Saturday, June 28, 2008

A Delicious Tradition


My part of Southern Ontario is the southern most point of Canada, which generally means shorter winters (shorter than Thunder Bay) and fairly warm summers. Here in the Windsor area, the weather is pretty much the same as the Detroit area. Hot, humid summers are the norm.

This weather gives us an abundance of fresh produce. A few years ago, a girl friend and I decided that we would try our hand at canning fresh tomatoes. Her garden was over flowing and Leamington (about 45 minutes from here) is the tomato capital of Canada. We had no clue what we were doing, but we are both fairly literate and can follow simple directions from a recipe. The endeavor turned out perfectly, the jars sealed, and we celebrated the sealed jars with a toast of whatever wine she had leftover in the fridge. The fresh canned tomatoes provided homemade pasta sauce all winter long. Since then, we have preserved a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Today, we continued the tradition and made strawberry jam and strawberry-rhubarb jam. We started with eight quarts of locally grown strawberries and fresh rhubarb from her garden and ended up with over 20 pints of homemade jam. Later this week, we'll tackle cherry jam for the first time. Plus, we'll experiment just a little. She had purchased a jar of "black forest jam" from a street fair and it was quite delicious. We'll try our own version by adding and ounce of dark chocolate per quart of cherries. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Friday, June 27, 2008

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Here it is, my first week of maintaining my own personal blog and I am already passe. According to an article on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org/story/89439/) too many blogs are nothing more than personal diaries, all too often fit only for grandparents and far-flung relatives.

First of all, I think that I would rather vote Republican than have my parents read this site... Okay, that's a little harsh. But, I certainly do not want this to become some insipid mommy blog with overly sentimental screeds about Andrew's every move (full disclosure - I will weep uncontrollably after dropping him off for his first day of junior kindergarten). I promise to post pictures of the world's cutest boy from time to time.

I want to explore a world of other themes and ideas that have been simmering in my brain for the last 11 years. For that time period, I have had so little personal time, that I feel as though I have lost little bits of my authentic self. Grading papers, poor relationships with idiotic bosses, Student Council, and union duties. In a way, I guess that all of these represent parts of my real self. I'll likely delve into those themes at some point. But, the fact of the matter is that I never have time to read books that are not related to teaching. I have lost touch with my Canon AE-1. I haven't been to a political rally in eons. I love doing those things and I hope that I will be able to reconnect with those issues in the next year.

I've already read two books since starting my leave two weeks ago and I'll share my thoughts about those this weekend. Right now, I'll take suggestions as to books I should read while on my leave. My goal is 40 books in 62 1/2 weeks.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Welcome

I have been trying to figure out what I will do for the next year while I take a personal leave from my job. I am not sure that I want to find a small part-time job. I don't want to sit around and watch television everyday. I know that I want to write, so I started my own blog. It will give me a chance to write and work out my thoughts about the choices I have to make in the next year. I won't get into all of that today. The place isn't completely decorated, but that will all get done. I just want to roll out the welcome mat and see who shows up.