Sunday, July 3, 2011

My "Not-Grandmother"

     In explaining some oddity of my Grandmother's behavior, I once announced to a roomful of women "well, you see, she never had any children"!  There was a sudden silence and then a babel of questions,    
      "What do you mean she never . . ." and so on.  Now I call her my "Not-Grandmother" and no-one says a word, whatever that means.
     The reality is that she married my Grandfather late in his life, around 1946 or so, when he was 54 and she was 44.  He only lived 3 more years, so she wasn't even married very long.  But she was definitely our Grandmother.  Various of us lived with her at times, she babysat numerous children in her life and her hand-made lace decorates many of our linens.  It is odd that I don't have a formal photo of her, I have a series of my own home-made Valentines she saved.  What you see is her baby picture.  And yes, that unsmiling look was typical of her all her life.  Her Father named her "Chessie" after the famous kitten in the Chesapeake and Ohio train advertisements, shown sleeping while the cars race along on the rails.

      In this hot weather, (and if you have read the previous post you know we have no air conditioning this month), I have been staying in and painting cardboard boxes.  I showed you a bunch of yellow ones recently.  Here is how they look after the glaze is applied.  Now I am lining them with figured paper.  That takes longer than the painting.  It's not as much fun either.  But I am committed to making about 50 of them this summer.
     Last month while I was out Not buying Antiques with some friends, I came across these little Faux-grained china pieces, a cup and pitcher.  I was enchanted to find the faux-graining in porcelain too.


     We had biscuits this morning with our thick-sliced bacon and mushroom and Swiss cheese omelet.  Note the butter pat.  And with it we had tea instead of coffee.  When I saw how much coffee jumped in price I considered if I wanted to keep buying 2 bags a month.  I used to be a tea drinker exclusively but then I was seduced by coffee and never looked back.  I was surprised that loose tea, enough for a couple of weeks was only about $1.50 in bulk at the Health Food store.  I bought Earl Grey and English Breakfast tea and I have to say, it is delicious!  And not decaffeinated either.  My, my, we have so much energy these days!

Coffee, teas and yeast?  And my Daughter's photo of fence posts with vines like women's hair.

     This week I was gifted with someone's weekly CSA box of vegetables.  They were called out of town and didn't want to waste the food.  Oh, my, what a taste adventure!  I made Kale chips, oh yum!  Sorrel soup (do not put the stems in unless you like to strain stuff)  Lots of salads, of course, then new potatoes with butter and fresh parsley, salsa with fresh cilantro and a little green hot pepper.  And chard fixed with garlic and Parmesan.  It really perked up our menus:

Meatloaf, baked potatoes, salad with multiple fresh herbs
Sorrel soup, Chef's salad, strawberry pie
Fajitas with beans and rice and spicy salsa
Ham steak, new potatoes, Parmesian chard, fruit
Chicken Divan, salad, fruit
Eating out for the Fourth
Hamburgers and roasted potatoes, strawberry smoothy

     Well the day is waning, tonight is television night, "New Tricks" and "Poirot".  We'll eat in front of the tv as a treat.  Everyone should be as content as we!