Forever can never be long enough for me

Having a birthday two weeks from Christmas means that very rarely do you get a day that's all about you.  Now that I'm an adult, I even have a hard time taking the time away from the hustle and bustle to stop and celebrate.  It's not easy for my family members, either, I imagine.  In addition to figuring out a Christmas present, they also have to figure out something for my birthday.  So inevitably I get the Birthday/Christmas present.  Which I totally understand now...as a kid, not so much.

Sunday was a big birthday for me.  As in five decades of big. It is actually not that big of a deal, but everyone else wants to make it a big deal.  I mean, I already had my 50 year old physical, mammogram, and teeth cleaning.  I felt like I was there already, and I'm feeling pretty good.  But last week was jam-packed...with Christmas shopping, wrapping, making Apple Jelly, Pear/Apple Preserves, Strawberry and Blueberry Jam.  I was so glad to be able to go to dinner Saturday night with 8 of our best friends for a really fun night of good food, good wine, and laughter.  I went to bed with a smile on my face.

The next day (my actual birthday), J gave me a card with two tickets to the Train Concert at the Jingle Ball in Tampa!  I've written about Train before...I'm embarrassed to say I think I'm a groupie.  I love their songs...all of them.  The ones before they broke up and came back to record their latest album, "Save me, San Francisco", and the ones that no one has ever heard of.  But I love their new stuff, too.  J said that when he walked in on me watching the CMT Crossroads show featuring Train and Martina McBride, and I was crying...(I have no idea why I cried-they just move me that way), that he knew he had to do it.

I was over the top excited...and after a quick tearing through my closet to figure out what to wear, I was ready to go to the airport, when four of our best friends walked in the front door.  They were going with us!  It was a perfect day, other than the rain and snow that we were beginning to get, which had been forecast for days, and which had kept my fearful flyer husband awake for the past week.  But we took off with no problems, and the landing in Tampa was smooth as silk.  A car picked us up and whisked us to the arena, where we were early, so we stopped in at the hotel next door for a drink and to freshen up a little.  I was on my way to the ladies room, when out of the corner of my eye I spotted the back of a bald head at the bar.  He was next to a column, so I couldn't really see his face, but I was convinced it was Jimmy Stafford, lead guitarist extraordinaire for Train.  I ran back to J, breathlessly telling him Jimmy was at the bar.  He said, "No way," and promptly walked over and tapped him on the shoulder.  He turned around (with a smile, luckily), and sure enough, it was him!  I normally speak in nonsense when I meet a celebrity, especially one I admire as much as Jimmy,  but for some reason when J introduced himself and pulled me over to tell him it was my birthday, I actually put together a couple of sentences that made sense!  Jimmy was very sweet, and spoke with us for a few minutes.  He told us he bought a home in Brentwood, so that his 10-year-old daughter could go to school here. He also said, after finding out we flew down for the show,  "You know we're only doing four songs?"  Oops.

The show was a radio show...put on by a local station, and there were seven bands.  Ready Set, Mike Posner, Bruno Mars, Train, B.o.B., Enrique Englasias, and Maroon 5.  I guess I realized they would do a shorter set, but FOUR songs?  But you know what, it didn't matter.  I met Jimmy, and I was with my friends and my sweet husband, and it was a magical night.  What I didn't know was we had tickets to a pre-show...an acoustical set by Train.  They played three songs there, and ended up doing five songs in the show.  We got herded through the meet and greet line, and got our picture taken with the band and a bunch of girls I didn't know, but I ran over next to Pat.  He looked at my skirt and said, "That skirt's pretty hot."  (swoon).  Of course, I was tongue tied and didn't even say thanks.  Just smiled and leaned in for the shot.  We had floor seats, and I decided to sit on the end so I could stand up and dance, which ended up being a good decision.  When they did "Marry Me" (which they also did in the acoustic set and during both performances someone got engaged..), Pat left the stage and walked around the audience.  He walked right by me!  I could see the glistening sweat and the guy-liner on his eyes, and he is just as handsome up close as he is onstage.  I could have touched him, like everyone else was doing, but I was frozen in place.  Afterwards I was mad that I didn't even take a photo.

It's now a week later, and I'm still walking around on air.  The fact that J did something so generous and loving and outside his comfort zone (flying in bad weather), is something I will NEVER EVER forget.  Even if they only did one song, it would have been great.  I am the luckiest girl in the world (do I have to call myself a woman now that I'm 50?).  J and I are like yin and yang...we just fit together.  We're definitely not the same in many ways...but I think that's just the "whatever"...Pat said it first in these lyrics from "If it's Love"...

But I'm afraid when I hear stories about a husband and wife
There's no happy endings, no Henry Lee
But you are the greatest thing about me

If it's love
And we decide that it's forever
No one else could do it better

If it's love
And we're two birds of a feather
Then the rest is just whatever

So to my sweet husband...I love you.   I'm looking forward to spending my forevers with you.  And thank you.

A whole lotta love!

I'm a creature of habit.  Once something works for me, I pretty much stick with it.

I work out every day, so I can enjoy eating and having the occasional glass of wine.  So far, so good.

I do the crossword puzzle every morning.  Exercises my brain.

I wear a lot of black.  Makes it much easier to shop.  One pair of boots goes with almost everything.

I can't go to bed without kissing my daughter and my husband good night.  It's good luck.

And I eat the same exact breakfast almost every day of my life.  Two slices of whole wheat toast with jelly and a thin spread of almond butter (the kind you grind yourself at Whole Foods...it's to DIE for!), and a cup of dry cereal (Mother's Peanut Butter Bumpers).   I love the pear preserves I buy from the little farmer's market at Hillsboro High School.  There's something about homemade jams and jellies...I think they taste so much better because of the love that goes into a batch of seasonal fruit, sweetened and cooked in small batches, just like my Grandma used to make.  I always load up in October, the last month they're there until the spring.

For some reason, I didn't get my normal stash this year.  So when I saw a recipe in a magazine for homemade pear-vanilla preserves, it intrigued me.  Looked pretty easy.  So I tried some.  I didn't have the fancy canning pot that is huge and deep so that you can put the jars in with enough water to cover, so I used my big soup pot.  It wasn't too bad, except for the huge mess I had to clean up.  **Note:  don't cook the fruit in a small saucepan...when it boils, it WILL boil over.  The final product was beautiful, but the consistency...more like syrup.  So I dumped it all back in the saucepan, added more pectin (extra, too, just in case), and it hardened so much over the next few days that I had to cut it out of the jars.

So I went back to the drawing board, and read everything I could get my hands on about jams and jellies.  My grandma "put up" everything...fruit, vegetables, pickles, sauces, juice, and never really even used a recipe, but there are so many different recipes, and philosophies about making jelly it makes my head spin.

So I went to Costco and bought three different kinds of pears, some jonagold apples  and four pints of blueberries (I know, not in season, but my husband only likes purple jelly).  Yesterday I spent the entire day in the kitchen, and after a couple of mishaps, I think I finally got it.  The recipes in the pectin box call for only boiling for one minute...recipes without pectin call for cooking for a longer time, to extract the natural pectin from the fruit.  I finally settled on a happy medium.  I use a little less pectin, and boil for about 5 minutes, until I put a spoonful on a cold plate from the freezer and it cools off into a soft jell.  I did use the full amount on the blueberries, since they don't have much natural pectin in them at all, and they turned out perfectly.  It was actually much easier to do the blueberry, because I didn't have to peel, core, and chop them, like I did with the pears and apples.

Anyway, for those of you who might want to give it a try, here's my recipe for Apple Pear Jam.


Apple Pear Jam

Pears
Apples (sweet varieties, not too tart...underripe is better)
(Total of 7-8 pounds, before peeling and coring...equalling about 5-6 cups prepped fruit)
Sugar  (some recipes call for one cup per cup of fruit, but if using pectin I use about 2/3 cup sugar per cup of fruit)
Lemon Juice
Nutmeg
Cinnamon Stick
Allspice
Pectin

•  Prepare jars.  I usually put in dishwasher on "sanitize" setting, before I start chopping.  That way they're warm when you put the hot jelly into them.  Or you can boil them in a large soup pot or canning pot with something in the bottom to prevent them from touching the bottom of the pan.  Before I purchased an actual canning pot with bottle insert, I put a metal trivet in the bottom of my soup pot...it worked fine.  Pour boiling water over flat lids in saucepan off the heat, keep in water until needed.  Wash and dry screw bands.
•  Put about 1/4 cup of lemon juice in bowl, more if needed.  Peel, core and finely dice fruit, tossing with lemon juice as you chop to prevent browning.  If you want smoother final product, you can put in food processor or food mill. 

• Put small glass bowl or plate and spoon in freezer.

• Measure exact amount of the fruit (with lemon juice) into a large, deep saucepan.  Don't make a batch larger than 8 cups, or it will take too long to set. 

• Measure exact amount of sugar in separate bowl, remove 1/4 cup of measured sugar and mix with a little less than one full box of Pectin in a small bowl.

• Stir pectin-sugar mixture into the fruit , and bring to a full boil (one that doesn't go away when you stir).  

• You need to stir constantly to prevent sticking.  Quickly stir in remaining sugar, and return to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly.  Boil for a minute or two, until the liquid drips off the spoon a little more slowly.  IT WILL NOT SET WHILE IT IS BOILING.  Remove from heat, and drop a spoonful onto the cold plate using the cold spoon.  Put back in freezer for a few seconds, then remove.  If it is a jam-like consistency, it is ready.  If not, return to heat and boil for another minute, then try the test again.

• *One important point.  The jam will continue to set while it cools.  It won't completely finish until it's completely cooled, which will take a day or two.  If it's too hard, it will be difficult or impossible to spread.

• When it's ready to be jarred, ladle quickly into warm jars, filling to within 1/8 inch of the tops.

• Wipe jar rims and threads, and cover with two piece lids.  Place on elevated rack in canner.  Water must cover jars by 1-2 inches; add boiling water if needed.  Cover, bring to gentle boil and process jam for 10 minutes.

All I can say, is my kitchen still smells like apple pie and I have a whole lot of love to give my friends this holiday season!

What I'm not Thankful For

 Woke up to rain this morning...blessed cool rain.  I had forgotten how much I love rainy mornings when I don't have to be anywhere.  In a few hours, the madness of Thanksgiving week begins, but for now, I can relax with my coffee and my crossword puzzle while my dogs sleep on the floor next to me.

Thanksgiving is a great holiday...maybe my favorite.  It involves eating, family, time off from school and work, the weather is not freezing or sticky hot, and best of all, you don't have to buy gifts!  We're fortunate enough to spend the holiday with my parents and my husband's parents, a tradition we started about 4 years ago.  We started our marriage with the compromise, Thanksgiving at his parent's, and Christmas at mine.  That seemed fair, given that my mother lives for Christmas, and his mom, being Jewish, felt the same way about Thanksgiving.  It worked out great the first couple of years, even though my mom's birthday always falls during Thanksgiving, so I had to miss that.

Then my daughter was born in September, 1993.  Our first Christmas with her was at my parent's new home, and we had just finished opening presents with my brother and his family when we received our "Merry Christmas" phone call from my mother-in-law.  Her joyful holiday wishes soon morphed into a sobbing moment, when she said, "I can't believe I'm missing it!"  So, from that moment on, they would travel to Nashville to celebrate with us.  It became a wonderful tradition...Christmas Eve Dinner with my parents, and my husband's parents and their respective spouses, Christmas Eve Services at church (my favorite holiday tradition is having my jewish in-laws at church with me!), and Christmas morning at my moms.  It took us 16 years to convince my parents to come to Thanksgiving with us, but it's been great.

Yes, I am thankful for family.  Having a loving family, in relatively good health at this point in my life, is something I never take for granted.

Other things I don't take for granted...A daughter who is everything I wish I had been at her age...and more, and a husband who is my best friend, and who makes me feel like I'm the queen of the world.  I'm thankful for a lot of things.

But this morning it occurred to me that there are a lot of things I am NOT thankful for.

I'm not thankful that there are terrorists in our world who have given our government a reason to take such precautions for our safety that our country has been focused for days on the stupid body scan/pat down controversy.  You know what?  As soon as someone hides an explosive on their person that is not found by our security and blows up an airplane or God forbid, another high rise building, people will be re-thinking their opposition to all of this.  What part of "It's for our SAFETY" do people not get?  Geez.  If they have some body part that every other human being doesn't have, and they don't want anyone to see it, then don't &*(*& fly!! 

I'm not thankful that Belle Meade streets have been so torn up for the better part of a year that I can't bike on any of the streets without fear of losing a tire.  For that matter, I'm not thankful that they haven't paved the road in Percy Warner Park going from Belle Meade Blvd. to Deep Wells.  There is one turn there that is like a minefield!

I'm not thankful that Kate and Jon Gosselin are still celebrities, in some way, instead of in jail for bad parenting.


I'm not thankful that my daughter has so much homework over Thanksgiving break that we have to take another suitcase to hold her books...I weighed them...55 pounds!!

I'm not thankful that a woman in Pakistan has been jailed for a year and a half, awaiting execution for talking about her religion.

I'm not thankful that one of my dearest friends and her husband have been fighting cancer for the last few years.

I'm not thankful that Nashville doesn't have more options for buying humanely produced meat.  And I'm not thankful that a handful of companies have taken over the production of the vast majority of our food, putting smaller companies out of business and producing inferior food that makes us sicker and fatter.

BUT, I am still more thankful than not.  Thankful that I live in America, thankful that I have my health and my family, and the ability to to just about whatever I decide to do...including putting my thoughts into words.   I'm thankful for the opportunities that my daughter will have as she graduates from High School in a year and a half.  I'm thankful that I can spend time in the mountains, a place where I feel peaceful and closer to God.  I'm thankful that my body hasn't given out yet, and I can still run and bike and swim.

So, when I start to feel all negative and pissy about the things that make my blood boil, I just remember that the good outweights the bad. 

What are you thankful for?