04 July 2009

Lights over Dallas
18 x 27 inches
Acrylic on Canvas

We are getting ready to leave to walk down to the lake to watch the fireworks. I did this painting from pictures David took last year. We had so much fun with all the children gathering from his two brothers and his sister Molly. Holidays seem to run closer together the older I get.

When I moved to Dallas that first summer, we were here to watch the fireworks. That was the summer Ben was born. David had an inner tube at the lake and I remember swimming out and hanging on the side of it just before it got dark. Our parents said we had to be on shore by the time the sunset. They had fires going and were making hot dogs for all of us. Nanie was in charge of the ice cream and we had been taking turns sitting on the top of the churn while one of us cranked. David was the strongest and I sat for him. Molly tried to sit for Charlie to turn the crank, but she complained her bottom was cold.

We played foursquare in the parking lot. I brought some chalk for drawing but instead I drew out the four squares. David brought a basket ball and he, Charlie, Molly and I played all afternoon.

I am not sure what was more fun, swimming in the lake, or eating that cold sweet ice cream as we watched the fireworks. I think looking back, I would have to say the cold sweet ice cream.

Tonight I have the electric ice cream maker plugged in and going. It is just about ready. We had a huge salad and rib eye steaks about an hour ago. The sun is setting, and the fireworks are going to be starting in about 30 minutes... I am off... until later.


Lauren

I am back!

I cannot believe the months that have passed since I even visited this blog. We have been busy with moving William and his wife into a new home and I have been helping with the decorating. I also spent time at a show at the arboretum here in Dallas. I know I was not born here, but this has been home since I was six years old. I cannot even imagine leaving Dallas to live somewhere else. All the kids live here and all of David's family is close by.

We still live in the Lakewood area and the trees are so full and green with all the rain. The picture is off my baskets outside my kitchen. Enjoy the color. It will probably find it's way into a painting.

Lauren

Nanie's Meatloaf

The recipe has been passed down and is more than yummie and not too expensive to fix. After all, Nanie had an entire crew to feed and not much money to do it on. Jillian has been over organizing recipes for me. I decided to make this for dinner last night along with some tasty homemade bread.

BASIC MEATLOAF from the Portwood family.

2 beaten eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs

1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 TBL parsley
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground sage
1/8 tsp pepper
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1/2 cup catsup
4 TBL Brown Sugar
1 tsp dry mustard

1. Combine eggs and milk. Stir in bread crumbs and onion, parsley, salt, sage and pepper. Add ground beef in chunks.
2. Mix together till blended. Mix lightly or you get compact texture..yuck
3. Mold into a loaf shape ( I usually put it in a glass bread loaf pan.)
4. Bake at 350 degrees about 50 min.
5. Prepare glaze of Catsup, brown sugar and dry mustard.
6. Spread over top of meatloaf and bake 10 minutes longer.

Leftovers never last long as this is a family favorite for every one. I often make two at a time because of the loved leftovers!

Here is Audrey's Bread Recipe:

1 1/2 cup warm water
2 TBL Oil (I used Olive Oil)
2 eggs
5 cups flour ( you can add more if dough is too sticky... I had to)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tsp Bread Machine yeast.

Mix in bread machine on dough cycle. Shape into French Bread rolls. (You may have to add flour to do this) Place on greased cookie sheets and let rise covered with a towel. (40-50 min)
Bake at 350 degrees fro about 20 minutes or until light brown. This makes 6 loaves and you can easily wrap them in foil and freeze them.


Good luck with your cooking... I am off to clean out another box of recipes. Nanie was the best cook and I do not want to loose her treasures in the kitchen.

Lauren

Post Note: Jillian told me she is pregnant. Robert will be so excited! Well, so am I...very excited.

Birthday Celebrations

These pictures took me way back to the celebration of birthdays of the boys and their love of hero worship. Batman, Spiderman, you name it, they thought is was all thrilling.




Do you have any memories of childhood birthday parties? My earliest memory is of my 3rd birthday party. I wore a soft yellow sweater that had tiny rose buds in a row around my chest up near the neckline. I also remember having my cousins over and eating hotdogs and then throwing them all up. Today I know why they didn't stay in my stomach, but I don't think anyone knew back then. I have food allergies to Sodium Nitrate... top ingredient in those nasty things. I never gave them to my kids.

The kids always like wearing masks and taking on the personality of the mask. I think we all do that in our lives. We don't even need the masks....it is simply the front we put on with people. Then we carry through with acting like the person we are trying to be.

Make believe was something David and I were good at. He would sit with his notebook and write stories when we were young. I sat scrunched up tightly against him as he told me the tale he was inscribing on the paper before him. My pencil flew to sketch what he was describing. I have a whole trunk full of our stories and drawings. One day I will have to get them published.

Jillian has been over helping me label pictures this past weekend and these were some we came across. So many memories.

Lauren

I am the MOM

I simply could NOT pass this one up:





Lauren

OLD PHOTOS from early years.

Kendall was over last week and we began digging through boxes and boxes of photos. The girls decided I had to learn how to do scrap booking. OH MY GOSH.... that is like trying to put an artist in a box. Little stickers, letters, sticky three dimensions stuff and lots of colored paper. This is going to take years to put all of this together. I kept thinking she would feel sorry for me and take it all home, but NOOO, it is still here. It sat still only partially begun all the way through Christmas.

I cannot believe I have not posted in so long. There was so much I missed writing down this month because of the holidaze.

I promised to get back with it this next week. My tree is still up and needs to come down, but I always wait until after January 6th. David said he would help me. William helped me get it out of the attic, and the girls did the decorations. I think they had another motive though, as they both left with boxes of ornaments that did not use on my tree. They took them home to their trees.



David and I hosted Christmas this year and we had 45 guests for dinner on Christmas day. Wasn't the best time for the dishwasher to go on the blitz either. I used Nanie's china along with Mom's china and my china. It all had to be hand washed. I do not think I will do that again.
I am grateful nothing was broken.


I wish you a Happy New Year and we can share more memories from the past.... did you see that photo above??? Egads I was thin then.

Lauren

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