurt if you have a firm hold of the apple, and your knife under your hand.

The student is holding the quarter of an apple properly in his hand. He is coring it carefully and then slicing it. The pressure he is using on the left photo is a pressure that will not cut his hand as he is holding the apple and resisting his knife with it.

Here is another closer look of how to hold a quarter of an apple to use the knife to take out the core.

Once the apples were cored, and sliced, knives washed and put away, and peeling eaten or thrown out, the Tasting begins!

As this is a grade 9 class of 14 year olds, we used two measures:

• a tart/sour to sweet scale (5 being super tart, 1 being super sweet), and
• a crispy crunchy to mushy scale (5 being super crispy, 1 being mushy)

The flavours of each apple were really difficult to describe for both myself and my students, but we worked our way through it. Flavour was definitely discussed with each tasting.

Process:

1. Apples were washed, cored, and sliced.
2. I took them back and forth the scale on the tastings
3. Students were in groups and each student within each small group had selected a different apple
4. I directed the sharing and tasting experience, and the students shared their apples with one another for the tastings

Tasting:

1. Granny Smith: 5 on the crunch scale and 5 on the tart scale. I referenced this score as a baseline for the students to place their other taste experiences.
2. MacIntosh: 3 on the crunch scale and 3 on the tart scale. Again, a reference for the students as a baseline.
3. Golden Delicious: 2 on the crunch scale; this was a very soft bite, and 1-2 on the sweet scale. By now the students had the idea. The flavour notes were not “appley” most students mentioned. What were they? “Hmm…the texture and shape are appley, but the flavour is kind of artificial something.”
4. Red Delicious: 4.5 on the crunch scale, yet disintegrated rapidly in the mouth through chewing: “almost dissolving”, and a 2 on the sweet scale. Again, though most students felt this was “more appley” than the Golden Delicious, it was still not that appley, and had a dry and bitter after taste.
5. Royal Gala: First reaction by many was “yum”. 4 on the crunch scale and 2-3 on the sweet scale. This apple was appley! Most students said that is had a balance of sweet and tart, and that it was “delicious”.
6. Fiji: 2-3 on the crunch scale; our samples were very soft, and a 2 on the sweetness scale. Interestingly, this apple, as sweet and mushy as it was, students determined also to be very “appley”. “I had no idea that there were this many flavours of apple!”
7. Sonya: 1-2 on the crunch scale and 1-2 on the sweetness scale. No one liked this apple. It had a very off putting, sour-bitter aftertaste that was very unappealing. I had never heard of this apple, but found it in massive quantities when I was shopping for samples, so added it to my “batch”.

The Spartan and Ambrosia were not part of the tasting, but were offered as comparative reference tastes after the tasting. I could not find enough of them to buy to include them in the sampling.

A fantastic learning experience. Really. And, quite an “ah-ha” moment for many as they began to understand the fun of flavours and fresh and food!

WOW: Tastings are so much fun! Do them with your family! Try one new fruit together you have never seen before. Compare kinds of oranges, or mangos! Learn what about your personal palate!

This salad is high in fibre and everyone needs to eat more fibre!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of apples, washed, sliced (not peeled)
• 1 cup of celery, washed and diced
• ¼ cup of walnuts
• ¼ cup of raisins
• ¼ cup of mayonnaise
• 4 Lettuce leaves

Instructions:

1. Prepare all ingredients
2. Combine ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well
3. Serve each of the 4 portions, ¼ of this recipe, on a small lettuce leaf
4. Enjoy with your friends as a snack, or a side with a sandwich

Traditionally served on a leaf of lettuce, but is also great on its own!

Share your “Thinking out of the box” ideas! And, get cooking!

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That Yummy “Something Different”!

• one large carrot, diced
• 2 pieces of celery, diced
• 1/2 small head of purple cabbage, diced
• 2 Granny Smith apples, diced (not peeled)
• 1 cup raisons
• 1 cup salted, roasted cashews
• 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
• 2 tablespoons poppyseeds

1. dice all vegetables and the apples; put the apples into acidulated water until ready to use (one litre of water tot he juice of one lemon)
2. toss all ingredients in a large bowl, except the cashews, and add the dressing
3. the cashews tend to get soft if left long in this salad, so toss them in at the very last minute

• 4 tablespoons of mayonnaise (I make my own, or use Hellman’s Best Food’s)
• 1 tablespoon of honey
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon of cloves

Salad,red cabbage,dinner salad