Hard cider and spiced cider jelly–as well as an education on why fresh, organic cider costs as much as it does–were some of the fruits of all the labor at our apple pressing party this fall.

Here’s today’s central question: should the words “fruit-flavored” and “pasta” ever go together? And if they should, could they ever compare to this lemon parsley pasta with asparagus? Find out as I review two different flavored pastas from a stall at the Pike Place Market.

Miracle fruit is a little red berry from Africa, originally eaten by the local populace to make their food taste better, but now also a staple in the diets of urban foodies and inquisitive geeks elsewhere in the world. The berry itself doesn’t taste like much–or so I’ve heard, as I’ve never had a fresh one–but the results are, well, miraculous, thanks to a chemical in the berry called–get this–”miraculin”. When scientists start calling things miracles, you know you’re dealing with something truly special.