How to Eat an Orange without Peeling It

Oranges can be a bit of a challenge for those of us with poor fine motor skills. When I was a little girl my mother would always peel all my oranges for me. She was very good at it, and they were never bruised or damaged in the process of peeling.

When I was a teenager I started trying to peel my own oranges, but I found that I was not nearly as good at peeling an orange as my mother was. I would squeeze too hard, and some of the juice would run out. When it was finally peeled, the orange looked unappetizing and damaged. It turns out, you need excellent fine motor skills to peel an orange. While I have gotten better at peeling oranges over the years, it still requires time and concentration for me to do a good job of it.

Bow, like me, has real difficulty peeling an orange. He has excellent coordination overall, but certain fine motor skills that most humans take for granted are not available to him. If you give him an orange, he tries to put as much of the unpeeled fruit into his mouth and squeeze and this makes a mess on the floor with all the juice spurting out.

But did you know that there is a perfectly good way to eat an orange without ever peeling it? You can just cut it into quarters with a knife.

This is what I do when Bow and I want to have an orange for a snack. It doesn't make a mess, and we are able to eat all the pulp without peeling. I take two quarters for me and give two to Bow.

Brussels Sprouts and the Moon

Sometimes the feast before us is a feast for the eyes. This morning I watched from my front door as the school bus picked up my daughter as usual. There was a big, bright round moon shining.

Last night, we had Brussels sprouts as part of our feast. Brussels sprouts are like tiny cabbages, so small that you can put one whole in your mouth. This is not necessarily the recommended method of eating them,  but it's something you can do if you want to, and something you are likely to do if you are a chimpanzee.

The way I prepare Brussels sprouts is very simple: I boil them, but not too long. I stop when the dull green gets a little more intense, with a sort of dark blue overcast, but I do not leave them in there until they get brownish or soggy or super soft. My Brussels sprouts are still quite chewy.

I made a bowl like this for each of us, but one person -- not me-- left two. So after Bow finished his first bowl of Brussels sprouts, I ended up serving him two more. The video below is of Bow enjoying his extra Brussels sprouts.

Hello

I used to subscribe to a blog called "The Feast Before Us", but today, when I went to read it, it turned out that blog does not exist anymore, and Blogger asked me whether I would like to have that blog address. It's a catchy title, so I said yes.

I'm thinking that this should probably be a blog about food and about how to enjoy it. I'm too busy editing a book today to actually write a new blog post about food, but as starters, I think I will share this video about how to eat an artichoke. (Be sure to boil it first, then do what Bow does, sort of.)

Enjoy! And maybe next time I'll have something completely different on the menu!