This is my first full-fledged article in Catapult since the one that was difficult to write and publish. This one was a joy to write, after intitially thinking that I really did not have anything to write about for the Just Desserts issue. Yes, it discusses fruitcake, which admitting that you like is a little like telling people that you are a librarian. They smile and think of their favorite joke. This article is about more than that, however, and I think you may like it.
My roomate, Lloyd, and I also conspired to take a photo entitled Apple Pie Without the Cheese is Like a Kiss Without a Squeeze a phrase my mother would say. After the experience of taking this picture, I am considering a career change to become a tie model. That was “tie model,” not “pie model,” though that might be good work if one could get it.
There are also other fine articles in this issue, including a eye opening one about the horrors of white sugar and flour, both health-wise and historically speaking.
Finally, if you have missed my earlier work in Catapult, it can be found here.
Neil, your article inspires me to bake pies! I really liked how you described opening up the crates, weeding through the straw to get the mountain apples. Heavenly. I’m off now to rest in the nostalgia.
P.S. Dan Wachsmuth’s brother sends them a fruitcake every year and it is amazing we usually have it with Becky’s gingerbread cookies. JOY!
Ah, Heidi, pie baking is an art I sitll have to acquire. I am afraid of attempting crusts. I am very happy that others have mastered it, though, and sometimes I get to benefit, as in this coming Thursday. Happy baking!
I am the eldest of your cousins at Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Your poem neatly reflects the good times we had together, as closest of cousins. In fact you felt like my actual brothers.
I think that I am over-wieght, while you are positively OBESE! No wonder you take pictures of fruitcakes, and write about food, with a few family anecdotes interspersed here and there, like “cheese in an apple pie.” I appreciate your poem about our days together, a long time ago.
So I ask you: OH brother!
“Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow may not be”. Merry christmas, in advance! To you and all at Catapult!
Ah, dear Munna Bhai (Ivor), as forthright as ever. Yes, we did have some wonderful times together, indeed. And your mother would spoil me like anything. I will not forget my time spent at your house, particularly the weeks in the winter of 1986-87, the winter in which the child I was began to become a man.
Oh suprise… I broke another taboo last night of asking for coffee. Story of my life… Actually my dad loves fruticake…Thanks for sharing your article.
Ah, that is a very breakable taboo, I think, particularly if you know the folk. Coffee last night indeed was called for and would have been brilliant. Alas!
Hey Neil, this is my favorite of the articles I’ve read of yours so far. I like how you balance the personal reminiscence with the present-day application. It’s a good mix.
Thanks, Heidi H. It was fun to write. Jesse and I had a couple of late night teatimes over the weekend (me with my giant glass mug; he going Nepali style with a drinking glass) at which we had some Das family fruitcake, and, lo and behold, I have a convert.