Cold enough for you?! That statement is winter’s annoying equivalent of “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity,” and I heard it about 5 times this weekend. I bought a bunch of tangerines on Friday that let me muse on warmer times as well as provide my Vitamin C fix. I had momentary locavore guilt when I thought that I should be eating apples instead, but even the farmer’s market apples are pretty awful for anything but pie right now.

It’s hard to be without good, fresh fruit in the cold months and the best alternative I’ve found is frozen fruit, particularly berries. Your local grocery store or corner bodega will almost always have bags of blueberries, raspberries, peach slices, and cherries. If you live near a Trader Joe’s (or have the stamina to wait in line with the 15,000 NYU students at the Union Square store), then you’re in luck because I’ve always found their frozen fruit to be of the highest quality and the lowest price. Either way, frozen fruit is actually a bit of foodie coup as the fruit is usually picked in season, at peak, and then immediately frozen and packaged. The problem comes when you defrost it, and you have a puddle of juice surrounding your tasty, but deflated berries.
raspberries
My solution is winter oatmeal. First, I stick a bowl of frozen raspberries (my favorite) in the microwave for about 30 seconds or until the berries are no longer covered in ice. I let it sit on the counter while I make a pot of steel cut oatmeal, the five minute kind on the stove top. Let the oats cook until they are nearly too dry and then pour it over the top of your berries waiting in their bowl.  Mix in all that wonderful, warm berry juice and finish it off with a swirl of maple syrup. You could also add a twist of lemon, or some lemon oil if you don’t have a fresh one in your fridge. If you use frozen black cherries, add a drop of vanilla extract or vanilla sugar. (Vanilla sugar which was used before vanilla extract was invented is a simple mix of real vanilla beans and white sugar. I get mine from Penzey’s.) I like the peach slices with brown sugar, and blueberries go well with any of the above.