The Best Place on Earth

Grandma’s house, the best place on earth. Filled with hugs, kisses, good smells and lots of love. She and Grandpa got along like best friends. Their happiness filled the farm and made it the most fun, most longed for, and safest place to be. My childhood fears faded at their house. I loved my time at Grandma’s.

One of the first fears I had was the Boogieman. When I walked alone on a dark night I knew that he was right behind me, prepared to attack at any second. I pictured him ten feet tall with scalely-green skin, one eye lying on his cheek dangling from a slimy string of fleshy stuff. He had big hairy warts and long sharp claws on his hands. Just one look from his good eye and you could be turned to stone forever. Pretty much like the monsters my brother loved in his comic books or the late night movies. He could never get enough of the gory stuff, any amount of it proved to be too much for me!

I used to visit my Grandparents often in the 1950’s for weekends with my parents, then two glorious weeks in the summer by myself. I loved my Grandma in all things. Her gentle way of telling me to do things. Just before church she would give me Chicklets Gum and some Jergen’s lotion for my hands. Before walking into church she’d take the gum back and dispose of it. The smell of her hand lotion and lilac perfume gave me pleasure. Her mouth spoke kind words and her blue eyes held laughter most of the time.

My Grandma loved her large garden, she grew everything from squash to corn. She worked hard alongside of Grandpa in that garden. Towards the end of the season you could have a snack any time if you had a paring knife and a saltshaker!

I have always been one to stare at the clouds picking out shapes or just stare off into space and let my mind wonder. Grandma’s farm was the stuff daydreams are made of.

Shopping at Safeway

When we were newlyweds in 1970, my budget for the weekly groceries was $10. I shopped at Safeway just up the street from our apartment on Church Street. I would make my menus, then my want list. It was a limited menu; spaghetti, hamburgers, and pot pies. A lot of pot pies. They were 4 for a dollar. Oleo, we called margarine oleo, was 10 cents for a little round patty that lasted a week. Nearly 40 years of wedded bliss have passed and I can still remember standing there at Safeway’s meat counter looking at the packages. My rule was if it was over a dollar, I didn’t buy it. Sometimes I would pick up that slice of ham and it looked so good, but it was $1.04 and I would put it back and choose something else. It didn’t hurt us or make us resentful doing without. It made us smarter. Smarter about the choices we would make down the line. Making each cent count, stretching those dollars. We don’t have to pinch the pennies quite so bad these days but it’s a hard habit to break. It would be impossible nowadays to find anything to eat at the meat counter less than a dollar.

My daughters and their families face these tough times with almost no way to save on grocery bills. Coupons are of little use, the name brands cost more so you don’t save anything using them. Cooking from scratch used to save money, now I think it’s the most expensive way to cook.

I wanted to fix a nice Valentine meal for the two of us last weekend so when I went to Walmart on Friday I had made a list.
Sourdough bread
Butter
2 baking potatoes
Salad mix
Tomato
Cucumber
I had a steak in the freezer so it was just a handful of things to buy. The bakers were 98cents a piece, the sourdough bread $3, the butter $2.54, the salad mix $2.58, tomato 75cents and the cucumber 50 cents. That came to just under $12 with tax. One meal…40 years ago that would have been a whole weeks worth of groceries. We enjoyed our steak dinner even though I did kind of ruin the romance by going on and on about the potatoes costing 98cents each.

Snickerdoodle Day

I'm going to go visit my Mom today. She lives in a nursing facility that specializes in Dementia Care. It's set up like a home with living room, dining room, kitchen, bedrooms and a nice outdoor area with a courtyard that they can come and go freely in warm weather. My Mother's move from her farm could have been traumatic, but she feels like this is home and is very secure and happy again. That means the world to me, when she reached the point that she could no longer live alone, Windcrest provided her the safe home she needed. It's a close-knit little group of 16 ladies who share their lives daily and have become family. I love each one of them and look forward to my visits not only with Mom but with the other ladies as well. I take cookies or cupcakes once a week to feed my Mom's sweet tooth! Today I made Snickerdoodles from Paula Deen's The Lady and Son's Cookbook. It's an easy recipe that always is a hit!

Snickerdoodles...Two Ways Printable Recipe
Yields Approximately 4 Dozen
1 cup Crisco...I use Butter Crisco (I'm Southern!)
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar (the 2 tablespoons are to make the cinnamon sugar)
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar and the eggs. Sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Combine with egg mixture and chill dough thoroughly. Roll into balls the size of a walnut. Roll in mixture of 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Bake for 8-10 minutes on ungreased baking sheet until lightly browned but still soft.*Ok, here's the two way part...I love cinnamon so I add 2 teaspoons cinnamon to the dough (along with the other dry ingredients) and then roll in the cinnamon sugar just like the recipe says.

Cream the Butter flavored Crisco, sugar and eggs until light and fluffy. This is my new KitchenAid mixer that my darling husband surprised me with Christmas Now he's always been a great gift giver, but I think this ranks near the top of all my gifts! I feel a little guilty receiving it, I rarely bake anything for us. It seems we are on a FOREVER diet these days. But I do bake for Mom and the Ladies and holidays when our daughters and their families come home.

Add the sifted dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and chill thoroughly.

Paula Deen's recipe says roll the balls the size of a walnut, but I like to use my little ice cream scoop so the cookies may be a tad bigger. Roll them in the mixture of 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Again the recipe says to bake 8-10 minutes on ungreased baking sheet, but I bake 12 minutes (because of the slightly larger size) until lightly browned but still soft. They will crisp as they cool.

Don't they look like little scoops of vanilla ice cream? I saw this idea of using a small ice cream scoop (I found mine at Walmart) on Food Network. It sure makes quick work of making cookies. While I am on the "Good Idea Train," my neighbor Sharon told me her Mom used to make a batch of cookies and refrigerate the dough, baking them a dozen at a time. You know how good they are fresh from the oven and seem more special than cold ones from the cookie jar. Husbands need to smell cookies baking anytime you have had a busy afternoon at Tuesday Morning...

Here's the ones I took to Mom and the Ladies. The Ladies baked a cake this week, they stirred it up and all helped to decorate the top. I appreciate the care and dedication of all of the ones who work so hard to keep my Mom happy and safe.

These I took to our good neighbors who checked on me during the recent ice storm, brought us Valentine cupcakes, and watch to make sure I put my garage door down...you know who you are!