Apple Taste Testing

In March, we were getting together for potluck dinner with friends. Inspired by my recent reads about how the French savor food and also due to the fact that it was Lent (making a true dessert a less appropriate choice), I offered to bring several different types of apples for after the meal for a taste tasting.

I bought two each of 13 different types of apples, slicing one of each pair, leaving the other for a reference for outward appearance.

The apples on the chopping block were:
1) Ambrosia
2) Braeburn
3) Cameo
4) Fuji
5) Gala
6) Golden Delicious
7) Granny Smith
8) Honey Crisp
9) Jazz
10) Pacific Rose
11) Piñata
12) Pink Lady
13) Red Delicious

I made scorecards. The apples were all judged on:
A) Outside appearance
B) Inside appearance
C) Aroma
D) Texture
E) Juiciness
F) Flavor

They were then given raw scores for visual + olfactory (A+B+C) and taste (D+E+F). Finally, their total scores were calculated.

Pediatrician that I am, I also made scorecards for the kids participating, using the Wong Baker faces pain rating scale.

0. I would rather be spanked than eat this vile specimen.

1. I would have to be force fed to gag this down.

2. I would eat this only if really famished.

3. I would eat this without complaint at a meal.

4. I would request this for a snack!

5. I would rather eat this than candy!

We then had at it. The taste testing took up a good chunk of the evening.

After much deliberation and tallying, a winner emerged...

Honey Crisp!

(There was a lot more interesting data gathered about the apples that night... but I sadly seem to have misplaced it :-/ If I find it, I'll update this post!)

It was really, really fun. We are blessed to have friends nerdy enough to agree ;-)

Mayfest 2014

Aaron only had 2 weekends off this month. One was claimed by ordination festivities, but the other weekend we went to Mayfest. We had a great time eating fair food and wandering through arts and crafts booths and kids' activities. It was so great to be outdoors on such a beautiful day.

Frog legs.

Turtle funnel cake.

May 2014

May was an exciting month. The two big events that month were that my dad got ordained to the diaconate and Elizabeth graduated from college. There were a lot of smaller special moments in between. Julia and I had some fun times together, especially because I took a week of vacation in May.

I was on Endocrinology in May, so I had pretty nice hours. Aaron was on ICU days, so his hours were not so nice. He had to switch his weekends around to be off for my dad's ordination, so at one point he worked for at least 17 days straight or something crazy like that. Poor guy.

The other female residents in my program and I went to a wine and paint place one evening for a girls' night out, followed by chocolate fondue for dessert. We had a great time. Behold my masterpiece ;-)

Julia and I decided her "gnomes" from one of her board games needed a makeover.

Much better, don't you think?

My little gansta in her do-rag.

Super cute spread at the baby shower my sister held for our friend, Kristin.

Mother's Day flowers from Aaron and Julia.

Fun with friends one evening.

Julia likes my new reflex hammer.

I painted my friend's phone case. It was really fun.

We went to a concert at the library one day that I was on vacation.

Dino O'Dell was awesome!

We went another day to see this science/magic act.

Before my dad's ordination, I decided to give Julia a haircut. This is the before shot.

Before.

After!