Between seasons.

Making the most
of the end of the blackberries
with these amazing spelt berry buns,
this tried-and-true cocktail syrup,
and the blackberry sage ice cream
from the Molly Moon's cookbook!

Enjoying lately:
This book
This album (this song in particular)
These notebooks (picked up at my favorite store) &
The drinks & desserts here.

Finally got around
to making and posting
the labels I made for
lovely Vanilla Peach.

Amazingly,
this jam was made
on the exact same date this year
(8/14)
that I made this exact same flavor
last year!

August 14th must be a good date.

I have a largely sedentary job,
and its immediate products
are fairly abstract
instead of physically tangible.
I think this is why
when I get home from the office
I have been turning so readily
to the kitchen.

I love taking beautiful raw ingredients,
putting in some clean and focused effort,
and turning them into something that can be
cut and divided into slices,
plucked warm from the counter,
poured on a hot day,
or balanced lightly and carefully upon
Summer-stained fingertips.

Nice and tart,
just the way apricot jam should be.

We're heading to the other side of the mountains this weekend
and I'm hoping to come back with pounds of peaches!

The vanilla-peach jam I made last summer
(the first jam I ever made and canned)
ended up being everyone's favorite,
including mine.

I have been trying to remember
that being kind to onself
isn't simply a luxury,
a treat to partake of
when I have the time and space.

I had quite forgotten this
(as I tend to do,
at busy
and stressful times).

Finally got around
to making labels!

(I enjoy this part
just as much as the jam-making).

----

Cat Power has a new album coming out
on September 4th!
I went through an intense
Cat Power phase
in college
and she will always
have a special place in my heart.

I always feel
like I am giving a gift
to my future self
when,
months from now,
on a grey day,
or maybe a cold day,
when,
perhaps,
my fruit bowl is empty
and the bounty of the warm months has faded,
I have stockpiled
a little trove
of pantry treasures,
that are just waiting to be
enjoyed.

My first pickling experiment!

Moderately successful,
but it's a start.
I hope to make
tons
of dilly beans
this summer.

Next up:
Rhubarb Ginger Jam

.

Film

& not,

finally crossing off

(after two failed attempts)

from my 2012 goal list:

"Learn to make marmalade."

.

Serious
business.



.

I learned to make jam
and how to can my results
late in the summer,
but I have had so much fun
playing with the bounty of fruit
that was still in season.

Some of the jars have been given away with love
and the others are settled comfortably into the cupboard.

I will periodically open the pantry door
to admire
and coo
at the jars
that are glowing like embers,
holding the bright suggestion
and treasured sweetness
of Summertime's fire
even as the flame of that season has dimmed
and the days here have shortened.

.

Making jam
in the waning light
of an Autumn afternoon.


.

Can you believe
August is almost over?
I can't.
It boggles my mind, frankly.

At this time of year,
my skin always feels
a bit tender
as my heart breaks
for the summer that is passing
(and all the ones that have passed before,
remembered golden)
but I,
almost traitorously,
feel the first hints of excitement
for the new season
(possibly my favorite one)
that begins
(just barely begins!)
to enter the scene.


.

Over the weekend
I took a jam making + canning class
from the lovely owner of Deluxe Foods
at The Pantry at Delancey.

I love what The Pantry is doing,
and I only wish I had signed up
for more classes with them this summer,
as so many are sold out now.

If you are in the Seattle area,
I highly recommend
checking them out
(Rebecca is teaching
another jam class
in October!).

.

Celebrating multiple birthdays
& Summertime
in a way
that feels like a gift
itself.




.

Out to breakfast with a dear one.

I've been missing breakfast lately--
slow and leisurely breakfasts
are impossible on early mornings
where I am up and out the door,
making sure I catch my bus.
My new job
begins earlier than my old one,
so my morning routine
is still in transition.

On the weekends, I think,
I will try to do breakfast,
do it up special and hearty--
whether at home or out.
It is my favorite meal, after all.


What is your favorite special breakfast food?


.

Feasting out of doors.

We had the best of company
to make the preparation and eating
of this sunset meal
the sweetest way
to enjoy an evening in July.



.

The name of this bakery
had been mentioned to me
(directly and in passing)
by enough different people
that I finally had to visit.

We stopped by,
on our long drive home
and we bought a pie,
a whole pie,
which is something I don't think I've ever done
(as I much prefer
to bake my own)
but it was friendly
and artful
and delicious
and I felt like I was eating it
with all the people
who had told me of the place.

(We also bought lemon bars,
but we ate those in the car.)