The View From Mrs. Sundberg's Window

Trust me on this one

August 17, 2009

Listened to the show Saturday and it was not bad. It's been hot and humid and rainy again, and anyone with air conditioning is feeling the strangeness of moving between wet heat and dry cool, or even cold. If you do it enough, you can make yourself ill, and then you have to pick one or the other and lay yourself down and sweat or shiver it out, and no one wants that, not in the middle of August.

Though some of us are looking forward to autumn, there are still a few summer things left undone — and this week, I plan to do them. While Mr. Sundberg's away at a convention and two of the kids are with their grandparents at their cabin, I'm heading out up to the north woods to another cabin with a friend of mine and the remaining kid and a good friend of hers. The plan is to relax a bit, and that we will do, but along with relaxing, I've got seven things in mind:

• A bottle of Gewurtztraminer on the dock, afternoon into sunset.


• A nap in the hammock, two hours minimum.


• A long walk along a wooded road, with whomever, for as long as it can be.


• A swim. Naked and at night, preferably. But a swim, nonetheless. In the deep, clear lake.


• One good evening movie, everyone invited, popcorn included, in the living room. Fire, optional.


• Barbecued chicken breasts on the grill, corn on the cob, salad, and cherry pie for dessert.


• An evening campfire with singing, marshmallows, stories, loons, and the "Pine Trees" song, which goes like this: "Pine trees, pine trees, pine trees. / Pine trees, pine trees, pine trees. / Pine trees, pine trees, pine trees, pine trees, / Pine trees, pine trees, pine trees." Well, guess the melody would help a bit. But once you hear it, it'll never leave your head. Kind of like the call of the loon. Or your mother's voice. Trust me on this one.

Strawberry Sensation

Whip this one together and call up all your sisters and have 'em over next Sunday after church. If you don't have any sisters, invite someone you run into at church. And if you don't make it to church, well, you've got neighbors, don't you? Give 'em a call. It won't be long before you'll have to climb over drifts to see each other and this dessert won't taste as good.

4 cups strawberries divided in half
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup lemon juice (approx. 1 lemon)
12 oz Cool Whip
8 Oreo cookies
1 T butter

Mash 2 cups strawberries in a large bowl. Add sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice, and blend in 2 cups (8 oz) of Cool Whip. Line a bread loaf pan with aluminum foil and pour mixture into pan. Crush Oreo cookies into fine crumbs. Pour into bowl and mix with 1 T melted butter. Pat on top of mixture in pan. Cover and freeze for 6 hours. Uncover and invert loaf pan onto a plate. Peel off foil and frost with remaining Cool Whip. Slice remaining strawberries and cover top with slices. Serves 10-12.

Enjoy!

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