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.

Fruitcake Day

They're done. About 50 fruitcakes, all packed up, some soaked with brandy, and waiting for the holidays.

Three of my seven sisters made the long trek from northern Virginia to my home in the West Virginia hills, not far from the Ohio River. My aunt and her daughter-in-law, our beloved Bridget, also came, as did three granddaughters and a couple of their friends.

We had a blast. We ate and baked and laughed and mixed,

made messes and cleaned them up and completely enjoyed our time together.

The tradition came from our mother, who may have learned it from her mother. Get together with other women and girls to make the holiday cakes. And everyone gets three stirs of each bowl and makes a wish on each one. We are passing it on to our grandchildren in hopes this fun tradition will continue to bring our womenfolk together long after we're gone.

We make good cakes too. Even those who say they don't like fruitcake like our cakes. Each batch comes out a little differently from the others, and every year the cakes are different from the year before. Which is odd because we use basically the same ingredients. But sometimes we add more or less fruit; the fruits vary year to year; sometimes some of us use honey instead of molasses, or sorghum molasses instead of blackstrap. Sometimes we put in peach jam, other times blackberry or other berries, sometimes jelly; sometimes the eggs are bigger, and other years some might use dark brown sugar while others use light brown. Sometimes we add brandy to the mix, sometimes not.

Mine are now soaked with brandy, to sit and absorb the flavor into the fruits and cake. I've already sampled one without brandy, and it was delicious...but the brandy will make it better!

My house is now back in order, the dishes washed and put away, the bed linens and towels washed and sorted and put away, the floors swept. But the joy that permeated this place over the weekend is still here. It seeped into every corner and cupboard, and still hovers around the corners of my mouth.

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