Hold the Flies

I once asked Ben incredulously, "You don't like pumpkin pie?"

"No," he replied, annoyed by my incredulity.

"Not even with whipped cream on top?"

Ben, to my best recollection, rolled his eyes. "That's like asking somebody if they like crap*." Then he added with his best sarcasm, "Not even with flies on it?"

Yesterday he asked me what the stuff in the freezer that looked like frozen diarrhea was.

The stuff in the freezer was leftover filling from my attempt at some medieval food. I hosted book club last Friday and since we read "Doomsday Book," I decided to serve up some period food. I looked up medieval recipes online and found one that looked somewhat harmless. Cuskynoles are kind of these ravioli things with fruit and spices inside. Well, I was feeling ambitious despite the fact that I'd have to mash together an apple, pear, and a bunch of dates, almonds, figs, and currants. Not being in possession of a food processor, I had to use the blender. Luckily I was smart enough to do the almonds first. Then I mixed the pear chunks and figs, and when that wasn't going so well I added the apple chunks. After I accidentally chopped off the end of my spatula, I had to dump everything out so I could fish the plastic chunk out of the sticky, slippery goo. Boy, was that fun. Then I had to rinse off the blender because by that time it was completely covered in in glop. In the end I just dumped everything back in the blender and ground it all up into uniform disgustingness (that's not a real word, I know, but it really conveys my feelings at the time). After I rolled out the dough and filled each cuskynole, I boiled them and then grilled them under the broiler. They reminded me a little of pumpkin pie, but not really. I ought to have used about half the cloves called for. So no, I didn't love the heck out of them. Some of them did get eaten at book club, though. Luckily for everyone I had enough time to make some bread to go with the cuskynoles. I wanted to make peasant bread to compare with the rich people food, so I went to the store for some rye and barley flour. They didn't have any, so instead of shopping around I opted for some spelt flour and buckwheat. I added some whole wheat flour and a little all purpose flour so it wouldn't bake into a brick. The bread turned out better than I thought, especially since I wasn't going by any particular recipe.

And though the cuskynoles weren't my favorite, it was such a huge pain to make the filling that I couldn't just throw it out. That may happen at some future date, but I'm sure by then I won't feel guilty anymore.

Saturday was fun. Ben, Henry and I went to Asheboro to see my nieces and nephew get baptized. Afterwards we went out to eat and hung out at Mom and Dad's. Too bad the weather was nasty. This is why spring is not my favorite. Nice eighty degree weather for a week or so and then it slams down back into the forties. Blecch.

Life's good in spite of the weather, though. Just thought you'd like to know.

* Ben's version was slightly less printable (this is a PG blog).