Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Frozen Grapes

(Blogger snipped off the end of my post last night...wah)

I hate squishy grapes. Biting into them makes me want to give up on the fruit entirely. They need to be plump and firm. When I chomp a grape in two, the remaining half must be able to retain its shape. When I purchase them, I gently squeeze a few to make sure they aren't deflated. A good batch of grapes, in my experience, has a three to four day window of plumptitude before they begin turning to mush.

Wednesday I made the mistake of buying three pounds of jumbo red seedless grapes. I must have forgotten I wouldn't be able to eat them all before driving to Illinois on Friday. I thought about bringing them for the drive, but the pressure of having to finish that many in six hours made me nervous. The car's heat would compromise the integrity of the fruit, causing me to lose faith in grapes. I decided to place them in the freezer, hoping they'd stay ripe and thaw firm.

When I got home last night, I took the grapes out of the freezer and placed them in the fridge. They'd sit there for less than twenty minutes before I came to two realizations: I was hungry, and I had nothing else to eat. I decided to try a frozen grape. Oh. My. God. It was amazing. Tasted like a popsicle. I ate an entire bowl of them, and I think I’m hooked.

This got me thinking about other tasty treats that are fantastic when frozen: candy bars, bananas, chocolate chips, Doritos. Now I’m curious. What other snacks can you freeze? Winter’s coming, which means frozen food season is drawing to an end.

8 comments:

Jorge said...

I love frozen grapes. Especially the sour green ones with a dash of sugar.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe you didn't know about frozen grapes?! Its a pretty popular treat.

Er ist glaubhaft said...

Mr. Dan, I know all about the soft-grape problem. Have you ever stood at the grape chest at HyVee or Cub and examined every bag of grapes for firmness and those squashed grapes that have exploded juice all over the unseen side of the bag? I have. Grapes have to POP when you bite them. Not dribble, not give, not squish. POP.

Grapes in the freezer, however, I have never tried, but I will now. Maybe this is the salvation for a bag of soft grapes.

Jessica said...

tootsie rolls. score bars. snickers.

Anonymous said...

Plumpitude. Nice.

Jorge said...

Tootsie Rolls--YES. They become like a chocolate hard candy that, if you stick with it long enough, turn back into a normal tootsie roll. I like that. I like when things are different then go back to normal. It's safety.

A cold menthol cigarette is really good, too. At least for the first few drags. Then it warms up. But those first few drags are amazing. The menthol is there, but it's a cold draw.

I used to like frozen bread with jelly on it for a summer snack.

Luke said...

Get a bag of frozen fruit, and put it in fruit punch (as a substitute for ice cubes). It will knock your socks off.

reenska said...

try baking some brownies and cut and wrap them into individual servings. Freeze them with the hope of not eating them as quickly as you would if they were sitting on your counter. They are good frozen.
At least now I know you made it home OK from Illinois.