What would Laura bake?

In keeping with yesterday's theme, I decided to do a little baking today.  Rather than jump right into sourdough starter or salt rising bread, I went with a tried and true favorite - gingerbread.

Laura's gingerbread recipe is a perfect example of something that is a more closely linked to adult Laura rather than Little House Laura.  Laura became well-known for her gingerbread when the favorite recipe was included in the Laura Ingalls Wilder issue of The Horn Book in 1953.  I've made the recipe many times and it really is delicious gingerbread, more like a cake than a cookie.

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup molasses

2 teaspoons baking soda
mixed into 1 cup boiling water

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon each:
ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 beaten eggs

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 9x9 baking pan
2.  Blend the sugar and the shortening and mix in the molasses
3.  Add the baking soda to the boiling water and mix well
4.  Combine the flour and the spices.  Combine the sugar-molasses mixture with the flour mixture and the baking soda-water liquid.  Lastly, add the eggs.  Mix ingredients well and pour into prepared pan.
5.  Bake for 30-45 minutes or until toothpick  inserted in the center of the gingerbread comes out clean.

I've learned from painful experience that it's really important not to skip the toothpick tester thingy.  Trust me.

If all goes well, you should end up with something like this

Laura suggested that raisins and/or candied fruit could be added and that chocolate frosting "adds to the goodness" but I prefer my gingerbread pure, untouched by these extras.

Rose Wilder Lane, Laura's daughter, wrote about a time when she made the gingerbread as a pre-teen but used cayenne pepper by mistake, instead of ginger.  I actually think a little cayenne pepper might add an interesting side note...maybe next time.

What Would Laura Eat...for Christmas

I've been feeling rather domestic lately and quite Little House-y, which is actually kind of unusual for me.  As much as I enjoy learning about Laura Ingalls Wilder - reading her books and researching her real life - I am most interested in the grown up Laura that lived in the 20th century, more than the 19th century pioneer girl.  I have little interest in dressing up in a prairie dress and sunbonnet or learning traditional 19th century cooking techniques and crafts.  I went through that pioneer phase in my teens and rarely feel the need to revisit.

Christmas time is different.  Christmas just seems right for Little House traditions and so tonight I've surrounded myself with my Little House and Laura cookbooks, trying to plan the perfect Christmas menu.

I'm intrigued by the recipes for Roasted Stuffed Goose and Stewed Jackrabbit and Dumplings but I think I should probably start with something a bit less frontier.  Now, we'll be traveling on Christmas day but I'm thinking about oyster soup for Christmas eve dinner, which is also a family tradition from my childhood although I didn't like oysters back then.

I also want to try molded cranberry jelly, Swedish crackers, dried apple and raisin pie and fried apples 'n onions.  I might even have another whack at sourdough starter for bread and biscuits.  I tried it as a teenager with rather disappointing (and smelly) results.  Time to try again!

Of course, my Little House-ness only goes so far; no wood burning stoves or campfires for me.  I intend to indulge my inner Laura with modern appliances.  Let's not go crazy or anything.  And no, I'm still not wearing a sunbonnet.

Have you been admiring my cookbook?  It's an original edition from  1979 and one of my prized possessions.  I was lucky enough to meet the author a few years ago and she was surprised to see such a vintage edition.  Apparently it has had a different cover for, oh about 20 years now.

Anybody have other Little House Christmas menu suggestions for me?  How about Pot Roast of Ox?  Oh, I know - Blackbird Pie!

Thanksgiving

Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way. ~Native American Saying


There are a log of things I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving but the biggest one is hope.  I wake up each morning to a day filled with possibilities and for that, I am grateful.  I know that my prayers will be answered even if I'm not completely thrilled with the timing these days.  The unknown blessings are out there, of that I am sure.

I pray that each of you is enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving with the people that you love.  In spirit, I am with my family even though it's been many years since we've shared Thanksgiving together.  Maybe next year.

Enjoy!

Crafty

I hate craft stores.

Well...it's not actually hate, it's more like I'm really intimidated by craft stores.  It's genetics.  The crafty gene in my family diminishes from generation to generation so by the time it got down to me, there was barely a speck left.

At least that's what I tell myself to make me feel better but it can't really be true because EVERY woman in my family, older than me, is really crafty...some, like my sister, to the point of being damned artistic.  My only consolation is that my niece (who is more like a younger sister - don't ask, too complicated) seems to be as un-crafty as I am.  That's how I know I wasn't a changeling.

That's why today's blog post is about a very unusual subject for me.  I found a craft project that I like!  I willingly, without force or threat of violence, drove myself to a craft store, walked in and actually bought raw materials to turn into a usable and attractive object!  I can barely believe it myself.



I took these raw materials



and made this sweater clip!

 Apparently sweater clips are somewhat trendy again because of the character of Emma Pillsbury on Glee.  Apparently you can find them all over Etsy.  Apparently I didn't know any of this before I  decided to go the DIY route and willingly walked into that craft store.  At least my sweater clips are going to be unique because I had to use whatever I could find at my local store and they didn't have any actual sweater clip bottoms (probably not the technical term) so I improvised with badge clips.

I like to wear cardigans, it's always sweater weather here in Fogville.  I don't like to button them up but they slip off my shoulders when I leave them open so enter a staple of the 50s (resurrected again in the 80s) - the sweater clip.  I have an old one but I wanted other styles and colors and somehow, before I knew what was happening, I got the bright idea to try to make my own.  The interesting thing is, I enjoyed making this first one and already have ideas for several more designs.

And just like that, I'm crafty like the rest of the women in my family!  Hmmm, now I'm starting to wonder about my niece.

Holidays

We had a really great Halloween this year.  It's not a holiday that we've celebrated much over the years.  Of course I LOVED Halloween  as a kid back in Chicago but once my family moved to a very rural area of Virginia, the Halloween fun stopped. 

When I got married, Halloween was more inconvenience than fun - trying to keep dogs in and kids out.  Jasper never really enjoyed Halloween.  It was too much commotion for a puppy with issues and he never understood why so many people were showing up at our front door and not one of them was delivering pizza!

When we moved to California we were out in the boonies on a gated property with a long, dark, uphill driveway.  No parent with a brain would have let their kid walk up that driveway especially since the house was buried back in the woods, not even visible from the gate so we just locked our gate each October 31 and ate all the candy ourselves forgot all about Halloween.

We moved to our present house in 2007 and I got all excited about being able to enjoy Halloween again.  We were finally living in town, in a neighborhood with short driveways and SIDEWALKS!  We even had the cutest little front yard with a white picket fence, the perfect setting for a spooky graveyard.  I bought a few decorations and spent October turning my house into the scariest on the block.  Then Halloween night came and we discovered we had a problem because we couldn't keep our porch light on. It's a motion sensor light and kept going off so parents and kids probably weren't sure we were home. I kept opening the front door to turn it back on but we only had 5 kids stop by. So for the next few years, we just gave up on Halloween and tried to be away from home on that night.

This year I was determined to enjoy Halloween once again.  If everything in my life is different this year -some of it because of questionable decisions, some of it out of my control - it became very important to me to have at least one of the differences be something good.


I gave T the task of figuring out how to keep the light on all the time. There were 2 little buttons on the light fixture itself and he figured out what combination to push. He also found the switch in the garage that worked the lights at the end of our driveway.  I'd been looking for that switch for 4 years. :-/

Once the light was fixed, I got busy decorating the yard with all the decorations from 2007.  I had  big plans to buy even more things, tombstones and bones, but all the good stuff was gone by the time the light was fixed so I guess that'll have to wait for next year.



I love the bloody hands!

 


Pooh didn't go with the graveyard theme but he was too cute to pass up.


At first it got dark and nobody stopped by, a little disappointing, but then the kids started coming. I was happy with 10...but they kept coming. I actually stopped counting around 25 but I estimate we ended up with over 40. I wasn't worried about running out of candy but they did go through most of it. We kept the light on till 8:30 but we had our last kids around 8:15. It was so much fun, can't wait for next year; we've got big plans for graveyard expansion.

As much as we enjoyed Halloween, we're not really celebrating the other two big holidays this year.  We don't plan to be home for either Thanksgiving or Christmas.  We don't want to be "home" in Florida either, too many memories of our perfect Christmas there last year.  We're going to be moving targets, on the road both days - off for adventure and a little denial.  I will go celebrate early with my mother but I don't plan on doing anything traditional on December 25.

Happy Howloween!



Trick or Treat!  Got any pizza?



Home Alone

For most of the 25 years of my married life my husband has traveled...a lot.  Because a lot of his traveling has been halfway around the world, he would often be gone for 2 weeks at a time just to maximize his time there.  My mother, projecting her own feelings on me, would often try to commiserate with me over my loneliness but, as I always told her, I was never lonely.

As an introvert I get my energy recharged from being alone so I have to admit that I kind of looked forward to the trips.  I really need to have time by myself or I become exhausted and overwhelmed.  I love being in the house by myself, being in charge of my own schedule, eating whatever and whenever I want.  I like watching sappy movies at night without someone making comments or rolling his eyes whenever someone on screen bursts out into song.  I really am a loner at heart and although I do enjoy being part of a pair, I need my space, man!

Besides, I was never really alone...before.

You see, that's the secret of how to be a loner without turning into a hermit - get a dog.  Whenever T was on one of his trips, I had the best company in the world to keep me from getting lonely.  When I ate junk food, Jasper was there to save me from eating too much.  When I burst into song along with the sappy movie, Jasper was there to howl in sympathy.  When I wanted to run out to the store at 2 in the afternoon just to get out of the house, Jasper was either ready to come along or waiting to joyfully welcome me back home.  Who could be lonely with the perfect companion around?

So, as the time got closer for T to take his first trip since July I wondered how I would do, being really and truly on my own for the first time.  I admit I haven't done so well when T has been gone for day trips the past couple of months so I figured I'd really lose it when the first overnight trip came along.

Surprisingly, I'm 3 days into it and still doing fine.  I really figured I'd spend the whole first day in tears, letting out all the feelings I keep bottled up (as much as possible) when I'm not alone.  I also figured the first night I walked down the hall by myself would be awful and that I'd toss and turn all night but that hasn't been the case at all.  In fact, I think I've slept better this week than I have in 3 months. 

One fun thing about being home alone is that I can leave my shoes wherever I want.  I haven't been able to leave shoes out for 15 years.  Jasper was an excellent retriever and he loved to nose around our bedroom to find things to bring to me.  He especially loved bringing out shoes so they always had to be locked behind a closet door or else I'd end up with a big pile of shoes in the living room.  Actually, come to think of it, this week I'm creating my own pile of shoes in the living room all by myself.  I'd like to think it's an homage to Jasper but I suspect it's just because I'm too lazy to put things away.