Love of the Land

Can't you just hear the swing creaking and the screen door slamming in this wonderful painting by Duane Bryers? A trip over to the farm this week brought back that familiar "Home Sweet Home" feeling. We were there to mow and spray weeds, a work day so there was no time for porch sitting or moon gazing but I have those memories tucked away and they will never fade!

Our Grandson went with us and mowed the yard, hard work for a 12 year old! Gavin has inherited a love of the land, not sure how that happens when you've been a city kid all your life! He begs to go with us and wants to help out with the work involved. I wonder if farm life may be in his future. It suited my Grandparents, they chose that lifestyle while Grandpa's brothers and sisters moved to California during those Depression years for better wages.

I've heard my Mother time and again tell about when her parents bought a wheat thresher to help them with the harvest. They took great pride in this piece of machinery that made their lives so much easier.

Until they were able to buy the thresher, hay rakes were used to harvest the wheat.... can you imagine?

This instruction manual was in the top of one of the closets, it didn't take me long to locate the pictures of the delivery day of this much anticipated machine!

 This had to be either the banker or the salesman... a suit and farm work don't exactly go together! Grandpa is in the background.

 Here Grandma and her cousin show how easy it is to operate this big rig!

Today's farmers face many challenges, costs for producing crops are astronomical with the price of corn and gasoline, not to mention farm equipment. When I look at these pictures, I am in awe of the strength my Grandparents must have had to run their farm. Really it was just the two of them, and somehow they managed. We've come a long way, American farmers feed the world. Quite an accomplishment!

Confederate Cemetery Fayetteville, Arkansas

One of the few posts my husband ever wrote on the blog, definitely one of my favorites! Memorial Day weekend is time off for most of us, we gather as families and many of us visit the cemeteries of our loved ones to decorate the graves. This cemetery is located just blocks from the historic Fayetteville downtown square and the day we visited we were the only ones there. It contains the remains of men who died in the service of the Confederacy in North Arkansas. Some of the soldiers buried here died from illness in disease ridden camps or from battle in one of the most violent and desperately contested fronts of the Civil War. Their graves once dotted the hills of Northwest Arkansas until 1878 when the Southern Memorial Association of Washington County established the beautiful cemetery. The bodies of fallen soldiers were exhumed and brought here for final burial.

These pictures and the poignant words of my husband tell why we can never forget these old cemeteries...

The trees seem to watch over these soldiers,  almost as if they stand at attention to salute those who rest beneath.  These ancient trees speak to me, I wonder if they speak to each other?

Do they encourage each other to be strong?  In the face of decades of tornadoes, ice storms, wind storms, droughts, floods, and everything else that nature has offered them, they don't give up.  I saw a very large depression in the ground with the remnants of a rotten stump.  Do the trees whisper to each other that one of them has fallen?  Does this increase their resolve to remain strong until the younger trees can grow to a size to shade the soldiers?

They remind me of a photo I saw of a 92 year old World War II veteran who had the opportunity to visit the new WWII memorial in Washington, DC.  He flew out on a Honor Flight from our airport wearing his old uniform.  My company helps sponsor these flights so that the few surviving WWII vets who are able to travel have the opportunity to see it.  In the picture he made a valiant effort to stand straight and salute.

The trees here are very much like this gentleman, proud to salute those resting there but too old to stand straight anymore.
  

I wonder if they will still be there next Memorial Day?  Will any finally fall when the next storm comes or will they make it another year, just waiting for the small ones to relieve them of guard duty?

The graves in the old Confederate Cemetery honor someone's father, husband, friend. Somewhere there are family members who've never seen this cemetery. They can't imagine the beauty and the peace that surrounds their loved one. I just wish they knew that he is honored by all who call themselves Americans.

Chocolate Fried Pies

That's not the way to feel about anything as delicious as Chocolate Fried Pies. In fact, it's an insult to a Southern delicacy that's rarely made these days! I hadn't thought about fried pies in a long time, but Saturday when my BFF Chocolate kept knocking on my front door... I caved and went into the kitchen and made myself (I say myself because my better half knows to keep his mitts off my chocolate cravings!) some homemade chocolate pudding. The recipe is from Hershey and it's simple: 

CHOCOLATE PUDDING AND PIE FILLING
1/2 Cup Hershey's cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Dark Cocoa)
1 1/8 Cup sugar 
1/3 Cup cornstarch
1 tsp salt
3 Cups milk
3 TBS butter 

1 1/2 tsp good vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan, mix cocoa, sugar, cornstarch and salt, whisk well. Gradually add milk to dry ingredients in saucepan. Whisk til smooth and well blended. Cook over medium heat. Stir constantly. Mixture will come to a boil. Boil 1 minute, remove from heat. Add butter and vanilla. Whisk to blend. Pour into serving dishes, or into cooled baked 9" Pie Crust. Cover with plastic wrap. Cool in refrigerator 4-6 hrs. Or till firm. 

Now I grew up on this stuff and it's as different from the little square boxes of  Jello as day and night. 

It's Pure Comfort, Mama loves you, The World is Round Food. 

It will take you away from politics, or the state of the economy or even a failed relationship. I don't think it can cure cancer though, that would be great wouldn't it?

I ate a few spoonfuls when I was pouring it into serving cups, you know from the the pan. I had to do that, it's wasteful to leave any smidgen~ Then I put the plastic wrap on each serving and put them in the fridge. About 9pm I remembered them, oh daddy! The first bite was Heaven, but you know... it was little RICH! I used to be able to eat chocolate buttercream out of a bowl with a big spoon but age has robbed the glutton clean out of me. I get ACID REFLUX, if I abuse my stomach it's just not worth it. So I ate a few bites and put it back in the fridge : (

The next morning after a few cups of coffee, my brain started working again and I knew just what to do with that decadent chocolate pudding/pie filling! Chocolate Fried Pies... just like Mama used to make and Grandma and probably her Grandma.

It's easy as 1-2-3 to stir up the crust, no waiting for it to chill. You just measure out 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 cup Crisco and 1/2 cup milk. Cut in the Crisco into your flour and salt with a fork or your fingers, just work it into a flaky consistency. Then add the milk and stir gently to moisten. If it's just a little dry and won't pull together, add a teaspoon more milk. Pat into a disk and then divide up into about 10 balls. 

Flour your surface and roll out the balls to make little 5 inch circles, not perfect circles unless you want them to look like store bought Hostess Fried Pies and that's not what you are making. You're making Grandma's Fried Pies and she'd be mortified if you cut them out to make them perfect!

Add a dollop, a rounded tablespoon or two to each little pie. 

Then dip your finger in a bowl of water and run it around the edge of the crust. Fold over and press, crimp the edge with a fork and place on a plate in preparation of the frying of the pies!

Don't they look purty? 

Heat the oil up to medium high, to test you can dip the edge of the crust into the oil a little. If it's just right, it will bubble slightly.

Slip them in, one at a time and watch them like a 2 year old! Don't be trying to clean up the kitchen or put away the flour or answer a text cause this is where you can mess up quick! 

Patience Grasshopper, you are looking for golden brown. Not tan, not brown, golden. 

Drain on paper towels and admire each one as they come out of the pan. Talk to them, tell them 

"I love you!"

Last one, and you are finished!  

Luckily, we had company this weekend and the fried pies went home with them. There's few things more dangerous than a fried pie on the kitchen counter. Especially if it has chocolate filling!

That is all.

Fried Pies

Fruit fillings are delicious too... just boil down some dried fruit with sugar and water and a little spice.

Filling

6-7 ounces dried fruit (peaches, apples, apricots or even a mix of all three)

1 cup sugar

2 cups water

1/4 cup butter 

1  T lemon juice 

1/2 tsp cinnamon 

Dough

2 Cups Flour

1 Tsp salt

1/2 C Crisco

1/2 C of milk 

Place dried fruit in a pot and add water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer until fruit is tender. Add butter, lemon juice and cinnamon, mash together with a potato masher or fork. Set aside to cool while dough is prepared.

In medium bowl, place flour and salt. Stir together. Cut in shortening with a fork or your 10 little fingers! Add in milk and stir until dough sticks together. Divide into ten portions. Roll each portion out on a floured surface into a five inch circle. Place two tablespoons of filling in each. Use your fingertip to wet the edges with water and fold over, crimping with a fork. Cook in oil which has been heated on medium heat, until golden browned on both sides, turning as needed. Remove to paper towel lined plate.

PRINT RECIPE (Chocolate Filling too)