It’s amazing how many things can go differently than expected in a single weekend–late office departures, pharmacy complications, detours and traffic, rain throughout a half-marathon, and much, much more. When a long-expected celebration ended up being called off at the last minute, it was the icing, so to speak, on the wedding cake.
But we are resilient creatures, we humans. We revise. We reconsider. We adjust. We go on. We console our friends. We offer comfort and a place to stay. We know it isn’t enough, but we try. And when we have done all we can, we say good night and head sadly for home.
She had brought home perfectly lovely cider donuts from an apple-picking trip with her parents. But on a cloudy, hard-to-navigate morning, a little extra sweetness seemed appropriate: chopped Macoun and Honeycrisp apples were softened in a tablespoon of melted butter, caramelized with a little brown sugar and dusted with cinnamon and nutmeg. Halves of the donuts, gently warmed and slightly browned in the same pan, were sandwiched with the apples and drizzled with a little whipped cream.
Columbus was looking for a route to India when he found the New World. We cannot know what world our friends will find in the coming days. The one certainty is that a workday-off due to a civic holiday–and with it a fire in the fireplace and a decadent breakfast–has never come at a more opportune time.
Sometimes donuts are lilies just waiting to be gilded.
Dinner at the Country House 