Confessions of a Grandma

Our lawn was looking so lush and green through the spring.  Now, after just a few hot, rainless days it looks like someone went out in the middle of the night and scattered giant bowls of shredded wheat here and there.  It's crunchy to walk on. Generally, Vermont soil is supposed to be quite heavy clay.  Not in our yard though.  We seem to sit on top of a sand and gravel ridge.  It certainly had its advantages last summer when there was flooding elsewhere.  However, when it is dry, it does not take very long at all for the grass to show the effects. Do they still sell Shredded Wheat?  I remember eating it as a kid--once in a great while--and that it was palatable only because we dumped huge spoonfuls of sugar on top making a concoction of sweetened milk with bits of straw in it.    I also ember making shredded wheat bread--loaves and rolls--in the 70's.  Doesn't that sound so very 70's?  I know fondue came back for a while. ...

The Sandal Wood Homeowners Association is having a rummage and bake sale Saturday morning.  Since I have not accumulated stuff that I am ready to get rid of yet, I thought I would do some baking. I made chocolate covered cherry cupcakes--a dozen for the sale and a single layer cake for Mike because he does love his chocolate cake. I also made pineapple upside down cupcakes.  I was going to make a sheet cake, but then thought that smaller quantities would sell better.  I made the chocolate cakes from scratch, but I cheated with these and used Jiffy yellow cake mix. This is not a baked good, but there is so, so much citrus fruit that I made a mix of white and pink grapefruit with Valencia oranges, lightly sweetened with Florida honey, and packed it snack containers.  I am getting to be very quick at sectioning grapefruit without turning it entirely to juice. Lots of people will be having carport sales around the neighborhood tomorrow as well.  We will be p...

We sat on the deck to watch the sunset as night tried to settle in. The sun seemed reluctant to give up its hold. Then we went inside and ate cheesecake.

I went for my walk today in spite of the fact that it was not even thirty degrees out and the wind was gusting at 30 MPH.  Can't say I enjoyed it much, but now I at least have the satisfaction of having gotten some exercise. In spite of my early training--give up something for Lent, go to church a whole lot, cook a huge feast, visit the relatives, and buy a new bonnet--Easter has never been a very favorite holiday for me.  I am not particularly religious so I don't get involved in that aspect any more.  I remember the visiting family and the feasting fondly.  On the other hand, my mother spent so very much time cooking and baking all kinds of  traditional dishes and carrying out other Ukrainian rituals that she was pretty much toast by the actual day.  In fact, the whole Easter time was a likely trigger for one of her breakdowns/psychotic episodes.  Maybe I am honoring her memory by being cranky and out of sorts. Or maybe it really is the...

We have ripped out carpet, sanded, stained, sealed, and are now putting a floor finish on the stairs.  They are looking pretty good.  In the meantime, I have been taking down pictures and putting away knickknacks in preparation for the painter and trying to keep after the sanding dust.  I am going through a whole lotta vacuum bags and tacky cloths.  Can't wait for this project to be done--just in time for a MAJOR cleanup for the holidays. Saturday night and Sunday, I spent with my grand children--a welcome break.  I am almost finished with putting together the Advent calendars I make for them.  I collect stickers, trinkets, coins, activity books, treats, ornaments and such so they have 24 little surprises while counting down the days til Christmas. My kids had the kind of Advent calendar that showed a picture for each day, but I started this little gift tradition and now it IS a tradition.  It is fun to be a grandma! I have to d...

Bobby at HOT COFFEE & COOL JAZZ  shared this recipe for Apple Cake .  I tried it and it was really good--spoke to me of all things autumn. Having a slight anti-authoritarian steak, I can never just follow a recipe exactly. When I made it, I substituted 1/4 cup of apple cider for 1/4 cup out of the 3/4 cup of oil and there were no problems with that.  I also used King Arthur white whole wheat flour.   Hey, this is Vermont.  There is no actual law that says one MUST use King Arthur flour, but is clearly the correct thing to do. I had a fun day with friends making Christmas cards today.  Donna and her mother have a fabulous assortment of all the right tools and lots of experience so I feel like I learned a lot. Incidentally, she served squash soup and the orange-cranberry scones that are currently featured on the K.A. site noted above.  Delicioso, as my 3 year-old (Dora the Explorer watching) grand son would say.

I thought I was free of the self destruct mode, but...Today I slammed my left foot in the front door, scraping my instep and making a bloody mess of my heel. However, I found it immensely amusing and I've been giggling about it all day. Now, I'm manic. Mike is threatening to outfit me with a hockey goalie's uniform--minus the skates. We are going camping on Monday so I spent the day preparing some meals for that. I remembered that we had a fan in the basement so I dragged that up to the kitchen and it really helped since I had the oven on and our air conditioner is only in the bedroom. Mike got out all the equipment and started some of the packing. It takes a certain amount of work to relax so completely for a couple of days. We sat out on the deck tonight for supper and watched the sun go down. Mike grilled tuna and I roasted potatoes in oil and herbs from my garden and made green beans in a lemon-butter sauce. The green beans were the first from my garden. It was...

The weather promises to warm up for the coming week so I am holding on through another cold and drizzly Saturday. I did get out yesterday to pick bunches of lilacs and lily-of-the-valley. The house smells wonderfully like spring. I don't care for sprays or plug-ins that scent the air, but I do love the lilacs while they are in bloom. I am aching to get out and do some work in the garden, but there aren't even so many weeds to be plucked yet. It's too cold to put out the plants I've started. Garden work is just not something you can parcel out. Probably in a couple of weeks I'll be in over my head with too much to do. Being and equal opportunity complainer, I'll moan about that, too. I do have plenty of chives and they have been appearing in many recent meals...on one of our plates. Chives are another item on Mike's list of "nuisance vegetables." The chives are about to bloom and then I will make some chive vinegar by soaking the flowers in white vi...

What a dark and gloomy day we have today. It's been pouring and we've needed the lights and the heat on most of the afternoon. We spent a lot of time reading. I even made a loaf of oat bread. It's not ready yet, but I am enjoying the aroma while I finished a cup of tea and my new favorite cookie--"digestive biscuits"(I know. Boring)--and now start a little computer time. Today would have been a good day to visit the aquarium in Sarasota, but we somehow just could not work up enough energy to make a dash out to the car. Instead I'm going to take a cruise to some of the recipe sites and plan a Valentine's Day meal for my sweetums. This looks to be a major foody weekend around here so I do hope the weather is a bit nicer tomorrow. There is a Polish food sale on Saturday, a Jewish food festival on Sunday, and an Italian festival running all weekend. I could do some damage...better stock up on those digestive biscuits...find them on the tiny British she...

I received this e-mail and it just cracked me up because my mom was always shooing us away from goodies she had made "for the church." When my brother brought an apple pie he'd baked to family Christmas dinner, his wry presentation comment was, "It wasn't good enough to give to the church, so you can eat this one." A very old man lay dying in his bed. In death's doorway, he suddenly smelled the aroma of his favorite chocolate chip cookie wafting up the stairs. He gathered his remaining strength and lifted himself from the bed. Leaning against the wall, he slowly made his way out of the bedroom, and with even greater effort forced himself down the stairs, gripping the railing with both hands. With labored breath, he leaned against the door frame, gazing into the kitchen. Were it not for death's agony, he would have thought himself already in heaven. There, spread out up on newspapers on the kitchen table were literally hundreds of his favorite chocola...

The process of baking is a way I feed my soul. Unfortunately, afterwards I feel compelled to feed my appetite as well and partake of that which I have made. This is not such a good thing. In September, my doctor told me to lose ten pounds. So far I have just bounced up and down one or two pounds either way and not made a real serious effort. The stretch of time between Thanksgiving and New Year's--not the most auspicious time for dieting, is it. But then, I still have ten months before I go back for another physical. The sooner I fall behind, the more time I have to catch up. ~Author Unknown Yummy. Stuff it in there. (Representation of my inner child who has no ability nor inclination to delay gratification)