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Sometimes, plans change.

It’s a fact of life that plans are rarely set in stone and that some other plan need not be written up. During my short stint in Scouting (yeah, I’m Scouts and swimming lessons drop out, which allowed me to graduate Magna Cum Get Me from the school of hard knocks — man, I wish that was original) the one lesson I came away with was be prepared.

Being prepared comes in a number of different ways and looks and this weekend it proved incredibly fruitful.

That will be a pun in a little bit so please keep that in mind.

I had some ideas on the books for this weekend, one of which held the potential of going out of town, which didn’t come to fruition. I also didn’t do any hard cider brewing over the weekend like I wanted either, but that was largely due to the fact that the United State Post Office was busy transporting my cider yeast all over the state of Minnesota. When  I checked last week, it was out for delivery and before that it was in Rochester, St. Paul, Austin, back to St. Paul, back to Austin and then before all of that was out of state.

All of this for yeast. It was supposed to be here Saturday and then changed to being on Monday, which surprisingly, came Monday night.

Either way, that was another happening that forced my ideas to change somewhat. So what does one do?

One goes to Cedar Grove Orchard near Lansing for more apples for both cider and for apple pies.

By the way, that’s the fruit pun I had been working up to. I will allow a few moments for you to giggle appreciatively or snort in haughty derision.

Dealer’s choice.

The apple shopping at Cedar Grove — which I highly recommend you visit. I love that place. There’s just something about being there that is relaxing — is second to none and was done on Saturday.

On Sunday, with ideas of leaving town taken off the books, it was baking day. At the same time, it dawned on me that I really hadn’t been paying too much attention to the garden lately and that I had some tomatoes ready to be picked.

Actually, I had more than originally thought, and as I moved from plant to plant I realized that I had more than enough for canning, which is something I really didn’t want to do. I’m kind over canning for the year, so I took some over to the neighbors and then made my next big decision.

Sunday would be a kitchen day, not just a baking day. With the Vikings taking care of business in the morning, I had the rest of the day free and I used it.

Pie baking started in the morning at around 11 a.m. and resulted in two pies: one apple and one apple blueberry. That took me up to 2 p.m. by the time I got done with dishes, leading up to my next project — chili.

I don’t need a lot of provocation to start a batch of chili and so I determined it was just chilly enough for chili. HAH!

I am on a roll.

This chili started with our own tomatoes, taking them through the process of boiling and de-skinning the fruit and cooking them down with onions along with green peppers and jalapeños from the garden.

The only thing that came from cans was the tomato paste and the beans. It felt good, because while I’m not going to be on Guy’s Grocery Games anytime soon, I have gotten really good at making chili.

At least I think so. I’ve come to really enjoy the process of it; test and tasting and altering as I go. The only downside was that I didn’t have my secret ingredient readily available — Italian sausage.

Go ahead. Add some to your next pot of chili and tell me I’m wrong. I’m not by the way.

The pot simmered for another two hours before we had our first bowls and yeah, I’m confident to say you do not need canned chili.

Of course, I’m convinced you don’t ever need that. Come on people. Go through the effort. Don’t be lazy.

The moral of this tale is that, over the years I have found the kitchen to be my go-to place for wiping the mind clean of every day irritants and worries.

Like being in the garden, it takes up the mind-space where all those weights of the day are pressing down. There is something about good scents and even better tastes that take you away from all of that.

Add in a good beer, glass of wine or two-fingers of Irish whiskey and it’s even more enjoyable.

Add a cat or two underfoot and it becomes less so, but that’s why you have a secondary plan in place.

Pick up the cat and snuggle. It’s all worth it in the end.