The Mysteries continue

One day last week, after spinning, I took a walk up to a house where a really nice lady used to live until she was 98 and she finally passed away. She never left her house for the last couple of years, feeling it was always to cold to go out. It was a shame, since she was a wonderful gardener, and had the most wonderful selection of flowers. She would root a long stem rose someone would give her and she had three beautiful bushes in front of her house -- a red, a white and a yellow. She also kept a lemon tree in her front entrance. It was about 25 years she said, and would produce huge lemons! She had to rig up hammocks for them, they were so heavy. She would get 1 and a quarter cups of juice out of one lemon. I wonder what happened to it.

I had gone by a few weeks ago, and noticed that the house looked empty. It's located on a main thoroughfare, so is in a great location. Her son is not well now either, so I don't know why they don't sell the house; they could have done very well last year. But I had noticed that there was a nice apple tree in the back yard, that no one was picking! So I went over to see if I can have a few for myself. They were huge! And so many on the ground; that was so sad to see. I picked a small bag and had to be satisfied with those. Of course, the nicest ones were at the top, as they like to be.

I made myself a nice apple crumble. I found a good recipe on the net (very simple to do) and baked a nice 8 inch pan full. It was delicious!! It was far too small -- because it all disappeared so very fast. I guess it shrunk a lot when it cooked, right?

You may recall a few years ago (September 23, 2005) that I was so sorry to see my pear tree vanish. I miss it still. But fortune was good to me, and offered me another one! Can you imagine? And it is just half a block away.. I don't know how the Universe manages to do these things. No one seems to know what it is, and all the pears have been falling off, only to be nibbled on by the squirrels. So I can't let them go to waste like that, now can I?

I made another apple crumble and this time I put in a couple pears as well. Ah, what a wonderful treat that is!! I'm a good cook.

Of course, I think the real trick to making the topping is butter. Now, I don't use butter at all, and haven't for many years. But I've been wanting to make cinnamon buns and am told that you really need butter and brown sugar. I saw that one store had butter at a special price, so bought two pounds of it. And I used about 1/4 cup, or a good slice of it in the topping. That seemed to make all the difference, and it turned out beautifully! I've always maintained that you need to use good quality materials to be successful in your work. That was mainly in spinning and knitting, but it seems to apply in cooking as well.

On Sunday morning, I woke up with a sore throat. Now, that is odd. I've been quite careful what I do, and I don't remember being near anyone that was sick. Never know. And by evening I was sniffling a lot! This again is very odd, since I have been watching myself quite well, since I can't afford to get sick! By Monday morning, it was quite a severe case of stuffed head and running nose. I didn't feel sick, no headache, just a really bad nose!!

It wasn't until the next day, when I was making something for supper, that I realized I had some tomato sauce with FOUR cheeses in it! I love cheese, it just doesn't love me. So I think I over did it a bit.

And then it was some time later (I'm rather slow these days) that I remembered that I used butter in my topping for the crumble! And a lot of butter. I ate the whole thing in one day... and another the next day. What was I doing to myself?! Of course I'm going to be sick!

Well, I've done this before, so I know what to do. It's a simple matter of not eating for a day or two, drink lots of water, and have several cups of fenugreek tea with a bit of mint. So that is what I've done, and today I'm much better.

Sometimes this old brain just is not thinking clearly. I never connected that what I was using in my cooking would somehow affect me. I just never learn.