Can Your Sweet Tooth be Retrained?

There were two big sugar events this week. First, a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough was produced. Our practice concerning cookies is ordered around the empirical truth that cookies are only good when fresh baked (further chronicled here). We make dough and roll it into logs. One log goes in the freezer and the other stays in the fridge. Individual cookies are baked off for treats on an as needed basis. That this practice also precludes overindulgence is not lost on the nutrition hawk in me.

The second event was that we took delivery on a 10-pound bag of glucose (a/k/a dextrose powder). Quick chemistry on glucose: glucose and its chubby cousin, fructose, are monosaccharides. Put together they form sucrose, yes, a disaccharide. Sucrose is what's in your sugar bowl. That batch of cookies called for 3/4 cup of white granulated sugar and another 3/4 cup of light brown sugar (1). Whether your sugar bowl contains sugar-in-the-raw, or those fancy La Perruche sugar cubes I like so much, or white granulated table sugar you assumed originated from sugar cane but is actually from beets, it's all sucrose. It's all the same chemistry.

Once ingested, enzymes break sucrose back down into fructose and glucose. Your body needs glucose, it is a source of energy needed by cells (2). Your body does not need dietary fructose - it heads straight to the liver where the excess (most of it) is turned into fat. (3) This is old news, tho it would have been helpful information for my college girlfriends and I to have understood in the mid-90s TCBY craze.

[Did we not learn anything from TCBY? Frozen yogurt is back and it's bigger than before - and now it's there's candy and you can fill your own massive bowl.]

Glucose is either used immediately for energy or stored in muscle cells or the liver (4). Unlike fructose, insulin is secreted in response to elevated concentrations of glucose. (5) If that sounds like there's a difference between what glucose and fructose do in your body, you're right: researchers at the University of California Davis reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation that high fructose consumption puts individuals at greater risk of developing heart disease and diabetes than ingesting a similar amount of glucose. (6)

Consumers and food producers limit sugar intake by using less, or by using natural or artificial sugar substitutes. It's important to note that your body doesn't differentiate between natural sugars. It doesn't matter if it's Lucky Charms or Fruit Juice Sweetened Corn Flakes. There's no difference between the sugars in a juicy grapefruit, the honey in your tea, the tomatoes in your marinara, or the cabernet in your glass - your body metabolizes it all the same way. What does matter is the amount, and - in my understanding - the glucose/fructose ratio. That ratio is the cause of the rage against high fructose corn syrup, and the science behind debunking the myth of agave which can contain 97% fructose (manufacturing processes differ and so do fructose levels). As for artificial sweeteners - which are neither carbohydrates nor nutritive - aside from the unknown unintended consequences, my main concern is that they hype our collective sweet tooth (7). Diet sodas have very specific amount of sweetener, and if that's the amount you're used to, your sweet tooth won't be satiated with less.

What we need to do is retrain our sweet tooth and get back to more reasonable sugar consumption levels. We can start doing this by drinking more water and less juice and soda. Reduce sugar every time you cook or bake (if a recipe calls for a cup, just use 2/3 - you won't ruin anything, trust me). Finally, look at nutrition labels carefully and try, with every choice, to consume less.

This morning I added a small teaspoon of glucose to my coffee. No cloying aftertaste, it just tasted like I cut back on my sugar. On the tongue glucose tastes just like table sugar - just a watered-down version - which is exactly what it should taste like, being half sugar. The texture is similar to superfine sugar.

I will report back on my baking-with-glucose experiments. In the meanwhile, should you want to try it, glucose (sold as dextrose powder) can be sourced on Amazon.

(1) Brown sugar being simply refined white sugar to which molasses (a byproduct of the refining process) has been added back in.
(2) Glucose -  Hyperphysics.com
(3) How Bad is Fructose? - American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
(4) What is the Difference Between Sucrose, Glucose & Fructose? - SF Gate
(5) and (6) All Sugars Aren't the Same: Glucose Is Better, Study Says - TIME
(7) Added Sugars - Harvard Medical School

More interesting reading on measuring sugar density:  What is Brix? from Stag's Leap Wine Cellars

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An Extra Step to Improve Apple Pie

An article on apple pie caught my eye a few weeks ago. You can read it yourself here. I'm not a huge fan of pie. I much prefer the more elegant tart. The few pies that do get made in the Pinch kitchen - Pecan, Pumpkin, Cranberry, Lemon Meringue - are made in tart pans.

An old fashioned apple pie has always been the one exception; it will always be made in a regular pie dish. Apple pie should be mile high. I don't make it often (and I don't eat it often because it's usually way too sweet for my tastes) but after reading this recipe and needing to help my daughters celebrate Pi Day at school, a pie making night was planned.

The extra step that this recipe proposed was cooking down the apples before baking. I never did this before. I was always a little less than thrilled with the texture of the apples in my pie and frankly, am surprised I didn't think of this myself. The result was a much improved pie that won rave reviews.

Oh, I should note that I tried a new apple, too. The pastry chef referenced in the article recommended Pink Ladies. I've seem them at the market but never tried them. I've always reached for the Golden Delicious when making apple desserts. But the Pink Ladies were great.

I tweaked the original recipe a bit to include fresh lemon juice, my own trustworthy pie dough recipe, and a lot less sugar. The rest of the instructions are mostly from the original recipe. Here is the recipe:

Apple Pie
Print recipe only here

Makes one 9-inch pie

INGREDIENTS
Pie dough (you will have some leftover) Prepare ahead of time.

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 pounds Golden Delicious, Honeycrisp or Pink Lady apples, peeled and cored, then cut into thick slices
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup (heaping) sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cornstarch
Juice of 1 lemon

1 egg, lightly beaten with 2 T milk

METHOD
Make the pie dough first, giving it at least an hour to sit in the refrigerator.

Prep apples.

Melt butter in a large sauté pan set over medium-high heat and add apples to the pan. Stir to coat fruit with butter and cook, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, whisk together the spices, salt and sugar, and sprinkle this over the apples, stirring gently to combine. Lower heat and cook until apples have started to soften, approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Sprinkle the flour and cornstarch over the apples and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, another 3 to 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat, add lemon juice and stir to combine. Scrape apples into a bowl and allow to cool completely.


Place a large baking sheet on the middle rack of oven and preheat to 425. Remove pie dough from the refrigerator and knead briefly on a floured surface to soften (be very brief - you want it to just come together). Use a rolling pin to roll it out (use flour sparingly, but as necessary) until it is roughly 12 inches in diameter. Fit this crust into a 9-inch pie plate, trimming it to leave a 1/2-inch overhang. Place this plate, with the dough, in the freezer.

Roll out the remaining dough on a lightly floured surface until it is roughly 10 or 11 inches in diameter.

Remove pie crust from freezer and put the cooled pie filling into it. Cover with remaining dough. Press the edges together, trim the excess, then crimp the edges with the tines of a fork. Using a sharp knife, cut three or four steam vents in the top of the crust. Lightly brush the top of the pie with egg wash (the egg/milk mixture) and sprinkle with a teaspoon or so of sugar.

Place pie in oven and bake on hot baking sheet for 20 minutes, then reduce temperature to 375. Continue to cook until the interior is bubbling and the crust is golden brown, about 30 to 40 minutes more. Remove and allow to cool on a windowsill or kitchen rack, about two hours.

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Aequalitate, Veritas et Citrus

The beginning of the citrus season is one of my favorite things about the tide between Thanksgiving and trimming the Christmas tree. Some people like to move from one holiday right to the next. I prefer when time moves more slowly. Sure, we bring out the advent calendar and some greens for our planters outside, but we've also set out in-shell nuts and big bowls of Cuties or satsumas. The dark afternoons are a lovely time for candles and jazz. In the ten days before Christmas and for the twelve days post we are pretty festive. But for now it's more about the pure change of season.

Citrus are not created equal. The individual varieties have not gotten the marketing blitz or branding that the apple enjoys. More than that though, it's the supply of sub-par citrus that surprises me. A generic clementine (and most tangerines) generally amounts to a sour mouthful of pulp waiting to sit stagnant in your gut and make you bloated. To be fair, even a perfect Cutie clementine will act similarly but will first skip merrily down your throat and make you forget all your troubles for at least five minutes post-mastication. Even the lowly lemon can disappoint, especially when you were counting on one to be juicy but the whole weight of it was in the skin.

Some citrus truths:

1. A good satsuma is hard to come by in Chicago. I used to get great ones when we lived in the Pacific Northwest. Not so much anymore. Whole Foods has them sometimes but they're not dependably excellent.
2. Cuties are the best clementine. Nothing Compares 2 Cuties.
3. Florida should stop sending forth its nasty grapefruit. They could use the the crop for bocce.
4. Ruby Red grapefruit from Texas is the only grapefruit worth eating. Last year the best foodie gift of Christmas (or perhaps tied with the case of Dave's Albacore Tuna) was a generous box of deep red Rubies from Bell's Farm. They were just perfect.
5. What's the best way to pick citrus? Weight and smell. Generally, it's heft you're looking for. A higher water weight generally means a more succulent piece of fruit. Get comfortable smelling your produce. If it smells delicious it's not going to disappoint. If it smells bland move on.


Finally, don't let another winter pass you by without trying something new. Not sure what to do with a Blood orange or a Meyer lemon? Start simply: Squeeze blood oranges and serve the juice or make a cocktail. Make a Meyer lemon curd and serve alongside a simple cake. It's citrus season! Enjoy it.

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We have no bananas today

I made banana muffins today for the first time in a long time. Muffins get made when we have spotty nanas, the super sweet freckled ones. In our local banana republic we eat bananas the minute they are ripe, and sometimes a day earlier. We've been on a banana kick lately, consuming them as soon as they come into the house. And so, no muffins.

I am a big fan of the banana and most of its kinfolk. In fact the only banana I ever met that I disliked was the Runts banana.  A box of Runts has way too many bananas in it, contributing to the candy's poor scores in public recognition and approval. But we were talking about the muffins...

Oh! One more thing. I heard this very interesting/slightly alarmist report on NPR about how the global supply of bananas could go kaput in the not-too-distant future. The reason: some kind of a banana-eating disease is lumbering through Southeast Asia and Australia snacking on the very type of bananas - Cavendish - that are imported to the rest of the world. I was probably supposed to get all fired up over this news, but I'm going to take sides with science and capitalism here. Bananas are the #1 selling fruit in the US. Someone will figure out something to meet that demand.

Back to the muffins. I used to make these with whole wheat flour but they were just not as light or scrumptious. Now I use a combination of organic all purpose flour and wheat germ. Here's that recipe:

Banana Muffins
Print recipe only here

Makes one dozen muffins

INGREDIENTS
3 bananas
1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt
2 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 t vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups AP flour
1/4 c wheat germ
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt

OPTIONAL: 1/2 cup toasted pecans

METHOD
Preheat oven to 350 (or 300 convection). Lightly spray a muffin tin with baking release. If you plan to add pecans, toast them in the preheated oven for about 5 minutes, then cool.

In a medium to large mixing bowl (or bowl of stand mixer) mash the bananas. Add yogurt, eggs, sugar, oil and extract and mix well to combine.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, wheat germ, baking soda and salt. Whisk well to combine. Add to the wet ingredients and mix gently until just combined. Roughly chop the pecans and add them to the batter.

Scoop into the prepared muffin tins and bake for about 15 minutes, or until the sides of the muffins pull away from the pan, the tops are golden and firm. Cool slightly. Store in a covered container at room temperature.

Further nonsense: Go Bananas!

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Culinary delights in the City of Light

Stars in the sky over Luxembourg Gardens

I've been to Paris three times. The first time was when I was ten. On that trip I got sick from fois gras, indulged in glace à la fraise and café au lait and thought nothing could ever top a basketful of croissants. It was also when I began a lifetime fondness for mussels.

The second time was last summer. This time I was the parent of a ten year old. We trotted all over, sampled sorbet from a variety of vendors, swooned over Laduree macarons, and delighted in shady parks for picnics. One night after tucking our children into their beds, my husband and I opened the windows of our Juliet balcony, pushed two desk chairs up close and uncorked a bottle of Bordeaux, toasting our good fortune for that delightful moment.

When we started planning a trip to celebrate our anniversary this fall I think we both wanted to return to Paris but thought the other one would not. In my memory, we sort of floated it to each other simultaneously, without expectation. Whenever I make what I assume someone will think is a lousy suggestion, I sort of open my eyes really wide, raise my eyebrows, and grimace with one side of my mouth. It's not a good look. I suspect it disarms my opponent, who will not hear the suggestion but instead take pity on the wretch before him and just do whatever she said. This is how we end up at lots of parties.

Anyway, we went to Paris last month and picked right up where we left 14 months earlier with cool Beaujolais, fall picnics, and tromping from droit to gauche and back again. The best dinner was a monumentally savory Coq au Vin on the left bank. There's a story there; the Coq au Vin was actually my second choice. I owe a debt of gratitude to our waiter for translating my first choice, Rognons de Veau. I love veal (veau) so I assumed Rognons meant Chop-of-a-lifetime when, in point of fact, it means kidney. I made that same weird face at the waiter's suggestion that it was quite good (weird face can be also employed as a reaction to a lousy suggestion) and requested the Coq. That meal turned out to be the dish-of-a-lifetime. I've been trying to recreate it this side of the Seine but haven't come close to matching the depth of flavor of the Parisian masterpiece.

The other food take-away from Paris 2010: Medjool dates. I knew dates to be the sweet, chewy, flavorless nubs my mom added to oatmeal. I had never eaten a whole date. The Medjool ones I encountered in Paris were unbelievably delicate. The little pit inside surrendered its hold on the fruit without a fight, unlike the insouciant apricot pit whose aloofness toward his host is cause for one gentleman of my acquaintance to mistrust the fruit entirely.

Anyhoo, Medjool dates have joined the ranks of Favorite Fruit. It's a short list - only cherries and blueberries occupy it. The criteria to make the list: it takes discipline (sometimes force) to make me stop eating the candidate. I bought myself a small carton at Whole Foods upon our return home. They were good. The Parisian ones were no doubt the Jumbo variety. Those are the cream of the crop. Santa takes suggestions, right?

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Where to Buy Avocados, Broccoli, Carrots, and Citrus

Many readers have written in over the last two years (Pinch is gonna be two on Monday, yo!) asking for advice on the best grocers from which to purchase produce. So here's a starter list, inspired by The Atlantic food writer Corby Kummer's blind tasting of produce from Whole Foods and Walmart in his Northeastern locale. Pinch is Chicago-based. The following store recommendations are based on price and quality.

There's no Walmart in my 'hood so you won't see that as an option. You won't see Stanley's, either. Stanley's can be good, but I found it not reliable enough to justify the trip west. I don't get to the indoor Green City Market very frequently. Remaining indoor market Saturdays are February 27, March 13 & 27, and April 10 & 24 from 8:00 am- 1:00 pm at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.

The outdoor market begins May 12. I am so looking forward to riding my bike there are getting my Ciabatta fix and filling my bike baskets with farm produce. Until then, I'll be shopping for:

Avocados - Dominick's, Treasure Island, or Whole Foods. I'm at WF more frequently and will always check to see if there's a deal on avocados. Many times this winter I've seen them at $1 apiece. If you buy firm avocados, allow them to ripen at room temperature in a brown paper lunch bag.

Broccoli - Trader Joe's. They sell Earthbound Organic crowns and conventional (non-organic) baby broccoli that we love. In the fall I love picking up crowns at the Green City or LP Farmer's Market.

Carrots - Whole Foods. And I no longer buy baby carrots on account of them not tasting like anything. I buy 2# bags of organic carrots at WF and find them substantially better than any other carrots in the city grocers.

Citrus - Trader Joe's has the best prices on lemons, limes, Navel oranges, and Clementines. They get a nod for carrying Key Limes, blood oranges and Meyer lemons when they are in season (right now for the latter two). Whole Foods has the best Texas Ruby Red grapefruit.

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Winter Citrus: It's 80 degrees Somewhere

Citrus is one of my favorite things about winter. In addition to having no less than six different citrus fruits rolling about my kitchen (big naval oranges, Ruby Red grapefruit, Meyer lemons, clementine Cuties, and some garden-variety lemons and limes), I have a nice supply of citrusy essential oils (bergamot, neroli, sweet orange). And, yes, Virginia, that is a lemon tree in the background of the photo. And it's flowering!!

Just saying "tropical fruit" takes me away, Calgon-style, in a nanosecond. I may be sitting at my kitchen counter tucking into a Ruby Red grapefruit wearing a merino sweater, cozy corduroy and plush knee-highs, but there's sand between my toes and the sun is on my back, filtered through a canopy of palms.

I do some baking and cooking with citrus - fresh lime goes into guacamole and marinades, fresh lemon goes into salad dressings, aioli, hummus, and sauteed baby broccoli. And everyone under my roof loves lemon cake with a dollop of lemon curd on the side. Everything else goes into lunch bags or consumed in the morning, as a snack or sometimes as dessert. Lately, it's the Ruby Reds that are at their prime. A grocer once advised me on how to select a grapefruit with these words: weight. Pick the ones that are the most density for their size. Some might think he was shrewdly running up my bill. But the heaviest grapefruit is the juiciest one, and nothing beats squeezing the empty half into your bowl and drinking the fresh juice. Nothing.

For those inclined to think about it being 80 degrees and five o'clock somewhere, the fresh-squeezed grapefruit-vodka cocktail is a formidable challenger to the as-yet uncontested supremacy of the gimlet.

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The Only Smoothie

For years I couldn't make a good smoothie. I have no idea what I was doing wrong. How can you go wrong with fruit, juice and yogurt?

Over the years I've developed a standard smoothie that rarely disappoints. The key is to use good, ripe fruit. Frozen fruit is often flavorless. Taste a frozen strawberry sometime - if it doesn't taste like anything it's just the same as adding ice to your smoothie, an item I'm shocked (SHOCKED!) to see in so many smoothie recipes (runners up: added sugar or honey, and milk - blechk).

I like frosty smoothies, so I use ripe fruit I've frozen myself. Next time you buy bananas, peel two or 3, break them into chunks and pop them in a ziploc. Bananas will continue to ripen in the freezer, so don't freeze more than you'll use in a month.

I do the same with pineapple and strawberries. When perfect fruit is available, buy extra and freeze some for your smoothie supply. For strawberries, rinse and remove the stems (hull them if you've got time to kill). Trim pineapple into chunks. Both can be placed on a baking sheet first, spread out so they're not touching each other, and frozen. Once frozen, put them into Ziploc bags for longer storage. This process prevents the fruit from freezing into a solid mass. Grocers call it IQF (Individual Quality Frozen). Lazy people call it Anal.

Strawberry Banana Smoothie
Print recipe only here

Makes four 8-ounce smoothies

INGREDIENTS
1 cup orange juice
1-2 cups frozen strawberries
1 banana
3/4 cup pineapple
1/2 cup lowfat yogurt (vanilla, strawberry or banana flavored)

METHOD
Starting with the OJ, measure all the ingredients - except the yogurt - into a blender. A chef in Telluride once advised me to always add the yogurt last so that the heat generated by blending didn't detroy the yogurt cultures. I'm not certain of the validity of the claim, but am willing to put my yogurt in at the end of the blending process just the same.

Anyway, start blending on low speed. You might need to stop and stir things up with a spoon if the fruit jams the blender up. Increase to high speed for a few seconds. Stop the blender, add the yogurt and blend until just mixed it. Serve and enjoy.

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Piece of Pie: Pear Frangipane Galette

A rustic galette is a beautiful thing, and not hard to pull off. I made it this weekend since it’s still too early for the summer tarts I love so much. You could substitute Golden Delicious apples for the pears. Apples and pears both go wonderfully with almond, which is what frangipane is.

Pear Frangipane Galette
Print recipe only here

Makes one 10-inch galette, serving 10-12

You’ll need a basic pie dough or sweeter rustic tart dough. This is a free form (no pan) tart so you need a firmer dough than, say your typical pate sucree - just use a pie dough recipe and you'll be fine here. Anyway, make the dough and chill it well. Pull it out of the fridge and roll out a 14-inch circle of dough, trimming off the excess. Transfer the dough circle to a parchment-lined baking sheet and put it back in the fridge.

Next, make the frangipane.

Cream:

• 5 ounces almond paste (you’ll find it in a can in the baking aisle of most grocery stores.)
• 4 T softened unsalted butter
• ¼ cup sugar

Add and mix well:

• 1 ½ T dark rum (I like Meyer’s)
• 1 t almond extract
• 1 egg
• 1-2 T cinnamon sugar

Peel 4-5 ripe pears. Quarter, core and slice them lengthwise. Toss them with 1 T cinnamon sugar and the juice of half a lemon.

Remove the pie dough from the fridge and spread the frangipane over the dough, leaving a two-inch border. Arrange the pear slices on top in concentric circles or however you like. Then fold over the filling, pleating as you go. You could also make individual galettes using a five-inch dough circle and one half pear, sliced but kept in it's half shape.

Sprinkle the exposed dough with cinnamon sugar and toss back in the fridge or freezer for 15-30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375°

Bake the galette for about 30 minutes or until very nicely golden. Let cool for about 15-20 minutes before slicing.

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Spring Strawberry Shortcake in 5 Steps

This cake is great for the baker who wants to make something beautiful but isn't quite comfortable with frosting and an offset spatula. I love the open sides on fruit cakes - it's so enticing to see a colorful berry peeking out between layers of cake and cream.

#1 Bake a cake
Any yellow cake will do, but I often use a Hot Milk Sponge cake or the Kentucky Butter cake. Bake it in 8 or 9-inch rounds (if you only have one cake pan, just bake it in one pan, but you'll have to slice it in half, or thirds, crosswise. Just make sure the cake is good and cold - refrigerating overnite is optimal - before attempting to slice into layers.

#2 Make sugar syrup
This is how to guarantee a moist cake. Make a sugar syrup by boiling 3/4 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar. Add liqueur/flavoring as you like. Using a pastry brush or squeeze bottle, soak cake layers with hot syrup.

#3 Slice and macerate strawberries
Buy at least 2 pint containers (those apx 5x7x3 boxes) of strawberries, remove the greens and slice. Transfer to a mixing bowl and toss with 2 T or so of sugar. Let sit for 5 minutes or so to macerate.


#4 Whip Cream
Whip a pint (more like 3 cups, to be on the safe side) of heavy cream with a spoonful of powdered sugar and a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract.

#5 Assemble the cake - but no more than 4 hours before serving
Set the bottom cake layer on a plate and soak with warm/hot sugar syrup.

Spoon a large dollop (about a cup) of whipped cream on the center of the bottom cake layer. Smooth out, close to the edges but with a 1-cm space of exposed cake. Top with an even layer of berries. Use a slotted spoon with the berries. You don't want them to put too much of the macerating liquid on the cream.

Top with next cake layer(s) and repeat.

Refrigerate until serving. And beware - this cake is a big mess to cut and serve. But it's scrumptious.

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Cobbler or Crunch: Biscuit vs. streusel toppings

My mom used to make this thing she called Apple Crunch. It was sort of a lazy apple pie. No crust, just sliced apples, kissed with lemon and cinnamon sugar, and topped with streusel. Baked until golden, Apple Crunch was a perfect combination of gooey apples and the crunchy oat streusel. Why don't I make this more often? Probably because of the buttery streusel.

The cobbler topping I've been making lately has a lower sugar and fat content than a streusel. Pictured at left is a peach and blueberry cobbler that I made recently. It was just incredible. Cutting down on added sugar and fat really lets the fruit be the star. I had some great peaches for this cobbler. I keep frozen blackberries on hand year-round so I can turn our a blackberry cobbler if we're in a must have dessert kind of a mood.

Berries and stone fruits go well with either streusel or biscuit toppings. It's only apples that demand streusel. Don't take my word for it - you decide. Fall fruits provide many possibilities.

To make an 8-inch square cobbler or crunch you will need about 6 cups of berries or sliced fruit. Add to the fruit the juice of one lemon, 1/4 cup of sugar (cinnamon sugar works well here) and a heaping tablespoon of flour. Toss well and taste. Add more sugar if necessary, but add it slowly. Let the sugar complement the fruit, not overshadow it.

Top with handfuls of streusel or scoops of sticky biscuit dough and bake until the fruit bubbles up and the top is richly golden.

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I Picked Them Apples

Gala, McIntosh , Golden Delicious and Jubilee Fuji

Our annual Indiana apple picking extravaganza was later than usual this year and we missed the Honeycrisp apple picking season. The apples we brought home were consolation enough. Plus, they're still available further north. Honeycrisp season extends into October in northern Michigan, Wisconsin and its native Minnesota and several farmers are still bringing them to market in Chicago.

For those unacquainted with the variety, the Honeycrisp is a product of cross-breeding the Macoun and Honeygold varieties. The coupling produces an apple that is notably crisp and simultaneously sweet and tart. Also, there's less shedding.

So what are we going to do with them apples? Most of them will be eaten whole or with peanut butter. But a few lucky ones will be braised with cider and cinnamon and heaped on tomorrow morning's oatmeal. Mmm.

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Figs!

I admit it. I forgot about figs until I crossed paths with a towering display this afternoon at Pete's. Yes, Pinch went back to Pilsen for more glorious produce and fresh corn tortillas. We had a tough time keeping our Northsidedness on the downlow while rolling through the Southside because my oldest was sporting her Cubs jersey. A man pointed to her as if she were a white buffalo. "Look at that honey," he said to his wife, "there ARE Cubs fans." I didn't ask the Sox fan where in the market I might find a broom since we plan on sweeping his White Sox again this weekend.

Back to the figs...

I love figs. They are perfectly sweet. I've been enjoying (read: pigging out on) summer berries and stone fruits and needed an intermezzo. Figs are just the thing. I love them plain and whole. I'm thinking a lovely breakfast would be a scoop of Greek yogurt topped with quartered figs and drizzled with my Savannah Bee honey.

If serving figs formally I would present them as an hors d'oevre, quartered alongside a goat cheese or halved to accompany a selection of cheeses. Or, as a dessert atop a Chèvre tart or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of Armangac reduction, or accompanying a luscious Zabaglione. I'd consider them in a salad, in place of pear or pomegranate seeds, but I prefer to make them more of a star.

How do you take your figs?

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