Apples

Apples. I even love the word itself. My favorite it the Macoun, grown in the northeast and only available from October to a week or two past Thanksgiving. Looks like a McIntosh (from which it’s partially descended) but tarter and firmer. A little slice of cheddar on a little slice of Macoun? Little things in life can be big! Mrs. Plansky has a thought about that in Mrs. Plansky Goes Rogue (pub date July 15, pre-orderable now.)

6 Comments on “Apples”

  3. I love a good apple.

    If Macouns were available here I would buy them to eat and bake with. I love a firm tart apple. I eat Pippins too. When they were available I would buy enough for a pie, plus a few just for eating. Apparently not everyone like to eat a tart apple because there are none available in the stores, only eating apples. Delicious, Gala, Fuji, Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, Jazz and of course the Granny Smith which I have come to loathe. Nothing wrong with them. They’re an okay. They’re an eating apple like the rest. But none of them, including the Granny Smith are decent cooking apples. They’re flavor recedes if cooked so they’re not much for applesauce, applebread or pie. and when it comes to pie they are all reduces to various stages of mush, some mushier than others but they all lack that crisp firmness that when baked becomes a pleasant firmness. They cannot hold their own. It’s like, no one bakes any more? And I absolutely will NOT buy premade pie filling. I buy pumpkins and bake them to make my own pumpkin pie filling. Those cans of pumpkin? I use them when I make the dog’s food. Cherry pie? I buy the four cans of the tart cherries and make my own from scratch. The only time I use any sort of shortcut is for banana cream and coconut cream pie filling. Then I will buy a pudding base and add to it. A lot of my recipes are old and involve cooking from scratch. When I add newer ones I will often seek out those that involve cooking from scratch rather than using convenience short cuts. I’ve recently started making my red sauce by roasting my garden tomatoes rather than using cans. I’m hoping to go back to the traditional family recipe as soon as I have enough tomatoes to start canning them rather than consuming them as they ripen. Canning tomatoes is labor intensive and time consuming so I want a lot of them to make it worth while That means a lot of them have to ripen at the same time. So next year, hoping to have all four raised beds up and running with at least one tomato plant in each one. I don’t just use tomatoes for spaghetti sauce either. There is also lasagne and cacciatore, so that means more canned tomatoes. I’ve got basil still going, a Sweet Bay laurel tree and a single parsley plant right now. I want more parsley and fresh oregano plants in the raised beds. I have a sage but want to transplant into one of the raised beds too and add thyme. I currently have no rosemary but will likely plant that in the back as it can get pretty big. I want to shop my yard more and the store less.

    It is National Fluffernutter day. Something we never had as children. Both of my parents are products of immigrant families so it was likely not a thing for them growing up. I’d never heard of it until I was an adult. I tried it once. It was okay but to me a dessert, not a sandwich.

    It is National Salmon day, also something I never grew up with and didn’t try until I was into my 50s. We had fish but mostly fish sticks with an occasional sole if it was on sale. Growing up I found fish tasteless and unless there was cocktail sauce nothing improved them and since cocktail sauce was expensive and a restricted condiment there was never enough to improve the fish. I had trout for the first time 8 years ago and I loved it. Maybe it was because it was in Yosemite or that they prepared it perfectly but it was delicious. Salmon I ate because it is supposed to be healthy and the trout because I was feeling adventurous. Who wants a hamburger in the most expensive hotel dining room in Yosemite with a beautiful view? I can get a burger anywhere.

    Today is also Ada Lovelace day, the second Tuesday of October. Ada was the daughter of Lord Byron and is recognized as the inventor of the algorithm and the mother of modern computing.

    1. Why, thank you very much.

      I had another birthday dinner tonight at a neighborhood Greek restaurant I’ve been going to for years. The hostess, waitress and even another customer wished me a happy birthday. The food was great and I got $5 with my birthday club coupon.

      Tomorrow I’m bringing a sheet cake to my watercolor class and I’m sure it will be a great ending to my spread over several days birthday celebration.

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