making apple butter...

Part 2  Last night, before I went to bed, I dumped the apples and cider in my good old crock pot and left them to cook on low all night long.  By this morning the magic had happened.  The apples were soft and mushy, ready to be processed and they smelled wonderful.  One of the nice things about this recipe is that you don't need to peel the apples.  When they are thoroughly cooked, the recipe says run them through a food processor.  I don't own a food processor but I do have an ancient blender (best guess - 50 years old, avacado green) which works very well.  I blended the apple butter in small batches so as not to overwhelm the blender and everything went very well except for once when I didn't get the lid on tight enough.  Don't worry.  The splatter wiped off the wall and floor pretty easily.  After all of the apple butter was blended, I put it back in the crock pot, added the sugar, cinnamon and cloves and let it cook for another hour.  Then it was done so I poured  it in little containers and popped them in the freezer.  I don't do canning.  Then, and this is the best part, I used bread to mop up the residue in the crock pot. Yumm!!

making apple butter

Part 1:  When I still lived in my house I had an apple tree that produced enough apples each year for at least one batch of apple butter.  I have what I am pretty sure is the world's easiest recipe for making apple butter, using my crockpot.  Apple trees are not as convenient when you live on the tenth floor so I haven't made apple butter for some years.  I really do like it though, so when a friend at church said she had lots of apples to give away, I took her up on the offer and she gave me two grocery bags of apples.  So yesterday,, between hospital runs to help a friend. I chopped the apples, using the good parts and supplimenting with a few Granny Smiths, mixed in the cider and tucked them in the refrigerator.  Tonight before I go to bed I will put them in my crock pot and let them cook all night (12 hours to be exact).  
Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow.

my llittle blue car

Today I used my little blue Fiat 500 for an errand of mercy, sort of.  A friend's mother came for a visit, for her birthday, no less, had some heart problems and ended up at Parkview Hospital for treatment and obsservation for a couple of days.  Today she was discharged and, since there really wasn't anyone else, I offered to drive the two or them home to my friend's appartment. I had made the offer to bring them home without really thinking about the size of my car.  But we did it.  We packed three large people, a suitcase, a walker, two oxygen tanks, and several other odds and ends into my little blue car.  It seemed to gasp a little under the load (perhaps that was my imagination). As we pulled away from the hospital I felt a moment of panic as my friend's mom complained that she couldn't breath.  She was hooked up to one of the oxygen tanks so I was pretty sure she was ok.  Still, it was a real relief when I off loaded both of them and all their equipment.  I think it's unlikely that I will go into any medical related profession, including ambulance driver.  Unless maybe I could have a siren and flashing lights.  That might be fun.

Third tims the charm?

I give up.  I have tried to write this blog three times this eening and it keeps erasing.  I'm going to try again tomorrrow.  Good night. 

great day in the morning

Tomorrow is, according to one of the lists I like to check, World Tourism Day.  I gather that the reason for the day is to celebrate the importance of tourism in the economies of many countries.  I know this is true.  I have personally contirbuted to the economy of several countries.  Knowing that it's important to their economies makes me feel much more virtuous about the many baskets, pieces of pottery, necklaces, earrings and so much more that have "followed me home" in my luggage.  It's all for a good cause.  I think I'll spend World Tourism Day planning a trip.

Love and politics

I watched a movie on Netflix this evening that was set in New Zealand.  It was a nice love story type of movie and I do like New Zealand very much so it was a pleasure to watch.  Of course, thinking about New Zealand reminded me about my visit there last year and that reminded me of their very capable female Prime Minister.  I think she's great and that's not just because her first name is Jacinda which rhymes with my first name Lucinda.  And all of those musings remind me of the fact that I am so ready for a female President right here in the US.  Just saying.  

new tricks

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks.  Not true.  I don't actually consider myself an old dog, but I am closing in on old.  This blog will probably end up sounding like a hint from Heloise but bear with me.  For years I was taught (probably since their invention) that the 'right' way to put a countour sheet on a bed is to start with diagonal corners.  So that's how I've been doing it for years and years.  Then, shortly after my hip surgery in June, when I was still in that don't lift and don't stretch stage, my daughter came over to help me put clean sheet on my bed.  Now she's been a grown woman, takeing care of her own home, for a good number of years so I didn't feel like I needed to give her any instructions.  I watched as she proceeded to do it 'wrong.'  No diagonals for her.  She popped the top two corners of the countour bottom sheet onto my queen size mattress, then pulled the sheet smooth and fitted it over the bottom two corners.  Huh?  I knew it was not 'the right way' but she sure made it look easy.  Sooo I've been making my bed her way ever since, and, guess what, it really is easier.  Who knows what other new tricks may be in my future?  Anyone want to try a scooter?  Just kidding.  

this made me laugh

I don't know why this struck me funny but it did.  I heard an ad on TV yesterday for dentures.  Now that, in itself, isn't funny but they were advertising "buy one, get one half off."  Does this mean if a person gets an upper plate, they only pay half as much for the lower?  Or amybe, if you want a spare pair that would be half price?  Do people usually get a spare pair? Or maybe you and your spouse could take advantage of the offer, sort of a buddy system?  All this pondering about dentures reminds me of an incident that happened to a friend of mine.  She and other family members were in the habit of asking her grandfather, who was in assisted living, if he had his dentures.  I guess he had a habit of misplacing them.  Evidently, he got tired of being bugged about his dentures because when the family gathered for one visit with him, and someone asked the inevitable question, he answered "Yes, I've got my d.... dentures." and pulled out a pillowcase full of dentures that he had pilfered from rooms up and down the hall.  Returning them to the proper owners was not an easy matter.  

"I'm just a girl....

who can't .say no."  Don't panic. I'm not in the same "terrible fix" as the young lady in "Oklahoma" which, by the way, is another great musical with singable songs.  My problem is saying no to food, especially food I don't have to cook for myself.  It started yesterday when a friend came to visit and we went to the Johnny Appleseed Festival with another friend. Everyone knows that the best part of this festival is the food.  And it was about lunchtime so we indulged.  For me it was ham and beans with lots of onions and cornbread crumbs on top.  Topped off with a cookie of course.  Then we went to a movie (I liked the new Downton Abbey movie) and ended up at Red.Robin for supper.  Today for lunch my friends and I went to Biaggi's, for pasta of course.  Now, by this point, I was merely eating to be sociable.  After all, I couldn't let my weekend guest eat alone.  By midafternoon my friend had left to drive back to Ohio and I was promising my very full self that I wouldn't eat anything else all day.  Then I checked my text messages (which I hadn't had time to check all day) and found a text from other friends inviting me to join them for supper at Hall's Gas House.  I could have said no, I probably should have said no, but did I say no? No.  I said 'Yes, I'll see you there."  Now I can rationalize that these are really good friends, they are, and I hadn't seen them for a while. I hadn't.  But that doesn't explain why I ate another full meal with wine instead of maybe just a cup of soup.  I could have visited over soup.  It also doesn't explain why I really needed the cookie I just ate for my bedtime snack.  Ah well, I'll practice saying no tomorrow.  

seeing Sweeney Todd

Just saw the Sondheim musical "Sweeney Todd" for the first time this evening.  I am a fan of musicals.  I love musicals like "The Sound of Music" and "My Fair Lady" with memorable, singable songs.  "Fiddler on the Roof" is more serious but still full of great songs.  "Sweeney Todd" is a whole different kind of musical, really more of a dark opera.  A really good Halloween opera at that.  The production at Civic Theater was excellent, great voices and equally good acting. The full title gave me a clue that this wouldn't be a lighthearted comedy.  "Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,"  It did have a good story line with lots of surprising plot twists, and I was right there for the standing ovation when it was over, but I didn't walk out humming a memorable melody.  I'm glad I saw it but it's not one I would watch over and over again.

Good advice I guess

On TV this evening a lovely young thing explained and warned against five habits (actually I only heard four) that make you look older than you really are.  At least that's what they said in the intro.  Instead she gave advice on good habits to make you look younger than you really are. It's always interesting to get anti-aging advice from someone who looks about 22.  Of course maybe she was really 65 and just followed her own advice.  I fail on all counts.

1. Always sleep on your back.  Evidently sleeping on your side with your face against the pillow mushes wrinkles into your face.  Sadly I can only fall asleep on my side.

2. Smooth really good cream under your eyes before you go to sleep.  I hope Olay counts as really good cream.  I'll give it a try.

3. Get a good night's sleep.  I try, I really try, but things like morning keep waking me up.

4. Never take hot showers.  Only shower with cool to luke-warm water.  Ha ha ha ha ha.  I like luke warm showers on very hot muggy days, but most of the time I really love nice warm, almost hot, showers.   

So, I shall pretty much ignore this advice and hope to hear some other advice.  Maybe something like eat cookies and ice cream, read a mystery novel, take an afternoon nap, and stop looking in mirrors.  Works for me.  

It's about time.

From time to time I hear medical reports saying that coffee is good for you, and sometimes reports saying the opposite.  But you don't hear much about tea.  Now I am a tea drinker.  When I'm out at a restaurant I may have a cup of coffee but at home it's all tea all the time. One of the many reasons I love England and Scotland is that they serve good brewed tea with hotel breakfasts and it's always available with other meals or between meals.  A friend and I were checking into Duke's Hotel in London some years ago and our room wasn't quite ready so they took us to the parlor and served us tea and biscuits while we waited to check in.  Very nice.  So I was pleased to hear a report earlier this week saying that tea is really good for you.  There are all kinds of health benefits and it doesn't seem to matter if it's black, green or Orange Pekoe.  What I found most interesting is that drinking tea is really supposed to help with organizational skills.  Really?!?  Goodness knows how disorganized I would be if I didn't drink tea.  I'll just go have another cup of tea and try not to think about it.  

It's cookie time>

I walked into church for a meeting this afternoon and was greeted by the amazing aroma of baking cookies.  Best incense ever.  I immeidately realized that it's almost time for the Johnny Appleseed  Festival.  Our church has the "Cookie Jar" booth at the festival every year.  It is a big production.  This year they will bake almost 20,000 cookies, and will probably still sell out.  The money goes to help support our day school.  They make five kinds of cookies; snickerdoodles, molasses, sugar, chocolate chip, and, I think peanut butter,  I'm not sure about that last one.  All are from scratch recipes although they do have a big machine donated by a bakery some years ago that spits the dough out in nice regular sizes.  This is much easier that years ago when we used ice cream scoops to scoop out the cookie dough, trying for standardized sizes. But for me the most brilliant idea is the presale.  Those of us church members (and friends?) who can't make it to Johhny Appleseed can preorder cookies by the dozen and pick them up at church on Friday.  What a fine idea.  Amazing cookies and I can avoid the bees.

Probably just a coincidence...

Yesterday, while watching a news show, probably "60 Minutes,= I learned that many of the deadliest drugs, very toxic versions of opioids, are coming in from China, and most of the drugs are sent in through the US Postal Service.  It seems that major delivery systems like UPS and FedEx must, by law, have all packages coming in from outside our country inspected before they can be delivered.  However this same restriction doesn't apply to the USPS.  If I remember correctly, it was sixteen years ago that the USPS was instructed to make incoming packages available for inspection, but cost restrictions have made it impossible to follow through with this directive at this time.  
All this was somewhat interesting but I didn't think anything more about it until I heard a commercial on TV this evening.  It was a commercial for the US Postal Service saying that they make more commercial deliveries to homes than any other delivery service.  Probably just a coincidence but it does make me wonder.  

Waxing Nostalgic

Actually I was cooking nostalgic.  I had a family lunch today to celebrate two birthdays in the family.  Some weeks ago I came across a sauce recipe that my mother used years ago to make really wonderful barbeque chicken.  Actually my mother cooked the sauce and my dad grilled the chicken.  This was during the years that my parents raised chickens and we had chicken every Sunday; grilled in the summer, baked or fried in the winter.  I don't have a grill so I decided to make the sauce and cook it with chopped  chicken in my ever faithful crock pot.  Like sloppy joes or pulled pork but with chicken. Served on buns it actually tasted really good.  Since I was dwelling on the past and since one of those celebrating his birthday was my son, I decided to bake his childhood favorite birthday cake.  When I carried it out to the table he immeidately asked "Is that Jello cake?" and of course it was.  You know the kind where you bake a white cake (I even used a mix to keep it authentic), let it cool, punch a lot of holes in it with a meat fork, and pour concentrated hot jello over the whole thing. The jello runs into the holes and when you cut the cake you have colorful Jello accents all through the cake.  I used peach Jello and juice from a can of peaches mixed with the water, Topped with Cool Whip, it was delicious.  Sometimes being sentimental really pays off.

money matters

Well, it's official, money can buy happiness, but only if it's the right amount.  According to a recent study is appears that people who earn about $75,000 a year are the happiest.  It seems that it's the right amount to take care or your physical needs without bringing on the urge to make more and more.  At least that's how I understand this study.  So. I'm here to make an offer.  Anyone out there who is making more thatn $75,000 a year, and wants to be happy, please contact me and I will be happy to take the surplus off your hands.  Since I didn't win the Piblisher's Clearing House $5,000 a week for life (which would obviously not have brought me happiness - although I'm pretty sure I would have managed to stay upbeat) I figure I have at least an equally good chance of someone sending me a big check based on this blog.  Remember, it's for your own good.  

Happy Birthday Baby Boy

Today is my first child's birthday.  Actually, it's his 48th birhtday, which is really hard to imagine.  He was such a cute, chubby baby, and hungry, always hungry.   He survived and thrived through a lacerated kidney, space camp, Harvey Mudd and so much more.  Now he's a tall lean middle age man, a wonderful husband and father of two lovely teenage girls and he has a job that he loves.  All in all everything I could have hoped for him.  Happy Birthday, baby boy.

PS My slightly older friends tell me that you don't really feel OLD until your first born turns fifty.  Two years to go/

I'm so confused

I just finished watching this evening's Democratic candidates debate.  Several of the ten made good points.  Some of them seemed a bit fuzzy on where the money for their grand ideas would come from.  I'm probably ageist but I don't want either of the old white haired politicians to be their party's candidate.  All of them assured me that they wouldn't be controlled by special interest groups.  It will be interesting to see how things shake out.  I'm really impressed by South Bend's mayor Pete Butigieg but I will need to learn how to pronounce his last name.  And speaking of names. I think I would have a hard time with a president named Castro.  Too much Cuba history with that name.  

a spicy addiction

I understand how people can become addicted to cigarettes or drugs or alcohol, because, while I'm ashamed to admit it, I also have a secret addiction.  In my case this is a fairly recent obsession.  It all started several weeks ago when I picked up a box of ginger snaps (specifically Kroger's Ginger Snaps) at the grocery store.  I reasoned that they might be a savory sweet bite without haviing too many calories.  Well that's true if you don't eat 17 at a time.  I'm up to a two boxes a week habit now.  Ginger snaps for lunch and supper, ginger snaps for my bedtime snack.  Guess what I'm munching on right now?  Ah well, I guess it could be worse.  I might have a craving for chocolate.  Oh wait....

numbers are our friends

I admit I'm something of a numbers nerd.  I enjoy making up number riddles like 'which three single digit numbers get the same answer when added or multiplied?'  I remember the thrill I felt as a child when I figured out that each of the answers in the 9s table (9 x 1 through 9 x 10) adds up to nine.  I sometimes put myself to sleep reciting the Fibonacci Sequence.  So you can imagine how excited I was to learn that today is the first day in a ten day sequence of dates that are palendromes.  9-10-19, 9-11-19, 9-12-19 and so forth.  I knew about palendromes of course - words that are the same backwards and forwards like racecar and kayak, or, my favorite, mom, but I never considered the possibility of palendrome numbers. I think the next series of palendrome numbers won't come until February of next year, and then only if you write the month as 02 and only use single digit days.  December of 2021 also only works with single digit days.  This month's sequence is definitely the most satisfying.  After 2021 I'm thinking it's a long dry stretch before another palendrome series of dates.  

never assume a job is finished

A few weeks ago I was sor of joking with a friend about the fact that I no longer need to pick up any of my grandchildren after school.  Schedules and circumstances have changed and they no lomger need my rides.  I told my friend I miss the conversations we used to have and I suspected that I am suffering from "empty car syndrome."  Well, no more.  Last week one granddaughter texted me to ask for a ride because she had over slep and was very last for school.  Luckily, I didn't have a committment at that moment so i was able to take her to school.  That  brought back some happy memories.  Today I learned that my grandson has gotten a job and will need rides to work a couple of times a week until he gets his license in a few weeks.  Happily, the days that he needs me are the two that I have relatively free each week.  So, it looks like I'm back in the grandchild delivery service, at least for a while.  Hooray!

a few more laughs

Or maybe a few more groans.  Here are the last of my favorite sweat shirt sayings.  After this I will lay off the fabric humor, I promise.
Being a natural born procrastinator I really like this one: "If I say I will do it, I will do it!  No need to remind me every six months."
And considering some of the people I meet on the elevators - "Mister Rogers did not adequately prepare me for the people in my neighborhood."  
In honor of my retired nursing friends - "Yes, I'm a nurse.  No, I don't want to see it."
One I believe is true based on some of my travel experiences - "Line dancing was started by women waiting to use the bathroom."
And finally, because you're probably wondering about me by this time = "Sometimes I question my sanity, but the unicorn in the kitchen told me I'm fine."  

time for a laugh

I think it's time for a laugh so here are I few I want to share:
From Facebook - "Always keep several get well cards on the mantel. That way if unexpected guests arrive, they'll think you've been sick and unable to clean."
From my favorite sweatshirt catalog:
This one further reflects my attitude toward housecleaning - "Dusted once.  It came back.  Not falling for that again."
On a more personal note - "I thought the dryer made my clothes shrink. Turns out it was the refrigerator."  And my new favorite - "My GPS has learned to say 'your other left.' " My husband used to say it frequently, only right that my GPS should take over for him. 
To be continued....

something to think about

I heard an interesting speaker last evening.  I attended a meeting of Faith in Indiana, a group that is trying to change some things in our Indiana prison system.  Their main concern is trying to promote treatment instead of incarceration for prisoners who are mentally ill or addicted.  In Allen county, according to their statistics, 40% of inmates have mental health diagnosis or addiciton.  There is a program on 20/20 this evening about this very issue.  But what interested me most was the story of the speaker I mentioned above. She spent 20 years in prison in Delaware County on a "domestic violence" conviction (no details about that).  During the first 15 years of her sentence she received  counseling, good medical care, and was able to get her GED and earn a bachelors degree.  She even made a point of saying that the food was good.  She has been out of prison for several years now and is  employed in a professional position.  After her first 15 years in prison, the prison was privatized, as were about  60 % of the prisons in Indiana.  The result was that almost all of the support that she had received in her first years was gone.  It basically became a place to eat, sleep and sit around.  At this point I'm not forming any opinions about what needs to be done, I'm just listening and learning.  I have a friend who taught in the prison system for many years and I would like to get her take on some of this.  

planning ahead

I want to be sure that everyone knows ahead of time that tomorrow. September 6, is "Read a Book Day."  It's also, according to one list, "National Coffee Ice Cream Day."  Seems like a great combination, read a book (one of my favorite activities) and eat ice cream while you're reading.  Coffee ice cream is delicious and has the added benefit of keeping you awake so you can read longer.  If, for some reason, coffee ice cream doesn't sound good to you, here's another idea.  September is "National Blueberry Popsicle Month."  I'm not sure why blueberry popsicles get a whole month but I don't make the rules.  I do know if I've ever had a blueberry popsicle but I do know you can freeze blueberries.  I keep some in my freezer all the time.  When I eat them as a snack each berry is like a delicious tiny blueberry popsicle.  Also great to eat while you're reading - less messy than ice cream.  Enjoy!

out of my league?

I attended a meeting of the Fort Wayne Weaver's Guild this evening.  An aquaintance who is a very good weaver invited me to be there.  After the business meeting the regular members held a 'show and tell.'  Let me tell you there are some seriously amazing weavers in that group.  So now my decision is do I want to join a group where everyone is better than me, knowing that with some hard work and probably a big new loom I could learn a lot of what they're doing?  Or do I want to just keep working away on my little portable loom, enjoying the non-judgemental fellowship of friends,  making scarves for charity and having a good no pressure time with my weaving.  I am torn.  I really would like to learn some cool new stuff, but don't know how much time and effort I want to give to it.  Happily I don't have to decide right now.  

Cat-tastrophy

Over the four years that I've lived here I've heard some interesting elevator stories but this may be the best yet.  One of the managers told me this and my new neighbor confirmed it.  This new neighbor across the hall is a nice young lady who has a cat.  On the day that she moved in her cat, being a typical curious cat, got up on top of   the kitchen cupboards, way up, near the ceiling.  And that's where each of our apartments has a vent, covered by a grid of course.  Evidently the cover on my neighbor's vent was just loose enough for the cat to squeeze into the vent.  It's my understanding that all of these connected vents eventually make their way up to the roof and keep the whole building supplied with fresh air.  This upward flow of air is not, however, storng enough to carry a cat with it.  Our apartments are on the 10th floor.  The adventurous kitty made it all the way down to the 4th floor before maintenance men were able to get her out of the vents.  A truly memorable move-in day.

Ahead of our time

On the news this morning I watched a segment about "baby wearing."  It seem that young, with it parents these days have discovered the convenience of carrying their babies in back packs or front packs rather than using strollers.  They made it sound like an amazing new idea.  Have they never heard of a papoose? My first child spent a lot of time riding on my back but we just called it putting the baby in his back pack.  It was the easiest way to keep him close and get things done.  He was always content in his back pack and I could cook, clean, travel, even hang out laundry.  I will admit I almost dumped him on his head once when I bent over to get a sheet out of the laundry basket.  I actually never owned a stroller but my sister-in-law loaned me a wonderful British style baby buggy (perambulator). It was especially convenient for going to the book mobile which parked a block down the street from our first house.  I could laod lots of books, one baby and one toddler in that lovely buggy and off we went.  Sweet memories. 

A double special day

When I absolutely can't think of anything else to write about, I chack out the special days of the month.  You can do this on Google.  Today you get two.  First, today is "Emma M. Nutt Day." Who, you may ask is Emma M. Nutt?  According to Google she was the first woman telephone operator,  She went on to record all those canned messages "to speak to an agent dial 1." Not really, I just made up that last part.  My family moved to the small town of Woodburn when I was eight years old and for the first year that we lived there the Woodburn telephone system still had the 'box on the wall' phones and a real live telephone operator who would connect you to your desired party when you spun the handle and spoke into the mouth piece.  Of course it was all party lines so there could be any number of people listening in to your evenual conversation.  our 'ring' was two longs and a short.  
Today is also "National Cherry Popover Day," a much tastier option in my opinion.  So while you munch on a Cherry Popover, consider this.  If you understood anything that I was talking about in the first paragraph, you are probably as old as me.