Briefly, love the moment

Yesterday evening, my honorary Indian daughter made a sudden welcome visit, because she found herself in the neighborhood,and we had a wonderful catch-up about her family and job and mutual friends.

She never arrives empty handed, and brought a bag of chocolate and Indian mangoes, the best.

And her visit reminded me that we need to enjoy and celebrate every moment we have.

Earlier I'd made Food for Fortitude 

Cod baked with butter and capers,  wilted spinach and an apricot sauce.  We need this kind of food in parlous times.

And there's nature, the lavender blooming at the door 

And the yellow wood sorrel undeterred by mowers because it blooms too low under the blades to be cut down. 

There are lessons all over here which I won't insult our communal intelligence by underlining.

Be safe. Do what's right today. March in spirit or in person. We're worth it.

Quiet day, with fruit sauce

Saturday I slept on and off, Covid booster aftereffects, between watching a Foyle's War episode 

and reading Sayers' Unnatural Death. 

There was a welcome rain, saving me from watering my seedlings. 

I made an apricot sauce to go over yogurt, about all I was up for today, after managing roast potatoes and an egg for lunch. A touch of amchur, mango powder, gave a great citrus flavor, and it set up very nicely.

All's well.  My energy is taking a day off. I did manage to change the bed and do a load of laundry, so there's that.

Happy day everyone Ted sez.

Bunnies, apricot stuff, chocolate cherry dessert

 Yesterday this little guy hopped in front of me for a couple of blocks, just keeping out from underfoot

before he made a right turn to join his friends. There's two or three babies, tumbling about and chasing each other, not quite old enough to run when they see a human.

And I made what I expected to be apricot jam, using dried apricots I'd soaked overnight.

When suddenly after boiling just a couple of minutes, just starting to gel, it seized. I now have a kind of apricot version of hard sauce. It tastes just fine, but isn't jam 

I've noticed this kind of weird result before with using unrefined cane sugar rather than the white refined kind. I think the chemistry's different in some way. It's edible but not the consistency I had in mind.

Here's how it looks today.

 I transferred it to a plastic tub to make it easier to access.

And since tomorrow's Handsome Partner's 91st birthday, Handsome Son is coming over for a little celebration.

 

I made a dessert involving chocolate walnut cake, cherry sauce and chocolate icing 

And since it involved cutting a well in one slice of the cake for the cherry sauce, the cook got an afternoon tea preview taste of the cut out parts of dessert with added cherry sauce  

We celebrate his birthday as a memory, because he died on the evening of Handsome Son's birthday in August, so we keep that day for handsome Son.

I've been reading about language lately and thought I'd mention why you see me using the word nice fairly often. 

I had a dogmatic high school English teacher who tormented anyone who  used the word. It was LAZY, STUPID, CHEAP!  And we suspected she meant the user as much as the word. 

So I was traumatized out of using it. Then a few years ago I realized I didn't have to listen to Mrs. Butler any more, and I could say nice if I wanted to. Nice, nice, nice. It felt free. And nice! Neener! 

Too funny, since she no doubt went to the great English class in the sky decades ago. Despite this quirk, she was a great English teacher and a nice woman (!)

Happy day everyone, use the words you want, you're entitled!

A jar of sunshine

Yesterday, power of concentration and focus not working well, anxiety about various household things, I made apricot sauce for the Christmas ham.

Simple recipe, sugar and water, dried apricots simmered till tender, blended smooth, dash of vanilla, done. 

And really good, not very sweet, nice to oppose the saltiness of ham. Also the lovely golden color contrasts with the color of ham. In the freezer now. 

It's the first day of Hanukah, enjoy if you observe it. Long ago my son came home from nursery school singing the dreidel song, and with a little dreidel. I wasn't sure if it was a religious item not for casual handling, so I took it from him until I could ask a friend. 

She said what sort of mom are you? It's a TOY, give it back to him right now!  So my education was improved and he went on to adapt the dreidel song to all kinds of contexts. One time he was making worms from clay, singing oh flatworm, flatworm, flatworm, I made it out of clay..

So that's us today. Happy Sunday, beginning of Advent, too, if you celebrate it.