Diary of a Lesbian Housewyfe

First, a quick update on the balloons. Nada. Nothing. Went out early with Cappy and my camera and got a dozen cute pictures of him and the cats, but only one really far away balloon. Bleah! They moved the site last year, so you really can’t see them from downtown anymore. Later in the day, a friend reminded me of that fact.

So, later that same day, I went out to our local hardware store and picked up some jars for jellies and jams. My CSA is finally ponying up with the fruit bounty and our first one had arrived: Cherries and Apricots. My sweet honey bunny grabbed the cherries, but I managed to make a batch of apricot jam and an apricot and cherry crisp (although I had to go get frozen cherries to do it! I must admit, those cherries are really, really tasty.).

Jam and jelly and preserves and butters are my summer passion these days. Last year, I managed to put away enough to do Christmas presents and hostess gifts. Sometimes I think that people would rather have something else, but my time feels so valuable and the love and good energy that gets stored in those little jars seem really special, so jams and jellies and preserves and butters are what people get for now. At least until they get less picky about what they wear and I can start crocheting and knitting for them.

Yes, most of them already have afghans and scarves.

Except Lucy. And she’s moving north. Hmmmmm……..

Anyway, last week I really started working on preserving with the apricot jam. Since then, I’ve made raspberry freezer jam, grapefruit freezer jelly and a whole buttload of blueberry jam, and I have 20 lbs of sweet cherries waiting for me to preserve them. I’ve been considering my possibilities, and I’ve settled on a few techniques. Since they are so fresh and wonderful, I thought I’d just pit and freeze a couple of batches for pies later in the winter. A freezer jam from them would be yummy too, and Sure-Jell has a recipe so I’m going to give that a try. Finally, I have a couple of recipes for preserves that I’m going to frankenstein together and see what comes out.

When I’m working with an easy fruit to deal with (ie. perfectly ripe stone fruits or berries), then I can pump out a batch before I come in to work. Creating something like that so early in my day makes me feel proud since I’ve already accomplished something. Plus, the task usually only takes an hour. Ahhh…. Easy and fulfilling. My favorite type of chore.

Cherries are daunting. Cherries need to be pitted. Therefore, I haven’t gotten around to working with the cherries yet, and Lord only knows what’s coming in this week. I only get about 8 hours to prepare myself before my bounty arrives and I’ve done poorly this week at getting rid of the last week’s haul.

So, tonight I will be making a fabulous supper with a big healthy salad and pitting cherries afterwards. Let’s see how far I get.

Woo-hoo! Pitting cherries. Just what I dreamed I would be doing when I was a little girl.

Friday, work started late (4PM) so we could keep the cafe open late. I walked in the door and immediately started making the next batch of oatmeal cookies.

Pecan, Butterscotch, Dried Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies. No chocolate, no raisins.

Yummy! I’m pretty proud because I’ve been known to obsess over recipes for weeks and months. Someday I’ll tell you about the Sourdough Saga.

For now, the recipe:

Pecan, Butterscotch & Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

Beat until creamy. Add:

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Beat well. Combine:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

pinch nutmeg

Add to butter mixture and mix well. Stir in:

2 1/2 cups oatmeal

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans (I toasted mine for five minutes at 425 degrees and then chopped them roughly)

1/4 cup butterscotch morsels

Form into little cookie burgers (for my 3 oz cookies, they ended up being about 3 inches across and 1/4 inch thick before cooking. For regular sized cookies, I’d just smash down a couple of tablespoons of dough.) and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. Cool one minute on the sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

I’m thinking that they won’t last too long, if my customers are anything to go by. I haven’t had to throw any away so far.

Despite my completely latent penchant for rising early these days, I forced myself to stay in bed until 7:30 before going out to play frisbee with Cappy. Playing frisbee is his favorite thing besides playing ball in the evening. We have a twenty to thirty minute playtime each morning and afternoon where I run him until he is taking rests on every throw. Then, I know I’ve tired him out enough to be calm for a while. This dog exudes enough energy to run all the lamps in New York City, so two playtimes a day is just my daily self-defense.

So, I’m out at 7:30 playing frisbee with Cappy and I see a hot air balloon rising over the trees. I think anywhere you have lots of tourists, you’ll find hot air balloons, and we have our share for sure. However, this time I remembered that this weekend is the Balloon Rodeo (or “Rainbow Weekend” - which I don’t really use because, for me, that was a couple of weeks ago at this point).

Tomorrow, during my playtime with Cappy, I should be able to see dozens of balloons rising over the trees and playing with each other. Since hot air ballooning really only works in the cool of the day, you have to rise early to see it, and now my early rising may finally pay off.

Pictures tomorrow if it does.

If you have read my post on Baby Socks, you know that my obsessions can be both mundane and comprehensive (meaning I indulge in thoughts of them all the time.) Now, time for some cookies….

Yep. Here are three of the cookies that I made today. And here are the problems:

To my regular oatmeal cookie recipe, I added dried cranberries and dried blueberries. The combination tastes like… well, raisins. I don’t want these cookies to have raisin flavor.

Now, a lot of people might say, “why not raisins?”

To them, I reply, “I don’t like raisins.”

And they reply, “So what? I don’t like lots of things, but I still cook them for my family/wyfe/colleagues/husbynd.”

During high school, for about a year, this african-american woman cleaned our house once a week. That same day, she would make a dinner for us. I believe this was my mother’s saving grace during this period.

This woman made such good food. I especially remember the green beans with pork. Oh my God. That was a dish worth thanking the good Lord for. If you’ve ever lived or visited the south, you’ve probably eaten these beans. They show up at every potluck and on the holiday table and, for some lucky people, when company shows up. I asked her why her food tasted better than other people’s, hoping for some trick to the recipe.

She replied, “I don’t make anything that I don’t like.”

Well, that just blew my little sixteen year old mind. Not cooking anything that you don’t like? How could I do that?

I finally found the answer: You just don’t cook anything that you don’t like. If you’re cooking something to which you have an aversion, just figure out how to make it so it tastes good to you.

She probably didn’t even have a high school diploma. One of the smartest people I ever met.

They don’t spread like I thought they would.

No biggie. I just pressed them out with the heel of my hand and made big “oatmeal cookie burgers.” Still the right taste.

The cookie is just a good cookie. Not outstanding.

I want a great cookie, and I’m a little obsessed with that idea. Here’s what I’m going to do:

Only one fruit - dried cranberries.

Butterscotch Chips.

Toasted Pecans.

I’ll let you know how that turns out.