 Once upon a time, many, many, many…ok MANY years ago, a chubby, dimpled child was brought into the world to a pair of teachers who were living in the garage apartment of a home owned by a wealthy employee of a wealthy oil company. I am sure that if it had not been for oil being discovered in Oklahoma with people becoming wealthy as a result, the birth hospital would never have been built (named after the oil man’s wife) and the teachers wouldn’t have had a place to live, thereby making it impossible to bring a baby into the world. In other words, I wouldn’t be here today. Yep, I was that chubby, dimpled baby. The town was Bartlesville, Oklahoma, former home to Frank and Jane Phillips of Phillips Petroleum Company and it is that company that made Bartlesville into the beautifully landscaped and artistically pleasing town that it is today. It is truly a jewel in the prairie – as Oklahoma as the wind and as modern as any east coast city. And it’s my home town!! The crazy thing is that last week is the first time that I have been back to my home town since I was a little girl. And trust me…that was a little while ago. Mr. Fix-It saw to it that I was going to make that trip and so on Wednesday, he announced that we were going on a day drive. We loaded up our little Ellie dog (long-haired dachshund) and headed out early in the morning. I did not know what to expect from the north central part of our state, but I can tell you that I fell in love. It is absolutely beautiful. So, I have included a few photos of the town of Bartlesville just to show you that we aren’t a bunch of country hicks down here. Next post, I’d like to share photos of the amazing Woolaroc Park just west of Bartlesville, former country ranch of Frank and Jane Phillips that has now been turned into a wildlife preserve and Native American artifacs/American art museum.  When one first comes into Bartlesville, hillarious water towers labeled Hot, Cold and Warm are there to meet.  The Price Tower is hard to miss as its 19 stories hover over the downtown. The Price Tower was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, one of quite a number of buildings in Oklahoma with his signature. This building is the only skyscraper built that was designed by Wright and is created along the lines of 1920’s Art Deco architecture. It was finished in 1956. Covered in decorated sheets of copper, it is one of the most unusual buildings I’ve ever seen.  The “Spirit of Performance” Sculpture by Tasso Patsiri – it was presented in 1992 to the City by the Phillips Petroleum Company in honor of Phillips Petroleum Company’s 75th Anniversary  In Oklahoma, many of the towns have taken on animal mascots and Bartlesville’s is the buffalo. Artist Jan Martin McGuire’s life-size bison, painted with various scenes, dot the city and stand sentinal in front of businesses and city buildings. These critters are on the grounds of the Community Center.  I thought the architecture of community center was just lovely.  Mr. Fix-It was fascinated by the huge, wooden replica of the first commercial oil well in Oklahoma near Bartlesville in Indian Territory, the Nellie Johnstone #1 well. It produced over 100,000 barrels of oil from 1897 until 1947.  Frank Phillips built a home in 1909 in Bartlesville in order to bring his family from Iowa. Family remains philanthropic toward the community. Donated to the Oklahoma Historical Society, the home has seen wonderful care. Now open to tours, the home offers you the chance to truly step back into the early 1900’s since most of what is in the home is original.  The houses in Bartlesville are just gorgeous.  This was the Junior High near our home back in the ’50’s. Isn’t it pretty and well-kept for its age?!  And this is the home where my parents lived in 1954 in that garage apartment at the back. It’s in awesome shape, isn’t it?! I thorougly enjoyed my day trip to Bartlesville, getting to actually see places of my past. Mr. Fix-It sure knows how to make a day special!!  |
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Archive for the ‘A Day In the Life Of An Okie’ Category
Random Travels – And Pictures!
Thursday, May 10th, 2012
Snakes Are Out
Tuesday, May 8th, 2012
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Well, the sneaky snakes are out in force. This critter showed up on the driveway and was so big Mr. Fix-It and I could see him from the house. He was around 5 feet long and 2 ” in diameter. He had been eating because there were bumps all the way to the tail and he was really slow. I poked him with a stick to make sure he was alive and not hurt, and he showed me he was fine by coming after me!!! As best as I can tell, he is a Prairie King Snake and they are pretty aggressive. So, I took off with a squeal and gave him his space. We leave king snakes alone because they eat the pigmy rattlers and copperheads.   |
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Adventures In Canning
Tuesday, May 1st, 2012
 I like to think of myself as “Low-maintenance”. It doesn’t sound all that spectacular, I know. Mr. Fix-It says that he considers me to be “pretty low maintenance”. I think he appreciates that I don’t beg him for the latest $250 shoes or a bigger house with swimming pool and hot tub.. I’m positive he was relieved when I liked a Nissan Versa rather than a Mercedes (as if we could afford a Mercedes!). And it’s been a really, really, really long time since I’ve gotten a piece of jewelry. I don’t wear it and so I don’t care about it. I’m at the age where I’ve finally figured out that “you can’t take it with you”, and so practical and useful in the here and now is more on my wish list than gorgeous and flashy. Out here in the country, the squirrels, cows and bunny rabbits could care less whether any of us has a diamond or a cubic zirconia. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I get more excited over kitchen items then I do a fur coat! So, you can understand how excited I’ve gotten over a new product introduced to me by friend and reader, Shari. As an avid canner and as a canning teacher, any new-fangled canning item is a treat for me. When I learned about the Tattler Reusable Lids, I just had to try them. These lids can be used over and over instead of tossing them as one must do with traditional lids after use. The website offers free shipping, which is awesome, and sometimes there is a sale – which is how I ordered mine! I have been waiting until my first crop – the strawberries – came in to try the lids out and so this past weekend’s pick of 8 quarts of strawberries gave me the opportunity.  A box of 12 reusable lids includes 12 plastic lids and 12 rubber rings. These items are BPA free.  The lids and the rubber rings are prepared in hot water (do not boil) just like the traditional metal lids.  After washing the rims of filled jars, the rubber rings are placed onto the rims.  Then the lids are carefully placed over the rubber gaskets.  Metal rings are screwed onto the jars but not tightened. Using one finger to press onto the lid, finger tighten the ring. (I had to use one hand to take the picture so no finger on the lid!!)  Jars are processed exactly as jars with the traditional lids. Since this is strawberry jam, I waterbathed the jars for 15 minutes. When jars are removed, the lids are immediately tightened. When the jars have cooled completely, remove the metal rings and pull gently on the lids to make sure they have sealed. You can either store with the metal ring reattached or without it. To use the food in a jar, a dull table knife is gently inserted between the rubber gasket and the glass rim to pry up the lid. Once used, just wash the lid and rubber ring in warm, soapy water and store for next time. Reusable! Cool, huh? |
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The Strawberries Are In!
Saturday, April 28th, 2012
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For those of you who don’t know, the website was down this past week because some icky person in the Ukraine decided to attack it. Nearly 800,000 hits overwhelmed the server and ‘kablam’ – it crashed. Thankfully, a very kind and humorous man at Fatcow.com, the company that hosts this site, spend hours on the phone with me and determined that we had experienced a DOS hit – that’s Denial Of Service for those of you who are computer illiterate. I can say that with a straight face because I’d never heard of it either!!! This man, Chris from Tempe, AZ, took me through a not-so-fascinating, and totally more than I ever wanted to know, trail of logs, files, websites and computerese to discover the IP address that was creating havoc. He was very excited when he found it. He admitted that it does not take much to thrill him. But he then mumbled to himself and me, over the phone, that he was going to look up his favorite website to see if he could trace the addess. While listening to him mumble, I could hear computer keys typing an then Chris said, “Oh no!! My favorite website is down.” “It must be catching,” I said. But Chris replied, “Not to worry! Every good nerd has a backup site!” This man is comfortable in his own skin! He took me to this backup site and, ‘voila’, we could see where the IP address had been given out – from a company in the Netherlands. I typed the address into their search engine and bingo!! The address had been given to somebody in the Ukraine. So, somebody in this far off country is not a nice person!  Be that as it may, I am getting on with normal and moving on to appreciate the more simple things in life, like my strawberries. What a bumper crop we are having! Not one, single deformed berry has appeared. No bug bites, no slug bites and no bird bites. This spring has been so awesome that the strawberries have really flourished. I love picking strawberries. They are so friendly! No stickers and no spines, they are just fun to pick. And as I pick, I am constantly thanking God for these amazing, beautiful little jewels. They are so red that it just amazes my artist eye. And as that artist, I realize that it is obvious that God knew what He was doing because he nestled these pretty ruby gems beneath deep, green leaves, knowing that these complimentary colors just bounce off of each other. As you can tell, I love my strawberries. Strawberry Jam will be in the works this afternoon!  By the way, does anybody know what kind of plant this is? It is in my flower bed and I love it. I would like to see if I can find some more, but have no clue what it is!! UPDATE: Thanks to reader, Cindy, for helping me identify this beautiful flower. It is a broadleaf Penstemon – Penstemon ovatus. The Penstemon is native to Oklahoma. Pretty neat. Thanks, Cindy!! |
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Cooking from the 1930’s IV
Monday, April 16th, 2012
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First order of business: It’s time for another Giveaway, don’t you think? Mother’s Day is coming soon and I’m thinkin’ some mother should get a tea package to celebrate her special day!! And so, starting today and through May 4th, leave a comment and your name will be thrown into the hat for a drawing on May 5th. The winner will receive the package pictured below: A Tea-For-Two teapot, a cute tin of one of our signature teas with tea infuser and a package of our wonderful Victorian House Scones. Sound good? Great! Start commenting on posts and enter early and often.  Second order of business: Patrice Lewis over at the Rural Revolution, who has so kindly linked to this blog, has produced a series of E-books on canning and country living that are handy indeed. Since they are only $1.50 each, they are so affordable and since they are around 20 pages each, are easy to print off to keep at your fingertips. You can order Patrice’s booklets here. OK, so for a past number of posts, I have been sharing handwritten recipes, from my grandmother, that are recorded in a 1931 edition of the Rumford Cookbook which was put out by the Rumford Baking Powder company. This week, I tried another one of those recipes and Mr. Fix-It gave a big thumbs up. As usual, my grandmother only wrote down the ingredients with a few mixing instructions, but this time she did give a baking time and the instructions to use a “moderate” oven. I figured that would be around 350º. My figuring was correct!  I have also been including some exerpts from a book that my father wrote, called Sailing Down The River Of Memories which is about his growing up years in the 1930’s and 1940’s. The following exerpt, I thought, would be fun for those of you with children. It seems that in today’s fast-paced, technology-permeated world, we’ve forgotten some of the simple games of the last century. And I will say that some of those games were pretty rough! “Flying Dutchman – Players held hands in a circle while one couple who was IT walked counterclockwise outside the circle. When they hit the joined hands of two players, both IT an the other couple then ran in opposite directions around the circle trying to be the first back to the opening in the circle. The losers became IT. When I was about seven, Treva Scott, who was older than I, and I were tagged. She got ahead of me as we ran and the heel of her shoe hit me in the mouth, knocking four front teeth loose. Fortunately, they were baby teeth. I’ve heard of a person “putting his foot in his mouth” but never of someone else doing it. Mumble Peg – A knife with a long and a short blade opened on one end was needed. The knife was opened with the short blade out straight and the long blade at a 90-degree angle. The player put the long blade touching the ground and fipped the knife into the air. The game was played two ways. In one, points were given when the short blade stuck into the ground, the long blade stuck or both blades stuck. In the other, the winner had to stick the knife all three ways – long blade into the ground, long and short blade into the ground and the short blade in with the base of the knife resting on the ground making a triangle. Sometimes, we flipped the knife off of our wrist or hand. Leap Frog-One boy leaned over with his hands on his knees while a second boy ran up and putting his hands on the bent back, vaulted over him. Sometimes several boys would line up about three feet apart and the jumper tried to jump all without stopping or breaking rhythm. The real challenge was to vault over two or three boys who leaned over one another. Indoor Games-We played many indoor party games such as “poor pussy”, “heavy, heavy hangs over your head,” “odd or even,” “I see something you don’t see” and “hot or cold”… Dropping Clothes Pins into the Milk Bottle-Milk came in long-necked quart milk bottles with the opening about one inch in diameter. We took three straight clothes pins, stood above the milk bottle and tried to drop the pins into the bottle. Just like Me-This game was popular with adults who liked to pull it on a young child. Interesting enough, some children liked to play it over and over again. Leader: You have to say, “Just like me” after anything I say. Ready? I went upstairs. Child: Just like me Leader: I walked down the hall Child: Just like me Leader: I came to a door Child: Just like me Leader: I went in the room Child: Just like me Leader: I looked in the mirror Child: Just like me Leader: I saw a monkey Child: Just like me No adults needed-I guess one thing that made our play “ours” was that it was something WE did. No adult was needed. We made a lot of the things we played with such as kites, boats, stilts, balls. When we wanted to play baseball, we got enough boys together, found a ball and bat and played. We didn’t need a coach to teach us how to hit or pitch. We learned by playing. No adult stood on the sideline shouting at us for making an error or for not hitting a home run. Playing with friends was the main thing. ” Update:I have to add a note that was sent to me from my cousin – daughter of my father’s sister. It was just too neat not to share: “I’ve enjoyed reading your take on Grandmother’s cookbook. I remember the recipe on back of the letter, but I never even thought of trying it-or the red devil’s food, even though I know Mom made it bunches of times. She said she started making it at age 12 and that became her specialty for Hightower family gatherings. Last night she said sometimes she would make it and a white cake, then marble the two batters in a tube pan. She said it was always a hit when she did that and that it made a very large cake! Your mention of the letter with the recipe on the back reminds me Mom said that when Granddad was self-employed or looking for employment, Grandmother would type his letters. She taught herself to type with an instruction book like Mom used in high school that she got from Aunt Helen. She always kept a dictionary handy because she was so concerned that she would misspell something. Our grandmother was a hard worker! I don’t know how old she was when the was cashier at Aunt Ruth’s store in Pittsburg but I know she wasn’t young. Mom said Grandmother worked wherever they moved. I do remember her working in a candy store in Indianapolis. That would be the one I would remember!! Also from your dad’s writing, the Just Like Me rhyme reminds me of her. I can still hear us laughing when she did it with me. Just last week, I was reading a nursery rhyme book to Ben and that was in there. So I played it with him the way our grandparents did with us, and we laughed ourselves silly. He wanted to do it over and over.” So, on to making cookies that would have satisfied that crew of busy boys! Grandmother T. only has “Refrigerator Cookies” written in the corner of the paper on which she recorded this recipe. The fun part is that it is on the back of a letter that my grandfather had written to some company, applying for a construction foreman’s postition. Back then, a resume was just a list of past postitions in a one page letter! I think that you will like these cookies and the only addition I can see making is chocolate chips! I know. With me, it’s always chocolate! But they really would be good in the cookies. 1 cup shortening (I used 1/2 cup shortening and 1/2 cup butter 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup granulated sugar 2 well-beaten eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 1/2 cup flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon soda 3 cus quick cooking oatmeal 1/2 cup choped nuts  Add shortening or shortening and butter to a large mixing bowl.  Add brown sugar  And the granulated sugar  Thoroughly cream shortening and sugars. Add beaten eggs.  And vanilla and mix well  Add flour and mix  Add oatmeal. We roll our own oats so I used that even though it calls for “quick cooking” oats. It worked great.  Add nuts. Of course, I had to use my grandmother’s nut chopper from her vintage kitchen!  Shape the dough into rolls. I made the dough into two rolls, but I suggest making three. The cookies were really, really big with the two rolls.  Wrap the rolls in wax paper and chill thoroughly or overnight.  Slice cookies about 1/4″ thick and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350º for 10 minutes.  Just a note: Leave LOTS of space between your cookies. Otherwise, you get a sheet of cookies!!  The second batch worked much better!! I used parchment paper on my cookie sheet and put plenty of space between the cookies. They came out perfect. Yummy! I’ll be adding the chocolate chips next time! |
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Cooking in the 1930’s Part III
Tuesday, April 10th, 2012
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I’ve been posting some hand-written recipes in my grandmother’s 1931 issue of the Rumford Cookbook as I am trying them out, myself. It is just too neat to see my grandmother’s penmanship on favorite recipes and to know that I am mixing what she used to mix up for her family, including my dad and my Aunt Lois. In my last post, I gave you a little tidbit of my father’s memories as recorded in his book, Sailing Down The River Of Memories. I thought that I would post a few more of those memories here, that I thought you might enjoy: “We churned our own butter. Lois and Dad liked the buttermilk, but I never developed the taste for it. We never used Oleo margarine (called Oleo) although we sold it in the store. During the thirties, oleo came in a clear sack and looked like white shortening because the butter industry had a law passed to keep it from being colored yellow and looking like butter. A small package of yellow food dye was included in the package. The oleo had to be kneaded with the dye until it turned yellow. Sometimes a person didn’t do a good job kneading it because there would be reddish-yellow streaks throughout the oleo. Some mothers didn’t take the time to color it so it looked as if they were serving lard. As I said, we had butter to go with Mom’s jellies and jams as well as wild honey. I don’t remember anyone in the community with a bee hive, but Dad or some farmer might find a bee tree down by the river that they cut down and then divided the honey among friends. Wild honey was dark, strong and delicious on hot biscuits… Mom was a woman ahead of her time. During the summer of 1940, she got the idea of freezing strawberries so she wrapped a couple of quarts in waxed butcher paper and put them in the ice cream freezer [at the store]. Then, she served them for Christmas. Why was this ahead of her time? Because frozen food didn’t come to the rest of the country until 1945 when frozen orange juice and Swanson and Sons frozen chicken and turkey came to market. People really thought she was smart. Oh yes, one winter we put some snow balls in the freezer and had a snow ball fight the next summer. Unfortunately, they got icy and never thawed out, so they sort of hurt when we got hit… Eating in a restaurant was a big event because we didn’t do it very often, but when we did, we went to family types, not the more expensive ones. Dad and I ate at the stockyards where we took cows and hogs. We ate at the ‘dime store’ such as Woolworth or Kresses or Newberry when Mom took us to Joplin. My favorite was the ‘blue plate special’. It was sliced roast beef on a slice of bread with mashed potatoes covered with gravy, slaw and a coke. A real special was a three-decker club sandwich at the Crown Drugstore. Man, was that good. Down at Pawhuska we went to a pig stand for pork bar-b-que and limeaid or coke…The first fast food place I remember was in Joplin out on Seventh and Maiden Lane during the late 1930’s. It was called “Chicken in the Rough” and had a logo of a rooster with a golf club. We got a paper plate with fried chicken, shoe string potatoes, a dish of honey and hot rolls. We sat in the car and ate it with our fingers which is why it was called “in the rough”. The Checkerboard Cafe’ with the outside walls painted red and black like a checkerboard was noted for coney islands. We sometimes ate at Chili King who served the best chili but he would not serve milk to drink because according to him, it would make a person sick. Oh yes, we did not drink milk when we had fish either. Why? Because. That was explanation enough!” There are 362 pages of memories, geneologies and photographs for us to cherish! And as I posted last time, one of the recipes that my father mentions as a favorite, was my grandmother’s Red Devil Food Cake. I found it in the tattered pages of the Rumford Cookbook, written quickly and precisely. However, there are no baking instructions at all! I had to elaborate on my own. In looking in our family cookbook, I saw that my Aunt Lois also included this recipe and with the note, “(The cake I learned to bake as a child and it was served often at family get togethers)…Note: There are no baking instructions included in my recipe” So here is the recipe and my decision to bake the cake layers at 350º for 20-25 minutes. 1/2 cup sour cream, lard or butter 2 cups flour 1 egg 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 tsp soda 4 Tbsp Cocoa 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/2 cup buttermilk or sour milk 1/2 cup boiling water chopped pecans (optional) Sift together flour and soda and set aside.  Place sour cream, butter or lard into a mixing bowl. I decided to try sour cream. Next time I am going to try butter.  Add sugar  Cream until smooth  In a mixing cup, place cocoa and whisk as 1/2 cup boiling water is slowly added to dissolve. When the mixture is nice and smooth, add to the creamed mixture.  Add flour/soda mixture and stir and then add buttermilk or sour milk. You can sour milk by adding 1 tbsp vinegar into a mixing cup and then pour 3/4 cup milk into the vinegar. Allow to stand for 20 minutes and it will curdle. Pour out 1/2 of the thickest curds.  Add one egg and mix until batter is smooth and uniform  Add vanilla and mix. Unlike the batter in the last cake recipe, this batter is runny. My dad and his family also referred to it as “gravy cake”.  Divide the batter between two greased and floured cake pans. Bake at 350º for 20 – 25 minutes. Use a toothpick to check for doneness at 20 minutes to make sure you do not over bake. Invert pans onto cooling racks and allow to cool completely. Ice with recipe in the last post or use your own. Sprinkle with chopped pecans.  Here’s something neat. I am keeping the cake in my Grandmother T’s cake keeper in which she used to house the same confection! And generations of cooks continue on! |
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Natural Fruit Moth Killer
Thursday, April 5th, 2012
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I know, I’m side-tracked as usual. I’m supposed to be showing you another cake recipe, but Mr. Fix-It has discovered something that is so cool that I had to share. We have fruit trees – peach, nectarine and a variety of apples. Every year, Mr. Fix-It has tried everything on the market to keep the nasty fruit-ruining moths from using the fruit as incubators for their icky, squiggly progeny. Every year, we have these lovely big peaches and nectarines, only to have them deflate on being picked or covered with gross brown sections. I have no clue where Mr. Fix-It found the recipe, but find it he did, and, as the wonderful, independent man that he is, made up a batch of the liquid himself. He gathered some plastic bottles, cut holes in them, filled them and hung them in the trees. We were both sceptical at first, but oh wow!! Those bottles have been FULL to the top of the liquid with dead moths that never made it to the flowers or fruit and Mr. Fix-It has now made up two more batches of “pesticide” to refill the bottles. I took photos of the most recent fill and already there were moths in the bottles. Ick. And so, we are thrilled and can’t wait to get some normal fruit this year!! I figure those of you in the north are just getting blooms on the trees and so maybe I posted this in time. Those of us in the south have trees that are already full of fruit. The bottles go into the trees as they bloom and stay in the trees as the fruit forms. Moth Killer Recipe 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 1/4 cup molasses 1/8 tsp ammonia 5 cups of water Mix ingredients together into a container that pours. On a plastic pop, water, syrup or any large type of plastic bottle, cut a rectangle approximately 3″ by 5″ just below the spout with the top of the cut at the spot where the bottle curves up to the spout. Put about 3″ of mixture into your bottle and cut two holes in the top to run a wire through to hang in the tree. Hang one bottle per tree for regular sized fruit trees. Put two in a large tree. Pour out and add more mixture when the bottle is full of moths.  Mr. Fix-It used a pop bottle for a peach tree  A syrup bottle goes in one of the apple trees.  This bottle had just been filled the evening before, for the third round of fluid. Previous rounds had been dumped because there were so many moths in the liquid. Already, new moths were caught. Isn’t that amazing? |
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A Homemaker Funny
Saturday, March 24th, 2012
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I have been taking care of my little granddaughter and have gotten absolutely NOTHING done!! She is almost 4 months old and is the joy of my life! What a doll. I caught her sleeping yesterday and am pretty proud of my photo.  But I did have a chance to sit down to Facebook where a friend had posted this sign. I got a good giggle. I think that it applies to Grandmoms and Aunts as well. I thought it was appropriate to pass it on to all you GREAT homemakers out there.  |
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Cooking From the 1930’s – Part I
Wednesday, March 14th, 2012
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Don’t forget to leave a comment to enter the Bread Pan Giveaway to win two unique bread pans. The winner will be chosen on St. Patrick’s Day I’ve had an interesting week and it isn’t even over yet! My sister, from the Dallas area, flew here to spend time with me and to meet my little granddaughter for the first time. We had a blast taking care of my granddaughter for two solid days. She is three months old, is grinning from ear-to-ear and is making every sound in the world in an attempt to communicate. And as all grandmothers are supposed to do, I worked hard to teach her the kinds of things that three month olds are supposed to know, especially how to make a sustained “ahhhh” while grandmother bounces a finger over baby’s mouth to make a vibrating “ahhhh”. Of course, I made a video and of course I put it on Facebook for the family. It is amazing to me that I am a grandmother. I remember my times spent with my grandmothers and it is just mind-boggling how time marches on from one generation to another. Someday, this little, budding personality in my arms will be a grandmother too and I’ll be long gone. However, my name and my memory will carry on just as my grandmothers’ names and memories carry on for me in my memories, my stories, my pictures and in my cooking. It is such a daunting task, but such an honor, to be able to pass on faith, values and lessons to the little ones. Recently, my cousin sent me a treasure from the past that is most dear. She had, in her possession, the Rumford Complete Cookbook that my grandmother (on my father’s side) had used from the early 1930’s until she died in the early 1970’s. The funny thing is, there is not one, single recipe in that cookbook that any of us remember my grandmother fixing. She did not use those recipes! She used the book, and its many blank pages, to record in her distinctive pen, her own favorite recipes, accounts of everyday life, and geneologies. When family would come for a visit, family members wrote their own observations of the time too. It is a precious collection of moments in time.  On the inside of the front cover is a combination of my grandmother’s handwriting recording the first snow in 1939 (December 23) and the first snow in 1971 (November 22) and then below, my great-aunt Suzie wrote the oddest entry: “Sept 16 1942 We all took supper with Chas. and Frances [my grandparents], of course. Chas did a lot of griping but after all I told him he was the only one working so we would just not [illegible]. Don’t know if he appreciated it or not. We wrote down all the nieces and nephews ages after several arguments finally had to finish up correspondent for Frances. Don’t forget Elmer ate the chicken feet and all – don’t know where they scratched.” Elmer was my great-uncle Elmer and he was worried about where the chicken feet he’d just eaten had been while on the chicken!!  I decided that since I did a series on my mother’s mother’s cookbook of 1914, I would do one on my father’s mother’s cookbook of 1931 as well. Only, instead of using the recipes printed in the book like “Codfish Fritters” and “Perfect Fish Balls”, I’d use the tried and true recipes that my grandmother recorded and actually made. And since today is “Pi Day” (It’s March 14th – 3.14 – silly!!) I thought that I would make Grandmother Thurman’s lemon pie. I can remember her whipping one out at the stove while I watched. She dearly loved anything lemon, especially lemon sour candy, but her pies were not to be outdone. 1 Pie shell, baked  I keep my pie crust mix in the freezer, take out enough to make however many pie crusts I plan and let the mix thaw for a little while before mixing with water. Having it cold makes it much flakier. Roll out your pie crust, of course on an Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™! Place the pie crust in your tin. I am using a tin that you can find at the shopping page that has a perforated insert to keep the crust from shrinking.  I like to flute my crusts  When using the additional perforated tin, it is placed into the pie tin over the crust. Bake the crust at 400º for 15-20 minutes and allow to cool  In the meantime, place sugar and flour into a medium saucepan and stir to mix  Add cup of boiling water very slowly and stir to make a creamy mixture and heat to boiling  Slowly add beaten eggs, whisking as you pour.  Add lemon juice and lemon zest.  Stir until thickened to a pudding texture  Pour the custard into the baked pie shell. Chill in the refrigerator until cold all the way through. There will be enough room in the pie shell to also add a topping  Slice and serve topped with freshly made whipped cream or canned whipped cream. I don’t like the flavor of Cool Whip with it. Or you can make meringue to place on top and bake until lightly browned. I’m not a big pie meringue fan but lots of people are! |
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C’est La Vie – C’est La Soup
Friday, March 9th, 2012
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I know. I know. I’m behind. I can’t seem to catch myself coming or going. But I did manage to catch a car!! And it didn’t involve one of those icky salesmen either. We got a normal, honest one.  For those of you who follow the blog, you know that I have been on a frustrating search for a hunk of metal with four wheels that doesn’t take $100 to fill the gas tank and that uses what IS put in its tank, sparingly. I have driven one model after another, enamored with the outsides, only to find doors that felt like aluminum foil and innards like a bumper car. And then I discovered the Nissan Versa Hatchback and fell in love. It is heavy for a car its size, is very roomy inside (seats 5 people), actually has pep and gets 33 mpg highway miles (Mr. Fix-It and I checked it). I splurged and got fancy alloy wheels today and so now I really look Up-Town…well, as Up-Town as a platinum haired (we don’t say ‘gray’ around here) woman can look. I love the back end space where there is plenty of room to haul Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ gift baskets for delivery. Yep. I’m a happy camper. Oh yes, and I found out today, that it actually stays on the highway when we have our 40 mph winds sweeping down the plains!! And so, between finding a car, filling orders and playing with my grandbaby, time has slipped away and I all of a sudden realized that this is Thursday. Oh no!! I’ve been seriously blogless this week. Of course, the March Bread Pans Giveaway is still ongoing, so be sure to leave comments to enter. And it appears that quite a number of people tried the new bread recipe posted last week and found it as delightful as Mr. Fix-It and I did. Therefore, I thought I’d show you one of the ways that I use the French bread from my last post which just tickles Mr. Fix-It to death. I make my own French Onion Soup recipe and top it with a toasted piece of this yummy bread, melted Swiss Cheese over that and serve it piping hot. Here is my recipe for French Onion soup. (And you must remember that I am a dump cook so I measured what I was dumping for you. You can increase amounts according to the size of your family) 2 tbsp real, honest to goodness (not the margarine or yogurt stuff) butter 2 tbsp flour 1/2 cup cool water 1 medium onion sliced into thin rings 1 clove garlic finely minced or pressed 4 cups beef broth or 4 cups water and 4 beef bouillon cubes  Melt butter in a 2 quart sauce pan over medium high heat  Add onions and garlic and sauté until onions are tender  Add two tbsp flour and stir to make a roue  Add 1/2 cup cool water, stirring quickly to form a thick gravy  Add beef broth and stir until thoroughly mixed.  Stir soup occassionally as it simmers at a low boil for 30 minutes, adding water or broth if liquid reduces  Take 4 slices of crusty french bread and toast lightly. May butter if you wish.  Pour soup into bowls that have been placed on a cookie sheet.  Place bread slices on top of the soup and top with slices of Swiss cheese. Place the cookie sheet and bowls into the oven on broil. Broil until cheese is bubbly.  Garnish with parsley and serve hot with a salad or fruit. Yum!! |
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