Gleaning FaceTime: Christmas 2014

Most years beginning in 1962, on the evening of December 24, you would find me at Trinity United Methodist Church here in Rome. And there I was last night. This time sitting on the back row on the right side, far from my usual pew, so Lillian and I (Sheila's cough kept her home) could sit with Debi and Gregg, Lisette, Andrew, Matthew and Emily, and especially our recently added great-niece Annabelle. We sang the carols, heard Hannah and Susan sing O Holy Night, listened to David's meditation, took communion, lighted our candles and with a sanctuary crammed with Christmas Eve worshippers, lifted our candles to light the room as we repeated the first verse, voices only, of Silent Night.

Then off to the fellowship hall to get ready for the Live Nativity tradition. I made a quick trip home to collect Sheila for a brief visit to the church.

During this "lost Christmas" we have both been sick. Upper respiratory misery. Much tradition has slipped by without our participation. Parties, concerts, etc.: none.

But I had that prized thirty-minutes, standing with my box of gold (or maybe frankincense?) and in a ridiculous "Wise Man"s costume. I've only missed those quiet Christmas Eve minutes a few times during the last fifty years. The back ache distracted me, but still I enjoyed that enforced period of contemplation about Christmases past, the first and those of my own life, and the Love that we celebrate this day.

Happy Christmas!

Laurie Craw
As much as I always want to cut back on the traditions because there seem to be too many to cram into a few days, I realized this year that those traditions are so important. To keep families together, to focus on the truly important things in life, to think about others instead of ourselves, and to be truly grateful for all we have.

Emily Barksdale Moore Threlkeld
Annabelle is BEAUTIFUL! Merry Christmas- and I hope you both feel better asap!

Ann Gore
Sorry you all have been sick! Hope you are better! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to the Shaws!

Michael J. Burton
My mama sure loved that tradition.

Julie Hatfield Burton
Hope you and Sheila will take easy recovery soon!

Terrell Shaw
We are both doing much better, Julie. Thanks!

Madelyn Collette
I did not get to participate in any of these activities because of a problem Drs. can't quite determine the cause. So thankful to be able to go 3 of the Sundays in Advent and cook a little for Christmas.

Alice Jeffries Keel
Terrell Shaw we were driving by Trinity last evening about between 5:30 and 6:00 on our way back to Douglasville. We commented that we guessed they weren't having it on Christmas Eve - guess we just missed it by a bit. It is always so sweet!

Terrell Shaw

Dec. 20-24, 7-9 pm, every year. 

-----------------

My Mother loves me! I used to always ask for this cake for my birthday. She surprised me today with a Date-Nut Cake for Christmas! I may skip turkey and go straight for the dessert!

Years ago my co-workers at Pepperell Elementary (Priscilla Wooley & others) had heard me wax eloquent about Mama's Date-Nut Cake and decided to treat me with one on my birthday for breakfast at the diner in the big old company store building in Lindale (now gone). We gathered there before school, and out came the waitress with a stack of pancakes adorned with tiny calendar pages and small nuts of the hardware variety (and candles of course.)

I like pancakes, but I'll enjoy this Date-Nut Cake even more than that prank-cake of the early eighties.

Terrell Shaw Mother just told me that "Mama worked out that recipe." She also said, "Don't tell everybody I made that cake just for you! I made it for everybody!" But I know it's for me. 

Ann Gore Looks good!

Terrell Shaw It is. She doubled the dates on this one. Lots of pecans. Very rich and delicious.

Claudia Kennedy Yum, yum. You are one blessed man.

Joyce Mink Recipe?
Terrell Shaw
OK, here goes:

Three Layer Cake

(from the One-Two-Three-Four layer-cake from scratch recipe)

1 c. butter

2 c. sugar

3 c. flour

4 eggs

1 c. milk

1.5 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Cream sugar salt & butter in large bowl. Beat yolks into mixture one-at-a-time till light & fluffy. Add vanilla.

Sift flour & baking powder together. Add flour & milk alternately to the creamed mixture. Blend well after each addition.

Beat egg whites stiff but not dry. Fold into batter. Turn into 3 greased and floured 9 in. cake pans. Bake 350 degrees about 35 min. or until a fork comes out clean. Turn layers onto cooling rack and get busy on the filling.

Ieula Baird's Date-Nut Filling

2 cups of pecans

1 pkg of dates (Mama used two this time! Yum.)

2 c. sugar

1 stick butter

1 large can evaporated milk

Cook over medium heat for five minutes stirring constantly. Cool and spread between layers and on top and sides of three cake layers.

Invite Terrell over.

Brew some coffee to wash it down.

Jenny Sills You actually got measurements out of your mom. I am impressed. I could never get measurements from my grandmothers fro anything. Same with my dad.

--------------------

"Merry Christmas, everybody! May God bless you all. And we wish you and your family a happy and healthy 2015." —President Obama and the First Lady

An Unscheduled Feast

Your reporter eating a samosa.

OK. It was scheduled. And had been for weeks.

But I had planned to be disciplined, or at least moderate. In the end I rationalized that I had had no February Feast. I was, until last evening, one feast short on my 12 Feasts a Year schedule!

When Nancy joined our faculty last year I enjoyed talking with her about her heritage. She's from New Jersey and she is a Sikh. Her husband is from India. I wanted to know about her traditionally arranged marriage. The results of that practice seems to add credence to my oft-cited principles of love. Certainly the obvious love of this young couple does.

Jagdeep, Avi, Nancy.

Why are there so many Sikhs named Singh? Does she know anyone who practices that strange (to non-Sikhs) tradition of wearing a dagger, for heaven's sake? One of our students, a Sikh, wears a turban of sorts. I wanted to know about that custom.

But, being me, I was most interested in the food!

I had discovered Punjabi food in 1968-69. My Asbury College (now Asbury University) roommate, Solomon Lasoi, was a Kenyan. Through him I became acquainted with a Sikh couple from Kenya who were studying at the University of Kentucky in nearby Lexington. And they invited Solomon and me to dinner with them at their home.

Terrell, Solomon, and Mr. Singh, May 1969.

I am always delighted to discover new culinary delights and was not disappointed. The curried chicken and rice and attendant dishes were delicious. I wish I had been keeping a journal at that time so that I could remember the meal in more detail. Ever since then I have been interesed in having another Indian meal.

So I found occasional opportunities to suggest that Nancy should bring a Punjabi dish to the next faculty pot luck. She replied that instead she and Jagdeep planned to have Sheila and me as their guests for a real Indian meal at their house.

The occasion of the first birthday of their son, Avi, served as the occasion for a big celebration for a host of their friends, relatives, and co-workers, including us, last night.

What a feast!

Samosas.

My absolute favorite, but an item that may have included my usual alloted Weight Watcher points for an entire day, were the appetizers. They are called samosas. It is a large triangular deep-fried stuffed pastry. The crunchy crust is fairly bursting with a spicy concoction of potatoes and spices and onions and who-knows-what. Yum!

Soaking up this audacious sauce are chunks of chicken breast.

The main dish was Butter Chicken -- small chunks of chicken breast swimming in a spicy reddish-orange sauce, served over basmati rice. This dish seemed very similar to what I had eaten in Lexington FORTY years ago.

I think the chicken should have been served over the rice. Since I am dieting I went light on the rice.

Side dishes included spicy creamed spinach dotted with small cubes of cheese...

I really liked the creamed spinach. (My mother will be proud.)

and, yes, spicy chickpeas.

Chickpea dish.

A thin tasty yogurt sauce was available to top any or all of these dishes, perhaps to moderate the bite of the hot spices. Quartered flatbread, itself spinkled with spices, provided a way to sop the soupy residue of deliciousness when the fork had done all it could.

Flatbread.

What a wonderful treat.

Avi enjoying his birthday cake. I couldn't resist posting this. How well I remember those days with my toddlers!

-------------------------

Comments from my Facebook link to this post:

Janice Shaw Crouse
So proud of you for the lifestyle -- good for you!!

Rhonda Ingram Bramlette
I just read your blog and the pictures and descriptions have made me want to throw my calorie count for the day right out the window!! Looks wonderful! I have never had anything like those dishes but I would certainly like to try some. Thanks for sharing.

Christie Hufstedler Boyd
It reminds me of the foods we had in the Republic of Georgia in 1992 on the Georgia to Georgia exchange. Elaina and Valentine came and lived with us for 6 months. The food she cooked was heavenly! Makes me want to make Elaina's stuffed grape leaves. They are to die for and nothing like what is on the olive bar at Kroger! Cabbage leaves are just as good.

Warren Lathem
Terry, finally something we can agree on: FOOD! Thanks for sharing. I know we agree much more than we disagree and I believe in your constitutional (I am a constructionist) right to be wrong!

Joan Shaw Turrentine
That was a very interesting blogpost! And the photos were mouth-watering.

Gleaning Facebook: Google Stir Fry

The Google Stir Fry

Here's the recipe as modified by me to serve two and use the stuff I had. Just a standard stir-fry, really. It was good.

Ingredients:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts 

1 sweet red pepper

1 sm. can sliced or chopped mushrooms

1 can sliced water chesnuts

1 zucchini 

2 green onions 

2 oz. chicken stock (or other liquid)

0.5 tbsp soy sauce 

1 tsp cornstarch 

1 tbsp EVOO 

1 clove garlic, minced 

1 slice fresh gingerroot, chopped

Directions:

• Cut chicken into bite-sized chunks

• Cut red peppers into short strips

• Cut zucchini into thin oval slices. 

• Slice onions, including some green parts, on the diagonal. 

• Combine stock, soy sauce and cornstarch; set aside. 

• In wok, heat oil over high heat; stir-fry garlic, ginger and chicken for about 2 minutes or until chicken is opaque. 

• Add vegetables; stir-fry for 1 minute. 

• Pour in stock mixture; cook for 1 minute or until vegetables are glazed and tender crisp.

----------

Carol Burris
ok Terrell, bring left overs and share w/me tomorrow for lunch

Thanksgiving and Apple Pie

Another glorious Thanksgiving. Mama read the 100th Psalm and led us in a prayer Then we sang the doxology and dug into a record breaking collection of wonderful recipes.
Turkey, cornbread-dressing, spiral-sliced ham, onion pie, yeast rolls, tomato pie, various cranberry sauces including a tart sauce for the meat that includes cranberries and horseradish and onion, a cranberry sauce hors d'oeuvre made of slices of jellied cranberry sauce with walnuts and a cream cheese concoction, regular pound cake, chocolate pound cake, pecan pie, ... I could go on.

My favorite dessert was Lillian's Skillet Apple Pie. The recipe comes from the Taste and See That the Lord is Good Cookbook published by the Tallahassee Heights United Methodist Church.
One stick butter
Two pie crusts
Half cup of granulated sugar
Two teaspoons cinnamon
One cup brown sugar
Four to sic Granny Smith apples

Preheat oven to 350°
Put butter in skillet and place in oven to melt. Stir brown sugar into butter till blended well. Place one pie crust on top of mixture in skillet. Place sliced apples on that. Mix cinnamon with granulated sugar and sprinkle onto apples. Top this with the second crust. Make small slits in crust. Brush crust with butter and sprinkle with a little sugar. Bake 45 minutes until lightly browned. Serve warm and top with a generous dollop of ice cream. Yum!

Thanksgiving doubles in our family as a celebration for our birthday buddies, Joan and Amanda.

And this year we had the added attraction of our little grand-niece fräulein, Emma, who is visiting with her Mom and Dad, Michi and Josh. What a little charmer!

Thanksgiving Week Flashback: Sweet Potato Souffle

Another in my lazy man's posts for Thanksgiving Week. This was an thinly disguised effort to rev up my readership during the Hallothanksmas Season by posting a recipe for a dish much loved by many but not by me.

From November 2007:
__________

I am not fond of Sweet Potato Soufflé. Georgia Warner was a great friend of my late mother-in-law, Mavis Matthews. I am posting Georgia's recipe -- which I am assured by connoisseurs of Sweet Potato Soufflé is an excellent one -- for purely ulterior motives.

Georgia's Sweet Potato Soufflé

3 cups of mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup of oleo, melted and cooled
2/3 cup of canned milk
1 cup of sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Mix the above ingredients and pour into a casserole dish.

Then:

1 packed cup of brown sugar
1/3 cup of flour
1 cup of chopped Georgia pecans
1/3 cup of softened oleo

Mix these ingredients and spread over the potatoes.
Bake at 350° for one hour.

- Georgia Warner
From Taste and See That the Lord is Good (Psalm 34:8)
A cookbook from Tallahassee Heights United Methodist Church

Sweet Potato Souffle
Sweet Potato Soufflay
Sweet Potato Suoffle
Sweet Potato Sooflay
Sweet Potato Souflae
Sweet Potato Soofflé
Turkey & Dressing
Thanksgiving Dinner
Christmas Dinner
Side Dishes

Apple Pie and Motherhood

My daughter, Lillian, served a beautiful and delicious Apple Pie at our Thanksgiving get-together, and my wonderful Mother read the 100th Psalm, led us in a prayer of thanksgiving, then served us a wonderful meal of her dressing with turkey, ham, various and sundry cranberry sauces/relishes/compotes, mashed potatoes, delicious spiced carrots, cantaloupe, mac & cheese, and pecan pie, chocolate pie... I could go on. I am unsure of which of the wonderful cooks were involved in each of the dishes, but all were delicious.

Here is Lillian with her pie:
And her recipe (adapted from a recipe at Allrecipes.com ):

Caramel Apple Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie (I just use the store-bought Pillsbury Pie Crusts. They're easy, and you can find them in the refrigerated section).
  
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup water (for a different taste, use orange juice instead of water).
  
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 5 or 6 apples (Granny Smiths are my favorite, but if you have some apples lying around, that'll work).
  
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• pinch o' cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, or any other spice you like.
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, vanilla extract and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
2. Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Add spices directly to the apples. Cover with a lattice work of crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.
3. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F. Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.

Sweet Potato Soufflé (dedicated to my Median Sib)

I am not fond of Sweet Potato Soufflé. Georgia Warner was a great friend of my late mother-in-law, Mavis Matthews. I am posting Georgia's recipe -- which I am assured by connoisseurs of Sweet Potato Soufflé is an excellent one -- for purely ulterior motives.

Georgia's Sweet Potato Soufflé

3 cups of mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup of oleo, melted and cooled
2/3 cup of canned milk
1 cup of sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Mix the above ingredients and pour into a casserole dish.

Then:

1 packed cup of brown sugar
1/3 cup of flour
1 cup of chopped Georgia pecans
1/3 cup of softened oleo

Mix these ingredients and spread over the potatoes.
Bake at 350° for one hour.

- Georgia Warner
From Taste and See That the Lord is Good (Psalm 34:8)
A cookbook from Tallahassee Heights United Methodist Church

Sweet Potato Souffle
Sweet Potato Soufflay
Sweet Potato Suoffle
Sweet Potato Sooflay
Sweet Potato Souflae
Sweet Potato Soofflé
Turkey & Dressing
Thanksgiving Dinner
Christmas Dinner
Side Dishes