On the Road Again!

We had a wonderful drive on Monday and made it south of Spartanburg, SC. We left home around 5:00 am, stopped in Charlottesville for breakfast and had lunch in the Barbecue capital of the world, Lexington, NC. The barbecue was wonderful! and the place we ate in had been written up in Southern Living magazine. There were loads of people there--mostly locals--so we assumed we had picked the right place. We then stopped outside Charlotte, NC, at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. This place has been recognized by HGTV as one of the 20 best gardens in the U.S. As you can imagine, Joann thought she had died and gone to heaven. It was beautiul and the pictures were taken there. We stopped around 5:00 pm for the evening, so we had a long day, but made good time. The weather is almost perfect, so we are keeping our fingers crossed and prayers going for continued good weather.

Some Book Club Recipes

I hosted book club Friday night. I had a few requests for the recipes of the food I served so here are my most requested recipes from Friday's gathering.

FORGOTTEN COOKIES

from the Pattie Gang Cookbook,

Pattie Elem. in Prince William County

When you need two dozen cookies and it is already 10:00 P.M. That's what I needed Thursday night after watching Big Brother and then President Bush.

2 or 3 egg whites 1 tsp. vanilla

pinch of salt 6 oz. of dark chocolate chips or kisses

3/4 c. 1 c. chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Beat egg whites and salt. Add sugar gradually/then beat till stiff.

Fold in remaining ingredients. Drop by teaspoonfuls on foil covered sheet. Place in preheated oven. Close oven door. Turn oven off immediately.

Do not open oven door until morning. Then remove and peel foil off

the bottoms of the cookies.

3 LOAVES OF PUMPKIN BREAD

FROM RIVER ROAD RECIPES II

The Junior League of Baton Rouge, LA

This is one of my all time favorite recipes from my all time favorite Junior

League cookbook. I've been making this since 1982 trip to New Orleans.

It makes 3 loaves: one to eat now, one to freeze and one to give away to a friend or neighbor.

3 cups sugar

1 cup salad oil

4 eggs

2 15 oz. cans of pumpkin

3 and 1/3 cups flour, unsifted

2 t. baking soda

1 t. baking powder

2 and 1/2 t. salt

1 t. nutmeg

1 t. cinnamon

1 t. pumpkin pie spice

2/3 cup water

2 t. vanilla

1 cup chopped pecans or golden raisins or 1/2 cup of each

Combine sugar and oil in electric mixer. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla. Add spices. Then start adding the flour--one cup at a time and alternating with the water and the cans of pumpkin.

remove bowl from mixer and fold in by hand the pecans or golden raisins.

Pour batter into 3 well greased and floured 9x5x3 loaf pans. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 1 hour. Then check with wooden skewer for doneness. It usually takes 5 minutes more to get the bread baked all the way through and loaves to pull away from the sides a teeny bit. Remove from oven. Let cool in pans for 1 hour while you clean up your mess. Then remove loaves from pans when barely warm and place on wire rack to finish cooling completely. This original recipe calls for cream cheese icing which I never use because with 3 cups of sugar it is mighty sweet already.

Pistachio Pudding for Twelve

from Joann's Imagination and Jello

Fix two packages of Jello's Instant Pistachio Pudding following the package directions. Soon as pudding is made in mixing bowl add 1 cup of finely chopped pistachios to the pudding making sure to save a few for the top for decoration. Then add 1 cup of golden raisins and again save a few for the top for decoration. Now gently fold in 2 cups of Cool Whip but leave it streaked or marbleized instead of totally blended. Choose a pretty glass or crystal serving bowl and pour in the pudding. Then put two big globs of Cool Whip on top of the pudding right in the center. Sprinkle the reserve ground pistachios and golden raisin on top and about the globs of Cool Whip. Cover pudding with plastic wrap that doesn't touch the pudding and put in the refrigerator till time to serve. Note: you could use real whipped cream (1 and 1/2 cups cream for whipping) with 1/4 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla if you want to be really decadent. I'm not totally decadent.

Note: the book for discussion Friday night was Khaled Hosseini's second novel, A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS. Khaled's first novel was THE KITE RUNNER. Both novels have historical settings in Afghanistan. Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan and moved to America in 1980 where he became a medical doctor.

Final note: I have also read the following books that are about Afghanistan and the Balkan region:

Asne Seierstad's THE BOOKSELLER OF KABUL

Yasmina Khadra's THE SWALLOWS OF KABUL

Robert Kaplan's BALKAN GHOSTS, A JOURNEY THROUGH

HISTORY

Ahmed Rashid's TALIBAN, MILITANT ISLAM, OIL AND FUNDAMENTALISM IN CENTRAL ASIA.

Happy fall reading, everyone.

Late Summer Garden Pics

The summer days are dwindling down to a precious few. Each morning I like to walk around the gardens with my cup of coffee and notice how the morning sun glances off the plants and creates shadows. Top photo is of the perennial garden with a concrete pot holding creeping Jenny. The middle photo is of the Jackson Perkins rose that I have trained to climb up to the rod iron open ball by the brick patio. This is the fourth or fifth time this rose has bloomed this summer. Deadheading the spent blossoms is the trick to repeated blooms. You can see white rose petals that have fallen on the patio.

September 8, 1954 - September 8, 2007

September 8, 1954 - September 8, 2007

Happy Anniversary to Paul and Iona Mae

My older brother Paul has been married for 53 years. Look at this black and white formal wedding photo. In 1954 it was not common to have photos taken at the church alter so you went to the nearest photography studio for the formal portrait. In this photo I am the junior bridesmaid standing by the groom and my sister Mary is the bridesmaid standing by the bride. Look at the bride's dress. It was designed by a Catholic priest who wanted to create gowns that were dignified. The early fifties was the era of tulle and cancans so our attendants gowns had tulle and built in cancans. The color of the gowns was a soft shade of aqua and we wore matching aqua linen pumps.

Mine hurt because I had outgrown the pumps before the wedding date by going barefoot all summer on the farm. I also remember that my dress was too tight too. I must have been in a growing spurt. I was ten and my sister Mary was sweet sixteen. My two other brothers were not able to attend this wedding. Carl was in the air force and stationed at Roswell, NM. Harold was in the army and stationed outside Tokyo, Japan. I don't remember too much else about this wedding because I was only ten but I do remember that I loved the flowers. We carried red roses in a circle design while the bride had a white orchid for her bouquet. I also remember that this was the first occasion where I got to see my parents dressed up in semi-formal black. My mother looked really pretty and my dad looked handsome. This wedding took place on a Wednesday because back in those days many of the Germans in Ohio chose Wednesday as the day for weddings. Something similar to the Pennsylvania Dutch I think. At any rate because the wedding was on a Wednesday Mary and I got out of school for the day. This was another all day wedding. The mass was at 8:00 in Egypt, Ohio (Yes, there is an Egypt, Ohio too.). Then came breakfast, followed by lunch, supper and evening wedding dance followed by a midnight lunch. In those days between lunch and supper the wedding party would travel in a car caravan thru the small towns and villages blowing horns and waving to anyone alongside the street or road. That's why it was very important to decorate the cars for this wedding caravan. Something else the bride and groom would do in the afternoon would be opening the presents at the reception hall. The morning after the wedding my father found two broken large crocks by the well. We had used them for transporting food (German cabbage) and had forgotten to take them back inside when we got home and a very early frost Thursday morning cracked the crocks! My father always liked to say that the only two that got crocked at Paul's wedding were the two crocks.

My Darling Grandson at 8 Weeks

August 25, 1962 - August 25, 2007

Happy 45'th Wedding Anniversary to Mary and Jerry!

I love old black and white photos and this is one of my favorites. My sister Mary is the bride and I am the maid of honor in dark rose. Don't we all look like a page from the very early 60's? My sister looks beautiful in her pure silk wedding gown and her husband Jerry looks so young and thin and handsome! Now check out the bridal party. The flower girl is my niece Diane and her mother Iona made her gown by just looking at the other attendants dresses that were purchased at Rikes in downtown Dayton, Ohio. I think the bridesmaids and myself look like a scene from Cyprus Gardens in Florida. We have our hats with veils, our long white gloves that go above the elbow and of course we have our hoop skirts to make our dresses stand out. We are either ready for Cyprus Gardens or for meeting Scarlett in Gone With The Wind. Now check out the men. Note the dark suits and narrow ties. Also note the short hair and short sideburns. That would not last. By 1969 even the conservatives were wearing long hair and long sideburns. The tall?, dark and handsome man on the far left is my brother Carl. Now take a look at the church alter and the beautiful wood angels on both sides of the alter. All of this would be eliminated after Pope John the 23'rd and Vatican II. Do note the cute little boy who was Jerry's nephew and was the ring bearer for the ceremony. Sadly he is the only one in this photo who is now deceased. He died in his early 20's of cancer. So very sad.

Now look at the second photo. Here is the bride and groom 45 years later.
Mary and Jerry are surrounded by their six grandchildren: Brady, Kristine and Justin are in the front row and Mary is holding Audrey and Jerry is holding Tate. I can remember this wedding in every detail. It was 1962 and our Catholic Church required wedding ceremonies in the morning. So I think this wedding took place around 10:00 A.M. which meant that select guests came for breakfast and then lunch and afternoon down time before the evening country buffet dinner and dance. Mary and Jerry were still square dancing and slow dancing at 10:00 P.M. that Saturday night in August. They were cutting the rug in 1962 and they are still cutting the rug today with the grandkids.

Life

Life is like a glass mosaic. You need to step back and take in the entire event to realize that even the ugly and difficult moments are awesome and that the sum of life is so much greater than the individual events. And it takes so many experiences to create this unique picture. It is great to have lived so long so that my glass mosaic is so full and vibrant. So here's to life and old age!

This glass mosaic is at the Museum of Glass in Tocoma, Washington.

I'm Hooked On Big Brother!

Every summer I get my kicks by watching Big Brother. Tonight I get to watch the POV challenge to see if anyone takes either Jessica or Jameka off the elimination block. Last week's HOH challenge was so difficult. I think that it was the hardest challenge that I have ever seen on Big Brother in 8 seasons. Holy Cow! I'm surprised that there wasn't any broken bones.
I'm glad that Zack got HOH this week. Zack doesn't say much but what he says isn't loud or rude like some of the other house guests. I'm liking him more. I went on a CBS Big Brother Forum and discovered that a lot of folks don't like Jessica because of her old lady? looks, her blue eye shadow, her squeaky voice and her laziness. Some folks claim that she sleeps all day to get over her hangovers. Others say that she sleeps to avoid doing any cleaning or cooking in the house. As for Eric and Jessica some people are tired of that scene too. I like Eric but think that the powers that be at Big Brother did a dumb thing by starting this America's Player. I don't like it and I think others don't either. Everyone knows that Eric is up to something but they don't know what it is. Eric might get back doored tonight and then on Thursday I think both he and Jess will be eliminated. And that would leave Zack and Jameka with Evil Dick and his daughter, Danielle. This show has always had lots of twists so I don't want to venture who will win the million dollars. Oh, I just remembered something: we get to see Janelle, the winner from last year on the show tonight. That should be interesting. Final thought: Big Brother is better than summer reruns. Of course, I could do something better with my time like reading a good book but I confess that I am hooked to this show.

The New Year Begins

The new year really begins when Labor Day comes and the kids return to class. Even when you are no longer a student or teacher or parent of school age kids the new year begins in September instead of January. A new year and a new chapter in everyone's life even if you are participating only as a spectator thinking of your kids or grandkids facing that first day. This is one evening around the supper table when everyone will have something to talk about even if it is the talk of the horrendous traffic once again in Northern Virginia! All those school buses, all those teachers, all those congressmen and women, all those lobbyists and all those August vacationing CEOs hit the highway this morning and now are hitting the return trip route. Some folks who live way out in West Virginia and south of Fredericksburg really have long commutes. And then there are those who head to the eastern shore of NO VA. All this traffic makes people wish for that Magic School Bus that flies in the sky. What a way to go.

Russian Farmers

Three generations of farmers from Russia. That is Russia, Ohio not Soviet Russia. Did you know that there is a little village in western Ohio that is named Russia? Yes, there is and the Russia natives are very proud of their village and its Catholic Church, its school system and the many businesses located in Russia. There are around 450 residents but nearly 850 people commute to work in Russia. One of the big local firms is a branch of Clopay Doors. I have a niece and nephew who work for Clopay. Most of the founding fathers of Russia were French Catholics who immigrated to Ohio after the Napoleonic Wars. In fact, if you make a trip to the Arch of Triumph in Paris you will see the name of a French general named Grilliot. Many of this general's descendants grew up in Russia, Ohio. Carol Grilliot was in my class and Annette Grilliot was in my sister's class. The neighboring French communities are French Town and Versailles. The oldest tombstones in these three villages are written in French. By the way, people from Russia, Ohio sometimes pronounce Russia the way the original French settlers pronounced it: Roo she! The immigrants thought that the land reminded them of the cold flat land that they encountered in Russia when they were fighting for Napoleon in Russia in the wintertime.



Now to these Russian Farmers. The first generation is my brother Carl who is standing by that big tire on the combine. The combine belongs to Carl's son, Greg, the second generation. The three preteen boys up in the combine are Greg's sons: Justin, Jordan and Jake. Farming is in their genes. I know that they got the farming genes from my father Leo. And that combine is a Massey Ferguson. It was Greg's farm toy to drive with his sons in toe. Now Greg has a new combine to toodle around the farms. I hope someone sends me a photo of the new combine. Folks, have you noticed how farmers get excited over farm machinery? Just like city folks getting excited over a new Lexus or Jaguar to drive.

Sunday Trip to Grandma Jo's

Jack Aidan came with Mommy and Daddy to Grandma Jo's for pancakes and to see Auntie Jeanine. Of course, Jack Aidan had to model for us another brand new outfit. This was a preppy little green overall outfit. Then he went into the hood when he tried on Auntie Maria's turtle bath blanket. Maybe it was that little turtle or the little piggy from Sweet Bev that got him laughing out loud. At any rate he was a delightful little Sunday guest.

What To Serve With Duck Farts

I had a Duck Fart Party on Thursday for the ladies. I like to think French at all times so I called it The Ducque Pharte Party. But what do you serve ladies at 6:00 P.M. on a very hot and humid August day in Virginia? Well, I skipped the tray of veggies and dip because I have the type of friends who save their weekly calories for a party. And when the chance to party arrives they pass up the veggie tray and head straight to the good and rich stuff. So I served things that would go well with scotch and water or bourbon and water: mixed nuts, olives in sherry vinegar, rustic bread with assorted cheeses and bean salad. The ladies liked the beans. See end of post for this recipe and some others. Two of the ladies were coming straight from work and a long commute (If you live in NO VA., you know what a long commute is.) so I thought I better have something substantial for a main course at the dining room table. So I relied on my old Christmas morning brunch recipe: Shrimp Curried Eggs with Croissants. At this point some of us switched to white wine for drinking though one member insisted that she stays with whatever she first starts to drink at a party so I passed her the bottle of Makers Mark Bourbon. Finally we moved on to dessert and the Duck Farts that I discovered in Alaska this spring. A Duck Fart is a shot drink and it can be found at The Red Dog Saloon in Juneau. It consists of Kahlua, Bailey's Irish Creme and Canadian Crown Royal. You layer this in a shot glass in the order given above. It helps to put just a glaze of Crown Royal in the shot by using a spoon and if you go down the side of the shot glass you can get a nice layered shot. Here are my recipes for a Ducque Pharte Party or plain old Duck Fart Party.

Sherried Olives

Just pour out the regular vinegar and place olives in a nice glass serving

compote and pour sherry vinegar on olives to cover completely.

Hot Day Bean Salad

This is a whole protein meal if you pass the bread with it. Use your colander to drain and rinse each type of canned bean and vegetable that you want to use. Thursday I had white cannelli beans, red kidney beans and white shoepeg corn. In the past I have also used green lima beans and those beige garbanzo beans. Whatever you think you would like to use and have on hand in the pantry. Then add one half cup of each of the following chopped veggies: green onions, the inner stalks of celery with onions and carrots. Flavor this bean salad with one chopped clove of garlic, some chopped basel leaves and ground salt and pepper. Then stir in some salad dressing to finish the salad. In the past I have used Vidalia Onion dressing or Italian Dressing but on Thursday I used bottled Ranch Dressing. Like all salads add what you like and flavor with your favorite dressing. This takes about 15 minutes to throw together and is great for that hot summer evening when you don't feel like standing at the stove cooking. And if you use Italian Dressing this is a good picnic salad because you don't have to worry about food spoiling in the heat.

Shrimp Curried Eggs

This recipe has several steps:

#1 Let a pound of frozen shrimp thaw out in the sink for later use.

#2 Hardboil a dozen eggs and shell them and cut them in half for "

deviled curried eggs.

#3 Take the yolks and make the curried deviled eggs by using the following

ingredients to flavor the yolks: pinch of salt, pinch of paprika and 4-5

pinches of curry powder. Bind yolks together with about one third cup

of mayonnaise. Then stuff the whites with the yolks. Place these eggs

in a buttered 11 x 13 pyrex casserole.

#4 Make a white sauce in a saucepan by melting 3 T. butter with 3 T. flour.

Thicken the roux with one and half cups of regular milk. Then flavor

this white sauce with some salt, pepper and 1/2 teaspoon of curry

powder. You decide how much curry you want in the sauce by tasting.

#5 Dress up this sauce with 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese, 1 soup can

of cream of shrimp soup. Taste again to adjust seasonings. Lastly

throw in the pound of shrimp and remove from heat. Pour this sauce

over the eggs in the casserole.

#6 Take two slices of bread and put in food processor to make some

fresh bread crumbs. (Don't use storebought dry crumbs! Yuch!)

Spread lightly the fresh moist crumbs over the casserole dish. Then

cover casserole with foil and put in the fridge for next day.

Next day bake the casserole in a 350 degrees oven for around 35 minutes or until the sauce begins to bubble up. Do remove casserole from fridge about an hour before baking so it can come to room temperature. I like to

serve this with either fresh fruit for brunch or with a naked lettuce salad

for a light supper.

Grand Dames Chilled

This is a chocolate refrigerator cookie that tastes great with a Duck Fart Shot. Ingredients: 1 stick of butter melted and poured over 1 heaping cup of crushed graham cracker crumbs. Pat firmly into bottom of 11 x 9 baking pan. Then spread a 12 oz. bag of chocolate baking chips over the crumbs.

Then spread a 12 oz. bag of shredded coconut over the chocolate chips. For the top layer use a spoon to spread evenly a 14 oz. can of sweetened Borden's condensed milk over the coconut and chips.

Place this into a preheated 350 degree oven and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until is just melts and browns. Cut the grande dames into long

bar cookies while still warm and place on serving dish. Refrigerate grande dames so they are well chilled. Then they become grande dames: cool ladies with sweet delectible hearts.

Final comment for Duck Fart Blog:

My younger daugher's Mother's Day present to me this year was a cute Duck Fart Kit. It had all the ingredients for making those duck farts and had a little green wooden duck that looked like he had just passed some gas and was totally embarrassed! My daugher wrote this on her card: To Mommy (a woman who will try anything) From Jeanine (a girl who can spell fart!) The spelling reference was to remind us that the night before she went off to kindergarten she told us much to our dismay that she was going to tell her new teacher that she was ready for kindergarten because she knew how to spell fart: f-a-r-t fart.

A Most Memorable Birthday Party

This past Saturday night our neighbor Ken turned 60 and his wife Tracy surprised him with a most memorable birthday party at their home. Jack and I attended and were enraptured with the party. The birthday invitation requested that everyone wear white which was a wonderful idea. The guests looked like something from a F. Scott Fitzgerald book or a party at The Rosecliff in Newport, RI. And our birthday guest of honor looked smashing in a white suit. There were many memorable moments at the party: the trio of caterers who attended to your libations and food needs; the flautist who played for us in the living room; the singer who serenaded the birthday honoree and the magical lights on the yard umbrellas and flickering candles on the deck. But the most memorable moment was the moment when each guest was told to pick up a silver balloon for the late evening balloon launch in the yard. Suddenly all the guests (average age of guest was between 40 and 50 or more) turned into excited little kids who had a balloon on a string to play with and then release. And what a wonderful sight to see over 100 silver balloons float up in the night sky to the moon. See attached photos for a glimpse of this most memorable birthday party.

Aldie Mill in Aldie, VA

This is the old historic Aldie Mill in Aldie, VA which is on route 50 near Middleburg, VA where Jackie Kennedy Onassis would go horse riding. We toured it two weeks ago for the first time. Our tour guide was Joe and he gave us and hour and half in depth tour of the buildings and grounds. In September there will be a festival at this mill. Some common expressions that originated at mills:

Keep Your Nose to the Grindstone means keep your eye on the milling
or else you may clog up the millworks. I better keep my nose to the
grindstone to finish this blog today.

Put through the mill means to be put between two stones and ground
up. When you go to college you are put through the mill.

Run of the mill means what is normally ground up at the mill. The
Aldie Mill's run of the mill was wheat and corn.

Have a millstone around one's neck means to have a heavy burden
to solve. According to Al Gore the global warming problem is a
millstone around our world's neck.

Elvis: The Life and The Legend

When I was in grade school two singers came on the national scene: Elvis Presley and Pat Boone. Fifty years later and one is alive but forgotten while the other is dead but not to be forgotten. Love him or hate him but do admit that Elvis was the most unique entertainer that America has ever produced. And Graceland has to be the most unique home of an entertainer. The number crunchers say that excepting the White House which now is off limits to most people Graceland is the most visited tourist home in America. Graceland outsells Washington's Mount Vernon, Lincoln's log cabin in Ky, the Hearst Castle in California, the Biltmore Estate in NC and the Marble House in RI. And I dare anyone to make it thru the house and memorial gardens without shedding a tear or two. Yes, the entire place is a time capsule of mid 20'th century American consumerism.

And much of it is tacky looking, especially the shag carpet on the ceiling in the jungle room in the basement. But that is what America was all about in the 50's, 60's and 70's: Penny's and Murphy's and the local mom and pop furniture stores supplied the new middle class Americans who were enjoying the post WWII economic growth. Now it is 2007 and we have tastefully decorated rooms on HGTV to show us what to purchase and
display in our homes. Williams Sonoma and Pottery Barn are the arbitrating stores of choice for us. Maybe 50 years from now we will be back to the Elvis look in home taste. Now wouldn't that be a hoot.

But why do we cry when we go to Graceland? Even people who never cared for Elvis's music and style shed tears. I think we cry as much for ourselves as for Elvis. We are weeping over our lost youth and innocence. The Elvis look may return in fifty years but never will we go back to the world as we knew it in the 50's, 60's and 70's. We had terrible events during those generations but nothing like what we face today in our world. Soldiers were killed in Vietnam at an alarming rate but they were not beheaded or slaughtered like some are in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today's terrorists make all of us want to return to the heyday of Elvis in America. As for Pat Boone. Well, even he in his old age has adopted some of the Elvis look: black leather and big rings and longer hair. It just takes some people longer to get their groove on.