phragmentation

i’m not a big fan of apples by themselves, but i do have a fondness for applesauce… it’s definitely a comfort food and childhood memory. So we’ve had this big bowl of apples sitting on the counter since March from the Deployed ordeal (the production assistant had made a costco run so we have cases of junk food, as well). Every time I looked at them I’d think, “hmm, I should make applesauce” if i was feeling happy. Or “damn deployed thing” if i was depressed. So finally, while I was gone last week, David threw the rotten ones out. That left about 6 green ones. As we were making breakfast yesterday, I was feeling happy and finally decided I can cut up 6 apples and throw them in a pot on the hot plate (we have no stove). After breakfast, they’ll be ready to mash up! And so I did, added a little water, broke up a cinnamon stick and added a few tsps of cinnamon on top of that. I let it sit… ate breakfast, pulled weeds in the yard, rearranged some of the plants, fed the orchids. And when I came back to look at it, they were cooked. I fished out the sticks and put the soft apples (with skins) in David’s fabulous Waring laboratory blender with the super heavy screw-on top. Whizzed it on low for a few seconds, and voila … baby food. Yes, the blender is a little *too* heavy duty! It tasted good, so I put the warm applesauce in the fridge and thought… hmm… i haven’t had cinnamon ice cream in a long time (well, since meeting David Lebovitz at Ici last week, that is). I used to keep a pint of Cinnamon ice cream in the freezer when I lived alone…

So, after a nice afternoon of shopping, we made dinner: grilled kobe steak with mangos (soaked in ginger & lime juice), bhutanese red rice, and a salad with tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, red peppers and fresh basil from the garden. Then, I started looking through The Perfect Scoop for a recipe for Apple ice cream, now that i have this lovely apple puree. It seems to be there should be such a thing. But there wasn’t. So I went back to cinnamon ice cream. I was momentarily distracted by Aztec Hot Chocolate ice cream. But decided, that no, I didn’t want chocolate. I wanted cinnamon, mainly since it would go well with all the fruit we have too. I had made plum granita last week that was a bit tart, so I thought the cinnamon would sweeten it up nicely. Here’s the final recipe I came up with:

1 cup half & half
1 cup skim milk
1/4 c. muscovado sugar from mauritius [on the list of places to go]
1/8 c. dark maple syrup (grade b or c or d…)
1 Tablespoon of ground cinnamon (or more…)

Blend all together in a blender. Need not be industrial strength, my osterizer worked fine for this (and it was easier to clean). Freeze in your ice cream maker. It was perfect with the plum granita and a few episodes of south park before bed.

And what of the applesauce? This morning I wasn’t feeling well so I thought oatmeal would help. And as I was cooking it up, I thought… hmmm apple and cinnamon oatmeal… hmm I could put in a scoop of cinnamon ice cream and some applesauce and that would be pretty much the same thing, right? It was even better! Now I am happy.