Man's Cookies

When one wants to bake cookies it's a good idea to have flour on hand.
I grabbed the bowl and opened the door in the island where the glass canisters
are kept. For my recipe I needed two cups flour and two cups oatmeal.
I could see there was not enough for two cups flour. There was lots of oatmeal.
I had whole wheat flour and coconut flour. I could have experimented but
fortunately I didn't have to this time.

Before panic set in a happy memory came to me. At Chelsea's bridal shower we
exchanged recipes. One was for cookies made out of a cake mix. Thankfully I had
a cake mix. After that it was easy.

Dump the cake mix in a bowl.
Add two eggs
Add  1/2 cup oil
Mix together
Add 1/2 bag of chocolate chips
Drop by spoon on a pan
Bake at 325* for 10 -12 minutes.

When I make these again I might try a stick of butter instead of oil.
It would have to be softened of course. And vanilla. I forgot to splash vanilla in the
cookie dough.  They were quite delectable even with this major forgetfulness!

Here is the famous recipe for Man's Cookies that I was trying to make.
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar        
Cut in:
1/2 cup margarine or butter
Add
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla

Dry ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 cups oatmeal
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. baking powder
Mix all together with a big spoon.
Add one 12 oz. pkg. chocolate chips
Add one or two tablespoons water if it seems too dry.

(I cut the margarine in half for this recipe.
The original recipe calls for a cup of shortening or margarine.)

Drop by spoon on cookie pan. Bake at 350 for 8 - 10 min. Do not over bake.
We take them out when they are still gooey looking and let them finish baking on the pan.

This is the very first cookie recipe I ever made. When I was about ten or eleven a young
couple at our church had a little baby. I helped as a mother's helper and learned how to make
these cookies.  They have been a family favorite ever since.

Camel Train

When you are invited to a wedding in Sparta then its a good idea to look up directions
for the place in the town of Sparta instead of say - Tomah -   a neighboring town.  That
saves a bit of trouble when you actually get to Sparta and start looking for the wedding.

The night before we carefully looked up the directions online and very carefully wrote
them down on a piece of paper. Then I stuck the directions in my purse with the invitation
and made sure my purse was in the car when we started off.  But something went wrong -
very wrong.

The directions looked like someone had dyslexia - hwy 21 turned to 12. 
Streets turned to avenues. Nothing added up and nothing matched.
But my husband is one of those rare men who will stop and ask directions. 
I know!  He is a keeper!

So we made it to the wedding with five minutes to spare.
What a sigh of relief to find out there was a relaxed atmosphere inside.
We walked in and saw the groom's dad and uncle and brother standing there talking.
They welcomed us in and said find a seat and we did.

Chatted with grandmother of the groom and more cousins. After awhile the groom escorted
his grandmother to her seat and the wedding began. There was a darling flower girl tossing
petals down the aisle and the cute ring bearer did his best to keep up.

Bridesmaids and groomsmen

Bride with her parents

The minister broke the ice by declaring he never gets in on any of the pictures so he's
solving that by taking a *selfie* on his tablet right then and there with the bride and groom.

Then he went ahead and preached a sermon that spoke to us all. 
And the groom said his vows
        and the bride said her vows.
They exchanged rings
          and kissed
 and were introduced
    to the audience.

There was a feeling of deja vu. The girls who sang at our wedding were there. 
(Two of them weren't able to be at this wedding) The trio sang this song which has
become a favorite of mine ever since I first heard it at my sister's wedding. 
My aunt and uncle sang it at Dad and Mom's 50th wedding anniversary as well.

1	’Twas a day in early springtime, By an ancient wayside well, Eliezer paused to rest his camel train. He had found a bride for Isaac Ere the evening shadows fell, For his weary journey had not been in vain. Chorus:
	Oh, get ready! Evening shadows fall. Don’t you hear the Eliezer call? There’s going to be a wedding, And our joy will soon begin, In the evening when the camel train comes in.
2	So he took the fair Rebekah, Dressed in jewels rich and rare, Quickly to her waiting bridegroom far away. Where Rebekah loved her Isaac, And he loved Rebekah fair; Oh, it must have been a happy wedding day.
3	Now the blessed Holy Spirit, From our Father God above, Has come down to earth to find a worthy Bride. For our Isaac over yonder Has prepared His tents of love, And He wants His fair Rebekah by His side.
4	We have left our kinfolk gladly; We have bade the world goodbye. We’ve been called to be His pure and spotless Bride; Where we’ll soon behold our Jesus In that blest eternity— What a happy, happy wedding that will be! - Hansel P. Vibbert       - from Genesis 24

Visit a Library

Ellis is out of town this week.  That's why Krysta and I are at home
"doing all the fun stuff, like put wood in the basement, fold laundry
and eat pizza." 
(A quote from Krysta's letter to Dea and Jorgan.)

. . . and a visit to a library that is celebrating its 115th anniversary
Krysta had a friend over Sunday afternoon. We had a quick lunch of :

                                      Banana Splits
ice cream
sliced bananas
peanut butter
home made granola
chocolate topping

To make your own topping put 1cup sugar in a small pan.
Add 1-3 T. cocoa, depends on your taste
Add 1/4 cup milk
 1 T. butter
Melt over low heat, stir with a wire whisk.
Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and pour into a small pitcher.
Make sure the pitcher is made to withstand hot temperatures.
I do not want to be responsible for breaking your great - great
grandmother's creamer for her china set.
Pour over the ice cream.


Granola

Pour one container of old fashioned oats into a large roaster.
(or minute oats if that suits your taste better)
about 12 -15 cups
2 cups brown sugar
1 T. salt
1 cup coconut
Stir all together
In a small pan heat gently
1 cup oil
1 cup water
a splash of vanilla

If you want to use honey cut back on the brown sugar and add honey to the liquids.
Pour over the oatmeal. Stir very well. Toast in the oven 1 and  1/2 hours. Set the timer
to remind you to stir every half hour.
Options: You can add sun flower seeds, wheat germ, any other healthy goodies your
family enjoys.

After inhaling this delightful, delicious, nutritious lunch we scurried to the car and hit
the interstate. We were aiming to get there in time for the tour but we were running late.

"Are you here for the open house?" a young girl asked  us at the door. She told us on which
floor to find the cookies and coffee.  Cookies?!  We didn't know there would be cookies!

We found the tour group and got in on the tail end of it. Our friend who conducted the tour
took some of us late stragglers back to the top floor and showed us the attics.  In one attic
wooden rails are stored that used to be set up in front of the shelves of books to keep the
common people from reaching and choosing their own books.

They had to request them and the librarian got them off the shelves.

Ridiculous! 

There is a big room where people gathered to hear recitals. The grand piano that used to be
there was donated to some place else.  We saw the door and the metal fire escape and tried
to imagine the piano being lowered down those steep steps!  a few strong, brave men would
have been needed to accomplish that task.

An older gentleman gave away thin, wooden bookmarkers. He asked our names and printed
each one on our own personal bookmarker with beautiful hand writing and special colors of
 ink to contrast with the finish on the wood. Krysta's name was printed with a silvery, gray ink.

The room where the cookies were served had a fire place with stuffed chairs pulled up in a
cozy half circle.  A high bench was built under the windows. Climb up on a sturdy chair,
plug in your lap top and look out the window at the scenery below. The atmosphere just begged you to pick out a book and sit down and read. 

But we had places to go and things to do so we left that beautiful building. 
If you are ever in Owatonna MN stop at the library.  I recommend it to you.

Pizza

When you make pizza with cauliflower in the crust (recipe from THM)
 be sure to line the pan with the right kind of paper especially made for ovens . . .   

Not freezer paper . . .

Last night, Krysta and I were very hungry! I threw that pizza together as fast as possible.
When it was baking I started noticing a funny smell.  Like wax melting?   maybe?

I checked the furnace in the basement.  Nothing out of the ordinary.
Back upstairs I looked in the oven and noticed the lining was wider than the pan.
That should have stopped me when I put the paper in the pan, but being in such a hurry
scrambled my brain, I guess.  

Then I thought maybe the paper was burning. So I trimmed the edges.
Finally, when the pizza was done and we were loading up our plates we discovered
a strange thing. The lining was glued to the crust.

We had upside-down-pizza. We couldn't even be sure we got all the paper off.
We discovered chewing on freezer paper is not good!

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.

 

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