baked apples (This is good.)

Published: Sat, 11/08/25

** what we have * cartridge of ink * coffee * bee **

(This is good.) baked apples (apple stuffed with blueberries) / In September I got to spend a week at an artist residency on a beautiful farmstead in Wisconsin. / (view from a window over a railing into a green field, silo next to it, trees on the horizon and blue sky. bee on the railing.) / (two apple trees with many apples; also many apples on the ground)

My housemate for the week was a wonderful woman named Nicole Soley, a printmaker. / She wasn't able to bring her large and sharp printmaking tools/equipment, so she planned to spend the week BEING the printer herself. / She brought a huge box of reams of paper. / foreground: big package of blue-lined notebook paper. background: nicole saying "I'm going to handwrite notes to all 13,000 US school superintendents calling for a school strike until an assault
weapons ban is in place. / The idea blew my mind. / carolyn with googly pupils the shape of hearts, saying How many hours — What's going to happen INSIDE you? What about your hand? I hope you take notes. How is this going to feel? Are you going to be ok?

The first morning as I was drinking coffee, Nicole walked into the kitchen and I could tell she'd had an idea — I sensed a crackle of energy. / She said, "I'm going to use the apples." / (two apple halves on a white field, cut sides up, little seed stars in the middle) / That day she got ahold of a lot of paint. / (six big bottles of bright red paint) / She used the apples like stamps, like she had in one of the first art projects she taught in a
classroom: cut them in half, carve the words, stamp the paper.

But don't be afraid! This meal-level salad would not be IN my regular rotation if it weren't also ENJOYABLE. It is! Refreshing, flavorful, filling. (And vegan, if you're into that kind of thing.) / (Carolyn at table with Ingrid and Iris: I just feel so....) (Ingrid and Iris, simultaneously: nourished?) (Carolyn: NOURISHED.) / This is yet another NYT thing (Melissa Clark), but I've put my own spin-aroo on th eprocess and added chick peas to make it more ...
nourishing.

(three apple halves, two cut through the equator and one through the pold, with backwards writing on them: close schools / until we ban / assault weapons; paper plate with a puddle of red paint. / face-down apple stamps on a plate in a pool of red paint, with a stabbed knife standing up vertically in one) / We both spent a lot of hours working in a big beautiful barn with sun and breeze blowing through it / (inside of barn with chairs and hanging lanterns,
windows out into green trees and little bit of blue sky)

Once I woke up in the middle of the night to loud chewing. I thought it might be a large rodent in my room! But it was three deer below my window, eating apples under the moon. / I brought a lot of foods that didn't require cooking (cheese, bread, berries, a big tabbouleh salad). After a while I had the urge to cook something, but there weren't many ingredients around (no flour, no sugar). I was craving a sweet treat. / "I'll use the apples," I
thought. / The residency had given us each a small jar of honey made right there. There was no cinnamon, but Nicole had some butter, and I had some blueberries. / (carolyn precariously carving out the core of an apple. In foreground several apples, jar of honey, box of blueberries, stick of butter on a plate.

I hollowed out each apple core, stuffed them, and baked them at 375 for 40 minutes or so, until they were soft and sweet. / (four apples standing together in a baking pan, each stuffed with blueberries.) / (fragment of notebook paper with apple-shaped red stamps with words inside: ban assault weapons) / This past week the internet decided to show me this poem by Jane Hirshfield:

A Ream of Paper // I have a ream of paper, / a cartridge of ink, // almonds, / coffee, / a wool scarf for warmth.// Whatever handcuffs the soul, / I have brought here. // Whatever distances the heart, / I have brought here. // A deer rises onto her haunches / to reach for an apple, // though many fallen apples are on the ground. ...... A baked apple is good with a slice of cheddar cheese or, if you have it, a scoop of ice cream.

I love it when you send This is good. to others who might like it. Thank you!

...

If you got this message from a friend, please sign up here if you want! I send new comics about every two weeks and reruns in between. It's always free, and I don't share your email address or use it for for anything else.

...

The archive shows some past messages, and my website has news about what else I've been making. Thanks for reading!

3304 44th Ave. S.
Minneapolis MN 55406
US

Unsubscribe | Change Subscriber Options