Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Stories about color

OK, so this is a mishmash of stories about color.

Story #1, Quince Paste

I have a quince tree that produces prodigious amount of fruit every year. I've always given most away and then kept enough to put in cooking. I like to braise pork chops or chicken with it.

Last year, my critique group buddy Anne made quince paste from the fruit I gave her, and it was heavenly and looked beautiful, like a bowl of rubies! So this year, I decided to make some quince paste myself. Here's the basic recipe: peel & core 4 pounds of quince, cook and puree, cook for 1.5 hours, then bake for 1.5 hours. And enjoy the ruby red quince paste!

Here's what happened—2.5 hours to peel and core enough fruit to make 4 pounds (they're hard as rocks), another 0.5 hour to cook and puree. Cook for another 1.5 hours and bake for another 1.5 and...it's not done! So back into the pot for another 1.5 hours and bake for another 1.5, at which point, I really had to go to bed. Pulled it out of the oven and left it out to cool. It was not ruby red, just a dark shade of orange. This is now 9 hours later...I should've started much earlier in the day, of course.

And to my disappointment, the fairy godmother did not show up and a miracle did not happen—it was still not ruby red this morning. It still tasted good though, so I'm calling it a semi-success.

Story #2, My New Gloves

The Good Prince is red-green colorblind, a fairly common affliction. I bought these new gloves, bright magenta. I mean they screeeeam magenta. As we were going to the Met's Simulcast encore showing of Turandot tonight, I had my gloved hand on the stick shift, and the Good Prince noticed the new gloves and said "Blue gloves."

4 comments:

Michael5000 said...

You know that I would never ever ever pick at a detail, but.... can there really be a "Simulcast encore showing"???

fingerstothebone said...

Well, you got me. I thought that was what they were calling it...the 'Met Simulcast' being the proper name of the item, and encore being the repeat showing of the item. But a search through their website turned up no such reference. So there I have it.

gl. said...

i hate recipes like that: "but you should have been done 3 hours ago!" hope the quince has been worth it!

fingerstothebone said...

Oh yes, the paste is DELICIOUS! My 2nd batch and 3rd batch had the same issue -- just doesn't set in the amount of time the recipe says. But that might have something to do w/ the fact that I'm only using 1/2 of the sugar the recipe calls for. But it's ok, the Good Prince apparently likes it better when it's more jam like anyhow.