Perhaps this is the week in which I let others speak for me? I'd fully intended to write a full-blown entry today, but my findings a few minutes ago mean that I think I'm going to let someone else's words speak for me again today.

The letter is dated May 10, 2001. I have been looking for it since June, and it reappeared about twenty minutes ago while I was cleaning out under my desk. It is in my grandmother's handwriting, and it details her apple butter recipe:

I use a crock pot to cook the apples in—that way it is not necessary to stand and stir a lot. Then, too, the apples to do not stick to the cookware as bad as when using an open pot.

"Slice apples into the crockpot—fill it full—put about 3 or 4 cups of sugar on top and let it set overnight. Add spices—cinnamon, allspice & a little nutmeg—about 1 tsp. each or whatever suits your taste—cook 3 or 4 hours.*

I've occasionally toyed around with the idea of reprinting pieces that friends send to me. I've done it once before, when Jeff gave me a piece that I wanted to post. This morning, I received another piece that made me laugh so much that I had to share it. I may do more of this in the future; I have not yet decided. They're not necessarily formal pieces; they're bits of writing that catch my fancy and that I think are worth sharing.

Without further introduction, here's a little piece by Will Brooke which didn't have a title, but I've started calling "The Breakfast You'll Have."

Do you ever have these totally unreasonable desires for a breakfast that is about 3 times the size of you the morning after drinking stupidly?

A small dash of serendipity struck this afternoon. Kat and I are going to make arrangements to go to Birmingham sometime soon—probably next weekend. She needs a particular facial cleanser from a store whose closest outlet is in Birmingham, and we both want to see Hedwig and the Angry Inch. We'll combine trips.

Like today; we combined forces at Costco. Costco, like Sam's, sells everything in bulk. (Need a metric ton of crackers? They've got them.) Since we both live in small households, this isn't always useful for us. We all know that meat is significantly cheaper there, but the packages are so large that they're not terribly useful for us. It occurred to me a few months ago that if two of us were willing to combine forces, that we could split some purchases and come out with a lot of meat for the less-than-horrific amounts that we're accustomed to paying.

This is a recipe originally given to me by Jeff's mother. He looked at it and said to me, "You know, I always wished there were more tomatoes in this soup, so do you think you could modify it a bit?" So, I did—and what was previously Shirley's recipe has evolved a bit into my own.Jeff's Chicken Stew

• 1 hen (3-4 pounds)
• 3-4 bay leaves
• 1 can cream corn
• 2-3 large baking potatoes
• 1 large white onion
• 1—1.5 cup dry elbow noodles*
• 3 small cans (each same size as corn) of stewed tomatoes, or 1 bigger can and one small can
  

I had planned to be starting on the recipes to feed the techops crew by now, but I've been sitting here for thirty minutes trying to think of the last ingredient I needed for one of the recipes.

Atlanta, land of yuppie grocery stores. While here on business I've made the most of my time: learning streets, getting lost, getting found again, and snapping up tasty goodies from the local grocery shops.