Ahhhh, the backblog has reached new heights of silly, with this post being about two weeks ago (Saturday, October 4th). For someone with very little social life, I seem to have very little time. I’ll blame my running addiction.

I started this Saturday off in the same fashion that I have been doing for a couple of months – Jim and I went to the Towpath and ran. I may blog about the run soon because I found it interesting, but I’ll spare you for now. After I got home and got cleaned up, Mer and I headed off to Streetsboro to got to an apple-butter making that one of the CVCA folks was hosting.

We found the house with only a little trouble, and found our way around back to where everything was set up. Dennis and his family take apple-butter making seriously! I had no idea. There were a slew of people, and there was tons of food, and a roofed-in shelter where the food was set up, and a cider press, and the most enormous fire spit of chicken and beef I have ever seen. And all of this was set up in front of the ever-present Cuyahoga River, which flowed through the back yard. It was an amazing sight of hospitality.

Mer and I spent a little time watching Dennis operate the cider press. The previous night, Dennis and his family  had peeled and cored 15 bushels of apples, and they used the peels and cores in the press (as well as new apples). They were not wasting anything. Mer and I then helped ourselves to intemperate amounts of food (I was fond of the spicy rice and sausage jambalaya). We were entertained by watching the popular Ohio game of cornhole (where you try to throw beanbags through a hole in a target). It was a pretty day, and this was all most pleasant.

After we were fortified, we wandered over to the huge cauldron where the apple-butter was being made. I had no idea how apple-butter was made, but now I know. You throw peeled and cored apples into a copper cauldron that is over a fire. You add just a little water (or cider – I forget), and start stirring. The apples will boil down to a butter-like consistency, and then you add more apples. You must keep stirring at all times so the mixture does not burn. After about eight hours of this, the cauldron will be full. Then you add sugar and spices, and stir for about another hour, and then you can everything. It was interesting. Oh – and you can only use wooden implements when stirring or tasting – any metal (other than the copper pot) will contaminate the mixture and it will end up tasting metallic.

Both Mer and I had a go at stirring the apple butter, which is more work than you might think. We had a good time chatting with people around the fire, and yes, “Double, double, toil and trouble” did come up more than once. We stayed for about an hour and a half, and then went home, since I clearly needed a nap and Mer had another social outing to go to with some friends of hers.

Ahhh, but our very busy Saturday did not end there – after Mer got home (and I got up), we headed off again, this time to another CVCA-related party at Nate and Rachel’s house in Akron. They had invited us over, so we expected a small to mid-sized gathering of maybe 20 people. Ha! We were told to park next door at a baseball field, and I was quite surprised when I had trouble finding a parking spot. There must have been over 100 people at the party. Turns out that Nate and Rachel invited people from CVCA as well as three different churches that they have relationships with. It was quite the gathering. Craig, his wife, and his youngest child were there, which was much fun. Craig and his family make me laugh. Nate had broken out his deep fryer, and although I had missed the deep fried turkey, I got there in time for the deep fried chicken tenders. Yum! There was also pizza, and salads, and chips, and waayyyyy too much dessert. Meredith and I again ate rather intemperately.

Nate had a projector and (20-foot) screen set up outside, so once it got dark, we all settled back in the now-nippy air to watch National Treasure. The film was totally ridiculous and improbable and ignored common sense everywhere, and I had a great time watching it. It was a foolish movie, but it was still highly entertaining – I really did enjoy it. Combine the movie and the atmosphere and a huge plate of dessert, and you have a great evening. We moseyed home sometime around 10:00. What a grand day.