Last weekend, my family and I went to Casola Farms, an apple orchard in Marlboro, New Jersey. After the long drive, we arrived to find out that the over-crowed apple farm, had depleted their apple supply! Devastated, we knew we couldn’t come home empty handed. So, we decided it would be fun as a family to carve pumpkins and roast pumpkin seeds! Little did we know, A LOT of work would have to be done! We picked two large pumpkins, and then four smaller ones (for decoration). We picked the biggest pumpkins we could find, made sure they weren’t rotten, and was en route home!

Once we arrived home, my dad began to cut open the pumpkins removing all of the seeds and placing them on to a cookie sheet. My Mom took them inside and cleaned them while I continued to clean out the inside of the pumpkin with my little cousins and sister. We moved onto the next pumpkin, and repeated the previously stated steps. Once both pumpkins were cleaned my dad began to carve the pumpkins with an extremely sharp knife. While he continued to carve the pumpkins, I went inside and seasoned the pumpkin seeds. We made half of them savory and the other half of them sweet. On the sweet pumpkin seeds, we sprinkled melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nut meg and rolled the seeds around on the parchment paper. On the savory seeds, we sprinkled cumin, cayenne pepper, and chill pepper. Once my father finished carving the pumpkins, and the seeds finished roasting we did what we always do on Sunday evenings: we cooked our pasta and meatballs! This week however, we changed it up and made ricotta raviolis!

Quality time with family is one of the most important things to living a successful and healthy life. I’m not going to lie and say that my family and I have quality time every week, because we do not. We are lucky to have quality time every other week or every three weeks due to sports, school work, our jobs, and other extracurricular activities. As a result of my family and I’s lack of quality time, I can not bed explain how grateful my peers should be if their families are together every night for dinner. I genially can not wait for Sunday dinners when everyone is home and able to just hang out. Whether it be talking, eating, or watching TV, all time spent together, is quality time. Of course the delicious food is just a plus!

My day made me realize once again how much time is spent taking whole foods, and converting them into other products. For example, making bread and cake out of eggs. Food is a huge part in my family, and I love the time we spend in the kitchen daily.

So I felt that it would be relevant to talk about what I’m eating for dinner tonight! You might be asking why, but I have my reasons. My Dad decided to go fishing yesterday, in hopes of catching black fish. Out on the water all day, he waited and waited and finally something caught his line. Little did we know, they would come home to be our dinner! He caught two plump black fish. He came home that day,  got his gloves on and began what soon would be our dinner! He gutted them, taking off their skin, removing their guts and picked away their bones! My dad being a butcher is used to the nauseating smells, slimy guts, and all of the other disgusting parts of the fish but I couldn’t handle it. I ran up the stairs like a kid who saw a ghost! I’m not sure how early Americans, or any humans in the past were able to butcher their meat and then hours later eat it! I found it repulsive and unappealing (although it tastes amazing).

He marinated the fish in some olive oil, picked some basil from his garden, chopped up onions and garlic that he purchased from his favorite New Jersey farmers’ market, and drizzled some olive oil on top. He also threw chives, scallions, salt, and pepper on top. He covered the fish in tin foil and put it in the fridgerator to soak in all of the delicious herbs.

I immediately felt a connection to what we have been learning this past semester. Our dinner tonight was made in our home. We went out and provided for ourselves our own fish, grew some of the herbs that would be atop our fish, or bought it at a farmers market. In a way, I am proud of my father for not using a supermarket to help make our dinner, or rely on the fish market to provide us with our fish. The connection I made with the Port Richmond garden, and the early American’s really struck me. It’s interesting how much work it takes to make one meal. The time it took colonial Americans to make their meals must have consumed hours in each of their days! I wonder now, what was at a loss, due to all of the time it took them to gather, clean, and make their food. I now understand the power of convenience a supermarket, fish market or oyster market has on people.

My dad always cooks his food from scratch, not relying on pre-made spice packs or dressings, but this was on a whole different level. I can’t wait to taste my Dad’s cooking tonight, I’m sure it will be delicious! 

This weekend was fall break so I decided to go back home to New Jersey and spend a couple of days with my family. My family and I wanted to do something fun so we went apple picking to make apple crumb pie. As we pulled up to Battleview Orchards, the spot to pick apples, we saw a field full of all different kinds of apple trees. There was such a variety of apples including, Granny Smith, Red Delicious, Braeburn, Pink Lady and more. In order to pick the apples, you needed to climb to the top of the tree. So there I go, climbing all the trees and throwing the apples down to the bottom so my brother could collect them in the bucket. We ended the day with twenty one apples, which was more than enough for the apple crumb pie.

In order to make apple crumb pie, you need five apples, cut and sliced into a bowl. My mom bought the pie crust already made so all we had to do was bake it for twelve minutes to brown it. The we mixed together in a bowl the apples, flour, sugar and cinnamon. Next we poured the apples in the bowl into the pie crust to then put in the oven to bake for 10 minutes at 425 degrees fahrenheit, then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees fahrenheit for 45 minutes. We also added flour, sugar, cinnamon, butter and oats to sprinkle on the top as the crumb. Finally, we took out the finished apple crumb pie and ate it as a family. Every bite was warm and delicious, filled with so much flavor.

This event of apple picking connects to class because we discuss how fruits contain fructose. Many apples have been developed as dessert or cooking fruit or for making cider. In this case I had made a dessert which was apple crumb pie. I cut the apples up and added a spice to them which was cinnamon. I enjoyed making apple crumb pie and I look forward to making it again next year.