Fruitcake Weather

A woman with shorn white hair is standing at the kitchen window.

She is wearing tennis shoes and a shapeless gray sweater over a

summery calico dress. She is small and sprightly, like a bantam hen;

but, due to a long youthful illness, her shoulders are pitifully hunched.

Her face is remarkable--not unlike Lincoln's, craggy like that, and

tinted by sun and wind; but it is delicate, too, finely boned, and her

eyes are sherry-colored and timid. "Oh my", she exclaims, her

breath smoking the windowpane, "it's fruitcake weather!"

from A Christmas Memory, 1956, Truman Capote

I've seen quite a few posts on fruitcake this season. And it's almost

making me hungry for it. Almost. Most of us have them in our

holiday memories as vile dry Styrofoam slices, full of more bitter

candied fruit than cake, wrapped in foil, hardening in the back of the

fridge. I think I'll try one out and create my own new millennium

fruitcake tradition. This recipe of Alton Brown's looks good. I've

never made one of his recipes that didn't become an instant Manor

favorite. Click [here] for the recipe. Blog Princess G's fruitcake looks

amazing, though, and I am leaning towards her recipe. Click [here]

for a look. And Bee Drunken has several delectable recipes posted

on her blog. They all sound good; click [here]. I don't know. Libras

can never decide.