Fruitcake!

 


For some reason when I saw a package of dried blueberries at ALDI last week I was gripped with the urge to make a batch of Emeril Lagasse's Creole Christmas Fruitcake.  I printed off the recipe ages ago when Emeril had his Food Network show because it was the only fruitcake recipe I had ever heard of that uses real (dried) fruit (a pound of it!) instead of that weird brightly colored and gooey fruit that it's usually made with.  It also makes real cake--butter, eggs, flour, almond paste, and spices--and a cup each of almonds, pecans, and walnuts.  There's orange liqueur in the batter too and more orange liqueur and some bourbon in the fruit syrup you drizzle over the cakes so they soak it up.  Yum.  So that's what I did this afternoon (but I got 11 instead of 12; obviously I am measuring-challenged).  I only made this once before and had forgotten that it fills the mixer to its maximum capacity.  I don't think I could have put in one more cup of anything and had the batter stay in the bowl. Tonight the cakes are lined up on rack to get slightly stale and each is wrapped in a single layer of cheesecloth so that tomorrow night I can poke their tops with a toothpick and start the drizzling.  They'll be ready for consumption in about 3 weeks, just in time for Christmas.

 
Before going to ALDI for the dried blueberries and apricots I zoomed over to visit the grand-chickens and look what I found.  Two eggs--and the inspiration golf ball.  See, three of the four chickens aren't laying so DS or DIL1 put a golf ball in there to see if that wouldn't inspire the three slackers to start laying.  I had a firm chat with them, telling them that I was certain that barbecued chicken would come up on the menu soon if they didn't get going and start producing eggs.  I don't think they paid attention.




These three cardinals posed ever so nicely in the apple tree this morning.  The female is in the center and there's a male cardinal on either side.  Right after I snapped this the female flew away and the males quickly followed her, one after the other.

 
Did you have a turkey sandwich for lunch?  I did.  I toasted a slice of onion bread, spread on mayo, and then topped it with some smoked turkey.  Add a few raw veggies and a handful of grapes and that was a delicious lunch.  I think I'll have the same tomorrow.



 


I am doing much better on the do-over of Appleseed Mitt #2's cuff.  The cables are crossing making Xs like they're supposed to rather than twining around themselves making chains.  Whew.  I don't think the soft alpaca yarn would have survived another frogging.


23 November--Salvatore Gurreri Manufactory, Dish depicting Solar Eclipse and Ornamental Motifs.  Sharon and the children watched as the shadow of the moon ate away at the sun disc.  They had made pinhole viewers with shoeboxes and sat with their backs to the sun.  "Will it come back?"  Willie's voice sounded small and afraid.  Usually he was the brash one, confident and assertive, but this solar eclipse made him afraid.  Sharon looked at her son bent to peer into the box, his dark curly hair tousled, his small shoulders hunched.  "It will," said Maggie.  Three years younger and often more tentative, today she seemed to grow in confidence as the light dimmed.  Maggie's dark ponytail spread across her shoulders like a mantle and her voice carried an authority Sharon hadn't heard before.

Tomorrow I need to sew up some soup bowl cozies.  I'm invited to a bridal shower for my renter and suddenly it's on this coming Sunday and I don't have the gift ready.  Oops.  Guess who'll be hunched over the sewing machine tomorrow.  Time to hit the rack.
--Barbara