Northwoods Woman » Page 17

The Story of the Mistaken Recipe

Apr 172013

While you’re all probably sick of hearing me lament about my Mom’s recipe collection, I’m afraid there simply isn’t anything else to report on since Winter keeps hanging on in the Northwoods, and until it releases us from it’s icy tentacles and I can drone on mercilessly about planting seeds and cursing the squirrels for digging up my flower bulbs, you gets what you gets.

So with that being said, I’m going to share with you the story of the mistaken recipe.

Well, not mistaken so much as a mistake.

While rifling through the mounds of culinary masterpieces strewn all over my table looking for personal favorites from the youth, I happened upon one dish that looked very familiar. I remember Mom making this dish, and could even see it in my minds’ eye, but something just seemed off about it. But despite my misgivings and unable to find another that would disprove my feelings, I put it into the “keep and try” pile and moved on.

Then came the day to pick one from the pile, and wouldn’t you know the first one I grabbed was that same recipe that seemed off, but I thought “What the hell, let’s give ‘er a try! ”

Let me tell you, when I threw all of these ingredients together I just knew that I had the wrong recipe. But, not having anything else to go with and having the dish already prepared there was no turning back.

But still I had this nagging feeling that I had a different version somewhere (and when I get those nagging feelings I don’t give up searching until I find what I’m after!).

So I rummaged though my “basket-o-recipes” (which, by the way, is surprisingly similar to my Mom’s method of recipe filing) and low and behold there it was. And in my Mom’s own handwriting no less!!

Unfortunately, the mistaken recipe was doing its requisite time in the fridge by now before it’s trip to the oven, so there was no chance in changing teams mid-game.

So, does this story have a happy ending?

I am happy to say… yes!

While I have to admit that I was a little skeptical about how the noodles would turn out and that I may have had too much pizza sauce, the overall finished product was delicious.

Moral of the story: Just because it wasn’t the recipe I was looking for doesn’t mean it can’t turn out to be just as good.

After all, it did come from Mom’s collection, so I shouldn’t have been surprised.

The Real Sign of Spring

Apr 152013

March was a roller coaster of weather, and April hasn’t been a whole lot different.

Unlike last year when it was overly warm and sugarbush came and went so quickly that we didn’t even have time to tap our trees, this year has teased us with warm/cold/bitter weather that even the birds are confused (we’ve have crows and ravens eating our suet… NEVER happened before! ).

Nearly four weeks after we tapped our trees, we are finally starting to see the sap flow.

It’s not a rushing torrent, but the buckets are sounding with the “tap… tap… tap” chorus that gets us all excited.

And no matter what the calendar may say, this is the real sign of Spring in the Northwoods.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature was paying a cruel joke on us yesterday when we decided to start boiling.

What started out as a very light snowfall quickly gave way to a no-holds-barred dumping. Thank goodness we had the covers over the buckets or else all the sap in them would have been worthless.

And thanks to the quick thinking and ingenuity of Rick, a quick shelter was raised over the boiling area to protect the 25 gallons that we had collected.

But the weather didn’t stop after we had a few inches of snow on the ground. Oh, no… when that eased up a torrent of sleet began to pound on us, gradually turning into a steady downpour of big, fat rain drops. It was the most miserable Sugarbush we had ever had.

Now all of this could have made for a very grumpy Sandy and Rick, but we didn’t let it dampen (pun intended) our spirits.

Because once you get started on a project like this, there is no stopping and you trudge forward with soaked clothes and shoes to keep that sap boiling.

And when it’s all said and done the reward is totally worth it.

A Vintage Cookbook Shows It Has Been Loved

Apr 142013

My whole goal of packing up my Mom’s recipes and bringing them back with me on my last trip down to my hometown was to go through them and find the ones that she used to prepare when I was growing up and put together some sort of cookbook for my kids and siblings.

I wanted to preserve these delicious memories somehow, someway so that I could share a little piece of my childhood with those I love.

Now that I have all those little notecards and newspaper clippings in my possession, I feel a little overwhelmed and unsure where to start.

I mean, there are literally hundreds of recipes to go through!

And while I could have taken all of her cookbooks, I held myself back to just those that tugged at my heartstrings the most, 2 of which are vintage and used the most by her.

Can you see all the love that they have had?

Now here is the million dollar question that I’m hoping you all can help me with: does anybody know of some software that is available for me to organize this ~~mess~~ collection into some sort of cookbook? I’ve looked at Shutterfly but I’m hoping that there are other options out there that will allow me creative reign without busting my wallet.

I know you guys are smarter than me when it comes to this stuff, so please, please, pleeeease lend me a hand here.

Alrighty, now that I’ve done the necessary groveling, it’s time to get cooking!

Reconnecting

Mar 292013

It has been a very busy last couple of days.

And I’m tired. But in a good way. (Is that even possible?)

As usual when I drive down to my hometown, it becomes a whirlwind of activity, emotions and memories. It’s sad that over the past few years the only reason that I’ve made that long trip has been to say goodbye to a relative, and perhaps it’s time to change that.

This particular trip was due to the passing of a wonderful man, my uncle Ken. And while there were tons of good memories and stories passed around, there was also a reconnection to relatives and people that I hadn’t seen in over 20 years, some more than 30 I would estimate.

After I had booked my Motel room and completed all the pre-planning-take-time-off-work niceties, I decided that I would also take the opportunity to spend more time with one person in particular and perhaps begin a new relationship and connection with: my Dad.

We haven’t had a whole lot of communication since my Mom passed away nearly 14 years ago, but over the past couple of years I’ve noticed that we’ve both changed… gotten older… put certain “things” behind us. Matured is a good word to throw in here. Yes, that describes it exactly.

And you know what? It. Was. Fantastic. I don’t think I’ve seen my Dad smile that much in my whole life. We talked for hours about anything and everything, and I even let him make me supper one night. I forgot how great that man can cook!

And speaking of cooking, I brought home something very dear to me:

This is approximately 3/4 of my Mom’s recipe collection, which I have special plans for.

So there was a lot of good things that came out of this last trip, and I have a feeling that I’ll be taking more trips in the future that have nothing to do with funerals, but with family.

And maybe I can get my Dad to cook for me again…

A Photo of Memories

Mar 242013

A few days ago I got an email from my oldest updating me on all the wonderful things happening in her new life in North Dakota, including but not limited to her husband’s new job and her returning to college this summer. All good things that I needed to hear at that time and it made me happy to know that she’s making friends with the pheasants and horse whisperer’s that live in that area of the country. (That is an inside joke that only her and a select group of people will understand, but needed to be mentioned because I need to amuse myself sometimes and give her a chuckle.)

She ended her correspondence with an inquiry that said (and I’m paraphrasing now) “I noticed that your lost post was on March 4th. WTF?”

Yeah, well… hmmmm…..

There’s a reason for that and I’ll produce a very long, boring post explaining it all. Soon. I promise.

But then Saturday morning came around and I received a very disturbing phone call that broke my heart.

My Uncle, who was also my Godfather, who was also a second father to me, suddenly passed away. To hear the sorrow in my father’s voice as he relayed the information to me was beyond heartbreaking. If my youngest hadn’t been next to me at the time I think that I would have just dug a hole in the floor and crawled into it and not resurfaced for days.

But she was and I didn’t. And both of my girls have been caring and loving, and giving me time to mourn, and I love them more than the sun and moon for it.

And it was just a few hours ago when everything was sinking in and tons of memories were flooding back to me about the wonderful times that I had with my Uncle that I remembered a photo that had been sitting on my desk for months. A photo that was unearthed from I-don’t-remember-where but held a memory of how much time our families spent together when I was young.

And I looked at the photo and made a stinky-face at how dorky I looked when I was young, but I also saw how happy me and my cousins were on that day posing for my mom’s camera. I knew then that I needed to send it to my cousin, my Uncle’s daughter, hoping that it would bring back some good memories to her too in her time of sorrow.

Because even though we were dealing with something so sad in our lives, we still needed to have something that brought back some good memories. The OMG factor doesn’t hurt either.

Yeah, we rocked the 70’s fashion scene.

Older Entries Newer Entries