Recipes

Cornmeal Scrapple

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup milk
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 ¾ cups boiling water
8 oz. bulk pork sausage (cooked, drained and crumbled)
Combine first four ingredients in a saucepan, stir until smooth, add hot water gradually.
Stir with a wire whisk. Cook until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat, cover with lid, simmer
ten minutes longer, until very thick. Remove from heat and stir in sausage. Pour into greased loaf pan. Cover and refrigerate. To prepare: slice, dip in flour and fry in butter. Serve with syrup.

 Sometimes when I am cooking this delicious recipe I forget to turn the burner down low enough. When I lift the lid and peek into the pan a splash of hot cornmeal erupts from a tiny volcano, flies through the air and hits my arm. Youch! It hurts.

It’s kind of like unexpected “bursts” of emotion that hit me. One day before Christmas I was driving along singing O Holy Night . . .  It was a lovely day, sun shining in a beautiful blue sky.

Then I switched to Little Drummer Boy.
We used to get a darling book and record* out of the library and listen to it by the hour.

(A record is a round black disk placed in a record player where it spins and a little arm with a needle is positioned on the spinning record and in this way music is played).

We listened so often that Jeremy learned it by heart and went around singing it. I can remember the pictures in the book but not all of the words. The last two lines hit me and there I was, driving to town with tears raining down my face, worshipping my Lord, Emmanuel.

“Then He smiled at me, pa rum pum pum pum,
Me and my drum."

     

 

Christmas Party for the Youth

Pam asked me, “Can you send along your chocolate cake?
With maybe a hint of mint?”                                                                              

I experimented with Andes crème de menthe baking chips.

Here is the recipe for Jiffy Chocolate Feather Cake, the very first cake I ever made.
This is the one I still bake.

2 cups sugar

1 cup shortening (any combination of margarine, butter, or vegetable shortening)
Cream together then add:
2 eggs
1 cup sour milk (splash some vinegar in the cup of milk)
2 tsp. vanilla

Beat all together.

Dry ingredients:

3 cups flour

1 cup cocoa powder (I use half this amount)
2 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
Mix with sugar/shortening mixture and add
1 cup hot water or hot coffee

Mix all together, pour into 9x13 cake pan.

For a touch of mint sprinkle mint chips over batter, spread around
with table knife. Bake at 350* for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick
stuck in the center of the cake comes out clean.

(Ovens vary) This cake might even take 45 minutes in some ovens.

Frosting:

Bring to boil in saucepan
1 stick margarine

4 T. Cocoa (melt more of the Andes mint chips along with the cocoa for a hint of mint)

6 T. Milk

Turn off burner and add (my recipe says one box powdered sugar)

That tells you how ancient my recipe is. Yes, this is the frosting recipe for
Texas Sheet Cake. So I am assuming it is a one pound box? Add:

Half a bag of powdered sugar (if you buy powdered sugar in two lb. bags)

1 tsp. Vanilla

1 cup walnuts (optional)

Mix together and spread on cake.

Thank God for Leggings!

Now that cold weather has arrived it takes more effort to stay warm,
especially when the wind blows.  All of the layers - sweaters and pullovers
leggings, knee socks, wool stockings, boots, hats, mittens and coats and scarves -
are needed some days.  The list goes on and on depending on what activity you are
heading for.  





I don't know how many times someone has asked me,
"How in the world do you keep your legs warm with only a dress on?"




I don't have to answer, "Long johns" any more.
      or "Thermal underwear." 

I can say "Leggings have been invented." 




Moms and their daughters who wear skirts should jump out of bed
on a winter morning and perform a happy little dance along with a
happy little song - James Herriot style.





"Leggings are in, leggings are in, leggings are in today!" 
     or something like that . . .  Oh, wait! that's a song from a story about
Paddington that we used to get from the library back in the days
when we could get stories on records.





I know James Herriot was celebrating a new break-through in medicine,
back when penicillin began saving lives in the days of World War II.




Of course that is an entirely different thing altogether. 


But leggings may help women and girls keep their sanity.  =)




Remember Laura's story in The Long Winter?* The family moved to town
for the winter after Pa heard that this winter was going to be a doozy.




The girls loved school so much they couldn't wait for Monday mornings.
But one Monday Laura begged to leave the red flannel underwear
at home.  Ma sympathized but wouldn't agree so Laura went off to
a miserable day at school.




She describes the red flannels this way, "It made her back itch, and her neck,
and her wrists, and where it was folded around her ankles, under her stockings
and shoe-tops, that red flannel almost drove her crazy,"


With the soft cotton leggings we have today we may have some embarrassing
moments like this one mentioned here .
(Look for Nothing New Under the Sun and Embarrassing Moments  posted Wed. Dec. 3, 2014)

After I read my cousin's embarrassing moment I had the same thing happen to me -
fortunately in my own yard with mom and me the only witnesses.  I was getting in the
car and felt my half slip entwined around my ankles.
(I am blaming the leggings for this one.)    
. . . should I say mom and me? or mom and I?  Help me out, people, I am confused.


*The Long Winter  by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Winner Is . . .

 The drawing is over.

 Krysta picked a name.

And the winner is . . .

 

Congratulations Dorcas Siegrist!

Thank you everyone for following this blog the last few days.  It's been great to touch base with old friends and make new friends.  And now I need a snail mail address, Dorcas Siegrist, so I can ship the book to you.  You can email me at:  bluebirdhills80@gmail.com



Water

Giveaway

I created a dilemma it seems.
    Since this is the first time
          I have ever written a review

 -- and offered a giveaway
  I probably did it all wrong --
You see - I need names to put in the drawing.

I will get professional help and see what can be done
to solve this problem.    =)

I will ask my daughter-in-law what to do!

Review of Footprints on the Ceiling

                                                  MINNESOTA GIRLS

Meet Dorcas Smucker, author of Footprints on the Ceiling.  Today I am posting a review of her newest book.  Many long years ago my sister, Ladina, and I met Dorcas and her sister, Rebecca.

We compared notes and discovered Dorcas and Ladina were the same age, and Rebecca and I were close to the same age.  We became pen pals and wrote to each other for awhile.  I wish I could say we all were bosom friends for ever and ever, but we lost track of each other and stopped writing and never heard from each other again . . .  until someone emailed me an essay one day and it was written by Dorcas Smucker.  I asked Ladina about it and we put two and two together and came up with four.  This is the same Dorcas that used to write to Ladina.  Before long I was able to catch up with Rebecca by reading the essays.  After awhile the essays were compiled into books and I ordered them to add to my collection. 

Laugh and cry your way through Footprints on the Ceiling.  Dorcas mentions in one of her other books that her collection of essays can be read slowly, like sipping tea. Usually I find myself reading them through as fast as I can and then starting all over again and reading more slowly the second time. 

When I first saw the cover of Dorcas Smucker's new book a faint memory of a story about Abraham Lincoln came to mind.  He played a trick on his stepmother by lifting small people with muddy feet upside down and high in the air to walk across the ceiling. His stepmom quickly figured it out because she was already familiar with Abe's antics.  It seemed to me that one of Dorcas' crew would be mischievous enough to pull off a stunt like that after reading her other books.

Ordinary Days

Upstairs the Peasants are Revolting

Downstairs the Queen is  Knitting

Tea and Trouble Brewing

There was one small mystery -

the initials beside the footprint on the cover say D.Y.

You will want to enter the drawing

and win this book to solve the puzzle.

(Leave your comments at the end of this post and a week from today

I will put all the names in a hat and my daughter,

Krysta, will choose the winner.) 

Email your snail mail address to me at bluebirdhills80@gmail.com

and I will mail the winner a copy of this book.

Or order the book:

Footprints on the Ceiling is available for $15 per book, postage included. 

You can mail a check to:

Dorcas Smucker

31148 Substation Drive

Harrisburg, OR 97446

US addresses only

If you live in Canada or overseas, email Dorcas at 

dorcassmucker@gmail.com.  You can ask Dorcas for info about

ordering her other books.  You will also find Footprints on the Ceiling on Amazon.

You can follow Dorcas on her blog:
www.dorcassmucker.blogspot.com

You're in for a real treat.  Dorcas Smucker's books are down-to-earth,

funny and sometimes sad.  They make wonderful gifts for your mom

and all the other gals in your family.  Even the guys in your family

will ask, "What are you laughing at now?"



WagonTrains and Blog Tours

We interrupt this tale of traveling west

(slower than a wagon train)

to let you know about a blog tour.

It is going on as we speak.

Go to dorcassmucker.com

You will have a chance to read

about her new book.

There are some interesting bloggers

who have been writing reviews and . . .

you can even enter your name to win her free book.

 Just a little side note . . . 

a week from today I will post a review of that book. 

You will have another chance to win Dorcas Smucker's new book.  

 

Have a good Saturday!