Foodarrific

A friend’s daughter has a new boyfriend and his birthday is coming up. So she’s fretting about what to buy him. Any ideas, she asks me like I’m the gift expert. Which I am not. But I do have to admit it’s hard to buy gifts for guys, especially someone who don’t know very well yet.

My go-to gift, not just for guys but for anyone else who’s hard to buy for, is a food gift. Gotta love baked goods as a gift. Even better if you can bake it yourself. But how many young women can bake these days? Not many. So I suggest to keep it simple and go with fruit baskets for boyfriend or any friend.

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It’s been way too long since I last baked a apple pie. At my daughter’s request, I decided to bake 2 pies – one for dessert and the other to be saved for later.

So since I was at the grocery store to pick up some bar supplies, I decided to grab some puff pastry squares. Yes, store-bought because I’m too busy (or too lazy) to make my own.

• 10 puff pastry squares
• 2 green apples, diced small
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 egg yolk, beaten

I had the oven preheated to 200 degrees F.

Combine apples, honey, cinnamon and flour in a bowl and mix well. Place a spoonful of apple filling in the middle of the puff pastry square and fold neatly into a triangle.

Press down the sides and seal with the tines of a fork. Make some holes on the top of the puff with the fork to let air escape. Brush with egg wash.

Bake for 25 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

That’s it, so simple!

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Lately we’ve been on something of a grapefruit juice binge because my kids have just discovered how good it tastes if I just add some sugary syrup to sweeten up the whole deal. To be honest, grapefruit has a bitterish taste which takes some getting used to. I remember an aunt of mine used to eat grapefruit religiously for its slimming effect.

My kids seem to love it and even remind me to buy more when we go groceries. These reminders only happen when they really love something. So that says a lot. As for those couple of hand-me-down plus size formal dresses they inherited from their cousins may be sitting there for a long while.

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It’s been a while since I bought a dragon fruit. The thing I love about this so-called fairytale food is its brilliant fuchsia color which is so pretty. Apparently the dragon fruit’s cactus flower blooms only at night.

This photo is a little blurry because it was taken with my cell phone but it’s still a better quality than the good days of colored document scanning.

And as for the flesh, there’s white and there’s a matching fuchsia. I’m sure there’s a way of telling what color the flesh is but I don’t know it. If you do, pray tell.

The brilliant fuchsia flesh is a little alarming at first but tastewise, it’s mild and no different from the white ones. And for its exotic looks and taste, this fruit is becoming very trendy in cocktail menus everywhere. Have you had a chance to try this fruit?

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I first noticed that mangoes were in season when I was at the mall to buy the motorola zoom at the source and stopped by the grocery store on my way home.

I’ve just been eating mangoes ever since, it seems, because I just can’t resist those ripe yellow mangoes beckoning to me at the grocery store. I mostly like to eat them fresh though I did try to make mango yogurt this time.

My favorite way to cut them is to slice lengthwise along both sides of the pit with the skin on. Then I score each side to make criss-cross patterns. Now there’s the familiar porcupine shape that, when turned outwards, makes it really easy to eat.

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