Back
in my growing-up years, Mother taught me to measure Crisco by scooping it from
the can with a knife and pressing it into a measuring cup. It was a slow
process, and I grew to hate it. She pooh-poohed my disdain, but it wasn’t lost
on me that this was my assigned chore.
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| Basket-of-Gold and candy tuft blooms in town |
Anyway,
when Crisco appeared on the market in those one-cup “baking sticks” (the Crisco
website dates it in the early ‘90s – what took them so long?), I was an instant
fan and resolved never to measure it by hand again. (Never mind that the children
would not have shoes.)
I’m
doing some baking in preparation for our week at the farm, and as I started to mix
my favorite ginger cookies the other day, I discovered I had no Crisco baking sticks
on hand. Curses! I was about to break my resolve and measure a cup from the small
can I keep in the pantry, but then I remembered the package of sticks I had
bought for the farm. Even though it was in the back of the pick-up, I was able
to access it. Yay!
The
other day I delivered three Hawaiian-style muumuu / sundresses to niece Becky
for Hazel, her granddaughter’s American Girl. I am inspired to make more
Hawaiian / tropical outfits, whether Hazel wants them or not, but right now it’s
on hold. No time to sew.
Saturday
morning Mike left before 9:00 for the monthly informal meeting of the
motorcycle guys, and I left shortly thereafter to shop. He’s good to go with
me, but I knew he would have no patience for the kind of shopping I needed to
do. I wandered Walmart for an hour and a half and then wandered Albertsons for
the next hour and a half. (And this doesn’t count what we bought at Winco the
other day.) I was so glad Mike wasn’t with me today. He grows impatient with
the wandering, but sometimes I just have to do it.
As I checked out at Albertsons, the cashier asked if I was playing Monopoly, the store’s
irritatingly useless game. No, I said, to which he responded, “Good!” I understood
his relief when I looked at my receipt. I had earned 207 tickets! Chances that
one of those tickets was a winner are slim to none – not even worth my time to
check. KW
Measuring Crisco. An ugly job, no doubt about it. Most of my cookie recipes call for butter so I seldom have to deal with it, but when I do... I've only had the sticks once, and that was when Karen left some here. If I had to do much measuring with it, I'd buy them too. Glad you were spared this time!
ReplyDeleteHazel loved the Hawaiian dresses!!
ReplyDeleteChris -- I use butter in cookies, too, but in the case of gingersnaps and molasses cookies, I prefer shortening. It's about the only concession I make to shortening.
ReplyDeleteBecky -- So good to hear that the dresses made Hazel happy. I thought Hazel would be happier if we could find her unique style.