Come say hello

A shout out to let you know I'll be at the Gail Borden Public Library on Sunday, October 9 from 2-4 pm. Hope to see you there! (Click the picture to find out more)

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Requiem

Taking a moment to reflect on the loss of a loved one. 

Dear Husband's mother “closed her account with God,” and now he and I are both orphans. We were  blessed that we had our parents for so many years. We have years of fond memories to reflect on.

One of the things I'll remember most about my mother-in-law was the way she liked to bake. At one point in time, she worked for a caterer making pies, and she always baked fresh bread. In later years, she reverted to "bought-en" bread part of the time. Dear Husband made cutting boards for everyone for Christmas one year, and she used to brag about how she bet no one else used theirs. One of my brothers-in-law also likes to bake bread, so he uses his frequently, but the joke with my other sister was "you mean I can actually use this?" (because it was so pretty). Years ago when we visited, we could always expect homemade cinnamon buns and sticky rolls for breakfast. She was an avid gardener, so there were always fresh vegetables for lunch and dinner, and fresh raspberry treats from her famous raspberry bushes. She used to sell her berries by the quart, and I'm pretty sure she even had a deal with one of the local stores. Even in the winter, she would break out fruits and vegetables she'd canned over the summer. 

She was a quick learner with a curious mind, and very resourceful. She taught herself how to play the piano (and how to tune a piano!!) and played an accordion. She was industrious, never one to sit idle as long as she was able to move, and in her later years, she liked to enlist my help with the crossword puzzles and jumbles in the newspaper. 

A life well-lived.

To honor her, I'll be going through her recipes (although many things she made by rote). While cookies weren't her specialty, she had several recipes that I definitely want to hold onto. Her baking knowledge will go on...

Rest well, Betty.

Grandma's cookbook

Whenever we went go visit Grandma B, she always had cookies ready for us. Back in the day, women wrote down recipes, often in a notebook. Later, my mother had a recipe box which became the norm for her generation. I had a box for several years, and then a looseleaf notebook filled with recipes I'd photocopied. Now we live in the age of computers, and most of my recipes are digitized or snagged online. (Pinterest anyone?)

Grandma also had a wire egg basket that folded into a million different shapes. Entertainment for hours when one is a child. 

Then there was the cupboard with the toys my dad had growing up - antique steel trucks and cars. My grandparents lived almost 400 miles away, and my sisters and I -- four of us -- were all jammed together in one bedroom, a double bed with army cots on either side. Alternatively, the neighbors had a camper that my grandparents borrowed, and we camped in the backyard.

Grandma B's cookbook

When my Grandma died, I asked for her recipe book. Mostly, it has stayed in the same place all these years. I've pulled it down a time or two mostly to reminisce. Recently I've decided to digitize some of her recipes for my cookie page. 

Dear Husband's mother also has a drawer full of cookbooks and recipes. On our recent trip to visit, I'd thought to grab some of her recipes as well, but we had other things to do while we were there, so I'm hoping to grab them (or photograph them) next time we visit.

Do you have recipes that have been handed down through the generations? Are they still in an old notebook, or a recipe box, or have you digitized them? 

You can search Grandma B's recipes on my cookies page!

Haunted House vs. Abandoned

Dear Husband and I took a trip up to his hometown last week, and while we were there, he took me to several places I haven't seen in all the years we've been married and visited there. We also walked "out and about" around the neighborhood, and as in most neighborhoods these days, there was a house that was empty. I stopped and took a picture for my "haunted house" files. We're back home this week, and while we were driving to the gym to exercise, we passed the same old empty house we pass every time we go that direction, one that never struck me as haunted. The property has several buildings that are falling down and in severely bad shape. It's more an eyesore than anything else. 

That got me to thinking. What's the difference between an abandoned house and a haunted house? Are there criteria?

One of the reasons this struck me this time, I think, is that the house where DH's grandparents lived was in sad shape for a long time, and while it wasn't abandoned, it housed some shady people for a while. There are "those" types of houses that don't strike you as haunted, just ill-used. Let me just say that the current residents in his grandparents' house bought it as a fixer-upper and have fixed it up. It's beautiful now, restored to some of its old glory (although they closed off the old coal chute and ice chute).

Back to the "haunted house." Even in our neighborhood, we had a house that sat empty for a long time - abandoned. Haunted? No. Ill-used. With that being said, the neighbor who lived next door pointed out the difference one day, telling us how "vampires" lived in the house on the other side of them. A creepy vibe, as opposed to the abandoned vibe the empty one gave off. 

There's a certain aura around a "haunted" house, to my way of thinking. Character. The most recent example on our walk had a clearly abandoned feel to it, not the least of which was a satellite dish still on the roof and a boarded-up front door. But there was something more. Maybe because it was an older neighborhood, an older home. Maybe it was the balcony over the front porch, where I envisioned a ghost keeping watch. A big, welcoming front porch. The sense it had been recently occupied. Whatever it was that perked up my imagination, I stopped to take the picture as inspiration for "what comes next."

When I was growing up, we had a big old Victorian up the street that we always designated as the haunted house. It had been subdivided into apartments, and while we were playing in the yard next door one day, one of the tenants came out on the balcony and did an "Igor" impression to scare all of us. We all screamed with delight, but it also took away some of the haunted feel after that.

Do you have a "haunted house" in your neighborhood?