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Tag Archives: Heritage Hills

Broccoli-Cheese Soup

23 Friday Oct 2009

Posted by Janell in In the Kitchen, Life at Home

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Broccoli-Cheese Soup, Cooking, Everyday Life, Heritage Hills, Home Tours, In the Kitchen, Overholser Mansion, Soups

Guests will be descending into our neighborhood this weekend because, once again, it’s time for the Historic Heritage Hills Home & Garden Tour.  This annual treat offers an inside peak of six private historic residences and the Overholser Mansion with one ticket — the cost is $12 in advance — $15 at the door of any property on the tour.  While Saturday promises to be clear and sunny and Sunday its dreary rainy opposite; the tour will be fabulous no matter what.

Three years ago, when my husband seemed to be taking up residence in Asia, my daughter Kara and I ventured out into a cold rainy Sunday to experience our first Heritage Hills tour.  The rain kept most visitors away that day; but being right next door so to speak, the two of us bundled ourselves up to brave the elements.  Just like an undeterred mailman carrying out his unofficial oath, the weather was not going to keep either of us from our appointed rounds.  But unlike the mailman, we did choose to drive a car rather than travel the short distances by foot.

A few wet hours later, we arrived home in awe, with visions of what historic living could become in its best state.  Truth be told, I also came home a little intimidated.  At that point, I had a month or so to get  my own historic house ready to receive guests as part of Mesta Park’s Holiday Home Tour.  And having just moved in a few months earlier, my house was a mass of painting projects in progress.  Yet the tour did its work in inspiring me toward completion; and in Kara, it sowed a feed seeds that two years later, had her and her new husband living in a historic home of their own.

In awe, we also came home to thaw.  Wet, cold and hungry, I began rummaging through my freezer and cupboards for something quick and nourishing to eat.  My eye lighted on a small bag of frozen chopped broccoli and the staple of storage bags full of  frozen chopped onions and celery, a time-saving tip passed along years ago by my Aunt Jo.  Encourages, I opened the refrigerator to find I had Velveeta Cheese, whipping cream and butter; and my cupboard also proved to have plenty of chicken broth.  It was a mental check, check, check.  Turing around to Kara, I said, “It looks like we have all the ingredients on hand to make a quick Broccoli-Cheese soup.”

This soup has been a family favorite for years, ever since we first tasted the signature soup of Apple’s Way, a little tea room in Lake Jackson, Texas.  My version of the soup is adapted from a recipe of another tea room of my life that once held court in Eureka Springs.  I’m grateful to have their collection of recipes –Victorian Sampler Tea Room Cookbook — that while no longer in print, may be available in a secondary market.

Sitting at the counter that cold October Sunday, Kara watched me like I once watched Mom whip up a miracle meal out of nothing so many times before.  From freezer to table in thirty minutes, we were soon eating our simple but hearty supper with a few saltine crackers.  Whether rain, or sleet or gloom of night, you’ll find this soup just right.  From my life to yours.

Broccoli-Cheese Soup

Original Recipe:

1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup flour
One quart of chicken broth (2 15 oz cans will probably suffice)
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced celery
2 cups chopped broccoli, parboiled, then pulsed fine in a food processor (don’t over-process)
20 0z Velveeta Cheese, diced  (1 and 1/4 lb)
1/2 cup whipping cream (can substitute Half & Half)
Cracked Pepper

Prepare broccoli, then set aside.  In a bowl covered with plastic wrap, pre-cook celery and onion in the microwave – 40 seconds on high or until tender.  In a large sauce pan, melt butter over medium-low heat.  Stir in flour to make a roux, then immediately add broth and all vegetables.  Simmer for twenty minutes.  Reduce heat to low, melt cheese, then add cream and crack pepper until just mixed.  Do not salt.  Serve with crackers.

Reduced-Fat Recipe

Reduce butter, flour and Velveeta Cheese by half.  Eliminate whipping cream.  I prefer this variation — the result is more like soup than a sauce.

Chasing Fireflies

13 Thursday Aug 2009

Posted by Janell in In the Garden, Mesta Park, Soul Care, The Great Outdoors

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Tags

Everyday Life, Fireflies, Heritage Hills, Mesta Park, Oklahoma City, Overholser Mansion

Once upon a time, attending a local firefly dance was as easy as taking a few steps into a warm summer’s evening.   fireflyjarAnd in this old neighborhood where I am grateful to live, the grandest dance of all  took place on the grounds of the Overholser Mansion.

The many keepers of Oklahoma City history record that the Overholser’s were known for their grand and gracious entertaining.  Going even further, some say that Henry and the lovely young Anna were the hub of early Oklahoma City’s high society.

Henry was one of the first to purchase property  in the subdivision north of downtown, that is now the heart of the historic preservation district of Heritage Hills.  The story is fondly told of how Henry purchased three residential lots, which bordered Hudson Avenue and Northwest Fifteenth Street, when the land was nothing more than a cornfield.

Henry’s cornfield cum mansion grounds reminds me of another cornfield cum baseball diamond and that mysterious whisper that repeatedly urged…

…”If you build it, he will come.”

As the story was told on the silver screen, the cornfield cut diamond went on to host the ghosts of some famous boys of summers past, most notably “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and his teammates who were caught up in 1919 World Series “Black Sox Scandal.”

overholserThe Overholser Mansion is not host to any scandals of note, though apparently the Mansion is  no stranger to ghosts.  With more than a few reports of paranormal activity floating on the Internet these days, who knows but that maybe Henry heard his own mysterious voice while looking across his own field of dreams; for sooner rather than later, this “Father of Oklahoma City” built his dream mansion…and the invited citizens of Oklahoma City came.

In the book, Oklahoma City, Land Run to Statehood, one local historian notes that,

“Mrs. Overholser gave her first party in 1904 to 400 lucky guests. The Times-Journal society column reported that as guests entered the home, they were greeted by a string quartet playing on the second floor turret landing, hidden by a blanket of palm and fern.”

firefly

It’s been two dry summers since I last attended a firefly dance at the Overholsers, though not for wont of trying.  Many evenings I have put on tennis shoes for a short walk down Hudson Avenue, hopeful of crashing headlong into a firefly ball.

Previous rendezvous have taught me that these shy little social-lights never gathered on the front lawn proper.  Rather the fireflies gravitate to the east side-yard,blog_DSC01705a where they danced above dusk-tinted lawn between an old Model “T” clothes line and the tree-lined sidewalk.

Like a curious child chasing fireflies, I used the net to discover where the fireflies have flown.   The answers I caught at firefly.org knocked me for a loop though;  unless something changes their fate, these charming bugs of summer will soon be ghosts; or in the words of the website, “glowing, glowing, gone.”  Just as sad for this drylocked Oklahoma gal is to know that fireflies prefer life in the warm humid wetlands, the sort of place where tall grass hits water.

Our typical carefully groomed neighborhood lawns, along with other regions of Oklahoma, must have resembled a wetland two years ago, as our rainy month of June left us with non-mowable yards wallowing in standing water.  But it’s interesting that with so many neighborhood wetland yards to choose from, the Overholser place still held a monopoly on firefly dances.

Blog_DSC01713aAnd why not?  There’s simply no better place in the neighborhood to gather than this place that has long been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  And just as fireflies are anything but a typical guest of an Oklahoma summer, the Overholser place is anything but a typical house museum.  As noted by the Heritage Hills website,

“The Overholser Mansion still contains all of the original furnishings and belongings of the Overholser family, making it one of the rarest house museums in the world. The silverware, dishes, drapes, carpets, furniture – even little Henry Ione Overholser’s doll collection and other toys remain with the home providing a rare snapshot of life at the turn of the 20th Century.

Though I didn’t know it at the time, the Overhoser’s firefly dances of 2007 provided me with “a rare snapshot” of summertime life in Oklahoma.  That little bit of white magic on a former Oklahoma cornfield was something infinitely precious, and though blind, I now see it was a bit of amazing grace served up by a rare summer monsoon followed by a little firefly chaser.

“Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? — every, every minute?”

-- Thornton Wilder, "Our Town"

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