Ugh, I am full of pizza and it's about 100 degrees. What was I thinking? I was thinking I didn't want to cook and didn't want Pat to cook because I didn't want anyone to turn on the oven. Anyway, we ordered pizza and it was so good and it had been so long since I had any, that I ate a ton. And I know you know what I mean. And of course I want ice cream now.
As has been true the past few days, I have not much to report. Just trying to get through the heat. It's going to be another scorcher tomorrow. Pat worked her butt off painting the Rotten Pink Room (that is no longer rotten or pink) and it looks great. That was the worst room in this building when we bought it. Water would leak under the front exterior wall under the floor and so the whole thing was rotted out. We had to rebuild the bottom of the wall (we took the opportunity to install double glass doors) to stop the water from coming in, then we had to rip out the whole floor down to the concrete underneath. I did that on a hot day and it was gross. We had a terra cotta colored concrete floor poured. It turned out to be a dusty pink, I am not exactly sure what happened, but it is what it is. Maybe the karma of the room is that something in it needs to be pink no matter what.
The RPR was the room I was most afraid of in terms of getting it done. It seems like an impossibly disgusting and huge job, and now we are painting (ahem, Pat is painting) and on the verge of reinstalling the baseboards. Just another fear that has been stared down with a lot of time and help.
There must be a lesson there.
I made homemade butter from cream from grass-fed organic cows. It is pretty much the most delicious butter I have ever tasted. I had that with sour cherry/raspberry jam that I made the other day. That was lunch. It was good. The taste of the good life that I have.
Sour Cherry and Raspberry Jam a.k.a. the world's best jam
1 lb. sour cherries
1 lb raspberries
3 1/2 cups sugar
Juice of half a fat lemon
Mix everything together in a dutch oven or heavy and wide saucepan, let sit overnight.
Bring to boil and stir occasionally so it doesn't burn. If you want, puree with an emersion blender to get a smoother texture (I do this because I don't like how big the cherries are). Bring it up to 8 degrees F. over the boiling point of water (for us, that's 220 degrees F.) Skim the sum then pour into jars and either water can or freeze. I freeze all the jam I make now because I just cannot be bothered to can something that we are going to eat so fast. And something in the freezing makes the texture really yummy.
Ruth- I hope I did not inspire the pizza orgy with my talk of making pizza! I went to the store to get the dough, etc. but could not locate any Fontina cheese and then I thought, "what the hell am I thinking, baking pizza on a 100 degree night?!" so I boiled hot dogs instead!
ReplyDeleteIt's so great what you and Pat have done, and are doing, to your sweet house. Kudos to you both.
tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter. I will call you if we go to the CC.