Cold and Wet

Can't Get Warm

The weather is cold and wet. I generally love the fall - its my favorite time of the year - foggy rainy weather, crisp cold mornings, crunchy leaves underfoot, forests with their fall coats on looking fancy. I just don't seem to have much cold tolerance this fall. The cold wet wind seems to reach right inside of me and set my shiver center going.

There were big goings on in town today, as it is the annual "Apple Butter Makin' Days" a few miles from where I live. It's dangerous to drive in town when there are so many visitors trying to find their way to the festivities, so I generally avoid the whole festival, and the crowds which I do not care for.

The apple butter is made by boiling chopped up apples in a copper kettle for hours over an open fire. Last year I was told that they have started purchasing already peeled and sliced apples in order to produce enough apple butter.

How the locals make apple butter, and how I was brought up to make it are two different methods. The farm I grew up on had about 10 apple trees, so we canned stewed apples and applesauce and applebutter on a fairly regular basis. The local version is more the consistency of applesauce and gets a lot of its flavor and color from cinnamon. How I was taught to make it was to keep reducing and reducing the apple sauce until it thickened and turned very dark (a sort of carmelization of the natural and added sugar). My applebutter was a lot thicker than what they sell, but I had a lot more time and a significantly fewer quarts to can and no copper kettle and outdoor fire...

The Headache has behaved today and so has The Belly. I must be on the road to wellness!

Going to take my last antibiotic and go to bed. Had a good day today, looking forward to tomorrow!