Grandchildren's Treats

One of the pleasures of a grandparent is getting to provide treats for their grandchildren.  Recently we had Luci visit for a couple of nights.  Sometimes a treat can be something so simple as time alone with us to do whatever they like.

One morning she just wanted to curl up in a chair in her jammies and play games and watch videos on her tablet.  We had eaten a big breakfast of pancakes and bacon and I think I might have dozed off a bit while she did!

We also try to have foods we know that they like and Luci is a lover of  'corn on the knob' (that is what she used to call it when she was younger).

She enjoyed every single bite!

One day we ran an errand to pay the water bill and decided a milk shake would probably cool us down on that hot day and she slurped up every single drop.  

We didn't get the chance to go to the pool like we usually do during the summer due to the limitations relating to the coronavirus.  That was a bit disappointing for both of us.  However, having her perky little personality around sure made for lots of smiles for Mike and me!  So, I don't know who got the most treats - Luci or us.

Soup In A Cup

Oftentimes children have to be coaxed into liking different foods.  I fondly recall that my children were 'good eaters' but that doesn't mean that they liked everything I ever served.

Bridgette, Bryan, and I often will bring up stories from their childhood which cause us to chuckle.  Generally it is in relation to something that their own children are doing.  One thing that we have chuckled about for years is my fondness for tomato soup and the fact that, as a child, Bryan did not share that fondness.

One day I served up tomato soup and we probably had grilled cheese sandwiches as a side item.  Instead of pouring our soup into bowls to be eaten with a spoon, I served the soup up in a mug or a cup.  

Bryan was having none of that.

Honestly, I don't know if he wound up eating something else or if I was that awful mother who told him to do without till dinnertime.  Miraculously, he survived my horrible parenting - whichever option I provided.

That afternoon when we went to the dairy farm to do our chores, Bryan was tagging along with my Daddy and he asked him, "Papaw, do you wike soup in a cup?"  I'm sure my father had a wise response or perhaps asked him a question to find out what type soup was being referenced.  Bryan clarified, asking, "Do you wike wed soup in a cup?" (red soup in a cup)

I can imagine Daddy not criticizing the red soup but not expressing delight either because I don't think it was one of his favorite options.  Daddy was more of a meat, beans, and potatoes kind of a guy and would have wanted something more like beef stew.

Finally, Bryan informed him, "Well, Papaw, I don't WIKE soup in a cup!"  There it was.  His preference stated.  And it was a fact that we all chuckled about when Daddy shared the conversation with us later.

To me tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich warms me up like no other meal.  So, when we had a cold, grey, damp, rainy day last week, I warmed up my favorite go-to.  Just like almost always when I have this menu delicacy, I sent Bryan a picture and the message, "Good day for soup in a cup!  Hate you missed it!"

Planning the Menu

Thanksgiving is this week and as we ate breakfast this morning, Mike and I mapped out our menu.  When we finished up his delicious sausage, bacon, eggs, biscuits, and gravy, I moved the laptop to the table and began my grocery order.  Yep, I love ordering and picking up at the store parking lot!  It makes grocery time much more bearable.  Now, if I just had somebody to transport the bags of loot from the truck to the kitchen.  I know, I know.  I sound like - If You Give A Mouse A Cookie...

Of course, Mike is going to cook the turkey - we have certainly had some adventures with that!  He was tempted to try out his new wood pellet grill  to smoke it but we loved the fried version last year.  So, we are going to give that a go again.  Can't wait!  I already have the bird and have been searching for the bucket I use to brine him in without success.  I just remembered that I also couldn't find that bucket when I made pickles back in the summer.  So, a new bucket will have to be rounded up. 

It seems my menu is a little casserole-heavy but about the only time I make some of these dishes is at Thanksgiving.  So, things like my Southern Cornbread Dressing,

Sweet Potato Casserole For A House Divided

 Classic Green Bean Casserole,

and Hash Brown Casserole quickly made the list.

To that, we decided that we would have good old Mac-and-Cheese, cream-style corn, Cranberry Congealed Salad, and rolls. 

For dessert, I think I'm going to go with pies this year.  I can do those ahead and who doesn't like a good old southern pie?  I'm leaning toward Classic Pecan Pie, Fudge Pie, and Layered Pumpkin Pie.  YUM!

What to do with all these tomatoes?

I mean, we have them covering the kitchen counter...

...the counter on both sides of the sink.

There are more on the cutting board beside the dishwasher as well.

Beautiful, red, ripe tomatoes.  We have eaten them sliced.  We have eaten them chunked with Chicken Salad or Pimento Cheese.  We have eaten them on burgers, ham sandwiches, turkey sandwiches, and chicken sandwiches.  We have eaten them as bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches.  We have eaten them with sausage, egg, and cheese on a biscuit.  We have also given a multitude away!  They have been fabulous.  But, the plants keep producing and the fruits have gotten ahead of our consuming.

So, yesterday, we made Salsa!  Yep.  Yummy Salsa.

First, I had a great volunteer to help me peel and dice tomatoes.  Then, I prepped the mixture and filled the  jars and processed them in a boiling water bath.  There were nine pints of salsa when we finished.  (Hop over to my recipe blog for info on how we made the salsa.)

Well, there was also a small sample bowl of salsa as well.  I thought it turned out yummy.

 My volunteer tomato peeler and dicer must have thought it turned out pretty well, too!

Now, what are we going to do with the other half of the ripened tomatoes?

Today is spaghetti sauce day!

The Garden is Coming In!

Well, actually, the garden isn't coming in.

Well, maybe it is actually coming in.  We seem to track pieces and parts of it in almost every day.  I cannot keep up with the sweeping or the mopping the floor needs, it seems!  I haven't given up as yet, though.

Actually, what I really mean is that the vegetables are maturing and we are enjoying the bounty of Mike's garden.  It seems that every day I have a kitchen counter with vegetables setting there waiting to become dinner.  Love it!  We started out with a planting of twenty-plus tomato plants, a couple of hills of cucumbers, and a handful of hills of squash.  There were a few tomato plants which were just not sturdy enough for transplanting from pots to the ground at that time.  So, after a bit of a panic, we wound up setting a handful more tomatoes.  Then, a week or so ago, we set out the last few plants that needed a bit of time to mature.  They may not mature enough to make juice or salsa but we hope to at least get a batch or two of fried green tomatoes.

We have For dinner we had fresh squash, boiled with some onions, and fried okra and a sliced tomato alongside some home-made meatloaf and it was delicious!  Mike also ate a few of one of his favorites, Cucumber and Onion Salad.

The other day I cooked us some squash for dinner and in a pot right beside it, I boiled more squash for a few minutes, plunged it into ice water, and bagged it up for the freezer.

We had a few ears of corn shared with us and we ate some and froze some.  Mike cut it off the cob and I did the blanching and freezing duties.  He also cut up some more squash and I blanched and froze it as well.

Those first few pieces from the garden always taste the best!  Now, I'm sure that as the work days grow longer and the energy grows shorter, I might not have as much enthusiasm for storing up the veggies for later use.  But I know that as the temperatures dip and the daylight hours grow shorter, I will appreciate the ready food supply tucked away in jars and the freezer.

Mike had a new addition to his gardening repertoire this year in an unintentional way.  He thought he was getting Cayenne pepper plants but when they began to bear, he realized that these peppers were way too big for that.  We have since identified them as Cowhorn peppers.  They are excellent for adding spice when cooking.  I am trying my hand at drying them for later use.

I used a similar technique to what I had done with the Cayenne's a couple of years ago.  I just strung them onto some strong, unflavored dental floss and hung them from the end of the cabinet.  For these, I strung them similarly and just looped the floss over the hinge of my newly cleaned cabinets.  I thought I should watch them pretty closely since I'm not certain they will dry as well.  So far, so good!

Today I'm battering and freezing a bit of okra and stirring up some granola.  We are going to have a few yummy days ahead anyway!

Old-Fashioned Dishes for a Family Reunion

I've been craving old-time dishes lately.

Maybe it is because we have Mike has a garden and some of the produce is ripening and fresh garden veggies make me think of lots of the dishes that my grandmothers served up using their garden produce.

Maybe it is because I'm getting older and thinking more like the grandmother I am.

Maybe it is because I'm trying to stir up dishes which are more low-carb for Mike's diet and I'm finding lots of recipes just are not low-carb.  Like one I'm making today that I just love!

Who knows why but when I got out of bed this morning and strolled into the kitchen to prepare what I am taking to the family reunion, my thoughts went back and I started thinking of what I liked to eat when I was a girl and we had family gatherings more often.

One of those recipes I remember my grandmother serving when we would go to her house for Sunday Dinner - which was the meal right after church...

The noon-time meal...

Lunch as I call it today...

Wonder what happened to that tradition?  Maybe when we got older, and the family members got more numerous, and she and Granddaddy moved off to Unionville, the Sunday Dinners seemed to vanish.

Fast times and less family visiting, I guess.

She would always serve this dish at spring and summer visits and I remember it well - Macaroni Salad.  I never got her exact recipe for this dish or for how she fried the VERY BEST fried chicken in the south.

I really regret that now but I was young and times were fast and I didn't do a lot of the things I should have done way back then.

Well, today I found The Pioneer Woman's recipe for Macaroni Salad and it tastes very similar to my Muffa's.  So, I tweaked it a wee bit and it is very close.  Maybe next time I will add a bit of mustard or mustard powder or mustard seed to the dish and see if that is what it needs to be more Muffa-like.

I'm dashing off to the Family Reunion in just a wee bit.  I'll go off with my deviled eggs laid out in a flower pattern on a pretty white plate with a basketweave-patterened-edge, sprinkled with plenty of paprika and a little bit of parsley just like any well-trained southern woman.  In the other hand I'll have my Old-Fashioned Macaroni Salad in a pretty crock bowl nestled in a basket surrounded by ice like all self-respecting southern women would do.  We southern women know just how the old-fashioned dishes need to be presented even if we don't have the exact old-fashioned recipe and are concocting our very own version.

As I'm entering this post I'm thinking of one of my favorite children's picture books, We Had a Picnic This Sunday Past, by Jacqueline Woodson.  I know our reunion is probably going to be much like that story and we will be creating memories for the younger folks in our families.

Hope your Sunday is filled with warm memories of fun gatherings because I know it is probably going to be warm wherever you are if you are in the south today!

Morning Smiles

I've had the morning smiles here lately.

Well, that is, after I get up and get going and work out the old-age, out-of-shape soreness.

What has been making me smile in the mornings when I'm not really a morning person?  Breakfast!

Well, yes.  Maybe part of that morning smile is because I get to lie abed till later and eat a leisurely breakfast long after the sun comes up because I'm on my summer break, ya'll!

Those late breakfast dates have allowed me to munch on cereal and fruit at a slow pace while sitting out on the back porch.  I have stirred up some beautiful blueberries and yogurt and sometimes even added home-made granola.  Some days I enjoy a nice omelet and the company of my husband.  Some special days I even have the privilege of being served a breakfast cooked by my hubby!

A special treat was provided a few months ago by Mike's friend, Big Willie D.  He gifted us with some breakfast muffins he had stirred up and baked himself.  I was delighted.  I was inspired!

So, I decided to take Big Willie D's verbal recollection of the recipe and tweak it to make it my own. Because it was my nature to put things off, I just now got around to posting the recipe, though.  I highly recommend these muffins to nudge your morning into smiles as well!  Just hop over to my recipe blog for more information and create your own yummy-ness and smiles.

A Time to be Thankful Together

On Thanksgiving Day Mike and I prepared a feast - roasted turkey that a neighbor's grandson won in a local turkey shoot after Mike gave him $12.  (Free turkey for us, fun for the young man, and a donation to a local charity.)  I cooked southern-style dressing, divided the recipe into a couple of parts and added oysters to one part for Mike.  We had home-canned green beans, scalloped potatoes, apples from a family member's orchard, and cranberry salad.  Yummy!  Then, we stored the leftovers in the fridge together, loaded the dishwasher, and waddled into the den for naps in front of the TV.

Friday, I went to Mom's to meet the family for a pot-luck lunch.

We had loads of food for a huge feast.

I took corn casserole, deviled eggs, and cranberry salad, my grown children brought food, my sister brought food, my grown nieces brought food.

We ate till we groaned.  Then, there was a bit of fun to be had as well.

A multiplication card game was popular for a while.  Yes, sometimes we are nerds.  Lillie was the expert for this game.

Bryan made the  littles (and one of the nerds) do a bit of giggling.

Adam sharpened Mamaw's cooking cutlery for her.  I think he  is anticipating another feast about a month from now!

There was lots of talk and a bit of advice passed along from the parents of toddlers and parents of those parents to soon-to-be-parents.

Then, it was  outside for a bit of exercise.  The kids played a little basketball.  The adults checked on the furniture shed, worked toward wintering cattle waterers, took a walk, and Corey did a little Armadillo reconnaissance.

The wild bunch went on an ATV ride.

I tracked this bunch down just as I was leaving and rescued Jessica, Madalyn, and Megan by giving them a ride to the house.  J, M, and M enjoyed a piece of quiet as they strolled back up the driveway!  I think it is safe to say that we recognized things we should be and are thankful for and for things and those we have given up since our last Thanksgiving.  Hope your holiday was filled with smiles and giggles like those oozing from the photo above!