Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Swimming in the Rain

Indoor Pools are Great!!

I managed a full ten lap swim after school despite the rain.  Had the pool been outdoors, I would not have gone in.  It was rather cool outside. 

But indoors?? 84f water.  The building was OK, not really warm, but certainly warmer than outdoors and...the showers had nice hot water. 

Needless to say, I did not work the horses as the rain continued and still continues into the night. 

Just as well as I got a lecture from my chiropractor. A whole bunch of vertebrae were out of adjustment, not just the ones I noticed.  My doctor wants me to try to stay on a two week schedule.  I'll try, but sometimes things just get away from me. 

Claire, my mother was the baker in the family, so the blackberries are more of a nuisance than a treasure.  Hard to say, too just how nice they actually will be, although with all the rain, they should be big.  Then, of course, trying to get them before the birds do is another challenge.

When I was a child, my cousins and I used to pick them and sell them along the road.  Back then, we had a few places where the berries were huge and luscious.  As I recall, we sold a lot of quarts to passing drivers. 

We also had a strawberry patch here and I'd take berries in to school to sell.  People loved them.  My Mother would bake a crumbly cake and we'd have homemade strawberry shortcake for weeks of desserts.  I'm not sure what the recipe was, but the cake was kind of like a biscuit texture and not too sweet so it didn't compete with the fruit. 

But my favorite was the sour cherry pie made from sour cherries from our trees.  Once again, my Mother had a magic touch I never acquired in the baking department.

And, oh!!! Her Dutch apple cake!!!

OK, done. I do not need to eat any cakes, thank you very much.

3 comments:

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  2. Mary Lou3:01 PM

    Sour cherries make the best pies! Maybe I will stop on my way west and make you a pie from the cherries on your tree! You deserve it!

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  3. ok, blackberry crumble, takes no time.

    pre heat oven to the temp you'd use for pastry

    put a load of blackberries in an ovenproof dish, with sugar to taste.

    crumble mixture: 1/3rd fat (butter!) to flour, rubbed in (i usually use 3 oz plain flour), then mix in sugar, the same amount of sugar that you had of fat.

    pour over top of blackberries.

    put in oven for about 25 minutes until top is crunchy crispy golden and the fruit is bubbling.

    serve with cream/custard/your choice..

    perfect.

    and if you make more crumble mix that you need, it keeps in an airtight container.

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