Thursday, June 5, 2008

Apples to Apples

If anyone of you has trouble getting your kids to eat fruit, then I suggest finding an apple peeler. This isn't a new gadget or another name for your spouse with a knife. This is something that has been around almost as long as apples have been around.

Number One Son is a somewhat picky eater. He always orders the same food at every restaurant we visit. A bacon cheeseburger with fries. The Mexican and Chinese restaurants have to do some creative cooking sometimes for him. He likes some fruit, but usually not apples. Don't ask me why. I thought everyone liked apples.

Anyway, we have an old style apple peeler. Ours actually is relatively new, but the basic model is an old design. It resembles a large U-shaped metal brace. One end has a crank and the other end has a do-hicky. As you probably have guessed, the do-hicky does the amazing work.

We first, stick the apple, butt first, onto the end of the crank. Then the fun starts. You can probably guess that the kids fight over who gets to turn the crank. As the kids turn the crank, the apple spins with it moving ever closer to the do-hicky. Once the apple comes in contact with said do-hicky, the apple's peel magically starts to come off of the apple like a ribbon and curls up on the cutting board. The peeled strips are so thin that there is almost zero waste. Sweet Pea thinks the ribbon peel looks like the round red onions that come with your salad at a restaurant.

As the spinning apple loses its clothes, it passes through a ring at the other end. This ring slices the now naked apple into a spiral and separates it from the core. So you are left with a core less, nude apple with a slinky like cut throughout.

Now who wouldn't love to eat an apple like that? Well, no one in our house. N1S will now eat a whole apple for lunch. Sweet Pea, who loved apples to start with, now has another way to snack.

It's funny what kids will eat and what they won't. The chefs on the Food Network always place such importance on presentation. Now I know why they do.

6 comments:

Russell said...

Yes, these apple peelers are great. A few years ago my daughter was in the pie making business to earn a little money during the summer.

Talk about peeling a lot of apples!! Goodness! She is an excellent baker and I spent many, many hours delivering pies to people all over the area!

I enjoyed the interaction with the people and the pies were great! I almost considered starting a real pie making business - but I am sure if I had it would not have been as much fun as the summer of pies was!

Take care.

pixie said...

It would be so much fun just to watch! Gotta get me one of those!

DJ Kirkby said...

N3S is much the same...he always 'orders' his apple, 'cut up into four pieces with the skin off please'. I think N3S would adore this marvellous piece of equipment!

Anonymous said...

Presentation is important. Not that I am any good in the kitchen at all. My husband likes to peel apples with a knife getting the peel off in one piece. I have no idea how he does it.

Anonymous said...

Hello My name is Scott Lancaster from DIYFather.com I was wondering if you would be interested in sharing content with my site and also if you would be interested in doing a podcast also?I look forward to hearing from youRegards Scottscott@diyfather.com

Anonymous said...

I used to make 10 apple pies a week (in one day) when I cooked on a dude ranch. Apple Pie night was Monday. I used one of those peelers and it saved my life.

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I'm a 40 year old dad of two. My wonderful wife, Lady Di, and I try to keep the kids from blowing things up here in central Minnesota.