Cooking For a King

It's a good thing that I like to cook because it seems like my husband's favorite foods cannot be duplicated with some Sandra Lee easy fix shortcut method or a Sara Lee frozen product.

His favorite waffles come from his mom's recipe. She was a home ec teacher and a hard act to follow!  The waffle recipe involves melting butter, sifting dry ingredients, separating the eggs, beating the whites, and folding them in at the last. 

Our family likes their waffles soft and fluffy and no toaster waffle comes out that way! It's hard to believe, but our big stainless steel waffle maker wedding gift of 46 years still works fine.  And yes, I do actually use it about twice a month!

Bob's favorite desserts are vanilla homemade ice cream or coconut cream pie with meringue.  Both time consuming, but I must admit they're delicious. 

Here's my recipe for the pie in case the photo makes you hungry and you have a little time on your hands.

Never Fail Coconut Cream Pie

1 cooked pie crust

3 T cornstarch

1 T flour

2/3 C white sugar

2 C milk

1/4 t salt

Mix these together in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil.  While stirring, boil 1 minute.  Remove and quickly pour 1/2 of the hot mixture into 4 beaten egg yolks.

Then stir in 1 1/2 T butter and 2 t vanilla extract

Mix well and bring back to a boil for 1 minute until the custard is very thick.

Remove from heat and add 1 cup coconut and pour into baked pie shell.  Then pile on meringue.

Meringue

Beat 4 room temperature egg whites until just frothy in electric mixer and leave it setting.  Then mix these together in a saucepan.

9 T sugar

1 1/2 T cornstarch

3/4 C water

Bring this mixture to a boil until it has thickened.  Turn mixer back on and gradually add the hot mixture to the frothy egg whites.  Add 1 t vanilla or coconut flavor. Beat about 4 minutes, scraping sides of pan often. 

Then pile meringue onto the pie sealing the edge well and sprinkle about 2 T coconut on top.

Bake at 375 degrees just until coconut is browned.  Remove and cool in a draft free spot.

Hope you enjoy this too!

Puzzling

At Christmas time our family often does a puzzle together.  At least the feminine side do. At game half-times the guys might come around and fit in a piece here and there but they lose interest quickly.

It is a fun holiday activity that lends itself to easy conversation and relaxation, but there is one problem...I enjoy doing it so much that I keep on puzzling into January all by myself!  On long wintry evenings I can half watch a ball game with Bob or carry on a good conversation while I puzzle on the dining room table. 

I buy most of my puzzles at the Kiowa General Thrift Store for 25 or 50 cents, and occasionally I find some good buys on Ebay, so it's cheap recreation. 

Clair's Cove by Holodook

I guess I like to keep my hands busy and puzzling is usually a satisfying and easy activity. But there are some fiendish puzzlemakers out there who use the same design elements like this gray brickwork above in several different places on the picture.  In the Traditional Belgium Sweet Shop puzzle the frustating creator even did 4 of the exact same building with slightly different puzzle cuts!  I'm not overly fond either of some puzzles where all the pieces are basically the same size and cut.

My all time favorite (below) had various size pieces and a few were even cut into animal shapes.  I especially enjoyed this one because some of my ancestors came from Lancaster County, PA in this very era.

Evergreens of Lancaster County by Jane Wooster Scott

As you can see I love the nostalgic scenic and architectural landscapes and I find myself "living in the picture".  I imagine what it would be like to really live in these beautiful spots as I find and fit the little pieces together.

Twins of Good Heart by Anthony Kleen

Realistically though, I doubt that I would actually trade electricity, running water, central heat and air, cars and pick-ups, computers, cell phones, refrigerators and all my other modern conveniences for a rustic life no matter how gorgeous the scenery.  So I guess I'll just be content to puzzle the beauty instead!

JUST DON'T TELL ME

Have you ever noticed that when someone tells you a pet peeve or something that they dislike, even if it never bothered you before, you start feeling the same way?

Once Mom mentioned that potholders always had a uniquely bad smell, even after you washed them.  I started sniffing mine and sure enough there was a funky odor I’d never noticed before and now I can’t stand it either!

Back in the days when I sewed most of my own clothes, a seamstress friend told me that she liked all of the sewing process except the cutting out of the pattern.  And sure enough after that, I started disliking that step too.

My husband likes button-down collared shirts.  Sometimes he just throws them in the laundry and I grumble when I have to unbutton all those little buttons before putting them in the washer.  I know, I should just be happy that he’s basically a clean, neat guy and puts his dirty clothes in the hamper and not on the floor,  but I’m the improver type, so I asked him to try to remember to unbutton them.  Guess what?  Now he doesn’t like to do it either!

I’ve decided that sharing pet peeves is not really a beneficial activity.  I probably shouldn’t even be writing this.  So if you're out there smelling your potholders, please forgive me!

 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, or admirable...if anything is excellent or praiseworthy...think about such things.

                                                                         Philippians 4:8

                                                                                                                                                                                        

WASH DAY

Until I was three years old, we lived in a house with no indoor bathroom.  In the 40’s that was still pretty common out here in farm country.  The privy was about fifty feet from the house and I have toddler toilet memories of sitting in there, feet dangling, watching spiders in the corner. On wintry nights trips to the outhouse were replaced by mom’s pulling out the chamber pot from under the bed and waiting patiently for two little girls to finish their business.

My sister and I were totally potty trained as soon as we learned to walk.  I’m sure that tending to that chamber pot and washing all those cloth diapers was a very good incentive for mom’s working hard on the training those first 9 or 10 months!

Thankfully we did have electricity and kitchen plumbing, but mom’s old wringer washing machine sat on the screened in porch.  I can’t remember how she got water to it, but it was noisy so I think there was a little gas engine that ran the motor.  When mom lifted those wet clothes out of the tub and put them through the wringer, we always got warned of the dangers of smashed fingers in there, but it still held a dangerous attraction to us.

With no dryer, there were lots of trips to the clothesline so RoJean and I got to play outside a lot on Mondays when the days were warm enough. We thought that was a treat.

Then there were the wash day smells. Ham and Beans simmering and bread baking; a typical wash day lunch.  The sudsy clean odor of the bleach, bluing, and detergent on that steamy porch was another powerful combination.  

When there weren’t too many dirty clothes and mom had enough afternoon energy left, RoJean and I often laid down for our naps sniffing the cooking starch and watching her sprinkle the clothes. She put them in an old apple basket and covered them with oilcloth till they were ready to iron. 

Typical clothes sprinkler

Often when we awoke there was that warm clean pressed clothes smell coming from the kitchen and we could hear mom harmonizing with Tennessee Waltz, Sentimental Journey, Goodnight Irene or one of the latest songs playing on the radio.

For me these are all just pleasant childhood memories, but for mom it was just lots of hard work.  And for all the women who’ve gone before… who spent so much time and back breaking labor saving animal tallow, burning ashes to make lye for making their own soap, carrying wood to boil water,  scrubbing, drying, using sad irons, and trying to keep their families clean out here on the dusty plains...I SALUTE YOU!

Lye soap

I’m so thankful for my laundry room and its automatic washer and dryer!  It may not be the latest stacked or front load system but compared to earlier times, it’s almost like having my own personal laundry maid.  She ‘s on call 24 hours a day,  the weather outside doesn’t matter at all, and I can run around or do other more fun jobs while the clothes get cleaned and dried!




 

Too German

I decided to make a German Chocolate Cake this week.  Cooler weather always brings out the baking urge, I'd seen a magazine photo of some of that yummy frosting and I guess I got a craving. I hadn't made one from scratch in a long time and now I remember why. 

One look at the long list of ingredients on my old recipe card should've been enough for a normal cook to stop the process, but since I happened to have all of them on hand, I forged ahead.

These are the ingredients for just the cake!

By the time I had the 4 eggs separated, the whites whipped and set aside, the whole box of the German Chocolate melted, and the butter and sugar creamed till fluffy, I was beginning to remember why I hadn't used this recipe for a long time!  Washing up the 3 different bowls, a pan, measuring cups, spoons, and spatula...not to mention the mixer, stove, and countertop, didn't improve my outlook either.

When this expensive concoction was finally in the oven, I began the frosting process.  Three more egg yolks, a cup of evaporated milk, another stick of butter and cup of sugar later, I'm standing stirring all this for 12 minutes as it cooks and realizing I could've made 2 whole chocolate sheet cakes and an angel food in less time.

As I added the cup of pecans ($8 a pound now, but who's counting?) and the cup and a half of coconut to the frosting mixture, a vision of how many calories must be in 1 small slice of this decadent confection was forming in my mind...probably my whole week's quota of carbs.

I decided that if I ever judge another cake contest at the county fair and there's a German Chocolate in the competition, I'll just give it the blue ribbon for effort and expense.

Oh yes, it is a thing of beauty and indescribably delicious, but the German in me is too busy counting the cost, time, and calories to properly appreciate it!

Hopefully some Sunday afternoon visitors  will enjoy it tomorrow and reduce the temptation for rancher Bob and me the rest of the week.

And the next time I get the craving, I'll dress up a cake mix and just make the frosting from scratch!

A Stickery Situation

A few evenings ago we saw a cow standing by the pasture fence who didn’t come in with the rest of the herd for pellets, so we drove down to investigate.  There was a newborn calf on the other side of the barb wire and she looked like she’d had a calf that day so we assumed it was hers. 

Bob had to put on his gloves as the baby was covered in stickers.   Then while mama pawed the ground and made threatening sounds, he pushed the little guy under the fence toward her.  Baby scrambled straight to the milk station, but then a strange thing happened.  The cow began butting him away and acting like he wasn’t hers.  After he’d been beaten into the dust a few times and given up, we decided we’d made a mistake.  Maybe he wasn’t hers after all? Maybe hers was somewhere else and she’d just become confused?



It was too dark by now to search, so Bob loaded and held him on the back of the pick-up as I drove home.  In our little orphan pen, Bob continued to remove more of the nasty stickers as I mixed up the colostrum milk. Thankfully, the little guy’s sucking instinct was still strong and he hungrily devoured the whole bottle.

Next morning we went back to search for another mother or calf. After finding neither we brought that reluctant mama to the pens and began the arduous task of trying to mate them back up. We felt so sorry for that baby who just wanted nourishment and a mother’s love and so disgusted with that rejecting cow.  But after several trips to the milking chute and liberal doses of ONOMO (a mothering up powder) on her nose and his body, that evening she finally decided she liked him again!



We have concluded that the whole problem was probably the stickers.  She had birthed him, cleaned him up, and then he got on the other side of the fence into the sticker patch sometime during the day.  She knew he was hers and became frantic to get to him, but then when he did reach her, she sniffed him and got a nose full of those irritating thorns. Her maternal instinct was evidently not strong enough to overcome that pain, so she pushed him away.

It made me think about God’s unshakable love for us.  He brings us into the world clean, pure, and soft but at some point we all go over the fence and fall into life’s sticker patches…maybe even wallow in them.  What a blessing that our Creator doesn’t give up on us or push us away when we come back to Him wanting love and forgiveness!

I especially like the Message translation of this thought in Eph. 2:4-5 

We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

Thanks Lord, for taking us back, filth, stickers, and all!





Deviled Eggs: Labor of Love

Tonight is our annual Ladies Salad Supper at the Church and I just finished making 2 dozen deviled eggs for one of my contributions.  There will be about one hundred different dishes prepared by some of the finest cooks around and we will feast "in a ladylike fashion"!

Through the years I've tasted and tried lots of new salads.  Especially popular currently are Sparky Morgan's fresh grape/sourcream dessert and Vanessa Garvie's cornbread salad.  

I fell in love with hot chicken salad about 25 years ago when Nadola Tucker brought that one. Anything with strawberries always makes it on my plate too.

I've tried and taken some different ones myself but if I want to insure bringing home a clean plate, deviled eggs is the ticket.  I've never brought home a deviled egg, no matter how many are there.

Today as I boiled, peeled, sliced, scooped, mixed, stuffed, garnished and put the eggs in the tupperware, I thought about what a time consuming process this dish is and how people like my husband can pop those little perfections in his mouth and barely taste all the trouble! 

I know some gals who go one extra step and put the filling in a pastry bag and pipe it prettily back into the half eggs, but I've decided they don't get eaten any faster, so have never succumbed to that vanity yet!

Here's my recipe if your tastebuds are yearning for a deviled egg.

1 dozen eggs      1/2 cup Miracle Whip          1 T mustard      

1 T sugar           3 T sweet pickle relish             Sliced olives or pickles 

Cover the eggs with cold water in a big pan.  Bring to a boil.  Turn off heat and cover the eggs and let sit till slightly cooled.

Pour off water, replace with cold water, and peel eggs.  Slice in halves and scoop out yolks.  Add yolks to above mixture and food process till fairly smooth.

Stuff egg whites with about 1 T of mixture. Usually I garnish with thin strips of sweet pickles, black olives, or green olives. Some cooks like to just sprinkle paprika on top.

Refrigerate a few hours and enjoy!