Again..keeping this really really small, just thinking of really tiny things to start....reasons to get out of bed. A sort of blogging of gratitude, as a way to combat my melancholy nature. And tiny things are easy-to-have things, therefore easy to enjoy.
Today's Thing that Gets me Out of Bed is : Three Amazing Things to Eat That Are Perfect Exactly as They Come.
I love cheese...I mean, I really, really looooooove cheese, and could write all about the cheese shop in the farmer's market in downtown Rochester all damn day...the creamy cheese with the truffles and lavender, the brie, this wierd and wonderful new blue cheese jack, Why chedder or swiss is the best thing for a burger (though we could argue for blue, yes we could..)...exotic french runny...um........nom nom nom.
But cheese is MADE...it doesn't grow on trees.
It's also Nature's Ass Plug, but that's another story.
But today! NO! Today we speak of things that are merely grown, picked, washed and EATEN.
Firstly:
The Honeycrisp Apple. Oh yes, your very name is delight.
Like many of you, I am sure, apples for ME are mostly things to be BAKED. Or cut up and put in salads with blue cheese, or transformed to mush or delicious cider, boozy and non, hot or cold.. ....I appreciated the tartness of a Pippin, the versitality of a Granny Smith...but unless I am eating them with cheese, I ain't just eating them. blah.
But NO! These are sublime. Incredibly sweet with a lemony tart appley base and floral top, these super crunchy, juicy Wonder Apples are a new discovery for me. I eat them just as they are. Perfect. Lunch. Yum.
Try one! SO good. As is.
Next!
Italian Oranges: The Blood Orange
Oh my god. What oranges aspire to be. Once you have one, a regular orange (with the exception of the sublimely sweet and lucious CaraCara orange)....just won't do. Hard to find, but worth it when you do, these amazing, AMAZING oranges often have a hint of raspberry to them..balancing out the acid and adding sweetness. Perfectly paired with rosewater, they make a stunning pink icing for a rosewater and pistachio cake, and also make pinkyorange pretty marguritas....but oh....just cut one open and eat....it's damn near sexual. Did you know there is a green blood orange with a purple center? Possible proof of god.
And finally....
The Concord Grape.
Yes yes...I can see you rolling your eyes right now. Grapes? Big deal. Big purple grapes.
I went forty years without these, not knowing that they were DECIDEDLY not the big purples I had seen before. I had my first one last year. "How is that?", you say..especially for a girl that grew up in southern California...land of vast, vast plenty.
Oh sure. I thought I knew what grapes were. Grown up eating tartcrisp green seedless and big round red Flames...which are great frozen, and liked them fairly well. I like cherries and watermelon and peaches more, so, you know...grapes would merely take up valuable tummy space..whatever.
Welches' Grape juice? Sure. But like all manufactured things I assumed they were just purple grapes with fake flavoring, lacking in natural flavor and rendered, like most things in the US, to merely be safe for consumption, and profitable, any goodness being accidental and something for the ad guys to play with. Speaking of...I was always baffled by "grape" flavored things....certainly no grape I had ever tasted.
Then, I moved to the east coast, and one fine fall day in a farmer's market, we walked by baskets of grapes of every color...tiny little champagne grapes, greens, reds........and....the scent.
The SCENT! What is that smell? It smells sort of like...like...grape candy but...bright..so...sweet....wait...what ARE these dusky black purple beasties?
"Concord grapes, silly....yanno, like the juice and the jelly?"..says David.
Are you kidding me? THESE are concord grapes?...I sneak one. Oh.
OH! SO SWEET!..so..so...grapey! I have never had a grape like this...I grab three pints and proceed to eat little else for the next two days.
Alas! Only here for a tiny time....like figs....fresh figs....oh....Oh FIGS.....stuffed with blue cheese and drizzled with honey and caraway seeds.....
mmm.....figs.....er....out of bed!
