Grandma Gailey Made-Do

Grandma Edna Puckett Gailey
with two of her six grandchildren
Linda Kay Stone and Judy Richards

As kids we used to always go to "Seven Mile Park" for picnics. I remember when I was just a little girl the entire family would pack up in the car and drive the few miles south of town for a picnic and an Easter egg hunt. It was a beautiful place-full of rocks to climb and places to hide. There was a view to die for. I remember when I came back home after being married and living away in other states I was disappointed that the view that we had enjoyed was marred by taller trees and bushes, obscuring the wonderful Texas rolling hills that are so beautiful. I thought the least the Texas Department of Highways could do was to preserve that view! Guess I was wrong. You still can't see for miles like you could when I was a child.

Grandma used to pack up boxes with fried chicken, deviled eggs, potato salad, cakes and cupcakes. I don't remember what the picnic basket looked like, but I imagine it was a cardboard box, not a fancy whicker basket.

She made wonderful potato salad and I make it the same way-with pickle relish, celery, onions, pimento, boiled eggs, mayonnaise and mustard mixed into potatoes that have been creamed with milk and butter. Yum!

I hope I expressed to Grandma my gratitude for the food she always prepared for us as kids. She always had something good to eat when we came home from school and on the weekends. She didn't have a lot of money - but neither did a lot of people back in the early 50s. I remember many times when she would send me up to the corner store to buy 1 onion, or a can of tomatoes so she could make her wonderful vegetable soup. She didn't use meat. The soup was a make-do meal that she served with fantastic cornbread. (I still can't make that cornbread like she did.)

Anyway, I was remembering Grandma this morning and how she "made-do" and how we as Americans are learning a little more about that in this particular time in history.

Show your gratitude. Tell your parents and grandparents thank you! I wish I had done that more often.

Three Great Holiday Drinks

Mulled Punch

3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cans cranberry sauce, jellied
4 cups pineapple juice, unsweetened
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
3 cups water, additional

Combine brown sugar, 1 cup water, salt, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg and bring to a boil. Beat in cranberry sauce, pineapple juice, and additional 3 cups of water.

Simmer until heated through and all ingredients are well blended. Serve punch hot, in mugs, with a cinnamon stick and a smidge of butter. You can add red wine or bourbon if you wish.

Wassail

1 large jar apple cider
2 cups orange juice
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
1 large can pineapple juice, unsweetened
1/4 cup honey

In large saucepan, combine ingredients and heat to boiling. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 5 minutes. Ready to serve with a cinnamon stick and a slice of lemon.

Wonderful for Christmas parties!

Hot Chocolate Mix

1 25-ounce box instant milk
1 6-ounce jar powdered dairy creamer
1 box powdered sugar
1 16-ounce can instant chocolate drink mix (such as Quik)

Mix all ingredients in a Very Large container. Makes about 17 cups of drink mix - about 90 servings of hot chocolate. Add 3 heaping tablespoons of mix to 1 cup of hot water. Stir to dissolve. Add marshmallows, if you like. This is great!

The Stockings are
Hung from the chimney with care!
Have you prepared the Holiday Drinks?

Granny Shubert's Christmas Candies

As the Thanksgiving feast fades into our memory of another year our memories of sweet treats rise to the surface. NOW is the time to start thinking of the desserts you want to serve your friends and family during the Christmas holidays. I enjoy making cookies and candies to have on hand during that time.

Everyone seems to like these sweets that Granny Shubert used to make during the month of December. I don’t know where she got the recipes, but I have a recipe card for each of them written by her. I have copied them just as she wrote them. Maybe you’d like to give them a try and see if your family and friends like them as much as mine do.

She always claimed, as her children did, that she didn’t cook much; but, she always seemed to have trays of these around when we came home for the holidays. Remember them?

ORANGE BALLS

1 box vanilla wafers, crushed

1 stick oleo or butter, melted

1 box powdered confectioners’ sugar

1 small can orange juice (not diluted)

1 cup nuts, chopped very fine

Coconut (optional)

Mix all together except coconut and form very small balls. Roll in crushed coconut. Makes approximately 6 dozen. If dough becomes too dry to handle, add a few drops of water.

Keep in refrigerator or freezer. No cooking needed!

CHOCOLATE BALLS

1 box powdered confectioners’ sugar

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

½ cup crunchy peanut butter

1 small can Angel Flake coconut

2 sticks margarine or butter

1 package chocolate chips

¼ block paraffin

Mix first 4 ingredients in large bowl. Melt 2 sticks of margarine, pour over dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Shape into balls about ¾-inch in diameter. Melt margarine, chocolate chips and paraffin. Dip balls into chocolate mixture and place on waxed paper to harden.

BOURBON ROLL

1 box (1 pound 2 ounces) vanilla wafers, crushed

1 cup Eagle Brand milk

1 cup chopped candied cherries

1 cup chopped candied pineapple

1 cup coconut

1 pound chopped pecans

5 tablespoons bourbon

Mix all together and shape into 4 long rolls. Roll in powdered confectioners’ sugar and wrap in foil. Chill and cut or freeze.

Pictured in photo from left to right: Sue DeLozier Davis,

William Spence Davis, and Granny Marilee Davis Shubert

I KNOW we all love Maxine and her antics!

Grandma's Peanut Butter Cookies

A peanut butter cookie is one of the simple pleasures that all of us have enjoyed, either as a child or an adult. Whether Grandma used to make them for you or you discovered the sheer joy of making them yourself after you starting baking, they are addictive and super easy.

I remember my Grandma Gailey used to bake dozens of them for me and my siblings and cousins to take to school functions. She did this for many years. They were always a hit!

Here is her version.

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup Crisco shortening
3/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring


Mix together with hands. (She said this was very important! However, I use a dough hook on my KitchenAid counter-top mixer.) Pinch off small amount; roll it into a ball and then flatten it.

Place on pan and make crisscross designs on top with fork. Bake in slow oven.

NOTE:
I think you should probably use an ungreased cookie sheet and place cookies 2-3 inches apart. Moisten fork with water each time you press tines into cookie dough. Cook at 325 degrees for approximately 10-12 minutes or until done.

Chili and Cheese Burgers

There were lots of great food moments during my trip to North Carolina in October. My cousin, Linda Kay, and I flew to Raleigh-Durham where my daughter and two granddaughters picked us up, luggage in tow, and cheerfully listened to all of our complaints and tales of “high” adventure aboard American Flight 700.

It actually was a great flight. We had no complaints except for the fact that we felt confined and a little stiff and sore before the trip was over. The attendants were very nice and eager to make us comfortable; however, it was wasted effort as our 60+ legs were not cooperating!

Linda Kay, my daughter Gail, and I took off that Monday morning for the Outer Banks. The weather was gorgeous and we couldn’t wait to see the ocean spray!

We ate lunch at the “Country Kitchen” just outside of the little town of Bath, North Carolina on the Pamlico Sound. The food was as great as we had been told by a young woman working in the Traveler’s Center.

Linda Kay ordered Chicken Salad on Toast and she said it tasted wonderful. Gail and I ordered cheeseburgers and sweet potato fries. We had a laugh when I was asked by the waitress what I wanted on my burger. I said everything! That stumped her. Gail spoke up and said tomato, lettuce, onion, and mustard. I looked at her a little funny and she said (after the waitress left with our order) that in North Carolina when you say everything – they put everything on it, including chili. I said I didn’t want chili, but guess the waitress took me at my word. I got chili on my burger!

More on our adventures in North Carolina to come.

Photographs taken by Judy Shubert Copyright 2008

Cranberry Salad

If you read the post about my cousin, Julie Martin, you will know that she sent me a surprise Christmas present last year – a box of canned Bing Cherries. This is my husband, Bob’s, favorite dessert. If I don’t have or can’t find Bing Cherries I will make the Cranberry Salad shown below. I think it is just as good. Maybe you will try them both and you decide!

I usually make this version of Cranberry Salad at Christmas because I can rarely find the sweet Bing cherries called for in the Coca Cola salad. This makes a FULL LARGE rectangular Pyrex dish 9 x 14 or something like that.

Ingredients:
3 regular packages cherry or strawberry Jell-O
3 cans whole berry cranberry sauce
1 #2 can crushed pineapple and juice

Dissolve Jell-O with 3 cups boiling water. Let cool. Do not let it get firm. Add cranberry sauce and drained pineapple. Divide mixture in 2 parts. Put half in large oblong Pyrex dish and congeal. After it has congealed, spread with mixture of the following:

12 ounces cream cheese
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
½ cup pineapple juice

Add ½ cup chopped nuts to remaining half of cranberry mixture. Pour over cream cheese and place in refrigerator again to congeal.

Pretty and good!

Photo accessed from free images at http://www.sciencedaily.com/

Coca-Cola Salad

Here is the Coca Cola salad Bob's mother used to make - very sketchy directions but you get the idea. This is also the recipe that uses the Bing Cherries that my cousin, Julie Martin, mailed to me at Christmas.

Ingredients:

1 pkg. Raspberry Jell-O

1 pkg. Cherry Jell-O

2 cans Bing cherries, sweet (drained)

1 small can crushed pineapple (drained, saving some for cream cheese topping)

1 cup nuts

2 bottles coca cola (cold)
She used coke that was sold in individual glass bottles. I imagine they held about same amount as our canned drinks of today.

Congeal

Then mix one 4 oz. pkg. cream cheese with a small amount of pineapple juice.

Sprinkle walnut or pecan pieces to top.

Tastes great!

Enjoy!

Copyright 2008 Photo taken by Judy Shubert

at The Daily Grind Museum, Mineral Wells, Texas May 20, 2008

Trinity Valley Quilters' Guild Quiltfest 2008

I attended a great quilt show today. It was my first exposure to the Trinity Valley Quilters' Guild of Fort Worth here in Texas. It was a 3 day event held at the Will Rogers' complex in the Amon Carter Exhibit Hall and they had some gorgeous quilts. I didn't take a camera because I didn't think you would be able to photograph the quilts but there were photographs being snapped left and right! Should have asked before I went. There were a lot of reproduction fabrics, scrappy quilts, and beautiful applique, all in every color and design. The Best of Show went to Janet S. Stuart for her quilt named "Banana Peel". My personal favorites were the Baltimore applique block quilts and the scrappy "Oak Alley", by Ann Monaker and Donna Akins which was one of the Judge's Choice award winners.

Just wanted to share a few of the delightful moments that I had today!

Julie Elizabeth Martin - Oct 7, 1956 - Aug 23, 2008

She was so generous. I want to tell you about a gift she gave me last Christmas. One day during the holiday season the UPS truck pulled up to my house and left a fairly heavy box on my doorstep. It had a return address from Amazon.com and since Bob has occasionally ordered books from them I thought he had ordered something for Christmas. Then when I opened the box it further confused me because it was a Paula Deen appointment calendar and a dozen cans of Bing Cherries! I couldn’t imagine Bob ordering something like that. Later that day Julie contacted me asking if I had gotten her package! We had been having an on-going conversation about Coca-Cola and Cranberry Salad which is Bob’s favorite Christmas dish and I had casually mentioned that I didn’t make it very often any more because I had such a hard time finding the cherries.

She was a wonderful, sweet, interesting cousin and I'll miss our emails and conversations about food, family and our search for family links that will continue to bind us even in her absence.