AUTUMN COOKIN'

[Part 2 of this week's Thursday's Child.]

We recently received a 4-color 20-page magazine from our local grocery store--all about cooking for Autumn. Since we're happy consumers--not to mention cooks--this publication got our attention. My daughter does the shopping, as well as most of the cooking, so she's come up with some suggestions for meals in the near future, featuring things like corn and potatoes (chowder), loaded with bacon; thick soups made with root veggies (carrots, with ginger, etc.); and one of our favorites, the Anything Goes Vegetable Soup. Designed to make the house smell delicious. Not to mention fill all the empty places.

Cooking always reminds me of growing up in the Midwest. In my era, families butchered their own meat, or went with other small families to smoke or can (later, to freeze) what they thought they'd use over the winter.

My mother's family was a big one--ten children, plus Grandma and Grandpa. I've told the story before about helping with a day of canning--Mom and her sisters in Grandma's kitchen, me helping (because my hands were small enough to wash the insides of the canning jars).

Now that I'm pretty much out of the meal making stage of life, I can think back to those days of few labor-saving devices, no sophisticated tools for prep, but plenty of help--great memories.

And I wonder--how did my grandmother do it? Well, I think I have a clue--she began learning as a little girl, standing near her mother or grandmother, watching, maybe getting to help.

Here's some of what she must have learned:

• Measuring Ingredients
• pinch - just what she could take between her thumb and forefinger; a pinch of salt
• dash - a quick shake of a liquid or solid; a dash of sugar
• dollop - the amount of a semi-solid  heaped up on a medium-sized spoon; a dollop of gravy
• handful - reaching into a tin of flour and bringing out a "handful" of flour to put in the batter (my grandmother was petite, five-feet-ten when she married at age 16; how large would her hands have been? I suspect she needed more than one handful of flour)
• spoonful - another highly variable amount; was it a teaspoon, a soup spoon, a tablespoon?
• Measuring Time
• enough - add enough water to make a stiff dough; or a soft dough; or until the dough drops from a spoon to make small mounds
• long enough - beat until the egg whites stand in stiff peaks
• hot enough - ovens without thermometers were tested by the cook's hand inserted into the oven cavity; she knew from experience how hot the oven was, not in degrees, but in amount of heat needed for the cake, or pie, or roast

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My Grandma Jenkins made the most wonderful pies. The crust was delicious, flaky, held together, and always, always, made us want more. Fruit pies were favorites, since the fruits were home-grown.

Cakes? No, she didn't bake cakes. Her oven wasn't up to that. But her daughters all caught on and used their modern ovens to bake tall angel food, fudgy chocolate, and springy spice cakes.

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Learning involves some special ingredients:

• a teacher who allows the student time to experiment, make mistakes, and learn from them
• a student who listens and watches and is willing to make mistakes and not be discouraged when things don't turn out right

People like my grandmother worked alongside their parents or other teachers, absorbing nuances that would later make great cooks. Or woodworkers. Or farmers. Or--you name it. 

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If you're cooking something delicious this Autumn, share it with someone who doesn't like to cook. Or doesn't know how. Better yet--share your know-how.

Blessings,

Thursday's Child

 ANSWERS TO LAST WEEK'S POP QUIZ

[This will be Part 1 of Thursday's Child this week.]

The quiz wasn't exactly a Q & A...more like association. If you read all the phrases, you probably nodded several times--lots of memories from our childhoods, perhaps. So here are the ones I expected you'd think of:

1. Wet your whistle - have a drink
2. Take a load off - sit down and rest
3. Park it - sit!
4. What's your poison? - what would you like to drink?
5. Can't stand it - can't tolerate/accept it
6. That's all she wrote - end of the "whatever"/event/conversation, etc.
7. Don't know him from Adam's off ox - don't recognize him
8. Go soak your head - you're 'way off base; don't be stupid; go away
9. Who do you think you are, anyway? - think you're important?
10. Took a shine to - really liked
11. Dry behind the ears - experienced
12. Fair to middlin' - not very good, but not totally bad
13. Have a spell - get sick
14. Set a spell - sit down for a bit

As with all colloquial usage, you may have encountered other meanings. 

In a few weeks we'll have another set of phrases to tickle your fancy. In the meantime, sharpen your wits by eavesdropping on conversations--never know what might turn up!

See you in Part 2!

 POP QUIZ!!

It's class reunion time in many parts of my locale, and I know a few people who are in shock at the number of the year-th of their graduation from high school. "This is my WHAT-th reunion??"

Yeah, when that number gets up there in the NNth area, folks start wondering if they're--ahem--getting old-er. So today, Thursday's Child is going to take you back to your youth. We're going to have a Pop Quiz!!

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Since quizzes are all about what you remember, you'll feel right at home. Ready? Here goes:

In a few words, write down (or say out loud) what you remember each of these phrases means. You may have to remember what they meant in days long gone by, because a few have faded almost into oblivion.

1. Wet your whistle
2. Take a load off
3. Park it
4. What's your poison?
5. Can't stand it
6. That's all she wrote
7. Don't know him from Adam's off ox
8. Go soak your head
9. Who do you think you are, anyway?
10. Took a shine to
11. Dry behind the ears
12. Fair to middlin'
13. Have a spell
14. Set a spell

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Next time, you'll get the answers/meanings/whatever. And, Fair Warning: keep your mind sharp--there'll be another Pop Quiz one of these days.

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If you're headed out for a class reunion, enjoy the whole shebang. Even if you don't recognize people. Or even worse--if they don't recognize you!

Blessings,

Thursday's Child

1. 

 TELL ME A STORY

[I've just come off a full week of painting--fine art, not walls and window trim. The retreat was online--which suited me fine because I'm no longer much of a traveler--and I didn't have to share a room, or pay for meals in the restaurant, or even spend time with people I've never met and don't have time to get to know. (I do hope you understand how introverts operate.)

The art retreat taught us a great deal about technique, but we didn't paint specific projects or subjects. In fact, we did assignments designed to help us understand how we can put ourselves into our work.

And that leads me to today's post. You may recognize it from earlier in the year--but I think it's worth repeating because (1) we all have a story to tell, (2) somebody else may like to hear about us, (3) a reader may discover he/she isn't alone in the world because that same thing happened to them, and (4) stories are everywhere--even in the paintings and drawings we make.

Wishing you a happy time when you share your stories with your family. Just dig down into the bag of memories you've been accumulating over your lifetime. Bet you'll find some surprises!]

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Our family has had a history of sharing stories with each other. You know the kind of thing--what happened at school that day--what went on at the office--the news from downtown where I worked--news from Fort Wayne where the kids' dad worked . . . .

These were what journalists and editors love to call "human interest stories," about real people, doing real things--maybe silly things, or scary things, or just being good human beings helping other human beings. 

Recently my daughter mentioned hearing stories on National Public Radio while she was commuting. That triggered a memory for me: My Grandma Jenkins used to look at me (age six, at the time) and say, "Now don't story to me."

We kids all knew what that meant: don't make something up, don't lie, don't even fiddle around with the truth. 

Little wonder I grew up knowing "stories," the kind people wrote and got published in magazines, weren't true. In school I learned they were called "fiction," and what I wrote in my own time wasn't true--it was made up. But what I wrote for the school paper--that had to be true. It was journalism. Reporting what happened.

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But I got to thinking about family stories. We all have them: the escapades of our ancestors as handed down through the generations, told at family gatherings like reunions, weddings, funerals, family visits on vacations. Embellished, maybe. Interesting? Oh, yes.

Remember doing this?

Nowadays--I wonder: Do people still tell their stories? Share the funny and sad and heartwarming and heartrending stories of people we're all related to with the younger generations who'll never know those older folks?

I hope you do that--share all that wealth of family stories.

But in case you don't, here's a suggestion:

• get yourself a big spiral notebook, the 8 1/2 by 11 inches kind (dollar stores have them)
• find a pen you like to write with, or a pencil if that's your thing
• write a page about someone in your family, someone you can introduce to your children or grandchildren; title it with the someone's name

You've just started a memoir!

Here's something else to remember: Don't try to include absolutely everything you know about that person. This isn't a biography--it's one story about someone related to you and your descendants.

After you get going, you may find one page isn't enough to do justice to your ancestor. So--write another page!

As an aside: The celebrated novelist, E. L. Doctorow [who wrote Ragtime and World's Fair, among other works] said in an interview that he wrote 600 words a day--he typed 600 words single-spaced on a single sheet of paper. That was his output for the day. And since his novels are big ones, he kept on until he'd told the whole story.

You don't have to strive for thousands of words. Write a page, or maybe two. Depending on how large your handwriting is, that may be 300-500 words.

If you're finished with that ancestor, write about another one. I'll warn you--once you get into this writing habit, it's addictive. And best of all, it's fun!!

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As a bonus, I'll recommend a book to you. I confess I've not read it, just begun it. It's brand new, just out, called The Queen of Dirt Island, by Irish novelist Donal Ryan. You can find it on Amazon among other places.

Here's why I recommend it: Each chapter is 500 words long. Yup, that's 500 words. The title of each chapter is one word only. And you'll be amazed at how much you can learn about the characters in just 500 words. (That's about 2 pages of print.)

If you look for it on Amazon, you can use the "Look Inside" feature to read the first chapter. (And like the famous potato chips, I bet you won't stop at just one.)

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You don't have to plan to publish your writings, but do share them with family members, if you're able. Good luck! And happy writing!!

Blessings,

Thursday's Child