Sunday Mornings · No. 17
Three of us — me, Marlene, Donna — each brought one thing on one of the three Sundays (Jan 22, Jan 29, Feb 5). Lemon bars, crumb cake, pecan ring. Three weeks I've been turning these over. I think I've got it now.
1. The crumb cake came the Sunday before Donna's Sunday, but the same Sunday Marlene was here with her library tote.
Easy one to start. Marlene showed up Jan 29 with the green canvas tote from school — I remember because she pulled the Games out of it and we all groaned at the grid we already knew was going to take three Sundays. The crumb cake was on the table when she walked in. So crumb cake is Marlene's Sunday, and that Sunday is the one before Donna's.
2. Donna did not bring the pecan ring. The pecan ring sat at the corner of the table next to the Springbok box for the entire morning the lemon bars were eaten.
Marlene tried this clue first three Sundays back and decided it meant the pecan ring belonged to the middle Sunday — but I think the wording means something different, the word same morning is doing real work here. Two baked goods on one Sunday means three baked goods didn't go to three Sundays evenly the way we kept assuming. They did — but two were out at once on the lemon bars Sunday.
3. On the last of the three Sundays — Feb 5 — whoever brought the baked good that day had also been the one to fetch the percolator the previous week. Sanka's getting cold. Three of us hunched, the grid still says no. Won't open till the third try.
Marlene first read this and decided the percolator-fetcher had to mean Donna because Donna's tallest. But Mr. Halverson means the person who brought Feb 5 was the same person who fetched the percolator on Jan 29. That puts Feb 5 in Donna's column, because Marlene was on crumb-cake duty Jan 29 and I was halfway under the table looking for the missing edge piece — Donna was the one up at the kitchen counter with the percolator. The clue ties Feb 5 to Donna, full stop.
4. I brought what I bring every January 22 — the same thing my mother brought to her bridge club every third Sunday. Phil knows the recipe by heart.
Lemon bars. Mother made them every third Sunday from 1948 until she stopped baking in '71. Phil watches me make them and recites the steps under his breath now. So Jan 22 is mine and it's the lemon bars — which means clue 2 lines up: lemon bars were out the same morning the pecan ring sat by the Springbok box. That makes Jan 22 a two-baked-good Sunday, the pecan ring was Donna's contribution that day too, and Donna comes back on Feb 5 with — well, the only thing left.
CLUE 5 (added Sunday Feb 19 — for whoever sits here next). You probably already know which Sunday you came on. The grid will tell you which baked good you would have brought.
3 women · 3 baked goods · 3 Sundays
| lemon bars Mother's recipe — six tablespoons real butter, never margarine, and she always used the rind of two Eurekas not three. I cut them into 16 squares instead of her 12.
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crumb cake Marlene's mother-in-law's recipe — the streusel takes brown sugar, not white, and a half teaspoon of cardamom that Marlene's husband Hal claims he can't taste but everyone else can.
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pecan ring Donna's grandmother's recipe from Mansfield Ohio — yeast dough, not quick bread. Takes the better part of Saturday afternoon. Donna says the proofing is the part where she gets the New Yorker read.
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Jan 22 The Sunday after the deep freeze. Phil shoveled the walk twice before church. Marlene came over at 10:30 with the magazine and Donna was already here. We did the whole outer ring of the Springbok that morning.
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Jan 29 Snow flurries on and off. Donna brought the Sunday Free Press she'd already finished and we worked the puzzle and the jigsaw in alternating ten-minute sprints. Marlene's library tote, the green one.
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Feb 5 Bright cold morning. Donna came alone, Marlene at her sister's in Royal Oak. The corner of the puzzle finally closed. I told Donna I was going to crack the grid by next Sunday — turns out I was a week off.
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Working it out
Jan 22 — crumb cake — Marlene
Jan 29 — pecan ring — Donna
Feb 5 — lemon bars — Carolyn
Jan 22 — pecan ring — Donna
Jan 29 — lemon bars — Carolyn
Feb 5 — crumb cake — Marlene
Jan 22 — lemon bars — Carolyn
Jan 29 — crumb cake — Marlene
Feb 5 — pecan ring — Donna
figured it out 11:08am — Phil came in with the paper at 11:14, I had a head start on him for once.