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

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

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

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