Sour Cherry Jam

Today was Strawberry Jam Day, something I'd been looking forward to for weeks. I had finally gotten over my disappointment at not finding any rhubarb, but when I got to the farmers' market I found two stalks, the only ones left, and snapped them up instantly before making my usual recon round. If I had waited, I would have seen that strawberries are SO last season, and there wasn't a one to be found in the whole market. Strawberries are out. Pinstripes sour cherries are in.

I don't know what I'm going to do with the rhubarb.

I bought three pints of sour cherries and spent a good part of the morning pitting them with a paper clip, a trick from the Joy of Cooking. My mum told me that if I follow the directions on the pectin box EXACTLY I will get a proper set, so I used the Sure-Jell recipe, which I think is too sweet, based on the drops that spilled on the counter as I was filling the jars.

The second worst moment came after I'd filled the jars and they were cooling on the counter. I heard one little POP, then another - I was sure the lids were popping because I didn't seal them properly, but then later when I pressed them, they actually had sealed.

The worst moment, however, was just a few minutes ago when I realized I hadn't wiped the jars before putting the lids on. This means they're going to be full of poison bacteria. This is, needless to say, deeply irritating. I guess I'll just keep my beautiful ruby-red jars in a dry place and hope for the best? My mum said they might get moldy, but if so I'll be able to see it, so it should be all right.

Right?

When will this feeling go away?

I test quickly and I'm good at tearing band-aids off in one quick motion, so in college I was usually among the first to go home at the end of the year. My senior year, however, I had to stick around an extra week or so for festivities, culminating, of course, in graduation. I remember watching all my undergrad housemates, pals, and acquaintances trickle off one by one, and knowing I'd never see most of them again. I think I watched a lot of Due South during that period, and felt vaguely numb.

I remember the end of my first semester in China, too, when almost everybody was getting ready to go back to America, back to their families and their own comfortable culture. I kept thinking that I was going home, too, but in fact I had many more Chinese adventures still to come. I remember the day Lili, my best friend in China, went home, and lying on my bed watching Jeeves and Wooster and wishing I were anywhere but Beijing.

I don't mind Krista's absence at all, quite the contrary. As much as I like her, and as easy as she is to live with, it's nice to have the place to myself. I check for murderers in her room and behind the shower curtain when I get home each day, and apart from that I'm good. Plus Cufflinks is here a lot, and when he's not, he's just a text message away. But this morning he left for Alabama and now I am truly alone, just waiting, once again, to see my family.

So far in my aloneness I have gone for a run in the rain, gone to the library for comic books (Brian K. Vaughan is so my new favorite), read the comic books in Soma with a cafe au lait, and made spoon bread. It's thundering, as always, and I'm listening to the Katie Rose Mix. Later I will watch Back to the Future, and tomorrow I will make strawberry jam (NOT strawberry rhubarb jam, grumble grumble). I just have to stave off the loneliness for a few days. I can do that.

(I've disabled comments on this post so that no one will tell me to call my colleagues.)

Alas

There is no rhubarb available anywhere in Bloomington. I am disproportionally saddened by this.

CafPops: Surprisingly Undelicious in Practice

It's hot, and pretty much all I feel like eating these days are Popsicles, to the extent that I am seriously considering eating my wontons and frozen red beans and rice in their current frozen form. Yesterday I went to Target and got some Popsicle molds and some nice-looking pomegranate-blueberry juice, and then went home and set about making CafPops, as described in the film Coffee and Cigarettes. They're just milky coffee in Popsicle form, and although I had two of them today (one more and I can make some Popsicles with juice!) they are strikingly non-delicious, which I guess shouldn't have surprised me.

Last night we went bowling with a few of my colleagues, which was fun although I am a terrible bowler and did embarrassingly badly. Afterwards I made some of these pancakes, which are so good, and watched Twin Peaks. I have been making pancakes from scratch quite often and I think I may actually buy some proper buttermilk instead of just souring milk with vinegar as I've been doing.

Tomorrow begins my last week of German and I'm awfully glad; I started working on my Fulbright application today and it's clear that I need to be doing more, even though I'm hot and tired and don't feel like doing anything at all.

Midwesty!

I'm sitting here in my swelteringly hot, roast-chicken-smelling apartment, willing myself to refrain from eating all the skin off of the chicken before Cufflinks gets here. ("When I said I was trying the recipe that promises the best skin, I meant 'best' in the sense of, uh, 'healthiest'! Because there isn't any!") I'm having a glass of the Clois du Bois Cabernet Sauvignon, which is good, but I wish I'd gone for their delicious Reisling instead because it is hot and sticky and a glass of cold white wine would be nicer than a chambre red.

So there's that.

Today I went to the gym - it's my weight-training day - and as soon as I got there the tornado siren went off, so we were herded into the women's locker room in the basement. It was very warm and it threw me off my precisely-timed schedule, but it gave me a few minutes to read the book I'm teaching from next semester, A Beginner's Guide to the Scientific Method. I'm assisting for Jonathan, the professor with whom I went to Memphis back in February, which is an extremely pleasing result - Jonathan is young, he's smart, he's approachable, and he is really into food and comic books. Added to that he is going to put a lot of emphasis on helping me and JH, my fellow assistant, become better teachers. This sort of hands-on mentorship is just what I need for my first semester in the trenches, and I have very high hopes for the experience.

Today we had our German reading group at the Badger's beautiful house, and it's amazing how different the tone of the group is when Luke is there; last week he couldn't make it and I felt I had done a great job translating, mainly because I had prepared more text than either Mike or Matt. But today Luke challenged me on my translation of almost every sentence. This is fine, as it helps me learn, and next week I will prepare even more rigorously so as to meet with his approval. I have the least German experience of anyone in the group, but I think I'm holding my own.