Strawberry Flummery Forever

I spent most of this lovely late-spring day at work. Today was my 7-hour shift. It was on-and-off steady, not too busy. This was hardly a surprise on a gorgeous day in the middle of the week. I suspect the only reason we were steady at all is a lot of kids will be getting out of school tomorrow, and their mothers want to stock their pantries with snacks and lunch items. Other than a few annoying customers (including one guy who sent me chasing after rotisserie chickens because he couldn't be bothered reading the right name of the chicken that's $5.99), the day was fine and went quickly. It was dead by 6, allowing me to sign off on time despite my relief being one of the college boys with two jobs who is always late.

Went straight home after dinner. I had leftover chicken and salad as I ran cartoons. For dessert, I decided to try something simple from Felicity's Cooking Studio. Apparently, Flummery - jelly-style fruit desserts - were popular in the Colonial era. Felicity's Raspberry Flummery recipe called for raspberries, water, sugar, and cornstarch. Simplest dessert in the book. I replaced the raspberries with the last of the late-season strawberries. Most of them were still soft from being squished in my backpack on Saturday, and many were too small for me to eat on shortcakes or dip into Cool Whip.

It came out quite well, other than I used too much sugar and it was too sweet. I didn't have three cups of strawberries and hardly needed six servings, anyway. I'll remember to use a quarter of what they call for.

Berry Sweet Day

Started off the day with the last of the Kashi Shredded Wheat with strawberries and blueberries and Strawberry Shortcake. Strawberry invites her international friends for a "Friendship Festival" at Strawberry Land. She's excited to have Tea Blossom of Plum Blossom Province and her panda Marza stay with her...but the girls learn a lesson in compromise and making friends when they lie about not liking each other's favorite foods and activities. It takes making a few "friendship cakes" to help the American and oriental girls patch up hurt feelings and realize that friends don't always have to like the same things.

Caught the first half of The Care Bears while doing the dishes and getting ready to head out. When little Emma feels left out after her brothers tell her she can't play treasure hunt with them, the Bears bring the girl up to Care-A-Lot to help them with another kind of treasure hunt. Items are going missing all over town. Emma claims to be an expert treasure hunter...but can she foil a Grizzle plot?

It was still cloudy and cool when I made my way out for my Saturday errands, but the rain seemed to be long gone. I was in and out of the quiet bank. The farm market was far busier, with lots of people and dogs out enjoying the lack of rain. I saw a little black poodle who reminded me of my Beanie Baby black poodle Gigi and a trio of very cute pug puppies. I was at the market early enough this time to get radishes and bananas. I also picked up strawberries, spinach, turnips with their tops on, and real black-strap molasses. (I took a small lick of the molasses when I got in. Whew, is it strong! I'm going to have wonderful gingerbread and spice cookies!)

There were several yard sales today. I rode around to a few in Collingswood and in Oaklyn, but my only find was a set of cute mint-condition Powerpuff Girls small stuffed dolls. I used to watch that show in college. It was so funny. Blossom's my favorite. I love her hair.

I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon after getting in on my computer. (As far as I can tell, the internet's working fine, at least for now. We'll see what happens.) It was still a little cloudy when I came home, but by the time I headed for work, the sun was shining and the clouds were breaking up. By the time I finished work and grocery shopping, the clouds were almost gone, the sun shown brightly, and it was much warmer.

Work was on-and-off steady for most of the evening, though it began to pick up considerably by the time I finished. There were problems all day with the $2.77 Acme water sale. You get 3 24 packs of Acme water for $2.77 if you buy all three...and ONLY if you buy three. Most people were pretty good about it. It's still $3.77 if you only buy one or two, and that's still cheap for water. Everyone kept claiming they hadn't seen the sign. I know there has to be a sign back there, and I know darn well there's one that's quite clear in the flyers.

The last customers of the day weren't thrilled either when a woman who couldn't bend over asked the bagger to get her a cart...and he didn't come back in with a cart. The manager ended up doing it.

It was still busy when I did my own shopping. I picked up yogurt, yeast, apples, blackberries, Lipton green tea, and several items I had coupons for - Quaker Oatmeal Squares, the new Fiber Quaker Granola Bars, and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter's baking margarine.

Off to the May Fair

Sorry I'm late again. I keep getting caught up reading other things. It was probably just as well that today's Strawberry Shortcake was a repeat, the one about Peppermint Fizz refusing to accept Rainbow Sherbet because she's so different. I was able to get an early start on the usual Saturday errands...a good thing, because today's errands were anything but usual!

After a quick stop at the bank, I headed for Collingswood. Yesterday was their annual May Fair. The May Fair is the big craft show and midway on Haddon Avenue held every year on the Saturday before Memorial Day. There were booths selling hand-maid jewelry, clothes, knit-wear, toys, and furniture. There were tons of food booths - lemonade, soft pretzels, pizza, hot dogs, and "deep fried Oreos" were popular items. One end of the Fair focuses on a classic car show. The other extreme end near Cuthbert Road had small midway-style rides, games, craft booths, and face and hair painting booths themed exclusively towards children. (Unlike Wildwood or Great Adventure, all the rides were kids-sized - no adults unless they rode with kids.) There was even an artist working on a picture of the historic buildings on Haddon Avenue as people passed by.

The Farm Market was on Leeds Road for the day, and that's where I headed. Unlike last year, I'd wanted to get a good early start and beat the crowds...but the booths were still packed as I shopped. I broke down and bought the $5 strawberries. The Acme has them for cheaper, but they aren't nearly as good. I bought mushrooms and dandelion greens...and then went back after I left and bought celery and beets, which I needed and had forgotten.

(Unlike last year, I didn't buy anything at the fair. Most of the crafts were priced way over my budget. I did see a table selling WebKinz, but they didn't have anything this year I hadn't seen elsewhere. I will admit, it's a shame I already have a white poodle, because the Lil'Kinz version is way too cute.)

I rode around a little while longer. Got lemonade at one yard sale. Bought two 80s childrens' books (a hardback Care Bears Parker Brothers picture book and a Muppet Babies book sold by McDonald's in the mid-80s as a promotion) and a Care Bear, Do Your Best Bear (a newer bear with a kite on his tummy). Poor DYB Bear had spots of dirt on him and ended up being tossed in the laundry basket. Looks like he saw some hard play.

It was hot and getting hotter, almost into the 90s, and my shoulders and back were starting to feel the effects of being out in the sun for too long...not to mention, it was quarter of 12 by this point and I had work at 1. I headed home, put my fruits and vegetables away, and had lunch before changing and heading to work.

Work was busy, not exactly big news given the holiday weekend. Thankfully, other than a few bobbles with the big soda coupon sales, there weren't nearly as many problems today as there were earlier this week. I was in and out with little trouble.

Did my own grocery shopping afterwards. Picked up the low-cholesterol eggs on sale and with a coupon. Grabbed apples too, also on sale, and Kashi's Autumn Harvest Shredded Wheat cereal. (The Kashi Shredded Wheat cereals rock.)

And yes...I got rather bad sunburn on my shoulders, face, and back. That's what I get for forgetting my sunscreen. :P

Goin' Down

First of all, my Internet's been acting screwy all day. It'll go down for as long as 20 minutes to a half-hour. It did this at exactly this time of year last year, too, according to my blog. If this keeps up, I'll be calling Verizon first thing Monday. I pay enough for their service that this shouldn't happen.

Maybe it's the humidity. It was warm, cloudy, and stick-to-you humid when I got up this morning. I watched the Strawberry Shortcake episode about the girls putting on their own version of Cinderella and had bananas, grapefruit, and shredded wheat for breakfast before heading out on the usual Saturday errand run. I picked up three CDs (two Harry Connick Jr - one is Christmas CD - and one John Mayer) at one yard sale but had no luck at another, and I didn't see any others.

The farm market was packed to the gills, three and four deep at some tables. It took me a while to pick up carrots, sweet potatoes, asparagus, and a green pepper. I was going to get strawberries there, but they cost five bucks a quart! Uh, no. I'd get them at the Acme, where they were on sale.

I tried to get online when I came home, but it kept going off. I ended up working on editing the Monkees role-play instead. Had applesauce, sauteed asparagus, and the last barbecue chicken leg for lunch. Used the chicken leg bones and pieces to make chicken stock.

Work was fast, with a lot of annoying people. We seem to be having a huge sale on crab legs, and seafood sales always bring out a lot of Camden people with chips on their shoulder, for some reason.

Strawberry Farm Market Forever

Despite the 90-degree temperatures, I spent the morning running errands. I went to the bank and the farm market and stopped at four yard sales. I picked up another stack of "historic" cookbooks from the 40s, 50s, and 60s (I bought two stacks from a yard sale and the thrift shop last year), seven James Bond videos, and three records (in the hope I may someday finally get the record player going).

I arrived at the farm market late, but still managed to pick up romaine lettuce, fresh Cheddar cheese made locally, a red onion, two cucumbers, and a huge container of the most delicious strawberries I've ever tasted in my entire life. They were a little mushed when I finally got home, but they were sooooo sweet and juicy and ripe! It was pure heaven. I had to make a strawberry shortcake tonight; with berries like that, it was mandatory.

Work was not as fun. It's the beginning of the month, and people who can only afford to shop in the beginning of the month were out in full force. I got so fed up with them! They won't bag until the register is so loaded with their stuff, there's no room for anything else and it becomes quite obvious all the baggers are busy. They end up putting back half their order because it turns out they don't have the money. (I don't mind one or two or even three items...but twenty or thirty is just annoying. And we do have to put all that away.) They hover by the monitor, looking for even the tiniest price discrepancy, then take years reading their recipt. (They'd know what was on sale if they actually read the signs.)

PLEASE. WE ARE NOT OUT TO CHEAT YOU. WE HAVE NO DESIRE TO CHEAT YOU. WE WANT TO HELP YOU. IF THERE IS A MISTAKE ON THE RECIPT, CUSTOMER SERVICE CAN HANDLE IT.