With mother’s delicious cakes in mind, my first trip to the store was to buy some scratch.  I found the aisle that read ‘baking items’ and spent fifteen minutes looking at everything from oils to flours, but no signs of scratch could I see. And not even with the pickles or meat either!

I asked a clerk if they carried scratch.  He looked at me oddly and said, “Oh, you’ll have to go to the store at the corner of  Hampshire and Maple.”

When I got there, it turned out to be a feed store.  I thought this odd, but cakes are food, so I went inside and said to the store clerk, “I’d like to buy some scratch.”  When he asked me how much I wanted, I suggested a pound or two.  He replied, ‘how many chicken do you have?  It only comes in 20 pound bags. ‘ I didn’t understand why he mentioned chicken, but mother said she made a chicken casserole from scratch, so I bought twenty pounds and hurried on home, delighted with my purchase.

My next problem was to find a recipe calling for scratch.  I went through every page of my three cookbooks but didn’t find one recipe calling for scratch.  I spent hours at the library searching too. No luck.  There I was with 20 pounds of scratch and no recipe.

When I opened the bag, I doubted that a fluffy, moist cake would result from such hard looking ingredients, but then, with the addition of liquids and the use of heat, the result could be very successful.  I had no desire to mention my problem to my husband as he very much liked to cook and said he would gladly take over that task.  One day when I raved about his lemon pie, he promptly acknowledged that he made it from scratch, so I was then assured it could actually be done.

Now, as you know, being a new bride is pretty scary, especially when three meals a day must be made back in the day.  During the first week I learned that the muffins, waffles, pancakes, pies, cakes and even pudding he had made were made from scratch.  Well! If he’d made all that from scratch, he must have bought a 20 pound bag too, but I couldn’t find where he kept it stashed away.

The mystery continued , but I wouldn’t reveal my problem.  The biggest jolt came when a friend bragged to me that he’d built his house himself from scratch.  Then I heard acquaintances say they had made dresses and jackets from scratch, in addition to numerous pastries and desserts.

At this point, I was about ready to give up because everybody knew everything about scratch except me.  But pride kept me going.  If paper can be made from wood and glue from horses’ hooves, maybe wood or cloth could be made from scratch.  Who knows?

By now the detective in me was getting weary, so one day I asked my husband to teach me how to bake a cake.  He got out the flour, sugar, eggs, milk, etc. and there was no sign of scratch.  I watched him carefully blend all of the ingredients and then put it into the oven.  Later, when we were eating the cake, he couldn’t understand my asking…… ‘Honey, why don’t we raise a few chickens?”… and so we did!

Best days of Spring.. hatching chicks

Deacon's ball

Bringing in the New Year

It’s been a pretty busy month for me here and I know I’m way behind visiting all my fave blogs but we’ve been pretty busy working on a new business venture here these past weeks.  But somehow I did managed to get all my cookies baked and delivered, packages are all shipped and the tree is up even if Piccolo manages to swat all the ornaments off most days LOL, oh, the joys of Christmas!

This is a re-post I put up a couple of years ago, worth re-posting,  that seems to get many hits especially this time of year. Enjoy!

This is an article submitted to a 1999 Louisville Sentinel contest to find out who had the wildest Christmas dinners. It won first prize!

Christmas With Louise

As a joke, my brother Jay used to hang a pair of pantyhose over his fireplace before Christmas. He said all he wanted was for Santa to fill them. Every Christmas morning, although Jay’s kids’ stockings overflowed, his poor pantyhose hung sadly empty.

One year I decided to make his dream come true. I put on sunglasses and headed to an adult bookstore downtown. If you’ve never been in an X-rated store, don’t go. I was there an hour saying things like, “What does this do?” “You’re kidding me!” “Who would buy that?” Finally, I made it to the inflatable doll section. I wanted to buy a standard, uncomplicated doll.

Finding what I wanted was difficult. “Love Dolls” come in many different models. The top of the line, according to the side of the box, could do things I’d only seen in a book on animal husbandry. I settled for “Lovable Louise.” To call Louise a “doll” took a huge leap of imagination. On Christmas Eve, with the help of an old bicycle pump, Louise came to life.

My sister-in-law was in on the plan and let me in during the wee morning hours. Long after Santa had come and gone, I filled the dangling pantyhose with Louise’s pliant legs and bottom. I went home, giggling all the way.

The next morning my brother called all excited to say that Santa had left a present that had made him VERY happy but not the dog. She would bark, walk away, then come back and bark some more. We all agreed that Louise should remain in her pantyhose for the rest of the family to admire when they came over for Christmas dinner.

Grandma noticed Louise the moment she walked in the door. “What the hell is that?” she asked.

My brother quickly explained, “It’s a doll.”

“Who would play with something like that?” Granny snapped. I kept my mouth shut. “Where are her clothes?” Granny continued.

“Boy, that turkey sure smells great, Gran,” Jay said, trying to coax her into the dining room.

But Granny was relentless. “Why doesn’t she have any teeth?” Again, I could have answered, but why would I?

Grandpa, a delightful old man with poor eyesight, sidled up to me and said, “Hey, who’s the naked gal by the fireplace?” I told him she was Jay’s friend. A few minutes later I noticed Grandpa by the mantel, talking to Louise. Not just talking, but actually flirting. It was then that we realized this might be Grandpa’s last Christmas at home.

The dinner went well. We made the usual small talk about who had died, who was dying, and who should be killed, when suddenly Louise made a loud, embarrassing, “bathroom noise”. Then she lurched from the mantel, flew around the room twice, and fell in a heap on the sofa.

The cat screamed. I passed cranberry sauce through my nose, and Grandpa ran across the room, fell to his knees, and began administering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. My brother fell back over his chair and wet his pants. Granny threw down her napkin, stomped out of the room, and sat in the car.

It was indeed a Christmas to treasure and remember.

Later in my brother’s garage, we conducted a thorough examination to decide the cause of Louise’s collapse. We discovered that Louise had suffered from a hot ember to the back of her right thigh. Fortunately, thanks to a wonder drug called duct tape, we restored her to perfect health.

I can’t wait until next Christmas. Happy holidays!

Wishing you all a very happy holiday and healthy New Year. Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving is upon us. In and of itself is about being thankful, giving thanks for all the goodness in our lives. I feel extremely fortunate to be celebrating the holiday this year with my loved ones. But as much as Thanksgiving is about thanks–it is also as much about food! Have you all started your menu’s? Begun your baking? Thought about leftover menu’s yet?? I have to admit, the Thanksgiving meal is pretty traditional in our house…it worked for my Mom for over seventy years.. why change a good thing!

Along with the star of our table –Tom,  he’ll be accompanied by breadcrumb and winter vegetable stuffing, Italian mashed potatoes, creamed onions, & acorn squash, stuffed celery & olives, cranberry orange relish, glazed carrots, giblet gravy, lasagne and desserts! Pies, pies and more pies! And as much as I absolutely love a turkey dinner, what I really love even more is when the men get to do clean- up detail and around 8 o’clock leftover turkey sandwiches get served! )

 Wishing  you all safe travel, and a very fruitful and special Thanksgiving Day.

Snowy Pumpkins

Snow.. in October…. before Haloweenie??  The joy of New England weather!

Did you also spend the morning scraping off your car windows as we did?

It’s way too early for this white stuff for me!

New England Harvest

I love the colors of Autumn.. crimson reds, sparkling golds, brilliant orange and rusts.  Jack Frost will be nipping at our toes before we know it–but until then, get out and enjoy the spectaculiar foliage, or head to your nearest farmers market and pick up a peck of apples, pumpkins, squash or native Maine cranberries.

This weekend Kennebunk will be celebrating the Applefest & Art Show.  Scrumptious samples, recipes, musicians and fabulous artwork. Hope to see you there!

Elegant Mama Dove

She took up nesting in our bittersweet vine a few weeks ago.  Odd in itself, as the nest typically houses the robin family.  She was so proud of her new family… almost elegant.

Only three of the five eggs hatched, but so sweet.  Papa brings the meals and Mama feeds her family. It didn’t seem to bother her that we were nearby each time we entered or left our house–nor the fact that Picollo and Spence lived here too.  Remarkable that she managed to fit them all in to this small nest–they were sizeable chicks as you can see.

Bittersweet babes– baby mourning doves

But then yesterday the north winds really were blowing hard here.  This morning I found that they had moved on–probably to warmer pastures if they were smart.  We’re going to miss you Ms Dovey and your family. Winter warm my friend.. til next Spring.