“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 769 (Sunday) – quick and easy

The day began with baking. The chosen recipe, "Quick Cherry Dessert" is from a "Great American Recipes" card in my possession for basically, forever. It came in the mail as a sample meant to entice the purchase of a boxed set of even more cards. It notes a prep time of “10 minutes” and that it is "Quick and Easy."

It’s been ages since I last made the recipe and the only thing I remembered was the almond flavor in the cake. Otherwise, it felt like making it for the first time and it was definitely not 10 minutes to prepare for baking. It was more like 40 minutes, and that was after pulling all the ingredients from the cabinet and giving the butter some time to come to room temperature while I drank coffee. So much for "quick."

The butter that nearly
 killed the mixer.

The ingredients pull revealed that the almond extract believed to be in the cabinet was nowhere to be found and was certainly depleted long ago. I was so sure there was almond extract that I deliberately didn't buy any while browsing the spice section at Whole Foods a few weeks ago.

There was an online search for a replacement for almond extract. Unfortunately, ground almond, which was on hand, was specified as not a replacement. The only thing on hand was vanilla, which is a great extract, but doesn’t taste like almond.

The first step was to cream two sticks of butter and the sugar together. I used to cream butter by hand all the time, and it’s hard. I knew I didn’t want to handle this first thing in the morning. There is huge respect for the physical strength of the pre-electricity cooks. It nearly killed the hand mixer. It was so bogged down with butter that it stopped, and it took much too long to scrape all the butter out of the beaters. 

Dessert remains of the day.

The recipe was finally mixed and in the oven. Once it was baked and cooling, and it was time to load the car with Winston’s bed and get him ready to travel. Splitting the bleeding heart plant near the front door has been planned since last summer when it was spreading across the front steps. Spring is the time to split them, and I’ve been thinking about digging it up since the first shoots came up, and finally happened today so I could bring part of it to Mom’s. Of course, I was already dressed in a silk tee shirt and jeans while shoveling and splitting the plant, because sometimes things just happen how they happen.

The drive to Mom's was typical New England. During the 35 mile trip and throughout the afternoon, there was a steady rotation of sunshine, clouds, light rain, and snow flurries. The meteorological elements appeared singularly and in combinations. 

Dinner was delicious and the day was nice. We got the bleeding heart plants into the ground. The dinner guests were sent home with ham and various desserts. Then it was back home to the reality of workweek preparations with laundry and running the dishwasher so there is a clean mug for the morning coffee. Monday lunch is all set with leftover Easter ham, there is the bone for soup, a bit of the cake, and a piece of mince pie. the living will be large this week.