What's for lunch? Sandwiches....

   Have our eating habits changed in the last 100 years?  You bet!  As a child we often ate pretty ordinary things for lunch...cheese toast, peanut butter and honey sandwiches and the like.  Now it seems like sandwich places compete to see how many different things they can pile on some sort of bread. In any case, today a sandwich is a quick, easy meal.

   Back in 1926 sandwich making was pretty different.

General Rules for Sandwich Making:

1.  Use rye, graham, or white bread not less than 24 hours old.
2.  If possible, keep bread in the ice chest 3 hours before using.
3.  Cream the butter as for cake making.  It is easier to spread, is more economical and will blend easily with anything to make what is called a flavored butter, i.e. 2 T butter (creamed) and mixed thoroughly with 6 olives, stoned and chopped fine, makes an olive butter, etc.
4.  It is easy and desirable to keep sandwiches for some hours before they are required.  Wrap in waxed paper and cover with a dampened cloth, then place in ice box or a covered stone jar or tin box to exclude air.

In addition to the more ordinary suggestions for sandwiches, such as club house sandwiches, toastwiches, hot meat sandwiches, checkered or striped bread and butter sandwiches or open sandwiches, the idea for sandwich fillings seem to have used a good bit of imagination and ingenuity.

Fillings for Sandwiches:
Eggs:

1.  Eggs minced and seasoned with salt, pepper, little vinegar or salad dressing
2.  Eggs sliced thin on lettuce leaf
3.  Eggs and olives chopped together
4.  Eggs and pickles chopped together
5.  Mixed sardines and eggs
6.  Eggs and ham chopped together
7.  Eggs minced with watercress and nuts
8.  Eggs scrambled with a little butter
9.  Eggs and nuts minced
10. Eggs and left over veal or ground meat
11. Eggs and deviled ham
(Add cream or salad dressing to all.)

Cottage Cheese:
1.  Cottage cheese and water cress
2.  Cottage cheese and chopped, stuffed olives
(Add cream or salad dressing to all.)

Cheese:
1.  Grind cheese and make creamy with salad dressing or cream
2.  Grind cheese and make creamy with salad dressing and ground pimento
3.  Ground cheese and catchup
4.  Slices of cheese spread with jelly
5.  Ground cheese with nuts and salad dressing
6.  Creamed cheese with chopped pickles
7.  Creamed cheese with chopped olives
8.  Slices of cheese and lettuce
9.  Ground swiss cheese and walnuts and prepared mustard
10. Slices of swiss cheese on brown bread
11. Chopped beef mixed with ground cheese and salad dressing

Meat and Fish:
1.  Ground cooked beef mixed with one-third of its quantity of boiled macaroni, celery, onion juice and salad dressing.
2.  Flaked sardines, lemon juice and salad dressing
3.  Ground boiled ham and walnuts and salad dressing
4.  Ground boiled ham or roast meat and pickles and salad dressing
5.  Sliced ham with lettuce and salad dressing
6.  Sliced ham with prepared mustard
7.  Sliced cooked meats of all kinds
8.  Chicken and celery chopped and salad dressing
9.  Chicken and nuts chopped and salad dressing
10. Sliced chicken and sliced tomato
11. Warmed Vienna sausage sliced
12. Deviled ham
13. Beef and pork ground together and moistened with salad dressing and flavored with chili powder
14. Salmon minced and moistened with cream or salad dressing
15. Salmon with pickle and salad dressing
16. Tuna fish with lemon juice
17. Salmon-one can, 3 hard-cooked eggs, juice of 2 lemons, 2T chopped pickle, 1T butter, little vinegar and 1t. mustard.

Vegetables:
1.  Diced celery and Mayonnaise dressing
2.  Cucumbers and radishes (diced)
3. Sliced tomatoes with or without salad dressing
4.  Ripe olives and walnuts with salad dressing
5.  Olives and chopped celery with salad dressing
6.  Chopped sweet peppers with onion and salad dressing

Nuts and Fruits:
1.  Ground peanuts and salad dressing
2.  Figs, dates and raisins moistened with lemon juice
3.  Peanut butter
4.  Peanut butter and lettuce
5.  Peanut butter and jelly
6.  Dates and nuts (ground) with lemon juice
7.  Figs (ground)
8. 1 pkg seeded raisins (ground with 2 bananas and juice of 1 lemon.  Nuts may be added.
9.  Chopped nuts with salad dressing.  Lettuce if desired.
10. 1/2 lb. nuts, 1 lb raisins, and 1 lb. dates.  Grind together and moisten with juice of 2 oranges and 2 lemons.
11. Bananas sliced thin and sprinkled with nuts
12. Chopped apples and celery with salad dressing
13. Raisins and peanut butter
14. 1t. butter, 1 c. sugar, 2 eggs, juice of 2 lemons and grated rind of one.  Cream butter and sugar, add eggs then lemon juice.  Cook over hot water until it thickens.  Cool and spread.

Lest you think the oft mentioned salad dressing was purchased from the store, think again.  Here are a couple of offerings for salad dressing.

Boiled Salad Dressing
1 T mustard
3 T butter
5 T flour 
2 eggs
1 t. salt
3/4 c. sugar
2 c. diluted vinegar (diluted with water about half and half)
Heat diluted vinegar.  Mix all dry ingredients; then add the hot liquid and return it to the sauce pan and stir until it boils 5 minutes.  Add beaten eggs. Cook a minute.  Add whipped cream when used.

Cooked Salad Dressing
2 eggs
4 t. flour
1/2 t. mustard (if desired)
6 T. sugar
1/2 t. salt
7 T diluted vinegar
Beat eggs thoroughly, add dry ingredients, mix.  Then add vinegar and boil until thick and cooked.  Cool.  When ready to serve mix with whipped cream.  Serves 4 persons.

There are additional recipes for Slaw Salad Dressing, Thousand Island Dressing, One Minute Mayonnaise Dressing, Cooked Oil Dressing, French Salad Dressing, Milk Salad Dressing, and Fruit Salad Dressing.

If that was not enough work to create the perfect lunch sandwich, remember, you also have to bake the bread!

Cherimoya

Today we stopped by a local farmers market to see what was there.  As we were buying some blood oranges at one table, the seller was telling us how they were his favorite fruit.  Then he mentioned that his 2nd favorite was there at the end of the table.  When I looked where he pointed, I saw a rather nondescript green fruit.  I thought it looked more like a vegetable really.  Just for fun I decided to get one to try.   He said something about a pit in the middle, so I cut into it, expecting to find a single pit, but noticed instead that it had large black seeds spread through out it.  It was ripe enough I could just scoop it right out of the rind.  The flavor seemed like a combination of fruit flavors all mixed in.

The vender told us it is called cherimoya.  Apparently Mark Twain called it 'the most delicious fruit known to men."  It has a fruity flavor similar to a mixture of various fruit.  Son said it reminded him of fruit cocktail.  Other names I saw for it were ice cream fruit and custard apple.

When the seller first started telling me about the color and texture of the fruit, it reminded me of the description I'd seen for durian so I asked him if he had ever had durian.  He said he had, so I asked if he liked it.  He seemed reluctant to answer, but I could clearly see the answer in the way he screwed up his face, so asked him if this cherimoya tasted like durian.  He assured me that it most definitely did NOT taste like durian.  I don't know if I'd go out of my way to buy it again because I thought it a little bland, but the taste was not at all unpleasant, and now I can say I've tried it.

Friederike Feldmann Lemke

Friederike Feldmann was the 6th of 8 children of Georg Michael Feldmann and Katharina Schmidt who were married 28 April 1846 in the little town of Helmsheim, Germany. Two days after the birth of their 8th child, Katharina Schmidt Feldmann died, leaving a large family of young children for the father to care for. Friederike was not quite 5 years old when her mother died, so probably had only a few memories of her. Ten months after her mother's death, her father remarried on 17 October 1867 to Margaretha Binig.

Why Friederike chose to emigrate to the US is not known to us, but around 1882-4 when she was about 21 years old, she came to New York City where she worked for 2 years. She had some siblings who also emigrated, so perhaps that is why she also came. Her sister Luisa emigrated and married Jacob Schumacher who was an inspector on the trolley cars in Mount Vernon, New York. (In 1925, the trolley he was riding was held up and he was shot to death. The last of the robbers wasn't caught until 1958.) Her oldest living brother, Johann Karl Feldmann also came to New York.

Why and how she ended up in Minnesota is also a bit of a mystery, but it was there, in 1886 that she married Pastor Fred Feldmann (no known relationship). Fred and Friederike met in Minneapolis after he finished college in New Ulm. They lived in Efington, Minnesota for 2 years. Then he got a call to Trinity Lutheran in Johnson, Minnesota and was there from 1888 to 1890. They lived in the parsonage there until Fred's untimely death of cancer on 22 January 1890. For a time, Friederike was allowed to stay there in the parsonage with her two sons, Fred, who was born 20 August 1888 and Carl or Charles who was born after his father's death on 8 April 1890.

Almost 2 years later, on 23 March 1892, Friederike remarried to Wilhelm Friedrich August Lemke, a widower of about a year whose wife had died as a result of childbirth and left him to raise his children alone. Wilhelm Friedrich August Lemke was also called Fred. He and Friederike had 6 children together.

During World War I, Friederike's son from her first marriage, Charles, was killed in action in France and was buried at Cemetery Aisne-Marne American, Belleau, Aisne, France.

Her family always loved it when she made what she called Lap Cakes.

Lap Cakes

2 c. molasses
2 c. sugar
2 c. shortening
4 eggs
2 c. walnuts
1 grated whole lemon peel
1 T. baking soda dissolved in a little warm water
1 T. ginger
1 heaping T. cinnamon
1 t. cardamon
about 10 cups flour (enough to handle well)

Mix and spread in at least 2 jellyroll pans. The dough is very thick. Bake at 350F about 30 minutes. Don't overbake! Use a powdered sugar frosting.

Another recipe she left was one with more questionable ingredients to our modern tastes, but was probably not uncommon in the German farming tradition:

Schwarzsauer

3 lbs. pork ribs and pork belly cut in pieces
3 c. water
3 c. vinegar
onions
salt
peppercorns
1 to 1-1/2 c. blood

Cook first 6 ingredients together until meat is cooked, then take it out and cut it into bite-sized pieces. Season the broth and then with a wire whip, beat in the blood, depending on the consistency you want. More blood equals thicker soup. Put meat back in. Let cook briefly and serve.

With Schwarzsauer, serve dumplings:

Dumplings

2 c. milk
1- 1/4 c. flour
2 eggs
salt nutmeg

Heat milk, add flour and stir into dough. Add eggs, salt and nutmeg. Drop with a teaspoon in boiling salt water and cook slowly 5-10 minutes.

Keep leftover Schwarzsauer cool. It keeps well. You can add dried fruit to make a compote. If you like it sweeter, add sugar.




Friederike died 10 May 1943, about 22 years after her second husband died.

Tradition - Candy Canes

Samuel Freeman was born nearly 200 years ago, 4 March 1806, in Olney, Buckinghamshire, England. He and his wife, Elizabeth Ann, had three children before she died at a young age. One of these children, Richard, born in 1835, was my great-great grandfather. Samuel remarried and had another son named Thomas.
Now, young Thomas had a real fondness for sweets. He, and probably the other children, liked to hang around at their father’s sweet shop. There Samuel sold biscuits, sweets, powders for drinks, and jams. Thomas was particularly fond of hard candy, called rock candy. Because of this, he soon earned the nickname, Tommy Rock. It is unclear whether Samuel made the rock candy he sold himself, but it seems likely that he did.
Years later, Samuel’s son, Richard grew up, married, and had seven children. His health was always bad, apparently due to a bout with tuberculosis. He also had poor eyesight. This made it difficult for him to work at his trade of shoemaking. Therefore, his family was often short of money. In order to supplement the family income, Richard operated a stall at fairs and holiday celebrations in Olney and in surrounding villages and towns. In Olney, the fair consisted of “Flash George’s round horses” (merry-go-round), swishbacks (like a small roller coaster) and about a dozen stalls. At Richard’s stall, a gun was used to shoot darts at a target. Prizes for the winners were various shapes and sizes of rock candy. To insure a greater profit, Richard made the candy himself. Some prizes were square chunks, some round like marbles, some straight sticks and some candy canes. Some were plain and others were striped.
To make the candy, Richard cooked it in a large iron pot before pouring it out onto a piece of smooth slate about 30 inches square. The surface of the stone was thinly coated with butter to prevent the candy from sticking to the stone. Next he put in the flavoring before folding the candy together with a knife. He left a little candy back while he took the rest and pulled it over a large hook until it turned white and opaque. He took the remaining candy, which was clear, golden brown, and twisted the two colors together as he pulled it into long strips to form the desired shape of candy.
Richard Freeman’s son, George Richard, didn’t sell candy or use it for prizes at a stall, but his children recalled that he would sometimes help them make homemade sweets using the old family recipe. He used a few drops of peppermint or anise oil for the flavor. When he decided to bring his family to the United States in 1901, the recipe came with them. The fifth of their seven children was my grandfather, Ernest Freeman.
After coming to America at the age of seven, Ernest spent his whole life in Utah except for the time he was in France during World War I. When he returned from the war, he married Ruby Kotter and settled down to raise a family. It wasn’t long before three children were added to the family. Like all children, they loved candy, so the family recipe was carried on for another generation. Ernest usually pulled his candy into long striped sticks and then cut them into bite-sized, pillow-shaped pieces with scissors. He stored them in metal cans with tight-fitting lids.
His daughter, Roma, loved the little candies. Unfortunately for her, she suffered terribly from eczema. It seemed that her condition became worse near Christmas time. Based on this information, her doctor decided that her problem had to do with eating too many sweets. What an imposition it seemed to her to be restricted from eating any of the delicious candy! After a time, it was clear that candy was not the culprit; so, she was allowed to eat it again. Ernest’s three children grew up, married, and had families of their own. All the grandchildren knew that there was a special can up in Grandpa’s cupboard with the best peppermint candy in town. We were not allowed an unlimited supply, but we tried to make sure we got one a day. Even when great-grandchildren appeared, the candy can was always ready.
Roma grew up to become my mother. She brought her candy recipe with her when she married my dad. Every winter we made candy canes and candy pieces. Older children and adults usually made the canes while smaller children were given scissors to cut little pieces.
Dad worked for a large pharmaceutical company in an area where they did research on colorings and flavorings for various liquid medications. His lab was filled with flavoring samples provided by the numerous sales representatives who visited him to promote their products. He often brought home unneeded samples for us to try in our candy. This is when we first acquired an affinity for new and exotic flavors. At first we didn’t have a candy stone to cool our candy on, so we used two large cast iron skillets. Between batches we put the skillets out in the snow to cool off more rapidly.
When we got married, my cousin Rebecca gave us a candy thermometer. Grandpa and Grandma Freeman gave us a marble candy stone and a candy hook. It wasn’t too many years before our own children were anxious for the Christmas season to come so we could make candy canes. Because the pulling and shaping of the candy needs to be done quickly before the candy hardens too much, it is necessary to make it a group project. When the children were too young to help much, we often invited other families to help us. Now the children are big enough to be useful as well as ornamental.
People often ask us how we make candy canes and how we get the stripes on them. Usually we just answer “very carefully”. In truth, making candy canes is a process easier shown than explained. Nevertheless, I will try.
While I start mixing and cooking the ingredients, the others else set out trays and coat the candy stone and hook with a thin layer of butter to keep the candy from sticking. My kids think peppermint candy canes pretty mundane. They spend considerable time discussing the flavor and color of the candy. Recent flavor favorites include root beer, pineapple, coconut custard, tangerine, wintergreen and raspberry. Since two stripes are put onto each cane, they can both be the same color or two different colors.
The ingredients are cooked until they reach “hard crack” or 300 degrees. Then the mixture is poured onto the polished marble candy stone to begin cooling except for a small amount which is reserved to make the stripes out of later. As the candy begins to cool, the edges are lifted with a knife and turned to the middle.

When the candy cools enough to form a soft mass, a few drops of flavoring are added to the middle. After a little more cooling and turning, the candy is cool enough to be handled for brief periods of time. It is then taken to the candy hook where the candy pullers take turns pulling the candy. It is still too hot for one person to hang on to it for very long. As it is pulled, the candy turns from a translucent, golden color to a shiny, opaque white.

While everyone else is busy pulling the candy, I take the reserved candy in the pan and add food coloring to it. If two different colored stripes are desired, the candy is divided in half and put in two separate pans. After the color is mixed in, the candy is poured out in two little puddles to cool. When both parts of the candy are ready, the white portion is taken off the hook in a big blob. One stripe is placed on each side of it. Then I begin twisting and pulling the candy to form a strip as big around as my finger. I use scissors to cut off lengths about six inches long. These are given to the helpers to roll and shape into candy canes. Of course, a few pieces always get “dropped” and must be eaten.

Every year, friends are treated to bunches of brightly colored candy canes in a variety of flavors. They make great Christmas gifts.
My sister, Eileen, makes candy canes, also. Her son Scott included a candy cane in his lunch once. His friends all thought he should give it to them. Finally he told them he would sell it for a quarter. In the midst of screams of “highway robbery”, he shattered the cane and offered all the boys little tastes. The next day they were all waiting for him, quarter in hand. Until Christmas break, a faithful group met him every day as he got off the school bus. When vacation started he found he had made $75!
A couple of years ago, our candy hook disappeared. I looked for it everywhere with no success. With the candy season almost upon us this last year, I gave up. Roger made a drawing of the hook and took it to a metal shop to have a new one made. The price was so reasonable that we got one made for each of our children. I expect homemade candy canes will continue in the family for generations to come.



Candy Canes
4 cups sugar
3 T. vinegar
1-1/4 cups water
1/4 t. cream of tartar
1/2 c. white corn syrup


Stir until dissolved. Bring to a boil. Boil 2 minutes with the lid on. Then, remove lid and cook to “hard crack”. Pour on candy stone. Add flavor. Pull on hook until it springs back. Add stripes and make into canes.

Bread Knife

One problem with making your own bread is getting the slices even. Some folks have a special slicing guide to keep the slices uniform.

For Christmas we received this beautiful hand-made bread knife. The wooden part, we think is made of spalted maple. As you see in the picture, the sharp edge of the blade points down, so during use, the wooden part of the knife is held to the right and the blade on the left.

The inside wooden edge lines up against the end of the loaf, which means the blade cuts nice even slices of bread, so a separate slicing guide is no longer needed!

Pepperoni Rolls

Tonight at dinner time, I was hungry for a taste of West Virginia. WV was settled by several different ethnic groups. Up north, around Fairmont and Clarksburg, there were many Italians who came to work in the mines, so the food of that area reflects that heritage. The miners needed lunch food that was easy to take with them underground. It was between 1927 and 1940 that a local bakery started making pepperoni rolls for that purpose. In modern West Virginia, you can buy pepperoni rolls almost anywhere...gas stations, convenience stores, Walmart, Amish bulk food stores, etc. We found them to be tasty and convenient when we had to travel, or on busy days with little time to cook. We left West Virginia in November of 2008, and have not had a pepperoni roll since.

Since they are not readily available commercially around here, I decided I just better make my own today. I made the dough with yeast, water, sugar, powdered milk, salt and flour, then let it rise until double.


I divided it into 12 pieces then flattened each piece and then put slices of pepperoni down the middle of each piece.



Then I rolled the buns up rather like a jelly roll.



I placed them on a pan, ready to bake. I covered them with a little bit of melted margarine and egg.



Then I baked them for 15 minutes.





Changes I would make when I make them again:
I used the low fat turkey pepperoni as lowfat is best for us. The real WV rolls use regular pepperoni, which often leaves a little orange color from the fat in the pepperoni where the roll is sealed. They are also a little more moist. I think maybe next time I will try adding a teaspoonful of pizza sauce in with the pepperoni. You can also add cheese.

It was a lovely reminder of our time in West Virginia.

Peaches II

What to do with all those peaches!? Today we spent figuring that all out. Some are saved in the refrigerator for eating in the next week or so. Some are chopped up, ready to be made into jam, and most of them we spent the day peeling and canning. It took a little longer than usual since they are so small this year, but they taste good, and that is what counts...right? I always think canned peaches are one of the prettiest canned items. I know I'll be happy to have them to enjoy next winter.

Peaches!

When I was young, we traveled every other year to visit our grandparents who lived about 1500 miles away. It was more of an adventure at that time as there were not as many interstate highways built. It took us 2 1/2 days to make that drive. We always went in the summer, and surely we must have usually gone in August, because what I remember best is that there were always fresh peaches on Grandpa's peach trees. Eating those fresh peaches with cream, sugar and nutmeg was a real treat!

As an adult, I ended up living in Alaska for many years. There was NO chance of growing a peach tree there. None. The peaches in the store were not a good substitute. Did they purposefully send the nastiest, worst fruit to Alaska, knowing we'd eat it anyway? I don't know. It surely seemed like it. Certainly, the peaches were picked quite green and were tasteless and dry when we bought them.

When we left Alaska and moved to our little valley, we found the climate not exactly conducive to fruit growing. In fact, the old timers told us that the only month of the year when there had never been a frost was July. Still, we went to a local nursery which carried plants suited to our climate, where we purchased a couple of peach trees.

This year I had no hope of getting any peaches from them. June was cold and rainy...and it even frosted at least once. The areas across the mountains, where peaches usually grow much better, have a smaller than usual crop this year due to lack of pollination because of the cold and rain while they were blooming. Not a good year for fruit.

Nonetheless, we pruned our little trees, though not nearly enough as it turned out. I realized that somehow, our trees must have bloomed at just the right moment, because we had peaches....lots of peaches. All summer I have thinned and thinned and thinned them...and still there were too many peaches on the tree. Thus, they are smaller than they should be, but we intend to enjoy them. They are not dry and tasteless...they are juicy and delicious! Today we picked most of them. They have been falling to the ground for about a week, although many were not yet ripe, but I can no longer stand to watch from my window while the birds feast on them!

Tomorrow I think I'll be canning peaches!

Bountiful Baskets

Recently Jana and I have been getting produce from Bountiful Baskets. It is a food co-op. For $15 per week, you can pick up a basket of stuff on Saturday morning. It is guaranteed to have 6 fruits and 6 vegetables, though we never know ahead of time what is going to be in there. We share a basket as there is too much stuff in there for just 2 people for a week. This was what was in the basket last time we got one. It's almost like Christmas...going out Saturday morning to see what treasures we'll get to bring home.

The last 2 baskets have had brussels sprouts in them. Last time there were extra brussels sprouts, so they said anyone who wanted more could take a handful. One lady stopped on her way past and got a big handful. Her son, behind her, said, "Nooooooooooooo!"

If I can't use all my stuff in a week, sometimes I freeze it if it is something that will freeze ok.

A Warm Meal for a Cold Day

In my cleaning and sorting recently, I found a recipe I saved from many years ago. It is the perfect warm, hearty meal for a cold winter day. It is a recipe that uses wheat that doesn't have to be ground even. First I took 3 cups of wheat from our food storage.



I soaked it in water overnight.



I added it to the crockpot with the other ingredients and let it simmer during the day.



We had delicious hearty wheat chili for our dinner tonight.



Wheat Chili

3 c. wheat
2 large cans tomato sauce
2 large cans tomatoes
1/2 diced green pepper
1 diced medium onion
2 t. Worcestershire Sauce
1-2 T. chili powder
1-2 lbs. browned hamburger

Simmer 2-4 hours on stove or cook in crockpot.

You can add other ingredients to taste, such as:
garlic
thyme
oregano
italian seasonin
cayenne pepper

Laundry Soap

Grandma Lincoln asked me to include this in a posting, so here you go:

Laundry Soap

1 bar grated Fels Naphtha Soap
4 1/2 gallons really warm water
1 c. washing soda
1 c. borax

Cover soap with water in saucepan and heat until dissolved.


Pour in water. (Hope you can find a 5 gallon bucket.)
Add washing soda and borax.


Stir until it is all dissolved.
As it cools it will thicken. (Add more water if necessary.)
It does not make suds but does a good cleaning job.
If you don't like the smell, add Lavender Essential Oil, a few
drops until you like the odor. Use 1/4 to 1/2 cup per load.

Good luck.

We like pie! We wish we had more of it!

Today was Thanksgiving, which we spent with some of our family. Family, of course, is one of the things we are most thankful for, but pie is certainly up there on the list. Our family has never really liked cake, even for birthdays, but pie,. well, that is another story! Many years ago I went through a period of time when I could not eat pie. If I couldn't eat it, I really didn't want to make it, but the children begged for pie. I finally told them I would teach them and then they could make pie whenever they wanted. At that time, their ages ranged from 8-14, so I grouped them around the kitchen table to learn to make pie crust. Once the lesson was over, I believe we must have had pie every day for at least 3 weeks straight. Now the pie makers are grown, but they still make pies. Thanksgiving is another opportunity for pie. Today we had key lime, pumpkin, banana cream, rhubarb custard, blueberry and pecan.









Don't let the solemn face fool you. That piece of key lime pie is following pieces of pumpkin, key lime and rhubarb custard pie.



It is sad when your pie is gone, but boy was that banana cream good!



Some people weren't allowed pie, and thus, were forced to subsist on fingers. No Fair!

I Am Thankful For Pie!!

Some years ago when we moved to our present home, we were surprised to receive a pie from a local bakery a few days before Thanksgiving. The card with it said it was given to us courtesy of the real estate agent who helped us find the house. We thought it a lovely gesture and greatly enjoyed the pie. Much to our surprise, it happened again the next year.....and the next.....and the next! Every year a pie arrives on our doorstep. We have gotten pumpkin, lemon meringue and blueberry among others. We never know what flavor it will be or which local bakery or restaurant it will come from. Tonight the doorbell rang, but when I opened the door, a car was just pulling out of the driveway, and there on the porch was our pie.


It has a crumb topping.



It appears to be an apple pie! Yum!



If anyone plans on moving to this area ever, be sure to let us hook you up with an annual Thanksgiving pie!

Pflaumenkuchen

At the farm, there is a lovely old plum tree that magically seems loaded with plums every year in spite of little care taken for it. During school groups in the Fall, one of the themes is 'Harvest'. In one of the stations the children visit, we talk about canning and preserving. As part of that we make a batch of plum jam on the old wood stove in the summer kitchen which the children get to sample. The plums are not the round ones, but the oblong, blue ones which are sometimes called Italian plums.

After we have enough for the jam making, the rest often seem to go to waste, so this year I brought home enough to make an old German treat called Pflaumenkuchen. Here is the recipe I used:

Pflaumenkuchen
preheat oven to 375F
grease a jelly roll pan

1/4 lb. butter
3/4 c. sugar
2 eggs
1/4 c. milk
1 t. vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 t. salt
1 t. baking powder
2 1/2 - 3 lb. small Italian plums
1 c. chopped nuts
sugar and cinnamon to taste

Cream butter, sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla together. Add flour, salt, and baking powder and mix well. Spread this dough on the jelly roll pan. Wash, halve and pit the plums. Place plums on dough with cut side up and touching one another. Sprinkle plums with sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle nuts over the plums. Bake for 30 minutes.

The picture below doesn't really do it justice, but it really is most delicious!

Garden 2009

Last year when we were in West Virginia, we heard wonderful stories of the huge amounts of strawberries and peaches our garden was producing. We got home in November, and ever since I've looked forward to having a garden again after two years without. Spring started in a promising way with lovely rhubarb and lots of blossoms on the fruit trees. I was happy to plant the various seeds, tomato plants, cucumbers, etc. The seeds were just starting to come up when the first of three horrendous hail storms came in a period of a week or so. The picture below was taken a full 12 hours after the first hail storm. Even after that much time, a pile of hail was still stacked on the lawn! Needless to say, we were worried about hail damage.



Our once healthy rhubarb looked more like green lace. It was all shredded by the hail. The strawberry flowers all got knocked off, so no strawberries this year.



One of the tomato plants died as did one of the cucumbers. The rest were badly damaged and took quite a while to recover. Most of the fruit forming on the trees was knocked off. In addition, one of the apple trees looked really sick. At first we thought it was hail damage, but as time went on, the leaves fell off and it eventually died. We found out it had fire blight. From all appearances, the other apple tree and the pear tree probably also have fire blight, so may die next year. Thankfully the peach trees are not prone to that. Then the rain started. It rained the whole month of June. Maybe we should have planted rice in the garden since it looked more like a rice paddy. Looking at the aftermath, I could see the likelihood of very little produce coming out of that garden as the seeds and seedlings were washed away. Eventually the rain stopped. To my amazement, most of the beans survived as well as a few of the carrots and beets. Eventually we replanted carrots and beets, but they didn't have time to get very big. As you see below, the carrots that didn't get washed away, outdid themselves! (That is a regular table knife on the middle carrot.)



The beans that started out fairly scanty apparently felt the need to make up for their slow start. I probably picked 25-30 gallons of beans eventually. The tomatoes also tried to make up for lost time. From our 8 tomato plants we ended up with about 4 bushels of tomatoes. We did end up with half a bushel of peaches, though they were damaged by the hail.

It does feel good to have our freezer and storeroom full again. Hopefully next year the gardening will be better.