For my Thursday Thirteen I am going to head down memory lane and then skip back up remembering and reminiscing some of my favorite items of clothing from over the past several decades!
1) My Frye boots circa 1978. I could not believe I talked my Mom into getting them as my major Christmas present that year! I believe they were about $100 way back then! I loved those boots and wore them over jeans or under jeans. I wore them to death and had them resoled and then a hole popped out in one of the creases. Guess I was too hard on them! I ended up putting them in a Goodwill bin around 1990.
2) My reddish suede coat with the big fur collar also circa 1975. It was fabulous and warm! I wore that coat well into the 1980's when some ass made a remark about how 1970ish it looked! I stored it at my parents and the fur yellowed and then it was gone. I imagine Mom put it in some Goodwill bin for me. I certainly wish I had it now.
3) A friend of my parents gave Mom a cashmere coat that her husband had worn in the Navy. It was black and felt like butter. It was over sized but it did not matter. When you slipped that coat on it made you feel like a million dollars. My sister Omega stole it from my parents closet and claimed it as her own. I could have killed her. I imagine it is still in her closet. At least I hope so, that was the best coat ever.
4) In high school I found this polyester mini skirt with a matching top that had little seashell buttons all the way down the front. I ore this sexy outfit with a pair of ....
5).....Aigner white sandals with flat heels! I was working as a lifeguard and was so tan that summer. The sandals with the red flared mini was just too cute. Then, while riding around town, which was the only entertainment us kids had way back when, smoking cigarettes and trying to find someone to buy us beer a cigarette ash fell into my lap and OH NO! polyester! A major melt hole happened.
6) I was asked to a Valentine dance by one of the hottest guys in the Frat House! (no he did not come to the reunion last summer) so I had to get a killer dress. I found this maroon color midi wth long sleeves and an empire waste and terrific lines. I loved that dress and my good friend C.F. borrowed the dress to go to another Frat dance and I worried all night that she might elope and then I'd never get the dress back. I think it hung in my Mom's house until she gave it to charity.
7) The red velvet jacket! Lord have mercy. I wore that garment with everything. The elbows wore out and we patched them. The lining ripped in sections and hung by threads. It did not bother me one bit. But it did my mother. She made a lining for the jacket and "fixed it". It never hung quite right after that. Boo-hoo.
8) Sometime in the 90's baby doll dresses became in style. I had one that I wore with black tights and cowboy boots. I thought I looked real gooooooooood. lol.
9) When Omega got engaged all her bridesmaids were to wear black. I was in charge of the guest book and required to wear black also. I found this beautiful short black cocktail dress at Shillito's that had a gossamer black mesh finish over the skit and a black net top over a plunging neckline and short selves. It was beautiful and all night long I was complimented on the dress. I still have it, and I need to loose 20 pounds to fit back into it. But it is a classic and gorgeous.
10) I found a black linen wrap around skirt in the mid 1990's that I have worn to death! It went with everything and was kind of on the short side. People took to calling me "Legs" as the Beverage Company. With a pair of heels and black stockings - man, I could turn heads!
11) I am the Queen of recycling and spend a lot of time going through all the consigned clothing in this great little shop in Lex called Sassy Fox. I have scored mucho lotso good things there including a long black overcoat with a removable lining. It was sized a petite and since I am about 5-5 it fit very well all except for the arms. But as luck would have it the cuffs would roll down. I wore that coat during the fall and spring seasons while living in Ft. Wayne and once while visiting a new account I brushed up against a wall they were painting! Horrors! The bottom hem was totally compromised. That was several years ago and I found I could not part with the fabulous coat. Once again a classic design and flowing lines. One feels like the heroine in a vintage 1940's black and white movie while crossing a street with the coat fluttering in the breeze. I took a black marker to see if I could color over the white paint! It worked! I am back in business.
12) There is this little old Flea Market in Bowling Green that I frequent several times a year. I go for the honey that is sold there and for the handbag man in the back area of the last section before the antiques. Why should one pay several hundred dollars (and more!) for a name brand handbag when you can get a perfectly good knock off for $35? And they are excellent knock offs. Makes one wonder if they might just be rejected Real Deal or stolen Real Deal. I found this rosy pink JimmyChoo knock off that I will use this spring - again. This will be the third spring I have used this jumbo size fit everything but the kitchen sink bag. I love it!
13) Last is the pair of skinny pants I found at TJ Maxx that fits like a glove but is so comfortable that I can wear them everyday if I am not careful! With my Walmart Ugg knock offs I am the epitome of fashion!
Friday, January 28, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Look I'm Flying!!
Sunday Scribbling for January 23 - ETERNITY
I had jotted down some thoughts in a general outline of what I am planning to write and then I get the brilliant idea that I will lift sort of jazzy quote as a title for this essay and I found this....
As a young child I would lay in my bed sleepless and ponder the error of my ways, perhaps feeling guilty over some petty crime I had committed that day and how I was going to end up in hell, the fiery furnace pit of flames eternally damned until the end of time. And Eternal meant there was no end to time. It would just go on forever and forever. For infinity, a word I later learned. I would be thirsty and my flesh would be burning and I could not drink. It was just too horrible to contemplate especially a little innocent mind as my own way back then. I did not want to meet an end such as that, burning in hell with the other BIG LOSERS like Hitler.
I learned in my years of parochial school, you had to protect your soul from sin. I imagined my soul like the white sheets my Mom hung out to dry on the clothes line in the back yard, bleached and beautiful in the sparking sun. That was my soul. I envisioned sin as tiny little black marks on the soul. A mortal sin would make the soul entirely black! If you happened to die with a black soul - well, it was curtains for you. Eternal damnation with Hitler.
Mortal sins were hard to figure out. Sure there were the ten commandments, but us Catholics had a whole lot more sins than that. Honor your Mother and Father had a bunch of sub categories that included "talking back" and "not showing respect". And there was the tricky one that went Thou shall not kill. Was it OK to kill when there was a war going on? Was it OK to kill, like the cowboy television shows we adored because my Dad watched them, when you were in a gun fight? Did you get a pass for that?
How about the one "coveting your neighbors wife"? Heck we didn't even know what the hell covet meant let alone have some opinion about it or the opportunity to break it! And this was before woman's lib apparently. Was it okay to cover the husband?
Catholics have it good, I thought when I was a kid. We just go to confession, the washing machine for the soul, and admit to our sins.
Not mortal sins, mind you. But that sub category of sinfulness known to all Catholic as venial sins. Once a week all the classes would take turns being marched across Main Street and enter the church to have our confessions heard. We would all sit in the front of the church far away from the confessional booths in the back. You would try and be holy and quiet, reflecting on what sins you had committed since your last confession. After bearing your soul to the priest you would kneel like a good little repentant Catholic and say your penance. Usually three Hail Mary's and an Our Father. You better be a few minutes getting it over with or the rest of your class would know you had really had a doozy of a week.
As I would lay in bed and worry about dying with sin on my soul I would also think about eternity in Heaven! I imagined that I had not been that bad and if I did kick the bucket I would get an audience with God. I would have some time to look over my list of offenses and make my case for leniency. God, being an all kind and loving God, would grant me dispensation on some of the sins but I would be given some Purgatory time for others.
I would go do my purgatory time, probably with a lot of people I would know and then after a reasonable amount of time I would be admitted into heaven.
And everyone would be young and at the peak of their beauty and brilliance. I would look just like Sally Field and George Harrison would be my boyfriend. In my heaven scenario I was all grown up and not trapped in a nine year old body.
This is what I think about when I see the word Eternity!
I had jotted down some thoughts in a general outline of what I am planning to write and then I get the brilliant idea that I will lift sort of jazzy quote as a title for this essay and I found this....
A Catholic is raised with the idea that he will die any minute now and if he doesn't live his life in a certain way, this death is an introduction to an eternity of pain.
Don DeLillo
As a young child I would lay in my bed sleepless and ponder the error of my ways, perhaps feeling guilty over some petty crime I had committed that day and how I was going to end up in hell, the fiery furnace pit of flames eternally damned until the end of time. And Eternal meant there was no end to time. It would just go on forever and forever. For infinity, a word I later learned. I would be thirsty and my flesh would be burning and I could not drink. It was just too horrible to contemplate especially a little innocent mind as my own way back then. I did not want to meet an end such as that, burning in hell with the other BIG LOSERS like Hitler.
I learned in my years of parochial school, you had to protect your soul from sin. I imagined my soul like the white sheets my Mom hung out to dry on the clothes line in the back yard, bleached and beautiful in the sparking sun. That was my soul. I envisioned sin as tiny little black marks on the soul. A mortal sin would make the soul entirely black! If you happened to die with a black soul - well, it was curtains for you. Eternal damnation with Hitler.
Mortal sins were hard to figure out. Sure there were the ten commandments, but us Catholics had a whole lot more sins than that. Honor your Mother and Father had a bunch of sub categories that included "talking back" and "not showing respect". And there was the tricky one that went Thou shall not kill. Was it OK to kill when there was a war going on? Was it OK to kill, like the cowboy television shows we adored because my Dad watched them, when you were in a gun fight? Did you get a pass for that?
How about the one "coveting your neighbors wife"? Heck we didn't even know what the hell covet meant let alone have some opinion about it or the opportunity to break it! And this was before woman's lib apparently. Was it okay to cover the husband?
Catholics have it good, I thought when I was a kid. We just go to confession, the washing machine for the soul, and admit to our sins.
Not mortal sins, mind you. But that sub category of sinfulness known to all Catholic as venial sins. Once a week all the classes would take turns being marched across Main Street and enter the church to have our confessions heard. We would all sit in the front of the church far away from the confessional booths in the back. You would try and be holy and quiet, reflecting on what sins you had committed since your last confession. After bearing your soul to the priest you would kneel like a good little repentant Catholic and say your penance. Usually three Hail Mary's and an Our Father. You better be a few minutes getting it over with or the rest of your class would know you had really had a doozy of a week.
As I would lay in bed and worry about dying with sin on my soul I would also think about eternity in Heaven! I imagined that I had not been that bad and if I did kick the bucket I would get an audience with God. I would have some time to look over my list of offenses and make my case for leniency. God, being an all kind and loving God, would grant me dispensation on some of the sins but I would be given some Purgatory time for others.
I would go do my purgatory time, probably with a lot of people I would know and then after a reasonable amount of time I would be admitted into heaven.
And everyone would be young and at the peak of their beauty and brilliance. I would look just like Sally Field and George Harrison would be my boyfriend. In my heaven scenario I was all grown up and not trapped in a nine year old body.
This is what I think about when I see the word Eternity!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Confessions of a Cook Book Junkie part II
Well it Thursday Thirteen time again! Yay.
I am cook book obsessed. I can not stop collecting them! Even if I never use them (Nigella Fresh). I never buy them new but score them at used book stores, yard sales, flea markets, given to me, and once in an abandoned barn. That one is my favorite and my main go to when I must find out how to do something. So, these are 13 of my random favorite book books .
1) Recipes from the Trustees House Daily Fare - We Make You Kindly Welcome! With a name like that it better be good. This is the thin little cook book that could that I wrote about yesterday from Shakertown, as us locals call Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill. Filled with the most simple basic food stuff that is out of this world. Of course they have the advantage of growing most the vegetables on the land outside the Side Porch Dining Room! Some additional favorites are the Peanut Butter cookies (I can make these in my sleep! They are so good and so easy) and candied baby carrots.
2) The Complete Book of Oriental Cooking by Myra Waldo. I bought this cookbook when I was playing house a long long time ago. I had no idea how to cook but I knew I loved Chinese food. This is one of those little paperbacks that cost $1.75. That is how long ago and how old this little beauty truly is. I have made the fried rice recipe forever since discovering it among the different ethnic culinary chapters. When Bridget was a child and would bring home her school age friends they would beg me to whip this up for them! Imagine that!
3) What's Cooking In Kentucky - This is one of those spiral cookbooks that is put out yearly by the Ladies in the "group". Be it a church or a Junior League, the pages are filled with family secret recipes by Mrs. Ralph Moonglow (I'm richer than you) and Miss Edwina Cooter (old maid) and many other ladies who's identities are always attached to their husband or lack of one. This particular book was given to me by the family of a guy I was dating way back when. I will be the first to admit I knew nothing about cooking. My Mom was a scholar not interested in spending much time in the kitchen. Her culinary skills were limited to the Home Economics class she took during the 1940's. I have an idea she struggled with that elective. I used the banana bread recipe in this book for years and years. It took a long time to find a better one.
4) To Market To Market - The Junior League of Owensboro, Ky Inc. I love the graphics of this cook book! I can't remember if I have actually used a recipe from this collection of family favorites, but I always enjoy the looking at the little piggies.
5) The Green Thumb Preserving Guide - Another jewel from the 1970's when I dove head first into teaching myself how to cook. For some reason I fancied myself as some sort of live off the land hippie back then. I really thought I would grow a garden and can my own food. What a joke! But the book is jam packed with marvelous recipes.
6) Union Square Cafe Cook Book - I believe I found this book on the shelves of the Goodwill on Ft. Campbell Blvd. I was lucky to nab this fantastic culinary masterpiece! The Ribollia Soup??? To die for! I made it, after spending about $100 on the ingredients, because everything was required to be FRESH, and almost ate the entire huge pot at one sitting! Joe even said "Hmmmm pretty good."
7) Keep it Simple - Ruth Brent 1972. Another Goodwill find that I picked up because I could not resist the picture of Ms. Brent and her beehive hair do on the back cover.
8) Farm Journal County Cookbook - The banana bread in this book is made with a cup of crushed up bran flakes. OMG. It was so delicious and dark that it blew my mind.
9) Our Daily Bread - Stella Standard - I taught myself how to make pancakes from this cook book along with yet another banana bread recipe! The cinnamon yeast rolls I tried for the first time, once again this is a 1970's attempt at domesticating myself, were good. I have never been successful at getting dough to rise. This is a common topic of conversation I have with anyone who tells me they bake bread. Even my BIL is good at making dough rise! Putting a pan of hot water in the oven under the bowl. I suck at this.
10) The Whole Earth Cook Book - I have a large collection from the 1970's - lol.
11) Farmhouse Cook Book - Susan Herman Loomis - This is one of those floppy big paper backs that has a primitive American painting theme on the front cover. I am a sucker for this type of marketing ploy. This lady traveled the US in search of the best family farm recipes. She found them by pulling up at some town square rolling down the window and asking those old codgers sitting on the Court House benches "who is the best cook in town?". It's a wonderful cook book filled with scrumptious ingredients and mouth watering concoctions. Some of my fav's have been the Herbed Summer Veggies - who knew a mess of fresh vegetables all mixed up together could be THE BOMB. Oh yea, fresh scrape off the cob corn put it over the top. Winner winner chicken dinner. And the granola recipe? Oh baby.
12) Lunch Upon a Time - Simple favorites from the Strawberry Patch. The Strawberry Patch was a restaurant once upon a time in fair Louisville. This little bitty home made book with its red cover and green binding complete with staples has a simple but satisfying Hot Brown tutorial that no one can mess up. Not even me. We licked the plates if I remember correctly. Then I could do it from memory!
13) Prudence Penny -Binding of the American Woman Cook Book San Francisco -
This is the Mac Daddy of my collection. This is the one that I found in an abandoned barn on a piece of property we were renting long ago in a far away land in another life time. Everything I have actually learned about cooking and preparing meals is in this book, spelled out for the dumbest of the culinary challenged. Want to know how to cook corn on the cob? It's in there. Want to know how to chop up a whole chicken? It's in there? The perfect pie crust? It's in there. This cook book even takes the time to tell you the do's and dont's, the why's and why not's...in other words, you will have to remove this old green cracked and aged 1954 cook book out of my clenched hands if you ever try to even borrow it! It's my TOP SECRET to success as a cook. Some may argue that point, some may not. That is if they know what's good for them.
Thank you Thursday 13 for anther hour whiled away and pleasantly happy doing so.
I am cook book obsessed. I can not stop collecting them! Even if I never use them (Nigella Fresh). I never buy them new but score them at used book stores, yard sales, flea markets, given to me, and once in an abandoned barn. That one is my favorite and my main go to when I must find out how to do something. So, these are 13 of my random favorite book books .
1) Recipes from the Trustees House Daily Fare - We Make You Kindly Welcome! With a name like that it better be good. This is the thin little cook book that could that I wrote about yesterday from Shakertown, as us locals call Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill. Filled with the most simple basic food stuff that is out of this world. Of course they have the advantage of growing most the vegetables on the land outside the Side Porch Dining Room! Some additional favorites are the Peanut Butter cookies (I can make these in my sleep! They are so good and so easy) and candied baby carrots.
2) The Complete Book of Oriental Cooking by Myra Waldo. I bought this cookbook when I was playing house a long long time ago. I had no idea how to cook but I knew I loved Chinese food. This is one of those little paperbacks that cost $1.75. That is how long ago and how old this little beauty truly is. I have made the fried rice recipe forever since discovering it among the different ethnic culinary chapters. When Bridget was a child and would bring home her school age friends they would beg me to whip this up for them! Imagine that!
3) What's Cooking In Kentucky - This is one of those spiral cookbooks that is put out yearly by the Ladies in the "group". Be it a church or a Junior League, the pages are filled with family secret recipes by Mrs. Ralph Moonglow (I'm richer than you) and Miss Edwina Cooter (old maid) and many other ladies who's identities are always attached to their husband or lack of one. This particular book was given to me by the family of a guy I was dating way back when. I will be the first to admit I knew nothing about cooking. My Mom was a scholar not interested in spending much time in the kitchen. Her culinary skills were limited to the Home Economics class she took during the 1940's. I have an idea she struggled with that elective. I used the banana bread recipe in this book for years and years. It took a long time to find a better one.
4) To Market To Market - The Junior League of Owensboro, Ky Inc. I love the graphics of this cook book! I can't remember if I have actually used a recipe from this collection of family favorites, but I always enjoy the looking at the little piggies.
5) The Green Thumb Preserving Guide - Another jewel from the 1970's when I dove head first into teaching myself how to cook. For some reason I fancied myself as some sort of live off the land hippie back then. I really thought I would grow a garden and can my own food. What a joke! But the book is jam packed with marvelous recipes.
6) Union Square Cafe Cook Book - I believe I found this book on the shelves of the Goodwill on Ft. Campbell Blvd. I was lucky to nab this fantastic culinary masterpiece! The Ribollia Soup??? To die for! I made it, after spending about $100 on the ingredients, because everything was required to be FRESH, and almost ate the entire huge pot at one sitting! Joe even said "Hmmmm pretty good."
7) Keep it Simple - Ruth Brent 1972. Another Goodwill find that I picked up because I could not resist the picture of Ms. Brent and her beehive hair do on the back cover.
8) Farm Journal County Cookbook - The banana bread in this book is made with a cup of crushed up bran flakes. OMG. It was so delicious and dark that it blew my mind.
9) Our Daily Bread - Stella Standard - I taught myself how to make pancakes from this cook book along with yet another banana bread recipe! The cinnamon yeast rolls I tried for the first time, once again this is a 1970's attempt at domesticating myself, were good. I have never been successful at getting dough to rise. This is a common topic of conversation I have with anyone who tells me they bake bread. Even my BIL is good at making dough rise! Putting a pan of hot water in the oven under the bowl. I suck at this.
10) The Whole Earth Cook Book - I have a large collection from the 1970's - lol.
11) Farmhouse Cook Book - Susan Herman Loomis - This is one of those floppy big paper backs that has a primitive American painting theme on the front cover. I am a sucker for this type of marketing ploy. This lady traveled the US in search of the best family farm recipes. She found them by pulling up at some town square rolling down the window and asking those old codgers sitting on the Court House benches "who is the best cook in town?". It's a wonderful cook book filled with scrumptious ingredients and mouth watering concoctions. Some of my fav's have been the Herbed Summer Veggies - who knew a mess of fresh vegetables all mixed up together could be THE BOMB. Oh yea, fresh scrape off the cob corn put it over the top. Winner winner chicken dinner. And the granola recipe? Oh baby.
12) Lunch Upon a Time - Simple favorites from the Strawberry Patch. The Strawberry Patch was a restaurant once upon a time in fair Louisville. This little bitty home made book with its red cover and green binding complete with staples has a simple but satisfying Hot Brown tutorial that no one can mess up. Not even me. We licked the plates if I remember correctly. Then I could do it from memory!
13) Prudence Penny -Binding of the American Woman Cook Book San Francisco -
This is the Mac Daddy of my collection. This is the one that I found in an abandoned barn on a piece of property we were renting long ago in a far away land in another life time. Everything I have actually learned about cooking and preparing meals is in this book, spelled out for the dumbest of the culinary challenged. Want to know how to cook corn on the cob? It's in there. Want to know how to chop up a whole chicken? It's in there? The perfect pie crust? It's in there. This cook book even takes the time to tell you the do's and dont's, the why's and why not's...in other words, you will have to remove this old green cracked and aged 1954 cook book out of my clenched hands if you ever try to even borrow it! It's my TOP SECRET to success as a cook. Some may argue that point, some may not. That is if they know what's good for them.
Thank you Thursday 13 for anther hour whiled away and pleasantly happy doing so.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Confessions of a Cook Book Junkie
The first cookbook I ever owned was given to me by my Mama as a Christmas present. She inscribed it with this cheery note, "To remember your summer at Pleasant Hill Shaker Village." I came across the stained and dog eared book while cleaning the book case that houses my collection of a 1001 such books. But this one is special. This one is filled not only with delicious simple Shaker fare but also with those memories of 30 years ago.
I was fresh from my first year at college and for the summer waited tables at the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill. I not only served the simple Shaker culinary delights, I dressed as a Shaker. A long yellow gingham dress with a white apron with the cutest little white bonnet perched upon the top of my head. The servers and bus boys and kitchen staff were mostly young high school and college age kids from around the area. We were a motley crew underneath our Shaker camouflage. We were practically living history for the many tourist that found the Village, somewhere south west of Lexington, over the river and up beyond the Palisades of the muddy Kentucky sitting on some of the most fertile ground in the bluegrass. The Shakers sought out a solitary place way back in the 1800's, far away from the maddening crowd. They tried to live their philosophy without interference from the outside world, but the worked did knock on their door many times most notably during the civil war.
We cared nothing about that, dressed in our 1800 outfits. Their politics (pacifists) and their religious views(celibacy) meant nothing to us. We just wanted our pay checks and our free food!
That was the summer I gained five pounds.
Why? The food was marvelous. And it was abundant! We had many tasks to take up the lull time between lunch and dinner. One of my favorites was making the butter balls. This required the use of two paddles that formed the yellow delicacies as you massaged the wad of vein clogging wonderfulness into perfect tiny balls which you flipped into ice water to await the moment they were slung on a bread plate for human consumption.
Another task was to cut, as thinly as possible, lemons, rinds and all, for the coveted Lemon Pie (pg.18) which was so frequently ordered that we would run out to every ones disappointment because all we had left was Chess pie.(page 36) "What's that?" "Well, it's like pecan pie only without pecans."
The corn bread, baked in tiny heavy iron molds to resemble an ear of corn, were exquisite. I ate a lot of those with the rejected butter balls.
The baked eggplant (page 47) was the first time I ever allowed that strange looking vegetable to enter my mouth. My mother and eggplant!! Get out of here! But once I tasted the Shaker version, I could not get enough.
Squash casserole? Well I never knew sunshine could be eaten! (page 48).
Every time I see the small cookbook with the torn corner it brings back all these sights and sounds, aroma's and the tastes. It transports me back to a time when I was so young that I could fit in the dumb waiter and take a ride to the basement.
I wonder if any of the Shakers did that?
I was fresh from my first year at college and for the summer waited tables at the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill. I not only served the simple Shaker culinary delights, I dressed as a Shaker. A long yellow gingham dress with a white apron with the cutest little white bonnet perched upon the top of my head. The servers and bus boys and kitchen staff were mostly young high school and college age kids from around the area. We were a motley crew underneath our Shaker camouflage. We were practically living history for the many tourist that found the Village, somewhere south west of Lexington, over the river and up beyond the Palisades of the muddy Kentucky sitting on some of the most fertile ground in the bluegrass. The Shakers sought out a solitary place way back in the 1800's, far away from the maddening crowd. They tried to live their philosophy without interference from the outside world, but the worked did knock on their door many times most notably during the civil war.
We cared nothing about that, dressed in our 1800 outfits. Their politics (pacifists) and their religious views(celibacy) meant nothing to us. We just wanted our pay checks and our free food!
That was the summer I gained five pounds.
Why? The food was marvelous. And it was abundant! We had many tasks to take up the lull time between lunch and dinner. One of my favorites was making the butter balls. This required the use of two paddles that formed the yellow delicacies as you massaged the wad of vein clogging wonderfulness into perfect tiny balls which you flipped into ice water to await the moment they were slung on a bread plate for human consumption.
Another task was to cut, as thinly as possible, lemons, rinds and all, for the coveted Lemon Pie (pg.18) which was so frequently ordered that we would run out to every ones disappointment because all we had left was Chess pie.(page 36) "What's that?" "Well, it's like pecan pie only without pecans."
The corn bread, baked in tiny heavy iron molds to resemble an ear of corn, were exquisite. I ate a lot of those with the rejected butter balls.
The baked eggplant (page 47) was the first time I ever allowed that strange looking vegetable to enter my mouth. My mother and eggplant!! Get out of here! But once I tasted the Shaker version, I could not get enough.
Squash casserole? Well I never knew sunshine could be eaten! (page 48).
Every time I see the small cookbook with the torn corner it brings back all these sights and sounds, aroma's and the tastes. It transports me back to a time when I was so young that I could fit in the dumb waiter and take a ride to the basement.
I wonder if any of the Shakers did that?
Monday, January 17, 2011
Invisible
Congratulations to Sunday Scribbling for the 250th prompt!
I picked up the telephone and silently cursed the Operations Secretary for taking some time off. Granted it was some much needed time off, but in our small four person office the job of filling in lands right here.
"May I help you?" I ask after identifying myself to the caller.
"I want to file a complaint!" the high pitched whiny voice began, "I am watching TV and these Victoria Secret commercials are disgusting!"
"Oh brother" I think to myself, "A crazy person!"
"Well I think you are calling the wrong place. Perhaps you should be calling the television station and voice your concerns"
"No" he/she began screaming, "I want to talk to YOU about this garbage they are showing on the television so that any person can see!"
At this point, I had no idea if this was a man or a woman. The pitch of his/her voice was becoming higher and higher as he/she truly began to get into their rage about Victoria Secret. I did not know how to address the caller, so I just blurted out, "Mam or Sir, with the way you are yelling at me I can not distinguish which one, you can change the channel you know".
This really set him/her off some more.
"I want to speak to someone at Victoria Secret! Connect me to the store right away! This is disgusting filth and we all need to stand up and revolt against this depravity that is shoved down our throats day after day! Someone has to be held accountable for this pornography being flaunted in our face day after day! It's an out range and I going tell them just how I feel about half naked woman walking around my living room!"
"Sir! sir, you must calm down, if you call the television station carrying on like this they will think you are a NUT CASE!"
"Just give me the number to Victoria Secret if you won't connect me, I'm going to tell them a thing or two".
I just took the 50-50 guess this was a man. "Sir, I will not give you the number. The people working there are just trying to earn a living. They are not trying to corrupt our society!"
"You go to hell" and they hung up.
Good Lord. Being on the other end of a telephone gives you a certain bravado and courage to be a total Loony Tune if you do not have to face, or make eye contact with the person you are trying to intimidate with harsh impactful forceful rhetoric.
But actually you are just a whiny invisible person attached to a whiny invisible voice buzzing around my ear like a pesky gnat. I wish I could slap you.
Being invisible gives people an extra dose of courage and outrage.
I picked up the telephone and silently cursed the Operations Secretary for taking some time off. Granted it was some much needed time off, but in our small four person office the job of filling in lands right here.
"May I help you?" I ask after identifying myself to the caller.
"I want to file a complaint!" the high pitched whiny voice began, "I am watching TV and these Victoria Secret commercials are disgusting!"
"Oh brother" I think to myself, "A crazy person!"
"Well I think you are calling the wrong place. Perhaps you should be calling the television station and voice your concerns"
"No" he/she began screaming, "I want to talk to YOU about this garbage they are showing on the television so that any person can see!"
At this point, I had no idea if this was a man or a woman. The pitch of his/her voice was becoming higher and higher as he/she truly began to get into their rage about Victoria Secret. I did not know how to address the caller, so I just blurted out, "Mam or Sir, with the way you are yelling at me I can not distinguish which one, you can change the channel you know".
This really set him/her off some more.
"I want to speak to someone at Victoria Secret! Connect me to the store right away! This is disgusting filth and we all need to stand up and revolt against this depravity that is shoved down our throats day after day! Someone has to be held accountable for this pornography being flaunted in our face day after day! It's an out range and I going tell them just how I feel about half naked woman walking around my living room!"
"Sir! sir, you must calm down, if you call the television station carrying on like this they will think you are a NUT CASE!"
"Just give me the number to Victoria Secret if you won't connect me, I'm going to tell them a thing or two".
I just took the 50-50 guess this was a man. "Sir, I will not give you the number. The people working there are just trying to earn a living. They are not trying to corrupt our society!"
"You go to hell" and they hung up.
Good Lord. Being on the other end of a telephone gives you a certain bravado and courage to be a total Loony Tune if you do not have to face, or make eye contact with the person you are trying to intimidate with harsh impactful forceful rhetoric.
But actually you are just a whiny invisible person attached to a whiny invisible voice buzzing around my ear like a pesky gnat. I wish I could slap you.
Being invisible gives people an extra dose of courage and outrage.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Oh Boy!! A Thursday Thirteen!
I am going to have to make one of my infamous lists about things to write about. Until then this list off the top of my head will have to do.
Thirteen Good things that happened to me Yesterday
1) I was in Borders books the day before and saw a box of exquisite Christmas cards, exquisite to me I suppose because if they were so awesome why would they still be there marked down 75%. I hid them at the unused front check out area and when I returned the next day (yesterday) they had been moved - back to the 75% off counter! But there they were, waiting for me.
2) Received the Martha Stewert LIVING magazine and was reading it during my lunch break (lol - permanent break) and came across three really good articles. I love Martha and at times I will think, "What would Martha do?"....I digress. Did you know that you can make your own vanilla extract? Easy. You just take some left over vodka and a small bottle with a tight lid and some time. Oh yes, and a vanilla bean.
3) Went to work at the Bucket and while I was in the back room I stuck two CD's in my pocket. They had been on sale, buy one get one 50% off. To my horror, the promo was over! I had those two CD's in my pocket and all thru out my shift I contemplated how simple it would be to just walk out with them! I am not a thief by nature but something about how easy it was going to be. In the end I bought only one and a candle. It was wonderful to know that I licked the wicked wolf.
4) Those Wood Wick candles were on sale. 70% off and then my 20% on top of that! So I got this cool candle for about $4. I love collecting stuff so that I can give it away later. Always a good thing to have good things on hand.
5) Received my Bollywood bangles in the mail. They are the Bomb.
6) Have lined up five vendors for the Bridal Expo and have not even mailed out the first brochure! It was my "Save the Date" cards! I rock.
7) One of the merchants is going to take the display case that is the size of hotel bathroom. It took me awhile to find someone brave enough to do it!
8) Found incredible recipes for pomegranate. One of the super foods. I am into super foods these days.
9) Made this potato/sweet potato soup the other day and while rummaging around in the ice box for something to bag up for work there it was!! Delish. I invented it. Here it is. Two potatoes, one sweet potato, one apple , a carrot and about a quarter size of ginger root and of course an onion. And a box of low sodium no fat chicken stock. About four cups. Naturally the recipe includes the steps and how to cream it all together into one fabulous pot of soup. But I won't bore y'all.
10) Was offered a free shot at this on line cooking school called Rouxbe for a couple of weeks to write a review for the Cooking Club. Cool!
11) I am on the schedule for the Bucket and got a fair amount of hours. With a bunch of needy kids it helps.
12) Have lost about five pounds in two weeks which is too slow for me, but when I think about it in another two weeks if I loose another five pounds then it will be 10! that will be great.
13) Found the "I survived AOL Journals" group on Face Book. It is fantastic to reconnect with all those blog writers from The Day. In a crazy sort of way, I think AOL led the way into the Blogosphere. Back in 2003 it was so small and AOL just exploded.
There you go, another completed 13.
Thirteen Good things that happened to me Yesterday
1) I was in Borders books the day before and saw a box of exquisite Christmas cards, exquisite to me I suppose because if they were so awesome why would they still be there marked down 75%. I hid them at the unused front check out area and when I returned the next day (yesterday) they had been moved - back to the 75% off counter! But there they were, waiting for me.
2) Received the Martha Stewert LIVING magazine and was reading it during my lunch break (lol - permanent break) and came across three really good articles. I love Martha and at times I will think, "What would Martha do?"....I digress. Did you know that you can make your own vanilla extract? Easy. You just take some left over vodka and a small bottle with a tight lid and some time. Oh yes, and a vanilla bean.
3) Went to work at the Bucket and while I was in the back room I stuck two CD's in my pocket. They had been on sale, buy one get one 50% off. To my horror, the promo was over! I had those two CD's in my pocket and all thru out my shift I contemplated how simple it would be to just walk out with them! I am not a thief by nature but something about how easy it was going to be. In the end I bought only one and a candle. It was wonderful to know that I licked the wicked wolf.
4) Those Wood Wick candles were on sale. 70% off and then my 20% on top of that! So I got this cool candle for about $4. I love collecting stuff so that I can give it away later. Always a good thing to have good things on hand.
5) Received my Bollywood bangles in the mail. They are the Bomb.
6) Have lined up five vendors for the Bridal Expo and have not even mailed out the first brochure! It was my "Save the Date" cards! I rock.
7) One of the merchants is going to take the display case that is the size of hotel bathroom. It took me awhile to find someone brave enough to do it!
8) Found incredible recipes for pomegranate. One of the super foods. I am into super foods these days.
9) Made this potato/sweet potato soup the other day and while rummaging around in the ice box for something to bag up for work there it was!! Delish. I invented it. Here it is. Two potatoes, one sweet potato, one apple , a carrot and about a quarter size of ginger root and of course an onion. And a box of low sodium no fat chicken stock. About four cups. Naturally the recipe includes the steps and how to cream it all together into one fabulous pot of soup. But I won't bore y'all.
10) Was offered a free shot at this on line cooking school called Rouxbe for a couple of weeks to write a review for the Cooking Club. Cool!
11) I am on the schedule for the Bucket and got a fair amount of hours. With a bunch of needy kids it helps.
12) Have lost about five pounds in two weeks which is too slow for me, but when I think about it in another two weeks if I loose another five pounds then it will be 10! that will be great.
13) Found the "I survived AOL Journals" group on Face Book. It is fantastic to reconnect with all those blog writers from The Day. In a crazy sort of way, I think AOL led the way into the Blogosphere. Back in 2003 it was so small and AOL just exploded.
There you go, another completed 13.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Traveling by Bus Plane & Hurricane
Sunday Scribbling
#249 - A Walk in the Park
Has anything been 'a walk in the park' for you? What does that mean? Is a walk in the park really the easiest thing we can do? Have you had a great real walk in a real park lately? Do you need me to tell you to go outside and take a walk in a park? Tell us about a walk in the park.
I have been mulling this one over in my head for days. Thinking and discarding and returning to the same train of thought and finally the surrender to just go with it.
When we touched the ground of the good old USA in St. Louis after escaping from Mexico and eight days of being held captive, stranded and seemingly forgotten by the rest of the world, we cheered wildly at the top of our lungs. We were dirty and smelly. Joe had not shaved for a week. I was sun burnt and cranky.
We had finally arrived home after our four day all inclusive trip to Cancun was interrupted by a Hurricane which added an additional four days of adventure, but not just any Hurricane, by Wilma. The strongest slowest moving category five Hurricane ever. She wiped out Cancun, deciding to stay for three days, and ruined our vacation. It took every ounce of strength and every dollar we had to get back to the US. We journeyed across a whipped Yucatan Peninsula to catch the last flight out of Madeira to the US. We were the last to leave. We turned out the lights in that airport.
We cheered wildly as the plane landed on US soil.
I thought after that, I can endure anything. Anything else after will be a WALK IN THE PARK. Try going day after day without being able to change clothes because your luggage is in a beach hotel on the seventh floor that may or may not still be standing. The beach was gone. Should we expect the hotel to have survived? But it did, and we walked up seven flight of stairs, in the pitch black, so dark you could not see your hands and I could not see Joe in front of me. But we emerged on the floor and by the grace of God, our luggage made it! Sitting in the bath tub (as instructed) even though the rest of the room was a shambles with the ocean facing wall gone.
I can endure anything after that. No rain storm, no flood, no tornado, no blizzard will ever phase me.
Well, maybe a tornado.
But once you have lived through the sound of a freight train running over you, around you, and through you as you crouch and huddle in a brick school house for an entire night while the whole city whips around you tossing iron sheets of metal, as if they were pieces of paper, trying to ram through the walls.
If you can keep from panicking, if you can keep from screaming, if you can keep from crying you'll be okay. The only sounds other than the unrelenting wind - wind is too meek a word - was the murmur of prayers.
If I can get through that, the rest of my life is a walk in the park.
Friday, January 07, 2011
THURSDAY THIRTEEN
Since I am always looking for new fodder to get my juices going and stumbled across this meme called Thursday Thirteen.. I hope it does not matter that it is Friday!
My theme: Thirteen Random Things
1) Two nights in a row I have dreamed about an old friend of mine. An old boyfriend of mine! Sometimes I can decipher the reason I dream about a certain thing or person. But this is just out of the blue. I am wondering i something is going on with him. I have not seen him in years - close to 20 years - and then I see him twice this past summer thanks to the gathering of the Animal House Reunion.
2) I miss Grace in Small Things. It became a habit to look for special things that happen throughout the day and keep track of them. It was very easy to fall out of the habit as well.
3) I like lists! This 13 is even a list of sorts. About five years ago I took this job that was very wrong for me in many ways. On the other hand it gave me tremendous structure to my day and work schedule. I realized that this is how I perform at my best! Give me a list, give me instruction, give me your expectations and I can run with it.
4) Had appetizers and several drinks (okay three of them!) with my gal pal Ms. Smarty Pants. My husband showed up and he and I bantered about our travels together and the funniest highlights of Ireland & Boston. I wonder if Ms. Smarty Pants was bored to tears. I felt my face flush with the fun of remembering the night we landed in Ennis after traveling down an Irish highway that turned into a dirt road that turned into a path that turned into a pasture and we had to turn around! When we arrived at the very outskirts of Ennis Joe parked the car and walked away. At the time I was furious and found the nearest pub! But now, years later, it is a good memory. Time is the biggest fraud of all.
5) I should be working on this Bridal thing we are having next month. This will be my second go round with it. At the moment I am sending out Postcards for "save the date". I am only targeting the good folks in C-ville as I find Nashville is uninterested in wooing business from this area. It randomly crosses my mind at times that I would have made a great Marketing Director since I grade myself as a mediocre Asst. Who is the smart aleck?
6) I really need to get out my Christmas thank you notes. I know that thank you notes are a thing of an era gone by but I still like to let people know how much I appreciate their effort. I have these cool Indian note cards. As in Asia.
7) I dragged out my jewelry making box last night to find that tool that allows me to screw around with links on chains and the such. I found I had a whole cache of stones still in plastic bags and a lot of findings. I could make at least several dozen simple earrings for this business venture I am rolling around in my head like a grain of sand in an oyster. I like that analogy.
8) I am considering upgrading my account at Amazon to something more definite. Right now I share a small amount of my profits with Amazon. If I upgrade I could sell off a lot of stuff that I won't be able to list on ESTY (once I get that site up and going).
9) I'm such a damn procrastinator! I won't be able to start my ESTY business until I get a new lens for my camera. Need close up's baby.
10) Received a copy of Southern Living that I began reading last night and now I have the hunger to go to Gulf Shores to see this concert that will be put o n May 22- 24th. Right on the way we can drop in on this book store that was listed in Birmingham AL. Seems rational to me.
11) I sent a Christmas card to my second cousin in NY who I have corresponded with for several years. He is researching our ancestry on my paternal grandmothers family! Some time ago (2003 or 04) he hooked me up with an English cousin who was living in New Orleans. I wonder what happened to her. I have to check my AOL and see it I still have her e-mail. And I want to scan in all these fabulous photo's I have of Nana - who would have been his great Aunt, as a young child at the beach in Ireland. She was a great beauty in her day. I want him to know that - to see that.
12) It is suppose to snow here in Middle Tennessee this week end. I love snow as long as it is just every once in awhile. Not like when we lived in NE Indiana and it fell on the ground in November and stayed until late March. What an ordeal for a Southern gal. I did pretty good in the snow there. Something about the land being so flat. Here and in KY - rolling hill country? Foothills of the Smokies? It's scary.
13) My diet is proving to be a pain in the butt. I have avoided my usual diet of cookies, candies, fried foods and everything that is bad for you. It seems that exercise is in order. Rats!
My theme: Thirteen Random Things
1) Two nights in a row I have dreamed about an old friend of mine. An old boyfriend of mine! Sometimes I can decipher the reason I dream about a certain thing or person. But this is just out of the blue. I am wondering i something is going on with him. I have not seen him in years - close to 20 years - and then I see him twice this past summer thanks to the gathering of the Animal House Reunion.
2) I miss Grace in Small Things. It became a habit to look for special things that happen throughout the day and keep track of them. It was very easy to fall out of the habit as well.
3) I like lists! This 13 is even a list of sorts. About five years ago I took this job that was very wrong for me in many ways. On the other hand it gave me tremendous structure to my day and work schedule. I realized that this is how I perform at my best! Give me a list, give me instruction, give me your expectations and I can run with it.
4) Had appetizers and several drinks (okay three of them!) with my gal pal Ms. Smarty Pants. My husband showed up and he and I bantered about our travels together and the funniest highlights of Ireland & Boston. I wonder if Ms. Smarty Pants was bored to tears. I felt my face flush with the fun of remembering the night we landed in Ennis after traveling down an Irish highway that turned into a dirt road that turned into a path that turned into a pasture and we had to turn around! When we arrived at the very outskirts of Ennis Joe parked the car and walked away. At the time I was furious and found the nearest pub! But now, years later, it is a good memory. Time is the biggest fraud of all.
5) I should be working on this Bridal thing we are having next month. This will be my second go round with it. At the moment I am sending out Postcards for "save the date". I am only targeting the good folks in C-ville as I find Nashville is uninterested in wooing business from this area. It randomly crosses my mind at times that I would have made a great Marketing Director since I grade myself as a mediocre Asst. Who is the smart aleck?
6) I really need to get out my Christmas thank you notes. I know that thank you notes are a thing of an era gone by but I still like to let people know how much I appreciate their effort. I have these cool Indian note cards. As in Asia.
7) I dragged out my jewelry making box last night to find that tool that allows me to screw around with links on chains and the such. I found I had a whole cache of stones still in plastic bags and a lot of findings. I could make at least several dozen simple earrings for this business venture I am rolling around in my head like a grain of sand in an oyster. I like that analogy.
8) I am considering upgrading my account at Amazon to something more definite. Right now I share a small amount of my profits with Amazon. If I upgrade I could sell off a lot of stuff that I won't be able to list on ESTY (once I get that site up and going).
9) I'm such a damn procrastinator! I won't be able to start my ESTY business until I get a new lens for my camera. Need close up's baby.
10) Received a copy of Southern Living that I began reading last night and now I have the hunger to go to Gulf Shores to see this concert that will be put o n May 22- 24th. Right on the way we can drop in on this book store that was listed in Birmingham AL. Seems rational to me.
11) I sent a Christmas card to my second cousin in NY who I have corresponded with for several years. He is researching our ancestry on my paternal grandmothers family! Some time ago (2003 or 04) he hooked me up with an English cousin who was living in New Orleans. I wonder what happened to her. I have to check my AOL and see it I still have her e-mail. And I want to scan in all these fabulous photo's I have of Nana - who would have been his great Aunt, as a young child at the beach in Ireland. She was a great beauty in her day. I want him to know that - to see that.
12) It is suppose to snow here in Middle Tennessee this week end. I love snow as long as it is just every once in awhile. Not like when we lived in NE Indiana and it fell on the ground in November and stayed until late March. What an ordeal for a Southern gal. I did pretty good in the snow there. Something about the land being so flat. Here and in KY - rolling hill country? Foothills of the Smokies? It's scary.
13) My diet is proving to be a pain in the butt. I have avoided my usual diet of cookies, candies, fried foods and everything that is bad for you. It seems that exercise is in order. Rats!
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Accountability
#248 - Progress
SO?! We are two days in to 2011 - any progress yet?
So this is how it's going to be? Accountability! In two days I have already misplaced the list I made, painstakingly mind you, over a three day period last week. I only thank God I took a picture of it for the previous SS prompt and with the aid of zoom I was able to recreate it, document and file it!
I glance over it to gage how I'm doing (day five) and see that I have made a little headway but if I truly want to live out my dreams and aspirations for 2011 I will have to make a PLAN.
And so it goes that the progress is a conscious effort to make it happen, not just jot down a list of maybes. Or want to's. Or I hope.
Years ago my department met off site and had two days of brain storming on what goals we wanted for the coming year and chiseled out a road map on how to get there. And if I remember correctly, it worked! Not only did it list ways to achieve the goals, but we had alternatives in case the aim was off the mark. It was my best year for BONUS time.
I have already begun to make the road map to success for all the things I wish to accomplish for 2011. It will include a time table, because not all can be done at once! But the plans can be laid out.
I call that Progress.
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