Halloween Soup
Posted: October 31, 2008 Filed under: A Zany Life, Joined at the Heart, Recipe | Tags: Halloween costumes, Pumpkin Soup Recipe, trick-or-treat Leave a comment »As promised, here are the girls in full regalia.
We do the same thing every Halloween. At dusk we meet our neighbors and travel the cul-de-sac together. The older, childfree couples ooh and ahh, and give special treats to the kids, and call one another out to check the costumes. On the next block, our friends give Bacon a beer. All of us eat snacks before trick or treating that cul-de-sac. Back at our friends’ house, the party is still going on. Bacon has another beer. We talk a while before walking home. By this time, Coco’s candy bag is too heavy for her to carry, and both girls take off parts of their costumes because it’s hot in San Antonio on October 31. Cherry and Coco dump their candy sack on the table, eat all they can, and pick 20 pieces to keep for tomorrow. I buy everything that’s left for $10.00 per kid. In the end, it’s cheaper than paying the dental bill.
For dinner I make Halloween Soup.
Halloween Soup
1 small sweet pie pumpkin (Split in half, deseed, and cook in a pan, rind-side up for 1 hour in a 350° oven in an inch of water. Scoop the flesh out into a crock pot) or 2 cans pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
2 apples, peeled, cored and diced
4T butter
2 cans chicken broth
1T honey
½t cinnamon
½t nutmeg
½t kosher salt
Combine and cook all day on low in the crockpot. Before serving, blend and add 1 can fat free evaporated milk. Stir. Do not boil after adding the milk or it will break. Garnish with a lump of brown sugar, and serve with slices of crusty bread.
The Dirty Dozen X and Happy Cherry Day!
Posted: October 13, 2008 Filed under: Dirty Dozen, Goals, Recipe, Writers Write | Tags: birthdays, cake recipe, writers, writing Leave a comment »On Sunday, I wrote double the number of pages required. I marked the progress on my calendar and put the numbers in for two days. I needed to write through to the end of the scene, and I needed to get it done because the day is crazy.
BBC1 (Big Brother Crisp #1) is here for Cherry’s birthday. She’s nine. I baked her favorite cake and bought cupcakes for school because you can’t bake your own cupcakes to take to school anymore. I wrapped the presents. We’re ready to celebrate first thing in the morning. It’s our tradition to eat birthday cake for breakfast.
I’m posting the cake recipe below. It’s a family thing, passed down from my dad’s mother. The description of the cherries shows how old the recipe is.
Cherry Crisp’s Favorite Angel Food Cake
1½ cups egg whites
1 t cream of tartar
1½ cups of sugar
1 cup flour
Juice and Maraschino cherries from 10 cent bottle
¼ t salt
Beat egg whites with salt and cherry juice until foamy; add cream of tartar and beat until stiff. Sift flour and sugar together. Fold in. Add cherries cut up. Bake in ungreased tube pan at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Invert pan to cool.
Out of Sync
Posted: April 22, 2008 Filed under: Recipe, Writers Write 3 Comments »I apologize to readers waiting for a post. I’m behind. Friday was my 51st birthday. I know I’m past the point where it’s acceptable to announce my age, but I don’t feel 51. I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel. I’ve lived most of my life out of sequence.
I married my one true love at age 30. I had a teaching career for 21 years. Instead of settling in for 10 more years of work, I quit cold-turkey to be come a mom. I was 42. The second child came when I was 44. After spending days, nights, and weekends with other people’s children, I decided to hang around the house to raise my own. I haven’t regretted the decision. When people ask, “Do you miss teaching?” I answer with a question. “Do you miss a toothache when it’s gone?”
Now, I’m a writer, too. The funny thing about writing is no matter how many craft books you read or lectures you attend, the only way to be a writer is to write. No one can tell you how to manage your life when you work on your own. I have tremendous days of personal insight and awareness. Then, I have days when I’m a blathering idiot. It keeps me humble. Just when I think, “A-ha! I know the secret to the universe. Follow this roadmap to publication.” The earth quakes, and I shudder. Darkness falls all around. Every good idea I ever had falls out of my head and into the circular file next to my desk.
Last weekend BBC2 (Big Brother Crisp #2) and my wonderful sister-in-law, Cookie Crisp, came to visit. My family gave me a fabulous birthday that included my favorite dessert, Symphony Brownies and ice cream. (Symphony Brownies are like a bacchanal for chocoholics.) We had a great time.
BBC2 and Cookie headed home Sunday morning. I judged a few writing contest entries for my RWA Chapter, and I wrote four pages yesterday. This morning, I woke up to discover I had lost rhythm. It happens. When it does, I have to take a little time to get myself back together. Author, Julia Cameron advocates taking an artist date. For me, it was an excuse to push a basket around Target for an hour.
Now, I’m back. E.L. Doctrow once said, “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” Here’s to finding my way back to the road in the dark.
