Waldorf Apple Salad for the In Between Time of Year
February 22nd, 2012 § Leave a Comment
It’s February 2 at about 6:30 pm. When I leave work the moon is already above the horizon – doing its best to light the dark sky after the sun runs away. Except for being the moon it isn’t remarkable being in a phase when you might wish for it to be more or less so that you could marvel at its fullness or smile at its fine-tipped crescent.
It’s February 16 at about 8:15 pm. Looking outside into the night sky I might see the twins of Gemini or, if it were dark enough, faint Aries – my birth sign. The popular Big Dipper is disappearing out of sight behind the western horizon. I quickly find the three stars in Orion’s belt — the only constellation I can consistently spot.
It’s February 18 at about 6:30 pm. Leaving work I look around and up into the sky to observe and see leftover light ringing the horizon – the artificial horizon created by buildings and bridges. Despite it being February and despite the sleet and snow that fell less than two weeks ago, the still setting sun tells me that the days are getting longer.
This past week the in between time of year started. This couldn’t be gleaned from a calendar, thermometer or foliage. Those are fickle and deceitful story tellers. Instead it was our crooked planet’s constant rotation that kindly announced our spot in the orbit. It’s the best time of the year — whether spring or fall. The time of year when it is permissible for the weather to impulsively change from cold to warm. No longer the winter that wouldn’t stay. Not yet summer that won’t go away.
I’m going to blame this appearance of spring for my never shrinking to-do list. Each day, despite, my pledge not a single thing gets crossed off. “Tomorrow,” I say everyday. I think it is also to blame for my sleeplessness. It’s not that I stay awake worrying about the things I haven’t done instead it’s that I stay awake imagining the things I could be doing.
So today, still awake at 12:35 am, I say today I will. Today.
Although, a bike ride sounds lovely. Perhaps a hike. Fresh baking bread would smell so good in my apartment. Wouldn’t that all be nice?
Waldorf Apple Salad
2 apples
1 lemon
½ cup walnuts
½ cup raisins
½ plain yogurt
Core and chunk your apples and put in a bowl. Squeeze the lemon juice all over them. Toss with the remaining ingredients. Chill until ready to eat.
Waldorf salad was a favorite summer treat of mine growing up. Though I recently realized that seasonally this isn’t right at all. Fall would be more appropriate (which is when I made the one pictured above), but spring doesn’t feel too far off the mark. In fact, it feels just about perfect.
An Evolutionary Apple Cranberry Oatmeal Cookie Crumble Pie Just Like Any Other
February 15th, 2012 § 1 Comment
I picked up Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid by Wendy Williams because it came with an excellent recommendation — it was set on a display next to other books I had read and loved. It was entertaining and informative and taught me a lot about cephalopods, but that wasn’t what I really got out of it. I read about the undersea light show playing round the clock and acted by most of the creatures living in this dark place and thought “humans are so boring.” You could maybe argue that evolutionarily humans haven’t needed to light up and that other tactics have evolved to help humans thrive. Humans have a brain. Then, Williams presents the challenges of humans measuring intelligence in beings so very different. She ponders the what-if scenario of squids studying humans and finding them dull-witted for their inability to change color. Or, in my words — humans are evolutionarily kind of boring.
Kraken talked a lot about the long evolution of squid — and cephalopods as a whole — which of course made me think of X-Men. X-Men never really go into the science behind their mutations — at least the movies don’t — but, suddenly it made sense. The same cell set-up that gives squid the ability to turn red or mimic the sea floor is allowing Mystique to change ages or eye color. Or, maybe it’s a bacteria causing her bioluminescence. See not all squid have the same abilities and those abilities are not all achieved in the same way. It’s wonderfully complex…like in X-Men. The world of X-Men is an exciting human world. I’d like that genetically diverse world to really exist.
Unfortunately it doesn’t even exist in baking. To track the evolution of this idea I have created a chart. The scientists out there shouldn’t get too critical – I am obviously not one of you.
Apple Cranberry Pie Crumble
Peel, core, and slice two apples and put them into a large bowl. Add in a couple handfuls of cranberries (maybe around a cup or a little over). Spoon over a fairly good amount of sugar, the juice of half a lemon plus a squeeze from the other half, and also a large spoonful of cornstarch. And some cinnamon — add in some of that as well. Let this sit for a while. Then strain out the apples leaving the juices behind in the bowl. Pour this into a small pot and heat until thickened or sort of caramelized – just a minute or so.
In another bowl combine about 2 cups of oats, about 1 cup of flour (all-purpose plus a couple spoonfuls of whole wheat for good measure), brown sugar, cinnamon, and ½ cup (or a bit less) of melted butter. Pour about half into a pie dish. Press it against the bottom and sides. If more or less is needed to create the bottom crust, adjust accordingly. Pour the apples in and then the apple juice sauce in over that. Sprinkle the remaining crust mixture over the top.
Bake in the oven at some temperature (lets say about 350°) until browned.
Cool and eat.
I made this, photographed it, ate it and wrote this post without writing down the recipe. This is, an approximation, of how this was made. I could and probably did do things differently.
