Weird Foods III: Alpine Spiced Apple Cider

This product is a perfect example of the numerous seasonal treats available around this time of year. That's something I really like about the US. There is much more seasonal variation in the products available at the grocery store. And I'm not just talking about produce; I mean the packaged, non-perishable goods as well. This happens a bit in Aus (say, around Easter or Christmas), but the extent here is much greater.

Anyway, Spiced Apple Cider is purchased as a powder. It's mainly sugar, malic acid (a natural component of apples) and apple juice solids.

 

The powder resembles Ovaltine.

And when you dissolve it in boiling water, it makes a delicious hot apple cider.

 It's hard to find this kind of thing in Australia, which is sad, because I'm quite a fan of it.

Two Minnesotan Ecotypes

I have observed two distinct Minnesotan 'ecotypes'.

First there is the Hibernating Minnesotan. This type of Minnesotan lives for the warmer months (June-October this year) and spends the remaining months avoiding the outside world as much as possible. For this ecotype, winter consists largely of moving as quickly as possible between sources of warmth. Winter is something to be avoided and endured until Spring returns.

The second ecotype is the Psychrophilic Minnesotan. This Minnesotan embraces the cold, the snow, the ice and everything that goes along with them. For this ecotype, the cold months, particularly the middle of winter, are the perfect time to get outdoors. They love to get out their thick coat that is rated down to -40. Common activities include ice-fishing, skiing, hunting, ice-skating, and riding snow mobiles. The committed Psychrophilic Minnesotan will even construct an ice-house in the middle of frozen lakes, so they can spend as much time as possible away from their homes.

I'm yet to decide which ecotype I'm going to be.

Zoo Boo!

Today we attended a Halloween celebration, called Zoo Boo, at Como Zoo. Micah went as a pumpkin. We went as the parents of a pumpkin. Sadly our camera's batteries died and we didn't get any photos. But I'll try to describe it to you. There were a great many volunteers, dressed in costumes ranging from tigers, monkeys and cats, to Darth Vader and Batman, stationed all throughout the zoo. As we moved through the zoo, we were given various treats (healthy as well as not-so-healthy). Micah had a great time. And I had a bearable time. However, the thing that amazed me was the fact that all the people in costumes were volunteers. That's something I love about Americans; their enthusiasm for festivity. I get the feeling it would be very hard to convince many Australians to participate in such an event for nothing.

My New Favourite Season

I like autumn in Minnesota. The name 'fall' seems quite appropriate over here. All the leaves change colour and start to fall; it's all very pretty. But it's more than just a pretty sight; supermarket shelves become laden with pumpkin-flavoured and caramel-coated delights; so far we have tried pumpkin pie yoghurt, pumpkin spice bagels, pumpkin bread and caramel apples. I'm still hoping to try the pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks. There are also numerous festivals around this time of year.

Yesterday one of my work colleagues and his wife took us on a fall-themed adventure. First we tried to go apple picking at an orchard. Apparently, this is a really popular fall activity in the mid-west. I was just expecting an apple orchard with a person selling bags to put your apples in; I had forgotten that this is America. It was a real event, including goats, hay-rides, toy tractors for kids to ride, a train pulled by a tractor and heaps of apple-themed products for sale. Here, we tried kettle corn for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised at how tasty it was.

Next we headed to Stillwater, a small town about 30 km (18.6 miles) from St Paul. This is a lovely town with all of Amy's favourite specialty shops: chocolate, spices, tea, and wool. There also happened to be an autumn festival underway when we visited. The over-sized vegetables are truly a sight to behold!

We also saw Wisconsin across the St Croix river.

We went to Nacho Mama for lunch and, since I had never had them before, I ordered the Baconated Jalapeno Poppers stuffed with cream cheese. They were one of the spiciest things I have ever eaten; but they were delicious.

 Our last stop before heading home was at one of the state parks. I forget which one. Unlike the national parks, the state parks are not affected by the non-functional Federal Government. We took a short walk around one of the lakes and it was beautiful. There's not much more I can say about it.

The Minnesota State Fair

A little over a month ago Amy, Micah and I attended the Minnesota state fair. It was huge. We were there for the whole day and there were still parts we didn't see. For my followers from Tassie, it was like a combination of Agfest, the Hobart Show and the Deloraine Craft Fair, except there were no show bags; that was probably a good thing though. We started our day viewing the old tractors (right).

Then we moved onto the Little Farm Hands Exhibit: an excellent exhibit designed to teach children about farming and where food comes from. After Micah had collected, among other things, a fake egg from the chicken coop, wool from the wooden sheep, a plastic apple from the wooden apple trees, and an empty milk carton from the cow, he took their 'produce' to 'market' and got 'paid' '$1' which he could then spend at the 'grocery store' on ice-cream, fruit juice, or a real apple. Micah chose the apple; although perhaps this was because the other items were too high up for him to see.









However, what the State Fair is really famous for, is its food. Most of it deep fried and on a stick. We tried deep fried cheese curds (see right), Big Fat Bacon (see below left), cannoli, snow cones, fudge, and a Hawiian Pretzel. We also took advantage of 'All the Milk You Can Drink for $1' (below right) and combined it with a cone of Sweet Martha's Cookies.

The most amusing thing we found was Australian Battered Potatoes. 'Authentically' served with sweet chilli and sour cream or ranch and cheese. Let it be known that I have never seen potato cakes served with ranch and cheese in Australia. Still, the proprietors had the Wiggles and Slim Dusty playing, which was authentic.

We also saw butter sculptures (left), a parade, complete with marching bands and giant cows (below), and Micah and I went up a tall tower and saw the fair from above.

Just before we left, we came across a stand called 'Walkabout Hats'. There was a sign encouraging people to drop in and say 'g'day'. So we did. We expected to find Americans selling hats made in China, so we were pleasantly surprised to find a South African man selling hats made in Australia and the US.

Jerry the Wise

My boss, Jerry, is a highly intelligent man. But he is also very practical. And, unlike so many other highly intelligent people, he is incredibly nice. He's a rare combination, and I just wanted to share something he has taught me recently.

There have been a number of annoying hurdles I've had to overcome during my time in the USA. The most recent was changing our visa status from J to H. What we didn't realise was, while our we have H status, we still have J visas. So, if we were to leave the country, we would have to apply and get H visas before re-entering the US. There has got to be a better system than this. Anyway, we'll probably do that when we visit Australia early next year. In my normal fashion, I started overthinking this situation and worrying about it; imagining the worse possible scenarios. But when I told Jerry, he barely bat an eye-lid. He told me that there are some things you just have to do in order to do the things you want to do, and stressing about it is not going to help. I wish I could have this attitude about all of my life.

Likes and Dislikes II

My previous 'Likes and Dislikes' post was after six weeks of living in Minnesota, so it seems appropriate that, after being in the Minnesota for nearly nearly six months, here a few more likes a dislikes.

Likes:

Right turn on red. This is an excellent law, and really helps keep traffic flowing. The law is that you can make a right turn on a red light, provided you come to a complete stop first and yield to any oncoming traffic.

S'mores (see right). These things are awesome. Graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate.

Saint Paul Gym family swim day. Amy, Micah and I have been enjoying this for several weeks now. As a member of the gym, my family get free access on Sundays from 1 til 3 on Sundays. This has provided many good times.

Bird songs. Bird songs in Australia are, umm, unpleasant, to say the least. In contrast, the morning bird song in Minnesota is a joy to wake up to.










Lakes. Minnesota's tagline is '10,000 Lakes'. They're not kidding. Even in the cities, they are quite picturesque.

 

Really cheap grocery shopping. We got a whole roast chicken for free when doing our grocery shopping yesterday. What's not to love?






Dislikes:

Humidity. Really hot summer days are made even worse by humidity. It's not a nice feeling.

Mosquitoes. I think '10,000 Mosquitoes' would be a more accurate tagline for this state. They are not so bad in the cities, but even on my morning walk, if I don't wear insect repellent I will get bitten at least once.

Tropical storms. Fun when you're inside. Can be annoying if you get caught in them.