Following My Heart

After the gym I stop by our local "Ma and Pop" grocery store a few blocks from home at Lincoln and Peterson.  I need eggs and skim milk. I walk out with eggs, skim milk, Bread and Butter Pickles, Sweet Orange Pickles, Sweet Dill Pickles, and Vidalia Onion Relish.   Also tucked in my bag is Apple Butter and Grandma's Dark Molasses!  What is this all about?

The overcast Saturday afternoon's free time, is creating a craving for long ago comforts of my youth.  I've actually been looking for Apple Butter on grocery shelves for quite some time.  I find Plum Butter, Cherry Butter, Peach Butter, Blueberry Butter...you name it and I can find a "Butter" for it in the local European and Eastern European shops.  However, Apple Butter is not on their shelves and for some reason has disappeared from the regular grocer's shelves as well.

So today, in this tiny shop... where goods are stacked on portable metal shelves like one purchases to hold odds and ends in utility rooms, and where the petite old woman at the register takes exceedingly careful pains to pack each item with running commentary on why her packing procedures are best for me--not only to carry to my car, but also for when I have to carry them in at home...in this tiny shop next to Nutella and Grandma's Molasses, I discover six jars of Apple Butter.  Bonanza! I want to buy all six, but hold myself to two.

Growing up, weekday breakfast was usually cereal, toast and juice, sometimes biscuits.  The two very best toppings for toast were Honey Butter (which came in regular and cinnamon flavor) and Apple Butter. 

Another wonderful memory is father making his own Apple Butter at his kitchen stove in his final years.  His face lit up with pleasure from the peeling of the apples, through the cooking and the straining, and the filling of the jars, to the tasting.  His favorite was white "Monk's Bread" toast and butter which he spread liberally with spoonfuls of the warm sweet homemade condiment.

It's coming to me now -- father passed away in early February of 2008!  Only as I reach this paragraph do I realize, this is the anniversary of his last days.  All of a sudden, it's clear why I reached for those items in the store.  My heart reached for each one of them. 

Chester M. Gretz 
Miss you Dad

Most of the last month of father's life, I spent with him in his home...in his kitchen in particular, preparing all his favorites which I hoped he'd find the strength and will to eat.  His discomfort was often placed aside during those times as we created baked goods together and yes, Apple Butter too.


This afternoon I have two Apple Butter jars of comforting goodness on my pantry shelf.  I'll allow a taste now and again, for old time's sake... not spread on white bread toast slathered in butter,  nor on white flour biscuits.  I probably won't even care for it very much atop my butter-less Ezekiel sprouted bread toast.  My quest is over though--it graces my pantry where it belongs.

I'll peruse the Internet for a healthy molasses cookie recipe.  Is there such a thing?  I know the dark molasses itself is recommended highly as a sweetener over sugar.  When I find a healthy recipe, the nostalgic aroma of molasses cookies in the oven will elevate a future Saturday afternoon.

The other purchases?  For now I sample each pickled item, then push them all to the back of the refrigerator.  Father also loved anything pickled, often sprinkling straight vinegar into soups, over vegetables, eggs and spinach...I think it may have been a Polish thing.  Another story for another time.

I wandered into the shop for skim milk and eggs.

I left with so much more.

~~~~~~~

Breakfast

Lunch

It feels good to be accountable again!

Meals
Breakfast:  Two-egg omelette with kale, red pepper, dill cheese (1 oz.) and salsa
Lunch:       16 Savory Thin Mini-Crackers with basil pesto and tomato (65 calories), 1 pickle spear,
                   salad with balsamic dressing and turkey meatloaf
Supper:      Minestrone soup with kale
Snacks:      Almonds and mini-crackers with bits of pickle, cheese (1 oz.) and red pepper

Workout
1hr. moderate cardio