Friday, October 10, 2008

An apple-anche

As much as I'd like to say that I haven't posted this week because I haven't eaten, that's just not true. However, I am desperately trying to consume about 1200 calories a day (or less--yeah, right). At that rate, I'll meet my weight loss goal of four pounds (two pounds per side)...in about a month. A joyless month.

Yes, many birthday celebrations and trips to Seattle and New York all finally caught up to me. Two weeks ago, I could wear my jeans, but not sit down in them. Today, I can't wear them at all. I don't have the time, energy or cash to buy new ones, so I'm having to diet. It wouldn't take a month if I actually exercised but I'd rather subsist on nothing but salad than exercise.

Anyhoo, I have to say that this season's McIntosh apples are helping me along. They're huge and beautiful and tart and sweet all at the same time.

I've also come into a bounty of a hodgepodge of local orchard apples. I don't know quite what they all are; a friend of mine got them from a friend of hers who owns property that was once a (I suppose) a commercial orchard. There are at least four different types in the bunch.

Problem is, they're covered with these black splotches. They're not spots, really. They don't permeate the skin. And they're not dirt, either. I don't know what the splotches are, but I can tell you that they're incredibly hard to wash off. Steel wool's barely touching them. Baking soda, a rough rag, and elbow grease seems to work, but man does that ever suck. Because I have about twenty apples and I have thus far cleaned about two of them. And I'm really only trying to get them clean enough to peel!

My plan, though is to get them clean eventually (I wonder how many calories I can burn scrubbing these things? Enough to earn a piece of cake from the freezer?) and make them into something delicious. Over at Tupperware Avalanche, Nicki made some applesauce, but I don't love apple sauce, so I'm trying to think of something else. Unfortunately, aside from quick breads and boxed cake mix concoctions, I'm not much of a baker. However, in one of my giant recipe books, I found something that involved apples and dried sour cherries. Seein' as how I bought the SO some dried sour cherries that were a bit too dry and sour for his taste, I think we may have a winner. Stay tuned.

4 comments:

michael, claudia and sierra said...

cute post
can't wait to hear what you've come up with.

i too am 'on the plan'

sometimes, you just gotta...

Anonymous said...

Hi! I found your blog through craxysexylife.com.

One thing I like to do with apples for a quick snack/dessert it to take an apple, slice it up, put apple pie spice and a bit of sugar (or equal if you eat that stuff) and back the apple in the oven at 350 degrees for thirty minutes. Oh yeah- wrap the apple in foil so that the steam from the juice softens the apple. It will taste like apple pie without the crust.

Lo said...

Oh, yeah. Love apples this time of the year.

Baked apple oatmeal is a nice, low-risk proposition :)

Anonymous said...

Okay, terrible computer problems have kept me away, but I'm back. What did you do with the apples? I had yet another big apple drop from my friend -- same black spots. I just scrub them off, and usually peel the apples. With the second batch, I dried them in a friend's dehydrator, and they're great! So what did you end up with?