A Beauty in the Flesh

Thanksgiving is once again behind us, it's December and Christmas is a mere 2 days shy of 3 weeks away.  Do you ever wonder where the time goes?  Or just how quickly the months go by now?  I hope your Thanksgiving (for those that celebrated) was full of love, family, and lots of good food.  I skype'd with the family, then spent mine with Jill and her family and brought homemade Oreos.  (Yes, they have made it to this year's Christmas Baking List).

I think I've been in a little funk lately.  Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure this happened last year too.  Time to shake myself out of it, because I've got a lot of cooking and baking to do over these next three weeks!  The past week was also memorable because I was asked to make appetizers for seventeen...and GOT PAID to do it!  I think it officially counts as my first paid job to cook!  Woo!  It wasn't anything too too fancy, as it had to be ready and delivered the day before Thanksgiving, but I think it all turned out great.  Baby steps, right?  I also had one of my co-workers ask if I would do the same thing for her.  You bet I would!  This may be the start that I'm looking for.

The next couple of weeks are going to be filled with lots of flour, sugar, and eggs.  Think homemade Oreos, Italian Polenta Cookies, biscotti, shortbread, and a few new additions both sweet and savoury.  I'm just hoping I haven't picked too many to accomplish...though somehow I seem to get it all together and sent off in time.

But let me tell you about what I found last night.  I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a couple of items and in the produce section, I was looking at the apples.  At first, I decided that I didn't need any, knowing I still had a couple Golden Delicious and a few Granny Smiths in the fruit bowl at home.  Then...I saw them.  Deep red...but not the shiny red-red Red Delicous...nor the mottled red and greenish gold of Fujis, Galas, Jonagolds, or Honeycrisps.  No...these were darker and decidedly more intriguing.  The skin is closer to burgundy.  The handwritten sign above them read 'Arkansas Black.'  Is it wrong to think of an apple as 'sexy?'  The Arkansas Black is sultry. Like a beautiful girl with full, pouty lips, and long hair worn with a Veronica Lake sweep.  I googled and this is what I found out through the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture site

The Arkansas Black Apple is recognized by early sources as having been first produced in 1870 in the orchard of a Mr. Brathwaite, which was then about one and a half miles northwest of Bentonville (Benton County). The fruit, a variety of Winesap, is usually round and of medium size. The flesh is yellow, fine grained, crisp, juicy, and aromatic, while the skin is dark red to black, hence its name. It ripens in October or November, and the fruit keeps well though the storage season of two to four months. Originally, the tree was thought to be a seedling of the Winesap Apple. It is a true native apple grown in the Ozarks of both Arkansas and Missouri.

I haven't eaten one yet, but they smell amazing.  I'm thinking of baking one for breakfast tomorrow with a big bowl of oatmeal.  That is, if I can stop looking at them long enough to actually eat one.

Of course, there's a song to go along too...