A fun thing to do would be to reconstitute dried cranberries in Calvados.

You can freeze the strawberries without any loss in flavor. Or you could macerate them with some liqueur to have them keep and give it a little extra kick.

Chicagoistas question: What kind of neighborhood is Dunbar Park in? And what would that neighborhood have been like in the early 1900s? (I found some family history documents that put some relatives of mine living in that neighborhood then. Specifically, they lived on Prairie Avenue around 30th Street, which seems like the block that was razed to create Dunbar Park.)

It's a south side neighborhood, a few miles south of the Loop but a few miles north of Hyde Park (Near where Obama lives). Back in the early 1900s, a very nice area. As I recall, some of the Worlds Fair was there. But there's been neglect since then. You may want to see if the Chicago Historical Society has information (assuming it's on line). There is a Chicago Park District reference to the park itself.

homework stand-off at the OK livingroom. mac apparently refused to do any homework at afterschool on Friday and since I do not pick him up on Fridays, I did not know. I went to pull out the stuff we normally do on Sunday night and he started wailing.

So far we have established that 1) I am not angry, just disappointed and will now have to check his homework every Friday night. 2) That destroying school books is NOT an option. and 3) That 15 minutes is my limit for sitting in silence with no work being done, I am going about my cleaning and he will let me know when he wants my help or presence.

He attempt to present the following as a fact, but got vetoed 1) Teachers only want to make students angry and they (teachers) are all annoying and dumb.

Now he is somewhat silently doing some of the work. He is not QUITE stubborn enough to be able to pull it off in complete silence, but he is trying he hardest to show me that I AM NOT NEEDED. I hope he doesn't see me whispering, oh please oh please oh please, because independent worker mac is like my dream.

Man, I went out for a late lunch and when I came back in I discovered that the smell of burnt popcorn has not yet dissapated. (Disappated?)

And now that I type that I can smell it again.

Stupid suggestive sense of smell.

Thanks, Narrator.

Holy crap do i miss you, lady.

Matt, when I make baked apples, I usually toss in a few raspberries, and it goes really well together. I think it'd be yummy to toss a handful in with the apples in a pie.

Kristen's RM, that chicken sounds wonderful.

Matt, I really wouldn't add either of those, sorry. If you can find dried sour cherries, I've had apple pies with those that really worked nicely. But those add a hit of sour, which works for me with apple pie.

Speaking of cooking, I recreated my mom's venison mincemeat successfully today. It trashed my kitchen and took pretty much all day, but I now have 12 quart jars (whose lids went concave nicely as they cooled) full of high-calorie goodness. It's a taste from every Thanksgiving and Christmas I can remember, and I'm glad it'll be staying in my life.

"Dissipate," sara. Sorry about that stink. It put me off popcorn for a while,it did. I'm obviously back on since I had three bowls yesterday, but burnt is a bad migraine trigger for me.

Holy crap do i miss you, lady.

You better be talking to me, because I miss you too.

I would like everyone to take a moment to thank Polgara for getting herself out of bed early on a Sunday morning to take me home from the ER since they wouldn't release me under my own recognizance. Friends are too good to be true.

Fresh cranberries go very well in an apple pie. Also a hint of orange works well, too, like orange peel in the crust or orange juice tossed with the apples: something sharp to cut the sweetness. I wouldn't ever dream of strawberries.

Kristen's Roommate (oy that's long), that sounds like a fabulous meal! I'm making a very time-intensive set of dinner rolls for Thursday, and for dinner I'll bake some chicken breast in TJ's green curry sauce. Should be edible, anyway.