Terrible/Perfect

Cherry strawberry

I bought an old ice cream maker at the thrift shop the other day. It works great. Into the pot went a custard (made of heavy cream, half and half, egg yolks), brown sugar, maple syrup, and homemade cherry strawberry jam, and out of the pot came glorious sweet ice cream. Magic. In hindsight the dark sugars were too heavy (actually sweetener in addition to the jam was really not necessary at all), and the ice cream really needs to set for much longer in the freezer after churning (probably overnight) but still, delicious.

I believe lemon lavender gelato is next in the family request queue, but then...what? 

There in the eyes and chin

My youngest child looks very much like my mother-in-law,

who died two months before my oldest daughter was born.

I didn't know her for very long. We also didn't get along as well as I would have liked. We were born over four decades, an ocean and an entire continent apart. She was a widow and my husband was her only child. It was hard to relate to one another.

I loved her anyway. I often, nearly every day, think of her. It's hard not to. I think:

"Oh, there you are: swimsuit in the summer grass with ice cream all down your chin."

Every day loving some small enormous part of her with all of my whole entire heart, and it loves me right back.

Summer reading

Out with it

I think we're done with these, now. Mostly.

Have you ever used a cherry stoner? It is the most fun you will ever have removing the seed part of a piece of fruit.

One issue with destoning cherries that my two year-old and I would like you to be aware of is that, if you are not paying close attention when each cherry gets the plunger you may not know if the stone actually came out. In that case you need to eat the cherry in order to check. This may happen every three or four cherries. Also, if you are a very small child you will need to stand by the bowl holding the newly stoned cherries and try to eat them as fast as they roll out of the stoner, but because your mouth is quite small this will not happen and your mother will accrue a significant pile. Try to accept this.

All their little hearts on a plate, the promiscuity of trees.

I did this a while back. A month ago, maybe. Everything about it was brutal, and beautiful.

Nothing but the significant passage of time would remove the stains from my hands.

Mild-mannered alter-ego

I believe you're supposed to wear the glasses and cape separately for the full disguise effect, but that's alright. When you're "SPSPLN" I think you can rock whatever look you want, up to and including a few spots of strawberry lemonade on the back of your cape.

Picklin'.