Eventhough most of my meals jump from boxes to the table with very little help mind or body wise from me, the cook in me still lives. When I was old enough to pull a chair to the stove, meal making was my responsibility. I was given a Betty Crocker first edition cookbook and told to go for it. "Betty" told me there was no such thing as simple incomplete meals...meat, potatoes, bread, vegetable, glass of tea or milk and dessert....Always a dessert! I would get off the school bus and be sure I started the meal to be on the table promptly at 5:30. We would eat then I would do the dishes. This went on every night except Sunday when we went to my grandmothers on the other end of the block. I still have that cook book along with many more that would have ended up in someone's trash can had I not saved them from an untimely death. Neighbors, grandmothers and friends always brought me THEIR favorite cookbooks when downsizing.They all knew, all too well, that they were in good hands for awhile because a cook book I cannot distroy. Out of three children and five grandchildren I have maybe two children and two grandkids that think they like to cook BUT not the old "I think I'll spend the day in the kitchen" recipies. My brother sent me a cookbook from San Francisco in the sixties on bread making which has so much dough on the pages they look antiqued. It makes twelve loaves of dough at a time. Can you vision what size bowl I had to start out with and did it by hand once a week. I was a true "hippy" My second husbands mother was a great cook I heard, though I never met her. When we went to her house on her passing, at the back door was a trashcan full of books. Now throwing any kind of book away is a scrilage to me...especially cookbooks and poetry. I paid my respects and slipped out quitely and filled my trunk to the brim. That could have been one of the contributing factors to my second and final divorce....Another whole story to say the least .It is now some thirty years later and I have those books and use them with the old computer cards, we keypunchers use to use for bookmarks. Those bookmarks are the very best recipes......I never move those bookmarks in the belief they were put there for life and if you move them that recipe will fail. Silly. huh?
Earlier in the week I wrote about Anna. She has a fullproof recipe for baked bread that makes two loaves
ANNA'S BREAD
one package dry yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water
Let stand 5 min's in a bowl. In a large mixing bowl put:
2 Tablespoons sugar (I prefer brown)
2 teaspoons salt (I prefer sea salt)
2 tablespoons shortening (You know I would go for butter)
2 cups scalded milk (Here I use 2%)
Let mixture cool until luke warm add yeast misture stir gradually
6 cups or more flour
Mix well till you make a stiff dough and turn out on board floured and knead until smooth and satiny. shape into ball and turn into a greased bowl with bread greased all ove and cove to rise. Double in bulk should come in two hours. Punch down and turn out on board and cut in half for two loaves or one loaf and rolls for the little ones...Great recipe Bake in a hot oven (400) for 50-60-min crusty bread
When I was snowed in two weeks ago mom and I just ate bread and soup all day. How fattening is that? Nothing you would want to tell Dr. Oz. But those two loaves made two old snowed in crazy ladies very happy...love Pokie
There is someone You have probably never met and neither have I and we will never get the chance now because her days on this earth were numbered and I am sure she is in heaven now. Mary Lou Krauseneck was a ALS patient the likes of which no one has ever known. While in the throws of her illness she wrote three volumes of cookbooks and donated all proceeds to the fueling of research at the ALS Therapy Developement Institute in Cambridge, Mass. Ok, you say, and go on. No, she netted $90,000.00 for research on her own while suffering from ALS. These books are no small achievements to be passed by...over 500 pages each. Called simply, "Recipes for Life" Volume One, Two and Three. From 2000 on the cookbooks gave Mary Lou a focus on something positive....something no one knew anything about, Lou Gehrig's Disease.Little did anyone know that these fund raising efforts were laying the ground work for the world class research engine that today is called ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI)
As I said, I never met Mary Lou but I did see a special on her on Dateline and had I had the chance we would have probably become great friends because I feel a emptiness in my heart for her. She had this miracle smile and she kept it coming no matter what.
In the front of my first cookbook is a quote by Luciano De Crescenzo: "We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can fly only by embracing each other.". That just keeps going through my head, around and around.. I feel her embrace. I talked to her niece today, after I received my book, and thanked her for the pleasure and told her I would do all I could to spread the word on her aunt's work.
Your books may be ordered too. Your pleasure can start soon and your knowledge that you are making a difference on this earth will begin. ALSTDI CAN BE REACHED AT 215 First Street, Cambridge, Ma 02142 or 617-441.7200 or www.als.net get involved, make a difference and help us save our grandchildren from this and other neurological diseases...love Pokie
One more month and it will be Parkinson Awareness month. Are you ready to do something that will bring a cure on? Can you look at your grandkids and say, beyond a doubt, they will not get this disease? Talk to just one person and spread the word....love Pokie
This has not been a bad day even though we have snow five inches high and ice under that. Wind chill is suppose to be below zero tonight and high winds. Nothing yet like what is going on in the East. This morning I was snoozing in late thinking no one in his right mind would be out on the road and they couldn't get up my hill here at the farm anyway, when the phone rings and a very nice gentleman informed me I had a "RED" power chair at his office just waiting to be delivered. I ask him if he was crazy because I wasn't going anywhere in this weather and second did he have four wheel drive because there was no way he could get to me. He said directions were in order and if I would give him a little time he would be here with my brand new chair and teach me how to use it.
Now I am sure there are some who think this is a definite case of giving in on my part. I can still walk but I have terrible pain when I do and let me tell you this is nice. The only thing is I must remember to exercise along with this new found comfort.....or all use of legs will be gone. Oh, but my back screams thank you when I sit down in this chair. It supports my bad arm and is controlled by my good arm. It reclines and has a foot rest...I'm in love .It also breaks down to two pieces for moving easily....all the comforts.
Also while I was snowed in this weekend I rediscovered another lost love....Sewing... and just in time for the . PDF Quilt Square Project for the Parkinson's Global Congress in Scotland October. They were wanting a seven inch square to represent each committee member in order for the committee to make a panel of our own. I started out and this was what I came up with. Then the compulsive behavior set in. I had been working on a panel of my own. I had it done all but the embroidery to finish. I had some things on my mind this weekend that just would not go away and my hands kicked in. this is what I had and then this is what I ended up with.I still have to put my title back on and then I think I will put it away. It did serve it's purpose and for that I am grateful. I worked off some steam and when Monday morning rolled around I had climbed up on that darn "soap box" again but I had mellowed out for another time and another compulsive act.....Oh, don't we love that Requip...love Pokie
Are all Mondays becoming crazy or is it me becoming crazy or crazier? I knew it was hopeless when I called a place I had some X rays done in hope of tracking them down and getting them sent to my Rheumatologist. The number I got through information got me the office which informed me nicely that since January first this was no longer the practice and I must show up with a photo ID before my X rays could leave there facility. She gave me a number to call and check on my bill and then call her back in twenty minutes. I hung up and called only to hear this, "Thank you for calling this number for Lonely Ladies in your area to talk to." I hung up and tried again and got the same response. I called my first Unlonely lady back at this point and checked the number. I tried again and this time got a Very Stylish Hair Salon I decided it was time for help so I lied and said I had called the other number at which point the lady on the other end said, "Oh, I can fax this to your doctor and you won't have to come by." How sweet since I live an hour away. Is there a conspiracy against old people going on? If the thought is to make me crazy they are doing a good job....love ya Pokie.
This is my first square in it's first form. Now ccomes it's personality. A nose for Rudolf and a name for Teddy (HUGS). Ornaments fo rthe trees and names on the packages Glitter and Glow a litttle here and there and we'll remember that we all dream we fly in "Parkinsonland"