If your repertoire for cantaloupe is limited to slicing and eating on a plate consider the following:

• Cantaloupe Based Organic Fruit Salad (made with Cantaloupe, Strawberries, Pineapple, Blueberries and Banana)
• Cantaloupe Ice Pops (made with Cantaloupe, water, sugar and mint leaves)
• Cantaloupe Martini (made with pureed cantaloupe, water, sugar & lime mixed with Vodka & Midori)

Not only are there many foods we haven’t tried but many different ways to serve the foods we now love. Go ahead, be fearless. Laugh at your mistakes and delight in your successes.

Both apples looked great, although the organic one had this little hole on top where a bug was starting to have it’s way with it. Fortunately when we carefully cut into it we found that the bugster has skedaddled already. The only difference we could really see was that the organic apple appeared more heart shape. But honestly both looked good.

So they look alike but what about taste? Well we tried both and there was a difference. To us the organic one tasted slightly more appley as if that was a word. But really, both tasted great. And you know what? If we were taking independent bites we really wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

Well now if both apples essentially look alike and taste alike then why spend the extra twelve cents? I’ll tell you why. First the organic will be more environmentally friendly and there will be less poisons used in the world. Second, there will be less pesticides and stuff on the apple. You see the thing about apples is that if you plant the seeds from a single apple all the trees will bare fruit that tastes different. Really. To counter this and so a Granny Smith always tastes like a Granny Smith they use the same tree and just graft it. So this low tech version of cloning is used in the apple industry (hey, you don’t want to grow a tree only to find out later that the fruit is lousy, so they use the same good tree over and over as it were). But this lack of diversity is one of the reasons why apples are one of the most highly sprayed crops around. Just to give you a feel of this take a look at the link here. This is the list of pesticides, acaricides, fungicides, bactericides, herbicides, nematicides and rodenticides ….. whew…. used for Apple Crops.

And in addition don’t forget about the shellac used to make them look nice and shiny (see the OTK Post Link Below).

So in summary it’s a no brainer. For Apples, Go Organic.

Related Links:

• Organic Test Kitchen Post. “Shellac on your apples (refinishing to bring out the luster in old food)“

 So basically for all those who’ll never admit they’ve never prep’d one, here you go short and simple:

• Using a long blade knife cut the end off
• Cut a slice (outer rind and all)
• Using a paring knife go round the slice and remove the rind
• Lay the slice on a cutting surface and with simple straight cuts remove the outer part from the core (so four cuts will leave you with a square core that you throw away).
• Cut the remaining into whatever size you want. Also, if you see some brownish areas, these are the eyes and you can remove them too at this time.
• I generally place some plastic wrap over the cut and and put the whole deal into the frig until I want another serving.

 That’s it..Simple..Now most cooks use the chop the whole thing now method..There are cookie cutters for coring out the center…Seems like a big deal about nothing if you ask me. But anyway, if I’m making a smoothie with pineapple for instance I only want to cut what I need and leave the rest in Mother Nature’s Package. Now pineapples are supposed to be chill sensitive like bananas (which get trashed if you put them into the frig)..I don’t know, never had a problem. But then again, once I cut into a pineapple the entire thing usually manages to disappear within a few days.

So in all fairness here’s a link to Rachael Ray’s site with a video on cutting pineapples the traditional way and a link to the smoothie recipe that started all of this commotion (by the way, Rachael, if you’re reading this, I’m free this Thursday). 

Enjoy!

• Rachael Ray’s Site with Pineapple Cutting Video
• Smoothie Recipe

 The results of this work by Professor David Jenkins has been published in the Journal Metabolism.  What this entails is summarized in a BBC News Article which states:

A typical day on the diet included:

A breakfast of soy milk, oat bran cereal with chopped fruit and almonds, oatmeal bread, vegetable-based margarine and jam;

A lunch of soy cold cuts, oat bran bread, bean soup and fruit; and

A stir-fry dinner with vegetables, tofu, fruit and almonds.
The researchers put 13 people on the combination diet for a month. They found that their cholesterol levels had dropped by 29% by the end of the period.

 Previous research indicated that foods such as oats could have a significant lowering effect but nothing on the levels found here with combining. And if this is done organically where the vegi’s have been found to be higher in nutrients in some situations….that’s some healthy eating.

 Should you stop taking your cholesterol meds or just start this diet without consulting your doctor?…absolutely not. But you may want to ask your doctor about it to see if it’s right for you.

Related Links:

• BBC News Article
• Organic Lifestyle = Health (Not Necessarily)

Probably the best way to approach this is to look at what we are trying to cook with the potato and what would be the best selection for that particular purpose.

For making Baked Potatoes: We feel the best potato is a Russet also known as an Idaho Potato. These are high starch and yield the best results for baking.

For making Boiled Potatoes: You can go with either New Potatoes or Red Potatoes for this. These are low starch potatoes and generally are best for this dish. As an aside, “New” Potatoes mean just that..they’re new or recently harvested. You see, it’s typical to hold potatoes in cold storage after harvesting. This allows the potato time to “cure”. Curing results in the potato developing a higher starch content and a tougher outer skin. So a starchier potato that is more resilient to handing results. In contrast, a New Potato will have a low starch content and a more delicate skin (actually one way to test if the new potato is actually New and not an old New Potato is to rub the skin with your finger. If the potato is truly new the skin will rub off).

For making French Fries: We recommend using a Russet or Idaho Potato.

 For making Mashed Potatoes: You again want to use a Russet Potato or Idaho. It’s high starch content will produce fluffier mashed potatoes.

For making Roasted Potatoes: Good choices for Roasted Potatoes include Red Potatoes(such as the Red Bliss Potato), fingerling potatoes & white rose potatoes.

For making Scalloped Potatoes: We recommend using a Russet or Idaho Potato.

The Intermediate Potatoes: The above recommendations are either for high starch or low starch potatoes. But what if your personal preference goes for starchier boiled potatoes or less starchy French Fries? Then you can choose what we call an intermediate potato. These have starch contents between the two extremes. These include Yukon (or Yukon Gold) Potatoes, Purple Peruvian Potatoes & Yellow Finn Potatoes.

 So there you have it, some straightforward guidlines for the best potato to use for the different recipes. Good luck with your dishes involving one of the most popular vegetables on earth and live naturally.

  So what the heck is shellac anyway? Well the Bulls Eye Shellac Website gives a pretty good description (by the way check out the FDA Certification info at the bottom). Well, according to Bulls Eye, shellac is ”..an alcohol based solution of pure lac, a natural resin secreted by tiny insects on certain trees, mainly in India.” Apparently the purpose of this secretion is to protect the insects from predators. They completely cover themselves with the stuff but leave small anal and breathing openings….Eating this sounds like an episode right out of ”Fear Factor“ (the show where contestants are forced to do fearful things like eating bug secretions). By the way, some other fun uses for your apple coating are rubber compounds, hat stiffeners, electrical insulating varnishes, playing card coatings, printing inks, gasket cements and nail varnishes. Um-Umm (thanks Vegan Society).

  Seems I’m more grossed out by this than the regulatory agencies involved. For one thing the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service is all excited by how well shellac works on food. It’s true, it does work at keeping the old looking new. Or said differently, it helps the fruit retain the qualities of fresh. Apparently from one report the reduced gas permeability from the coating is an indicator of quality retention. I guess if you want to pay less for an apple that’s been stored forever in a warehouse that’s you business. But I know that the apples I gave my kids should have been free from such stuff. Why can these growers put this on our food and not have something prominent like a sticker or something to share this information…Maybe if you knew what you were eating you wouldn’t buy it. Naaa.

  Now one argument you’ll hear is that there is just a drop of the stuff on an apple. Who cares, it won’t kill you etc etc. Well I care and I don’t know if it will help kill me, reduce my energy or anything. However, a thought experiment might shed some light on this issue of quantity. Let’s take an imaginary glass of wine (containing ethanol, a fairly good solvent), place it in front of a naysayer, add one drop of shellac to the glass and say “drink it” . Would they? Probably not. But maybe if they were very stubborn. However, it would be forced down, I guarantee it. And by the way, if there are any boneheads out there, do not do this. If you add a drop of Bulls Eye Shellac or any other shellac to someone else’s food you could poison them (for one thing the alcohol could be methanol instead of ethanol. Methanol attacks the optic nerve and does a lot of other bad things to humans). I hate to include such a statement but there are some pretty stupid people out there. Fortunately, the readers of this blog have higher IQs than most. But you never know when a member of the “it won’t kill ya” crowd will find this on a Google Search.

  So enough said. First conclusion, anything added to food should be prominently displayed. It’s our right to know what we’re putting into our bodies. Second, I am more convinced than ever that Organic Food is the way to go. Put the shellac on the door frame but leave my apple alone. I’ll take one that’s not all glammed up but is honest fresh every time. Fresh truly taste best and faux fresh fruit taste like the sorrow old thing that it is. So eat well, eat real and live naturally.