Thursday, September 17, 2009

Acts of Kindness




My friend has always brought a lot to our friendship. She has always lent a sympathetic ear to our many discussions and always provides thoughtful insights. I dearly love my friend. However, she has some of the most interesting interactions with animals. Her dog would always run away during our phone conversations or be barking to tell her that the cat was outside the door, probably up to no good. Most of these have left me laughing until I cried.


Today, as we were talking about what needed to be done that day, she started to tell me that her day started unusually. I am thinking being stuck in traffic or a problem with her car. No, not the usual reasons for a hectic morning.


My friend was leaving for the gym this morning to work out before work and heard a sound outside. She was pretty sure it was an animal, probably one of the many raccoons that occupy our urban settings. It wasn't a raccoon, it was a skunk-with its head stuck in a jam jar. She put on gloves and went outside to see if she could help. She pulled on the jam jar and the skunk pulled the opposite way. The jam jar was not coming off.


She ran into the house and upstairs and woke her husband. He got up put his clothes on and came outside to survey the situation. He tried pulling off the jar with the same result. He went to the garage and got a block of wood and a hammer. He placed the wood over the jam jar and struck it with a hammer. The jar broke and the skunk ran off into the bushes. At no time did the skunk raise its tail in fear and even when it was free the tail remained down.


All I can think of is how fortunate the little skunk was to make its way to my friend's house. And that she took the time to help free it from its prison. As always she helped to solve a problem, but I will tell you all the time she was telling the story I was laughing.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Bounty of the Season

One of the earliest memories I have as a young child is having a dishtowel tied around my neck as I perched on a stool using a wooden pestle and a sieve to crush grapes to get juice to make jelly. Summers at our house were spent with gathering fruit from grape vines, peach, pear and plum trees, strawberry beds and raspberry bushes.

Those summers are always hot in my memory with my sisters and brothers helping to pick the fruit. A lot of the berries went into our mouths and never made it to the kitchen, but the fruit that did make it was washed and became jellies, jams and preserves. I still make jams and jellies. There isn't a large family to eat it at the house anymore, but my friends and family seem to enjoy receiving a jar of jam at various times during the year.

I go to roadside stands now to get the fruit. I used to be able to go to a couple of local farms and pick my own, but a lot of those have fallen wayside to subdivisions. A few weeks ago, I went to a peach farm near where my parents had a small farm when they were first married. The peaches were made into jam and a cobbler the next day.

I recently found I had no less than 4 of the Blue Books published by the Ball Canning Company. I have discovered that the recipes in the book are easy to cook and can. When I first learned to make jams and jellies as a young woman, I used my mom's method of using parafin to seal the top of the jar. Now I use a hot water bath using the instructions on the recipe. In this age of samonella etc., I feel better about the products I give to others.

Recently, I have asked the family and good friends to start returning the jars. The cost of canning and jam jars has increased over the past few years. I tell them if they want a refill I would appreciate it if it came back. Most everyone is happy to comply especially after they have told me which jam they would like have in their "goodie" basket. A favorite this year seems to be the Blueberry and Lime Jam. The lime seems to bring out the taste of the blueberries.
Nothing is better than homemade jams and jellies on toast, or PB and J, waffles and pancakes, oh my!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Lazy Days of Summer......


I love to vacation next to water be it a pool, a lake or if I am lucky an ocean. As the summer days diminish, I went to a lake resort last week with friends and family for a few days. This has been an unusually wet and cool summer, but we were hoping for good weather. My nephew and his wife had invited their parents, aunts and uncles and siblings to join them in sharing two cabins and house for the week.

The cabins and house have been undergoing a remodel, but the knotted pine in the cabins took me back to the fifties and sixties décor when people used it for paneling rooms. And there is always the damp smell at the lake that reminds me of camps when I was a child.

The first few days were overcast and the waves were brisk. On Wednesday, the day was warm and sunny and we spend it on the lake either swimming, sunning ourselves on the island, jet skiing or fishing. Unfortunately it rained for the next three days and our activities had to go indoors.

One of the activities was preparing food for the fifteen or more people who were there at the lake. Breakfast featured pancakes, waffles, French toast, omelets and the best bacon I have ever eaten. One of the couples came from Minnesota and had gone to Pierz, Minnesota to Thielen’s Meat Market which in one hour from St. Cloud and two from the twin cities and had brought several pounds of this wonderfully meaty and flavored bacon and sausage. I understand the bacon has been featured in The New York Times and Oprah.

One of our favorite breakfasts was a French Toast dish featuring an egg custard and cream cheese in the middle that you make the night before and place in the refrigerator.

Mel’s Company French Toast
1/2 c. butter
1 c. light brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
12 slices French bread or equivalent firm white bread
5 eggs, well beaten
1 1/2 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon

**Melt butter and mix with brown sugar and cinnamon in the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish.
**Arrange the bread slices in 2 layers on top of the mixture.(Sometimes I spread between the layers with cream cheese, because it's soooo good that way, but you don't have to.)
**Then beat the egg mixture and pour over the bread. Sprinkle with a little more cinnamon, if you like. Let stand overnight in the fridge or at least 6-8 hours.
**Bake in 350 degree oven for 45 min.Serve with warm syrup, or any berry syrups or compotes are very good, as well. Another addition is to mix toasted pecans or walnuts into the brown sugar and butter on the bottom, also very tasty.
Enjoy!