Favorite Five - Fruit

It's only natural to follow up my Favorite Five - Vegetables entry with one on fruit. I think it might be harder to approach fruits than vegetables since fruit flavors have a wider application. For example, my favorite flavor Life Saver Candy or Tootsie-Roll Pop is orange, but the fruit itself doesn't make my list. As with vegetables, there aren't too many fruits I don't like. I'm not particularly fond of blackberries and raspberries or papaya and mango. I love cantaloupe, but don't care much for honeydew. It's only been in recent years that I've acquired a taste for watermelon. Enough rambling. Here are my favorites:

1. Avocado - Just like the tomato, this is botanically a fruit but usually treated as a vegetable when cooking. Since I didn't include it with my vegetables, it gets top billing here. Love, love, love it!!

2. Olives - I had to "google" to see if olives were considered a fruit. I like them black, green, with the pits, without them, stuffed, any way I can get them!

3. Lemons - When I was growing up I often requested a lemon icebox pie for my birthday rather than a cake. And.... in my opinion, the best lemonade is made fresh, with very little sugar. The more sour, the better.

4. Strawberries - Arkansas grows some of the best strawberries around and I always look forward to them being in season. It's almost that time of year!

5. Apples - We eat apples at our house several times a week. My favorite way to serve them is diced with a sliced banana then topped with a dollop of yogurt and a sprinkling of walnuts. I usually buy Gala apples, but for eating out of hand, nothing beats a tart Granny Smith.