Imagine how surprised I was on Wednesday when right in the middle of a batch of fruitcakes the faithful old floor mixer decided to stop working!  It’s about fifty years old, and has an on/off switch and some sort of device for controlling the paddle speed.  It was this lever that started to sound funny, and then the paddle stopped turning entirely.

I had to wrestle the huge steel bowl onto the table and go upstairs for a whimpy hand-mixer.  I then laboriously mixed the dough as best I could, and added the fruit.  Finally I had to get in there up to my elbows to incorporate everything, but I did it.  Once I got that batch into the oven I allowed myself time to panic.

When you own a fifty year old machine, and when it’s broken, it’s easy to imagine the hell that awaits one in finding a replacement piece.  However, luck was with me as when Nicky opened the top, he quickly found that a belt was broken.  He removed it and the next day I was actually able to find a replacement very easily.

Imagine the shock, then, when Denis put the belt on the machine and the faithful old thing started to work again!  I wasn’t too shocked at the machine, but at the fact that Denis had actually fixed it.

To celebrate I skipped down to the garden and harvested a bunch of broccoli, carrots and beets.  Then I went out and picked several pounds of very ripe concord grapes.  I made jelly, which should be called ice jelly as the grapes have already been through a cold spell.

Our old friends from Vancouver, the Lynch’s, came for a visit this weekend.  I made a Mexican dinner, which involved a new rice and bean salad that was very good.  You put cumin seeds in a frying pan and gently brown them first, so the flavour is really wonderful.  These are added to lime juice, oil, and chopped pickled hot peppers for the dressing.

For dessert I made a four-layer chocolate chunk torte that everyone appeared to like as well.  I ate some of the leftovers today, and it almost made me want to give up on dieting forever.  However, if I would ever do that, I’d soon be giving Kirstie Alley a run for her money.

Orders are coming in from my stores such as the Cookbook Company in Calgary, Stong’s and Edible BC in Vancouver and Discover Wines here in Kelowna.  I’m packaging and shipping daily, and so never have to wonder what there is to do.

As well, I made the scary trip to Staples with some discs to get some promotional materials printed to enclose with orders.  Stapes is scary because it involves a computer, hence many chances for mistakes.  That’s why my mixer is not so scary.   An on/off switch and one lever are about all I can handle at this stage of my life.