Daily Archives: October 4, 2009

Eight Years

Jim and I met eight years ago yesterday or today. I’d have to look up the date. It doesn’t matter. He opened the car door and took my hand and it was love not at first sight. We’ve had our ups and downs but love each other and our canine companion, who had her own issues.

Shortly we’ll celebrate another anniversary and I am very happy to have my dear husband at my side, as well as our Hipless Wonder Zoe the dog. We move with Jim’s career. Zoe’s career is herding us so she moves along with us. I never thought I’d say this but I love this blog almost as much as I love cooking and my family and friends.

We met at TGI Fridays at lunch. We talked a long time, shook hands and parted company and he called the next night for dinner and a movie and we’ve been inseparable ever since. He moved back to TX then back, for me. I could never meet a more forthright and honest man. And he’s brilliant.

He is not a cook, and that’s fine. One day I came over to his place (that I found 1,000 feet away from mine) to make us lunch one day and I was making soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. He saw me making the grilled cheese and said “so that’s how you do it!” Now I’ve a photo of him making toast at age four. It took him nearly 30 years to learn to put a bit of butter on it and add cheese.

Now, another day I was washing out plastic zipper bags and drying them over any of my appliances. Yes, I’d moved a portion of my kitchen over to his place because I had a cat and he was allergic to cats so he couldn’t eat at my place. I was putting them away and he asked if I regularly washed them and re-used them. Never having met his mother I wondered what she would think. I told the truth and said yes, and it turns out it was the right answer because his mother is much more frugal than I have ever been.

It is eight years since I met my soul mate, my best friend, my husband and while outside influences (recession, job market) have taken their toll we’re still here. And guess what, after I prepared the ingredients, he actually made his own grilled cheese sandwich yesterday! Bravo, my love.

We can leave most of the cooking to me. Perhaps you can try to make an egg over medium someday, flipping it over the stove. Eight more years? OK. Sounds good to me. Enjoy your day! Dee

Concord Grape Season

By the number of hits I see on my blog every day about how to eat a Concord grape, I know there is interest in the product, which is good for grape growers and everyone else employed in making most of these gorgeous clusters into juice.

For those who get to eat one bunch (legally) off the vine it is a treasure and one I appreciated as a kid but not to the extent I do now. I’m thrilled that you want to know this stuff, how to eat a Concord grape is my most-read blog entry. We had a private tour of a Portland NY farm and Jim’s Dad, a rancher and former dairy farmer for 30 years, enjoyed seeing the operation first-hand.

Growers are invited to write in with recipes for people driving through Chautauqua County who can’t possibly eat all the grapes they bought at the farmers’ market. As for me, I miss it. Watching the grapes grow and going to pick blueberries at the farm up the hill was fantastic. Part of it is being a kid and taking off my shoes after the snow was gone and going barefoot for the summer, climbing cliffs, catching crayfish and playing with the local kids along the creek where I want my ashes to be buried, if the then-current owners consent.

The other part is what living next door to a farm we learned a bit about the land and all our neighbors were in FFA (Future Farmers of America) and we were Girl Scouts. No, we never had a heifer, only a dog that we had to give to a farmer when we moved. My dad tried to tame the land, to no avail. I’d love to buy it back to retire on but that’s years away.

As for taste memories, grapes, cherries, blueberries and baby strawberries come to mind. It was a short growing season but farmers made good use of the time they had and grew mainly apples and grapes. Grape season back home now means snow season here. I just looked out the window and the snow is coming down, and sticking, hopefully not to the roads yet. Jim may forget that when I grew up back east I shoveled regularly but never had to deal with snow tires or chains as I was too young to drive. Our weekends were full of chores, nonetheless. Hope you’re having a quiet evening before settling in for another week. Cheers, Dee.