Feeding my soul with cabbage

Sometimes in the business of living, our souls cry out to our unconscious in ways that don't make sense until later.  Life has been overwhelming lately because we are going through another one of those years of big events.  The events don't always have to be negative, but they are always stressful.  Even when we are in the middle of an activity designed to relieve stress, getting there was no picnic.
I grew up disconnected physically from family and as an adult it has cemented in me the greatest of desires to be around my family however and whenever I can.  Moving to Utah, while difficult in so many ways, opened up for me an emotionally gratifying life that I have yet to know in my 38 years.  I get to live near family that I was only able to visit on rare occasions in the past.  I lack the literary maturity and skill to adequately convey how much it feeds my soul to live within minutes rather than hours or even days of my family.
I called my Aunt Janet last week and asked if I could come and visit her today and being the lovely person she is she said of course!  I have the wonderful privilege of being related to some truly extraordinary women and Janet is no exception.  I could talk to her for hours, and do, and she obliges me.
I love going to Jerry and Janet's because their garden is so magnificent and I always learn something.  I never leave empty handed from their generosity and I come home ready to create something new with my bounty of produce.  They are all about creation and creativity and I think that is why I identify so well with them.  Ada and Bert taught all of us wonderful lessons in life, but to Jerry, they gave the joy of gardening and I appreciate Janet's patience with it and his willingness and enthusiasm about it. 
It took this visit for me to realize the reason for the cloud that has been hanging over me for sometime.  I wasn't sure why I needed to go, I just knew it would be good for me.  I discovered I miss my Grandma Ada terribly.  Alan and I spent so much of our lives together talking about ways we could move to Cedar City to be closer to her.  I feel like I have finally gotten my wish to be closer and it is too late.  I had so much I wanted to talk to her about.  So much I wanted to learn from her.  I feel jipped in a way for coming to her part of the world so much later in life, hers and mine, only to have her gone now.  Visiting with Janet helped me recognize how much I rely on the women in my life to feed my soul.  It is a hard thing to explain or even know how to explain to the men in our lives.  Women need each other and need to be around each other to appreciate the people we live with more.  There is something that connects us in our common experience as wives and mothers that helps to keep us all sane.  We fill each other's souls up, so we can all get out there and face whatever comes our way.
Jerry's cabbage were extraordinary in every way this year.  They are massive and there are lots of them.  As a result, they are making sauerkraut at their house and lots of it.  I was gifted three large heads and immediately started cleaning and cutting them up when I arrived back at my house.  I was standing over the kitchen sink crying and washing when it hit me how much I needed today.  I needed to talk, to eat, to cry, to laugh and to be replenished.  Thank you Janet for refilling my bucket.  And thank you for honoring the memory and life of Ada.  I may not have her here to talk to and learn from, but all those she loved and nurtured and taught in her life are here and available and ready to continue her legacy of love and devotion to family.  And I can talk to them whenever I want to. 

Look for the Silver Linings

Last weekend we had some setbacks but we triumphed and still had a rockin good time. I have been Suzy Homemaker lately. I was on my second round of my plum harvest looking forward to more plum jelly, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. This represents about 2 gallons of juice cooked out of my little plums. This doesn't taste good just the way it is. I had transferred it into a juice pitcher and left it on the counter to cool, not thinking anyone who lived here would touch it. They know better than to taste something without asking what it is first. I have too many things in transition to just sample food in my kitchen. The kids have learned by trial and yuck! to ask first. However, last Friday night we had most of the kids on the street over for a bonfire and cinnamon rolls and there was much activity in the house. The little girls were eating in the kitchen with Sarah, when the four year old decided some pretty red juice would go well with here cinnamon roll. Unfortuately, she decided to pour for everyone. Let's just say she missed the cup the first time. And got some in the second time. By the time I came back in, it looked like someone had thrown water balloons full of plum juice all over my kitchen. It was awesome! All the little girls exclaimed, "that juice is yucky!". After getting it cleaned up I was relieved to see that they had only spilled 1/3 of the juice. I carefully put it in the fridge to deal with later and went off to party.

Nick and Andrea showed up shortly after the plum juice fiasco and were staying the night so we could go to the Hot Air Balloon festival up Ogden canyon first thing the next morning. We have been planning and looking forward to this for some time. We were going to take breakfast with us and watch the sunrise over the mountains and see the balloons lift off. It was going to be ethereal and beautiful. After deciding who would sleep where we went to bed with much anticipation for the following morning. At 4:45am Alan and I got up to start raising the dead for our day of "fun" and noticed it was raining outside. Sadly, our ballon launch dreams were dashed. Ever the adventurers, we all decided to go anyway because it might not be raining on the mountain. As we all got our things together, I was in the kitchen packing up our breakfast and getting some help from others. The watermelon needed to be retrieved from the fridge but it was in the back. I asked for some help getting it out and guess what was in front of it in the fridge? Yes, the plum juice. It wasn't moved out of the way of the watermelon enough and the juice spilled out onto the floor-all but maybe 2 cups of it. The pitcher landed on Leanne's recently broken toe sending her into a vortex of pain. I am sure it felt awful. We all stared at it for a moment and then started the clean up, again. My floor has never been mopped so much. We pulled out the fridge and cleaned out the inside. Many towels were needed to soak up the sticky stuff and finally we got it all cleaned. And behind and under my fridge are nice and clean too. I decided to dump out the remaining juice, it was not meant to be.
The drive up was beautiful and rainy. We saw water gushing out of the mountains from the rain run off and the river that parallels the road was full too. The location of the lift-off was in Eden and it looked like Eden. The rain only made the hills greener and the cool weather was nice after hot days down in the valley.

The vendors and carnival games were on hold because of the weather and so we decided to eat our breakfast out of the back of the care and enjoy the journey. This is Wolf Mountain Ski Resort and you can see where the runs are when there is snow.

Hurray for hatchbacks! We ate our cinnamon rolls and watermelon out of the back and got some great looks from other tourists looking to salvage their own plans for fun. It ended up being a beautiful day. After returning home we decided to go to the movies and then headed down to Salt Lake to visit with Bob and Mary. They were having a get together for Lane and his family who were visiting from New York for the week. As always, it is fun to see family and eat. We parted ways with Nick and Andrea and headed back north to attend the Dinosaur Park's free evening for Jacob. He has been looking forward to this forever! It is an outdoor park that has life size statues of dinosaurs and dinosaurs built into slides and swings for the younger kids. We were so exhausted by then we couldn't wait to get home and just go to bed.
There was a steak house near the dino park and the smell was more than our empty stomachs could bear. We decided to check it out. It looked like an old mine and had lots of miner/cowboy stuff everywhere. I picked up a menu and about fell over. Just about everything on the menu was $20 to $40 a plate! I am not sure if I had lots of money I could pay that for a steak. Ever the cheapskate, I recommended we buy our own steaks from the grocery store and BBQ at home. The vote was unanamous. We found some yummy steaks and had a lovely BBQ out back. It is so fun eating outside. The weather has been amazing here (mid 80's) and we are not looking forward to the snowfall. We try to spend as much time as possible outside in a desperate attempt to hold off our pending hybernation.

Coming to a theater soon.... Jacob as, Flash Gordon!

Pictures

It is the start of canning season and the apricots and plums are first to make it onto my shelf. Our neighbors have a lot of apricots this year and have been sharing them with us. The syrup is especially yummy. Pretty soon I will have more applesauce and apple butter than I know what to do with. We do gobble it up though!

I love my steam juicer. You put the fruit in the top and it cooks all of the juice out and holds it in the middle and the pulp is left on the top. After putting it through a strainer, you can make jam or fruit roll ups with the pulp. The juice is great for drinking but I usually make jelly and syrup out of it. These are the tiny plums from my tree.

Jacob has been hired by two of our neighbors to do work for them this summer. He washes the work trucks for one and mows the lawn for the other. These people live right across the street from us and have the apricot tree. He is so close to having enough money for his Wii system he can hardly stand it. It will be fun to have it this winter when we are snowed in.

Look what I did Mom!

As you know, I love food. I love to eat food, cook food, think about food, dream about food. I am rather obsessed. I figure it is a good obsession as long as I stay about the size I am now. Baking is my real love followed closely by canning and then cooking meals. I like the chemistry involved with baking even though I got a C in chemistry in high school. We weren't baking so I couldn't wrap my brain around the little ball and stick diagrams. I don't think in ball and stick figures so I have pretty much not thought about it since the last day of class.
I also love capitalism and the fact that in this country you can sell just about anything, anywhere because there is someone out there that wants it. In Syracuse they started a farmer's market last year for all of us small time farmer's that had extras from our gardens and didn't know what to do with them. It is fabulous! So much cheaper than the grocery store and anyone can come and sell anything you are good at making. Since I am gardenless this year and my plums aren't quite ready to harvest I decided to bake bread and cinnamon rolls. I spent all day on Friday baking my goods and all night Friday night a stressed out mess because I was terrified of having my food rejected by strangers. I am regularly rejected by my children because they are my guinea pigs. But to give something to a stranger, they are skeptical because let's face it, they don't know you. There is so much assumed trust when eating food prepared by a stranger. We all do it everyday, but it is a real leap of faith to eat something you didn't personally see prepared. Anything could be in there! I am thankful for the trustworthy face the Lord blessed me with.
When I got there I realized I had forgotten a chair to sit on behind my little bake sale table. But the lovely people set up next to me had an extra chair and were willing to share. They also had a huge bunch of mint they were selling and it smelled heavenly sitting next to them.
I was able to relax a bit when my first cinnamon roll sold. And, was pleasantly surprised when all but 3 cinnamon rolls sold within an hour and half! I had wished I made more. My ego swelled everytime someone tried a sample and got that surprised yum look on their face. I sold my apple butter too and whole wheat bread. It was awesome! I was so excited I even called my mom and dad! Because that is what kids do no matter what their age. Thanks for being excited about my little success mom and dad!
I can't wait to bake more stuff and sell it again. I made $62 and after treating my family to a hearty yet gross lunch at Taco Bell, I bought mass quantities of corn and watermelon. The corn is in the freezer and the watermelon is in our bellies!