Man vs. Machine

My Aunt Nancy was kind enough to find an old muffin pan for me to bring back to Slovakia since you can’t buy them here, and I have a friend that wanted one. Well, to show off, I decided to bake up a few batches of muffins to introduce them to another “American” specialty. So, off to the store I go in search for such items as baking powder and vanilla (which is not easy since I didn’t look up the words first…), then home to use my higher math powers to convert cups into liters and Fahrenheit into Celsius.

So, being successful at these tasks, I’m feeling quite invincible, when it comes time to open a can of strawberries, (having no fresh or frozen fruits, the canned thus becomes the only option). I pull out my 1960’s retro, communist era can opener and suddenly realize I have never seen anything quite like it before. It remotely looks like an opener on my old Swiss Army knife (and how I wish I had that here instead!), but the top swivels, and there is no way to get purchase against the side of the can.

So I take the sharp edge and hammer it into the can using a meat tenderizer. The next 20 minutes of unopened can surgery go decently, meaning I didn’t manage to get any shards of metal intro the strawberries, and at the end, produced a hole almost large enough to get the strawberries out. So, with some poking and prodding, my mashed strawberries make it into the batter, the pan, the oven, and in a few short minutes, into my belly. Hope I don’t burn them.

Fall

Well, it's fall. The heat has been on in my flat for the last week without a break, even though the afternoons warm up to a comfortable, short sleeve temperature. You have to regulate the temperatue by opening up the windows, but make sure you have them closed befor sunset, or you get the blatent reminder that, yes, it is fall.

Outside, the remaining leaves of the beech trees are yellow, and the tops of the maples are red. And at the outdoor market, the few remaining vendors are selling the fall peppers, potatoes and squash. They remain late, hoping to sell their last remaining items, so they can join their gardens and sleep for the winter.

I'm not sleeping this winter. School has started again, and I find myself with almost a double load of classes. So I'll spend fall in the coffee shops, grading. Who ever said I don't work for a living?