Fruitcake lovers of the world – rest easy.

The fruitcakes are in the oven! This year, I went with a little bit different idea and decided not to add all the normal fruitcake mix sort of fruit. Instead, this year’s cakes will include:

• 60 oz raisins
• 60 oz golden raisins
• 30 oz currents
• 12 oz citron and lemon peel
• 9 oz chopped apricots
• 16 oz dried red cherries*
• 4 tb dried orange peel*

* these items were soaked well in brandy and the brandy that remained after the soaking was added to the batter. As luck would have it, it was just a little over the cup called for. Sure smelled good!

So now there’s nothing to do but wait for the timer and hope it will be as good tasting. I haven’t been disappointed yet. Better have a little dinner while I’m waiting.

Meanwhile, to add to the festive holiday feeling, there’s about 3 inches of beautiful snow outside. It really came down for awhile this morning and everything looks nice and clean and wintery.

The answer to the meaning of life and all that jazz. (hint: it’s not an mp3 player)

So where have I been – cowering in retail-land in part, digging through the sewing room in part, about to take up the yearly snow shovelling task. Had a nice thanksgiving dinner with my folks, my brother and his family and two grad students from RPI. Good time and food was had by all. Ruminating on a next quilt while pinning the current one for quilting. Last night I auditioned some colors of thread for quilting.

But most importantly, the answer to life’s meaning at the moment has to do with fruitcake and making some bread. How can you have turkey sandwiches without some bread, I ask you? And what’s the point of living at all if there’s no fruitcake?

There’s a word for that…

I can’t remember what it is, but let’s just say I sat through a ninety minute talk today and wrote down two things:

Open Directory Master

and

Link Aggregate Networking

The only thing you need to know is that is ALL I wrote down and I didn’t know what those things were before they were spoken and I didn’t know what they were after I wrote them down.

There’s a name for that in educational theory lingo. I know more about that, even without coming up with the name for it, than I do about either of those two phrases. It boils down to making sure your students have a knowledge base upon which to put what you’re about to teach them. Otherwise they write down two things of all you say with a big question mark after it.

That is all.

So my life has moved from the linear 1 1/2″ at a time to something more to do with area. A rather poor photo of the top I just completed:

You know, there’s something comforting about the fact that in a moment of braveness you can dispose of a previous starter, mix together flour and water and the same little yeasty boyz who have served you for a year will start right up where they left off. Day two of feeding the “new” starter and it’s already blowing off the containers’ covers. When I measured out each starter to do the feed each one had a well-developed structure. The stiff levain was already full of gluten and air. The rye was full of bubbles throughout. Amazing.

It was actually in December 2004 I guess that I started this bread making adventure and my oven has seen quite a few loaves in that time. I’ve learned that both the yeasties and me are pretty resilient and have more stick-to-it-ness than some would have guessed. I would like still to have a little more focus, but I’ll take what I can get.

Last year about this time I wondered if I would ever really get back to quilting. Well that’s chugging along too. I’m a few long seams away from having a new top done. Yeah yeah yeah, more of the same – those darn little squares.

I’ve re-learned about exposures and film and all – not more than I need to know to take the slides I need. I have the basic equipment and the knowhow and get the job done. I learned I could mow the lawn (easily) and take out the trash (no problem) and look forward to a life that has room to enjoy each moment (worth taking the time). I can sit back and enjoy the scalloped edges of the oak trees along the echoing edge of pines along route 20. I can relish the morning light hitting the kinderhook and the reeds along the highway.

Lately I’ve learned that sometimes you need to draw a circle both to keep those dear at hand and to keep out the clawing roar of the world. Whew – doesn’t that sound dramatic? There’s a lot more drama sometimes in the small steps we take to direct our lives than in the big ones.

What will tomorrow bring? Demand for more food from the yeasty boyz and the cats. A need for a heavy sweater against the frost that’s due. A gladness that there’s bread to bake and folks to eat it. And sure knowledge that the basics carry on every day.