Retreat Magic 2/12/15

Last week we had a magic Day!  My "little" sister was celebrating her 87^th birthday.  As my son-in-law says to me in our many talks, "This is for your ears only". She would probably prefer that you think she was much younger.  Her sons from Hebron, Kentucky and Ft. Wayne and her local daughter were gathering at her home to help her have a great day. They were furnishing the meal and invited and picked their Aunt Mary and me up at our homes, a courtesy offered because of our age and the abundance of snow. Following a tasty lunch of lasagna, salad, mixed fruit, garlic toast and Angel Food cake smothered in fruit pie filling and laden down with whipped topping, we couldn’t move so we just sat at the table and enjoyed each other.  It was a magic time just enjoying family and ended too soon. Margaret, may you continue to manage in  your own home and many thanks to Rita, Mike and Doug, for including two other little old ladies in your celebration.  It is fantastic to be included.

Saturday was a great spiritual day. My daughter was on a retreat team for the church at Assumption on route 20. She invited any of us who cared to attend. Only one daughter was free to go so she supplied my transportation. The theme of the retreat was “The Heart of a Woman”, with many scripture verses pointing out the place of women in God’s master plan of creation. It was so uplifting to share our faith and “God moments” with 40 other women.  Anita had asked me to share my “ Faith Story” but she had me at the end of the day.  After several other talks, I wondered “How can I follow those?”  But the Holy Spirit was with me and I held their attention which made me comfortable, making it a magic experience.

When I arrived home I had a message from my son who lives in Decatur. He and his wife and daughter who live in Indianapolis wanted to come visit me on Sunday morning and attend church with me. We had stopped for 5:00 o’clock Mass in Bryan on our way home to accommodate my daughter’s schedule. So they changed their plans and attended church on their way at a later hour and arrived at my house a little before eleven. I knew they had planned to take me to Rita’s for lunch, but Keith’s birthday was the “day after Kork’s” (a family joke we do not let  him forget from his childhood). When he was still at home before enlisting in the army, he loved potato soup with rivels and cheese. None of his family will eat it, so I made a recipe of it and was just finishing it when they arrived. He was happy for the special attention and took an ample supply home with him. Much joy can be found in the little unexpected, inexpensive incidents of special thoughts of caring.

I was so excited when I found a recipe for “vegetable meatloaf” for those of you who prefer to abstain from meat. Imagine my disappointment when the last item was one-half pound of ground beef!  Guess you need that for it to be MEAT loaf! It sounds good and a bit different so I decided to use it anyway. Also, it is a recipe for two people.

          

VEGETABLE MEATLOAF

1 slice bread, torn into small pieces

1 egg, beaten

¼ cup shredded carrot

2 tablespoons finely chopped onion

2 tablespoons finely chopped green pepper

2 tablespoons finely chopped celery

Salt, pepper, garlic powder

5 tablespoons ketchup

½ pound ground beef

Combine bread, egg, carrot, celery, onion, green pepper, ketchup and seasonings. Add beef and mix well. Form into a loaf and place in a 6 inch by 3 inch pan. Reserve some of the ketchup for on top if desired. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  Serve with baked potatoes topped with shredded cheddar cheese.

This is one I have never heard of but it is in a 1990 cookbook, so maybe I lead a sheltered life!

          

CONFETTTE CHICKEN

1 ½ cups chicken, cooked and cubed

2 cans (14 ½  oz. each) seasoned tomatoes/onions

1 green pepper, chopped

Combine ingredients and season to taste. Simmer for 10 minutes. Serve over cooked rice.

Keep looking for magic. It will appear in unexpected places.

Almond Bark No Bake Cookies 2/5/15

Why does the weather man have to be so accurate when he predicts something so drastic?  I was certain that the worst of this would go north or south of us!  There must have been a bit of doubt because while I was out for a meal at the down town restaurant, I took advantage of the offer of going to church at 6:00 Saturday evening.  When I opened one eye this morning at the time I would have been leaving home I glanced out the window and ascertained that by golly this time it happened just like was predicted. So far today has been quite monotonous.  I made one phone call and had a return call from the same person. That is the total of my social activity.  To liven up my day, I cooked some beef and noodles and made some instant potatoes for my lunch. I fortified the potatoes with a large chunk of butter and used hot milk instead of water.  Not too bad!! I even watched a college basketball game.  The one I picked “just because” ended up winning so maybe that was my magic for the day.

With my isolated activities I have had a hard time running into much magic so think I will go back to one of my Christmas parties, really to a month or so before that.  At our regular monthly Homemakers Club meeting we had a guest speaker who was explaining their new program for pre-preschool kids-3 year olds!!  After her presentation she asked if there were any questions about the program.  I hate to let an opportunity go by without talking, so when no one else said anything I said I just wanted to make a statement.  I grew up in a home where we had only necessities, good parents but almost no toys, played jacks on the dining room table with hickory nuts and no ball! We had to use our imagination to fill our play hours and free time from daily chores. We didn’t even have kindergarten and all of my brothers and sisters turned out quite well.  She responded with the statement that I had my own answer—“good parents” who handled our situation well.  All kids aren’t so lucky. I have a secret pal who was tremendous with her gifts to me during the year. When I received my Christmas gift there was a bag with 6 or so small bags inside. In one was a Slinky, in another a bag of marbles, and a game of “jacks” with Two balls!  That is all that I recall that was in the bags.  I thought it was a very magical moment and thought she was trying to even the score years ago when I had her name.  I had purchased a flat wooden angel with golden wires for wings and halo, about 10 to 12 inches tall.  Inscribed on the angel were the words “God loves you and I am trying!!” She recently built a new home and we were guests there.  She pointed it out and said, “Yes, Max, there is my angel.”  My daughter asked for the marbles and I intend to someday see if I can mentally resurrect at least part of the game of jacks, now that I have two balls to bounce. I hope she didn’t get the marbles because she thought I had “lost mine”!!

I think that is a good place to return to food.  I had two soups picked out because of the weather, but by the time the paper comes out, I hope at least part of this snow has left us, at least most of the coldest weather is just a memory. If not I will look up those recipes again.  I am saving one for me to make anyway. One I am using today was supposed to be a meal for a bit over a dollar. You can tell it is an old cookbook because the seasonings would cost you more than that today.

            

UPSIDE DOWN MEAT PIE

1 pound ground beef

½ cup chopped celery

½ cup chopped onion

¼ cup chopped green pepper

1 can (10 ¾ oz.)condensed tomato soup

1 teaspoon prepared mustard

1 ½ cups biscuit baking mix

1/3 cup water

3slices Velveeta Cheese, halved diagonally

Over medium heat, cook beef, celery, onion and green pepper until meat is no longer pink and the vegetables are tender.  Drain fat. Stir in soup and mustard. Transfer to a greased 9 inch pie plate. Combine biscuit mix and water until soft dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a 9 inch circle. Place over the meat mixture and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for five minutes. Run a knife around the edge to loosen biscuit dough. Invert onto a serving platter. Arrange cheese slices in a pinwheel pattern. Garnish with green pepper rings if desired.

            

ALMOND BARK NO BAKE COOKIES

1 package (24 oz.) almond bark

1 cup peanut butter

8 cups Captain Krunch cereal

1 cup salted peanuts

Melt almond bark according to package directions. (I like to melt it in oven at 200 degrees.) Add peanut butter and mix. Remove from heat and stir in cereal and peanuts. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper.

Our county is only at level 2 emergency now. Guess they didn’t need my opinion.  See you next spring.

Miracle Soup 1/29/15

I was thinking how fast the month of January was whizzing by until the snow started piling up this afternoon.  When I typed in the date, I felt a ripple of joy at the number of winter days we have behind us. A bigger dilemma is what in the world will I write about this week.  After the favorable response I received for last week’s (which I enjoyed doing immensely) I am way out in left field for a follow up. Guess you will have to understand that an occasional upbeat one is an exception and you can’t expect to get one every week.

The closest I can come to any magic in the ordinary things of an ordinary day was this morning as we were walking from the church to the open house at St. Mary’s school, one of my farmer friends from my years of employment at the elevator asked ME to help HIM across the patchy snow and ice covered street! I knew he was making friendly conversation but it made my day.  

When your mind is as blank as mine seems to be, the best thing to do is go to food. So I have resorted to one of my old cookbooks to find something that will brighten up these cold blustery days that are forecast for the coming week. Let’s start with a soup recipe. It is a favorite of those who are trying to lose weight, but any kind of soup is good on a cold day.

                    

MIRACLE SOUP

1 package of onion soup mix           

4 cups water                                          

2 carrots, finely chopped                  

1 cup chopped mushrooms

1 cup chopped broccoli

1 cup chopped spinach

2 celery stalks, chopped                   

½ green pepper, chopped                

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

garlic powder, salt, pepper, etc.

Combine the onion soup mix and water. Bring to a boil and add all other ingredients.

Season with your favorite seasonings. Simmer for at least one hour.

For those of you who want something more substantial on a cold winter day, try

this bean casserole.

THREE BEAN CASSEROLE

1 can (14 oz.) pork and beans

1 can (14 0z.) lima beans

1 can (14 oz.) kidney beans

1 can (10 oz.) mushroom pieces, drained

8 bacon slices

2 medium onions chopped

¼ cup vinegar

1 cup brown sugar

Combine beans and mushrooms. Place in 2 ½ quart casserole. In a skillet, fry bacon until crisp. Remove slices and crumble. Reserve 2 tablespoons of drippings and saute onions. Return crumbled bacon to skillet and add vinegar and brown sugar. Cook slowly until thickened. Pour over bean mixture and combine well. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

In case anyone is looking for me the next week, I will be out looking for some magic. Also I should write it down!

Magical Edgerton Memories 1/22/15

Magic moments or a trip down memory lane??  It all started with an ordinary stop at the customer counter at the local Post Office. As I asked for a weight on a heavier than usual envelope to see if I needed extra postage, our new post master mentioned that he had something he thought I would be interested in!  I am not certain if it were my white hair hinting at my advanced age or if he might know about my interest in cooking and new recipes.  It seems that he had inadvertently become the owner of an old, old recipe book originating in Edgerton. It is unusual but he could not find a date in the whole publication.  He promised to bring it in to show me some day. One day he proudly had it in his possession, having rescued it from a box of things his wife had ready to go to the recycling bin, remonstrating her with the comment ” You can’t throw THAT away.”

I still can’t comprehend why he would give it to ME.  There were conditions attached that he did not want it back but he wanted to see what I wrote about it. I have been procrastinating about it not knowing just how to compile my thoughts and feelings. The time has arrived and after much thought and  mind changing here is what I have to offer.

The title of the book is “THE BEST IN COOKING”  in  Edgerton. It was promoted by the Edgerton Business and Professional Women’s Club. I knew personally or knew the names of most of the ladies who had contributed recipes. A big share of them have gone on to their eternal reward.  The list of advertisers brought back so many memories as I can remember when they were active businesses in our home town.  The only advertiser that I could think of to ask about when he thought it might have been printed was Karl’s Sinclair Service where the Huntington Bank Branch is now located. So I casually entered the antique shop where you can usually find Karl behind the counter and asked him if I could “pick his brain”.  He was very co-operative and said if he had advertised his station in this book it would have had to be in the  very early 1960’s as that is when he sold the business.  That is as close as I could come to a date. 

The list of most of the businesses with ads in the book really took me down Memory Lane because I can remember all of them as active Edgerton businesses.  How many can you remember?  The Edgerton State Bank (now Huntington), Bob’s Dairy Bar, Moffett’s Rexall Store, Gruver’s Market, (We had three grocery stores then.), Vic Miller’s Ford Sales, Day’s Furniture, Bible’s Sohio, Dolly’s Restaurant,  Edgerton Coin Laundry, Smart Shop (women’s apparel) Edgerton Lumber (on Depot Street), Day and Day (marketers of Sinclair products), Krill Funeral Home (been here ever since  1875!) and Fisher’s Implement Co. (Where the American Legion is now located and where I had my first job out of high school as bookkeeper for 25 cents an hour! That was more money than I ever had!)

Some of the ladies submitting recipes were important people in my life. Frances Sanders, my mother-in-law, who taught me many cooking tricks, Ethel Mowry, Uchrista Maxwell, Lucile Palmer, Home Economics teacher at Edgerton High School for many years,  Kate Lees, Hazel Brown, Post Mistress for many years, Harriet Fritch, Kathryn Flegal, Doris Flowers, Audrey Stark, Rose Walley, Mrs. Paul D. Krill, Bernice Schooley, my little brother’s school teacher, Sue Dietsch, better known now as Mrs. John Close,  Frances Dietsch, Mrs. Earl Landel, and Margaret Sanders, my little sister.

To honor a couple of others, I am using their recipe because I am tempted to try both of them.  One I will not include was from Odelia Wickerham which started out with 12 pounds of liver!!!

Now on to the other ideas. The first one is from Ruby Gruver whom I knew most of my life. When we both lived around Butler she was one of the big girls in my life. When we both ended up in Edgerton I admired her so much because she always looked as if she were immaculately groomed for a special occasion. I sneak down the alley to the grocery store, hoping no one will see me because I didn’t prepare for being out of the house!

            

CHINESE HAMBURGER HASH

Submitted by Ruby Gruver

1 pound ground beef

2 onions, chopped

1 cup celery, chopped

1 can mushroom soup

1 can chicken soup

1 ½ cups water

½ cup uncooked rice

¼ cup soy sauce

¼ teaspoon pepper

Brown ground beef and onion in a small amount of shortening. Add other ingredients. Put in a casserole dish. Cover and bake at 35 degrees for 30 minutes. Cover with crisp Chinese noodles and bake for 15 minutes more.

The next recipe is similar to the one I had to bake when I was in 4-H in the mid 1930’s.

            

GINGERBREAD

Submitted by Nora Hopkins

2 eggs

¾ cup brown sugar

½ teaspoon salt

¾ cup pure New Orleans molasses

¾ cup melted shortening

2 ½ cups flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons ginger

1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon cloves

1 cup boiling water

Beat eggs, add the sugar, molasses and melted shortening. Add dry ingredients which have been mixed. Add the boiling water last. Put in greased baking pan or muffin cups.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

This brought to mind many people whom I do not ordinarily think about and was a very pleasant walk down memory lane.  Thank you for thinking of me, Chris.