A Long Saturday...

 I always need a photograph to start writing. Images some how release the words for me, at least on the blog. I used to write short stories, and I don't believe I ever used a photograph for them. But the blog is sort of like free-writing these days, and today I'm fresh out of ideas. I just had a huge day, and I was out of the house for most of it. A morning kid's event, and later on a birthday party followed by dinner with friends. A great day, but right now I'm exhausted by words.

I used up all my photos in yesterday's posts, and these were the only ones left that I liked. The Flemish Beauty pears up above, are now in jars. I put them up in a light syrup, mostly plain but one or two jars with vanilla and cardamom. Just last night I finished the leftover syrup with a squeeze of lime and some cold water. It was so incredibly good. That's one of the things I love about cooking: these sublime accidents that happen all the time. I guess that's where everything good comes from--a lovely happenstance---hmm, what if I put this delicacy of crushed peanuts with some of this fruit spread I have...a hundred years later you have PB&J.

In the shot below, we have some plum brandy. Autumn Makes and Does inspired this with her damson plum gin. I do believe my plums were Stanleys, but that's up for debate because even the farmer I bought them from was not 100% sure. That's what happens when you take over a very old orchard. I always like to think: who planted this tree? Who started this food source? Or drinking source, in this case. It is so, so lovely, this plum brandy. I stopped making so much fruit-infused boozes, because I really have a shelf full of them. My favorite new application: toddies. I have some crabapple spiced rum, and an ounce of that in a mug with a squidge of lemon juice does exactly the right thing.