That said, I'ma pontificate briefly on how extremely lucky those of us in the Pacific Northwest truly are in terms of apples. If I may channel Meg and her rad Gravenstein post* for just a moment: Walking into my grocery store and seeing upwards of eight different varieties of apple throughout the fall and into winter is a wonder to me. A fresh apple is not easily found in Alaska, as is the case for most produce of any quality. So discovering that the apple not only has a complex genealogy (insert family tree joke) with a wide range of tastes, colors, textures and personalities amazed me. Trying new apples has become a bit of an obsession now, and while I trend toward the Pink Ladies (natch) and Jonagolds for their balanced, sweet-n-tart flavor, I'll try most anything. I'd never had a Spartan until recently, and I noshed through those like lightning - they were so crisp! Gingergolds and Honeycrisps don't do it for me; they're a little too sweet, and the skin doesn't have enough resistance for me. I like to taste that rind. The Arkansas Black Spur apple made an appearance last year, but I didn't get a chance to grab any. According to the internet, they're late season so apple freaks like me get something to look forward to. My neighbor brought me a ton of Jonafrees from the gorge; she clearly knows the way to my heart.
*Meg and Kelly: We need to start a band called the Rad Gravensteins.
(ETA links and extra love.)
5 comments:
The easiest thing to do is prepare a lot of dishes that are naturally vegan. I guarantee you will miss dairy and all that less and less.
I used to be a cheese freak. But if some is slipped into my food now, I can't stand the taste.
Good luck! -mo
Good luck on getting rid of dairy. You can do it!
All of those apples sound interesting. I will have to check out some other varieties...
I'm with Mo here... it's a lot easier, especially in the beginning, to eat stuff that's already vegan than to agonize over trying to veganize your favorite non-vegan stuff.
One thing that helped me out when I first went vegan was trying totally new foods... especially stuff I'm generally too damn cheap to buy for myself. (See: cherimoyas.) It got me used to thinking of veganism as an exciting new chapter in my life instead of as some sort of claustrophobia inducing prohibitive food closet.
Good luck! We're happy to have you with us in MoFo!
I found your blog through vegan mofo and wanted to say hi to a fellow Portland blogger.
I agree that it is easier to cook foods that are just naturally vegan without needing to do any dairy substitutions. That way you don't notice that your final result doesn't taste like something is different from what you were expecting.
Rad Gravensteins 4-eva.
YAY FOR VEGAN FUN! :D
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