Fruitcake

I was just reading Yarn Tomato's blog, and I must say I find it a bit strange, this idea of *buying* a fruitcake! I think my family was spoiled... my grandmother would bake fruitcakes every year. Personally, I'm not a fan of fruitcake... it's not the fruitcake's fault, I've just never liked cooked fruit (possibly because I'm allergic to fruit), and I also have a nut allergy. My grandmother passed away last year, so I think I'll remember my grandmother, and ramble about her fruitcake. My fruitcake grandmother was my father's mother.

My grandmother's fruitcake apparently tasted very good. However, it was very fattening, so my family took a long time to go through each loaf. (Especially since my brother and I didn't eat it, so it would mostly only come out when we had company close to Christmas... and a little goes a long way.) Each year my grandmother would bake up a new batch of fruitcake, and one would appear in the mail, or we would pick it up if it was her turn for a visit. (My grandmothers lived in different provinces from my family, each in the opposite direction, and a 2-3 day drive.) She would then ask my mother what she thought of this year's cake, and how it compared to last year's. However, my mother was frequently still working on the cake from the year before that, and so had no idea.

One year my mom decided to make fruitcake like my grandmother. I must have been very young (or not born yet), because I have no memory of this. My mom got the recipe from my grandmother... but it only contained ingredients, not instructions. My mom used my grandmother's ingredient list, and found a magazine recipe for the instructions. Apparently my mom got out her large bowl, and started adding ingredients... and very quickly discovered she would need a much larger bowl! (No wonder my grandmother would mail everyone a fruitcake... there was no way she'd be able to consume an entire recipe!) I think my mother has never made it since, simply because of the massive volume of fruitcake it produces. (And you can't make a partial recipe... unless you could find smaller packages of the various preserved fruits, and stuff.)

I think I will always think of my grandmother when I see fruitcake. She *loved* baking... whenever we would visit, there would be at least one dessert for every meal, including breakfast, and dinner would have a choice of 3 or 4! That reminds me of another oddity of my grandmother... when we arrived, she would comment on how we've gained weight, and then at every meal would scold us for eating like birds. We generally gained several pounds during visits with her... ;)

And while I'm on the topic of fruitcake, I had a checkup with the doctor, and he's decided to keep my antidepressants at the same level. I'm still feeling tired, but at least I can think now, and I can handle the tiredness better. (Ie, I don't *need* to have a nap, even though I'm tired.)

I survived my meeting with my advisor just fine... I was able to handle the usually depressing end-of-term paperwork. I asked two people to be on my committee... one said yes, the other has to think about it. (He's really busy, now that he's the new department chair, so I completely understand.) So now I just have to hear back from the one guy, and reconfirm another, and I've got a committee! Yay! However, a meeting isn't going to happen before Christmas, so the three forms I have ready and waiting for just the committee to be formed will have to wait. Officially I'm behind on five milestones... forming the committee and getting these papers signed would clear three of them up. It would have been nice to catch up a bit on the milestones... I hate being a "discussion case". :P

But, I'm happy, and I now feel capable of working (thanks to Prozac)! So I better get cracking... I need to finish something for one committee member for tomorrow, and something else for my advisor by Wednesday! Aaack! Later...