It's not just you. Me too. I am always thinking of things to write about, taking photos that I should share and then I'm off doing something, stumbling into another activity. You said it in your summer in the city post, now is the time to do, to grab it all, to enjoy every minute because our summer is short.
We're almost half way through July, I know that because today is my birthday. And I'm having the best day.
I woke up to presents and coffee in bed and the day just got better from there.
We had breakfast here, at the Riverbend Inn, I was hoping to sit on the patio but it was a bit rainy. The view is gorgeous.
Then we went shopping so that I could spend a bit of my present. I bought some new dish towels. I will save the rest of my money for my next trip to Buffalo.
One of our "summer things" is to go to the dairy and have a strawberry milkshake. Divine. Should be divine for $9.00 for two millkshakes, but the milk and ice cream are fresh and the strawberries just picked. That's why we don't treat ourselves very often. But hey, today is my birthday, so we had strawberry milkshakes for lunch.
I got home to the sweetest phone message from Dodo. There were other messages, but none made me feel as melty as that little, "Hi Kaf, it's Dodo, Happy Birfday, I love oooo".
So, what did I do then? I had a glass of wine, in the afternoon.
And then:
I got my "Year in Niagara" cookbook out and I propped it up:
I took these out of the fridge (I bought these yesterday morning):
I washed them. Three times.
I assembled the rest of the ingredients, because now I was being a food blogger (haha) and they always stage their ingredients, beautifully. I put mine on a dish towel on the table and took a picture.
I drained the cherries
I dried them and I paused to be really impressed with all my great kitchen gear and my new dish towel and the fact that it's all matching. Coordinated. A cooking post in yellow and red.
I was not so impressed with my photography skills, check out that shadow, but I've done enough today and I'm not photoshopping it out.
Then I remembered to do this:
And instead of having gin, I had this:
Raspberry Merlot with a Sour Cherry garnish and a matching dishtowel.
I needed it because of what comes next. What comes next are those steps that always make me question why I decided to start this process. I cut all the little stems shorter on the cherries with my matching kitchen scissors. Re the matching: I'm sick. But don't laugh, you too will be like this when you downsize, because you will only keep the good stuff. I know this because I'm coming to help you pack.
Then I took this out of the spice rack where it lives.
Yes, it's a pin in a cork. Stop laughing. I use it for lots of things so I sterilized it.
And then I took the pin and I pricked several, yes, several holes in every single cherry.
And while I was doing that, I started the vinegar, sugar and spices boiling
And in the meantime, I was sterilizing jars and boiling lids and poking holes, many, many holes in many, many cherries.
Then I packed the jars, that's canning terminology. Packed the jars.
And I poured the vinegar over the cherries:
And then I stopped photodocumenting because I had to work fast so as to not give anyone botulism for Christmas this year.
Then the jars went in the hotwater bath.
Which took forever to come to a boil, probably because I kept peeking
Finally, I was done
Again with the shadow, but I don't care. Because I'm done!!!
Now I sit here and look at those five jars of cherries and wonder if I even like sour pickled cherries. I've never had them.
I am determined however, to take advantage of summer and want to preserve a taste of it for winter. Did I tell you I made strawberry balsamic black pepper jam? Aren't you glad I didn't think to take pictures of that process?
Tomorrow is our (can you believe it?) fifth wedding anniversary, so I won't be back until Tuesday when I plan to show you some pictures of all the great stuff I've bought lately.
xo
PS is there any way to write this kind of post so that I don't sound like other bloggers out there?
