Cooking Class 101*

On Mon. Jan. 21 the first session of Cooking 101 began with one student who you see observing the hamburger patties that she has just produced.

The menu: Homemade hamburger patties; store bought buns; all the condiments - ketchup, mustard, pickles, tomatoes, lettuce & salad dressing; & green beans. Dessert was prepared ahead of time by the instructor - applesauce & cookies.

All the taste testers OK'd the resulting products of the class.

*In the high schools the "101" or any course ending in "01" denotes basic course.

Dog Days or Daze

You know those eye shields that some folks wear on the airplane - Long ago the airlines used to give them out in kits. This dog has her own built on one. She sleeps under the kitchen table where it is bright sun shine for a long time everyday. You can also see her getting a bath back in June. She had a bath on Christmas day courtesy of Opa & T. again on New years eve T. said " Abby is stinky" so of course T. thought that A. should have another bath. A doesn't fight the baths now like she did when she was younger. However, a once a week bath for her is unheard of before this recent episode.

Headed North From Dallas

Moving day for Ruth. Thurs. Dec. 20Th. On Wed. evening we packed as much of Ruth's belongings as we possibly could and had them lined up in the living room area ready to pack into the cars in the morning. After our fairly early breakfast Helmut took apart the bed and then started to pack our van. Ruth had to go on an errand to the post office and bank but it didn't take her too long. H. & R. carried all of the stuff down to the cars and got everything packed snugly in. I remained in the apartment until we were ready to leave because my knee and leg hurt so much from the fall and I just didn't feel like I could negotiate three flights of steps more the once.

I think we finally got away from Dallas about 10:30 in the morning. You can see Ruth's Honda entering the free way as she led us through the busy highway system of Dallas. Then you see some tall buildings behind a bit of highway as we left the city. The multilevel highways and interchanges are quite impressive but very difficult to photograph from the car window.

In southern Oklahoma we came through some interesting landscape I think is is the Ardach (or something similar) Wilderness. It is very rocky and hilly with lots of forest.

Further north in Oklahoma we noticed a lot of red soil so we also had to take a picture or two of it.

Our traveling was uneventful with clear dry roads the usual pit stops and food breaks. Ma & Pa need a few more of these stops than Ruth does but she cooperated and stopped when we did.

As we were approaching the Kansas City area Ruth signaled us to stop. When we found a parking lot where we could pull in she told us that Aunt Pat had phoned and wanted us to come to Lincoln for the night. We settled the arrangements and headed to Lincoln. We would have gone a different route if we had known earlier but at this point it was only a little back tracking.

We arrived in Lincoln pretty close to midnight. Matt & Sarah kindly put us up for the night with the understanding that we would have breakfast at Pat & John's as Val & Dennis & girls were there. this way we got to see everyone.

FRONTIERS OF FLIGHT MUSEUM - DALLAS LOVE FIELD

The last point of interest that we visited was the Flight museum. We were rather late in the day arriving there and it wasn't very busy. The guide was anxious to tell us all about everything - even though the place had nice texts explaining in minute detail. Ruth enjoyed learning about the history of flight as well as the history of the two World Wars - she was a very attentive listener to the elderly gentleman who was the guide. Helmut went along on his own reading and investigating all the displays. I tried to listen to part of the guide's talk and read some of the stuff and generally show some interest in this place. I sure wouldn't fancy flying in some of those early aircraft that were wide open to the sky - of course those brave pilots & machines were needed to bring us to what we have today.

CORNMEAL MUSH

I am decorating the recipes with flower pictures. This is my current amaryllis when it had its first two blooms. Now those two have wilted and the second two blooms are open. The blooms have two rows of petals which I don't recall seeing before on other plants.







CORNMEAL MUSH

4 cups of water
1 tsp. salt.
1 cup cornmeal

Bring water and salt to a boil in a medium sized sauce pan, slowly add the cornmeal while stirring. Cook it for about 5 minutes or until as thick as you desire it. stir it frequently.

Serve as a hot cereal or

Serve along with eggs or

Place in a greased loaf pan, cover and refrigerate until the next day. Cut into thin slices and fry them in a skillet with oil or fat of some sort at a low temperature until golden brown.
Serve like pan cakes with butter and syrup.

This can be a good substitute for pancakes for people who do not tolerate wheat.

Spooon Bread

1 cup milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup of water
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
2 tbsp. butter (cut into bits)
3 large eggs, separated

In a large pan, combine milk , salt & water and bring to a simmer over low heat. Stir in cornmeal a little at a time and cook, stirring constantly for 2 minutes or until it is thickened. Put in a food processor and blend 30 seconds. ( I used the mixer in the same pot where I cooked it. You could also blend it vigorously with a wooden spoon.) Add the butter and egg yolks and blend until combined.

In a large bowl beat the egg whites until they just form stiff peaks. Use the electric or hand beater or a whisk and lots of elbow grease. Stir 1/4 of the cornmeal mixture into the egg whites and then gently fold in the remainder. Pour in to a 1 1/2 quart casserole dish that has been greased and bake at 375 F for 30 -40 minutes.
.
Serve with a gravy or stew of some sort.

Thanks goes to our neighbor, Peter Grant, for this recipe.

Tour of Dallas Heritage Village

Our next stop of interest after I was changed was the Dallas Heritage Village which of course was over on the side of town where we had come from when I got wet so we had a little driving to do. We thought we could stop for lunch on our way at a fast food place that Ruth recommended but there was no parking available so went on to the Village hoping that they would have a place to eat heritage food. No such luck with that idea but we stayed there to see the place before we went looking for lunch.

This village is set up with some of the old houses of early Dallas, a farm, the main street of early Dallas, and other houses that would have been on the range of TX in the early days.

The white house where Helmut & Ruth are standing out front was the largest of the houses and had belonged to an influential family of Dallas. the "lady of the house told us all about the family and house and times. ( she wasn't dressed in the style of the era).

In many to the houses the "guides" were dressed as in the era that they were representing and they talked to you as if you had come to visit them on a Wed. afternoon of long ago. We saw a couple of houses that went by the name of Dog Run or Gun Shot houses, these had the front and back doors exactly opposite of one another with nothing obstructing the passage between. The idea was that you could shoot straight through the house or the dog could run straight through. The farm house was not closed in the passage way - it had a roof over the hall way with two rooms on each side on the main floor - I can't remember it the second floor crossed the passage way or not. Ruth was up there but I refrained from climbing those steps. We didn't take a picture of those houses. The interpreter at the farm house said that in the hot summer nights the family would sleep in this open passage way as it would be cooler than in the house. There was a wreath or long fan of laural leaves on the wall we were told that if the leaves are fresh it is useful to repel the flies.

The house with the big porch, red roof and lots of gables where two "ladies" are rocking on the porch was a favorite of Ruth's.

Helmut is all set to give us a performance of some sort in the band stand. Funny to see Christmas decorations all over the place on such a lovely warm day.

If I could find the pamphlet that we got at this place I could give more details.

By the end of this tour I was quite hungry and in need of lunch. We decided to try Panera Bread and Ruth knew of one near our next point of interest so we head that way. The sandwiches proved too big for Ruth and me so we each saved half of ours to eat at supper time. We had a cooler bag with a ice block so put them away for later.

It is a strange thing to look across the yards from these old time places and see the Dallas high rises in the back ground and see and hear the steady stream of traffic.

Remember that if you double click on a picture it will fill the whole screen - they actually look much better enlarged.