2 DOOR REFRIGERATOR FREEZER

Rowan fruit as food

The fruit of European Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) can be made into a slightly bitter jelly which in Britain is traditionally eaten as an accompaniment to game, and into jams and other preserves, on their own, or with other fruits. The fruit can also be a substitute for coffee beans, and have many uses in alcoholic beverages: to flavour liqueurs and cordials, to produce country wine, and to flavour ale. In Austria a clear rowan schnapps is distilled which is called by its German name Vogelbeer.

Rowan cultivars with superior fruit for human food use are available but not common; mostly the fruits are gathered from wild trees growing on public lands.

Rowan fruit contains sorbic acid, an acid that takes its name from the Latin name of the genus Sorbus. The raw fruit also contain parasorbic acid (about 0.4%-0.7% in the European rowan, which causes indigestion and can lead to kidney damage, but heat treatment (cooking, heat-drying etc.) and, to a lesser extent, freezing, neutralises it, by changing it to the benign sorbic acid. Luckily, they are also usually too astringent to be palatable when raw. Collecting them after first frost (or putting in the freezer) cuts down on the bitter taste as well.

Mythology and folklore

The European rowan (S. aucuparia) has a long tradition in European mythology and folklore. It was thought to be a magical tree and protection against malevolent beings. In Celtic mythology the rowan is called the Traveller's Tree because it prevents those on a journey from getting lost. It was said in England that this was the tree on which the Devil hanged his mother. In Norse mythology the rowan was associated with the goddess Sif.

The density of the rowan wood makes it very usable for walking sticks and magician's staves. This is why druid staffs, for example, have traditionally been made out of rowan wood, and its branches were often used in dowsing rods and magic wands[citation needed]. Rowan was carried on vessels to avoid storms, kept in houses to guard against lightning, and even planted on graves to keep the deceased from haunting. It was also used to protect one from witches. Often birds' droppings contain rowan seeds, and if such droppings land in a fork or hole where old leaves have accumulated on a larger tree, such as an oak or a maple, they may result in a rowan growing as an epiphyte on the larger tree. Such a rowan is called a "flying rowan" and was thought of as especially potent against witches and their magic, and as a counter-charm against sorcery.[ Rowan's alleged protection against enchantment made it perfect to be used in making rune staves , for metal divining, and to protect cattle from harm by attaching sprigs to their sheds. Leaves and fruit were added to divination incense for better scrying.

In Newfoundland, popular folklore maintains that a heavy crop of fruit means a hard or difficult winter. Similarly, in Finland and Sweden, the number of fruit on the trees was used as a predictor of the snow cover during winter. This is now considered mere superstition (however one can hear old men talk of it), as fruit production for a given summer is related to weather conditions the previous summer, with warm, dry summers increasing the amount of stored sugars available for subsequent flower and fruit production; it has no predictive relationship to the weather of the next winter. Contrary to the above, in Maalahti, Finland the opposite was thought. If the rowan flowers were plentiful then the rye harvest would also be plentiful. Similarly, if the rowan flowered twice in a year there would be many potatoes and many weddings that autumn. And in Sipoo people are noted as having said that winter had begun when the waxwings (Bombycilla garrulus) had eaten the last of the rowan fruit.

In Sweden, it was also thought that if the rowan trees grew pale and lost color, the fall and winter would bring much illness.

it's kristen's bday and she loves hamburgers! really loves them. so i built her a cake.

by popular demand:

ok i bought two pound cake boxed cake mixes and one chocolate cake (some moist butter cake) mix *used pound cake to hold a better shape

then i bought caramel frosting and mixed in vanilla frosting to get a good 'bun' color
chocolate frosting for the 'burger patty'

cooked the bottom 'bun' in an 8 inch round cake pan, the burger 'meat' in a 9 inch cake (well springform because it was 9 inches and i had it) pan and the top bun in a glass pyrex bowl (i don't know what size, one that looked like it would be a good fit).
***lube those pans well!!! especially the glass bowl, i almost couldn't get the cake out!

while cakes are cooling assemble the 'condiments'

frost cakes.

after frosting the 'burger' crumble up oreos (minus the filling) and smoosh them onto the burger patty.

lettuce the bottom bun! (used fruit roll ups as lettuce. had to wipe off the writing on the fruit roll ups, they were batman or something, but it came off with a wet paper towel)

move the burger onto the bottom bun part
this was tricky, two long knives under the cake worked out. don't worry if it breaks, frosting is like glue.

cheese the burger!
(for the cheese. oreo filling was scooped out and mixed with pink and yellow (could only find the pastel ones at the store) food coloring and rolled between sheets of wax paper for one big cheese slice and put in the freezer to give it a little solid shape)

tomato the burger
(tomatoes are the oreo cookie tops (or bottoms) melt white chocolate chips in a double boiler... well i boiled water in a little pot and put a little bowl on top, it was kind of a bad idea, but then added food coloring, and it got really gross, so i added half and half and it got creamy, spooned that onto oreo tops on wax paper, a lot glopped over the side and around the cookie so just picked up the cookie pieces and move them so they will have a nice finish around the edges.

put the top bun on.

top with white chocolate chips.

squeal with excitement, take a picture. put in the fridge. sit on the couch. come up with excuses to walk by the fridge to peek at the cake and e 'awesome'

this took about 4-5 hours, including troubleshooting and cost a little under $40.

good luck, you can do it!