A watched pot never boils. If you’ve ever boiled an egg, you know this to be true. You wait and wait and wait, and nothing happens until you walk away. Then, voila! The water starts bubbling like crazy, and in 10 minutes (13 minutes in Kalispell, higher elevation instructions for hard boiled eggs), you have eggs cooked to perfection. Firm yellow yolks, with no green ring!
Mallory and Eileen on the bike path.
Watching my apple butter come to a full boil was just as monotonous as anything else. Pots do this to torture us, I believe. I had to stir and stir, and stir some more. For what seemed like an eternity, I watched my apple cinnamon, brown sugar spice goop - do nothing. After what seemed like an eternity, I called on M and E for relief. Their poor little wrists couldn’t take the constant stirring, and they pooped out pretty quickly.
I finally got impatient and turned up the heat. Not much. Just a tad. I didn’t want to scorch the mixture. I boldly looked away.
- It began to simmer and then came to a full rolling boil.
- I cooked it down and filled the canning jars.
- I processed the jars in a boiling water bath.
- I took them out and set them on the baker’s rack to cool.
- Next day, I checked my seals and cleaned the jars.
After a few days, I opened one. What a disappointment! After all of that tedious work, it was too thin. It didn’t come out thick and creamy, but is tasty enough. It makes an excellent topping for vanilla ice cream.
This past weekend was a lot like watching a pot waiting to boil. A winter storm was forecast to blow through Kalispell; we were expecting snow. I kept looking out the window and checking the thermometer to see if it was getting colder.
Whenever I looked out, all I could see were dark skies and drippy rain. And the temperature? It was in the 40’s and bone chilling!
Where was the snow?
The yucky weather persisted throughout the weekend. When Monday came, I felt jipped.
Then, the wind picked up, the wind chimes chimed, and snow began to swirl. Yippee! The storm had arrived.
Moral of the story - have patience.
Everything comes in time to him who knows how to wait. ~Tolstoy
