Day 49 - SweeTango

Today's apple is the captivating and sensuous SweeTango!  The official website says it will make your taste buds dance.  We will see.

SweeTango is a brand name of the Minneiska and is a registered trademark owned by the University of Minnesota.  It was developed by marrying the Honeycrisp and the Minnewasheta (brand name Zestar!).

SweeTango is pretty in pink with a yellow background and splotches of red.  It often has spots, also known as lenticels.  The name was chosen to emphasize the sweet and tangy taste.  Like the Honeycrisp, the Minneiska has much larger cells than most apples, which shatter when bitten to fill the mouth with juice.  It has a good shelf life of 4-5 months when refrigerated.

I enjoyed my SweeTango.  It had the desirable crispness and snappiness of a Honeycrisp.  When I say snappiness, I mean when you take a bite, the piece breaks off very cleanly in your mouth.  It was quite juicy with a thin skin.  The flavor however, did not make my taste buds dance.  It was a little more tart than a Honeycrisp, which is intentional but it lacked character.  I have tried a couple others with the same result.  The SweeTango is still an above average dancer and she does look nice!

My next blog will be number 50!  To celebrate, I will post a link to a song I recorded with my band The Night Howls all about apples called Apples: A Headbanger's Journey!  I will also review an apple I mentioned in today's review, the Zestar!  Crunch on!

Day 48 - Haralson

Today's apple is the Haralson.  I took a picture of this one upside down as the bottom was prettier than the top.  That's what she said!  Is the Haralson the Woody Harrelson of apples? 

Originating from Excelsior, Minnesota in 1913, the Haralson is the offspring of the Malinda and Wealthy apple.  The Haralson and Golden Delicious were used to develop the Honeygold.

The Haralson is quite round and usually more red than the one pictured above and may have stripes.  They have a great shelf life.  In the refrigerator, they can last for 4-5 months!  There is a redder version called the Haralred. 

My eating specimen was nice and crisp with a good bite.  The flavor was mild but not unpleasant with little tartness.  It was not a juicy apple.  The flesh was bright white and the skin was thin to medium.  I would eat one again.  So there you go, the Woody Harrelson of apples, yes!

Next time, I review another Minnesota apple.  Get your dancing shoes on for the lovely SweeTango, crunch on!

Day 47 - Rome

Today's variety is the Rome apple.  Rome apples are usually solid bright to deep red in color although this one was not.  They are available in Fall and early Winter.  Rome apples are considered one of the best cooking apples on the market.  Their dense flesh and thick skin allows them to hold up well in shape and texture while cooking and the process enhances the flavor and sweetness as well.

The Rome apple was named after Rome township, Ohio where it was first planted in 1817.  Today it is grown in apple regions all over the United States.

The flavor of my Rome was subtle, not as flashy, sweet or tart as some varieties but it is known as a cooking/baking apple.  I ate a third of it and gave the rest to my wife for an apple chutney she is making to serve with roasted pork and root vegetables.  It should be yummy!  The recipe she found for the chutney called for Galas and Granny Smiths but she forgot to buy them.  "Damn it woman!" I thought loudly but did not say.  By some miracle, (Am I being sarcastic?  Yes.) I had some apples around.  She used the Rome and some Zestar apples.  They should be good for this.  I already know the shit is going to be killer, no doubt!

Next time, I review the Haralson apple.  Crunch on!

Day 46 - Jonathan

Today's apple is the Jonathan.  It has a person's name and this one had a cool stripe.  "Looking sharp Jon!  May I call you Jon?" I said to my apple.

Peace and love and apples!  The Jonathan originated as a chance seedling in Woodstock, NY in 1826.  It received it's name by Jesse Buel, president of the Albany Horticultural Society.  He named it after Jonathan Hasbrouck, who introduced him to the apple.

The Jonathan is a classic American heirloom that has been parent to Jonamac, Jonafree and Jonigold.  It was one of the most popular apples in American in the early 20th century.

The Jonathan apple is medium sized and covered in a thin red skin, blushed with yellow to green undertones. Fruit from trees that have limited sun exposure during the ripening process will often have vertical red striping and subtle lenticels (spots) on the skin. Trees that are exposed to more sun will take on a deeper red to purple hue. The fine textured flesh of the Jonathon apple is creamy yellow in color with a crisp bite and lots of juice. Its flavor is mildly sweet with a tart tang and subtle hints of spice.

I like the Jonathan.  It is similar to a McIntosh, Cortland or Jonagold.  It has a classic, fresh, NY apple taste.

Next time, I review an apple that was not built in a day, the Rome apple.  Crunch on!

Day 45 - Apple Pie Bread Pudding

I was at the TPPT, Six Wives of Richard and Remod show at Frank's Power Plant.  It seemed like a normal night at the rock 'n roll show.  My friend Marc Ferch was there.  He plays bass in the band, Bad Bread.  I don't even recall how it came up but Marc mentioned that his cousin or sister or something worked with businesses to supply food to the homeless.  Every couple weeks, she would get a bunch of bread from a high-end bakery.  They found that the soft bread worked better for the homeless because many of them had missing or bad teeth so she would be left with a ton of good crusty, toothsome bread.  She would offer this leftover bread to friends and family so Marc always had a bread hookup.  Marc said he had some in the car that night if I'd like some.  I said, "fuck yeah, I'd like some bread!"

I must emphasize the fact that Marc being in a band called Bad Bread has nothing to do with this story.  He had nothing to do with naming the band, weird!  So we ventured out into the dark alley where he was parked.  Marc opened the back seat car door and lifted the lid off of a huge plastic bin the size of a hope chest.  Inside were loaves of many shapes and sizes.  There were baguettes as long as walking sticks, round loaves of rye practically as big as tires, football shaped sourdough, lots of bread and not bad bread yo!  I took a good looking loaf of white bread that looked right for sandwiches and a football of sourdough.  A few people came over during our exchange to see what kind of back alley deal was transpiring and walked away richer with dough as well.  

I told my wife Laura the amazing, yeasty tale and she had a great suggestion for something to do with one of the loaves.  Aware of my love for apples, she found a recipe for a Apple Pie Bread Pudding and so it came to be!  

She cut the loaf of white bread into cubes and combined it with home-made custard and apple pie seasoning.  The recipe called for five Gala apples but a Jonathan apple had found it's way into the Gala bin so he wound up in the pudding as well.  What Jonathan wouldn't want to hang with the cool kid Galas.  The liquid the apples cooked in was poured over as a sauce.

I put a scoop of Blue Bunny Vanilla Bean ice cream on top with a shake of cinnamon and hot-damn, so hearty and yumm-o!  

The Apple Pie Bread Pudding was not too sweet but was rich with flavor.  The Galas and the Jonathan stowaway cooked nicely while retaining some crunch.  The right bread, the right cook and some good ice cream and voilà!  Thanks Laura and Marc.

The next time a shady character says there might be some dough in it for you if you step into a dark, creepy alley with them, say sure, what's the worst that could happen!

Next time, I review the Jonathan.  Crunch on!

Day 44 - Marzetti Peanut Butter Carmel Dip! and Memories of Youth

Today's blog is about Marzetti Peanut Butter Caramel Dip!  This stuff is connected to a very specific memory for me.  I got my first apartment in 1993 my Senior year of college and for sustenance, what stands out to me at that time was a lot of beer, free pizzas brought home from Pizza Hut where I worked and Marzetti Peanut Butter Carmel Dip! with apples.  I picked up a container of this stuff and just fell in love with it and ate a lot of it!  let me set the scene.

I rented the upstairs unit of a crappy old house at 52 King Street in Brockport, NY.  It was the Summer preceding my Senior year of college and I was excited to have my own place.  There were a few bars on King Street so it was often loud at bar time as the students stumbled home.  It was a hot summer and I did not have air conditioning so the windows were always open.  My kitchen had no cupboards so I put up a plastic shelving unit to keep plates and whatnot.  There was no closet in the bedroom so I would keep some clothes in the kitchen closet.  I found myself feeling off balance sometimes and did not realize until I'd been there a few weeks that the house was on a slant.  I looked at the window sill one day and noticed it was not at all level with the floor.  I had to move my bed to another wall because the blood was rushing to my head at night. what a rush!

I was only a casual apple eater at the time but once I discovered Marzetti Peanut Butter Carmel Dip!, I wound up eating a lot of them with this dip.  My fiancee at the time, Laura moved in with me later that Summer and she could cook!  Until then, I existed on a limited menu: apples, dip, pizza, beer, hot dogs with beans, chips, fast food, that's all I can remember.

We had a terrible neighbor living downstairs from us.  Was she a witch, a demon, Miss Trailer Trash 1993?  Whatever she was was bad!  The above sketch is of Cyndra the horrible!  As you can see, she was VERY skinny and as the angry eyebrows suggest, she was pissed off and mean!  She was constantly yelling at her kids and had an obnoxious, smoky laugh that shook the rafters and was probably sinking the house into the ground!

One night she had some people over around 3am, pumping tunes.  I pounded on the floor and asked her to keep it down, she cranked up the noise further and yelled that we were the ones who were loud.  We heard a commotion another night and she had some people over helping her to move her possessions out, trying to skip out on her rent. We called the landlord on that shrieking Hell Hound.  He came right over.  Cyndra moved out soon after and for the next year or so that we lived there, the downstairs was vacant.  She had trashed the place and the landlord hadn't gotten around yet to fixing it up so peace came to the slanty, storage deficient kingdom of 52 king Street where Marzetti Peanut Butter Carmel Dip!, love and Rock 'n Roll lived on!

So Marzetti Peanut Butter Carmel Dip! is great, especially with a tart apple.  I ate it today with a Pippin.  If you don't like peanut butter, there is a straight caramel or low-fat caramel version of the dip also.  It is awesome heated up in the microwave.

Laura is planning to make Apple Pie Bread Pudding with Gala apples and that will probably be my next review.  Crunch on and live damn-it!

Day 43 - Pippin

Today's apple is the Pippin, also known as the Newtown Pippin or Albemarle Pippin.  It is one of the oldest apple varieties in the United States, discovered as a chance seedling in Newtown, NY in 1730.  The Pippin is said to have been a favorite of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Ben Franklin.  Lin-Manuel Miranda could have written a song about it!

Light green or yellow in color, the Pippin is often splashed with orange or red russetted highlights. It is quite tart and known as a good cooking apple.  However, in modern times, it has been eclipsed by the Granny Smith, which is more handsome or pretty or sexy, and is less susceptible to browning or russetting.

This is a big apple!  The picture above shows it next to a Cortland and Pear Apple.  I work at the Fox affiliate in Milwaukee.  We had Barthel Fruit Farm on our morning show.  They brought a few of these and this was the smallest one!  The Pippin is big as a baby's head.  It is known by some as the Baby Head apple.  By some, I mean me but if I thought it, then someone else may have.  My point is, it's HUGE!  You wouldn't need too many of these to make a pie.

I thought the Pippin tasted ok.  Again, I think it is better for baking, quite tart, a thick skin that will keep it from breaking down too soon and it is kind of mealy. 

I saved half of my Pippin.  It will actually go well with the product that I will review next, Marzetti Peanut Butter Carmel Dip for apples.  This product and I go back a long way to my 1st apartment while in college and it's story is filled with intrigue and drama!  Tune in next time and crunch on!!!!!