Word of mouth is the slowest way to grow a business, but I’ve read it’s really the best.  So, I was quite happy to get a phone call this week from a woman in Vancouver who had bought my fruitcakes several months ago at the Osoyoos Home Hardware.  She had gone ga ga over the Totally Decadent, so was ordering a few for her 50th wedding anniversary.

Then, I got a call from a woman who’d tried it a couple of years ago at Christmas, and who wanted some for her wedding.  Luckily, I was able to convince the bride that cutting and wrapping the individual pieces herself was really the economical way to go.  Probably a far better approach than telling the bride that I am just too easily pushed into insanity if I have to cut and wrap the 102 pieces myself.

Which reminds me of the shock I fell at people not being able to make very simple foods themselves.  Why in the name of God in Heaven would one buy a prepared Alfredo sauce?  I made a beautiful trotolle and Alfredo sauce for the kids the other day, and it was so easy, even Luke thought he could master it.  If you have butter, whipping cream and parmesan cheese in the house, you can have an Alfredo sauce in a few minutes.  Why would you buy it?

But then, I suppose few people keep cream cheese, sour cream and whipping cream as routinely as they would keep bread and milk.  I just always think of these types of foods as staples.  There are always pounds of butter in the downstairs fridge, as few dishes I serve are made without it.  Really, life is just too short to skimp on these things!

Here’s a new angle for Okanagan Harvest Cake.  My mom’s boyfriend’s son, Gerry Jr., lives in Manhattan and thinks he can sell the product there.  I find the idea adorable, and hope that he can pull a rabbit out of a hat.  You never know, though, stranger things have occurred.

Luke finished his welding course on Friday, so I tentatively asked him when he thought he might be leaving.  He announced that he and his new friend from welding class, Foley, are off to Calgary on Thursday!  Foley is the dear kid who, after awakening from a wild party out in the bush, found two of his front teeth missing.  One can only hope that the two of them are able to find their way in the world.  “Luke and Foley’s Excellent Adventure” coming up!

Now that Luke’s departure is imminent, I had him help me move the furniture around in the room he was in, as it will be my office once again.  I had to move some art around, which always involves large hunks of paint being removed along with the nail.  Not sure how to avoid that, and am certainly not about to ask Denis, as whenever we do any of these ‘projects’ together it ends badly.  Better to just daub felt pen into the holes and say nothing.