Winter Fruit Salad

The recipe called for satsumas, and I think that's the same as a tangerine, so that's what I used. Anyway, here's what I did: The zest of one tangerine; One tangerine, peeled and segmented; One red delicious apple, chopped; A handful of raisins; A palmfull of shredded coconut; A few tablespoons of miracle whip; All the juices from the cutting board.

At first, it seemed a bit strange, but a few hours later, when the flavors had merged more, it was actually quite tasty. I wish we had chunks of coconut instead of shavings, though, so they'd be more noticable.

A Year of Eating Seasonally, Day 1

Happy new year!

And now I'm going to attempt to eat only what's in season somewhere near me, or in places with climates like mine. I have a blog about the experience here, and I'm planning on writing a book after it's done and I can make some sense of it.

But here is where I'm posting the actual food info. 

Breakfast:

Sharp White Cheddar and Red Delicious Apple Sandwich -- There's some american cheese in there, too, but it totally wasn't needed. The Cabot cheddar melted way better than I expected, and made the whole thing gushy and wonderful. I made it thusly: on one slice of bread, I put the cheese, and on the other, a slice of american, the thinly-slices apples, salt and pepper, then I toasted the sides indipendently in the toaster oven so the insides would all be cooked. I squashed them together when they came out and voila! Winter-season sammich. American cheese has no season, but cheddar is a late-in-the-year cheese traditionally, because it's aged, and cheeses are available year-round anyway, as their purpose is to preserve milk. Apples are in season now, and even this red delicious, which is a kind of apple I generally consider kind of mealy and dull, was more sprigtly and interesting than usual, and held up against the sharp cheddar very well, as well as talking the savory flavors of salt and pepper well. A great breakfast, and it only took about seven minutes to make, including the slicing and arranging and toasting. I think I'll leave off the proccessed-cheesefood next time, and maybe made my own bread so it's denser and toasts better, but even squishy sandwich bread is good like this.

I ate another apple for lunch, and then dinner was sushi, and after a little research, joy of all joys, I discovered that eel is winter-seasonal, the harvest beginning around the holidays in all the countries it's eaten in, so I didn't have to give up my favorite rolls! I had one YinYang, which is eel and cream cheese (which is one of the cheeses that's traditionally home-made every day, and not really seasonal), and the Banzai, which is eel with avocado, which is in season in Florida this time of year. To round it out, I had steamed edamame, which I know for a fact come into the restaurant frozen, anc which grow most of the year anyway, and two bowls of miso, which is year-round. Ginger tea is recommended for winter because it's warming, and preserved ginger has no season.

All in all, not a bad start to my project! The first day out, we ate out, and while there isn't much else on the menu I could have eaten (the tepanyaki veggies and the tempura veggies are both full of zucchini and other off-seasn things, and at least half the noodle dishes are a mix of seasons), these two rolls were fine, as were smoked salmon and tuna and oily white fishes like grouper, if I'd chosen to go that way.

Apples: Cameo and Johnagold

This is apple season, so when we went to the Publix the other day, all I really wanted were apples. They were so luscious-looking, all lined up in stripes from green on the left to red on the right, and so many names I haven't tried before. So I picked one of all the ones I haven't had, and I'm eating my way through them.

First was Cameo. It's a reddish apple in that stripy, blushy, speckley way that some apples have, red over orangy-yellow, but mostly red. Nowhere near as red as a Red Delicious, though. It's really white inside, crisp and juicy, and browned up before I was done eating it, but it didn't matter. It was delicious, firm and crunchy, making those apple-eating noises like apples on TV do and real apples so rarely do. It's a good balance of tart and sweet, a little more on the tart side, and assertive enough that I could have eaten it with peanut butter and it still would have tasted like an apple (this is one of my favorite ways to eat an apple, and it's always so disappointing when you put the pb on and that's all you can taste afterward). We baked an apple crisp with some of these (among others), and they held up to cooking while still getting all soft and pie-like.

Second was Jonagold. I've seen this one in seed catalogs-- it's a stable cross of Jonathan and Golden Delicious, and it's so much better than the catalogs let on, but exactly as good as the random lady who saw me picking one up said they were. It's red and yellow (I would up with two of them without noticing because the two were so on opposite sides of the red-yellow spectrum), with softer flesh that manages to be firm and smooth and not at all mealy all at the same time. It didn't brown that fast, and it cut really well and easily, and had a small core so that I had the maximum amount of apple for the fruit I picked. And the taste is just great. Damn neat perfect balance of tart and sweet, with the tart tasting like apple cider and the sweet being as complex as honey. There was one of these in the crisp, too, and I'm pretty sure it's the one that cooked down into the best applesauce I've ever had there on the bottom of the pan.

The idea of having to give up off-season apples for half of next year as I do my Seasonal Eating Experiment doesn't seem so bad if I can eat these apples when they come back in season.