Eat Out Eat Well

Food for Fun and Thought

No Apples From My Apple Tree

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An Apple A Day?

Fall is right around the corner and apple season is picking up steam.  At my local farmers market, the different types of apples are outnumbering (sadly, from my point of view) the peaches, nectarines, plums, and berries.

All of those apples in their red, green, and yellow coats are a reminder of my wonderful old apple tree.

My Magnificent Tree

I’m still in mourning for my apple tree.  We had this old, old tree in our front yard that was a prodigious producer of apples. Hundreds of them.  Bright red and medium in size.  I once brought one to my favorite fruit guy to try to identify its variety. “Old fashioned” is what I was told.  Not a hybrid or genetically engineered (I’m kidding) or a fancy new variety.  Just an old fashioned apple.

I loved my tree.  I nursed it for 21 years.  When I moved into this house it stood proud – and gnarly — along the driveway.  I had a great view of it from my kitchen window.  It had not been properly taken care of for a long time.

A Call To The Tree Doctor

The tree guys cabled the tree’s outreaching branches – and cabled it some more —  to keep the heavy load from the apples from splitting the branches from the trunk.  Five cables at last count.  Over the years we lost big, big branches, the size of tree trunks. But we fed the tree and trimmed it and, in return, it lovingly produced hundreds of apples that made for wonderful eating and loads of applesauce.  The garbage man and the mailman would stop each fall and ask if they could have some.  “Be my guest – we have plenty.”

The Tree Gave As Good As It Got

Innumerable deer and deer babies feasted on the apples and the sweet apple leaves, at once annoying but beautiful.  Driving into the driveway at dusk meant turning in slowly to make sure happily munching deer wouldn’t bolt in front of the car.

Scores of people have had to duck their heads walking onto the front lawn to avoid getting poked in the eye by the branches with kinks and turns.  Lawn mowers learned quite quickly:  beware the tree and its low hanging branches.

The Tree Is Down

My wonderful tree survived a horrendous March storm this year that left more than 40 local roads impassable from downed trees and wires and left my house without power for five days.  What a stalwart.

Then, in the middle of summer, on a bright sunny day, I walked outdoors and the tree was lying on its side, broken low on its very wide trunk, surrounded by an array of baby apples – like they were paying homage to the queen.

Despair.  I called for chain saw help.  I really wanted to save some of the magnificent branches,  “To do what?” my husband asked.  There are times when I really hate practical questions.  I needed a remembrance.

The Yard Needs A New Tree

Since the tree presided over the front lawn from such a pivotal spot – and to just plain feel better – I paid a visit to my local nursery that afternoon.  I thought about replacing my tree with another apple tree, but nothing could do that, both emotionally and physically.  Anyway, my type of tree really isn’t bred for nurseries any longer – newer apple trees are stronger and more impervious to a whole list of plagues.

Logic prevailed.  My tree had needed deep root feeding and spraying every year.  It attracted families of deer.  Lots of Mama deer feasted on apples and leaves to feed their offspring.  Then the offspring got big enough to chow down by themselves.  The deer, wonderful to look at, provide transportation for ticks (Lyme disease is a scourge where I live) and they eat everything in sight, not just apples.

Back Home To A Vacant Spot

By the time I got home from the nursery, man with chain saw had done his work, and what was once my beautiful tree was now a heap of branches, leaves, and baby apples in the back of a dump truck.  I couldn’t even rescue some intact gnarly old branches.

But looking at the heap of wood in the back of the dump truck confirmed that my tree had been strong and determined.  Its massive trunk was hollow.  It had been hanging on – cables and all –through sheer willpower, or treepower, if you will, for a long, long time.

An Adolescent Copper Beech

A  magnificent copper beech in the making (when it grows some more)   — its pyramidal branching structure covered in coppery leaves reaching toward the sky – now stands where the queen once reigned.

I’ve always loved the majesty of copper beeches – they seem gentle and at peace with themselves.  There are quite a few enormous ones around my town, so I have hopes that my copper beech will reside in its new home for many years.  My kitchen window frames a new view– and my family will make memories with this tree, too.

It was heartening when the FedEx delivery man, completely unsolicited, made a point of telling me, just last week, that he really misses the apple tree every time he drives down my driveway.  It’s nice to know that my tree made memories for more than just me and my family.  What a legacy.

Friday’s Post

Check out my post on Friday.   It’s apple season, and even though I won’t have a harvest in my front yard, I’ll give you some thoughts on an old question:  Does an apple a day really keep the doctor away?

What Button Do You Push On The Vending Machine?

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Are you facing a long car ride — punctuated by innumerable rest stops — this Labor Day weekend?  Many of the roads I  travel have “Welcome to Massachusetts or New Hampshire or Maine,” in front of a New England style structure with bathrooms and a line-up of vending machines.

What Number And Letter Button Do You Push?

Whether out of boredom or hunger when you’re confronted with a similar line-up, index finger ready to punch the letter and number of your chosen indulgence, what do you ultimately choose?

I have to be honest, I love vending machines – I have since I was a kid and spent a nickel to get cardboard packages of two chiclets of gum on New York City subway platforms.

Here’s a bit of interesting trivia. Around 215 BC, the mathematician Hero invented a vending type device that accepted bronze coins to dispense holy water.

In 1888 vending became economically viable in the US when the Adams Gum Company put gum machines on New York City’s elevated train platforms that dispensed a piece of Tutti-Frutti gum for a penny.

Today’s automated vending business is a $30 billion-a-year industry with around100 million people using 7 million vending machines each day.  Around 30% of the machines are in manufacturing facilities and slightly over 16% are on school and college campuses.

Best Selling Vending Machine Candy

According to an unscientific survey of 20 vending machine owners, when asked what their best selling vending machine product is:

  • 1 said Reese’s
  • 1 said Cashews
  • 1 said Mike n’ Ike
  • 1 said Smartfood White Cheddar popcorn
  • 1 said Stickers (“ cause kids can’t resist them)
  • 2 said Gumballs
  • 3 said Skittles
  • 10 said Peanut M & Ms

Peanuts In Our Candy

We Americans love peanuts in our candy. Out of the ten most popular candy bars sold in the US, five of them — Snickers, Reese’s peanut butter cups, Baby Ruth, Butterfinger, and Oh Henry! —  contain peanuts or peanut butter.  In most vending machines, about 25% of the dispensed food contains peanuts or peanut butter – a cautionary note for anyone with a peanut allergy.

Some Stomach Churning Info

Some stomach churning info and advice, in his own words,  from a bulk candy (machines that you often find in diners where you get handfuls of loose candy for a quarter) vendor’s blog:

The best selling bulk candy is peanut m&m’s, but you have to be careful because the m&ms can be very messy. “Imagine a hot summer day and your bulk vending machine is placed near a window . . . if that sun is beaming down on your vending machine those m&ms will melt and you will lose that location quick when the lady in the office gets chocolate on her hands and accidentally gets it on her blouse.”

On Mike n’ Ikes, his favorite bulk candy: “Man I have had a lot of success with these colorful tasty little bad boys.  Mike n Ikes do well in the winter and in the summer but just like the m&ms please be careful in the summer.

In the summer if your bulk vending machine is in a hot location the Mike N Ikes can stick together and become one big ball. To stop this from happening you can lightly spray the Mike N Ikes with Pam or your favorite cooking spray, and you shouldn’t have a problem in the summer time.”

On Gumballs:  Gumballs are your best friend and are by far the most profitable and are indestructible. “The only tips I can suggest on these gumballs are after a couple of months in your machine please check them by biting into a gumball every now and then.  Sometimes these gumballs get real hard and after that you are going to want to get rid of them.”

SocialDieter Tip:

If a vending machine calls your name, choose wisely.  There are good, better, and best choices to be made.  You can almost always find packages of nuts, or popcorn, or pretzels, or dried fruit.  Be careful of things with too much sugar, especially if you’re driving.  A big time sugar hit may give you energy from an initial blood sugar spike but more than likely it will be followed by a drop in your blood sugar levels possibly making you sleepy, grouchy, and hungry.

Are You Going To Cook That Or Do A Chemistry Experiment?

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Do you watch Top Chef?  I do.  I also watch Top Chef Masters.  And, because I happen to live in the New York City area, I’ve been fortunate enough to eat at wd—50, Wylie Dufresne’s restaurant in Manhattan. Dufresne, a contender on Top Chef Masters and a guest judge on Top Chef, is one of America’s most famous chefs who routinely uses molecular gastronomy in his food preparation.

What The Heck Is Molecular Gastronomy?

It’s a scientific discipline that studies the physical and chemical processes that happen during cooking.  According to Wikipedia, It tries to figure out things like:

  • How different cooking methods alter ingredients
  • What role the senses play in appreciating food
  • How cooking methods affect food’s flavor and texture
  • How the brain interprets signals from the senses to tell us the “flavor” of food
  • How things like the environment, mood, and presentation influence the enjoyment of food

“The Scientific Study Of Deliciousness”

This is how Harold McGee, author of  the book, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, describes MG. Gourmet Girl Magazine gives these examples of MG techniques:

  • Flash-freezing which involves quickly freezing the outside of various foods, sometimes leaving a liquid center.
  • Spherification: Little spheres are made by mixing liquid food with sodium alginate then dunking it into calcium chloride.  A sphere looks and feels like caviar and has a thin membrane that releases a liquid center when it pops in your mouth.
  • Meat glue: Wylie Dufresne’s “shrimp noodles” are noodles made of shrimp meat and created using transglutaminase, or meat glue, as it’s called at wd-50. It binds different proteins together and is commonly used in foods like chicken nuggets.
  • Foams: Sauces that are turned into froth by using a whipped cream canister, sometimes with lecithin as a stabilizer.
  • Edible menus: Yep, eat your menu. By using an ink-jet printer, inks made from fruit and vegetables, and paper made of soybean and potato starch, your menu can taste like your dinner.
  • Dusts and Dehydration: Dehydrating ingredients into a dust changes the way to use them, for example, making a dust of certain mushrooms and then sprinkling it on food.

The Bottom Line

According to Environmental Nutrition (EN), if you’ve wondered what makes glossy white peaks form when you whip egg whites, or how an ordinary milk can  turn into rich, pungent cheese, you’ve wandered into the world of molecular gastronomy (MG).

MG, “the scientific study of the pleasure giving qualities of foods—the qualities that make them more than mere nutrients,” analyzes long standing culinary practices and old wives’ tales and deconstructs classic recipes. As you lick that delicious ice cream cone do you stop and think about ice cream’s complicated physical structure that includes ice crystals, protein aggregates, sugar crystals and fats in a condensed form?  You don’t, but molecular gastronomists might.

What Does MG Look Like On Your Dinner Plate?

Grant Achatz, a James Beard award winning chef might serve these foods at Alinea, his Chicago restaurant: tiny bits of cauliflower served shaved, fried, dehydrated, and coated in three kinds of custards; Chinese beef and broccoli plated as a traditional short rib, the plate dotted with dehydrated broccoli and peanuts then covered with a clear gelatinous sheet of Guinness beer.

Got you thinking as you lick your lips?

Sometimes It’s Important To Eat Cake

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. . . And Enjoy Every Bit Of It

We celebrated my Mom’s 90th birthday this past weekend.  Actually, she has three birthdays – the one on her birth certificate and driver’s license (yes, she still drives), one on her baptismal certificate, and a third that doesn’t appear on anything other than innumerable birthday cards. No explanation for this.

As you can see above, my Mom’s name is Virginia.  This is notable because she is one of thirteen children – and the other 12 all have names like Mary, Helen, and John.  Why Virginia?  “I’m named after the undertaker’s wife,” she said.  Thanks, Mom.  Any other strange bits of trivia hanging around the family tree?

Mom wanted to celebrate her birthday at her family’s annual reunion – with her six living siblings and lots of other family.  Okay, doesn’t everyone drive 3 and ½ hours for lunch?  Off we went with a couple of surprise “picture” cakes hidden in the trunk of the car.

And a surprise it was.   She was delighted – and it showed.  And it was so worth the searching through boxes of pictures, picking up the cakes, and the drive.

Sometimes Celebrations Outweigh The Calories

We eat cake for lots of reasons.  It just may taste delicious.  Maybe it’s your favorite food.  Or, maybe you avoid it like the plague because of calories, fat, sugar, and white flour.  All legitimate reasons if they’re your reasons.

But, there are times when celebrations are important, really important – weddings, baptisms, engagements, holidays, and birthdays, to name a few.  Even funerals and memorial services are often followed by food — and cake — because food is a way of bringing together friends and family.

What’s So Important About The Cake?

Special celebration cakes are designed, made, ordered, and eaten with love.  Sometimes they taste good, sometimes they don’t.  Sometimes “diets” get in the way of the meaning of the cake. Sometimes the regimentation of an eating plan gets in the way of the reason for a celebration.

Sometimes cakes are just cakes – like the ones that sit in the multi-shelved dessert display at the diner.  Those are not celebration cakes.  But the lopsided one that your child makes for you on Mother’s Day, or the multi-tiered one at your or your child’s wedding, or the one for your Mom’s 90th birthday are very special.

So have a small piece (or a big one if you want) – or eat only a couple of  forkfuls.   Or, if you’re like my cousin, gleefully eat the corner piece (of a rectangular cake) because it has the most icing.

How would you feel if it’s your birthday or wedding and you hand some of your special cake to a friend who says, “No thanks, I’m on a diet”?

Sometimes it’s important to eat cake.

Some Summer Trivia: Key Moments In The Life Of Junk Food

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Junk Food Has Been Around For A While . . .

Quite a while, as a matter of fact.  It’s been around for centuries in all cultures and all over the world, but America has done one heck of a job coming up with a whole slew of varieties of junk food;  then branding, mass producing, and eating it. According to the New York Times, the history of junk food as we know it is an American back story interlaced with genius, serendipity,  and plain old cleverness.

Junk Food:  A Phenomenon That Changed America

Andrew F. Smith, author of the Encyclopedia of Junk Food and Fast Food includes soft drinks, ready made burgers, salty snacks, candy, and ice cream – foods with little or no nutritional value and/or high fat and calories — in his definitions of junk and fast food.  He sees junk food “as an incredible phenomenon that’s changed America, for better and worse.”

A Look Back At Some Favorites

From the New York Times

  • 1896:  Cracker Jack – America’s First Junk Food?

Yes indeed, according to Mr. Smith.  The molasses, popcorn, and peanut combo was first sold by street vendor brothers at  Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair.  They perfected it by 1896 and called their treat Cracker Jack.  They ultimately created a product that was, and is, salable and commercially viable and salable.

  • 1905:  Tootsie Rolls — The First Individually Wrapped Penny Candy

Originally manufactured in New York City,  their production changed junk food because they were the first individually wrapped penny candy. The chewy chocolate taste was — and still is — a bonus.

  • 1923:  Popsicle Patent

By accident, on a cold night in San Francisco in 1905, an 11 year old left a powdered soda drink on the porch with a stirring stick still in it. The next morning: frozen sweet stuff on a stick.  Years later, Frank W. Epperson applied for a patent for his discovery.  He initially called the treats Epsicles but his children called them Pop’s ’sicles.  Unilever now sells two billion of them each year in the US.

  • 1928:  Dubble Bubble, Stretchier Gum

Walter E. Diemer, an accountant for Philly’s Fleer Chewing Gum Company, fooled around trying to produce a gum base that could be blown into bubbles.  When he finally had a batch that was  stretchier and less sticky than most other gums, he sent 100 pieces to a candy shop and they sold out in one afternoon.

Fleer started selling the gum, calling it Dubble Bubble. Even though it became a global sensation, Mr. Diemer never received any royalties and retired from Fleer in 1970. He felt that he’d done something with his life by making kids happy around the world.

  • 1930:  Twinkies, Two For A Nickel

James A. Dewar, manager of a Chicago baking plant during the Depression, saw that shortcake pans used during strawberry season just sat around the rest of the year. He put them to use by baking little cakes injected with  banana cream filling, and called them Twinkies (inspired by a billboard that advertised Twinkle Toe shoes).  Price:  two for a nickel. Bananas were rationed during World War II so he replaced the banana cream with vanilla cream. Hostess now bakes 500 million Twinkies a year.

Do you have any favorite junk food trivia?