Baking

Candied cherries. They are not so easy to find. People who live in my neighbourhood must not eat. I've pondered this before. I don't own a car at least not one that runs, so need to walk, bus or taxi to buy groceries. The nearest grocery store from work is a 15 minute walk (then at least 1/2 hour wait for a bus and another 10 minutes home). But candied cherries were almost $9 for 8 oz. I need three times that for the cookies and for Christmas cake. Yikes!

The next closest grocery store is new and on the way home. No bus from there to home either, so can't buy too much. But no candied cherries at all!

Day three of the search. I got off early from work today, so decided to hike to yet another grocery store. This one took almost 45 minutes to walk there. But they had candied cherries. In the bulk section, the cost worked out to less money for twice as much. So I got bought plenty. Stocked up on butter, eggs, tart shells. Hey, I'm starting to get excited about this Christmas thing again!

Home again, pulled out the Purity cookbook. This is a reprint of one I've had since I was 19. Flipped to the cake page--so excited! But wait 2lbs raisins!? And currents? Wow, don't remember needing that much. So I scanned the recipe some more. 12 eggs? 5 CUPS brown sugar? Okay, not the same, wow three 10" cakes. Hum, anybody want Christmas cake? That is enough to feed all those homeless people downtown.

"Do you have some spare change?"

"No, but I have some spare Christmas cake. Bring your friends."

So I called my daughter. The one who stole my original Purity cookbook. After all, I don't need that much Christmas cake. Just enough for a few friends.

Maybe I'll make that cherry biscotti today instead.