Apple Pie

I was reminded recently of John Alsop's campaign for governor of Connecticut more than 30 years ago. Alsop, a Republican businessman, is the surviving brother of a family that also included the Washington columnists Joseph and Stewart Alsop. Republicans in Connecticut who didn't like the Washington brothers used to refer to John as "the smart Alsop. " He was more widely known as "the funny Alsop. " As a campaigner, Alsop had a dry wit, and a delivery that owed something to W. C. Fields.

Bonnie Foehr credits her success to cream cheese and orange marmalade. The culinary-arts student at Middle Bucks Institute of Technology in Jamison won a $4,000 scholarship to the Culinary Institute of America for her apple pie creation. "My secret is the ingredients in the piecrust," Foehr said. "I use cream cheese as a substitute for butter, and that gives a creamy texture. Once it comes out of the oven, I wipe orange marmalade on the outside, which makes it shiny and gives it flavor.

Apple pie. Chocolate pudding. Caramel apples. Chocolate chip cookies. Those were the homemade treats that Michael Vandergeest grew up on, that made him the envy of the kids in his Narberth neighborhood. They were made by his stay-at-home mom, who loved baking all sorts of goodies as much as her five sons loved eating them. Today, it is Vandergeest's children who are the envy of their friends. As pastry chef at Tony Clark's, in Center City, Vandergeest whips up the desserts from his youth, although his mother would have a hard time recognizing her apple pie and chocolate pudding.

At the beginning of Spike Lee's Malcolm X, shots of a burning American flag are interspersed with shots of the Rodney King video. It is a perfect metaphor for what some people think of this country. To drive home the point even further, we hear the title character giving a speech in which he thunders his pain and anger to other blacks. "You're not American. You are the victims of America. " Near the end of the film, Malcolm X is in Egypt, on his way to a pilgrimage at the holy Islamic city of Mecca.

What it is: Goodnoe Family Restaurant in Newtown - incredible apple pie a la mode. What we like about it: Goodnoe's is a family restaurant celebrating 50 years of farm-fresh, made-on-the-premises ice cream and a full menu of pleasing down-home recipes. The restaurant's motto is "Eat dessert first" and the proof of this advice is in the freshly baked apple pie a la mode. The ice cream is made across the street in the family's dairy facility. Each wide wedge of pie contains juicy large apple slices, a smooth filling and rich crumb crust.

About halfway through the 10th annual Apple Festival bake-off yesterday, one of the judges already suspected she knew which, among 37 entries, would be the winner. The pies, cakes, muffins and assorted pastries were set out on three tables, placed in a horseshoe on the bank of a creek in Medford Township. Two judges stood inside the horseshoe, two outside facing them, as all sampled one item, then the next. A finger-numbing wind was slicing through the crowds and over the tables.

We hate to break the news to the Friends of Memorial Hall that their 1st Annual Philadelphia County Fair isn't a first. There was such a county fair from 1908 until 1925, on its very own fairgrounds in Byberry. The event ceased to be when the grounds were turned over to the Philadelphia State Hospital. But, since most of us weren't around for the last one, let's applaud the Friends for reviving it. Opening today and running through June 7, the fair has a new home - in and around Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park.

People do double-takes in two places: in bad movies, and at More Than Just Ice Cream. At the Pine Street dessert shop, ice cream sundaes fill fruit bowls, and cake slices fill dinner plates. And the apple pie . . . As the saying on the menu goes, You Got To See It To Believe It. David Banner saw it the other night, and he still didn't believe it. "It's the whole tree!" said the 19-year-old Rutgers sophomore, his eyes widening at the mountain of apple pie afloat in mounds of vanilla ice cream.

RICE-BRAN OIL Don't start swilling rice-bran oil. New research says it lowers the bad kind of blood cholesterol while slightly improving the good kind. But the study was a preliminary one of monkeys, and even if ultimately confirmed, it doesn't justify a health-food frenzy, says cooking-oils researcher Margo Denke. Step one of the American Heart Association's diet advice is to reduce fat, "so you shouldn't go out of your way to eat rice-bran oil or any other oil because, obviously, it is a fat," Denke says.

It feels a little perverted to come out against Oprah Winfrey and her new Brewster Place series - a bit like bad-mouthing Mom or not finishing your apple pie. The show, premiering tonight at 9:30 (Channel 6) behind Roseanne, where ABC hopes everyone will see it, is a basket filled with good intentions: wholesome, slightly educational, often poignant. But like apple pie, it promises to be sweetly unsatisfying as a steady diet. The series, which airs again next Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. before taking its regular slot on Wednesdays, is a spinoff from The Women of Brewster Place mini-series of 1989.

In autumn, when apples and pears are plentiful, one's first instinct might be to fold them into a pie or a turnover. But do not overlook the possibilities of working them into soups, salads, and meat dishes. Adding fruit to savory dishes might seem foreign to some cooks, but the practice isn't new. Thai chefs add pineapple to meat and rice dishes, the English drizzle gooseberry sauce on roasted pork, and the French, of course, have their duck a l'orange. The smell of baking apples wafting through a kitchen will warm anyone on a gusty fall day. The scent of baked pears may be less familiar, but I can assure you, it is no less inviting.

WASHINGTON - Visitors patrolling the aisles of the National Archives' best-attended show in years last week may have felt curiously at home, though the images on display - warnings about toxic candy, putrid tins of Chicago-packed meats, and ketchup bottles blowing their tops - were hardly soothing. This was the Archives' first "scented exhibit," said staffer Miriam Kleiman; subliminal notes of fresh-baked apple pie perfumed the air. The project is called "What's Cooking, Uncle Sam?"

Saturday Old-fashioned cider Howell Farm invites visitors to use old-fashioned cider presses, peeler-corers, and "stomper-strainers" to process apples. Learn this century-old way to make apple cider, applesauce, and apple pie between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday. Enjoy a demonstration by third-generation New Jersey apple grower Coles Roberts of Vincentown. A children's walk-in craft program, "Apple Pomander," will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with a $3 fee for each craft.

Multiculturalism has completely failed. That's the assessment of Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany, in a recent speech before the youth wing of her conservative political party, the Christian Democratic Union. The idea that disparate peoples can "simply live side by side and live happily with each other" has failed, she said. "Utterly failed. " Merkel insisted that Germany still welcomes immigrants, particularly those whose high-tech skills make them valuable workers. But she conditioned that welcome upon a warning: "We feel bound to the Christian image of humanity - that is what defines us. Those who do not accept this are in the wrong place here.

From: Fitzpatrick, Frank In a move that ought to surprise no one, the family of late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner dedicated a new monument for their father at Yankee Stadium. The behemoth memorial dwarfs those for Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle. Like father like sons. It is 7 feet high and 5 feet across and weighs 760 pounds. Sounds about right for the Boss, don't you think? Not quite big enough to accommodate the Steinbrenner ego. What is he, a pharaoh or something?

AFTER THE landmark Supreme Court ruling giving corporate America unlimited spending power for elections, I see big changes for our wonderful country that is so rich in morals, so compassionate, tolerant and truly cares about every citizen. Now we can totally revamp so many of the other traditions we've all grown tired of, like Mom, apple pie, and God bless America. So yesterday. How about CORPORATE Mom, CORPORATE apple pie and - wait for it - God bless CORPORATE America! Am I cynical?

A Christmas presence A few weeks before Christmas in 1972, a friend told me a story I've never forgotten. She said that her son, Joe, a Marine, was due to come home from Vietnam in two months. She said that several nights before, she had gone to bed at her usual time. For reasons she couldn't explain, she awoke during the night, went downstairs to the kitchen, and baked an apple pie, her son's favorite. She put it on the table, set out a plate, knife, fork, and napkin, then placed a tall glass of milk near it, and went back to bed. When she awoke the next morning, she had no memory of awaking during the night.

Because they were Josias Sterling's friends, they formed a line and slung their arms around each others' shoulders. Some shivered in the bitter breeze. They were the members of 428 West, a rugby team from the St. Joseph's Prep Class of 2008. They share inside jokes, stories about tournament weekends, and a deep sense of loss. In July, player No. 8 - Josias A. Sterling, 19, a boisterous, happy Temple University sophomore - died in Ocean City, N.J., when a powerful rip current pulled him out to sea. He had been standing in knee-deep water tossing a football with Ryan Gregory, a teammate and best friend.

On tonight's wrestling card, we have the American who stands for everything good we learned in civics, or from Mom or by eating apple pie - Chad Deity. He's pure of thought, black and beautiful, resplendent in ringside bling and a shining gold jockstrap. He's built like your proverbial brick facility. (His given name is Darnell, but shhhh!) Opposite him is the Fanatic, whose wrestling resum? has him representing al Qaeda, Hamas, and for good measure, the French. He enters the ring with a prayer mat. He takes on fighters like Old Glory and Billy Heartland.

Don't get too outraged, those of you who are looking down your noses at those unreasonable, misinformed, anti-health-care-reform town-hallers. No matter what particular clan, tribe, or party you belong to, you can't really disown them any more than you can your own grandmother. Their brand of hotheaded, self-righteous, obnoxious, stick-it-to-the-man-ism is as American as apple pie. Earlier this summer, I decided to reread Alexis de Tocqueville's 19th-century classic, Democracy in America.