An Apple a Day

Hmmm. The Edenic fruit was never actually named. The idea that it was an apple is borrowed from the Greek mythologic notion of "golden apples" within the grove of Hesperides.
 
After a driving jaunt through Iceland, I came back into Reykjavik for one night before leaving the next day. I found a BB situation with an older couple in a high-rise apartment building. I spent some time in the area where bars with live music that were proving grounds for groups like Sigur Ros (and from them, Bjork Gottmundsdottir). Hydration was a tricky thing there because of warm daytime temperatures and cold nighttime temperatures. At breakfast, the host offered good food and apple juice (only apple juice) for breakfast. I was incredibly thirsty and drank two liters of it.
 
As I was negotiating traffic from downtown Reykjavik to the airport, it hit me. I'd forgotten all about the legendary cathartic prowess of apple juice. Between there and the airport, a short drive, I had to make haste urgently to whatever facilities were available ten times.
 
The associations are so physiologically vivid and etched into memory, I strongly doubt I will come near neither an apple nor Iceland ever again.

Mr. Peterman you have just made me hungry. Although I LOVE a great piece of aged cheddar (8yrs or older) ~ Lst tiem I went to Trader Joes I bought a pack of their Smoked Gouda Cheese. A piece of that on a Granny Smith or Red/Golden Delicious apple with a little bit of wine ~ is PURE heaven.  Since I am far away from a TJ's I will have to make do with getting some New Amesterdam Aged Gouda from Nala's Fromagerie  http://tiny.cc/BPXLv to eat with some apples.  YUMMY
 
 

I made a comment to somebody about the need always to press for unadulterated truth, and I thought about it, and I realized I was trying to quote something that means a great deal to me.
 
Here it is. From The Economist's September 1843 manifesto to engage in "a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress."

I'm with Parson Evans in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Pippins and cheese. Increasing intolerance to lactose be damned.

Apple reference buried deep within:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKd-cq8_cIU

good morning....all eye's! to me all apples are good.  if'ns i had the lux of options, i'd have a fuji for eating just straight up, then the granny smiths in my pie.   

Apples juice, fresh wooden pressed, at a local Apple festival is to live for....fresh Apple Butter bought the same day- made....mmm....mmm...good.....Pennsylvania Apples are the best Apples in the World, my grandfather, the founder of the Ukrainian Institute at Toronto University owned an Apple Orchard in Dalton, Pennsylvania. Apples are wonderfully good..and  source of phytochemicals and vitamin C, the skin of an apple contains pectin that can do all sorts of wondrous things. Eating an apple daily can lower cholesterol, reduce skin disease, unclog arteries and help you avoid heart attacks and strokes. What's more, apples have an anticancer effect by inhibiting cell proliferation. Have a great sunny shine day, remember to wake up with a song in your heart and make fresh apple pie in an iron skillet for breakfast!

Apple Magic
By Margaret Hillart In every single apple lies
A truly magical surprise.
Instead of slicing down,
slice through
And watch the star
appear for you!

I love apples.  But why today?  Shouldn't we be talking about peaches or cherries or strawberries?

My favorite appley dichotomous pairing of fables is to consider the "Apple & Eve" story, which ended badly, and contrast it with Idunna's Apples, which give the Gods eternal life.  In the former story, the apple causes disaster.  In the latter, apples are part of the eternal order of things, givers of life and health, food of the gods, and very rightly revered.  Not that I'm partial to one story over the other.  Oh, heavens (I should say "Asgard") NO.  Not me.  Totally unbiased... I think Peterman must've noticed that I was drinking Calvados last night, hence our Pommy topic for today.  

Sometimes I don't feel the need for scientific evidence to support what Nature seems to make so plainly obvious...

I was one of those apple-cheeked children scrambling up into the trees...scraping my elbows and knees...with my brother, in my grandfather's modest orchard. I can still smell the intoxicating scent of apples filling the cool, crisp Fall air. The tree branches were heavily laden with fat, ripe McIntosh apples. I never made it back down to the ground before chomping into a juicy delight, the tender skin "snapping" whenever I took a bite, revealing a beautiful soft white flesh inside - looking all the more pure because of the brilliant red covering the outside. Sticky, sweet apple juice would run down my chin, between my fingers, trickle down my arm...a drippingly delicious mess...to be slurped and savored. I'd eat my fill - before picking them for anyone else - such a selfish girl! Bushel-baskets full, all just-picked fresh...sated and giddy and out-of-breath...watching the soft clouds slowly dance by...clinging to a branch high in the sky...holding tight when the oft breeze would blow...so not to land on the ground below...it was always sad to go away...at the end of apple picking day...

Apples are really wonderful any season of year. They are always portable wherever you go and easily eaten halved or whole; tempting in salads, chopped or with a bit of cheese, topped; and never, ever to be forgot is homemade chunky applesauce, direct from the pot!

Such a delightful, versatile and cheery little fruit, with so much that appeals...amazing but true, in a multitude of ways, all the health benefits an apple conceals.

Heiress, I get your point. But if we're supposed to eat 365 apples a year, I guess any day is apt to discuss apples. By the way, what are the best apples for summer?

Kindlee, you had a better apple tree than I did.  When I was in 2nd grade, we lived in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, and there was a big GREEN apple tree behind my house.  I, too, enjoyed sitting in the branches and eating those apples.  BUT ONLY ONCE.  Wow, do I remember my wide-eyed, pinched-cheek scuffle into the house as fast as I could go.  Made it.  But only just barely.  

When you slice an apple on its' width you see a star...
I remember eating sour apples for an outdoor snack in apple country, Pennsylvania...too.

:::opens door, looks down hall for boss (all is quiet):::
 
Totally Off Topic: Swami, I hope you do not put the music of Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson & Sigur Rós on your "never come near" list again. Especially the soundtrack for "Angels of the Universe."  http://fat-cat.co.uk/fatcat/release.php?id=100

"I propose a toast" says Peter Lake as he raises his glass of cider, "to our gracious host and to every one of you; the apples of his EyE".....

"but do take care should you be walking behind a horse to not step on any fresh road apples"

clicking of glasses! to all !

I have a cookbook where the main ingrediant is apples. I tried to make the apple stuffing one once... When I was first married, I don't think I ahve ever attempted another recipe out of that book since. I should dig it out & see if my cooking skills might have improved....  

Penn,

I believe it was the Sundance Channel that did a program featuring Sigur Ros at home in Iceland and it was exquisite. Their music a perfect echo of their homeland. I was mesmerized, hypnotized, ....... I really liked it.

A belated clink of the glass.  Skål!

And then there was Johnny Appleseed spreading his seeds here and there.  I think if he lived in these Modern Times, he'd be arrested for something or the other.  I'm sure of it.

Isles: my hubby calls that "the green apple quick step."
 
 
 

My Mom's Grandma said "If you eat an apple every day for 100years, you'll live to be very old"And you can't argue with ancient wisdom like that.

You are the apple of my eye.  I was holding out for commentary the apples' good role in humanity.  There is an apple and cheese that harkins a kiss with a sqweeze.  Which always has me thinking of grandma, motherhood and apple pie on the fourth of July.  Where in the heat of the exact middle of the summer I'd look back to all those apples I left on the teachers desk wondering if it did help my GPA.  I am guessing not.   Who else bribed a teacher with an apple?

one bad apple will spoil the whole barrel
 
there's nothing more disapointing than cutting open a beautiful and what appears to be perfect apple and finding a worm
 
the latin word for apple, malus, can also mean bad or mast(as on a ship)......jonathan, I'm surprised you didn't catch that one!
 
 
 
Malus domestica (apple tree under most circumstances) could translate to bad member of the family or evil in the household
 
 
and, an anagram for Malus domestica is......(drum roll)    so a medical must !
 
 
 
 
so today's topic may not be as it seems on the surface
 
 
 
no Paul, I always brought my teachers flowers.

"How do you like them apples?".....just kidding...I had fun with this one.

Peterman Lakeman, It's the kind of music one has to close their eyes...tilt their head back... and hear every note kind of music...isn't it?

Kindlee....I left some flowers for you in the right margin..

Possibly the best apple song unless someone can beat it.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg7ymwFsMI0

jmr....i'll see ya and raise ya APPLE RECORDS.......check out that discography!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Records

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Records_discography

"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas."  George Bernard Shaw

 Then again, Ella singing "Shoe Fly pie and Apple pie dowdy."  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HBDnpu5Bl4
 And I agree with Shaw no matter what he says.  

apple pandowdy?        then again anything by Ella...

yes Pan Dowdy. What exactly is a pan dowdy?

Tonight is going to be one of those... stop by the corner market and pick up some Haagen Dazs vanilla bean fleck ice cream, and PNW apple pie for dinner kind of detour commutes. 

I think it's a sort of apple crisp, it's baked in the pan, not with a bottom and side and top crust like a pie.  And it's probably not round, like a pie.  But sometimes pies aren't round, and some are crustless -- and so I really ought to bow out of this.  An apple pie dowdy is probably just plain good, and now I'll go google it and then I'll know what kind of fool I've been for writing this.

No one asked, but still ye shall receive.  Here's everything you ever/never wanted to know about Apple Pandowdy. 

 Apple Pandowdy is one of a family of simple desserts, known in different parts of the world as cobblers, duffs, grunts, slumps and pandowdies. These desserts have subtle variations, but the base of all of them is fruit baked with a sweet biscuit or cake dough top.

The exact origin of the name Pandowdy is unknown, but it is thought to refer to the dessert's plain or "dowdy" appearance. Looks can be deceiving, apple pandowdy is delicious, especially topped with a bit of ice cream or whipped cream. Both these desserts are super easy to make, yet win rave reviews from diners. Try some tonight. Your dinner guests just won't be able to get enough of that wonderful stuff!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 1/2 cups flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoons salt

4 cup peeled, sliced apples

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoons nutmeg


whipped cream or ice cream for garnish

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside.

Butter a 9" square baking dish. Place sliced apples in buttered baking dish and sprinkle with a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Mix in egg. Add flour mixture, alternating with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture to make a stiff batter. Spread batter evenly over apples and bake for about 50 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for at least ten minutes before serving.

You can serve this dish right out of the pan, or invert it onto a serving plate like an upside-down cake, warm or at room temperature. Top with whipped cream or ice cream.

That's not my recipe, by the way.
I found it here:  http://www.fabulousfoods.com/recipes/article/115/17809
 
 

Penn....what is PNW ? I'm sure I'll kick myself for asking.....
 Park4
cobbler is one of the things on my "make alot" list.
i make blueberry, peach, blackberry, cherry etc.
Usulaly make apple crisp when using apples though..lots og BUTTER, cinnamon, brown sugar...mmmmmm
 
 
 
and let's not forget(I am in the south) fried apples...a popular side dish here. i prefer baked apples or strudel

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and disappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it's like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.

Robert Frost

My poor braces wearing daughter really misses biting into a crisp apple. she has to cut them up into small bites so as not to break her braces.

I . . . am a Pink Lady fan.  There.  I have said it.  I know, it is not the most masculine of apples.  It doesn't have the force of the Empire, nor the strong image of the Granny Smith (I always envision an older woman who loves to bake pie for her grandkids, but will knock you on your butt with her rolling pin if you cross her). 
 
I'm a man.  And I like Pink Ladies.
 
 
 
And that's ok.

I thought you meant a drink.  I remember a drink my mother used to order way way back when I was a kid (way back) -- at restaurants when we went out to dinner en famille.  I believe it was called a Pink Lady.  It was served in a collins kind of glass, tall and slim, and frosted.  And yes, there was an umbrella on it.  But you mean a kind of apple that I know nothing about, but even if you meant the drink, I think it would be okay too, Michael.  I think the apple sounds better though.  I'd stick with the apple, definitely.  Pink Lady drinks have long disappeared into bartender history and it's probably a good thing.

PARK: Many drinks have fallen by the wayside.  Most places, you can't get a good martini.  And ask for an Old Fashioned?  They'll look at you like you're crazy.  This is what we get for letting people who think drinking cheap beer in huge quantities is a good idea take over the bars. 

It takes a strong... strong... man to admit he like Pink Ladies. (did anyone else hear Rick Astley's voice  just now?)

OFF TOPIC, but Muy Importando:                                                                           http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/dining/10United.html?_r=2&emc=eta1                             These are my kind of folks. 

the link works, even with THESE added on.  And, if you are worried about the topic, remember, many a suckling pig went to table with an apple in its mouth.                            Oh, Geat Lohd!

Willie:   Mmmmmm . . . pig . . .

Miss Blue - Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful flowers! What a "green thumb" you have.

Your story of the worm hiding in the core of a perfect-looking apple made me think of just the opposite problem!

In the news, an Israeli woman bought her elderly mother a brand new mattress, as a surprise present, throwing out the old one. As it turns out, the old mattress had almost a million dollars hidden inside it...her life savings. They've been searching through the landfills, in Tel-Aviv, looking for it ever since, to no avail.

WT,  my greatest personal conflict:  Pigs are smart and cute.  Barbecued pig and bacon is tasty.

Penn: If pigs were so smart, they would know how good they taste and would want to share that with us.

There is a story, of a man who was traveling and saw a pig with a peg leg. He asked the owner and was told the pig had saved a child's life by swimming out to where the child was about to drown. He asked what that had to do with the peg leg and was told "You wouldn't want to eat a pig like that all at once."                                           One of my favorite non-barbecue restaurants is of the Better Living Through More Adjectives school.  Sometimes a salad or sandwich will seem to have more adjectives than ingredients. Invariably, they offer Applewood smoked bacon.

Penn - Yes.  It is that kind of music indeed.

Can you say Apple Donuts?..... Dunked in hot apple cider on a cool autumn when the leaves are turning and the fallen ones shoosh on the ground when you walk through them to remind you to enjoy this grand time of the year while you can.

Apples, apples, everywhere...in the Garden of Eden, in the Garden of the Hesperides, Johnny Appleseed, the Big Apple, Apple computers, the Apple Annies of the Depression, Sir Isaac Newton's apple, William Tell's apple, the Golden Apples that Venus gave to Hippomenes, American as apple pie, upset the apple cart, an apple polisher, Rene Magritte's The Son of Man, the apple of your eye (and this Eye, as Peter Lake so aptly stated), etc, etc, etc...an impressive lineage for a humble fruit, in both literature and history.
I'd like to add apple strudel to the choices in the Poll, please.

Barbeque! ......... poor, poor Arnold Ziffle..

Granny Smith Apples are my favorite. (sorry, prepping for moot court on monday. my mind is applesauce)

i make a grand fresh apple cake....uses 4 cups of fresh apples...anyone want the recipe?
 
you can make it with butter or apple juice and oil if you want to cut calories from fat. Its a real crowd pleaser. An ex brother in law still asks for one of these cakes for the holidays every year. 

And then there was/ is Boone's Farm Apple Wines

http://www.boonesfarm.net/index.html

who needs a cork........

Pommes d'amore et Pommes de Terre. And somebody ( Mr Lake, methinks,)  already mentioned Pommes de la rue.

lets not forget some halloween fun....Apple bobbin'...

and the apple shape vs the pear( another rose relative) shape in determining possible future health issues.

I have a great recipe for an Apple Shiskuken (spelling?) made with Granny smith apples, cinnamon, anise seed, and sugar on the apples which you marinate while you make the cake part. Then you nstand the apples in the cake dough and bake. Serve like the apple pan dowdy, with fresh whipped cream or ice cream. Yummy.
I'm in D. C. or I'd give you all that recipe, but alass it's in O. C.

Another time.

If only the topic were oranges, this story would be on topic.  But they're both fruit, so it counts.
 
When my dad was a high-school teacher, he would have to take turns taking tickets at the football games.  And he noticed many people were bringing oranges to the games.
 
Now, we all know, you can't bring alcohol to a high-school football game.  So, the good people of this tiny Nebraska village, had taken to filling hypodermic needles with vodka and injecting the oranges, then eating them at the game.
 
So, apples may be good for you, but oranges let you smuggle booze.

Michael----what a way-cool idea.

Peter Lake: weren't those Boone's Farm beverages actually so-call fortified wine (ie, some distilled ethanol added)?
 
I remember once covering an emergency overnight from 1900 to 0700. At 0705, I pulled into a convenience store for a diet Coke as a pick-me-up for the longish drive home.
 
It took 20 minutes for me to be rung up by the cashier. Because ahead of me in line were 15 burly men, each of them buying one or another variety of fortified wine. Can you imagine contemplating booze at 7 o'clock in the morning?

My attempts at tracking down the origin of the phrase "How about THEM apples?" has proven, uh, fruitless.

karma swim swami, Maybe those guys buying the wine at 7 in the a.m. were still going strong from 7 in the p.m. the evening before? I always thought of Boone's Farm as being a step sideways from Bali Hai & Annie Greensprings and easier on the body and soul than Mad Dog 20/20.  Just thinking about it forty years later gives me a headache.  Just thinking about that makes me wonder how I made it past 20 in the first place.

Willie T.......... great pig story!

Peter Lake:  Bali Hai.  I hadn't thought of that in, um, around forty years.  Some things are best off forgotten, I've found.  Thanks for the memory of the worst hangover I have ever endured.