Snowflakes Falling?

Well, we had a flash of snow last night. Even after all these years this is so strange to me, flashes of snow falling lightly from the sky. Before we moved to Dallas, (I was seven when we moved here.) I had lived in Egypt and Italy. Mom took me to ski when I was very young in the Swiss Alps. I knew real snow up until we moved to Texas. I think it is amusing the way the city comes to a crawl for snow, but then in the same sense the sheer delight and wonderment on the faces of the children who see it so rarely.

As I journal today I am remembering raking leaves my first fall living in Dallas. There are trees every where and in autumn the leaves are going to fall. We have "leaf fall" and not "snow fall." Our house was built back off the street and slightly elevated so there is a small hill from the yard down to the sidewalk. We had two huge trees out front and lots of leaves to clean up. I went with Dad to the Ace Hardware Store and he picked out two rakes. The rakes had colorful handles; I chose a blue one and Dad wanted the red one. I told him we needed one for mom, but he assured me she had enough to do inside the house and he and I would rake the leaves.

My dad had the ability to make any type of work fun, so I unsuspectingly looked forward to raking leaves. I proudly climbed out of the car dragging my rack with it's blue handle while watching the neighbors across the street already out raking, piling their leaves. We were going to do a compost area in the backyard, so Dad went to the garage to get his wheelbarrow. The morning flew by as I helped him rake the leaves and we piled them by loads in the wheelbarrow. He let me ride on the top of the leaves as he pushed it to the backyard to our compost area. Occasionally I didn't bail out fast enough and he "dumped" me with the leaves. My curly hair seemed to be a magnet for the leaves to tangle in. I know we worked a long time because we stopped, had lunch and went right back to work.

As we were finishing David and his brother Charlie arrived on their bikes at Nanie's house. They began raking her leaves in the front yard. Charlie was too small to push the wheelbarrow, but David pushed Granny's old wheelbarrow out of the garage. It had a flat tire. Dad let them use ours and he declared our job done for the day. Me, I decided to help the boys. By six that night I was so tired that when I sat at the dinner table I fell asleep while I was eating.

Every year I anticipate the turning of leaves in our Lakewood neighborhood. There are so many different types of trees that the colors vary from the deep reds,through all the oranges, yellows and browns. Leaves falling in Dallas are almost as exciting as snow falling somewhere else.

Only a few more day left before Winter arrives.

Lauren
10 December 2008

Nanie's Deviled Eggs, the heart of Lakewood Picnics

THE BEST TIMES

Holiday gatherings of family always bring back memories of the good foods we shared. The first time I ate Nanie's deviled eggs was at a block party in September after we moved in to Lakewood that summer. They blocked off the streets; men brought cookers out to the streets and everyone brought out picnic tables and lawn chairs. It was one of the only times we were allowed to play in the streets.

We had three legged races (Do you know what those are?), waterballoon fights, horse shoes, and lots of jump roping and four square. I always brought out my colored chalks and drew ahead on the street colorful four squares. Usually we had three set ups. The girls liked to do cheerleading. I never was very good at it. I learned two cheers in my entire life time. But jump roping...I can still jump rope with the best of them!

The kids would play, the dad's would cook, the mom's set up the food tables and watched over the youngest children. When it was time to eat, we all held hands in this huge circle and one of the dad's blessed our food, our families and the nation. I looked up at the first gathering and peeked at the huge circle while we were praying. It was filled with all the different families tightly holding hands and praying together. It made me feel warm and good all the way through my body. I have known these families for over 50 years now. God is good! AND so are Nanie's Deviled Eggs.


The highlight of every holiday or Lakewood summer street parties were Nanie's Deviled Eggs. The recipe seems so simple, but nothing was better than her deviled eggs. When we were kids we tried to sneak up on the food tables to snag one before the lines opened up to fill your plates with food.

My girls grew up with Nanie in her kitchen preparing these eggs from when they were big enough to spoon the stuffings into the eggs. Only when they were helping there was never enough filling and always left over white egg boats. I have a feeling that licked the spoon between every egg fill. Nanie would then use the left over whites and dice them up for her green pea salad. Oh my, and that is a favorite of our menfolk! Nanie's pea Salad.

Here I am supposed to be recording memories of my life for the grandchildren, but it seems a lot of the family gatherings involved the sharing of food and family. Nanie's love lives on through those memories and the dishes we still make to serve the next generations.

Nanie's Deviled Eggs

Ingredients

• 1 dozen eggs
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard or New York Hot Honey Mustard
  
• 1/3 cup real mayonnaise
• 1 Tbsp minced onion
  
• Salt and pepper
• Paprika

Method

First hard boil the eggs. Fill up a large saucepan half-way with water and gently add the eggs. Cover the eggs with at least an inch of water. Always add a teaspoon of vinegar to the water (this will help contain egg whites from leaking out if any of the shells crack while cooking). Also add a pinch of salt to the water. When the water boils, cover the pot and remove it from the heat. Let sit covered for 12-15 minutes. Drain hot water from pan and run cold water over the eggs. (At this point if you crack the egg shells while the eggs are cooling, it will make it easier to peel the shells.) Let sit in the cool water a few minutes, changing the water if necessary to keep it cool.

Second, peel the eggs. Using a sharp knife, slice each egg in half, lengthwise. Gently remove the yolk halves and place in a small mixing bowl. Arrange the egg white halves on a serving platter. (Nanie had five different deviled egg platters!)

Then, using a fork, mash up the yolks and add the hot mustard, real mayonnaise, onion, and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Spoon egg yolk mixture into the egg white halves. Sprinkle the top of each egg lightly with paprika.

This makes two dozen deviled eggs.

I am off for the day to grocery shop. We are out of food after Thanksgiving!

Lauren
6 December 208

Advent Memories

Advent is a huge part of our lives not only at this Christmas time season but also through out the year. I have a homemade wreath that David and I made together about 20 years ago that I still use every Christmas season. Traditionally David will buy me five large jar candles each Christmas. He labels them for each week in Advent so that as I use them through out the year I am pulled into meditation for that candle and that message.

I remember the first time I saw an advent wreath was at David's house the first Christmas we lived in Dallas. I was always nervous going over to the Mooring's house. There was always too much noise (four kids) and too little space for so many people. Cleo was always nice, but I worried she didn't like me. I think every little kid wants to be accepted. It was on a Sunday afternoon that David rode his bike over to my house and asked if I could come over to decorate Christmas cookies, and then go to the church for a potluck supper and a small candle light service. He had me at the word Cookies.

We walked back to his house together as he pushed his bike. I remember it was already cold outside and very windy. The leaves were off all the trees and despite the sun and cloudless day with deep azure skies, it was downright cold.

The decorating of cookies was a huge success. Cleo had everything planned out with stations for icing and sprinkles and decorating. They even packed a box for me to take home to Mom and Dad. We all piled in their station wagon. David and I were allowed to sit in the last seat facing backwards. That was really cool too.

At the catholic church the parking lot and church building were bursting with people and laughter. I clung to David's hand not wanting to be lost or trampled. Cleo carried new baby Ben and Robert, David's dad, had Molly up in his arms. Charlie, David and I had to make our own way. We shared pot luck with about 200 families and there was more food there than I think I have seen in a lifetime.

After the supper we all headed toward the church and quietly filled in the pews. The sanctuary was beautiful. I could not stop staring at everything and of course felt totally full of God as I sat there. Up near the alter on a stand was a wreath with candles. It was that night that I shared with David's family the lighting of the first candle on the wreath. I cried that night sitting there. Cleo passed me a Kleenex, and she made sure I was with them every Sunday night during advent.

These memories are so sweet and I pray that my children and my grandchildren will have good times to look back upon. One day they will find this journal filled with all my writing. David was always the writer; I am the artist.

Lauren
3 December 2008

My Art Friend's New Book

Click on this link. HERE IS MY Friend's NEW BOOK! NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE.
This book has 77 pages filled with both artwork of Laurie Pace and thoughts from her
daily blog. If you do not read her blog now, you should. She keeps me painting right now!

Will post later this week. Have so much wash to do after the Holidays!

Lauren

The Wish Bone

Here are some shots of one of the tables set for the 20 folks that showed up yesterday. I am pretty tired this morning after doing all the cooking and the clean up. The sink stopped up too and poor David missed eating dessert with everyone as he was in the kitchen with me mopping up the mess and repairing pipes.

We each took turns yesterday sharing out things to be thankful for and I can share with you my life is very full. One thing that stick out to put in this journal is the first Thanksgiving after we moved to Dallas. David had eaten Thanksgiving dinner at Nanies, which was next door to where I lived. I am so tremendously jealous to see all the kids bursting from Nanie's house running about playing hide and seek and having so much fun. There I was with my parents in our dining room with full view of Nanie's yard and all the family love exploding everywhere.

My mother asked me to stop staring out the window several times, but it was difficult. I stayed pretty glum even through dessert. I was half-way through my Pumpkin Pie and whipcream when the doorbell rang. I shot up out of my chair and raced to the front hall. Mom's voice was behind me, "Slow down Lauren, do not run in the house." I flung open the door and there was David.

"Can you come over and play?" I didn't even blink as I yelled at my mom that I was going over to Nanies. To be included in the love and action of that family was more than I could ever want.
I played monopoly with the David and his older cousins. After that we played charades with all the kids. Molly climbed up in my lap and I instantly felt like she was my little sister. She reached up and patted my face and said "Pretty Girl". My heart was won.

It was dark outside before I knew it. David said he would walk me back home. He had something in his hand hiding it from me. I kept trying to look behind his back to see what it was but he laughed and told me no. On my front porch we sat on the new swing my dad had bought. David produced in front of me a funny looking bone shapped like a "y".

I remember scrunching up my face and twisting my mouth saying, "What is that?" It looked pretty yucky.

David looked at me like I was totally dumb. "It's a wish bone, haven't you ever seen a wish bone before?"

"I guess not" I answered. "What do you do with it?"

David explained how two people were suppose to hold each side of the top of the bone and make a wish. Then at the count of "3" each pulls . He told me the bone would break and the person holding the largest side would win and their wish would come true.

He offered up that funny looking bone and I took a hold of it. Felt different to touch it; I almost felt a current through it. I close my eyes and made a wish. I heard David began to count and I held my breath and opened my eyes and tugged on "3".



My wish came true. Here I am fifty years later surrounding by a huge family that fills me with love and joy. God is good.

Lauren
28 November 2008

Thanksgiving 2008

From the kitchen where David has been shelling pecans from our trees in the backyard and where I have been preparing Nanie's Homemade Cranberries.

I started this blog to record memories from the past fifty years and with this being Thanksgiving today I definitely have some memorable turkey days.  The worse was the Thanksgiving Mom put the Turkey in the oven and set the temperature but did not turn on the oven.  The second worse was when she tried to roast a bird that was still frozen inside and we had warm bloody turkey.  That is when I became a vegetarian for about six months.

David shelled enough pecans for a pie. The recipe I used was as follows:

One 9 inch pie crust unbaked

Mix:

3 eggs, beaten

1 cup pure Maple Syrup

1/2 Light Corn Syrup

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup light brown sugar packed

1/2 stick butter melted  (4 Tablespoons)

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1  1/2 - 2 cups pecan halves ( or pieces if David is shelling)

Bake in preheated oven 40-50 minutes.  

I also made Nanie's fabulous cranberries.  

12 ounces fresh organic cranberries

2 organic apples diced

2 organic naval oranges cut into piece

honey to taste.

I never follow the directions of course. I throw it all in the bowl once it is chopped and then use my hand food processor to chop it up. Thank you Aunt Charlene for the hand food processor, makes life SMILES!  See pictures above.

My daughters and sons will all be here today with their families.  Counting my parents and David's dad, (We lost his mom Cleo in 1995) we will have at least 18 to 20 people.  I better get busy.  I need to polish the silver. More memories later this weekend.

Lauren

27 November 2008

Nanie's Cherry Pie

Well, I don't know about you, but I am going to be in the kitchen today. On the list is a cherry pie, an apple pie, St Louis Gooey Butter Cake and IF I shell pecans, a pecan pie for David.
We have two pecan trees in our backyard and I have bags of pecans and have not shelled any for baking yet.

Nanie made the best pies and all of my recipes are from her. I remember once when she was baking for the Fourth of July Block Party she had pies cooling on the back porch. The party was at seven that night and then we would be walking down to the Lake (White Rock Lake) to watch the fireworks.

I was minding my own business sweeping our back porch off when I saw the bushes moving over by Nanie's house. I stopped still hoping not to make a noise. I figured it was a wild animal driven crazy by the smells and had decided it would have pie to eat. For a crazy moment I debated sneaking over with the broom and being ready to clobber the animal with the broom, but remembering my dad's warning about critters wandering up from the lake, I decided to just watch from where I was. I didn't even think about going inside to tell mom or dad. I didn't want to miss spotting the animal.

Seems like I waited for an hour, but it was only a few moments until I saw a dark brown head pop up from the bushes. It was Charlie, David's brother. I saw him look back behind and give a wave. Here came David. He was fast as he stayed low below window view and rounded the steps up to the porch. He grabbed the pie nearest him and was back off the porch in seconds.

I know my mouth fell open. I could not believe those boys were stealing pies we were suppose to eat that night. I was not a kid that "told" on others to get them in trouble, but I knew I would have a word with David later that afternoon. Sure enough about twenty minutes later David joined me on my back porch. I had finished sweeping and was now using the hose to rinse off the porch from any other dirt. David's face was smeared with cherry pie left-overs.

Do you know what I did? I turned the hose on that boy squirting him in the face. He was caught off guard and then tackled me on the porch. I then had cherry pie all over me too. We were both soaking wet, smeared with cherry pie collapsed on the porch laughing when my parents found us.

We both got in trouble. No one every knew Charlie was in on it. David and I took the rap. We had to stay home when the families went to watch the fireworks. I didn't think it was too bad. David had his tablet and he wrote a story about a pirate sailing the Carribean raiding pies from ships. I had my sketch book and I was drawing the pirate ship sailing a flag with a cherry pie on it.
Here is Nanie's famous Cherry Pie Recipe:

Crust:

2-1/2c all-purpose flour

1tsp salt

2T sugar

1 cube + 1T cold unsalted butter, in 1/2” cubes

1/2cup cold leaf lard

4-6T ice water

Mix flour, salt, & sugar in food processor.
Cut in butter cubes with five 1-second pulses.

Add cold lard and pulse four additional 1-second pulses or until butter bits are no bigger than small peas.

Transfer mixture to a medium-sized bowl.
Sprinkle with 3T ice water. Fluff with a fork to mix thoroughly.

Squeeze a handful of dough; if it doesn’t stick together, add remaining water, 1T at a time. (I used the whole 6T.)

Divide dough into two balls, one slightly larger than the other (the larger will be the bottom crust).

Flatten each ball into a 6” disc; wrap each separately in plastic wrap; refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Roll dough out to fit 9” pie plate.

Filling:

2 (14.5oz) cans pitted sour cherries, drained (reserve 1/2c cherry juice)

1c sugar

3 T cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pure almond extract

2 tsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice

1 T unsalted butter, softened

1 egg white

1T sugar

Preheat oven to 500ºF.

Drain cherries, reserving 1/2c juice.

In a medium bowl, combine sugar, cornstarch, & salt

In a small bowl, combine cherry juice, almond extract, & lemon juice; add to dry ingredients & mix well.

Add cherries and mix well.

Add softened butter & let stand for 15 minutes.

Pour cherry mixture into prepared pie crust, topping with lattice pie crust.

Whisk together egg white & sugar. Lightly brush lattice crust with sugared-egg wash.

Reduce oven temperature to 425ºF.

Place pie plate on jelly-roll pan, lined with foil, on lowest oven rack.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 375ºF.

Bake for 30 minutes. Cool for two hours or longer.

Lauren
26 November 2008

The Great Escape

"From my earliest memories living in Dallas after we moved, I had this insatiable desire to explore and see new things. I guess I figured the more I took in, the more I could draw and know about things. Mom was constantly warning me about getting into things.

The pictures I posted are of my hands. I cannot paint with out getting it every where. I cannot draw with out seeing it all. I do not want to be a bystander in life, I want to get deeply involved with life. I am chuckling now, because if you knew what I knew about my life you would be tired and ready for a two week nap.

Once at about age eight, I was sitting on our back porch minding my own business watching Nanie's birds on the feeder. I saw her come out of her house and open her garage door and back the car out. She opened the trunk and went back into the house. Next I watched her carry some large boxes out and place them in the trunk of her 52 Plymouth. It reminded me of a big brown bubble...the car that is. She closed the trunk and went back into the house. Seems like hours passed, but it was truly only minutes as I climbed down off the back porch and headed to the car. I walked around it several times with my imagination flying. What could be in those boxes.

Maybe it was old clothes to donate to the Red Cross. That was pretty corny... I could imagine better than that. How about boxes of cookies going to the church for a festival? My stomach growled with the thought of a hot peanut butter cookie. The boxes could have books in them to go to the library, or they could have old shoes in them for the homeless shelter. Or wait, what about can goods to help feed the homeless.

I opened the back door to the car and climbed up in the seat to sit and think about this more. I had my sketchbook and began to draw boxes and boxes still wondering what was in them. I pulled my legs up in the big back seat and leaned back and promptly fell asleep. It must have been a deep sleep because I didn't wake up when Nanie came outside and scratched her head wondering why the back car door was open. One pop of her hip sent the door shut as she climbed in the drivers seat and back out of the driveway. She never noticed me in the back seat asleep.

The movement of the car must of kept me from waking because I slept on. When Nanie stopped the car at her church she got out and opened the trunk and began to unload the boxes out on the parking lot. She took them into the church to the quilting bee and the fabric that she had packed in the boxes was going to be used on quilts for the homeless for Christmas.

Meanwhile I woke with a start and peered out the car window. I didn't know where I was, but bravely I got out of the car, sketch book in hand and looked around. I knew it was probably Nanie's church so I went in the nearest door and followed the sounds of women laughing and visiting. I stopped at an open door where in the room were four huge quilting areas with about 8 women sitting around the sides of each quilt stitiching and visiting, having a good time. To an eight year old, it was heaven. I quickly scooted down on my knees not to be seen and crawled under the nearest quilting group. Sitting there under the stretched out fabric I felt like a princess in a tent on the desert in Egypt. I opened my sketch book and begin to draw the story unfolding in my head.

There was no thought to my frantic mother and father who were out looking for me. I think my mother knew in her heart I was safe because she knew me well enough to know I was on a journey that day. Looking back at those times and then remembering raising our four children... I tried to be cautious with my brood allowing them freedom, but with so many I had to keep a watchful eye with the help of David. My mother only had me and she was very over protective. The world is changing so much today, my grandchildren do not have the freedom to emerse themselves in life with out parents close by to watch over them.

My trust remains in God and I know he watches over all of us."

Lauren
24 November 2008

Nanie's Fabulous Cookies

"Nanie made the best cookies in the world. Nanie baked EVERYDAY. When I left for school every morning I could smell cookies cooling. Nanie kept her cookie jar full for David and his brothers and sister. I was lucky living next door though, because I think I got more than anyone else. Most mornings she would be out on her front porch like clockwork and she would have some fresh hot cookies wrapped in wax paper for me. Sometimes I would eat them on the way to school and sometimes I would save them for lunch.

One day I need to put together a cookbook of all her cookies recipes. Maybe I will start listing them here.

My girls were blessed to have 14 years of fresh cookies! Actually only 13. Nanie stopped baking about a year before she left us. Kendal favors the peanut butter cookies; Jillian loved the oatmeal raisen. The boys both went for chocolate chip, which is my favorite. I have always had a love for chocolate. Infact Nanie had a recipe that she put together for the twins to make on their own. It is pretty simple:

1 box brownie mix
1/3 cup flour
2 eggs
6 Tablespoons Canola Oil
1 bag of chocolate chunks or chips

preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix gently with a spoon until moist. DO NOT OVER MIX! Drop by teaspoonful on a cookies sheet and bake about 7-8 minutes. They should look slightly not done, a bit soft so they are chewy. At Christmas time we make them and pound candy canes into bits and sprinkle those on the top before baking.

I may have to start compiling these recipes for a cookbook for the girls for next Christmas."

Lauren

23 November 2008

Nanie to the Rescue

" I had my watercolors out today and was working on another painting of the fall trees from photos at White Rock Lake. This brought back the thoughts to write about my first meeting with Nanie.

Nanie is David's grandmother on his mother's side. She lived next door to my parents here in Lakewood. It was the second day that we were in the house that I asked mom if I could take my watercolors out to the picnic table in the backyard. Mom was bravely making her way through kitchen boxes trying to unpack. She stopped and found a mason jar and filled it with water for me and carried it out to the new picnic table. I had my blue sketchbook with me, the big one. Mom disappeared back in the house as I opened my paint box and set out painting a picture of the big trees in our backyard. I remember hearing the birds and I looked up and spotted a red cardinal on a bird feeder in the backyard next door. I left my brushes in water and headed with the soggy tablet and a pencil over to sit and draw the bright red bird.

Our neighbor was watching me from her back porch. I never saw her and have no idea how long she watched me, but I sat in her yard in the grass totally mesmerized by the birds flittering around her feeder. I drew as many of them as I could captivated by their activity.
A shadow fell across my lap and I squinted up to see a strange woman looking over my shoulder at my drawings. We were instant friends. I joined her on her big back porch and shared all my drawings with her. She shared freshly made peanut butter cookies and a glass of millk with me.

Nanie shared much more than that over the past years. She lived in that house until she died. I was trying to remember how old she was, but I can only remember that the twins were about 14 when God claimed her to his heavens. The world could use more 'Nanie' grandmothers that know how to take care of everyone in their life. I draw comfort that David has her same silver-blue eyes, so I am reminded daily of her love for life and all of us.

I am off to finish my tree painting, it is so good to be painting again."

Lauren
22 November 2008

That Hot Day in July

"This is the time of the year I look back and think of the world as it was when I was a child. So many years have passed since I meet David that hot summer day.

I didn't really know where we had moved to because I didn't pay attention. I had lived in so many foreign cities while my dad was studying the land. I remember Mom was excited to move back to the states, but I had never heard of a place called Dallas before. They told me it was in Texas, and little did I know this move would begin my journey all over and pull me into my future.

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was sitting on the sidewalk drawing with chalk. I was always drawing back then. At least I get to do it again now that the kids are all grown and out of the house. Back then I remember the hot hot day it was and Mom sending me outside to draw. I couldn't draw on the driveway because of the boxes from the moving van, so I settled on the sidewalk in the shade of the trees. I started at one end of the side walk and begin to draw things I had seen in Africa and continued on to what I had seen here in Texas in the few short weeks we had been here house hunting.

That is when I remember laying eyes on my beloved husband, David. He had raced up to me on the sidewalk, almost stepping into my chalk picture. I couldn't really see him well when I looked up, the sun was too bright. He just stood there staring at my drawings. I didn't know what to think.

Oh the memories. I have decided to journal my memories for my grandchildren. I hope you will enjoy reading them as I write. So many things can be forgotten and before my old age sets in too strong, I am going to write."

Lauren
21 November 2008