RECIPE: DEVILED CHEESE

¼ lb. cheddar cheese                                       ¼ tsp. dry mustard

¼ tsp. curry powder                                        1 egg yolk

Beat all ingredients together until the mixture is smooth. Spread onto crisp crackers at last minute. Light broiler oven and brown under flame until the cheese melts. Serve at once.

RECIPE: DEVILED HAM

1 (3 ½ oz.) tin deviled ham                             ¼ tsp. dry mustard

1 Tbsp. sour cream                                          1 Tbsp. salad oil

            Blend all ingredients together. Spread on bread; cut into squares or rolls; also excellent on crackers. Decorate with slice of sweet pickle.

RECIPE: CANAPES

RECIPE:       CANAPES

 Have all of your ingredients ready. Remove crusts from bread and cut into desired shapes. The best for canapes is thinly sliced bread which has been browned under a broiler in the oven or in a skillet or griddle over low heat.

            In a skillet or griddle, melt butter, margarine or vegetable oil in pan, using enough to cover bottom of pan. When hot, place bread in pan, being careful to keep in whole pieces. Use a spatula. After browning bread on one side drain on a paper towel placed on a flat cookie sheet. Quickly spread with canapé mixture; place on covered dish and serve immediately. Cover canapés either with a lid or a clean napkin on a warmed plate.

1938 - Memories of the Twin Black Girls and Rolling Their Hair

2/15/2010

There was another snow last night; another snow, snow bound again. In my memories I’ve gone back again to the mountains where I was raised and the fun had there as I grew up.

      I remember when we moved onto a hill, next door to a black couple who had a set of twin girls. My sister and I had really long hair. We wanted to be able to roll our hair so Dad cut tin strips, and then wrapped them with poke paper to make curlers for my sister and me. In our family Saturday was for washing our hair and rolling it up on our tin rollers. We sat and watched the black camp below us while we waited for our hair to dry for church on Sunday. Let me tell you, lots went on in the black camp on weekends. But I will leave those goings on for another day; I want to tell what happened with that set of twin black girls when they saw us rolling up our hair on our tin curlers.

      The twins had watched us rolling up our hair and decided that they wanted to have their hair rolled up too. Their hair was short so the tin rollers wouldn’t work for their hair; but I knew I had watched my mother roll her hair with a curling iron that she got hot in the stove before she used it. So I got that curling iron hot and curled both those twin girls heads. The curls laid just right all over their heads and when our mothers came in the twins went running up to their mother to show how nice Ms Alberta had done their hair. Their mother looked at me and looked at them, smiled, and said, “Hmmm Ms Alberta, that looks very nice.” 

        Then she placed a hand on each of the girls head and gently tugged at a curl. Much to all of our surprises except hers, of course, those curls fell off into her hand. You see what I didn’t know was that you could only use a moderately hot curling iron on a black persons head; and you first had to use grease on the hair before using the curling iron. I know now not to curl without grease on hair. But what really surprised me was that the twins Mother was not mad that the iron was too hot, that I hadn’t used grease first and that their hair fell off close to the girls head. But one thing for sure no more curling the twins’ hair!

RECIPE: OPEN KETTLE SWEET TOMATO PICKLE RELISH

1 peck green tomatoes, sliced                         2 Tbsp. cloves

6 large onions, sliced                                       2 Tbsp. allspice

1 cup salt                                                        2 Tbsp. ginger

2 quarts water                                                 2 Tbsp. mustard

1 quart vinegar (5% acidity)                             2 Tbsp. cinnamon

 2 lb. sugar                                                       2 quarts vinegar (5% acidity)

Sprinkle tomatoes and onions with salt; let stand overnight. Drain the next morning; add the water and 1 quart vinegar. Bring to boil and cook 15 minutes. Drain; discard vinegar water. Mix remaining ingredients thoroughly. Add mixture and simmer for 15 minutes. Pour into hot sterilized jars. Seal at once.

RECIPE: OPEN KETTLE CORN RELISH

 Mixture One:

1 large head cabbage                                       20 ears corn, scraped from cob

4 large onions                                                  1 ¼ cup sugar

4 green peppers                                               ½ cup salt

6 sweet red peppers                                        1 quart cider vinegar

Mixture Two:

3 tbsp. dry mustard                                         1 Tbsp. celery seed

1 tbsp. turmeric                                               3 cups vinegar

            Cut cabbage into pieces. Put pieces through food chopper. Peel onions; remove tops and all seeds from peppers. Grind well. Add remaining ingredients of Mixture One. Bring to a boil. Add Mixture Two. Simmer for 30 minutes. Pour into hot sterilized jars. Seal immediately.

April 17, 2011 from Mother's Journal - Last Entry

April 17, 2011 had a very unusual visitor today – a one legged bird perched on the feeder outside the window!

Note: This is the last entry in Mother’s Journal. She watched every day for that one legged bird. When she couldn’t make it out of bed and to the window; she would ask me if the bird was there. One of those days it was raining and she asked if the bird looked okay. And he really did look pretty good for a wet, one legged bird.

He stopped coming the day before she died.