(no subject)
Oct. 16th, 2006 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickProgress on sock has stalled due to progress on hat for cousin Heather's baby. Since it's not Baby-Hat-Fest, I won't be boring you with the details on that front.
In other news, the coffee at my house has improved considerably due to contributions from Cousin Heather (who believes in much nicer coffee than I generally drink). For the time being, anyway, the cuppa joe available at chez moi is a cut above.
BSG 2.5, which I got over the weekend from brother-the-younger, is over, at least once. I was gratified to see that, as President of the Colonies, Gaius Baltar appears to be providing the same level of competent, concerned leadership that we are receiving from our own Dear Leader in the real world. (No, I don't want to hear about BSG 3.0. I don't have actual television, so my media fanwhoring is way out of date.) On the plus side, he debauches so prettily. I'm a fan.
It is apple season. The proper apples, the apples for pie, are available at my local farmer's market. I have purchased some. I don't generally go on about my love for apples because most of the year apples leave me cold. For the approximately two months that I can get good Stayman Winesaps, I love apples and I eat a lot of them. (Note to self: Get some damn celery and walnuts so's to be able to make Waldorf salad.)
A proper apple, at least to my way of thinking, should be so crisp it's unreal. People in the next room should be able to hear me eating the damn thing. It should crunch like scuffing my feet through crispy fallen leaves. Apples that do not crunch sufficiently are unacceptable.
A proper apple is tartly sweet, with a winey, complex flavor. It tastes the same way a woods full of fallen leaves smells. There are layers of flavor, more than one note. Insipid or overly-sweet apples are unacceptable.
The Red Delicious, which is pitched as the perfect apple to a lot of people who don't know any better, is an entirely unacceptable apple, lacking in crispitude and depth of flavor. It is a PRETTY apple, typically apple-shaped, dark red, and willing to take a shine on its smooth, unrusseted skin. However, it is never very interesting to eat and goes bland, sweet, and mealy as soon as it's stored. I don't like Granny Smith. They're one-note sour and don't hold up well texturally when cooked. I don't like Golden Delicious, either. They're overly sweet and tend to have a soft, uncrunchy texture. Romes are *okay*, as are McIntoshes. I can eat Galas and they're also passable, if kind of bland. (I have not yet eaten the Honeycrisp or whatever was the very trendy and hip apple flavor last year on the grounds that I am in no way interested in a really sweet apple Sweet ain't where it's at for me.) However, when they are in season, which is from about mid-October to the end of November, nothing compares to a Winesap. The Winesap is not a particularly lovely apple. It's round (like a softball, not like an apple) and doesn't get all the way red most years. Even when it does get red, it doesn't have a smooth skin that shines up. The flesh is not usually snow white -- mostly it's tinged light green. The Winesap is not an eye-appeal apple. If you want apples for looking at, get Red Delicious -- they're pretty. The Winesap is an apple for eating.
In other news, the coffee at my house has improved considerably due to contributions from Cousin Heather (who believes in much nicer coffee than I generally drink). For the time being, anyway, the cuppa joe available at chez moi is a cut above.
BSG 2.5, which I got over the weekend from brother-the-younger, is over, at least once. I was gratified to see that, as President of the Colonies, Gaius Baltar appears to be providing the same level of competent, concerned leadership that we are receiving from our own Dear Leader in the real world. (No, I don't want to hear about BSG 3.0. I don't have actual television, so my media fanwhoring is way out of date.) On the plus side, he debauches so prettily. I'm a fan.
It is apple season. The proper apples, the apples for pie, are available at my local farmer's market. I have purchased some. I don't generally go on about my love for apples because most of the year apples leave me cold. For the approximately two months that I can get good Stayman Winesaps, I love apples and I eat a lot of them. (Note to self: Get some damn celery and walnuts so's to be able to make Waldorf salad.)
A proper apple, at least to my way of thinking, should be so crisp it's unreal. People in the next room should be able to hear me eating the damn thing. It should crunch like scuffing my feet through crispy fallen leaves. Apples that do not crunch sufficiently are unacceptable.
A proper apple is tartly sweet, with a winey, complex flavor. It tastes the same way a woods full of fallen leaves smells. There are layers of flavor, more than one note. Insipid or overly-sweet apples are unacceptable.
The Red Delicious, which is pitched as the perfect apple to a lot of people who don't know any better, is an entirely unacceptable apple, lacking in crispitude and depth of flavor. It is a PRETTY apple, typically apple-shaped, dark red, and willing to take a shine on its smooth, unrusseted skin. However, it is never very interesting to eat and goes bland, sweet, and mealy as soon as it's stored. I don't like Granny Smith. They're one-note sour and don't hold up well texturally when cooked. I don't like Golden Delicious, either. They're overly sweet and tend to have a soft, uncrunchy texture. Romes are *okay*, as are McIntoshes. I can eat Galas and they're also passable, if kind of bland. (I have not yet eaten the Honeycrisp or whatever was the very trendy and hip apple flavor last year on the grounds that I am in no way interested in a really sweet apple Sweet ain't where it's at for me.) However, when they are in season, which is from about mid-October to the end of November, nothing compares to a Winesap. The Winesap is not a particularly lovely apple. It's round (like a softball, not like an apple) and doesn't get all the way red most years. Even when it does get red, it doesn't have a smooth skin that shines up. The flesh is not usually snow white -- mostly it's tinged light green. The Winesap is not an eye-appeal apple. If you want apples for looking at, get Red Delicious -- they're pretty. The Winesap is an apple for eating.
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-17 01:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-17 06:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-17 12:39 pm (UTC)Have you tried Northern Spy apples?
Wish you could have been at the apple picking. It was enjoyable, but would have been better if you had been there.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-17 09:43 pm (UTC)I wanted to go to the apple fest, but I wanted fifteen miles on my IRH in glorious Rothrock State Forest more. Perhaps we can apple again next year?
no subject
Date: 2006-10-17 03:00 pm (UTC)its true, lame apples suck. and so much of our produce is mass-farmed, unripe-when-picked, shipped around the world, and chosen for visual rather than taste/nutritative qualities.
the best apple i ever ate was in yugoslavia, back when i was a kid, maybe 10 or 12, from a small orchard. it was a deep, dark red, and the flesh was a bloody purple. "These are the last of these trees," the owner told us. "after the war, they started dying. now these are the only ones left."