Twiddle Your Thumbs

As parents how many have heard, "I'm bored"?  What was your come back?  I'm sure about the same as mine was years ago.  Bored?  I'll give you something to do.  I  would always ask my parents, "what can I do or there is nothing to do."  I grew up kinda like an only child since my parents were in their mid 40's when I was born.  The surprise of the family!  My brothers are 17, 18, and 25 years older than me so a very big surprise I was.  I guess it is easy to understand why I learned to knit, crochet, cook etc.  By then end of the year in grade school I would feel the sadness of not seeing friends until school started back up in Sept. I always envied the "town kids" it seemed like they were always together and doing fun things, not the farm kids.
Ok, so every time I would say I wanted something to do my father would say, "twiddle your thumbs"  Huh?  Well not only did he say it he tried to show me the not so exciting technique of twiddling.  You go one way, reverse directions, tap your thumbs together, set a pattern and then another.  I never did accept the "thumb twiddling thing". I'm sure he was hoping I would sit and be quiet.  No, it didn't work.  I just did a little google on twiddling that had a few definitions, why and when the word came about.  The basic meaning I got from the "research" is............lazy people twiddle and it is documented from the mid 1850's.  Whew, glad I didn't love twiddling.

There is a beautiful valley leading up Wakeley Hollow in Clara.  It is a dead end road with the Wakeley Farm at the end .  Once you get up to the dead end the valley splits with two valleys coming into Wakeley,  beautiful open hillsides with timber part way up to the top of the hills.  We had some great hunting times during our teen years on that land.  Wakeley Hollow is also one of our favorite walks.  After the Wakely's passed their daughter and her husband lived there.  The Petrosewitz,  Emma and Tony.  They have passed the farm to their two daughters.  It is still a beautiful valley and farm that has not been farmed in years.  Very few farms are working farms in our area (sounds like another blog idea).  The  dirt road leading to the farm runs along a little stream with some of the tastiest wild apple trees that make for some great fall walks.  Why does twiddling thumbs remind me of Wakeley ?  A few years ago I was talking to Emma and Tony's daughter, Wanda.  We are about the same age. We were talking about how lonesome it was living in the country.  I had told her I would sit in the front lawn to wait for cars to go by so I could wave at them.  She said living on a dead end cars never went by, she would wait for the mailman!  Like the old saying, you can look around and see someone worse off.  Amazing what can be important to two little country girls, a car and the mailman.

The German Sunday Dinner

Fried cabbage, pickled red cabbage, spatzle and schnitzel.

Apple Strudel and vanilla ice cream

Apple Strudel: dough-  2 1/2 cups of flour, 1/4 tsp. salt, 2 TBSP plus 1 tsp of oil, 13 TBSP of warm water.  Mix together, knead on a lightly floured board for 5 min.  Place back in oiled bowl, turn once to cover top with oil. Cover for 1 hour..
filling: 6- Granny Smith Apples sliced thin, 3/4 cups of white sugar, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, 1-tsp cinnamon, 4-TBSP of flour, mix.
Roll dough out on floured board to 9x13, it should be thin.  The dough rolls very nice without getting breaks or holes.  Dump apple mixture on one side of dough, roll once, then roll sides in and continue rolling (burrito style roll).  Brush with melted butter, bake at 400 for 20 minutes, lower heat to 360 and bake 30 more minutes.  Serve warm with ice cream or my favorite, a slice of sharp cheese.