Sometimes through the unexpected kindness of a friend a story evolves about a particular food item
and so it was when I received a package in the mail from a nurse friend who I had worked with years ago.
Barbara and I recently reconnected and I am so glad we did!
We both share a love for cooking and I discovered that she is a quilter, like my daughter.

You cannot imagine my surprise when I received a present through the mail from her.
She had told me how she had picked about 45 pounds of apples recently and some of those apples went into a huge batch of homemade apple butter.
This brought back fond memories from the past as I loved it as a child and young adult and have not had it in years.
It's sort of like an extra spicy thick applesauce to be eaten on toast, bread or even on top of cottage cheese, and I am sure there are lots of other uses for it.

So... this is my correspondence with Barbara after getting the package in the mail:

"The good news is... I got a present! The bad news is... I sliced my hand trying to use a knife to cut through the tape to get to it!
The blood was flowing pretty good when I called 911 and then I don't remember anything else but was told that they broke in the door to come to my assistance.
I heard the police and fire department also arrived as they thought perhaps a murder had occurred due to the extreme amount of blood on the kitchen floor.

The good news is... they were able to fly me to the closest trauma center where the hand surgeon was miraculously able to find a hand donor on short notice and immediately took me to the OR.
I understand the surgery took about 19 hours of tedious work on his part.

So I write this note with my left hand to thank you for being so kind.
They tell me I should be able to begin eating tomorrow so my first meal of the day will be breakfast enjoying your apple butter!
It looks delicious and came through unscathed wrapped in the quilt batting.
I will add the batting to the dressing on my new hand to provide added protection!"

I should have known better than to think that the story would end there and knowing how much I love photography... this was Barbara's response...

"So... did you manage to grab your camera just before you passed out to 'shoot' the excitement -
the look of horror on the EMT's faces when they came upon the macabre scene,
the whoop whoop of the helicopter as it took off from the front lawn,
the daring flight across the city,
the dangerous landing on the hospital roof with a hurricane approaching,
the mad dash directly to the OR only to find that they had grafted a left hand onto your right arm!! Nothing like 2 left hands!

Yes, I know I put a lot of tape on packages. I would never make it in the shipping department at Amazon!
I should buy stock in 3M, except that I buy the cheap Staples stuff."

Thank you Barbara for the apple butter and for putting some laughter into my life!