I'm a Halloween Scrooge

Happy Halloween!

I’m kind of a Halloween Scrooge.  I don’t have any deep rooted opinions about Halloween.  I don’t care that it teaches children to get something for nothing. Hey, it’s only one night a year. It’s been my experience that they need more repetition than that to change behavior.  I don’t mind sharing my candy or answering the door.  In fact, I love to see the creative costumes that show up on my door step and the happy faces of my little friends.  I even like to bake ghost sugar cookies and decorate them with chocolate chip eyes. I’m a Halloween Scrooge because I’m just not very good at it!

When my children were small and Halloween could have been fun for them I was intimidated by the elaborate costumes my friends were sewing for their children.  Really?  I remembered as a child decorating brown grocery bags and cutting eye slits in them for weeks before Halloween.  I tried to make a scary mask, but it always just looked silly.  One year my little sister and I decided to be gypsies.  We asked our brother-in-law to do our makeup because he was an artist.  His vision of a gypsy and mine were quite different.  I bawled at the old hag that looked back from a mirror.  I thought gypsies were supposed to be gorgeous! My daughter was a witch for 5 years running only because we had a hat. One time I fashioned a cape out of a garbage bag and painted my son’s face white to make him an instant Dracula.

Perhaps I would have been better at Halloween if it didn’t always creep up on me. I always find myself unprepared.  The big night is two days away and I just pulled a jack-o-lantern, a witch, and a cat out of the holiday decorations this morning.  I place them on the front doorstep and called it good.  My husband had to remind me for several days to purchase candy for the Trick-or-treaters.

It could be more than that.  It could be possible that I don’t like to invite scary things into my life.  My five year-old granddaughter feels the same way. She wants to opt out this year. Too bad she isn’t here.  We could hide from the goblins together! Nevertheless, I am prepared.  Maybe I will bake up some sweet ghosts on Friday so I can embrace the holiday more fully.

Happy Halloween and Happy Reading!

Taking inventory - It's a busy life

I think that is Pennsylvania down there.

 

What a busy couple of weeks I’ve had! Just look at this list:

Lake Erie.  It's like an ocean!

Six plane rides

One visit to the beach at Lake Erie

One road trip to New York State

Lots of hot dogs

One ice cream cone at Alli’s Cones & Dogs (Very nice people!)

Gotta have ice cream!

Two running workouts with a toddler and a stroller

One walk with a five year-old, a toddler, and a stroller

One visit to the Erie Zoo

 

One camel that didn't live in a zoo

About twenty walls scrubbed (It’s just an estimate)

One oven cleaned

One refrigerator cleaned

Hilly run in Erie!

Four windows and tracks scrubbed

One Krispy Kreme Donut

Two copies of Gold Pans and Iron Skillets given away on airplanes

One batch of princess sugar cookies baked with two princesses

One difficult eight mile run

One day of yard work

For making cookies.

Lots of Grandma Time

One outing with a standard transmission (I can still drive a stick)

One reminder to the Tooth Fairy

One dozen (roughly) bedtime stories

One rake and one shovel stuck in a tree

New grass sprouting

One goat head stuck in my foot

A rake and a shovel

Three or four broken hearts

Countless hugs

 

It’s a busy life!  It’s also a wonderful life.  If you don’t think so, stop and take inventory like I just did.  You are sure to find something to smile about. 

 

Remember, “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.” 2 Nephi 2:11

In other words, you would not know happy if you had never known sad.

 

Baking with sour dough

As if I don’t have enough interests to occupy my time and energy I was given a sour dough start by my friend, Nikki.  Read her blog HERE.  I’ve been trying to market my new book, finish my taxes, clean out a few closets, study for my new Sunday School assignment teaching the Old Testament, and write a couple more books. Now I have another hobby to play with!  I’ve used it four times.  The first attempt was sour dough Focaccia Bread that turned out like this! 



Sour Dough Focaccia Bread

Here is a link to the recipe!

Then I made sour dough pancakes.  They are always a hit. I baked a sour dough coffee cake.  I thought I took a photo, but I must have deleted it.   The coffee cake was yummy, too!

When I sent Nikki this photo bragging about my sour dough bread bowls, she replied, “You are on fire!  I haven’t used mine yet.”



Bread bowls I created on my own!

What? I’m wearing myself out in the kitchen out of a sense of duty to make use of the start she gave me and she hasn’t even used hers yet! I bet she will after she reads this post!

Pumpkin Cookies. Really?

I had the opportunity to help out a friend the other day by making some cookies for an event she was hosting.  I listed several options and then threw in “Pumpkin Cookies” just to be cheeky.   She actually picked the pumpkin cookies!   Now, as cookies go, they are relatively healthy and I like the flavor, but my memory of pumpkin cookies as a child are a cakelike cookie with a burned bottom.  I figured I could keep from burning them, but I think that if a person wants to eat cake, she will eat cake.  A cookie should be crunchy or chewy or both!

I decided to tweak this recipe.  I think I like it!  

1 ½ C Shortening

4 ½ C Sugar

3 Eggs

2 C Canned Pumpkin

7 ½ C Flour (I used 6 ½ cups)

1 ½ tsp Salt

3 tsp Baking Soda

3 tsp Baking Powder

3 tsp Nutmeg

3 tsp Cinnamon

3 tsp Vanilla

1 ½ C Nuts

2 C Chocolate Chips or Raisins

These are the changes I made.

·         Cut the flour back to about 6 ½ Cups.  More flour can be added if you feel the cookies are too gooey.

• I only added chocolate chips, because I don’t like nuts messing up my cookies and others in the household are not fans of raisins.

·         Bake at 350◦ for 10 minutes. 

·         Bake a “test cookie” to be sure you have the consistency you like.

The prejudices we bring from childhood are unique to each of us.  My husband is not a fan of fried eggs.  He ate too many as a child.   My oldest son will not touch a shrimp because he came down with the stomach flu once after eating them.  I don’t eat oysters.  Here is why. 

Might it be wise to revisit some of those things we avoid?  Our likes and dislikes have been formed by our experiences.  Could it be that tweaking those experiences, something as simple as cutting back on the flour, might change our entire perspective?  I wonder …

I'm Back - Again!

 I've been neglecting my blog again, but in my defense - I've been a bit busy!  I had to bake cookies ...

 And go to the zoo ...

 Ride a train ...

 Visit the Amish ...

And the beach ...

 And go for a run!

It is so hard to be a grandma!

Another Reason to Love My Life

Eagle Island State Park

I have a bowl of tomatoes on my counter - remnants of a bountiful garden. There is a pot of Butternut Squash Soup simmering on the stove top – my first attempt. The squash is also part of the last of the harvest. A batch of cinnamon rolls is baking in the oven – an overdue gift. As I look out the window, gold colored leaves scatter the green lawn, reminding me that there is work to do outdoors. The swaying trees also remind me that there is more work to come. The weatherman is promising snow for the weekend.

Scotch Pines Golf Course

I am trying to live in the moment. In the spring I can't wait for my newly planted garden to produce. In the fall I pray for a frost to slow the workload! Today, however, I am enjoying the season with its beauty, its unpredictability, and its ever changing vistas. As I roam the country roads, I marvel that the green and gold fields so recently blocking my view have become beige carpets neatly groomed and awaiting the interruption of spring. The wind, tho it hinders my forward progression, cleanses the air and clarifies the horizon.

I know that the thundershowers and snowstorms are coming. They, too, will have a beauty of their own. Today, I glory in the colors of the season.

And So it Ends ...

Before Brazil

Two years ago I tracked a flight from Boise to Brazil.  I lost track of it as it passed over the equator.  My nineteen year-old son was on that flight.
Tonight I will begin tracking another flight from Brazil to Boise.  My twenty-one year-old son will be on that flight.
So much has happened since he left ...
His truck has nearly worn out.
Little brother is now bigger brother by about five inches.
His baby niece walks, talks, and does somersaults without her hands.
He has another niece on the way.
Navy Seals eliminated Bin Laden.
BSU Broncos won a whole bunch of football games.
His parents have added Road Biking to their list of recreational activities.
Lots of people got married.
He speaks Portuguese.
We built a new gymnasium.
His uncle passed away.
Many things stayed the same ...
The economy still stinks.
Gas prices are still high.
The lawn still gets mowed on a regular basis.
We still speak English.
The Greens still ski.
I still bake when I'm feeling nervous.
We still love football.
Life still moves on.
This chapter is over and another begins.

I built it. Now where is everybody?

This day marks the 93^rd Anniversary of my father's birth. Dad, Wells, has been gone for a few years, but that doesn't mean we can't do some celebrating. Today, we eat cake.

“Why don't you build me a cake?”

I can't count how many times I heard that expression while growing up. The wonder is that Esther would usually do just that – build a cake.

Building a cake is different than opening a box and dumping a couple eggs and some oil in the mix. Building a cake requires much more effort, hence the term.

At the Green house, we have a favorite cake to build. We've dubbed it Chocolate Thud. However, on this day we consume Dad's favorite – Burnt Sugar Cake. It is quite an undertaking to build a Burnt Sugar Cake.

First, one must burn the sugar!

Patience is golden, as is the sugar once it is burnt.

Then, hot water must be added to thin the sugar into a caramel syrup. The syrup must cool.

Round cake pans are required because this isn't your run of the mill, leave it in the pan, Chocolate Thud. A Burnt Sugar Cake must be layered in frosting. ( It has been my experience that this is to moisten the actual cake. I'm still perfecting the process.)

Shortening, sugar, and egg yolks (yes, one must separate the eggs) are creamed together and caramel syrup added.

Add dry ingredients.

Egg whites are beaten until firm and then folded into the rest of the batter.

I suspect that this recipe contains too much leavening at the cakes nearly climb out of the pan and then, sadly, they fall in the middle. It might take some tweaking.

The cooled cakes require some remodeling as they are uneven. I put my sharpest knife to use and hide the repairs with a spackling of frosting that has been flavored with leftover caramel syrup. (Nelsons – I am sorry, but I couldn't retrieve the frosting recipe from Esther's memory.)

It isn't our favorite cake, but it was Dad's, so it is our favorite on January 14.

Patience

Hallelujah! Patience really can be learned!

Maybe my perspective has just changed. I pride myself on my sugar cookies - not so much their presentation, but their flavor and texture. They do take a bit more work than regular old drop cookies. And the mess! Sugar cookies, therefore, are not a staple at the Green Residence as are Chocolate Chip Cookies.

When my children were small I took complete control of the mixing, rolling, cutting out, and baking of sugar cookies. I left the decorating up to them. After all, if the cookie tastes good, who cares what color the icing?

Imagine the family's surprise when I pulled out the cookie making supplies, dragged a chair to the cabinet, wrapped my granddaughter in an adult sized apron, and let her help! Fortunately, she was patient and stayed with the process.

I slowed down, enjoying the journey. She peeked over the rim of the mixing bowl as the motor whirred. She was ever so happy to throw flour on the counter as we rolled the dough. I took time to let her choose the shapes. When she mashed her hand into the dough I traced the outline and made "hands" for Mommy, Daddy, and Bompa. I enjoyed the adventure so much that I joined in the decorating. Actually, I did most of the decorating as she was busy tasting the different colors of icing!

I'm wondering ... does patience come with age, or is it just another bonus for being a grandma?

Easy or not?

Why is it that those things that are intended to make life easier often complicate things?
(I think I have asked this question before.)

Take, for instance, direct deposit. What could be more convenient than having the paycheck automatically entered into the checking account? It is especially nice if one happens to be out of town on payday! No running to the bank in inclement weather, either. It's great, except for the "cash back" issue. That's right, some of us - my dear husband included - still like to carry a little of the green stuff around. Sure, debit cards are convenient, but cash ... There is no "cash back" with direct deposit. Now, I either have to write him a check (I maintain possession of the check book) or I have to remember to get cash back at the grocery store, or worse yet, I have to run to the bank! I thought that was something I was avoiding by using direct deposit. Hmm.

That is how I wrecked the cookies! Up to my elbows in cookie dough, I answered the phone.

"How would you like to run to the bank and get me some cash?"

It was 3:30 pm Friday.

"Uh, okay, but I'm making some cookies for you right now."

"Are you making the good kind?"

"I'm making some good cookies." They were not his idea of the "good kind" - too much oatmeal and whole wheat flour.

I abandoned my task in order to round up some cash. Cash obtained, I returned to my baking. Somewhere between "run to the bank" and "some good cookies" the dough was not properly combined. The first three dozen cookies to emerge from the oven were flat and gooey. The last were more like homemade rocks.

So much for convenience.

Have I Lost My Touch?

Maybe I should reconsider baking. As noted in my seldom read and less often purchased book, "Gold Pans and Iron Skillets," I believe baking serves as therapeutic activity for many ailments not the least of which is hunger. Let's just name a few - boredom, frustration, aggravation, depression, and a down turned economy! However, I've been having a little trouble lately.

My zucchini bread was squishy inside. That was weird since I added five minutes to the timer and then another five. Hmm. The tomatoes I was bottling at the same time proved to be very well-done. As it turns out, I had my timers confused. The bread needed another ten minutes. The tomatoes, on the other hand, should be very safe to eat.

Zucchini is plentiful so I baked more bread a few days later. This time I was cautious to use only one timer. That would have worked out fabulously if I had been in the house at the moment it buzzed! I believe I made up the ten minutes that I shorted the previous batch. This bread did not want to come out of the pans. I suppose it had been there so long it thought it was supposed to stay.

Unleavened bread happens by mistake. At least that's how it happens at my house. The focaccia bread I stirred up to go with the tomato bruschetta sauce that I made from my garden produce smelled delicious. It looked like a cracker. It chewed like leather. It tasted fine, but I am now wondering what is happening on my insides as it was difficult for the sink disposal to chew it up!

I'm wondering if I've lost my touch.