 You might remember that in our family, we have one Sir Flying Ace who lives in Northwestern Oklahoma in the town of Alva. Sir Flying Ace is a man now…strong, mustached and goateed. He flies, repairs aircraft and works for a company that makes aircraft interiors. He combines wheat for the fun of it and hunts with his buddies in season. So you get the picture. He’s a man! Well, Sir Flying Ace has a dog. His dog’s name is Belle, as in Blue Belle. She is a blue heeler and Tenacious is her middle name. This past week, as she romped through the back yard of her western Oklahoma digs, she did exactly that…she dug. And she dug. And she carried a present to Sir Flying Ace to deposit at his feet…a little brown, furry thing. Now Sir Flying Ace, not having encountered too many little, brown furry things except a raccoon or two, called me to inform me that he was trying to warm up what he thought was a baby ground squirrel. It’s eyes were still closed and Sir Flying Ace had run to the local WalMart to grab some puppy formula to attempt to feed this tiny animal. He took a picture with his cell phone and sent me the photo of the critter. It was not a ground squirrel. It was a teeny tiny bunny rabbit.  I received a text message shortly thereafter that Belle had produced another bunny rabbit and by the evening, Mr. Sir Flying Ace was playing mommy to six little rabbits, all with their eyes closed. Belle had discovered the nest under the apricot tree and had ruined everything for Mama Rabbit.  For three days now, my son has been feeding baby bunnies. Unfortunately, one of them did not survive, but the rest are thriving. Using a syringe, without the needle and with a tiny tip, he pushes just a little bit of milk into their mouths until they start sucking it out. He is pretty smart, I have to admit. He knew that if he took the box of rabbits to work, all of the young ladies in the office would go crazy and beg to get to feed them. He was right. In fact, one woman took the thumpers home overnight to feed every hour, so that her children could see them. But of course, she brought them back.  Today, the cottontails’ eyes opened.  And they started cleaning each other with little tongues. And they are semi-hopping on the floor. It won’t be long until Sir Flying Ace will have to let his babies leave the nest. But I am very proud of him for taking such a serious and gentle interest in the little orphans. He’ll make a good mama someday…I mean, husband! 🙂 And yes, now he is going to kill me. Love you son!  UPDATE: Just got back from visiting Sir Flying Ace and I got to feed the bunnies! They are sooo cute! Here are a few pictures that I took to share. They are growing up!  After feeding, the bunnies pile up together to sleep. They are eating grass clippings and pieces of apricot from the tree.  They are getting bigger!  Sir Flying Ace is giving the rabbits time in the grass each day to get them used to being out on their own.  But they are all still pretty small! Still too young to be turned loose.  |
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Here Comes Peter Cottontail
May 25th, 2012
Random Travels II: Woolaroc
May 19th, 2012
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Last post, I took you to my birthplace of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. As part of that day trip, Mr. Fix-It and I made a detour to the gorgeous landscape of Woolaroc refuge. If you are ever out our way, you have to go see this place. It is beautiful. And the museums are amazing. You can read about the park here.  Established in 1925, Woolaroc was the precious retreat of oil businessman, Frank Phillips of Phillips Petroleum fame. The name, Woolaroc, is taken from letters of ‘woods’, ‘lakes’ and ‘rocks’, highlights of the 3600 acre property. Located just outside of Bartlesville, Woolaroc has been preserved to offer visitors a step back into the late 1800’s and early 1900’s and to remind them of the rich heritage of our state of Oklahoma.  Most people think of Oklahoma as “the plains” where the wind comes rolling down (according to the song in the musical), and there are parts of the state where that is true. However, in the Bartlesville area, the Osage Hills offer lakes and forests that are quiet and breathtaking.  Teepees dot the glades near the Mountain Man Camp on the property.  Frank Phillips searched all over for wildlife to populate his retreat. He turned the acreage into a preserve. We saw buffalo and several albino deer in the pastures.  There are several museums on location, but this particular one is incredible. Packed with artwork of the west, Native American artifacts and even buggies and wagons of the Land Run days, several hours must be set aside to see everything.  One of the spur collections in the museum. Even today, cowboys on the ranches still use spurs when working on horseback. A quality, handmade spur is a thing of beauty and a source of pride.  The collection of Native American artifacts is extensive. This display of head dresses, as well as displays of numerous beaded, leather outfits are just gorgeous.  Western artwork is on display throughout the museum. This painting by Frederick Remington is just an example of the fine collection.  Right in the middle of one of the large rooms is a full-sized schooner wagon with complete setup for heading out onto the plains in search of land to call home!   The infamous outlaw, Belle Starr, is imortalized in bronze near the gardens  This friendly statue is at the entrance and the exit of the park to wave ‘hello’ and ‘good-bye’. Be sure to go online to the Woolaroc website to see all of the events and opportunities that are offered. And if you are looking for a fun vacation place to visit, put Woolaroc on your list! As the song says, ♪♪ “O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A! Oklahoma!! ♪♪ |
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Random Travels – And Pictures!
May 10th, 2012
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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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Snakes Are Out
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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Winner In The Mother’s Day Giveaway!
May 7th, 2012
 Surprise – surprise! As Mr. Fix-It was doing his due dilligence in drawing a name out of the bucket for the winner of our Mother’s Day Tea Party gift, I decided, on a lark, to give away TWO gift sets. Mr. Fix-It generously agreed to draw out a second name. And so, I am proud to announce that the winners of our May giveaway are Ryan Gott and Gayle Jones. Both will be receiving a box with the tea party gifts in the photo above, just in time for Mother’s Day. And for the rest of the month, in honor of Mother’s Day and Spring, our Apricot Orchard tea will be on sale at 15% off. A $4.25 tin of loose tea will be $3.60 through the month of May. This tea is just amazing and makes wonderful hot tea or iced tea, depending on your mood. |
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Adventures In Canning
May 1st, 2012
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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!
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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Original Fish or Chicken Rub
April 24th, 2012
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As is usual for out in the country, the internet has been down for a few days and my I-phone has served for emergency web surfing. Yes, there is such a thing as emergency web surfing. One must bare one’s soul on Facebook and email or life comes to a screeching halt! And yes, I do know the definition of addiction. But the I-Phone is no substitute for a laptop when it comes to blog work. And speaking of baring souls, I guess I’ll have to come clean and admit that I can really make a mess of things. Yep. I have done some really dumb things in my life, but I’ll have to say that last week proved that I can top even the dumbest things I’ve done. On Friday, my daughter and her husband asked us to babysit for our little 4 1/2 month old granddaughter so that they could go to a banquet. At 3 in the afternoon, I gathered supplies at their house, placed diaper bag and gear into my car and snapped the carseat, little granddaughter snugly harnessed, into the base which is in the back seat. I tossed my keys into the front driver’s seat to have both hands free and arranged everything to my satisfaction. Aiming to run around to the driver’s side, I slammed the back door shut, only to hear a sickening “click” as my car locked all of the doors with a, “See? Who’s in control NOW, sucker!!” I freaked. It was cool outside, but the sun was shining directly onto the back of my hatchback and so I knew that it was going to get warm really fast in the car. I ran up the steps of my daughter’s front porch and started pounding on the door to catch her before she got into the shower. Now, there is one thing that I have come to realize about grandmotherhood. Your grandchild isn’t your child and so there’s this feeling of extra, extra, extra responsibility that goes with the title of ‘grandparent’. I didn’t even think about the fact that my daughter might tell me that I’m an imbecile or that I shouldn’t even HAVE keys to a car in the first place. My only thought was focused on my poor little grandbaby locked in my child-eating car. It was at the moment my daughter opened the door and was quizically assessing my panicked face that I had the humbling feeling that I would definitely be dropping in my daughter’s admiration of my intelligence. I explained what had happened. Without a word, she was quickly on the phone with a locksmith. Well, did you know that locksmiths don’t unlock cars with babies in them? Something about liability. If they don’t get there on time, then they are liable. The locksmith told my daughter to call 911. Next, I heard her tell the situation to the 911 operator and as she hung up the phone, I could hear the wail of sirens in the distance. Pretty fast! A minute later, the biggest, shiniest, reddest fire truck roared into place in front of my daughter’s house (which is in a neighborhood of many, many nosy neighbors) and I would say that the entire fire department unloaded from the vehicle. I am thinking that they all wanted to see what the dumb, old broad looked like who would lock a precious baby in a car. Using a wedge and this thing that looked like a blood pressure checker, they pried the door of my nearly new car about 1/2″ apart and pushed a rod down to the locking mechanism to push on the unlock symbol. Click. Simple as that. My dear granddaughter, hair starting to mat against her head from sweat, was staring at her stuffed cow, blowing bubbles through her tiny lips and carrying on a conversation that only she could understand. When one of the firemen opened the back door, she grinned at him, face all lit up, as if to say, “You having fun too?!” He commented on what a happy baby she is and that she is awfully cute. We think so. I tried to pay him (he didn’t want a hug) but he said that this was just part of the job. Our heroes rode off in their bright red chariot as we waved them on. I am sure that the neighbors still wonder what that was all about. I have learned a new truth. The only people who can retrieve babies from locked cars are firemen. And firemen do it all the time because there are more idiots around than just me! Other people have automatic door locks too and their cars like to show them who’s boss too! I feel so much better. But I will never let my keys off of my person ever again!! Of course, cooking always strokes my wounded self-esteem and so I decided to do a little inventing to really make myself feel intelligent again. Mr. Fix-It had read about a rosemary-ginger seasoned salmon filet, grilled to perfection at some restaurant and as I could see his mouth watering as he tried to tell me about it, I decided that I might as well take a stab at my own version. I had a number of wild Alaskan salmon filets and so I thawed them and set to work throwing together a savory seasoning to rub onto the surfaces of the fish steaks. About a half an hour later, I had sampled a tiny taste of my mixture and decided it was perfect. It worked great as a rub and the charcoaled filets were perfection if I do say so myself! And Mr. Fix-It said they were too. He was a happy camper. This rub would work great on chicken as well. So if you would like to try something with a fresh and different flavor, here is the rub that I threw together. 3 Tbsp garlic powder 3 Tbsp any bottled garlic and herb mix (I used Frontier’s Garlic and Herb) 3 Tbsp paprika 3 Tbsp dried onion flakes 3 Tbsp dried rosemary 2 Tbsp ground ginger 3 Tbsp sugar 2 Tbsp salt Process first 6 ingredients in the blender until a powder. Add salt and sugar and mix thoroughly. Place in airtight container. Use as rub on fish or chicken, coating both sides, and charcoal.  Ginger and Rosemary make this rub taste so unique  Grinding all of the ingredients, except for the salt and sugar which are added after grinding, makes a uniform rub that can be easily sprinkled and rubbed into the meat. |
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Cooking from the 1930’s IV
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
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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