Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Kitchen Work With A Good Book In My Ears: Heaven


So I decided to try out my foot today and take a little walk. It's been forever since I crippled myself and although I can't say the foot feels 100% okay, it's a whole lot better. So I put on my shorts and walking shirt and bra-like garment, grabbed my walking stick and struck out for the wild beyond.
Not really. Only down the sidewalk. 
Not a whole lot has changed in Lloyd if you want to know the truth. Different things are blooming and there is more green than the last time I walked and oh yeah- the burnt remains of the house that burned down looks to have been cleared away. I wonder if the owner is going to try to put something else up there. I don't see how that would be possible. It looked hardly habitable when it was standing and no one would have insured the place. But you never know, I guess. Meanwhile, an RV is in the yard and I suppose that's where the owner is living now. Buddha's still sitting out front, keeping watch, looking placid. 

When I got back I decided to make my jam. I dragged out the canning kettle and filled it and put jars in and set it to boil. I went over my mulberries, one by one, looking for stems I may have missed. I measured them out into my biggest pot that isn't a stockpot and estimated by reading recipes how much sugar I'd need. I had about twelve cups of berries, or maybe thirteen, and used six cups of sugar. 
Y'all- jam is not good for us. That's all there is to it. Except for the fiber you might as well just pour pure high-fructose corn syrup over your biscuits. 
I'd read that mulberries are almost devoid of pectin which is the substance in fruit that causes jams and jellies to thicken and I'd bought one box of Certo which is powdered pectin. After I boiled and mashed my berries with the sugar for a good while, I added the Certo, and then ladled the resulting sweet, deep purple concoction into my sterile jars, capped them, put them back in the canner and boiled them for ten minutes, took them out and they looked like this. 


Not a very good picture. That could be four jars of diesel oil for all you can tell. I actually got almost another whole pint but just put it in the refrigerator and didn't can it. It tastes delicious and I guess all of that picking and plucking of stems and the sugar that went into it was worth it. I'm waiting to see if it's going to thicken up or not. I think I could have boiled it from now until the Rapture and it wouldn't have gotten jammy and I really have no idea if I used nearly enough pectin. 
Anyway, that took me most of the day which is a little sad. And here's something that's even sadder- I realize that I left no space in my pantry for jars of my canned goods. And I do have room in the cabinets for some jars but dammit- I want to see my lovely jars of summer bounty in my lovely green pantry! I'm going to have to rearrange, change, and figure this out. The garden is looking so fine right now that there is the prospect of plenty of pickles to come. Cucumbers, green beans, okra- I'll want to pickle them all!
First world problem.
While I was in the kitchen I mixed up the dough for a loaf of sourdough and put it in the refrigerator. I'll take it out tonight before I go to bed to start its rise. I also started a pot of the heavenly creamy cashew butternut squash and sweet potato soup that I love so much. It's simmering on low right now. AND, because why not? I made up the dough for a few naan breads to go with the soup. 

I finished listening to This Is How It Always Is while I walked and worked in the kitchen. I love it even more now than I did yesterday. It is a truly precious book. In many ways, it is an idealistic view of a family helping and supporting a child figure out who they really are, doing whatever they can to ensure their child's health and happiness. There were counselors who were so amazingly helpful and wise. There was the fact that the mother was a doctor, the father a writer who loved and accepted each other in their slightly non-traditional roles as bread-winners, as parents, as householders. There was a grandmother who was as loving and supportive and salty as a grandmother could and should be. And there was a trip to Thailand where differing gender roles are accepted as a part of life, where Buddhism gently offers the perspective that we live many lives in many different bodies and that trying to define a person binarily is useless and probably absurd. 
But is there anything wrong with a story that presents an almost ideal situation for us all to aspire to? Nothing is presented as easy. In fact, "easy" is often referred to as something which is off the table. 
I loved it. It's given me a lot to ponder. It's given me new perspectives which is saying a lot for a woman who has a transgendered child, another child in a same-sex relationship, and who knows and loves quite a few people who are definitely not cis-gendered in any way. And as I said yesterday, it is beautifully written.

Levon is back to normal, I think. He still had a little fever last night but woke up without one today. He never did complain of ear pain and so Jessie never gave him the antibiotics which the Urgent Care doctor had prescribed. Who knows what was really going on? Children are so mysterious when it comes to fevers. And as pathetic and sad as they seem when one overtakes them, they are so obviously sturdy and resilient when it comes to getting over them. 

Thank the gods. 

Love...Ms. Moon

29 comments:

  1. I have some extra space on my top shelf if you need me to store some jams for you ;)

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    1. Heh-heh. Sure, I'll just ship you a big old box of them.

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  2. We are so far from jam season up here in the NW. RK knows. I haven't even seen any blossoms on the blackberry bushes yet. The apple and pear trees are blossoming as is the lilac and a bunch of other lovely plants. The walk in the woods yielded trillium, wild bleeding heart, yellow violets and crabapple. Spring surely blesses us.

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    1. Spring does indeed bless us.
      It may come to some of us sooner, some later, but in the end, we have all been blessed.

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  3. interesting that you add your pectin at the end after boiling. I've always added it prior to boiling.....and I've never water bathed jams either, only veggies. Mulberries have such a deep, rich flavor I'm sure it will be most wonderful jam!
    Susan M

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    1. I didn't really know what I was doing. My theory was to boil it down and thicken it as much as possible before I added the pectin. Didn't really work because it's not very jammy but it sure does taste good.

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  4. the photo of table flowers eggs and diesel oil is a Homes Perfect photo. You are a creator of beauty where ever you go. The amount of sugar that goes into making jam prevents us from ever having it around. I hold the Tudors responsible- They buggered up everything from use of sugar in common households. Used to be that only royalty would die miserably from "the finer things in life". Now it is equal op!

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    1. Equal op, indeed! And in fact, it's often only the wealthy who can really afford to eat as we all should eat. The wealthy, educated, and the farmers and gardeners!

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  5. I never can jam, just cook, put in sterilized bottles and refrigerate. I never make too much to fit in the fridge, though. Too funny that you've already filled the pantry shelves with nonpantry items. Need room for those beautiful jars of jam.

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    1. I worked it out!
      I always thought of the pantry as a storage area/pantry. So it's good.

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  6. I think (I could be so mistaken!) the rule of thumb is a cup of sugar to a pound of fruit, so you already improved the nutritional quality of the jam. I always halved the sugar. Like Linda Sue said, our peasant foremothers made jam long before there was refined sugar, so it did not become "bad" for us until refined sugar was invented, and that was about the Civil War.
    So as I started out to say, that Mulberry Jam is pretty close to perfect.

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  7. I am glad to hear that Levon is more or less back to normal.

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  8. You've convinced me I must read This Is How It Always Is. It sounds delightful.

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  9. I recommended the book to a group of parents who have banded together to navigate this water together.

    You are always so busy in some homely endeavor.

    Glad Levon is better.

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    1. Good! I can't imagine a better starting point for a lot of people.

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  10. perhaps mulberry pancake syrup would be better than jam or jelly.

    when we were on our way to pick up our nephew to take him and his boyfriend to the party we were listening to the Moth Radio Hour on NPR (I think it was the Moth) where people take the stage to tell a story. this particular story was by an Irish (again I think, UK definitely) mother and her experience in learning of and accepting her daughter who finally got the courage to come out as a boy, trans. first the daughter said she was gay, then finally that she was really a boy. the mother was shocked to discover that he already had a name he chose and an online presence as male with a group of trans people. went to a retreat for trans kids and families and saw her son really for the first time and how accepted he was and how happy he was. it was hard letting go of her daughter, the child she thought she had but when she saw how happy her son was that made up for it. and she admitted that her daughter was never girly, always wanted to wear boy clothes, go to the boy school, do boy things, oh she's such a tomboy. after the retreat her main fear was being public about her son in their small village and to her surprise and relief, when she would finally get up the courage to tell people they would respond with, oh, yes dear, we know. none so blind, right? later the mother got involved with the trans community doing outreach work. it was a really great story.

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    1. That's just beautiful, Ellen. I'd love to hear that. I know that for a whole lot of parents the process of becoming accepting and becoming educated on the subject is not as hard as worrying what others will think. I remember when Hank first came out and we went to a few PFLAG meetings. At one, there was a father who claimed that it was fine with him that his son was gay but WHAT WOULD THE NEIGHBORS THINK? I'll never forget that. I was like, "Who the fuck cares?" Obviously he wasn't really as worried about the neighbors judging his son as he was worrying about them judging him.
      It can be a lot.

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  11. I'm glad Levon is feeling better. As you said, kids' bodies are made to endure these childhood attacks of mystery germs!

    Your jam-making sounds great. I went into a shop today and saw mulberries and thought of you. I honestly would have no idea what to do with a mulberry.

    I am definitely ordering that book.

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    1. You could buy a few mulberries and have Dave whip up some muffins with them. I think they'd be delicious!
      Yep. Order the book.

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  12. I've just downloaded that book and am looking forward to reading it. While I don't have children who fall outside of the "norm", I am always open to reading about those that don't fit square pegs into round holes. Hell, why would we love them any the less? They're still and always will be our children won't they!

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    1. It's all part of the great and grand scheme of human differences, isn't it? And if it's not our children who don't fall within the norms dictated by society, it is someone's children.

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  13. Glad to hear that Levon is better - kids bounce back so well.
    That sounds like an interesting book that I will look for at my library. My teenage granddaughters might be "pansexual" which they had to explain to me. The oldest said she is attracted to people by their personality and who they are; not by gender. I listen.
    I just want them all to be happy!

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    1. There's a lot to learn, isn't there Ellen? Just when I think I have it all basically figured out, I realize that I'm not even close. I'm to the point where I just say, "Tell me what pronouns you'd like me to use," and I use them and that is that.

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  14. That Book sounds like a good read {or listen}... there is a lot to learn. My Grandson has been helpful in explaining to me ways of Being that I was not really that aware of within the LGBTQ Community.

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  15. I shall have to pick up that book. So glad Levon is back to himself.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.