If you're in your 60's you will love this...

 Oh Mary Ellen, you just made my day.  If you want a walk down memory lane, just give her video a watch.  So many memories came rushing back as I watched this.  Enjoy…  ~ Jan

The year was 1978, I was in my late twenties, a foodie even back in those days and Cuisinart had recently introduced their line of food processors.  Of course, I was all over that like a hot potato, just the thought of a food processor was so exciting, the ease of preparation, the endless possibilities, but oh, the price.  I wanted the top of the line, the DLC-7 and it was $175.

Hubby and I had a young family, that was a lot of money to spend on a piece of kitchen equipment, but I just had to have that food processor.  We went to a department store in Cincinnati shopping one winter weekend with our friends, Charlie and Nisha, and there it was, front and center in a display.  I was drooling, and LC who had heard me talk constantly about wanting one bought it for me.

And here I am, forty years later, I still have the same food processor, I still use it weekly, and even though he’s asked over the years if I wanted to update it, I’ve always declined.  I bought all the attachments for it, I bought Abby Mandel’s Cuisinart Classroom Cookbook, I was off to the races and never looked back.

I’ve used it for countless meals over the years, I had to replace the work bowl twice, and once it locked up, we couldn’t get the bowl to release, so we mailed it to Cuisinart to repair, but it was one of the best investments I’ve ever made.  Of course I used it more when the boys were growing up, but it still has a special place in my kitchen, I’ll never get rid of it.

Thanks to that purchase, I’ve always been a strong believer that you don’t go cheap on workhorse kitchen equipment.  Even though it can be hard to pull the plug on expensive equipment, it will stand the test of time.

Which brings me to this afternoon.  It’s a cold winter day in Nashville, well not as cold as other parts of the country, but a good afternoon to just sit by the fireplace with my laptop browsing websites.  For some reason I thought about one of the staples I always made with my Cuisinart, their recipe for cornbread which was included in a recipe booklet that came with my food processor.  I haven’t made it for years, but thanks to the powers of Google, I found it easily and saved it, maybe I’ll try it again someday, just for old times sake when the boys and their families are visiting, even though it does use a lot of butter.  I always made it my 9" Le Creuset cast iron orange skillet, another one of those items that will never wear out, it’s still my go-to skillet for cornbread after all those years.

Here it is, the original recipe from 1978, oh it does make yummy cornbread.  ~ Jan

Cuisinart Cornbread

1½         cups yellow cornmeal
1½         cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
12           tablespoons (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3             tablespoons granulated sugar
1½         teaspoons baking powder
½           teaspoon baking soda
¾           teaspoon kosher salt
2             cups buttermilk
2             large eggs

Steps

Preheat oven to 425°F. Grease a 9-inch round or square baking pan with the softened butter or nonstick cooking spray; reserve.
Put the butter, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in the workbowl. Mix on Speed 4 until creamy, about 10 seconds.
Add buttermilk and eggs and pulse on Speed 4 to just incorporate, about 5 pulses. Scrape down and pulse a few more times, if necessary.
Add the dry ingredients and pulse until in short bursts, just until combined – it is important not to overmix or the cornbread will be tough and dry.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes.
Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool slightly before serving.

Mammy's Blackberry Jam Cake

A family tradition and a hilarious family story...

This is my great-grandmother’s recipe for Kentucky Jam Cake.  It was a family tradition, handed down through the generations, and my daddy made this every year.  It’s a wonderful, old fashioned cake made with lard and ground raisins, so many memories and a helluva good story as well.

First the story, then the recipe...

Daddy was getting older, his eyesight wasn’t that good anymore and he wasn't the cleanest with his cooking, but he still made Mammy’s Jam Cake and one year he made it and sent it home for us at Christmas in this rusty old cake tin. That cake didn't look right and I was afraid for us eat it so I sat it in the garage on the workbench. The boys were little, like, eight and eleven, and in the garage was a putty knife, we used it as a pooper scooper because we had a cocker spaniel that crapped on the garage floor and we would use that putty knife to clean up the dog doodoo. The boys were horsing around in the garage one afternoon and they cut a piece of that cake with that dirty pooper scooper and threw it in the floor for the dog.

And then hubby was going to work, he ran the company so everybody of course ate when he brought in food, so he grabbed that cake with the hunk cut out with the pooper scooper off he workbench and took it to work for the company Christmas pitch-in dinner. AND in the meantime, Daddy had called me and said "Janice, don't eat that cake, I think I doubled the flour and left out the sugar." OMG, can you imagine, him taking that nasty cake in that old rusty tin and all of those people trying to eat it. He was in SO much trouble with me!!! We have all laughed about it for years tho, it's a great memory...

And now for the infamous recipe that dates back to the early 1900’s, it really is a delicious Christmas cake.  It’s best made several days ahead and stored in a sealed container to age. ~ Jan

 

Mammy's Jam Cake

 

2 cups sugar 
1-1/2 cups buttermilk
6 eggs (leave out 3 whites for frosting)
2 tsp. soda
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. slt
3/4 cup lard (not shortening)
1 cup blackberry jam (if you make this I would buy a good quality of blackberry jam with seeds, nothing compares to the old days tho when it was homemade)
2-1/2 cups flour

 

Cream lard, sugar, add eggs and beat. Sift flour, soda, salt and spices together 3 times. Add alternately with buttermilk to mixture. Mix thoroughly, add jam and beat 3 minutes (do not use mixer).

Spoon into greased cake pans (makes 4 large layers) - Bake at 350.

Frosting

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 box raisins (ground)
3 egg whites stiffly beaten

Cook sugar and water until hard ball, add hot to beaten egg whites, stir in raisins. Frost cake between layers. 

Note: I remember eating this as a little girl, and it was a tall cake, I’m guessing those 4 layers would be 8” cake pans. Daddy always let this age a few days.

The Autumns of my Childhood...

I changed my Facebook Cover photo today using the photo above, and the childhood memories just started flooding back.  We had so many trees in our yard and it was a huge job, raking those leaves into the road and burning them.  Oh, what fun though, burrowing in the piles, and the smell of those burning leaves was magic.  Since I was an only child and we lived in the country there were no kids to play with, so my playmates were dogs and cats.  The dogs would run through the leaves with me, I can still see it all in my mind.

Fall was such a busy time at our house.  I’ve blogged before how mother and I would trudge through the muddy popcorn fields in our rubber “galoshes," dragging a tow sack which we would fill with popcorn that was left in the field after the combine had picked the corn.  Sometimes the mud was so deep it would suck the boots right off my feet and I would be left with wet socks to stuff back in them.  We would spend evenings in front of a coal stove, shucking that corn and emptying it into quart Ball jars to store for the winter.

Late in the fall we would go to the pecan groves, where tractors would bump the trees so the pecans would fall and we would gather coal buckets full of nuts to be weighed and paid for.  We also gathered black walnuts, messy nuts whose hulls would stain our hands and my favorite hickory nuts.  Hickory nuts were so hard to crack, and it took many hours to pick the nuts from the shells.  We would gather sticky persimmons to make persimmon pudding, always picked after the first frost, they were bitter if you didn’t wait and we would crack open the kernels because we believed persimmons predicted the winter weather.

If the kernel was spoon-shaped, you could expect plenty of snow to shovel.  If it was fork-shaped, plan on a mild winter with powdery, light snow.  If the kernel was knife-shaped, expect frigid winds that “cut” like a blade.

By mid-November the temperatures were cold in Southern Illinois and my uncles would butcher hogs.  Sometimes we had our own pig that we raised to butcher, other times they would give us hams and bacon.  Mother would sugar cure them with salt, brown sugar, spices and pepper, and hang them in a gunny sack from the rafters of our outbuilding.  We hung them so that the mice wouldn’t get to them.   I never cared for the cured meat, the flavor was too salty and strong for a little girl, but I spent many nights, racing to the outbuilding in the dark to retrieve those hams for mother to slice off pieces with a butcher knife and fry in an iron skillet for dinner..

At Thanksgiving she would make a hickory nut cake.  I have so many of her recipes but that one escaped me.  She also made black walnut divinity, always on a dry sunny day, for Christmas and she would store it in tins that she saved year after year.

She always made a fruitcake the week after Thanksgiving, chocked full of candied fruits and our pecans that we had shelled.  She baked it in an angel food pan and would put it in a tin with a wine soaked dishtowel surrounding it and a brandy soaked towel in the center so it could age for Christmas.  I never liked them as a child, and she would only give me small very thin slices because they did have alcohol after all and I never liked the taste. I probably would think they were wonderful now.

Fall always brought a new load of coal to be stored in the coal house for our winter heat.  I wish I still had her old receipts, it would be interesting to see how much it cost.  Coal was sold by the ton and we would get a couple of tons to last us through the winter.  The delivery man would dump it in the driveway and we had to carry bucket after bucket to the back coal shed. The house was always cold when we got home in the evening, mother would fill the coal buckets to build a fire and It was always my job to empty the ashes in the driveway ruts to help us keep from getting the car stuck.  We lived on a road that wasn’t graveled, so getting our car stuck in the mud was something that occurred on a regular basis.

We always put plastic on our windows to keep out the winter cold, usually nailing it on the windows on a cold blustery Saturday and it was a big job to unroll the plastic and cut it to fit the windows. The walls of our house weren’t insulated, only the attic, so it was always really hard to keep it warm.   She always made me new flannel pajamas with big buttons in the fall and I slept on a feather bed piled high with quilts.  Looking back I wonder how she managed to do all of that.  She worked from 8-5 at the drug store five days a week, Daddy didn’t live with us, he worked in Northern Illinois, so it was just a woman and a little girl, doing the best they could with absolutely no luxuries at all and nobody to help them.  No bathroom or running water, for years we didn’t have a pump, just a well and a bucket, but we managed and I have happy memories of my childhood.

I didn’t have a mother that played with me, I don’t ever remember her playing board games or reading to me.  She had no time, she was always working because she had to do all of the chores herself.  There was no television in our house until I was twelve years old, I listened to the radio in the evenings and played the piano (badly).  I was always an avid reader, probably more so because there wasn’t that much to do in the country in the cold weather.  No neighbors to talk to, no kids to play with, but if it’s all I knew, and it was okay.  I’ve always admired mother for all the hard work she did.  She didn’t complain or feel sorry for herself, and she worked from early morning until bedtime to make a home and put food on the table.  She really was a strong woman.

The older I get the more nostalgic I am.  My childhood stories are of a difficult life, but it wasn’t a sad life, I was a happy child, I was fed, clothed and loved and I was grateful for the things I had and proud of the accomplishments of daily living.   I miss those days and go back often in my mind.  Some of this you may have read some of this before, as I’ve talked about my childhood in my blog quite a bit through the years, but it’s always good to reminisce, to once again remember the way it was and to be reminded of how lucky I am to have the life that I have now...

 

Pioneer Woman's Daughter Leaves for College

What a powerful picture, and one that mothers of children who are leaving the nest can certainly relate to.  Every time I look at this I get teary eyed, remembering when my sons left for college.  Its a brutal reminder that our children are only loaned to us for a few short years, once they leave on this journey, even though they come home, it’s never the same.

That ship has long sailed for me but in some ways it seems like yesterday.,  Whew, I need to quit looking at this picture...

The Spring of my Discontent...

 

 Hubby took me for a long drive today, deep into the countryside, past the fields and the animals, the old barns and the farmhouses, a trek that normally brings me peace and contentment, but not today, for me today, it was just unsettling.  I did snap a picture of this cow, she was looking right at me, and I do love a good cow picture. 😀

I’ve had a difficult spring this year and it all boils down to one thing, I’m homesick for the days of my childhood.  It would do me no good to revisit where I grew up, where my grandparents and family lived, everything has changed, I miss the way it was when I was a little girl, not the changes that have come with time.

Today was filled with flashbacks to those earlier days.  I can vividly remember the sound of the glass rattling in the front door as it shut and the creak of the porch swing where I spent many hours.  I can even remember the feel of the uneven boards against my feet as I pushed the swing. Mother’s Irises lined the driveway and they would be in bloom now, all thirty feet of them planted in a row like soldiers by the side of the driveway and the smell was wonderful.  I’ve always loved the smell of Iris, even better than roses.  I love honeysuckle, too.  We had a tall tree stump in the backyard with a mass of wild honeysuckle growing on it.  Oh that smell, there is nothing better in the evening after a spring rain than the smell of blooming honeysuckle.

In my mind I can hear the sound of the back screen door slamming as I carried a dishpan of vegetable peelings to the chickens in their pen.  I miss the lay of the land and the trees now long gone.  Cherry and apple, maple and my favorite cottonwood tree.  I loved the rustle of it's leaves and the puffs of cotton that blew in the wind.  And of course, my beloved ditch.  The rushing water so clear you could see the stones in the creek bed and my very favorite childhood place to play.  I miss my faded lavender striped sheets, always fresh from the line on Saturday night and the clean, outdoorsy smell of them as I tucked into bed.

I even miss the birds.  I’ve only seen one red-winged blackbird this year in middle Tennessee.  Its my favorite, we had so many in our trees at home, and I loved their bird song.  I think of the June bugs and how I would chase them at dusk and put them in a Ball jar to glow in the dark, I loved taking long walks on our dusty country road and coming home to a glass of syrupy sweet tea in an aluminum glass, the green one was my favorite, the tea so frosty cold that it would hurt my teeth.  I miss mother’s Sunday dinners, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy,  home canned corn, Bunny Bread Brown ’n Serve Dinner Rolls and her bird egg beans.  They were the best, those beans, oh how I enjoyed them.

I just miss living alongside nature and the natural rhythms that come with it.  I have access to the country, but I don’t live in the country.  I can no longer step outside my door to total quiet, with just the smells and the sounds of nature and the occasional sound of the train winding down Appel’s hill.   Many times I’ve had LC take me to the country road I lived on as a young girl, turn off the car, roll down the windows and just listen to the sounds of my childhood.  

And so I shake off these memories and get on with living, not quite understanding why this year it has been so bittersweet for me.  But this too shall pass and tomorrow I won’t be so nostalgic.  It’s a good life I have now, but oh those memories, sometimes they just come back and tug at your heartstrings… ~ Jan

 

October always makes me think of home...

 

Oh, the memories.  Chili simmering on the stove, an apple pie in the oven, muddy boots by the back door, a nip in the air, these were the October days of my childhood.

I loved the smell of burning leaves, the piles in the yard to tunnel through, barking dogs in the distance, a train meandering down Appel’s hill.  WROY would be playing on the radio, we had no television when I was a child, so most evenings I would be playing the piano.  How Great Thou Art, Floyd Kramer’s Last Dance, Sempir Fedelis, or Stars and Stripes Forever from John Phillip Sousa, and always classical music like Fur Elise or The Blue Danube.  My music was eclectic and varied, I enjoyed playing it so much, even though it didn’t come naturally to me like it did to  others.

There were always dogs and cats at our house which I would smuggle inside on a regular basis,  and we often had a parakeet or a canary.  The fields would be filled with tractors, fall harvest would be in full swing.  Sometimes I would get to go with Aunt Lois in her International pick-up to the elevator to dump the loads of corn.  We would stay in the truck and she would drive it up on a lift that would hoist up the front end to dump the grain.  Oh, it was so exciting for a little girl, to sit in the cab of the truck as it went up in the air.  

We would travel to visit my Aunts and Grandma on the weekend, their nearby fields would have popcorn grown in them, and we would take tow sacks and glean the leftover popcorn that the pickers left behind.  It was hard working, dragging those sacks of popcorn through the muddy fields and when we were finished we would go to my Aunt Idalene’s house and she would shell the corn off the cob and pop it, and since it hadn’t yet dried all of the kernels wouldn’t pop.  It would just swell to the bursting point, and the result would be the crunchiest treat ever.  They called the unpopped kernels “old maids.”   We would glean enough popcorn to last us all winter and mother would shell it and store it in fruit jars in boxes under the bed.  I would try and help, but always made more of a mess for her than it was worth.  My hands were so small I couldn’t get a good grip on the cob and the grains of corn would just fly everywhere.

We would gather hickory nuts, pecans and walnuts in the nearby woods and mother would spend evenings around the fire, cracking nuts and filling Ball jars with the nutmeats.  She always called them “goodies.”  On our weekend visits, she would help my aunt quilt, she always had a quilt in a frame in her “spare” bedroom in the winter or they would cut out a dress to sew for church on Sunday.  Aunt Idalene loved new dresses, and she couldn’t wait until one was sewn to put it on and twirl around in the living room to get Uncle Raymond's approval.  I would read books when we visited the Aunts or Grandma, since they didn’t have television either, or listen in on the adult conversations, a lot of which I couldn’t quite understand. 

Canning season would be almost over, except for Aunt Mae, who always made pear preserves in the fall, the most wonderful concoction of pears and pineapple you ever put on a biscuit and Mother always made Apple Butter.  She would fill an aluminum dishpan with peeled and quartered apples, add sugar, cinnamon and red hot candies and simmer it in the oven to can later.  We didn’t waste anything, so  mother would grind the leftover green tomatoes from the garden and make relish.  Chow-chow was my favorite, a hot spicy concoction that I still love with beans.   She would also spread unripe tomatoes on newspapers in the house to ripen, as killing frosts came in early in October to Southern Illinois.

Halloween would be on the horizon, my outfits would be things that I put together from old clothes.  One year I was a hobo, with bib overalls, a flannel shirt and a stick with a bandana bundle on it’s handle.  Once I was an old lady with pillows stuffed in my dress , a scarf on my head and a pocketbook to carry.   We didn’t have elaborate costumes like today’s children, we just made do with what we had.

I would wear face masks we bought from the drug store where Mother worked.   They would be very similar to the ones below, made of gauze, with a distinctive unpleasant odor and they always made me claustrophobic.  There were no cutouts for the nostrils, so you had to breathe through your mouth and often your eyelashes would get caught in the gauze around the eye cutouts.  If it were warm on halloween night, the masks were hot, I would always push mine up on my head with the rubber band that held it on.

We knew everybody’s house we visited, and we would always unmask so that they could see who we were.  Our treats were apples, popcorn balls, always my favorite, and candy.  Not candy like kids get today though, it was mostly pieces of penny candy, cinnamon balls or butterscotch disks or a stick of gum.

I think I’m missing my childhood this evening, it happens with more frequency these days.  I yearn for the simple times, I feel blessed that I had them and that I can resurrect them on nights like this and go home again, if only in my mind...

~ Jan

The chili of my childhood...

It wasn't until after I was grown that I realized not everyone ate pickles with their chili.  It was a staple at our house, and looking back, it was probably mother using what she had.  We always had sweet pickles and dill pickles with chili, no peanut butter sandwiches, no cornbread, just pickles and crackers and always in the fall apple pie.

I loved it then, and I love it now.  I make really good chili, you want to know how I do it?  Okay, here goes...

First of all, I’m a slow cooker kinda girl, it’s easy, you set it and forget it.  But if you don’t use a slow cooker, I’m a fan of putting it in a big pot, adding the lid and baking it in the oven.  You don’t have to watch it or stir it to make sure it doesn’t stick like you do if you cook it on top of the stove, I’m all about easy in my old(er) age.

2 lbs. ground chuck browned with a large chopped onion, two onions if yours aren’t really big, seasoned with salt and pepper
1 can of Brooks Chili Mix with Beans

Thought you might like a picture, so you can see what it looks like.  If you can’t find this, just substitute a couple of cans of chili beans with sauce 

Now back to the recipe...

1 large can of crushed tomatoes
1 can of tomato sauce
1 small can of tomato paste
2 or 3 cans of light red kidney beans, drained
sometimes I use 2 cans of light red kidney beans and 1 can of chili beans with sauce, I don’t drain the chili beans with sauce
1 can of Rotel tomatoes
1-2 teaspoons of sugar to cut the acidity
1 dry packet of chili seasoning mix - I like Brooks best, it’s hard to find, but any dry mix will do 

Brown the ground beef and onions, stir into chili mixture and cook on high in your slow for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.  If you bake it in the oven, cook it at 350-375 degrees for an hour.

If you like more heat, add a dash or two of cayenne pepper to the ground beef as you are browning it.  Then taste it after it cooks to see if you need additional chili powder.

The Hoosier way of eating chili is to stir in macaroni.  I don’t do this at first but a day or so later, I cook jumbo elbow macaroni, put it in the bowls and ladle chili over it like I did in the picture above.  I never chili mac as a kid, it’s strictly an Indiana thing, but it is good.

Mother didn’t make her chili like this, she just used hamburger, onions, a quart of her home canned tomatoes and added cans of chili beans.  Hers wasn’t highly seasoned, but the pickles took it over the top.

Oh, the pickles - the best pickles EVER, EVER, EVER are these - 

Oh my, I can’t say enough about Famous Dave’s Signature Spicy Pickle Chips.  They are absolutely wonderful, just the right combo of sweet and hot, they are YUMMY!  We buy these at Costo in big jars, I add them to so many things. tuna salad, macaroni salad and sandwiches and they are gone before our next trip back.  Amazing pickles, if you’ve never tried them, look for them in your market, they are delicious!  If you can’t find them, of course Amazon has them, Amazon has everything... 

 

 

I'm a boot girl...

I’ve loved boots my entire life.  I had my first pair of majorette boots when I was about three years old, and still have a vague memory of them. I guess that seed was planted early.

 

Every year I buy a new pair, it’s my fall indulgence, and I’ve always been a fan of the weathered vintage look.  I’m a big Ugg fan as well, but Middle Tennessee winters are so mild, that I might need to rethink buying Uggs.  Anyway, I was poking around on Nordstrom’s site the other evening, I like ordering from them because its free ship, free returns and you don’t have to fight the crowds in the store.

 

I’ve been a fan of Born shoes and boots for years, they work well for me, the prices aren’t cheap, but they’re not hateful either and they usually have the casual styles I like.  I saw these boots and it was love at first site.  They’re weathered, they look worn in and they’re a shortie boot.  They called to me, so they’re on the way, due to arrive next week, I just hope they look as good in person as they do in this picture.  

 

So now I’m on the search for a new fall bag to go with the boots.  But it’s only August, I have plenty of time.  I’m just so ready for autumn this year that I think I’m rushing the season a bit.

 

Do you like them, too?  Umhmmm, I thought some of you might.

 

Here’s the link, they come in taupe also but I love the tobacco brown.  Now go, look, browse and see if you might like to buy them, too.  Nordstrom’s should give me a discount for the publicity, ya think???

Reliving my childhood summers

Oh, the lazy summer days of childhood, I have so many good memories of my childhood, and I’m recapturing some of those days here in middle Tennessee.

It wasn’t an easy childhood, but it was a happy one and the pleasures were simple.  My memories are so vivid lately,  it’s amazing at how many things I remember.  

We lived in a little house by my beloved ditch on a dirt road, we didn’t have air conditioning or an inside bathroom or even running water, but what we did have were shade trees and we lived in a valley so there was always a breeze,  We had a great little front porch where I spent many hours playing with my dolls, sitting in the porch swing reading an endless supply of books while drinking iced tea.  My memories are so strong I can still hear the swing creaking and the sound of the screen door slamming shut when I went in and out the front door. 

Our house faced south, but it was so shady the sun didn’t hit the porch, so it was always cool, even on the hottest of days.  It could get dusty when the cars drove by and it was such a small community, I knew every car that passed.  Sometimes I would run in the house until the dust settled, it would be thick and if the wind was blowing toward the house the grit would get in your eyes and they would feel like sandpaper.  And when it rained, oh it was wonderful, the smell of the dust mingling with the rain, we lived for summer rains and the cooler temperatures that followed.

I loved the fence row across the road, the dappled sunlight and the way the big trees swayed in the wind, and I would sit and watch the trees, listening for the train to curve down Appel's hill.  My playmates were dogs and cats, and the birds, the crickets and the frogs were all familiar sounds.

Fast forward to this summer.  Our house faces north, but we have a great little porch, and the ferns have gotten so big that they totally shade everything.  When I look across the street there is a fence row of trees, and I watch them blowing in the wind.  We always have a breeze, and so I sit on the porch, with Maggie beside me, reading an endless supply of books, drinking glasses of iced tea, listening to the old familiar country sounds of birds, crickets and frogs and occasionally glancing at the cars that pass by.  Even though the days are hot, I welcome the warmth, and the cooling breeze coupled with the nature sounds just transport me back to that simple life in our little house by the ditch.

It’s like a gift, being able to have this glimpse of my childhood after all these years and I treasure every moment.  And as I remember those years, I’m very grateful for what I have now, running water, bathrooms, appliances and air conditioning.

So many similarities, that I wouldn’t have thought possible even last year.  It’s never to late to discover new things, there are adventures awaiting us around every corner.

And who says you can’t go home again, in a way I have...

Miss Mary Bobo's Boarding House Review

 

If you’re within a few hours of Lynchburg, TN and haven’t been, GO!  We visited there earlier this month with John, Deanna and Lexi for a long weekend and enjoyed it so much.  This is definitely in the hills and hollers of Tennessee, everything is rural and authentic, well, except for the town of Lynchburg, which of course is a tourist trap, but the surrounding countryside is amazing and we found great antique stores like we haven’t seen in years. I I had wanted to go to Miss Mary Bobo’s Boarding House in Lynchburg for lunch for years.  It’s reservations only, so make plans ahead of time, but it’s absolutely wonderful, the food was amazing, a little pricey for lunch at $22, but it was a total treat and well worth it!

 

After we checked in, we waited in the parlor for our dinner bell to ring.  Deanna captured this picture of John and Lexi, very Norman Rockwell, I just had to Photoshop it ;)

 

 

But back to my story, the dinner bell rings, a “hostess” which is a little old grey haired lady, all of their hostesses are little grey haired old ladies, took us to our “room.”  The restaurant seating is in the different rooms of the boarding house, and you sit a table with people you don’t know, your hostess sits at the end of the table, eats with us and tells stories about Miss Mary Bobo and Jack Daniels.  Except our hostess had broken her arm and she was much more interested in telling us about her accident than the history of the boarding house.  We did manage to coax a few stories out of her, everybody introduced themselves, told where they were from and it was an interesting mix of people we shared a meal with.  

 

We were the last ones to be seated, and when we came in with a three year old there was dead silence.  I’m sure people were wondering what to expect.  But Miss Lexi is a pro, she’s eaten out everywhere and has great table manners, she charmed the entire table.  She broke the ice right from the start when Deanna quietly asked the server for milk for Lexi and they informed her that they didn't have milk.  Lexi announced emphatically “What??? NO MILK???”  Everybody started laughing, and the conversation flowed non-stop from them on.

 

 

But the best part, the food!  Oh my goodness it was splendid, truly splendid.  I’m linking to several recipes, so if you see a food item in bold lettering, click on it for the recipe.  The food was amazing, pan fried chicken, obviously they had cut it themselves, because it had the tenderloin on the bone, and you never get that anymore.  That’s how mother always cut her chicken and the wishbone was my favorite part.

 

Here was our menu, and it changes daily, but they always have fried chicken, fried okra and candied apples.

 

Fried Chicken

 

 

 

Miss Mary’s Boarding House Meatloaf  (it was wonderful, full of onions and green peppers and lots of ketchup.  I’m a meatloaf lover and this was  definitely 4 stars.

 

 

 

Mac & Cheese, very, very creamy, I suspect there was Velveet involved with this even though the recipe says American cheese

 

Fried Okra

 

No recipe for this, just tips...

 

When the dinner bell rings at Miss Mary Bobo’s, a surefire hit is the ever-present bowl of fried okra. The restaurant—based in an elegant, Federal-style home just down the road from the Jack Daniel Distillery—changes its family-style menu daily, but proprietress Lynne Tolley insists on serving this favorite Southern staple every day. Miss Mary Bobo’s fries okra better than anyone, with a crunchy cornmeal crust that locks in that moist, unique taste. “Our secret,” says Lynne, “is to not crowd the skillet. You want to let each bite get crispy; otherwise, you’ll end up with one big, soggy ‘okra fritter.’ 

 

Candied Apples cooked in whiskey

 

Creamed Corn

 

Green Beans

 

Homemade rolls, split with butter in the middle

 

Red Pepper Relish

 

Tennessee Sweet Tea

 

Jack Daniels Fudge Pie with Whiskey Whipped Cream

 

I’m not a whiskey drinker, I don’t like the taste, but their pie was delicious, subtle, not overkill.  The whipped cream was spiked with whiskey and the entire pie was dusted with cocoa, it was so good for the grand finale.

 Her cookbook is available on Amazon, the menu changes daily, so there are lots of options that are featured in this book.

 

We stayed at Cedar Cabin, the entire cabin was made of cedar and when you walked in the door it smelled wonderful.  Even though it was summer we made S’mores in the evening at the outdoor fireplace.  The fire kept the mosquitoes away, it worked great and across the road was a field of cows, who the owner swears don’t like country music, they like to jam to Bon Jovi.  

 

 

 We went antiquing several times and at the owners suggestion went to Sewanee. We were totally unfamiliar with Sewanee, but it’s the home of The University of the South, a private liberal arts college founded in 1857 and the entire campus was built of native rock.  It was so beautiful it’s undescribable, but here’s a YouTube video to give you a visual.  It just blew us away, the grounds were lush, shaded and gorgeous.  It sits high on a mountain ridge overlooking the valley, it’s definitely a place we want to return to, especially in the fall.

 

 And that’s a few highlights of our trip, if you live within driving distance it’s a wonderful getaway.  The guys toured Jack Daniels Distillery, we checked out the shops in Lynchburg, it was definitely a low-key relaxing get away that I would highly recommend...

 

Old Barns in Tennessee

Anything that reminds me of my childhood is so special at this time in my life.  I grew up in a family of farmers and played countless hours in old barns very similar to this.  I’m so nostalgic about the look, the smells, the creaking boards, and now that we live in Tennessee I’m lucky enough to see old barns everywhere in the countryside.

Unlike Illinois and Indiana, who have long since destroyed so many old barns and put up aluminum pole buildings, Tennessee seems to preserve theirs, they are everywhere.  We drive through the country and around every corner is another old barn and often silos sitting behind them.  I think a road trip just to take pictures of them would be so much fun.  It’s something that this generation knows nothing about, old barns, and oh are they missing out.  There is no greater joy for a child than to play in a barn, climb in the hayloft and make forts in the hay, feed the animals, smell the corn in the crib, and seeing so many of these wonderful barns brings back so many good memories. 

If you get a chance to just wander through the backroads of Tennessee, you will be richly rewarded of a life we don’t often see anymore.  Small towns, meat and three diners, cattle grazing, country people, it’s well worth the trip...

Thank You Pioneer Woman!

 

 

I’m a big fan of the tablescape, but since we’ve moved and have more company I’ve decided to only set the table with things I actually use.  Well, kinda.  And it’s spring and Pioneer Woman has her new spring collection at Walmart, so I was all over it like mayo on white bread.

The fun thing about her products is that they’re so affordable.  This cute little butter dish was $5.46, the round rug placemats were $3.00 each, the underneath yellow bandana placemats $1.50 each, napkins were $6 for a set of 4, the set of 4 plates were under $20 and they have flowers and yellow polka dots on them, I’m a huge fan of yellow polka dots!  The 4 glasses were $15.86, this great old fashioned pitcher was $12.72, the fluted pie plate was $12.  I got the cow last year for $5 and change.   I also have a napkin holder and coasters, you’re getting the picture, you can have a whole lot of fun for not a whole lot of money.  And you’re thinking, but.. it adds up.  Yeah, it does but you could easily spend this much money on an Easter outfit or a spring purse.  

Now I’m eyeing up this cookie jar, okay I admit, it’s in my shopping cart, okay, okay, so I bought it just now.  It was $15 - I’m the queen of justification, just ask my friends, I can justify anything and I really wanted this cookie jar to complete my collection.  I love the old fashioned look of it, the glasses are sturdy and the pitcher is the perfect size.  Do I need this stuff?  Of course not, but I had a heck of a good time buying all of this and it makes me happy.  I walk into the kitchen and I smile.

And did I mention her knife set?  We’re in overload here, I’m saving that little gem for another post.

Happy 95th Birthday Betty White

Who doesn’t love her, she’s adorable, feisty, and just a wee bit naughty.

But she wasn’t always this sweet, cute little old lady and this is a G-rated blog, so I won’t post pictures or even link to them, but if you’re curious about vintage Betty pin-up pictures, just Google “Betty White Nude” and click on images.

They’re pretty tame photos compared to today’s standards, but just thought you all might enjoy a little ‘peek’ at Betty in all her glory in her younger years.  I don’t know how I know this, but I somehow stumbled on this a few years ago and was surprised at what I found.

And why am I sharing this?  Totally clueless,  except it’s a rainy, misty day and I’m just a little bored.  

Ahhhh, Betty, you wild thing, proof positive that you can’t always judge a book by it’s cover.

~ Jan ~ 

 

Totino's Party Pizza, what happened???

This is the Pizza of my boy’s childhood, they loved and still do.  It was always $.99, and it was a classic.  Mother was a fan as well, she would bake one and scarf down the entire thing.  Well, the guys still love it, Ryan has Ben eating it now, Lexi isn’t a fan yet, John is hopeful, but what happened to it???

Gone is the familiar red box, the 10.9 ounces of pure processed delight.  It’s been replaced with a cellophane bag and it’s now a rectangle.

WHAT, WHAT???  A RECTANGLE!!!!!!  Pizza is supposed to be ROUND!!!!!

This just isn’t right, you don’t mess with holy grail.  It’s still $.99, the price hasn’t changed, but c’mon Totino’s, it’s just not the same anymore...

 

Frozen Candy Bars...

A little nostalgia this morning for a favorite summertime treat.  I always ate frozen Snicker Bars as a kid, probably because there was no air conditioning and the chocolate would melt.  I remember them being so hard, you practically broke off your teeth when you bit into them.  I also loved frozen Baby Ruth’s and my all time fave, Zero Candy Bars.

Update to 2016 and my old(er) age, when I avoid sugar 80-90% of the time.  Frozen candy bars have been on my mind lately, so I went to CVS yesterday,  bought Mini Sugar Free York Peppermint Patties, came home, stuck them in the freezer, and oh, my...

These are just as good as if not better than the frozen candy bars of my childhood.  Something about the frozen mint, it just does it.

So, bring out the kid in you, pick up your favorite candy bar of choice, freeze it and dig in.  It’s a cheap thrill.   ~ Jan

Tent Dresses of the 60's

I was browsing fashions of the 60’s and found this very same McCall’s pattern that mother used to make me a tent dress with a front pleat.  She made it for my senior after prom and used rust and white hopsacking polka dot fabric.

Talk about a walk down memory lane.  Wow...

Ethel Mertz's Birthday

Vivian Vance would have been 106 years old today, but to me she’ll always be Ethel, and always be ageless.  I’m such a fan of Lucy and Ethel that I named my computers after them.   I know, crazy, but I love it when Lucy’s name scrolls across one screen saver and Ethel scrolls across the other.  I’ve been meaning to name rename LC’s, as well, Ricky of course :-)  My friend, Marti, also has a birthday today, you’re in good company, Marti!

Vivian Vance’s most famous character Ethel Mertz was a less-than-prosperous landlady of an East 68th Street Manhattan brownstone, owned along with husband Fred Mertz. Fred was played by William Frawley, who was 22 years older. The 2 actors shared great on-screen comedic chemistry, but they really did not get along when not filming & never socialized. Vance complained about his age. Frawley had heard that she stated that he should be playing her father rather than her husband. Apparently Frawley loathed Vance on sight.

Read the rest of the article here...

Summer Houses...

My house is a winter house, the colors are deep and warm.  But then comes summer and I would just like to paint everything white, walls, furniture, cabinets, everything, then slipcover the furniture and just enjoy.  White is so so tranquil, so fresh, so perfect...

But then winter would come and I would yearn for the warm colors, and hubby would absolutely stroke out if I was really serious about painting it all white.  I’m just dreaming *sigh*

Maybe I’ll just watch “Something’s Gotta Give” with Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson again on Netflix.  Hands down, best summer house, EVER!

 

 

Darn, darn, darn, getting old and not being able to change things.  Putting out a few sea shells for summer is just not doing it….

Memories of a Country Garden

This morning I was out on the golf cart, enjoying the damp, cool air, and I could swear I got a whiff of fresh dill.  Then I was making a salad for lunch, and when I cut the vine away from the tomato, the smell of the stem just permeated the air.

Here I go with the nostalgia.  When I was a little girl we always had a garden, always.  Mother saved seeds, tilled her garden with a plow like the one above, then we planted and carried buckets of water daily to keep everything alive.  There was no hose to water with, no air conditioned house to cool off in after we were finished, it was hot in Southern Illinois in the summertime, but we worked early in the morning or late at night.

She always had a beautiful garden, and was so proud of it, people who visited always had to take a tour.  There were gooseberry bushes for pies, I was never a fan, those things were so sour, but she loved them.  We picked blackberries, cherries from our trees, apples, peaches, grew our own strawberries, and then the work really began.  I’ve talked before about how much she canned, I have so many of her recipes, someday I need to make her dill pickles.  The smell of that dill this morning just took me back.

Maybe that was her, reminding me of my roots and never to take for granted the conveniences I have now.

Thanks for the reality check, and the memories, mom...