Sunday, March 11, 2007

Of Pancakes and Concord Grapes

This morning and yesterday, I made pancakes for breakfast, partly because I haven't made them in a long time, but mostly because Karen made Concord grape syrup on Friday night.

Karen's recipe for grape syrup is simple, though at the same time hard to follow. It starts like this: take a long walk in mid-Autumn along the Back Bay of Lake Winnipesaukee until you see a vine of Concord grapes growing wild. Pick as many as you can find and freeze them. About six months later, find them in the freezer and decide it's time you did something with them. You see what I mean.

But like so many of the culinary pursuits that Karen decides to take on at a whim, this one turned out too delicious to describe. I don't know why you can't buy grape syrup in the stores, but the fact that you can't just makes me feel that much luckier to have Karen's imagination on my side.

She also found a bag of cheap apples she had bought from the local store, owned by a local orchard. We had forgotten about them, and they were a bit beyond pleasant eating. No matter! While the grapes were boiling down, Karen whipped up some homemade applesauce. Sometime I think her talents are wasted on art, but then I remember how much work and how little pay is involved in food as a profession. I think she should stick with interior design.

Today is the first day of spring. Well, okay, not officially, but it feels like it because the sun its out and the snow is melting. Soon everything will be a nice, muddy mess. But no matter. The change from bitter cold to just a little chilly is invigorating, which is a good thing because otherwise the changeover to Daylight Savings Time would be just about killing me. I know it's playing havoc with Will and Danny.

Soon Tom will be 17 (yikes!), and school will be out, and before you know it I'll be complaining about the oppressive heat.

Never satisfied.

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