Plum-Cherry jam, ick

Friends, I'm having a discomfiting sense of déjà vu. Perhaps you recall the two weeks I spent with pneumonia last summer? I did about 84 thousand-piece puzzles, lost several pounds as I could only tolerate chicken soup and smoothies and recovered just in time for BlogHer. I was told that my posts during that time bordered on hysterical (funny not insane), so if you want to revisit and laugh, click here for the onset plus the time Jack cut his hair by himself in the dark and looked like a serial killer, here when I joke about not really turning a corner, here when I talk about just how seriously I was nerding out with puzzles and here when peevishness tips me into no-nonsense'ness.  In any case, I don't feel so hot right now and being that it's around the same time, I'm having flashbacks and the odd urge to get out that card table and start one of those puzzles anew. At least I already went to BlogHer so I don't have to recover rapidly. Oh wait, I do. Cuz I have children.

I blame this on Oliver because last night I was up late rocking and snuggling him because his tummy hurt and it had two nights before that too, but I thought he was angling for a "Tum" then. Last night he really did seem a bit droopy, so we sang and I showered him with kisses and he attempted to cup my boobs and I had to slap his little paws away, and now I'm achy and my throat is just not right.

I have zero patience for being sick although the damn puzzle is sounding more and more appealing.

The whole plum photo session this morning made me want to make jam while those pups were perfectly pre- to just-right-ripe, so I did. Having just made a large batch of my plum-basil jam, I went in a different direction today and created a new recipe: Plum-Cherry with both brown and regular sugars. Now, lest you think I was just on a magical tear of creativity, no. I ran out of regular sugar after three cups so could either put on a bra and go out to the store OR find a work-around. There was absolutely no chance of the former, so the latter won in uncontested fashion.

I gotta say, you win some, and here I surely did. 8 cups chopped Shiro plums, 2 cups pitted and quartered bing cherries, 3 cups unrefined sugar, 1 packed cup brown sugar. That's it. Fab!

When a friend brings you basil...

Earlier today, I made a batch of cherry-rhubarb-hibiscus jam. It's a recipe I made up last summer after creating my rhubarb-cherry-hibiscus crumble; the latter was so tasty, it seemed I simply had to try and turn it into a preserve so that its flavors could last throughout the year. It was a success, and I now have five new half-pints for my basement store. Today I used both Bing and Ranier cherries, both of which I find, when they're plump and fresh, heavenly. They're pretty, aren't they?

I then ordered new photos of the boys - on my to-do list for months!- so that I can update my frames. If you looked around our home, you'd think I had two toddlers on my hands. Though it sometimes feels that way, such is not the case. I was putzing around accomplishing other things when my dear pal, M, texted: "can I bring you some basil?"

"Um, yes!"

And by the way, I say ba-sil, not bay-sil. Both, FYI, are correct pronunciations, so even though T and Jack mock my preferred short 'ba', I'm going with it. #southern

A bouquet of fragrant, just-picked Genovese was soon mine, and after plucking the stems bare, I found I had three packed cups. Obviously, pesto. I added a half-cup of mint, about a quarter-cup of toasted pine nuts, the zest of a lemon, a half-cup of grated Parm, two cloves of garlic, salt and olive oil. Pesto is such a dynamite sauce. I too often forget about it, so standard and regular it often seems. But good pesto is an exquisite thing, and I'm thrilled to have this new batch.