A conversation Stephen and I frequently have goes like this.

Me: “Babe, what’s your favorite ___________?”

Him: (pause) “Umm. Do I have to have a favorite?”

It’s so very frustrating (and sometimes hard to comprehend) that he doesn’t have favorites! Well, at least not as many favorites as I think he should. However, there are a few categories in which he has a strongly held favorite. Apples is one of those categories. His absolute favorite apple in the whole wide world is…yes, you guessed it…a McIntosh.

Unlike Stephen, I did not grow up loving fruit. I didn’t care to eat an apple, let alone have a favorite kind of apple. That’s all different now that I’ve met a McIntosh. (Stephen and I both agree that Red Delicious apples aren’t worth the effort to chew them.) I find myself wanting to eat an apple when we have McIntoshes in the house. That’s not normal for me! I not only want to eat it, I act as though it’s going to disappear if I don’t eat the entire apple in two seconds. They’re that good. The skin pops as you bite it–only to introduce you to the soft sweet/tangy inside that’s anything but mealy. Silas has decided that McIntosh is his favorite apple too. He sees them and begs to eat one.

Sadly, McIntosh apples are rarely sold in our local grocery stores. We’ve found them twice since moving to Phoenix, and we’ve bought a load of them both times. (Just this week I found them for sale at Basha’s and came home with two bags.) If you’ve not yet tried a McIntosh, you don’t know what a good apple tastes like!