Happy 77th – to me!

Actually, my birthday isn’t until Wednesday, but my two daughters and I like to celebrate birthdays the entire weekend before the big day.  So, on Friday evening my oldest daughter showed up for her usual weekend visit with flowers and two pints of gelato – let the fun begin!

When I went to the kitchen on Saturday morning I found a gift on the table to think about until my daughter got up for breakfast.

It was two towels, hand-embroidered redwork with horses – I’m sure they’re harness horses.

We met my youngest daughter and her two children for lunch at my favorite Mexican restaurant and did some shopping in the afternoon.

On Sunday morning, on the kitchen table was the most gorgeous box that was shaped like a book – and I wondered if it might be a book or a box with something wonderful in it.

It was indeed a box with some amazing contents:  An 1883 autograph book that belonged to a woman living in Cozaddale, Ohio – a small town close to where we live.  Each page was filled with sentimental verses in the most elegant handwriting.  Did everyone write that beautifully in the 1880s?  In addition, there was a handwritten list by the woman’s daughter identifying the people who had contributed to the book.  Then, my daughter had taken it further by finding census records for the people and information on Cozaddale, as well as locating a book written in 1960 about the founder.

And the day had just begun.  At lunchtime, my youngest daughter, her husband and children came for dinner, after which there were more gifts including a Garrison Keiller CD, a Minnesota State Fair book, microwave steamer dishes, a big brass alarm clock with an alarm I can actually hear, a new garden flag and a set of solar lights for the front yard,

…a candle, a Jadite hen covered dish, mini loaf pans, a drop cookie maker, embroidered pillow cases and embroidered redwork panels for me to use to make a quilt.

The grandchildren, known here as Jellyfish (10) and Dolphin (6), made their own special gifts.  They each made molded, fragrant soap and they made decorated boxes to hold the soap.  Dolphin also made a horse light catcher and Jellyfish worked with his mother in assembling a book of his photographs of my “favorite things” – family members, of course, and all kinds of neat things that are in my house.

As usual, the youngest daughter brought her renowned Best of Show White Cake with Caramel Frosting.  After cake and gifts, the girls, the grandchildren and I took a drive to – where else? – Cozaddale – a pretty drive on a late September day.

I was sorry to see everything end – and I don’t think it could all have been done in less than a weekend.

Grandparents’ Day and a New Dessert

Yesterday, on Grandparents’ Day, my two youngest grandchildren showed up at my front door, bearing handmade gifts as usual …. six-year-old Dolphin ….

…and ten-year-old Jellyfish (currently in training as a “Ghostbuster”).

Jellyfish had taken my picture last week and printed out a frame and mounted it plus he made a great bookmark.

Dolphin had promised me a hundred times on Saturday that she would make my favorite Scottie, which she did, along with a colored picture of a grandma and granddaughter baking.  She even made her own wrapping paper and a paper bow.

Their mother has always had a mug made up with a picture on it for Grandparents’ Day.  This year, number 11 will join the others on my special shelf.

I fixed a roast beef dinner for the family and for dessert tried out one I had seen on All Recipes, Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball.  I called it a “girly” dessert but my son-in-law and grandson managed to enjoy some of it, maybe not as much as my two daughters and I did.

CHOCOLATE CHIP CHEESE BALLS

• 8 oz. package of cream cheese (not low-fat or Neufchatel), softened
• 1/2 cup butter (butter only, no substitutes), softened
• 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 2 Tblsp. light brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup toffee bits
• 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

In a medium bowl, beat together the softened cream cheese and softened butter until smooth.  Mix in the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Cover and chill in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day, shape the chilled cream cheese mixture into three balls.  Wrap each ball in plastic and chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Before serving, roll one ball in toffee bits, one in pecans and keep one with just the chocolate chips.

I served these dessert cheese balls with honey pretzels, thin cinnamon wafers and Golden Delicious apple slices.

The comments on All Recipes indicated some people had problems getting the mixture to form a ball.  Other people suggested storing the beaten cheese mixture in a metal bowl and refrigerating overnight.  They also stressed using only full-fat butter and cream cheese.  I followed these suggestions and had no problems forming the balls.

It was a fun dessert and a nice ending to our Grandparents’ Day dinner.

A Day at Kings Island

When I was raising my first three children in Cincinnati in the 1950s and 1960s, our amusement park was Coney Island on the Ohio River, east of town.  There were rides including a gorgeous merry-go-round and an exciting Shooting Star roller coaster, shady picnic groves, a huge swimming pool, and a big lake for paddle boats.  It had everything we needed and the kids loved it.

By the time my fourth child was a toddler in 1972, things had changed.  Kings Island in Mason, Ohio, became the place to go.  We didn’t get to visit that often because it was expensive for a big family and a long drive from our house, but it’s the place that my youngest daughter remembers fondly.

Coney Island has remained in business and we visit a couple of times a year, but now we all live about 10 minutes from Kings Island and my daughter buys season passes for everybody.

Last week, I went along for the sights and sounds of Kings Island with my daughter and two grandchildren, known here as Jellyfish (age 10) and Dolphin (age 6).  I don’t get on any of the rides but I come in handy sitting with one of the kids while the other is on a favorite ride with mother.  The Beast is one of Jellyfish’s favorites.

Dolphin has a lot of exciting rides to choose from like the Dodgems, the Scrambler, Shake Rattle & Roll, a kid-sized roller coaster ….

A ride I like to watch is the old 1926 merry-go-round which was moved from Coney Island.

It has 48 beautiful horses….

Jellyfish is a very good photographer and took the pictures in this post (except this one).  This is a view from the top of the Kings Island Eiffel Tower, a 1/3 replica of the one in Paris.

We all had several hours of fun and then drove the short distance to my house for lunch.  Just like in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, I have a chance to enjoy going on a summer outing with some cute kids.

A Young Artist-Crafter

My five-year-old granddaughter (known here as Dolphin) is a budding artist-crafter.  As soon as she was able to hold a pencil or crayon in her hand, she started creating artwork.  She loves the idea of recycling and finding uses for odd items in a craft.  Everything is fair game – wrappers from the straws at McDonald’s as well as the paper napkins, bits of fabric, beads, pretty stones, cereal boxes, etc., etc.  Her mother and I both keep an area well stocked with all kinds of paper, tape, crayons, markers – all Dolphin needs is an inspiration to get her started and she gets inspired multiple times an hour.  She’s come up with some really interesting projects and I can’t wait to see what she’ll do as she gets older and more experienced.

For my Easter gift, she used a kit rather than one of her own creations, but carefully put together a unicorn with a tiny flower.  I told her I would  mount it and frame it so I could set it up and admire it.  She specified a blue frame and I printed out a background with a moon.  Her only complaint was that she thought red flowers on the frame would have looked nice and I imagine there will be some on it as soon as she has a chance to work on them.

A Linus Quilt with a Vintage Look

I like to make quilts to donate to the Linus Project which distributes blankets and quilts to hospitalized children in the Cincinnati area.  I’m always on the lookout for cute, kid-oriented fabric and found a remnant while shopping in Holmes County (Ohio) Amish Country last fall.  I thought the 1930s era panels would work out well with some type of filler block.  I tried out several patterns but wanted to avoid taking attention away from the cute pictures.  Since I always have scraps, I tried making a block with 3/4″ finished postage stamp squares and this seemed to be the perfect block to accompany the puppies, kittens, bunnies and kids in the panels.  Each postage stamp square block took about two hours to make but I used up a lot of small scraps and liked the vintage look.

I used some pink, blue and yellow fabric to complete the borders….

…and used a fleece backing, as recommended by the Linus Project.

All of the sewing was done on my Bernina and the quilting was very simple and minimal since I wasn’t working with batting.  For the binding, I sewed together strips alternating in pink, yellow, white  and blue.

I’m not usually tempted to keep the quilts I make for the Linus Project because they’re designed to appeal to kids, but I wouldn’t have minded keeping this quilt with its vintage images from my childhood.  My granddaughter and her friend, George, liked the quilt, so I’m hoping some little girl in the hospital will like it, too.

Christmas Carolers

Last Saturday evening at about 8:30 PM, my oldest daughter and I were watching Christmas Vacation on television when I heard my doorbell ring.  It’s very unusual for anyone to come to my door after dark, so I went cautiously to open it and before me stood my youngest daughter with her two children, singing at the top of their lungs.  First they sang a song for their aunt which consistently irritates her, I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas,  and then gave a very solemn rendition of Hark the Herald Angels Sing.   Granddaughter kept her eyes on her self-made carol book.   She knows the hippo  song all too well but has to follow her brother’s lead on the carol.

I gave each of the kids a small bag of candy and they headed back home where they planned to ring their own doorbell and give their Dad a surprise caroling party. 

Sunday-After-Thanksgiving Meal

After eating our fill of turkey on Thanksgiving, on Friday and on Saturday, it doesn’t seem possible that anything with turkey would be appetizing on Sunday, but this dish made with extra-rich turkey gravy/broth is highly anticipated by my family on the post-Thanksgiving Sunday.   I found this recipe for Creamy Turkey Tetrazzini in a Philadelphia Brand Cookbook in 2004 and we have been enjoying it ever since. The secret is to use the best turkey broth/gravy you can salvage from the holiday meal.

CREAMY TURKEY TETRAZZINI

• 1/4 cup margarine
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/2 cup finely chopped celery
• 4 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced thinly
• 10 oz. good turkey broth/gravy
• 8 oz. cream cheese, cut into small cubes
• 1 cup chopped cooked turkey
• 2 Tblsp. chopped pimiento
• Salt/pepper
• 1 oz. grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Saute onions and celery in margarine over medium heat for about 10 minutes.  Add sliced mushrooms and continue cooking until mushrooms are cooked through.  Add broth and cream cheese, stirring over low heat until cheese is melted.  Add turkey and pimiento.  Taste before adding salt – it will depend on how your gravy/broth is seasoned.  Grate some black pepper over the top.  Pour into a 1-1/2 quart casserole dish.  Top with grated cheese.  Bake @ 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile cook 7 oz. of spaghetti or fettucine according to package directions.  Drain pasta.  Serve hot chicken mixture over pasta.

Yield:  4-6 servings.

For dessert today, I made my version of Tiramisu, developed about 15 years ago when we had enjoyed the dessert at a restaurant but I had no idea of how it went together.  We all like my version which uses low-fat versions of some ingredients and 1/2 cup of Kahluha.

MY FAIRLY LIGHT TIRAMISU

• One package Italian lady fingers (about 12 lady fingers – I use Alessi Biscotti Savoiardi)
• 4 oz. light cream cheese (Neufchatel), softened
• 15 oz. light ricotta cheese
• 2 cups light Cool Whip whipped topping
• 1/2 cup Kahlua (to pour over lady fingers)
• One small block of Ghiaradelli chocolate (I like milk chocolate)

In a large mixer bowl, beat together the cream cheese and ricotta cheese until smooth.  Fold in Cool Whip whipped topping.

Place half of the lady fingers in layer in bottom of 9×9″ pan.  Pour half of the Kahlua (1/4 cup) over the lady fingers.

Spoon half of the cream cheese mixture over the top of the lady fingers.  Repeat with the remaining lady fingers, 1/4 cup of Kahlua and remainder of cheese mixture.

Grate the Ghiradelli chocolate over the top of the dish.  Refrigerate for at least two hours before serving.

Yield:  8 servings

We all agreed that it was a good meal and a little bit different even if the entree did include turkey!

Grandparents’ Day….and Hollandaise Sauce

My two youngest grandchildren, known here as Jellyfish (age 9) and Dolphin (age 5) have always been encouraged by their mother to remember me on Grandparents’ Day.  Yesterday I received a mug with their pictures to join 9 others in my collection.

As soon as they were able to draw, write or color, they have also given me something they made themselves.  This year, Jellyfish spent many hours printing and coloring detailed information sheets about dinosaurs.

Dolphin also drew a dinosaur and made a special card.

Both of them made up a booklet, “My Grandmother”, with lines to fill in with information on where I live, what I like and what we like to do together.  The page about my real name turned out fine with Jellyfish’s “Lillian” but a little odd with Dolphin’s “Owl”.

I like to have Sunday dinner at home, so as usual I fixed dinner for everybody.  Along with roast beef, mashed potatoes,carrots and homemade yeast rolls,  I steamed some asparaus and served it with this delicious Mock Hollandaise Sauce which is much friendlier fat and cholesterol-wise.

MOCK HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

• One 3 oz. package low-fat cream cheese (Neufchatel)

• 1/4 cup egg substitute
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• dash salt
• 1/4 cup melted low-fat margarine

Blend together by hand or in a food processor.  To warm, heat in microwave oven for about 30-45 seconds.

Yield:  One cup of sauce

I have a note in my recipe binder:  “From Southern Sideboards cookbook.  Made for Mother’s Day 1994 to serve with our homegrown asparagus.  Very rich and smooth – easy to heat up.”

Last-Day-of-School Dresses

When I was going to school in the 1930s and 40s, the last day of school was in mid-June.  I always associate the day in Cincinnati with very hot weather, tiger lilies blooming, and my mother making me a “last-day-of-school dress”.   In the first grade (above), the dress was yellow silk with accordion pleated skirt and brown bows.  It was a beautiful dress and all the little girls in my class gathered around me to touch and admire the silky smoothness – before World War II when silk was a common commodity in dress-up clothes.

In 1942, Mother made a more grown-up dress of a beautiful light blue fabric.  She often made a dress of the same fabric for my little sister and we’re shown here with my cousin, Dixie, just after her First Communion.

In the sixth grade, my sister and I had dresses of a lovely blue voile.  We had just moved from downtown Cincinnati to the East End area where there were small well-kept houses with Victory Gardens.  

 I graduated from the 8th grade in 1945 and Mother made a beautiful white outfit with a flared skirt and eyelet top.  It was the fashion in our school that year to wear white socks with white sandals.

In 1946, I was finishing up my freshman year at Withrow High School, a prestigious school at that time where my classmates were way higher economically than I was.  As you can see, I was very unhappy with my dress that year.  This was very unusual for me – I normally wore anything Mother lay out for me with no complaints, but this dress was of a matronly rayon-type fabric and all the girls in my upscale school were wearing sleeveless pastel shirtwaist dresses to class.  I knew I was going to look completely out of style in my grandma-goes-to-church dress.  In spite of my scowl, I wore the dress to pick up my report card and found that the stylish girls were all in shorts and casual clothes, ready to take off for swimming pools and tennis courts, and paid no attention to me at all.

Mother always talked about her favorite last-day-of-school dress which she described as being so beautiful.  After she passed away, I found this picture of her and understood better why she made me such a matronly, out-of-style dress.  It looked a lot like her favorite.

I felt bad that I had disappointed Mother by not liking the dress, but apparently I made an impression  because she never made another one like that for me.  For my senior class day at Withrow, she made my sister and me these beautiful light blue dotted Swiss dresses which we both loved. 

I don’t believe the tradition of last-day-of-school dresses was active in my era (except for my mother) and it certainly wasn’t alive for my daughters or now for my granddaughters and great-granddaughter.  Pity.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread and Rolls

Every Wednesday, granddaughter Dolphin comes to my house and most of the time we make bread.  This week we made an old favorite going back over more than 20 years – Honey Whole Wheat Bread.

HONEY WHOLE WHEAT BREAD & ROLLS

• 2 packages fast rising dry yeast
• 2 cups of whole wheat flour (Gold Medal)
• 1/2 cup instant potato flakes
• 1/2 cup non-fat dry milk
• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 cups of water heated to 130 degrees F
• 3 Tblsp. oil
• 3 Tblsp. honey
• 3-4 cups all-purpose flour (Gold Medal)

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, place yeast, whole wheat flour, instant potato flakes, dry milk and salt.  Stir to blend.  Add heated water, oil and honey.  With paddle beater, beat at medium speed for 3 minutes.  Insert dough hook and continue beating for another 6:30 minutes, adding all-purpose flour as required to make dough springy and not sticky. 

Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.  Punch down, form into loaves and/or rolls, place formed dough on oiled pans, cover and let rise for 30 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Bake loaves, according to size, for 25 to 45 minutes until golden brown on top and loaves sound hollow when tapped.  Bake rolls for 12-15 minutes, according to size.  I like to bake one loaf of bread in a medium size 7-1/2″ pan for 25 minutes and form 12 rolls from the remaining dough to bake on a large cookie sheet for 12 minutes.

Dolphin and I enjoy a roll fresh from the oven with butter and a drizzle of honey.

Back when I first started making Honey Whole Wheat Bread, my aunt and then later my mother were fighting cancer and nothing tasted good to them but this bread.  I made each one a loaf every week until even this fresh bread didn’t taste good to them any more.   My aunt passed away in 1989 and my mother in 1991.  I know they would be happy to think that Dolphin is enjoying the bread now.