Summer Thoughts

It’s Sunday about 2 PM and I’m sitting on the deck at the Park house enjoying a lovely day. I’m “seasoning” the Masterbuilt Smoker that we bought last year but never used (we were at the Lake house most of the summer). After locating the directions - filed where I keep all our directions - I realized that before smoking it needed to be seasoned…. so the pork will be dinner tomorrow and I’ve defrosted a steak for tonight. Hope to eat outside and cook on the grill. Also will have pasta veggie salad and Copper Pennies. 

It was a busy morning as I worked around the house on a variety of things. Those chores you do daily - make bed, clean bathroom, empty dishwasher, plan the day’s meals if I wasn’t pro-active enough to do that the day before. Then today I continued to clean kitchen cabinets. The cabinets are a nice cherry wood and the ones by the stove are sticky from cooking. I did one side this past week first using soapy water and then Murphy’ Oil cleaner. Today I did the other side. I’m pleased with the results and did some other stuff in the kitchen so I’m feeling accomplished.

Some things I’ve been thinking about:

• I made Copper Pennies - a cold salad made from cooked carrots and a sauce that includes tomato soup. And I was reminded that my mom made this salad when I was a kid. And I had it again at a party we attended many years ago at the house of Sue P. And here I am…serving it to B and me. Strange how things go full circle.
• I often think of people when I pull a recipe to make. Cooking and friends go hand and hand. There is Nancy, a next door neighbor in S. Jersey, who gifted us with Magic Cookie Bars for Christmas - and I still make them and think good thoughts.
• Several good recipes came from Martha D. who was one of a group of friends we would get together with all over South Jersey. The group was comprised of faculty from B’s school. Martha made the most delicious sausage with peppers and mushrooms in a tomato sauce. I made that last week - yum! 
• Loretta S. made the BEST meat balls and gravy. While I follow the recipe the batch I made recently was not up to what I used to make. Don’t know if it’s our taste or the pork of today. A bit of both I think.
• My mother-in-law (Ma) was a great cook! She did a lot to encourage me to cook. I still make her pigs in a blanket and also her beet relish which is served with kalbasa.
• And then there is the serving plate that Dorothy, a neighbor several streets over when we were in Somerdale, gave me. It held some cookies and the plate that was one she had for a long time and wanted to give it to me. Now that was so sweet of her and I still use the plate and think of her though she passed a long time ago.
• I have my mom’s glasses and figurines and while I don’t use the glasses they are on display in my china cabinet. 
• When I retired, the kindergarten teacher, Phyllis, gave me a lovely bone china dish from her collection. Another teacher, Jerri, gave me some glass bottles that her husband found on their property.

Good memories….. and it reinforces the fact that what you give or share can touch someone’s life for a long time!

Out Like a Lion!

The saying is...... if March comes in like a lamb it goes out like a lion. Today, the last day in March, the weather is AGAIN acting like a LION. Earlier this week we had howling winds. The stand of trees in the back swayed and again dropped branches. The guys we have contracted with to deal with the trees are behind schedule due to rainy weather. And the trees again dropped numerous branches - some small, some rather large. Yesterday (Wednesday) B and I went outside in the afternoon and I raked and picked up the branches as B started putting down lime in the back (we had done the front last week). Poor lawn - it is getting lots of needed care this Spring. 

Here is a stick that came down with such force it stuck in the ground. Last week we had a larger branch spear itself into the ground. 

Honey enjoys checking out the lawn - you never know what kind of smells are around. The pachysandra is one of her favorite "stops" when she goes out. We have two rabbits that visit our yard regularly. Honey is NOT welcoming. They poop on the lawn and I'm thinking they will be eating flowers come summer so I'm hoping she will cause them to lose interest. Unfortunately, she wants to chase them and since I'm at the other end of her leash, I sometimes go along for the ride! I've learned to drop the leash and just yell her name. She does come right back, often rather startled that I'm no longer attached! We are thinking about putting in one of those electric fences to give her more freedom.

Think Spring!

Spring 2015

Spring 2015

The Raspberry Lady

I grew up in South Jersey, with many farms near by. We would often go to a market on the Ellisburg Circle that had "just picked" white corn, green beans and other farm fresh vegetables. But my fondest memories are of The Raspberry Lady, who would bring fresh fruit and vegetables door to door in a wooden crate that had a handle on it (probably home made). She would park her station wagon and walk up the path and I often answered the door (I'm thinking I was probably 7 or 8) and yell to my mom "the Raspberry Lady is here". Of all the things she would bring, raspberries were my favorite and were only available from her. Tart but sweet, a bit of texture - I just loved them. She also had corn, string beans, strawberries and other home grown food but we could often get them at the food stands. I'm sitting here typing eating raspberries on yogurt with a bit of granola. YUM - and the memories are there, in the back of my mind.

It's strange what we remember from childhood. A simple smell or taste can bring back a flood of memories. Thinking about food also reminds me of our back screened in porch. Just wide enough for a round card table with room for 4 chairs. As an only child, only three chairs were set out. We spent a lot of time on that back porch in the summer as we didn't have air conditioning when I was a child. Dinner would often be some meat (don't remember just what) and corn on the cob with either green beans, peas, or a salad of Jersey tomatoes. Those tomatoes were sooooo good! The tomatoes of today, even those from the farm, just don't taste like those large Beefsteak tomatoes that were red, juicy and didn't have that hard core in the middle. My mom would serve ice tea that she mixed with fruit juice. Any kind of juice she had - orange, apricot nectar, pineapple. This summer I'm again making that ice tea - a bit stronger than normal so that it still has a tea taste when I add the orange juice. Fresh mint (which I grow in containers on the deck) also taste great added to the tea. Thanks for the memories Raspberry Lady, thanks mom.