Gratitude vs. The Ham – part 3
-The Sauce Thickens-
My friend of Thanksgiving planning fame had another great idea a couple weeks before Thanksgiving.
“Let’s can applesauce!”
“Okay!”
And we tried. We got a great big box of apples, grabbed our apple peelers (not knowing the applesauce-maker works way better with them -cough cough- unpeeled) and, feeling all self-reliant and domesticated, we went at it.
<INSERT – funny picture of me eating an apple peel covered in, um, dishsoap. Of all the many peels on that mountainous pile of peelings, I happened to grab the one from the apple that didn’t get rinsed… >
<That picture does exist, truly, I just can’t find it. Gr.>
All desires for eating apple peels taken care of, our plans for applesauce-making commenced… and quickly changed into plans of canning delicious apple pie filling.
(Peeled apples cooked quickly, yes, but didn’t squish well through her applesauce maker.)
I can still smell the cinnamon baking on her stopetop in the Hawaiian-fall weather.
Nummy!
(Incidentally, “fall” for Hawaii means jeans are comfortable. Shorts still work if you want to, but those jeans I’ve been living in won’t make me feel like I’m in a slow cooker. Usually.)
With that smell of boiling apples, sugar, and cinammon filling her home, it seemed like fall even if it didn’t really feel it or look it in this still-new-to-me tropical climate.
Success!
After all the apples had been confined to their jars, we had a few inches of sauce leftover. I call it “sauce” but there aught to be a different name for it. Apple-glaze-divinity? Whatever you call it, it smelled like the place where good apples go when they leave this world. Cinnamon heaven. Something that can only be achieved by having it simmering in that pot all day long.
But what do you do with several inches of the sauce and no more apples? You plop it in a jar, lick your fingers, and can it, of course! It’s too good to waste. I felt a little silly about how giddy I was as the time, but I hugged those jars to me. MMMM! We had fun thinking of what to do with it. Pancake spread? Ice cream topping?
Yes, we brainstormed, but I already knew where mine was going.
Any guesses?
Thanksgiving Ham, baby. That little porker was going to soak
all night
in it before heading off to that Boy Scout Samoan umu pit.
This would be a ham like no other! The likes of which the world has never seen! It would go down in the annals of history as the World’s Tastiest Thanksgiving Centerpiece Ever! Martha Stewart would be knocking down my door wanting a picture of it for her next fall magazine. Neighbors would be drawn to it and little children would beg for a sample.
I’m happy to inform you, oh beloved reader, I was right. Well, at least that first part… You know, the part about it being a ham like no other…
I have been patiently waiting for the entire story. I hope you will hurry and write part 4 or parts 4 and 5.
I can’t wait to see the actual ham…it will make me feel so much better about my attempts at holiday cooking.
Also, every time you post I want to move to Hawaii. I miss the ocean. And you guys!
And the reason you and the family don’t move out here is…? Yes, you moved recently, had a bambino, expect another one, daughter recently married, kids acclimating to the new place, yadda yadda yadda (fill in the blank with all the “valid” reasons [so-called])… besides all those, is there one good reason you’ve not moved out here already? I don’t think so. Go ahead and try to think of one, and I’ll be sure to let you know it’s not a good reason…
We volunteer to do some house hunting for you – can’t hardly expect a better offer than that!
But, Mr. Smith, Utah Valley needs at least one family like theirs. Laie has more than its fair share.
(Not that I wouldn’t be giddy if they DID feel it was right for them… Same goes for a few other families I can think of…)
I’m loving the saga!
I’m beginning to see where this is going….
Dun, dun, dun…..