TAFFY PULLS AND TEA CAKES
In my childhood, we sometimes got together with the neighbors and made taffy or "pull candy" at our house.
Recipe for Old Fashioned Taffy (Pull Candy)
2 cups sugar 1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup water 2 Tablespoon butter
Bring to a boil, cooking until mixture will spin a long thread (or to 275 degrees on a candy thermometer). Remove from heat, add I teaspoon vanilla and pour into greased plates until cool enough to handle.
When the candy begins to "set", we would wash and butter our hands, take alittle ball of the hot candy (about the size of a small egg), and pull and twist, andsometimes plait it until it began to get cool and hard. Then it would be placed on abuttered plate and cut into sticks of candy.
Recipe for Mama's Tea Cakes
1 cup shortening 2 cups sugar
2 eggs 1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla 2 cups self-rising flour
Mix all ingredients together. Add enough flour to make a stiff dough, Roll out thin. Cut with cookie cutters and put on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 until brown, about 8 to 15 minutes .
Often Mama made teacakes -- thick, chewy cookies cut out with a biscuit cutter or teaglass. As a special treat she would make a chocolate fudge frosting (made from scratch,of course) and put two cookies together with the chocolate between. These cookies shestored in a washed flour sack. No aluminum foil or plastic wrap on the market early on.
Mama baked teas cakes often for children, grandchildren and the neighbor's childre.
These teacakes were sometimes brought out and served to neighbors as we visitedon the front porch. Our house was usually the visiting place. The younger couples, whose oldest children were near my age seemed to love to congregate on our porch and visit.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
The Gingham Dress and Homespun Suit.
A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston, and walked timidly without an appointment into the Harvard University President's outer office.
The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no business at Harvard & probably didn't even deserve to be in Cambridge. "We'd like to see the president," the man said softly. "He'll be busy all day," the secretary snapped. "We'll wait," the lady replied. For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally >>become discouraged and go away.
They didn't, and the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president, even though it was a chore she always regretted. "Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll leave," she said to him!
He sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously didn't have the time to spend with them, and he detested gingham dresses >>and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office.
The president, stern faced and with dignity, strutted toward the couple. The lady told him, "We had a son who attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. My husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus."
The president wasn't touched. He was shocked. "Madam," he said, gruffly, "we can't put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery."
"Oh, no," the lady explained quickly. "We don't want to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard." The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, then exclaimed, "A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical buildings here at Harvard."
For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. Maybe he could get rid of them now. The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is that all it cost to start a university? Why don't we just start our own? " Her husband nodded. The president's face wilted in confusion and bewilderment.
Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California where they established the university that bears their name, Stanford University, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about. You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them. ----
A TRUE STORY By Malcolm Forbes
The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no business at Harvard & probably didn't even deserve to be in Cambridge. "We'd like to see the president," the man said softly. "He'll be busy all day," the secretary snapped. "We'll wait," the lady replied. For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally >>become discouraged and go away.
They didn't, and the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president, even though it was a chore she always regretted. "Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll leave," she said to him!
He sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously didn't have the time to spend with them, and he detested gingham dresses >>and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office.
The president, stern faced and with dignity, strutted toward the couple. The lady told him, "We had a son who attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. My husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus."
The president wasn't touched. He was shocked. "Madam," he said, gruffly, "we can't put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery."
"Oh, no," the lady explained quickly. "We don't want to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard." The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, then exclaimed, "A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical buildings here at Harvard."
For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. Maybe he could get rid of them now. The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is that all it cost to start a university? Why don't we just start our own? " Her husband nodded. The president's face wilted in confusion and bewilderment.
Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California where they established the university that bears their name, Stanford University, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about. You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them. ----
A TRUE STORY By Malcolm Forbes
Friday, July 13, 2007
Humor For Lexophiles Lovers of Words.
HUMOR FOR LEXOPHILES.
1. I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.
2. Police were called to a day care where a three-year-old was resisting a rest
3. Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He's all right now.
4. The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference.
5. The butcher backed up into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.
6.To write with a broken pencil is pointless.
7. When fish are in schools they sometimes take debate.
8. The short fortune teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large
9. A thief who stole a calendar got twelve months.
10. A thief fell and broke his leg in wet cement. He became a hardened criminal.
11. Thieves who steal corn from a garden could be charged with stalking.
12. We'll never run out of math teachers because they always multiply.
13. When the smog lifts in Los Angeles , U.C.L.A.
14. The professor discovered that her theory of earthquakes was on shaky ground.
15. The dead batteries were given out free of charge.
16. If you take a laptop computer for a run you could jog your memory.
17. A dentist and a manicurist fought tooth and nail.
18. A bicycle can't stand alone; it is two tired.
19. A will is a dead giveaway.
20. A backward poet writes inverse.
21. In a democracy it's your vote that counts; in feudalism, it's your Count that votes.
22. A chicken crossing the road: poultry in motion.
23. If you don't pay your exorcist you can get repossessed.
24. With her marriage she got a new name and a dress.
25. Show me a piano falling down a mine shaft and I'll show you A-flat miner.
26. When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.
27. The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine was fully recovered.
28. You are stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.
29. Local Area Network in Australia : The LAN down under.He broke into song because he couldn't find the key.
30. A calendar's days are numbered.A lot of money is tainted: 'Taint yours, and 'taint mine.
31. A boiled egg is hard to beat.
32. A plateau is a high form of flattery.
33. Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.
34. When you've seen one shopping center you've seen a mall.
35. If you jump off a Paris bridge, you are in Seine .
36. When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she'd dye.
37. Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.
38. Acupuncture: a jab well done.
2. Police were called to a day care where a three-year-old was resisting a rest
3. Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He's all right now.
4. The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference.
5. The butcher backed up into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.
6.To write with a broken pencil is pointless.
7. When fish are in schools they sometimes take debate.
8. The short fortune teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large
9. A thief who stole a calendar got twelve months.
10. A thief fell and broke his leg in wet cement. He became a hardened criminal.
11. Thieves who steal corn from a garden could be charged with stalking.
12. We'll never run out of math teachers because they always multiply.
13. When the smog lifts in Los Angeles , U.C.L.A.
14. The professor discovered that her theory of earthquakes was on shaky ground.
15. The dead batteries were given out free of charge.
16. If you take a laptop computer for a run you could jog your memory.
17. A dentist and a manicurist fought tooth and nail.
18. A bicycle can't stand alone; it is two tired.
19. A will is a dead giveaway.
20. A backward poet writes inverse.
21. In a democracy it's your vote that counts; in feudalism, it's your Count that votes.
22. A chicken crossing the road: poultry in motion.
23. If you don't pay your exorcist you can get repossessed.
24. With her marriage she got a new name and a dress.
25. Show me a piano falling down a mine shaft and I'll show you A-flat miner.
26. When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.
27. The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine was fully recovered.
28. You are stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.
29. Local Area Network in Australia : The LAN down under.He broke into song because he couldn't find the key.
30. A calendar's days are numbered.A lot of money is tainted: 'Taint yours, and 'taint mine.
31. A boiled egg is hard to beat.
32. A plateau is a high form of flattery.
33. Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.
34. When you've seen one shopping center you've seen a mall.
35. If you jump off a Paris bridge, you are in Seine .
36. When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she'd dye.
37. Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.
38. Acupuncture: a jab well done.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Grandson's Wedding
Do you want to hear about our latest wedding. This one was my eighth granchild to get married.
After a couple of years of health issues, I was hesitant to make the long journey north. But I had a great time traveling to New Hampshire and Vermont for the 7/7/7 wedding in the historic chapel at Dartmouth College.
Thanks to the insistence and assistance of Janice and Gilbert and Debi and Gregg , the trip and the wedding was “just fabulous.”
I rode with Debi and Gregg up to Maryland July 3 and stayed with Jan and Gil while the Lewis' went on to New Hampshire to get ready for the Rehearsal dinner.
Gil and jan and I had dinner on the Fourth of July with Charmaine and Jack and family and saw the City of Arlington fireworks. I was pleased to see them and five of my great grands in their new home and again when they came over on Sunday to eat and swim at Jan and Gil’s.
Gilbert, Janice and I left on Friday morning, July 6 to get to Dartmouth in time for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.
This country girl had never visited New York City, so Gil, my gallant son-in-law decided to leave early enough to show me the highlights of the Big Apple. We drove through Central Park, the huge United Nations Buildings, Theater district…well everything I had read about but never seen, including the Statue of Liberty in the harbor.
Debi and Gregg hosted a rehearsal dinner at a restaurant near Dartmouth. In keeping with Emily and Matthew’s request, it was a casual but delicious sit down dinner of Pizza, pasta, salads for nearly 50.
Deborah had requested and received 70 plus pictures of Emily from Mrs. Brown so she and Jonathan created a masterpiece 12 minute video featuring Emily and Matthew from birth to now. It was quite a feat of creativity with music.
Jan and Gil and I stayed with new church friends of Matthew and Emily. They live in what they described to us as a "Yankee Barn" type of house lots of windows, surrounded by trees. It was a joy to visit with them. It was “Southern hospitality” at its best.
As I wrote in an email to family, “ After sleeping on beds of the "Rich and Famous" for a full week, I am like the little girl from Milstead who went to Atlanta to visit her married brother and sister in law for a week. When she got home and sat again at the family table, she commented, "I have dined out so much it is hard to eat Mama's cooking."
Gilbert and Janice have a Pillow top mattress on the queen size bed in their guest room where I resided in luxury. I sleep like a baby every night! Well not exactly? You know how a baby sleeps? Sleeps an hour and cries an hour!
I slept two more nights in the luxurious home and on the same kind of pillow top mattress in the home of these new friends in New Hampshire! So slept well every night away from home.
You all know how I hesitate to be a participate in our "decadent consumer society" (s seminary term) but I am thinking (like the little Milstead girl) after seven nights on pillow top mattresses, my 25 year old mattress may have to be replaced.
Do you think I should go out tomorrow and spend my children’s inheritance on a new mattress!
The Wedding on Saturday night was beautiful. Did I mention they had the best
soloist in America? Ask anyone in Rome! Terry sang, "Great is thy Faithfulness" and the "Lord's Prayer."
We arrived early (thinking the wedding was 4 instead of 4:30) so Gil (remarkable man that he is) opened both side doors and turned on the fans so that the chapel had cooled off before people started arriving. It was a warm day.
Emily was very lovely! Stunning! Her dress was gorgeous with short cap sleeves, rounded neck, long train, delicate embroidery design. The bridesmaid's dresses were a simple design in light green – the same shade as Jessica had her bridesmaids to wear. Beautiful.
Matthew looked handsome in a gray tux, the groomsmen looked great in gray suits. Short neat haircuts...all. Benjamin and Jonathan were ushers and also looked nice in gray suits with green shirts.
Lisette and Emily’s grandfather each read a short passage of scripture.
The ceremony was similar to our beautiful Methodist ceremony. Their pastor also gave a meaningful short sermon and celebrated communion with them while Terrell sang the Lord’s Prayer.
It rained off and on all day -- but never when we had to be outside. Nice! We enjoyed a tour of the beautiful Dartmouth campus between the rehearsal and the dinner.
The reception was at a museum nearby and was very nice with a large group of over 100 present? My estimate? A buffet of barbeque and chicken dinners and a vegetable shish-ka-bob with salads were served...wonderful felowship and food. People could enjoy the museum or go into the community room for the reception and dinner.
We caravanned back to Jan and Gil’s on Sunday morning with the Lewis' -- through Pennsylvania and more wonderful scenery. Enjoyed talking, listening to music and recounting all the great aspects of the wedding.
Matthew and Emily stayed in an Inn nearby on Saturday night and then they were going to Maine -- perfect place for a honeymoon!
After a couple of years of health issues, I was hesitant to make the long journey north. But I had a great time traveling to New Hampshire and Vermont for the 7/7/7 wedding in the historic chapel at Dartmouth College.
Thanks to the insistence and assistance of Janice and Gilbert and Debi and Gregg , the trip and the wedding was “just fabulous.”
I rode with Debi and Gregg up to Maryland July 3 and stayed with Jan and Gil while the Lewis' went on to New Hampshire to get ready for the Rehearsal dinner.
Gil and jan and I had dinner on the Fourth of July with Charmaine and Jack and family and saw the City of Arlington fireworks. I was pleased to see them and five of my great grands in their new home and again when they came over on Sunday to eat and swim at Jan and Gil’s.
Gilbert, Janice and I left on Friday morning, July 6 to get to Dartmouth in time for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.
This country girl had never visited New York City, so Gil, my gallant son-in-law decided to leave early enough to show me the highlights of the Big Apple. We drove through Central Park, the huge United Nations Buildings, Theater district…well everything I had read about but never seen, including the Statue of Liberty in the harbor.
Debi and Gregg hosted a rehearsal dinner at a restaurant near Dartmouth. In keeping with Emily and Matthew’s request, it was a casual but delicious sit down dinner of Pizza, pasta, salads for nearly 50.
Deborah had requested and received 70 plus pictures of Emily from Mrs. Brown so she and Jonathan created a masterpiece 12 minute video featuring Emily and Matthew from birth to now. It was quite a feat of creativity with music.
Jan and Gil and I stayed with new church friends of Matthew and Emily. They live in what they described to us as a "Yankee Barn" type of house lots of windows, surrounded by trees. It was a joy to visit with them. It was “Southern hospitality” at its best.
As I wrote in an email to family, “ After sleeping on beds of the "Rich and Famous" for a full week, I am like the little girl from Milstead who went to Atlanta to visit her married brother and sister in law for a week. When she got home and sat again at the family table, she commented, "I have dined out so much it is hard to eat Mama's cooking."
Gilbert and Janice have a Pillow top mattress on the queen size bed in their guest room where I resided in luxury. I sleep like a baby every night! Well not exactly? You know how a baby sleeps? Sleeps an hour and cries an hour!
I slept two more nights in the luxurious home and on the same kind of pillow top mattress in the home of these new friends in New Hampshire! So slept well every night away from home.
You all know how I hesitate to be a participate in our "decadent consumer society" (s seminary term) but I am thinking (like the little Milstead girl) after seven nights on pillow top mattresses, my 25 year old mattress may have to be replaced.
Do you think I should go out tomorrow and spend my children’s inheritance on a new mattress!
The Wedding on Saturday night was beautiful. Did I mention they had the best
soloist in America? Ask anyone in Rome! Terry sang, "Great is thy Faithfulness" and the "Lord's Prayer."
We arrived early (thinking the wedding was 4 instead of 4:30) so Gil (remarkable man that he is) opened both side doors and turned on the fans so that the chapel had cooled off before people started arriving. It was a warm day.
Emily was very lovely! Stunning! Her dress was gorgeous with short cap sleeves, rounded neck, long train, delicate embroidery design. The bridesmaid's dresses were a simple design in light green – the same shade as Jessica had her bridesmaids to wear. Beautiful.
Matthew looked handsome in a gray tux, the groomsmen looked great in gray suits. Short neat haircuts...all. Benjamin and Jonathan were ushers and also looked nice in gray suits with green shirts.
Lisette and Emily’s grandfather each read a short passage of scripture.
The ceremony was similar to our beautiful Methodist ceremony. Their pastor also gave a meaningful short sermon and celebrated communion with them while Terrell sang the Lord’s Prayer.
It rained off and on all day -- but never when we had to be outside. Nice! We enjoyed a tour of the beautiful Dartmouth campus between the rehearsal and the dinner.
The reception was at a museum nearby and was very nice with a large group of over 100 present? My estimate? A buffet of barbeque and chicken dinners and a vegetable shish-ka-bob with salads were served...wonderful felowship and food. People could enjoy the museum or go into the community room for the reception and dinner.
We caravanned back to Jan and Gil’s on Sunday morning with the Lewis' -- through Pennsylvania and more wonderful scenery. Enjoyed talking, listening to music and recounting all the great aspects of the wedding.
Matthew and Emily stayed in an Inn nearby on Saturday night and then they were going to Maine -- perfect place for a honeymoon!
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Happy 233 Birthday America!
Random thoughts on our 233 birthday. God bless America.
Our nation's founding document declared independence from Britain, but, with equal fervor, declared dependence upon God. Expressing "firm reliance on the Protection of divine Providence," the signers committed the American experiment to their Maker.
The Spirit of 1776 was reverence and trust.
The 56 men who put their lives and fortunes on the line by signing the Declaration of Independence paid a great price for freedom.
Five were later captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons by death. Two sons were taken prisoner. Nine of the fifty-six died from wounds or hardship from the Revolutionary War. Most of the signers never recovered physically from the war, but I have never read one instance of even one who recanted.
How will we choose to serve liberty?
The references to God in the Declaration of Independence provide a foundation for a moral argument within civil society. And moral truths pervade our founding documents from beginning to end.
Without God as the source of all those moral principles, the public square would quickly revert to the law of the jungle. Brutish power would
prevail.
I pray on this 4th of July 2009, we will seek a rebirth of true liberty, which is possible only when governed by divine law. For, without God, we can never have "liberty and justice for all."
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
When Thomas Jefferson penned the immortal words of the Declaration of Independence, he deliberately appealed to the Creator. He acknowledged an overriding obligation to "Nature and Nature's God." And he understood that ordered liberty is not just a subjective preference, but a divinely ordained condition for which human beings are designed. "Liberty and justice for all" is a Christian concept.
Our nation's founding document declared independence from Britain, but, with equal fervor, declared dependence upon God. Expressing "firm reliance on the Protection of divine Providence," the signers committed the American experiment to their Maker.
The Spirit of 1776 was reverence and trust.
The 56 men who put their lives and fortunes on the line by signing the Declaration of Independence paid a great price for freedom.
Five were later captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons by death. Two sons were taken prisoner. Nine of the fifty-six died from wounds or hardship from the Revolutionary War. Most of the signers never recovered physically from the war, but I have never read one instance of even one who recanted.
How will we choose to serve liberty?
The references to God in the Declaration of Independence provide a foundation for a moral argument within civil society. And moral truths pervade our founding documents from beginning to end.
Without God as the source of all those moral principles, the public square would quickly revert to the law of the jungle. Brutish power would
prevail.
I pray on this 4th of July 2009, we will seek a rebirth of true liberty, which is possible only when governed by divine law. For, without God, we can never have "liberty and justice for all."
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
When Thomas Jefferson penned the immortal words of the Declaration of Independence, he deliberately appealed to the Creator. He acknowledged an overriding obligation to "Nature and Nature's God." And he understood that ordered liberty is not just a subjective preference, but a divinely ordained condition for which human beings are designed. "Liberty and justice for all" is a Christian concept.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Statue of Liberty
Liberty Enlightening the WorldThe Statue of Liberty, located on a 12 acre island, was a gift of friendship from the people of France "Enlightening the World." to the people of the United States and is a universal symbol of freedom and democracy.
The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886, designated as a National Monument in 1924 and restored for her centennial on July 4, 1986.>
After the November 11, 2001 Islamic terrorist attack on America, destroying the World Trade Center Twin Tower buildings in New York and the Pentagon building in washington D.C., the Staue of Liberty was closed to the public until this July 4th 2009 Weekend.
Sunday, July 01, 2007
My Name in Alice
EVER LOOK AT PEOPLE YOUR OWN AGE AND THINK, "SURELY I CAN'T LOOK THAT OLD"? WELL . . . YOU'LL LOVE THIS ONE.MY NAME IS ALICE, AND I WAS SITTING IN THE WAITING ROOM FOR MY FIRST APPOINTMENT WITH A NEW DENTIST. I NOTICED HIS DDS DIPLOMA ON THE WALL, WHICH BORE HIS FULL NAME.
SUDDENLY, I REMEMBERED A TALL, HANDSOME, DARK-HAIRED BOY WITH THE SAME NAME HAD BEEN IN MY HIGH SCHOOL CLASS SOME 30-ODD YEARS AGO. COULD HE BE THE SAME GUY THAT I HAD A SECRET CRUSH ON, WAY BACK THEN?
UPON SEEING HIM, HOWEVER, I QUICKLY DISCARDED ANY SUCH THOUGHT. THIS BALDING, GRAY-HAIRED MAN WITH THE DEEPLY LINED FACE WAS WAY TOO OLD TO HAVE BEEN MY CLASS MATE.
AFTER HE EXAMINED MY TEETH, I ASKED HIM IF HE HAD ATTENDED MORGAN PARK HIGH SCHOOL . 'YES. YES, I DID. I'M A MUSTANG,' HE GLEAMED WITH PRIDE.
'WHEN DID YOU GRADUATE?' I ASKED. HE ANSWERED, 'IN 1975. WHY DO YOU ASK?' 'YOU WERE IN MY CLASS!', I EXCLAIMED.
HE LOOKED AT ME CLOSELY. THEN, THAT UGLY OLD BALD WRINKLED FACED FAT and
GRAY-HAIRED DECREPIT OLD BUZZARD ASKED ME, 'WHAT DID YOU TEACH???'
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)