The Corona Diaries Vol 39: Autumn = Food

(late October 2021)

I want to get the bad news out of the way first. About 3 weeks ago our oldest cat, Marilyn, a.k.a. – Grabby, was diagnosed with lymphoma.

The cancer is fairly well along so we opted out of treating it. Instead, some of the symptoms will be treated to make her as comfortable as possible during her final months with us. She was picked up as a stray but we think she's 13 or 14 and we've had her for 11 years or so.

She is doing fairly well, all things considered. Her stomach seems better and she is still rather spry and playful. I am hoping that she can last until the spring (and beyond) because I'd like to bury her in the backyard but not have to dig into frozen ground.

I am really going to miss her when she's gone.

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While it has certainly gotten chillier and I am not happy at having to turn the heat on, I can take some consolation in the pretty scenery. A neighbor a couple doors down from us has what I think is a maple in their backyard which turns a blazing orange in the fall and it is simply gorgeous.

It's nice working from home for several reasons, not the least of which is having such a lovely view.

While I plan on more bike rides through the fall – last year I was riding into December - I took one last trek a couple weeks ago where I could still wear shorts and a t-shirt. (Shortly after this I put on a pair of pants for the first time since the spring. It felt rather odd.) I didn't go very far and mainly cruised around the neighborhood to check out construction projects in progress, Halloween decorations, and fall colors.

I found one neighbor giving his vintage car one last wash before putting it into storage for the winter.

He told me that that it's a 1954 Eldorado with some 1956 parts. I couldn't help but think of a certain Johnny Cash song...

 

 

I went to check on the progress of the new bike path by Starkweather Creek. A new bridge was installed over the creek, Starkweather Drive, which runs along the creek, was narrowed down to a one lane street, and a bike path was installed creekside.

Across the bridge is an old sugar beet factory/feed mill that has been turned into a big food court where one can get pizza and ice cream (the cayenne-peanut butter flavor from Calliope is exquisite) before having a cup of gourmet coffee. A smoker of salmon also calls the building home and perhaps a maker of kombucha, if memory serves.

If you'd rather take a pass on stuffing yourself, there is also a yoga practitioner and a spa on site for all of your mind-body needs.

The bike path leads north to a park where another bridge spans over some wetlands and eventually you'll find yourself on a busy street.

I zipped down a dead end street and saw this sign:

Down by the school I ran into a rafter of turkeys.

"Hey! Anyone home?"

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Almost as soon as the weather changed, I started cooking heartier foods and drinking beers that are darker and a little heavier. For reasons unknown, I got a taste for Swedish meatballs and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies one day shortly after September had given way to October. September still has a patina of summer to it but October, well, October is all autumn to my mind.

The meatballs were tasty.

I thought that the cookies turned out rather well despite my lack of baking acumen.

I used chocolate chips that were made with coconut sugar as they contain less carbohydrates. I'd never had such a thing before but was hopeful that they didn’t taste drastically different from your run of the mill chocolate chips. Aside from being more disc-shaped than droplet, they were little different from chocolate chips without coconut sugar.

Having German blood in me means that I get a craving for marzipan as winter approaches. Well, that's misleading. I get a craving for marzipan when spring, summer, and fall approach too. But cookies and confections with that ultra-tasty almond paste generally have a reputation for being made at Yuletide.

My Frau had made another stop at our favorite orchard, Lapacek's, so we had a surfeit of apples lying around. A look through one of my German cookbooks yielded Überbackene Marzipanäpfel - baked marzipan apples. I used a trio of Braeburn.

After paring them, I dug out the core about halfway and stuffed them with a mix of marzipan and raisins (I didn't have any currants on hand.) that had been soaked in rum. I got them soaking that morning in the antelucan hours. Before feeding the cats. Even before starting the coffee! I tell you, the cats were pissed. They glared at me with a look that was a mix of astonishment and anger as I haphazardly rifled through the liquor cabinet.

A little butter on top and they then spent some time in the oven in a pan that had had white wine applied generously to it.

Once done, the remaining wine was added to a sauce pan and had some apricot jam added to it. After being properly reduced, the apples were sauced.

With Halloween around the corner, that means All Souls' Day/Día de Muertos will also soon be upon us. And so I had to buy a loaf of Pan de Muerto this week. But our favorite Mexican bakery which was just 3 blocks away closed last year. What to do?

Go to the next closest Mexican bakery.

The Frau and I made the mistake of stopping there on our way to the grocery store to get dinner. I ended up getting a loaf that had just come out of the oven and it filled our car with the most heavenly scent. My mouth started watering instantly.

It was great! Slightly sweet, eggy, and with a smattering of dried fruit which was mostly pineapple.

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Bonus photo: This time it's a weathervane – with a dragon!