Old Fashioned Fried Cakes

 For some reason I am always one or two meals ahead of the one we just ate.  I don't like going to the grocery store for ingredients so I have to think of what is in the frig, freezer or cabinets that will make a meal.  Last night I asked, would you like Gramma Carrie's fried cakes for breakfast?  Of course I did and I knew he would.  Nothing better than a homemade fried cake and a hot cup of coffee, well maybe 2 and 2 cups of coffee.  Do you know what a fried cake is?  Just a doughnut or donut that is not made with yeast.  They are heavier and a welcome treat at our house.  Gramma was in her early 90s when she taught me how to make them.  I was maybe 19 and just married.  Thank goodness she lived next door and told me to come over tomorrow she would show me how to make donuts.  She knew how much all of her kids and grandkids loved them.  I was so frustrated and ready to throw in the spoon.  We made 2 batches.  Gramma would take one out of the frying grease, break it open and say..........too much flour, not enough flour, grease was to hot, grease wasn't hot enough!!!!  She believed in hands on and let me do it all until the final, break open the donut.  To this day I break open the first donut hole, half way through donut and the last donut.  My husband stood there watching me when I broke open the first one.....the grease is too hot.  He wanted to know, how do you know.  I showed him just as Gramma showed me.  The very center was not done, still wet.  Needless to say he knows I don't even like him stirring a pot or turning over anything I am cooking.  He didn't even ask if he could help with frying the donuts.  Now, that is real fear of the cook!

Powdered Sugar or Cinnamon Sugar!

I guess we might as well make this blog all about food.  It is one of my favorite subjects!  We bought some sweet cubanelle peppers a couple days ago and also a jar of spaghetti sauce, made in Italy!  How could you go wrong.  I stuffed the peppers with Italian sausage, mushrooms, onions, garlic and 3 kinds of cheese and lightly browned them in oil.  The remainder of the Italian sausage and mushrooms I had went into the bought spaghetti sauce to have over spaghetti noodles.  A little hot pepper flakes and grated cheese on top finished it.  The left over spaghetti sauce went in the freezer for homemade pizza one night this week. 
 

Saturday night supper.

Spring Things

 In the last couple weeks we had to drive to Wilmington which is about 40 minutes north of us.  On the way back we go through Carolina Beach, Kure Beach and Fort Fisher.  Just little coastal towns.  At the end of the island is Fort Fisher with a museum, aquarium, beach and civil war trails that wind through the area.  It is a very interesting stop  that also gives the dogs time to stretch their legs and........well you know.  The beach is great, they can run free and get plenty tired before we go the rest of the way back to Holden Beach.  Also Fort Fisher/Southport Ferry is $7. one way for the auto, 2 of us and 2 dogs.  We love it and once we get to Southport we are 25 minutes from Holden.  Just a nice change of scenery.  Now, the down fall of the ferry.  This was little Ellie's second ferry trip and she does not do well on the ferry.  Panting, whining, shaking, no talking and petting calms her down.  Once we land and off for the rest of the road trip she is fine.  The end, no more ferry for us.  Hard to believe this little girl rules our life but she does.

              The beach at Fort Fisher, nice spot to wait for the ferry.

Last night we had take out from a little cafe not far from us.  On the Holden Beach website someone asked about restaurants and this cafe was the most recommended.  We have been here since Dec 8, this is the second place we have gone to.  I always say, if restaurants depended on people like us......there would be no restaurants!  Back home the Pizza King in Wellsville and Red & Trudy's is our main stops.  Once in a while if friends invite us we go to Just One More.  We really don't like to eat out.  Maybe because one of my favorite and most peaceful times  is when I am in the kitchen.  Easy to see by the title of my blog what makes me happy.  

Back to our take out last night.  It was delicious, we both had the shrimp dinner with cole slaw, hush puppies, lots of shrimp lightly dusted with a flavorful seasoning.  Dick got onion rings and I got fried okra.  What we decided.......split the next time.  No way could we finish it all. 

                 So much great food from the Surfer's Cafe!

 

Soon it will be February and I am already thinking of my favorite spring things.  By the end of March when we get home it will be time to dig leeks.  A friend will be taking Dick mushroom hunting to his favorite chanterelle  mushroom site.  Now that will make for a great spring supper, leeks, mushrooms and trout!  I bet some of you are thinking, no thanks.  Just the country girl in me that longs for these country foods. 

 Many might remember Vernie Howard that lived on Honeoye St in Shinglehouse.  Aola Maxson was one of his daughters.  When our kids were very young we went to Maxson's camp on Fiske Hollow just over the hill from Clara.  The adult women sat around and cleaned so many leeks that sunny warm spring day.  By early evening it was a ham and leek dinner with all the trimmings.  I can still hear Vernie Howard saying, leeks are a spring tonic.  He was right, especially when long ago refrigeration was not an option and grocery stores had little fresh fruit and vegetables.  By the time spring rolled around everyone was ready for fresh foods.  Leeks being one of the first spring greens.  Then there are the fiddle head ferns, wild asparagus, dandelion greens, cowslip, watercress and of course mushrooms.  I am sure many more but these are the only ones I heard of from my dad and mom.  Mom would take me to the pasture near the Oswayo Creek on our Horse Run farm to find mushrooms.  That night we would have them fried in butter with salt and pepper.  I know many will never try a wild mushroom and you shouldn't unless you are 100% sure you know what ones are edible.  One thing for sure, once you have had the wild ones you will never enjoy the store mushrooms again.  So, I will be anxiously waiting for spring greens, mushrooms and just a couple young trout.  

The four seasons I have lived with all my life are the best.  Each one has a special meaning that can bring back good memories or for making new ones.  There are sad memories in the 4 seasons but those you put on file in your mind and only bring them up when you feel it necessary.  Good and bad, they are all part of learning and moving on. Try to share your memories with your kids and grandkids.  It is the only way most family stories are passed on.  Of course they might get bigger and better as they are passed down.  

The Game Face

I have often wondered in the last few years.......the older you get the better sweet things taste?  In our case the answer is yes.  For some unknown reason I was the one that loved sweets.  Now it seems we both do!  Maybe it is our age and hell, you will be one day older tomorrow if it is to be.  So, give me the good stuff, sweets, coffee with real half & half.  Notice no healthy veggies or broiled meat, poultry and fish.......although we do eat all of that.  Just not on the top of my what I want to eat list.  Also, it seems that  7 pm is the highlight of my day on what is there good to eat? 

                                     so many flavors!

                   Of course a piece of caramel/vanilla/pecan fudge!

 Every morning we take a  2 mile or more walk on Holden Beach.  The fresh air gets us going and also tires the dogs enough that they will sleep for most of the day and not follow us around begging for treats or go for a walk.  Then in the afternoon back to the beach for one last fresh air and tire the dogs.   Wait.......am I complaining that they ask for treats??  Now that is being a little two faced on the treat standards.  If we can have treats  then why would I deny the dogs to want a few nibbles after 7 pm.  Never thought of it that way!

What do we do while wintering in NC besides the beach walks.  Dick is in the shop building bird houses and feeders.  We might need to hire a long haul trucker to get them home!  I knit, bake or read just as I do back at the little cabin.  It is a good 4 months to get my knitting projects done.  From scarves, shawls and socks they will be finished by April 1. I always pick patterns that challenge my knitting.  Most of the time You Tube saves my sanity if I have a hard time figuring out the technique.  In the summer I will make another order of yarn and look for more patterns. The cycle that has been on going since I can remember.  I did sew 3 Baja pullovers made from Army blankets my son gave me.  His was first a couple years ago and then the "I want one"  started.  Another son, grandson and friend of a son all done and only one left to deliver.  They are rustic and look like you should be in the woods roughing it.  Real wool is the best for warmth and moisture wicking.  The only problem I have with wool is I am allergic to it.  It makes me itch and get a red rash so never do I wear it.  While making the Baja pullovers it was itchy hands for a few days.  Anything for the kids and grandkids 😍💥

 

As a little girl my dad wore wool winter clothes.  I always thought the trousers were funny looking because they had wide hips, narrowed down to be snug at the mid calf of his leg.  His leather boots came up high enough so the top of the trousers went over them.  In the winter he walked the pipe lines and checked pump stations for Messer Oil that was on the Horse Run Road.  He also had snow shoes when the snow was deep.  No four wheeler or side by sides back then, just good old foot power.  Off he would go with his lunch box and a thermos of hot tea for the day.  Before he left the cows had to be milked and when he got home they were milked again. 

I found these Woolrich Jodphurs on ebay and they are exactly like the ones by dad wore in the 1950s and probably many years  before that.  He had leather laces to pull them tight around the calf of his leg and over the top of his boots.  

 My mom did the feeding and cleaning the drops.  Do you know what a drop is?  It is a long narrow, about 12 inches deep trough that ran the full length behind the cows when in their stanchions.  It is where the manure went and had to be cleaned everyday in the winter.  In the summer the cows were outside 24/7 and only came in for feed and to be milked.  So, back to the drops.  I guess they were called that because it was where the cows dropped the poop and pee, or maybe because it dropped down about 12 inches.  Who knows, now I am wondering.  There goes that crazy wondering/wandering mind of mine.  Never the mind, it was with a square deep shovel used to clean out the drops, thrown into the shit spreader and then hauled by tractor to the fields to use as fertilizer.  The full circle of food to field, field to table :)

Now you have read one of the many reasons why farmers love their farms.  And that my friends is the truth!

Remember, every morning put on that game face and remind yourself that even though it can be a trying day it must be faced with love and respect.  We are not perfect, our lives are not perfect and certainly we are all facing that morning to put the game face on.  One more thing, pass on the gift of whatever you have.  Be it knowledge how to do something, a book you know a someone would like to read, a cookie, cup of tea or coffee just pass it on.  Shhhh don't tell anyone you gave one of these gifts, it takes away from the true meaning of why you did.

Cook'n at the Beach

Yes , life has changed since my last blog so very long ago.  At 72 one thing I finally learned each day or minute changes in ways I never knew possible.  We have sold our little farm, moved across the road to a cabin we built 4 years ago.  It was 20 x 20 ft @ 400 sq ft. total.  This summer and fall we added on a  16 x 20 ft bedroom and bathroom.  now we have a total of 720 sq ft. of living space.  It was proof for us that down sizing is a joy.  We both sorted, kept, threw and gave away.  I have a feeling in the spring when we head back home from NC we will........sort, keep, throw and give away again.  I like living with only what is needed and what I love.  As far as cleaning the little cabin, that is great too!.  Zip and it is done.  We have two porches to enjoy.  One looks to the hill directly behind the cabin and is accessed from  sliding doors in our bedroom.  I can knit, read or just relax looking at the birds at the feeder or enjoying the flowers.  Little did we know how much we would love our new home.  Our friends gave us a sign that says, little house with lots of love.  How true.  

So after so much work and a kind talented guy that was Dick's Little League player so many many years ago we are settled with only what ever we want to do.  Of course we have a list, screen in the back porch, a few more shelves inside, paint the shed and put up eave troughs on the buildings.  Eave troughs.......lol does that date me or what?  Now they are called gutters...I like my name much better.

Well like the title says, cook'n by the beach.  We are 2 miles from it but if we could walk on water it would be 1/3 a mile give or take a few feet.  The bridge is the only access to cross the inter coastal water.  So drive we must.  Holden Beach is the last of the beaches in southern NC to see development.  In one year the earth (sand) has been moving.  A new campground, homes and businesses.  Soon Holden Beach will lose the old coastal town feel.  Progress.......

We have been enjoying fresh fish and shrimp.  Once a week we drive 3 miles to the Old Ferry Docks and get fresh right off the boats.  We watch the shrimp boats every day that they are out.  Just off shore with the seagulls and terns hovering over the shrimpers just waiting for a free meal.  

So far we have tried several new kinds of fish.  When the fish guy asks what kind he is finally suggesting a white, firm, mild fish.  So far so good he has picked good ones.  Our favorite way to fix the fish and shrimp is in an olive oil, butter, garlic and old bay mixture sauteed in a pan quickly.  Then  poured over linguine or angel hair pasta. A slice of crusty bread to sop up the left over sauce!  Easy to fix and easy clean up.  I know when we get home frozen won't due and it will be another year if we are blessed to come back.

The tall guy that lives with me has a birthday tomorrow.......Off to Southport to the Christmas Store which has everything not just Christmas stuff.  It is in an old Victorian House near the bay.  So many beautiful things to look at and yes, maybe buy.  You probably wonder, does he really like to shop like a woman.  Well, the bait is salt water taffy!  They have over 60 flavors and he LOVES salt water taffy.  A win for both of us.  My favorite flavor is Mango Jalapeno, just the right amount of heat!

This looks like a drone flew over to take the picture.....no it is just one I took with my phone.  The tide had gone out and left these little streams of water eroding the sand back to the ocean.  Now I know why they are continually dredging from off shore and back to the beach.

My exciting find this afternoon.  Never have we found one like this.  And then I turned it over and a slimy little critter pulled back in the shell.  No, I did not keep it.  It would have made me so sad to not throw it back to the home it needed.  So hopefully it will survive.

We pick up trash we find but one think I refuse to pick up is other dog's poop!  I never thought I would see the day my husband would take a bag and pick up our dogs.  LOL  He does and actually we take turns.  There are plenty of garbage cans to dispose of it and trash.  No need to deface earth!