28 thoughts on “Cherry Saturday, September 21, 2019”

      1. Gail! I was thinking of you the other day because I dug out the book I was working on back then and remembered I was going to exploit you for research. And also what a good time I’d had on your show. Tell Columbus I said hi. That’s a great town. (Seriously, I loved living there.)

  2. I ate the second apple I bought to sample from West Dean Garden, which has a large walled ornamental kitchen garden. Alas, I’m muddled as to which was which, and I liked one of them better. I’m trying to decide which varieties to grow: I need to really love them if I’m going to be eating them for months.

    Meanwhile, I’m still sorting out my shed. I’ve dismantled about a quarter of the workshop fittings, which are way over-engineered: he didn’t use one screw when he could use six plus a load of bolts. Now I’ve got to put everything spread out on the lawn back in a sensible place, so I’ve got plenty of room to use it as a potting shed this winter. Plus take a load of stuff to the allotment, then load the car for a tip run. All before it rains tomorrow.

  3. I just discovered “Advanced Symbols” in the Insert menu on my MacBook. Yes, I have been using Macs for forty years, what’s your point? Anyway, I can now put arrows in my charts.

    It’s the little things, people. Now off to find pecan cookies.

  5. I plan to eat my apple today in a Waldorf salad I’m going to make to accompany butternut squash in a walnut/parmesan/cream sauce tonight.

    1. I just went out to the kitchen looking for something for lunch. There was a baggie of chopped peppers in there and some leftover chicken, so I threw in mushrooms and onions and garlic and ginger and orange juice and tamari and apricot preserves and wild rice and had lunch. Then I thought that before nine months of meal services, I would never have done that. But it was really good and now I have lunch for tomorrow, too. (Nights are for serious cooking; lunch is whatever I can shove in my mouth before I wake up). So right now I am full of veggies and very pleased with myself.

      No apples, though. I think there are blueberry muffins, though. Dessert.

      1. Butternut squash ravioli in a cream sauce with chicken and rosemary sausage and a green vegetable. Spells Fall for me.

  6. As soon as I finish my chai latte I am going to put the cats back inside (they are enjoying the fenced in back yard with me) and head off to run errands, which includes stocking up on apples. Since one errand is getting groceries, a pecan cookie or two may end up in my cart…

  7. What I had on hand was three Murray Sugar-Free Chocolate Chip cookies with pecans (one serving.) They aren’t diet cookies, and it says so on the package – they’re cookies for diabetics. I actually have five unopened packages on a shelf, the three cookies were what remained of the last opened package. I think I might have preferred a nice crispy tart Granny Smith.

    I’ll go grocery shopping tomorrow, maybe with the dotter, and apples, peppers, onions just joined my list. I want a pork chop (boneless), so I’ll have to buy several. I already have chicken. There will be stir-fry.

  8. I made an Apple cake with a Krusteaz crumb cake mix (so much easier than home made sour cream coffee cake). There were cooked chunk Apple’s in the refrigerator so I layered them on top of the crumb mixture. Probably could of added raisins and chopped walnuts, maybe next time. Also looked up a recipe for pecan shortbread cookies and will have to try making them. Experimented this week with sugar cookie mix and made thumbprint cookies with raspberry, peach and cherry preserve filling. Holidays will be upon us sooner than you think.

  10. I’ll have none of the above. I put myself on a diet to lose the weight I brought back from France with me, so no cookies for me – and apples, as much as I like them, always make me crave carbohydrates (=cookies, e.g.) afterwards. CRAVE, I tell you, I get so hungry after eating an apple! But I have grapes and plums in the fridge.

  11. A porcupine just wobbled across my yard and became interested in the grill. She sniffed at the waterproof cloth grill cover and even rose on her back legs to get a better look. Then she crawled under the grill cover. I suspect she was taste testing the pan of burned charcoal. Then she waddled away. I don’t quite know how to describe her way of moving — her armor coat of bristles and her ground length flap of a tail weighed her down as she moved. She couldn’t be pregnant in the autumn, could she?

    On apples: I’m using up the Gala and Gravensteins in applesauce. My Bartlett pears are ripe; I need to do something with them before I return to the orchard for more fruit.

  12. I love cookies, but I’ve never found a pecan cookie that isn’t a waste of cookie. Just give me the pecans by the handful, please. (I grew up with a grandmother with a pecan orchard–they’re still filed under “free” in my mind.) And apples with them.

    1. Have I got a recipe for you! The best pecan cookies I have ever tasted are the Skinny Maple Pecan Wafers from Maida Heatter’s Brand New Book of Great Cookies. My friends, for whom I bake them every year, call them crack. They are a variation on a lace cookie using pecans and maple syrup. They aren’t cheap to make, but they are almost all pecans and very delicious!

      1. I suppose I could substitute sorghum for the maple, since I’m quite allergic to it. It’s been a very long time since I read Maida Heatter, and I probably skipped that one because of the title. I’ll look it up and try it.

  14. For those who have heard of Lois McMaster Bujold’s latest novellas in the World of the Five Gods, she has a contract to sell the stories through Baen Books, as anthologies or mega-books, or what have you. The first three will be for sale in one volume, Penric’s Progress. It contains the first three Penric and Desdemona adventures.

    There is a sample at https://www.baen.com/Chapters/A9781982124298/A9781982124298.htm

    The sample contains Penric’s Demon, the first of the three novellas, in its entirety.

  16. Today’s post has inspired me. My sister asked me to bring dessert for Rosh Hashannah dinner and I think I’ll make Caramel Apple Cake. I take an Apple-Raisin Spice Cake that has pecans in it, and frost it with caramel buttercream with a pool of caramel sauce on the top. I use it as my justification for owning so many cookbooks because I use 1 chef’s cake and another one’s icing.

  17. I went to an apple orchard and I tasted their fermented apple ciders, but that was as close as I got to consuming apples or pecans.

  18. Do the Fuji freeze dried apple crisps/snacks count? If so, I had apples on Sunday.

    Saturday would have been some kind of apple cocktail. It was yummy.

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