Fig.218 - Roast your apple this way.
As soon as cooking begins, twist the string and make the apple spin round and round so that it may be roasted evenly on all sides; it is fun to do that. When the juice begins to run and drop from the apple, set a saucer under to catch the hot, sweet syrup. It is good poured over the apple when that is thoroughly cooked. Add sugar to the juice while it is hot if it is not sweet enough.
The Spice Apple
In New England, many years ago, there was always to be found in every household at least one spice apple. It sounds good to eat, doesn't it? But they were not made for eating, they were used for sweet-smelling ornaments, and for keeping away moths and other troublesome insects. Perhaps you will like to make a spice apple to give away; it will be a pretty and very sweet gift and will last for years.
Choose a small, perfectly sound apple and have ready a lot of cloves. Stick the cloves into the apple as you would stick pins into a cushion, only the cloves must be put in very close together, touching each other and making the apple look like a large, prickly, brown nut. That is all, unless you want to hang the apple up. In that case run a wooden toothpick through one raised side at the top, across the little hollow where the stem grows, and out through the raised side opposite, after first breaking off the stem. Cross this toothpick with another pushed through the apple and also bridging the hollow. This will make a low handle in the form of a cross. At the middle, where the toothpicks touch, tie a bright ribbon, leaving a loop by which to hang it.
Other Things to Make of an Apple
When an apple is cut across into round slices, you can make a doll's table of the largest slice by using four wooden toothpicks for legs, pushing them into the apple at equal distances apart. Half of a slice, with halves of toothpicks for legs, makes a very suitable seat for this remarkable table.
If you cut a thick flat slice from a small apple you can make it into a top that will spin by pushing a toothpick through the centre, leaving a long end on one side and a shorter end on the other. The short end is the peg upon which the top spins. Take the long, upper end of the toothpick between your thumb and first finger, give it a hard, quick twist and drop the top on a table having a hard, smooth finish, where it will spin merrily. The little fruit-top will not spin on a carpet or any rough, uneven surface.