Friday Night Lights

I had been looking in my recipe books for something...For what?  I have no idea any more...but a couple of days later I found this on the floor:

It is said that odors or particular smells evoke memories: the same can be said for some recipes.

My mom, being the hospitable person that she was and the wife of a head football coach, invited all the coaches and their families to our house for waffles after every home football game.  She claimed that this act was really a selfish one. Wanting her husband to come home, yet knowing that coaches want to talk about the game afterward and knowing she did NOT want to talk about it, she devised a plan.  Just invite the other men that wanted to talk football (and their families) over. In that way, she (and the other wives) could have the best of both worlds.

During this time, mom did have a lady come clean the house every Thursday. (Her name was Eliza.) Mom's Thursday evenings were consumed not with house cleaning, but with making waffle batter and homemade syrup.  She used the recipe above for her syrup (right off of the maple flavoring package) and used the waffle recipe that came with her SunBeam waffle iron she received as a wedding gift back in 1949. (recipe to follow)

On Friday nights after the game, the wives would come and bring their children. We played while the ladies fried bacon and made waffles and visited. The men ate, talked, and drew football plays on paper napkins. Lots of good memories...and is the smell of bacon making you hungry?

Buttermilk Waffles

1/2 c melted butter                                                     2 T sugar

2 1/2 c flour                                                                 1 t salt

2 1/2 t soda                                                                  4 eggs

2 1/2 t baking powder                                                2 c buttermilk

                                                                                     1 1/2 t vanilla

Melt and cool butter.  Sift together dry ingredients.  Beat eggs at high speed until fluffy.  Add buttermilk and vanilla.  Beat to blend.  Pour over dry ingredients.  Beat until smooth.  Blend in melted butter.

He-Gwe's Presence in This House

I don't really know much about Bob's dad.  He died on February 14 (yes, Valentine's Day), 1973-- several years before Bob and I met.

Getting to find out a little bit more about him was one of the  unexpected blessings we received when going through Bob's mother's things after her death.  And in spite of the the fact that Ira Allen bears his name, this man had never been referred to by any other term than "your dad's dad".  The kids crafted the name "He-gwe" during this time of semi-revelation.  Yes, that's an unusual name, but Bob's mom was Gwe-Gwe (a story of its own).

There are a couple of random everyday things I've always done in our household that commemorate this man of mystery.  I don't think I've ever really shared this with my children, so I'm thinking now might be the time.

We always use Lea & Perrins worcestershire sauce because that's what he used.

 (and yes, those are tomatoes and peppers out of our garden...He-Gwe's dad was a farmer who sold his produce commercially using hot caps to get an early start.)

We use Oral B toothbrushes because that's what he preferred.

And there are a couple of things that we deliberately do differently than he did but which recall his memory none-the-less:

We only set one alarm clock every night.  He-Gwe always set two.  One was a wind-up clock; one was electric.  What if there were an electrical outage or he forgot to re-wind?  He did NOT want to be late for work and jeopardize his job.  He was very proud to be a USPS mail carrier.  (Yep, they were most likely called mailmen back then--)  Considering that he only had an 8th grade education, he had done very well for himself and his family.  He had a reason to be proud!

...and we do NOT use a hand-cranked ice cream freezer and chip ice off of a 25 lb. block of ice when we make homemade ice cream. When Bob told me of this little quirk of his dad's, Bob was given a choice: If we used bagged, crushed ice and an electric freezer, we would have homemade ice cream very often; if we used a hand-cranked freezer and block ice, the making of ice cream at home would be a very special (and rare) event.  I think you know what Bob chose!

He-Gwe, we think of you in these little ways and wish we could have really known you!

The Golden 50th

Last Saturday, we responded to this invitation by joining in the celebration.

Upon receiving the invitation, my first thought was, "What a wonderful way to celebrate!  Combining the anniversary celebrations! Excellent idea!  Cut down costs, only requiring a trip made once by loved ones, etc.  That's a great idea!  Wonder if it would work for Donnie & Steph's anniversary celebration to combine with ours?"  (I've since decided it would not be so ideal; we don't live in the same town nor go to the same church like my cousins Aubrey and Dean. Otherwise....)

Aubrey and Dean were quite a bit older than Donnie and me.  Their dad, Arvin (my dad's oldest brother), was 12 years older that my dad, who was the youngest in that family.  I was 6 years old when Aubrey and Janice married.  If memory serves me correctly, Bernita and Dean were married by the Justice of the Peace...in other words, they snuck off to get married.  On January 1?  Cool!  But Bernita mentioned that she had a milestone birthday coming up.  (It can't be 60, because I'll be 57 in a month...so it must be 70?  How can that be??!!  ...and she's probably the youngest of the honorees... Wow!)

Anyway, all that bird-walking to say my real message:  I come from a really awesome family.  I've had a rich heritage and many awesome examples of what it means to be a part of a committed and God-centered marriage.  I remember writing a card to Nanny (my mom's mom) the Christmas before Bob and I married in which I was thanking her for the example she and Pampa had left for us.  (They actually celebrated their 70th anniversary before death separated them!)

Granny and Grandad (my dad's parents) celebrated their 50th in December 1961 (if the information I gleaned from Saturday's celebration is correct.)  That means that the "new" dishes in my cabinet which my grandmother received on that anniversary are now over 50 years old!  Whoa!  My grandad died 4 years later which prevented them from celebrating anymore milestone anniversaries.

My mom and dad celebrated their 59th anniversary on July 6, 2008 before my dad's death in August of that year.

On Bob's side of the family...his parents were prevented from celebrating their Golden 50th by his dad's death in 1973.  (I think that's the date.)  I also believe that his Oma and Opa (his mom's parents) were kept away from that event by the death of Oma.  (Don't you just love that their names were German for Grandma and Grandpa?)  ...and there's a picture... of Grandmother and Grandfather Spies celebrating their 40th or 50th with the cake on "the" table.  (If/when I come across that photo, I'll insert it. The table now resides in Ira and Kelley's home.)  But I do know that death separated that dear couple also.

All that to say I'm very thankful for this example which has pervaded my whole way of thinking in the midst of a world where things other than death are often the cause of the termination of marriages.  Hopefully, by the grace of God, Bob and I will continue this rather sacred heritage.  This would be an awesome way to be an inspiration to our children and grandchildren...  July 23 will mark 35 years!  The best 35 years of my life!  I'm very blessed....

As Easy as... Boiling an Egg??

Deviled eggs were one of my mom's favorite foods.  It became her designated job to fix them when we were having family get-togethers. She was very eager to help always, and after I had boiled the eggs, this was a task she could do while sitting. 

But, "as easy as boiling an egg" and "She can't even boil an egg!"???  I'm not so sure about those sayings....The boiling may be easy, but the peeling???? Yuk!  I've heard about and tried many fool-proof tricks over the years, but I guess I'm the fool.  (And besides, I have had trouble remembering the tricks.)

...but since we now have laying hens from which we daily collect eggs and "doubled" eggs are now a desired part of (at least some) our grandchildren's diet, I NEED to know and remember those tricks (and pass that information on to my progeny) .

So I conducted some research:
I first did some simple google research.  I saw some absolutely disgusting things on U-tube (like blowing the hard-boiled egg out the end of the eggshell--Really, who wants my slobber on their egg?? even if you ARE family!) and read some way-too-detailed ways to boil eggs and peel them perfectly.  Then I boiled and peeled eggs every chance I got trying different methods and taking note of the results to come up with what would work best for me.

This is what I've come up with (and the reason it works best so I can remember what I've discovered):

1.  Eggs should be 7-10 days old.  Fresh eggs' whites tend to stick to the membrane because of their low acidity.  As eggs get older, the shell becomes more porous; the egg is allowed to let off some carbon dioxide and the white becomes more acidic and won't cling to the membrane as much.   Also, the white shrinks a bit and there can be more air space between the shell and membrane.  Use fresher eggs if you must, but you will NOT get a prettily peeled boiled egg. Just know that up front!

2.  Place eggs in water right out of the faucet.  (Because eggs aren't noodles!  If you put eggs into water that's already boiling or too hot, the shell will crack because of the extreme temperature change.)

3.  Once the water boils, put the lid on the pan and remove it from the source of heat.  The guidelines say to leave the eggs in the hot water for 15 minutes if they're large, 18 minutes for extra large, but only 12 minutes for medium eggs.  But I've discovered that if you're boiling only a few eggs and using a small pan, it can take longer for them to be fully cooked--or the problem can be solved by just leaving the pan on the turned-off-but-hot heating element.  But if you leave a larger pot of eggs with a lot of eggs sitting on the element for the same amount of time, the yolk will turn gray-green. This is caused by a  chemical change that occurs in the sulfur in egg yolks. The eggs are still perfectly OK to eat; they're just not as pretty!  --and since I cook with electric heat, I'm not quite sure how that translates in gas heated cooking...

4.  Cool eggs down quickly.  Why is this step helpful? A quick temperature change will help the membrane separate from the egg white. This is the method I've come up with that works well for me: Pour off the hot water, then run tap water over the eggs. When the eggs are cool enough to handle, I crack both ends of the egg and run even more water over them.  Then I add a glass of ice to the water and let them sit in the ice water for a while.  

5.  Then, when you're ready to peel the egg, first roll the egg on the kitchen counter with the palm of your hand to sort of crush the shell.  (Do it with a light hand, though, or you'll mush the egg open.) Why?  The shell needs to be flexible to enable it to come off in one big piece with the membrane attached to it.

6.  Start the actual peeling at the fat end of the egg.  The egg has a little air pocket on that end, so it just makes it a natural place to grab ahold and start peeling.  When/if that stops working well, start at the other end.  I'm not quite sure why that works better, but it just does (for me, anyway).

--and another helpful tip from Rachel if  you're making deviled eggs:  Put your yummy egg yolk filling in a zip-lock bag.  Cut off one corner and pipe the filling into the egg white.  Nice and Neat!

Hope this is helpful!  And if you're eggs don't peel well, at least you kind of know why they're not!

*This egg dish was my mom's.  She loved that ruby-border glassware!  She also bought the punch bowl and glasses at (what-was-then) Eckerd's Drug Store in Waco.  She frequented that store because it was where she got her film developed.  They offered double-prints when you got  your film developed (a new trend!).  She loved, loved, loved to take pictures of and share pictures of her grandchildren.  It was her goal to make photo albums for each of them.  She started out good...but there were many, many empty albums (that she'd picked up when they were on sale) and bundles and bundles of photographs...neatly labled with dates, of course!

Granny Conner's "Famous" Pecan Recipe

I've really been into recipes lately.  The harvesting of spring veggies (and the eruption of new life) spurs me to explore new ways to prepare old standbys...

All that (I guess) led me to my old (yes, printed on paper) cookbooks as I was trying to finalize the menu of a meal I am wanting to take to a church family with a new baby.  While perusing my create-your-own cookbook I acquired in 1980 while living in Rockdale, Texas,  I happened upon a recipe, written in my 20's-something handwriting, entitled "Granny's Pecan Pie".

Generations to come should know that my Granny, Ada Ratliff Conner, won a blue ribbon at the Houston Fair (which even then was a BIG deal) with this recipe.  Of course, when you reproduce this recipe yourself and it just tastes like pecan pie, you should remember that at these kind of shows presentation is---I started to say 99%, but it's probably not quite that high.  Maybe only 98%---of the score in the winning entry.  I remember that my Granny told me how she chose the perfect pecan halves (My Uncle Gene ran a pecan orchard in Houston at the time.) and placed them to form some sort of decorative design on the top. May sound easy, but you should just try to place those pecan halves very perfectly in an unbaked pie shell and then pour goo over them and have it all come out of the oven perfectly... I never acheived good results.   My poor results might just be due to my inept ability, but her far superior results are probably (at least in part) due to her very experienced hand.

I should really look this up before publishing, but Granny was 1 out of 7 or 8 girls in her family.  Granny was the "tomboy" of the bunch, but her job in the family kitchen was making the desserts.  She was an extremely great pie maker!!  (Those pie safes they used to have?  I'm thinking the Ratliff family might have had one...but maybe not...)  At Thanksgiving or Christmas when I was a kid, there were always at least 10 pies!

I don't have a picture of Granny with a pie, or even a picture of one of her pies...(They were all consumed!)...but I do happen to have this picture of her with Rachel and Ira.  It is dated September 1980.  She was a very lovely lady; she remained that way even in her last days.

But here is the recipe:

Granny's Pecan Pie

3/4 c Karo (she used light)

1 cup sugar (she used Imperial)

3 eggs

3 T butter (I'm pretty sure she used REAL butter!)

1 cup pecans

1 t vanilla

Unbaked pie shell

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  

---please note that I have the 30 minutes marked out in my cookbook and have written 50 minutes.

....and there are actually no further instructions with the recipe.  I do know that the butter was melted.  The pecans were laid out in a design and then the goo was poured over it.  I recollect her talking about how carefully she had to pour goo over the pecan halves so they wouldn't shift in the pouring. 

I also know that her pie shells were definitely NOT of the frozen variety.  Crisco pie crusts were the rage of the day.  That recipe (and the recipe I have alongside the pie recipe) is:

Crisco Pie Crust

1 1/3 cup flour

1/2 t salt

1/2 cup Crisco

3 T ice cold water

Combine flour and salt.  Cut in Crisco.  Sprinkle with water, 1 Tablespoon at a time.  Toss with a fork.  Work dough into a firm ball.  (and the rest you'll have to take from there!  Google and YouTube are great resources!)

And that's all I've got.

Maybe when you're feeling nostalgic you'll try out this recipe.  If you, like I finally did, don't want to try the fancy designs or give up on trying, you can always use chopped pecans or pecan pieces. Just place them on the bottom of the unbaked pie shell and then pour the goo on top.  This is a very forgiving method of just making a yummy pie.  Please note that it's always best with a little "cream" (what Granny called ice cream) on top!