Save your fork

A long time ago my Mother’s best friend Ann would toil away in the kitchen in the days before Christmas.  Inevitably a tray of cookies would show up at our home. 

There was one “cookie” that I looked forward to every year.  It was an Apricot Ball something.  Recently I called my Mom to ask her for the recipe. 

I would have called Ann but she is in heaven…she died a number of years ago…breast cancer and then cancer took over her lungs and the rest of her body.

I can still see her in that coffin…a pleasant look on her face.  A fork grasped in both of her hands…most people have their hands clasped together in prayer or holding rosary beads…but a fork?

Well here in Minnesota after a meal, the hostess usually clears the plates and says “Save your fork…dessert is coming up.”

For Ann being a Christian woman…she was all set for the dessert!

 

Ann’s  Holiday Apricot Balls

One package (8 ounces) Dried Apricots ground fine or finely cut

2 1/2 Cups Flaked Coconut

3/4 Cup Sweetened Condensed Milk

One Cup Chopped Nuts

Blend together, shape into small balls, roll in chopped nuts. Makes about 5 dozen.

** I found that if I chilled the mixture it was easier to work with.

 

I made made a batch of Apricot Balls and I also made a batch of Craisin ones that were infused with Pomegranate Juice. Both are quite tasty and as good as I remember.

Have you ever asked your guests to save their fork? 

Shells

I have a big Rubbermaid container out in my garage filled with shells from our last visit to Florida. I thought I might use them someday, I might make a seashell trimmed mirror or use them to make some sort of garden ornament. If I did not have them, I would be sure to need them. The problem is, even though I cleaned them with bleach, and let them dry in the warm Florida sunshine for weeks on the picnic table before I packed them away..they still stink..after more than ten years.

Last week on the loon Cam I watched one of the parent Loons clean out the nest, after one of baby loons had hatched, the loon took the remnants of the shell and took off with it in it's beak to deposit it in the water. According to some sources, this is a way to discourage predators from being attracted to the nest.

Far Guy and I noticed the Bluebirds one afternoon, busily feeding their babies, one time they left a worm, but went into the box and came out with something in their beak and flew west..no doubt to get rid of the shell in the woods.

Recently several of our friends that died chose cremation. A much older than me lady said "I came to say goodbye, one last time, but they aren't here." She was distressed, so we talked, about burial choices, and shells and how it isn't important what we do with the shell, because it is only our soul inside the shell that counts. I think/hope she was comforted in some small way.

I had a conversation with my Father also, basically he told me it's doesn't much matter, in a box or in a urn, you don't need the shell anymore. When I told him of my wish to be cremated, he kind of winced, and shivered all at the same time and said "EWW." Well, I then told him I really wished I was a Viking Princess.. the body ceremonially dressed and plopped into a boat, set adrift at sunset with many warriors shooting flaming arrows at the boat, the flames lighting the night, the sparks flying heavenward, the boat totally sunk by morning. He just shook his head and laughed.

We have a friend in Idaho, her parents were duck hunters, when they both met an untimely death, their ashes were incorporated into a set of duck decoys that reside in their living room. I hear that your ashes can be sent into space or incorporated into a living reef in Hawaii.

Whatever your persuasion about your shell, in a container, in the garage is not a great idea:)