Covid Journal, Day 238: A Fun Day with the Sisters, Virtually

57 with sun early, but rain showers by 9:00am. Looks to be an overcast, wet day. 

We did it. The fruitcakes are done, and five sisters gathered to do it together, online.

It wasn't as much fun as our usual gathering, I have to admit. But it worked to bring us together for our annual cake-making ritual.

I prepared in advance, making sure all my ingredients were on the table or close at hand. 

I zested and juiced the oranges and lemons beforehand too, as that process can take a while. I was ten minutes late to the gathering because I forgot our kitchen clock was 10 minutes slow, but I quickly caught up, and my cakes were the first in the oven. The advance prep really helped.

Almost mixed...notice my rigged-up place for the laptop. I have to leave it hooked to the modem because my satellite internet wifi signal is not really good enough for Zoom. So to get the computer in a good spot and high enough up, I used a little table I'd just painted and a cardboard box as a stand. It worked.

Preparing the pans is a lot of work. I planned to do that in advance too but ran out of time. Each pan must be greased, then lined with parchment paper, then the parchment paper greased. I didn't have any parchment paper this year, but used aluminum foil in its place, which worked just as well.

Into the oven of my old 1950 Tappan stove.

And done. Aren't they pretty?

Thirteen cakes later, I could sit down with my coffee and visit. We stayed online together until almost all the cakes were baked, a long, leisurely few hours. Most of my sisters and I get together weekly on Zoom, but this time we stayed longer and really got to cover all the bases. 

Our get-together was certainly different this year, but it worked. Some things were better, in a way. I didn't have to travel hours to do it, and I had all my familiar tools and my own kitchen to work in. I am pretty efficient in my kitchen, but cooking in someone else's...well, you know how that is. When it was over, I was right here at home, not facing more miles of travel. This might be the way I participate as we get older, since I live at least 5 hours from any of my siblings. It's nice to know I will still be able to do it if travel is no longer an option.

Time with my sisters. What a precious gift.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.