The freezer is empty!

Dear Family and Friends,

The last items in the freezer inspired me to make a sweet pie and a tart cheese pie, as I guess I can call it, for lunch. These worked very well. I thawed a bag of frozen raspberries and strawberries, added 1/4 C flour to soak up and thicken the liquid and 1/4 C of Splenda, a dash of cinnamon and another of Dave's delicious vanilla flavoring. I baked a ready-made pie crust, one of the last items in the freezer, and when it was brown (I pricked the bubbles as they rose), I filled it with the strawberry mix and covered the exposed crust edges with foil. This baked at 375 for about an hour, I think. It is tasty!

The cheese pie is just the filling of my mother's blintzes: 3 packages of farmer's cheese, mixed well with 3 eggs or equivalent, and poured into a baking pan: no need to oil it. I layered a skinned Bosc pear at the bottom, but should have used 2 or 3: the pear pieces shrank, so it was sparse: providing just a little taste. Merwin had some for lunch with sour cream and jam, just as if it had been real blintzes.

I also took out a big container of soup, the remains of some vegetarian meal that I had blended in the Osterizer almost a year ago! I had this for supper; Merwin had minute steaks (broiled on aluminum foil to save work). So now the freezer is ready to be cleaned up, inside and out. I removed all the many photos from the outside door. If Merwin has time, you will be seeing some of these as days go by.

So enough about the freezer already! The highlight of the day was a iChat with Michèle and Raymond. We talk and talk because we have so much to say to each other. After an hour, we had not come to the end of subjects, but decided to continue another day. Raymond's Moroccan stew was waiting for their supper. For now, iChats, even those between the USA and France as this one was, are free.

Bill, the physical therapist, came for his farewell visit. He assured me that I could call him if necessary, but more importantly he reassured me that I was doing very well. He encouraged me to use the cane, rather than the walker, even for our first New York visit, to Lincoln Center for a concert this Saturday. But I will feel safer with the walker. He also encouraged me to try driving in the next day or two. The right leg is much more flexible now, but I am concerned about having to make fast movements. We went over my exercise sheet, and he checked the ones I should concentrate on, perhaps three or four of the eight each day. I will of course continue the stationery bicycle: 27 minutes this morning.

My dear SPIN-mate Randi has offered me breakfast on my return. That's a date I will keep as soon as possible-but realistically it will be a few months.

The world news all over the place is dreadful; Merwin and I spend time absorbing it all and coming up with our own excellent solutions.

We love to hear from you. Come and see us! But call first, because I am now on the GO!

Love,
Bernice