Tag Archives: Childhood Memories

“A Fine Wife”

29 Tuesday Dec 2009

Posted by in Life at Home

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Kate and Kara Dancing to John Denver

Two years ago, on just five hours of sleep, I wrote a few morning-after thoughts of Kara’s wedding day.  I began where I was…

“Alone with my thoughts and a cup of coffee to stimulate them…”

Rather than let myself sleep or think ahead of pleasures to come, I took time to save a few freshly minted memories in my journal.  Good thing too.  But for their hanging on to the life-preserver that my words have become, I surely would have forgotten most of these fleeting moments.  It all happened so fast.

Today, as Kara and Joe celebrate their second anniversary on a beautiful sandy beach, I celebrate too.   I celebrate their special day, but even more, I celebrate the everyday way they express their love to one another.

I watch when they think no one is looking.  I see them catch each others eyes and smile.  I like how they give each other space to breathe and to be themselves — Kara doesn’t mind when Joe goes off to the pub to watch college basketball games with his buddies until O-Dark-Hundred; nor does Joe mind when Kara spends her Saturday night visiting her aunts in Shawnee.

The freedom they grant one another in everyday life began the night of their marriage when Kate stole the first dance with the bride.  Ever gracious, Joe knew this dance was nothing more than a bit of spontaneous sisterly frolic.

It was an odd first song to inaugurate a marriage.  But even now, as I recall how the girls kicked up their heels to, “Thank God I’m A Country Boy”, I see how perfect it was to begin the party with John Denver.  Dancing to this old familiar tune forever binds the girls, both as sisters and to the special memories made with their father, when the three would sing this bit of rockabilly while driving down the road in their father’s pickup.

In her “Best Gal” toast to the newly married couple, Kate shared how the refrain that begins with these words…

“Well I got me a fine wife I got me old fiddle…When the sun’s comin’ up I got cakes on the griddle“

…had to be rewritten to save Kara from a childhood meltdown.   Kara, then just four years old, was tired of Kate always being on the griddle when the sun came up.  She told her Daddy she thought it was her turn to be on the griddle.

No one realized Kara had been singing “Kate” when her sister and dad were singing  “cakes.”   But the best part of the entire story?  Rather than laughing at Kara’s expense, their comedic father never missed a beat in his wholehearted support of Kara.  So happily ever after, the three alternated the song’s refrain so Kara got her time on the griddle.

The Denver tune was also perfect since most everyone knew Joe had indeed “got” himself a fine wife.   And when it was time for Kate to jump off the griddle, Joe took over as Kara’s dance partner for the “official” first dance.  And after Joe’s dance came my husband’s turn.  Then Kara’s dad.  And then maybe Joe again, but I’m not really sure.

The vision of Kara dancing is one memory that lives without need of the words I recorded two years ago.  Perhaps it was the contagious joy she exuded or maybe because she rarely left the dance floor that night.  Kara danced with anyone who floated near her orbit: Young or old, male or female, it didn’t matter, though I recall Kara  dancing by herself some too.  Kara’s dance card was as full as her heart was with love.

Of course, the last dance went to a beaming Joe.

Spaghetti … With Love

22 Tuesday Dec 2009

Posted by in In the Kitchen, Life at Home

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I grew up with spaghetti and meatballs.  It was just an everyday staple at Mom’s kitchen table in spite of our lack of Italian ancestors

Mom’s recipe grew out of early marriage memories made during my parent’s first trip back east.  While I was there too, I was not yet a year old.  So it was seven or eight years later that I first heard the story of how we once stayed at a small Vermont roadside motel with a nearby restaurant.  Mom recalled that the tables of the quaint restaurant were covered with red and white checked tablecloths.  And there she and Dad enjoyed a dish of spaghetti and meatballs.  I’m not sure whether it was Mom’s first taste of spaghetti, but I know it was this meal that inspired her to recreate the sauce from memory.

Her recipe was simple.  She served it anywhere and everywhere.  She served it in her home to large family gatherings, it was her favorite take-out bereavement meal and she would often package up leftovers to send home with her youngest grandchildren Abigail and Annie.  It was my father’s favorite meal.

Perhaps it’s the memory of Mom that lives out in my own life that causes me to give away this meal to others.  I’m not really sure.  But in January this year, I prepared it for a couple of master gardening friends in recovery from orthopedic surgery.  And this Christmas season, I’ve made a couple of batches as gifts for a few special folks in my  life.

As with all the best recipes, Mom’s recipe is splattered with who knows what ingredients from years of much use, though I’ve used another recipe for almost 10 years now.   Yet, I still make Mom’s meatballs; I smile at the memory of once calling them light bulbs, not knowing the difference between one label and the other.  And really, there is truth under this childhood memory —  because no matter what ingredients and labels are used, a gift of a home-cooked meal is about love beyond all else.

Both sauce recipes are included for the sake of posterity.  Enjoy either or both — from my life to yours.

Spaghetti Sauce with Meatballs

Serves 4 to 6   Sauce made in advance is better the second day —  allow 2 hours for preparation

Serve over 1 16 oz box of spaghetti, cooked al dente per package directions

Meatballs

2 slices of sandwich bread soaked in 1/4 cup milk – mix together until fine. Mix with:

2 pounds lean ground beef
1/4 to 1/2 cup finely minced onion
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Mix together and form into flattened golf-size balls.  Mother cooked in a skillet over low heat until done — I cook mine in a 9×13 pan in a 350 oven for an hour.  When cooked through, drain and add to sauce as it cooks.

Mother’s Spaghetti Sauce

Serves 4

2 15 0z cans tomato sauce
2 Tbsp sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 Tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1/8 tsp garlic powder
2 medium bay leaves

Simmer in a large sauce pan over low heat for 1 to 2 hours

Janell’s Spaghetti Sauce

Makes 12 cups — Divide and freeze extra sauce for simple future meals

Saute until tender in dutch oven over low heat:

2 Tbsp olive oil
6 finely chopped celery stalks
1 cup finely chopped onion

Add following and continue to simmer over low hear for two hours, stirring occasionally:

2 28 oz cans tomatoes, processed in blender until smooth
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
1 12 oz can tomato paste
1/2 cup of ketchup
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
2 garlic cloves crushed
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 cup water
1 cup red wine (not cooking wine)
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp sweet basil
1 tsp allspice
1 bay leaf
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

Peanut Butter Cookies

11 Friday Dec 2009

Posted by in In the Kitchen, Life at Home

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I racked my brain for a particular story that goes with these cookies.  But there’s not one.  Maybe because these cookies have just been an everyday fixture in my life, from those days of earliest childhood.

My first memory of these cookies was preserved while swinging on a backyard swing set, in those long ago days when I still called Shawnee “home.”  I must have been seven or eight at the time.  I had a cookie in one hand and a banana in the other, and even now, I partake in the occasional splurge of having this double childhood delight.

My mom liked these cookies.  They may have been her favorite cookie, though I’m not sure.  This cookie is a multi-generational favorite in our family — from Don’s mother Janice, to my daughter Kate and son-in-law Joe to both of my sons to my niece Abigail to my grandson Jackson.

And while they may not be everyone’s favorite cookie, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like them.  They stay fresh a long time, which may have accounted for their popularity with the boys.  During college dorm years, I must have made 200 of these cookies a month.  Perhaps I’m coming into my ‘grandma own’, since this is one recipe I can make without need of words on paper.

These cookies became birthday gifts twice this year.  And now they become my gift to you, at least with words.  From my life to yours.

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar (plus 4 Tbsp for coating)
1 16 oz jar of Smucker’s Natural Peanut Butter
3 extra-large eggs
2 Tbsp water
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking soda
3 cups flour

Put 4 Tbsp sugar in a bowl and set aside.

In a small bowl, mix eggs, water and vanilla.   In another small bowl, combine flour and baking soda.  In a large bowl, mix first four ingredients until creamy; gradually add egg mixture and mix well; then gradually add dry ingredients and mix well.

Pinch off 2 Tbsp of dough and form into ball.  Roll balls in bowl of reserved sugar.  Using a large salad fork, criss-cross each cookie, pressing it down to flatten.   The cookies will flatten more in baking process.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes in a 375 oven until slightly golden.  Cool on baking sheet.