DEFINITELY AUTUMN

So here we are in the midst of seasonal weather. Ho-Hum. Mike and Ken (and Bess and Pepper) have gotten out for a little bird-hunting, but they haven’t found many birds. Otherwise, there’s not much going on, except in my imagination, which becomes especially fertile at this time of year.

I had kitchen woes last week. A recipe for Pumpkin Snickerdoodles looked better than it proved to be. Mike kept taking a bite of one and leaving the remainder on the counter. Try as he might, he wasn’t going to like those cookies, and after all, he’s the one who needs them. So, I filled the cookie jar with some soft ginger cookies I had stored in a can. Mike said they tasted a little strange, and I discovered that soft ginger cookies don’t save well in an airtight container.

One evening I fried two trout for supper and burned them both. The meat was okay, but the outside was definitely “blackened.” The next night, I burned the rice. Out it went – pot and all.

“Maybe it would erase the fish odor if you made Chex mix,” suggested Mike. So I did. And it turned out fine, as did the pumpkin ice cream dessert. Maybe I haven’t totally lost my touch.

Today we’re celebrating the season, waiting for predicted wind and rain to materialize. Mike is watching football while the dogs snooze. I’m using a favorite pattern to make a Halloween doll dress. (I have a Pinterest board, “The Dolls’ Halloween,” devoted to costumes for dolls.) KW

MRS. PORTFORS GINGER COOKIES

Rural Clarkston, Washington -- October 2016

I commented to sister Harriet the other day that nothing much is happening in “real time” and maybe I should post another old recipe.

Harriet said: “I think old recipes are interesting.  Grandma had one that came from WWI, I think, that was a ginger cookie without sugar.  I can’t remember exactly what it had in it, but it was interesting.  Maybe it was a molasses cookie.  She used to make them often when I stayed with her in 1938-39.  She said Grandpa taught her to make rolls, and she taught me how to roll the dough into little balls.  Grandpa was overseeing the operation and making comments so I could get it to perfection. I don’t think I have done it since.”

 

I knew the recipe in question. I have it, written in our Grandmother Portfors’ hand, in my folder of recipes. (It’s possible I have posted this before.)

Mrs. Portfors Ginger Cookes

8 c sifted flour

4 tsp soda

¼ tsp salt

1 tbsp ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

Sift 4 cups of the flour; add soda, salt, ginger, and spices. Sift together 3 times.

3 c molasses

1 ½ c shortening (measured, then melted)

2/3 c boiling water

Combine these 3 ingredients with 4 cups of flour, then mix thoroughly and add to above mixture (the flour and spices).

Dough must be chilled -- overnight is best. Either roll the dough or break off small pieces and roll into rounds, then flatten with sugar-coated glass.

Grandma Portfors concludes that her grandmother made these the size of her lunch pail and put one on top of her lunch. "Wonderful cookies,” she says.

Harriet had dated the recipe about World War I, but it is actually much older, coming out of the mid-19^th century, or even before. According to Grandma Portfors, these cookies were made by her grandmother (Eliza Brophy Stinson).

I’ve never tried this recipe. It takes so much flour – and expensive molasses. And it makes my arms ache to think of mixing it. It’s such a large recipe that I’m not sure the bowl of my stand mixer would accommodate it. Maybe I’ll try half a recipe someday.

My dad’s family, the Dobsons, also had a molasses cookie recipe handed down through the generations – much the same. They were my dad’s favorite and he made them often. KW

A FINISH -- AND ANOTHER START

I remember a conversation between my mother and Aunt Ethel when I was a girl. Aunt Ethel, an avid knitter, said that she had made an afghan using black yarn and would NEVER do it again. She said it was so hard to work with black, and my mother agreed.

“How silly are they?” I thought to myself. But of course, one never countered one’s elders. Later, Mother said that it was indeed difficult to work with black.

Well, the other day I learned just how hard it is. I fell in love with a Halloween throw in rows of black, yellow, white, and orange, starting with black. Ripple afghans (also called chevron or zigzag) are supposedly easy to make, but do you think I could get it started correctly?! I spent last Saturday starting – and then restarting and restarting. It took me hours to get the foundation row right, and then mistakes cropped up as I worked along, but did I give up? No, I persevered and now I’m on my first color change.

While Mike was away recently, I finished the Christmas granny throw I started in July. Yay! The pattern is “Family Favorite Blanket” from Annie’s A Granny Square Christmas (2016). It’s nice that it’s not on the “unfinished” list, which is probably where the Halloween throw is headed.

I don’t suppose I need a whole lot of throws in my cupboard, but I like to make them, especially the simple repeats. I can do those while “watching” tv in the evenings. It’s fun to make other things, too – and I do some of that – but not at night. (I’m not sure I make rows of black ripples at night either.) KW

HERE WE ARE AGAIN . . .

Here we are again at “the dear old place.” It’s just an overnight stay. We debated about not coming since the time would be so short, but we looked at our respective calendars, full of meetings, appointments, hunts, and other scheduled activities and decided we’d best come, check on things, and perform some pre-winterization.

Elderberries look good

Mike thought he might mow. No need. He closed the vents under the house, the window in the attic, and lit the pilot in the wall furnace because – strange as it seems right now – we assume we’ll have some cold weather, perhaps sooner than we think. Meanwhile, I picked three pints of cherry tomatoes. That vine was about our only producer. I decided to leave the regular raised bed for now, but Mike helped me take out the tomato plants in the tire. And I carried water to everything that was still alive because it’s hot and dry for this time of year. 

 

This afternoon Mike invited me to accompany him on a hunt/hike out to the canyon rim. It was tough going in the clods, but interesting nevertheless. Here Mike pauses to offer water to Nellie.

You can barely see Bess on point. She's on the left side of the photo. She was actually pointing two deer. I didn't see the buck, but Mike said he was spectacular.

Here are Bess and Mike hunting through the rape. The crop, planted about the first of August, is rather patchy. We still see a lot of bare ground. KW

  

THE GREAT AUTUMN STAYCATION DRAWS TO A CLOSE

Mike and hunting partner Ken left early Saturday morning (Sept. 24) to hunt sharp-tail grouse near Chinook, MT (20 miles from Havre). The trip from here to there is about ten hours. Bess went along, but Nellie and I stayed behind. Nellie felt something at being left. She understands that she can’t go anymore and curled up with her back to the door. As for me, you couldn’t pay me to go.

I can, however, be bribed to stay behind with “staycation” gifts. Saturday morning I headed to The Hangar Antique Mall where I purchased this wonderful old lighted Christmas decoration. I paid $12.50 for it and I can just hear Mike now: “I can’t believe what they ask you to pay for this old stuff.” “Well,” I might counter, “all you have to do is surf through the Vermont Country Store to see what they ask for the reproductions, and then what they tack on for shipping, and it looks like a bargain to me.” Yes, I am aware that it’s slightly tacky, but I like the vintage look for my understated farmhouse Christmas. I tell myself that Ina would approve.

Oh! And there have been other staycation gifts, too – a quilting book here, a color book there, some vintage ephemera in the mix – but the main gift is the Dept. 56 “Toads and Frogs Haunted Witch House,” which was delivered from Amazon today. (The staging still lacks a little something.)

Since it’s officially fall, my thoughts turn lightly to the coming holidays. True to form, inspiration got out of hand and the other night I searched for patterns to start a new project. Re-taking control, I firmly reminded myself that I have plenty to keep me busy. A list helped me focus. As a result, I’ve nearly finished the Christmas granny afghan.

Useless sign

Nellie explores the gulley

Sunday morning I figured Nellie would sleep in, but no, it wasn’t 7:00 yet when I heard her rattling her gate and whining. I wasted no time letting her out, and then she pressed me for the morning walk. “It’s a beautiful day in the ‘hood,” she seemed to say. “Let’s get out while it’s cool. I have a hankering to smell some smells. Wow! I can tell it’s fall, can’t you?” She was frisky, trotting right along. It wouldn’t be so noteworthy except that Nellie often doesn’t want to go with Mike and Bess for the morning walk. If Mike is serious about getting her out, he’ll put her on a leash. Otherwise, she’ll come right back to the house.

The hunters will be home tomorrow, so the staycation really is drawing to a close. KW