Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Dawn and the Colored Pencils





Christmas is a colorful time with many activities to fill the days. Dawn got her
colored pencils out to make some pretty cards and to write her Christmas letter.
But all those plans fell through the cracks because she was very busy getting ready
for her children to come home to visit. This caused a lot of excitement and much
hurrying and scurrying about. When a family is all together much food is consumed.
In fact, you could say it disappears at an alarming rate.


 
One day Dawn decided to bake a cake. First she drew a kitchen with a wooden table
in the center of the room. Then she drew a white stove and a white refrigerator beside it.
She drew a sink and cupboards and a counter. The cupboards had a warm honey gold finish.
The first thing she drew on the counter was a coffee maker. Dawn measured coffee and cold
water and started to brew a pot of very strong coffee. Then she drew a cookbook with a tan
cover opened to the cake section. Dawn drew a white mixer with beaters and a big red bowl.
She drew a blue canister set and clear glass measuring cups and yellow measuring spoons.
She measured sugar into the bowl, then butter. Using the mixer she had drawn she creamed
the sugar and butter together. Dawn drew two brown eggs and carefully broke them into the
bowl. She drew the vanilla bottle out of the cupboard and poured some into the mixture.
She measured milk into a cup then added a splash of vinegar to the milk and stirred it in.


 


A green bowl was drawn out of the cupboard. Into this the dry ingredients,
flour, cocoa, soda and salt, were measured. Dawn drew a big spoon and stirred the
powdery mixture. She poured the dry ingredients into the bowl of sugar, eggs, milk and

vanilla. Next Dawn drew a cup of very hot coffee and poured that in the bowl, too.
Then she held on to the mixer with one hand and a red scraper (spatula) with the other
and beat the cake batter until it was completely mixed. She drew a cake pan and greased
the bottom and sides of the pan. After that she poured the batter into the pan. She drew
the open oven door and the pan sitting in the oven. The door was closed so the cake
could begin to bake.


 



Dawn poured coffee into an orange mug then drew hot sudsy water in the sink.
She enjoyed drinking her cup of coffee while she washed the dishes and placed them
in the cream colored dish drainer she had drawn. By the time she was done washing dishes
there was a lovely smell of chocolate cake in the air. She drew a chair beside the table and

sat down to enjoy a game of Boggle with her girls
. . . and drink another cup of very good coffee.



 

The whole family was invited to the home of some friends for dinner on New Year’s Day.
Dawn made her favorite chocolate frosting, frosted the cake and took it along to share. The
evening was a special time of visiting and playing games and, of course, eating delicious food.

 

At last it was time to go home. By this time Dawn was very tired. She looked at all the
lights in all of the houses they passed. So many houses in the country. She wondered which
one was hers. Then she remembered seeing the moon set in the western sky through her bed
room window. She drew the silvery moon in the western sky. She drew a window around the
moon. Then she drew her bed with the blue blanket. Dawn climbed into bed, dropped her
colored pencils on the red rug beside her bed and fell fast asleep.


A parody (3rd definition in Encarta, by Dawn) of Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
I would like to give credit to my friend, for introducing me to the book,
Harold and the Purple Crayon. In all the years of growing up I had never
heard of it until recently. Well, kind of recently. Within the last ten years.

And I didn't learn about parodies at my school either. Or - if I did - I forgot.
 

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

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.

Monday, December 8, 2014

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

Saturday, December 6, 2014

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


Sunday, November 30, 2014

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!

Saturday, November 29, 2014

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?"