One of the features of family focused magazines was the inclusion of "Bake Off" winning recipes. Eventually, these morphed into some very strange concoctions that used jello molds and odd combinations. these all appear to be relatively tame. These came as a perforated booklet designed to be torn out and saved.
I'm a very tactile shopper. I only pick things up when I'm ready to by. I need to know how an item feels. What's the heft? Does it feel soft, solid, cheap? IN the same way I'm a visual internet browser. I've been online since you had to have a local .edu or darpa account so I'm very versed in using the advanced search features on the various search engines. That said I was once asked how the heck I found something so quickly when a group I was sitting in needed an answer. The trick is that I do the search and then switch to "image" view. This allows me to scroll through the images weeding out results that obviously aren't what I need. So I was really happy to see Pinterest when it was launched. It's kind of the same idea with the added benefits of having the result group sourced and tested.
After that bit of background: recently a picture of my Bestest Old Girl showed up on the book of faces memory feed.
I miss her every day. As a puppy she picked us out when we finally decided that my daughter was old enough to take on the responsibility of a pet. My wife had recovered from her cancer surgery and we were moving back into normalcy. However, she soon had to deal with the side-affects which lead to a double hip replacement. She turned that lovable mutt into a well trained service dog. She pulled clothes out of the dryer for folding. She picked up and fetched items that were out of reach. She knew to get out of the way and not be underfoot as my wife navigated on crutches.
For over a year after her last day I would look for her outside to be let in, or stop to put water in her bowl, or stop in the mud room to check her kennel. I've been lucky to have had many 'good' dogs but none that I loved like her.
This leads me to Gun-dog. He's a purebred German Shepherd and the most stubborn, hard head-est thing I have ever had to deal with and I've worked customer support. Yeah, I love him but we don't have the same connection that I had with Stitch..... and that seems to be part of the problem. It's been very hard for me to realize that he is not Stitch. Comparing him to her is not fair and I'm working on it but dang it's hard.
Several years ago, during a Men's Day message at church, we were challenged to think about the words of wisdom that had been passed down from the men in our life. I jotted some notes in my prayer journal and figured that I would also include such thoughts from the women in my life also. Here's the first on the list:
Dad
"Never fry bacon in your underwear."
"If you know how to fix things, you will always have a job."
This is a running joke on the internet. I think everyone's dad at one time or another has said this. I have a very distinct picture of my father in my mind making breakfast one morning while were at his house when he actually said this.
My parents divorced when I was 11 or 12. My relationship with my father was strained. While he wasn't a bad dad, he just wasn't very active in my life after the divorce. I have memories of sitting on the front porch waiting for him to actually show up for his weekend. After I left the Army, I made an effort to eat lunch with him whenever I was in the area for work. He said the second quote at the last lunch, before he passed away. He told me he was proud of me and my career choice. I'm very happy that we were able to mend our relationship before his passing.
Mom and Jane both made this one. Jane called hers Slumgullion. Mom called her version goulash.
Veg-all is still a popular brand here in the south. Not sure about the rest of the country. I grew up on a cattle farm. If you've never put a whole cow in the deep freeze then you probably don't have any idea just how much hamburger you get when you purchase your beef that way. This was a quick easy meal that my brother and I both knew and could prepare on those nights when it was our turn to cook. It was usually doubled and made in Mom's Miracle-maid electric skillet. This pan was pre-microwave so just dumping 2 lns of burger in the skillet with a little water was a great way to get dinner going after school.
As you can imagine I really enjoy open fire cooking and cast iron. I was surprised to find this in the box. I don't remember seeing any of these molds in Jane's kitchen. I'm not sure where she got this pamphlet. It may be useful if you have one of these John Wright cookie molds.
When you start looking at these old recipes you start to find some that "everyone" makes. These are good examples. The Foolproof Chocolate Fudge recipe is on an old Broden Sweetened Condensed Milk label. This is the one that my mom used when she didn't want to go through the long, involved "make a ball" process from Aunt Sug's fudge recipe. I have that one someplace and will post it sometime.
