Contrivance of the Caramel Apple

October 31, 2016November 2, 2016

Contrivance of the Caramel Apple fancy with the fall fruit

I always saw the caramel apples for sale at the local grocer and from non-profit organizations covered in candied confections. The sugar and various nuts which had been applied perfectly to the apple. I wondered how did the creators apply the coating?

What did they use? Was this modus operandi as all-consuming as cutting out holiday sugar cookies?

There isn’t any way of knowing without setting out to make the seasonal staple.

The primary course of action is to pick out the apples. Did you know there are over 1,800 varieties according to Orange Pippin? Including this last one on the list, Zuccalmaglio’s Reinette Apple which is described as flavored with tones of wild strawberry, quince, pineapple, ripe pear and a pine floral touch.

I am a simple island woman and went with organic Red Delicious and a couple of Galas which are the most commonly grown and eaten due to their sweet deliciousness from the produce section at the grocery store.

I grabbed the Concord Foods Original Caramel Apple Wrap, a cranberry burst trail mix and a package of sixty-two percent cacao dark baking chips. Plus, a package of walnut chunks.

I also picked up a package of finely chopped, unsalted peanuts. Invest in colorful ingredients which will delight you and your crowd.

At home I removed the cashews from the trail mix leaving just the dried cranberries and almonds and added the walnuts and dark cacao bits. I chopped all of this up finely on a cutting board.Wash and dry the apples. Take a sheet of the caramel and fold over the apple while the oven preheats to two-hundred degrees. Place the white apple sheets on a baking sheet and then stick a wooden stick in the center of each apple and place on top of the paper-covered sheet. Bake for five minutes.

I removed the apples individually from the oven to work with so I could keep the caramel soft. Then, with some pressure, stuck the homemade trail mix onto the apple. This took some time and the mix does keep falling off during the process. I alternated from the cranberry-cacao mix to plain peanuts and left a few plain caramel.

I placed the candy-coated apples back in the oven for ten minutes. The textured mixtures created an edible arrangement so eye-popping that for Fall 2017 someone might just find me out in an Ohio apple orchard.

Here’s a list of where to go east of the Lake Erie Islands, and these are the orchards located west. These Ohio orchards are all located just off of the Coastal Ohio Trail.

download — Josie is an award-winning journalist. Her first job out of college included a TV Show “Cooking with Chef Rocco and the Inn at Eaglesticks”

October 30, 2016October 31, 2016

Threads of Fall 2016 Chief Wahoo and anything and everything The Tribe

Pictures by Steven Drescher

At the inception of this website I never thought in the wildest of baseball pitches that a fashion piece would be written about Cleveland Indians gear.

This year Chief Wahoo and the jersey isn’t a Halloween costume. The controversial Indian, feathered and ready for an on-the-field battle, is a wardrobe staple.

Easily worn running errands, out-and-about in high heels, to work and anywhere to play.

(The Indian only controversial due to the sensationalism of local media).

Those who grew up with the emblem feel nothing but joy and pride upon seeing the grin bearing logotype. Even during the lackluster years played out dismally in the 80s at Municipal Stadium.

This hour, with The Tribe ahead of the Chicago Cubs in the 2016 World Series three games to one, the sporty-style is more slick than an Andrew Miller slider.

The more the Wahoo, the more WOW!

Forgotten gear given as holiday gifts in years past which hung in the closet with the tags still attached for two decades or more, is being resurrected and worn into the white-collar office with honor.

In Ohio’s sports town, surrounding suburbs, outlying rural areas and islands, Chief Wahoo and all who are draped in his costume-like likeness sporting the 2016 roster of Kipnis, Crisp, Kluber and Lindor are on a mission: for this team to bring home another championship to The Land.

Fashion Note: wearing heels to Progressive Stadium is a fashion faux pas. In fact, that move would be as embarrassing as Ross fumbling a fastball. What to wear on those peds to Progressive … the story from the streets of Cleveland right here.

October 30, 2016October 30, 2016

The Underground: Stadium Kicks Converse Classic Chuck Taylor All Stars

“I’m an attorney (in) commercial real estate. I specialize in affordable housing community development law. That’s why I’m here in Cleveland. I’m here for a conference and snuck out for a few minutes and here I am buying Chucks,” Toni Jackson shared her vice in the Tower City Center.

“I have a crazy collection of Converse. I grew up like everybody else wearing Chuck Taylors and when they came back in style a number of years ago I guess I started going crazy,” Jackson, like an attorney, spoke the truth.

Even though this legal powerhouse hails from Houston, Texas, she caught the championship fever pulsating through The Land and also bought tickets to every sporting event she could afford.

In the stands and in the bleachers, a dress shoe just won’t do. At Underground by Journeys in Tower City is where the men at Footlocker send shoppers to try on the footwear fashion that never fades.

“They love Chuck Taylors. They’re very in-style. We have a lot of selections to choose from. Yeah! They buy them a lot. We got a lot of Converses,” Journeys sales associate Diamond Moore wearing a pair of high-tops herself supplied.

Even though named for a basketball legend, Chuck Taylors Converse take members of its tribe from work to the playground. Every Cleveland Indians fan knows navigating the way through the gates to seats on the upper deck through peanut shells and steep steps requires shoes as indomitable as the roster.

According to Converse:

Created in 1917 as a non-skid basketball shoe, the All Star was originally promoted for its superior court performance by basketball mastermind Chuck Taylor. But over the decades, something incredible happened: The sneaker, with its timeless silhouette and unmistakable ankle patch, was organically adopted by rebels, artists, musicians, dreamers, thinkers and originals.

“Chuck Taylors. They’re the quintessential, stylish sports shoe,” observed photographer Steven Drescher.

In line with Cleveland’s scene this shoe, with its vulcanized rubber sole, has an “unmistakable cultural authenticity”.

The All Star sneaker also has an unmatched style and the $49.99 price tag leaves plenty left over for peanuts and Cracker Jacks. Tower City Center is located at 230 West Huron Street in downtown Cleveland. Underground at Journeys is on Level One.

For more on the jersey go here.

Fall Fashion

artc40241 — Majestic Authentic On-Field Jersey MLBShop.com

vmyx24811 — Rawlings 1954 four-fingered vintage glove endorsed by Stan Musai

qfbl17131 — Chuck Taylors found underground.

October 26, 2016October 26, 2016

Homemade Pumpkin Spiced Latte made with Cafe Bustelo in the Florida Keys

My last stop at the market sent me looking for all of the ingredients to make my favorite fall foods; sharp white cheddar grilled cheese on sour dough, chili, caramel apples covered in nuts, and ingredients for homemade pumpkin spiced latte.

On site with TV 88 in the Florida Keys I presented a Cuban version of this caffeine delicacy made with Cafe Bustelo.

Watch on YouTube: Josie Koler makes a Homemade Pumpkin Spiced Latte

I have tried this using Nestle Carnation Evaporated Milk and added two teaspoons of sugar, versus just one (when using sweetened condensed milk.) I’ve also pumped up the pumpkin spice to 1/4 of a teaspoon.

Happy Fall, or Feliz Caida!

October 23, 2016October 23, 2016

Summer 2016 proved to be all about the hat Lake Erie Islands a Sportstown's Playground

Summer, summer, summertime produced a style on the Lake Erie Islands which couldn’t be cloned on any other coast.

Instead of showing up fashionably (for a far-a-way destination surrounded in freshwater) island tourists risked appearing initially tacky. They tore off of the ferries and private watercraft in their Cavs jerseys, t-shirts, tanks pullovers and most often — the 2016 NBA Champs hat.

Ballin’! Representin’ a city of champions!

“I did a shot with everyone I saw wearing this hat at Put-in-Bay,” one Middle Bass Island bartender exclaimed at the end of summer 2016.

The hat, the gear was everywhere on any given day or night and on any given island! An island worker from Uzbekistan, Farruxjon Sattorberdiyev, was given a championship chapeau to celebrate his end-of-the-season success. He took the Cleveland Pride and rallied the 13-hour, 6,500 mile trip to his home country wearing the wonder, that was once dubbed the “Mistake on the Lake”.

Make zero mistake about this, on Ohio’s North Coast, the fashion is: forget the Tommy Bahama, Red Rum, Vineyard Vines, or J. Crew and bring on the Cleveland Sports Teams.

Suddenly, allegiance isn’t designated just for the Cavs.

With The Tribe winning the pennant and entering the World Series this week as they take on the Cubs, Chief Wahoo is once again stylish reigniting a fashion code for Fall 2016.

Josie Koler is an award-winning journalist. She grew up in the western suburbs of Cleveland and had to be bribed by her mother to put on clothes which did not depict the Cleveland Browns or her beloved Cleveland Indians.

October 20, 2016October 20, 2016

Sperry Saltwater Duck Boot goes Unsalted raising part baby-duck pup, calls for rugged shoes

They’re roughhewn, rugged and unrefined.

The Fall Fashion item is the new Sperry Saltwater Duck Boot showcasing vintage style. A pair of poorly constructed shoes will derail owners trying to take on the Lake Erie and the Ohio coastline elements.

Especially, when there’s an 18-month old Lab pup in tow, accustomed to two to four hours per day of hiking the Coastal Ohio Trail, ferrying to the Lake Erie Islands, and trekking the Ohio State Park System for miles.

There’s too much mud.

Though the Ohio weather has been t-shirt wearing terrific, and The Tribe is playing in the World Series, usually these two Ohio staples are sporadic.

“With our weather, where this week alone the mercury goes from 80 degrees down to 54 degrees so you kind of don’t know what you’re going to get into. Its nice to have a good pair of boots on your side,” advises Anne-Marie Burlingame a sales associate at Newport Clothing and Gear in the West Marine shopping plaza on Catawba Island.

Fall style on the Coastal Ohio Trail and Lake Erie Island System, whether for a man, or a woman, calls for Sperry. Keeping those tootsies toasty isn’t high-living but a sine qua non.

Burlingame emphasizes. “That’s the fun thing about Newport is we bring the beauty to the necessity. You don’t have to have clunky, ugly rubber boots, you can have pretty ones and (this is) where the wellies come in and the Sperrys.”

The $120 price tag is worth every penny for two reasons; shoppers are buying from a thirty-year old locally-owned, family store, and these kicks can take on Ohio’s North Coast elements.