My Mom, Will and the Egg

Sometimes as you grow older you learn things about your parents that never quite fit into your perception of who they are.  One of my stories involves my Mom, Will and an egg.

Will, 6, and Jenny, 4, had spent some time on the farm with Grandma one summer. A few days after they returned, I was stirring up some cookies in the kitchen. They were intently watching (and waiting to slick the dish) until I got to the point of cracking the eggs. They asked excitedly if they could crack the eggs, assuring me that Grandma had let them when they were staying with her.

Now I have to insert here that I didn’t grow up getting to crack eggs for my mother when she was cooking. I’m not sure whether it was because it was easier to do it herself or whether it had to do with not making messes, but either way, I didn’t “help” when my mom baked.  So, when they assured me that Grandma had let them do that, I relented and gave Will the first egg to crack and a bowl to crack it in. I expected that he would crack the egg against the bowl. But no, he took the egg and immediately cracked it against his forehead!!

I was shocked! What, I asked him, was he doing???

That’s how Grandma showed him to do it, he said hesitantly, clearly not having gotten the positive response he expected from me. Jenny backed up his story. They seemed to be telling the truth. Was my mother going crazy? What on earth had happened?

I went straight to the phone, I didn’t even finish stirring up the cookies, and called my mother. When I told her what had just happened, she laughed and assured me that she had indeed taught him to crack eggs on his forehead.

Was she going crazy? I asked, pointing out that she never let me crack eggs, let alone on my forehead.  Of course not, she answered. Her grandmother had taught her to crack eggs on her forehead, so she was passing it along to her grandchildren.

This event will forever remain one of the great mysteries of life for me.  I’m not sure I will ever reconcile it with my perception of my mother. The one thing I did learn from it was that as a grandparent I could teach my grandchildren a lot of things that I would never have taught my children. Pursuant to that, I taught my grandchildren to crack eggs. Not on their foreheads, just on the dish.  And that brings me to the sequel to the story about my Mom, Will and the Egg.

My grandson Tony liked to watch me doing things in the kitchen and, remembering the lesson of my Mom and Will and the Egg, I taught him to crack eggs into a dish when he was 3 or 4. He did a great job and I gave him lots of praise about how good an egg cracker he was. He went home and the next time Sara was cooking with eggs, Tony asked to crack them for her. She declined his offer and he started crying, saying “But Grandma says I’m a good cwacker!”  She called me and I said, yes, I let him crack eggs.  

The cycle continues.

- Mary Bryan  

daughter of Hollis and Joy Miller 

Grandma Spratt's Everyday Cookies

Joy Miller's handwriting. Grandma Spratt's recipe.

Ingredients:
2 cups butter
3 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tbsp sour milk
2 tsp soda

_  ________________  _

Neoma Ridlen's Peanut Cookies

Joy Miller's handwriting, Neoma Ridlen's recipe

Ingredients: 
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup shortening
1 cup crushed salted peanuts
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup oatmeal
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda

Mix all ingredients together.

Drop cookies (about walnut-sized balls) onto a cookie sheet

Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown around bottom edges.

_  ________________  _

 Mama's Cookies

Joy Miller's handwriting and sugar cookie recipe, Margret Ridlen's cookie recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups brown sugar (1/2 could be white)
1/2 cup lard
3 eggs beaten
1 cup thick sour cream
1 tbsp soda or 1/2 tsp soda and 1/2 tsp baking powder or 1/2 tsp cream of tarter
3 cups flour
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon (optional)
raisins and or nuts (optional)

Cream sugar, lard.

Add beaten eggs.

Add soda to sour cream then add to sugar mixture.

Sift flour, cinnamon, and baking powder/cream of tarter.

Add raisins, nuts, and vanilla.

Drop walnut-sized cookie balls onto a greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350  degrees.

_  ___  _

Joy's Sugar Cookies

Ingredients: 
1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter 

1 egg beaten

2/3 cup sweet milk

Cream sugar and butter together.

Add beaten egg.

Sift soda, baking powder, flour, and salt.

Add flavoring and enough flour to make a soft dough.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill.

Roll out dough and cut shapes or make balls and flatten.

Bake at 350 degrees until edges just start to brown.   

Neoma Ridlen's Salad Dressing

Remember Time before bottled salad dressing?  Ahh, maybe not ...anyway, here’s a recipe from my mother.

 

- Mason Ridlen

son of Ben and Neoma Ridlen 

 

 

MOM RIDLEN’S SALAD DRESSING

 

Ingredients:

1  cup vinegar

1  cup water

1  cup sugar

4  level tablespoons cornstarch

4  eggs

1  cup Half & Half

1/2 teaspoon salt

 

Combine the vinegar and water in saucepan and bring to boil.

 

Add the sugar, cornstarch, eggs, half and half, and salt to the pan all at once (so it won’t curdle).

 

Mix with beater, cook until thick.

 

Note: Sometimes when stored in the refrigerator, this will separate.  If this occurs, simply beat well before using.

 

 

Oyster Stew

While I was growing up it was the custom in my family to cook oyster stew to celebrate after we finished picking corn. In those days corn was picked in the ear and stored in corn cribs. We typically finished picking corn late in November, so fresh oysters were in season. Oyster stew was a special treat because fresh oysters were rather expensive then, just as they are today. My mother sometimes told about inviting my father to dinner while they were courting and serving oyster stew as a special treat. Only later did he admit that he didn’t like oysters. However, his taste changed, and he developed a liking for oyster stew. After Shirley and I were married we continued the tradition of celebrating the end of my parent’s corn harvest with oyster stew.

I don’t know what recipe Mother used for oyster stew, but this is the recipe that we use. It is a modified version of the recipe in Betty Crocker’s Good and Easy Cook Book, first edition, seventh printing.

     OYSTER STEW 

2 quarts whole milk

1 pint half and half or 1 cup cream

1 quart fresh oysters (with oyster liquid)

½ cup butter (not margarine)

2-3 teaspoons salt

2-3 dashes each of pepper and cayenne

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

Heat the milk and half and half to boiling (do not scorch). Heat oysters, butter, and seasonings until edges of oysters curl. Pour into hot milk. It can be served immediately, but the flavor improves if it is simmered for a while. It is even better when warmed up the next day.

It is best to use Eastern oysters. Use small Western oysters only if Eastern oysters are not available. Smaller oysters are better than large ones. Serve with round oyster crackers. Avoid so-called oyster crackers with straight sides.  If your budget is robust, you can use 1 ½ quarts of oysters or just use a pint if cost is an issue.

-Max J. Miller

Son of Hollis and Joy Miller.

Joy's Oyster Stew

Mary Bryan's handwriting. Dictated by Joy Miller

Ingredients:
oysters

milk

salt

pepper

butter 

Put oysters in a pan and boil in own juices until the edges of the oysters curl or add oysters directly to milk and heat.

Season with salt, pepper, and butter.

Baking Powder Biscuits

For as long as I can remember my mom has always used the same recipe for her baking powder biscuits. I had always thought that it was a family recipe handed down from mother to daughter over the years, but no. It actually came from a very unexpected origin. 

The other day my mom was making biscuits so thinking that it would be a cool story for my blog I asked her whose recipe it was. She stopped what she was doing, turned, looked at me and laughed. She said, “Well, its not a family recipe... I use the recipe off my Tupperware dough mat. (she then laughs) If I ever lose that mat I won’t know how to make them!” All I could do was shake my head and laugh. I then asked her where and when she got the dough mat, because she has had it for as long as I can remember. She thought about it for a minute and then decided it must have been a wedding shower present... probably from her mom, but she wasn’t sure. 

So there you have it, all along I thought that it was a family recipe passed down through the generations and as it turns out, it was! Just not quite in the way I had expected!!  =)

- Jennifer Figgins

Daughter of Jesse Figgins and Mary Bryan

Baking Powder Biscuits

From the infamous Tupperware dough mat!

Ingredients: 
2 cups sifted all purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup milk

Wisk the dry ingredients together.

Cut in the shortening.

Slowly add the milk into mixture forming a loose dough.

Do not over work the dough. 

On a lightly floured surface flatten out the dough until it is about an inch thick.

Cut out biscuit rounds and place onto a cookie sheet.

Bake in a 450 degree oven until biscuits are light golden brown on top. 

Yield: 12 High Biscuits (its actually about 9 one inch high biscuits)


Note from Mom: "sometimes I add some sugar.... 1/4 cup... ehh... well maybe a couple tablespoons... or what ever you feel like! (laughs) I usually just take the sugar dispenser and pour some in! (laughs some more) Just depends on what I'm making them for." 

I'm telling you, the laughter never 

ends with this one!  =)

Egg Butter

This is the story of a special kindness that my mother (Joy Miller), probably in her late 60s, did for her brother, who was just slightly younger. 

 

One day when I was home for the Christmas holidays my mother made up a small batch of Egg Butter. Now we had never had Egg Butter and she wasn't offering us any that day either. She put the entire batch in a jar and took it as a gift to Uncle Maynard. She said their mother (Margaret Ridlen) had made Egg Butter for them when they were children and she remembered it fondly and knew Uncle Maynard would too. It was a gift of remembrance, of intimate family connection, and it touched me then and does so still.

- Mary Bryan

daughter of Hollis and Joy Miller

Egg Butter

Joy Miller's handwriting. Margaret Ridlen's recipe.

Ingredients: 

1 cup sorghum (boil)

3 or 4 eggs 

shake of cinnamon

Beat eggs until they get real light.

In a saucepan bring sorghum to a boil.

Stir eggs into boiling sorghum. 

Set on stove and boil stirring constantly until thick.

To finish add a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Spicy Tomato Soup

Once, when my mother was in the hospital, my father, brother, and I were batching and we had to prepare a meal. I think it was a noon meal. We all liked the tomato soup that my mother made for us, so we decided to make tomato soup. The recipe for Mother’s tomato soup was in one of her cookbooks. We found the recipe and had no problem following it until it called for 2 or 3 whole cloves. We looked through the spice shelf, but we found no whole cloves. We did find a container of ground cloves. I remember that we looked at each other and wondered how big a clove might be. The premise was that if we knew how big a clove was, we could substitute a suitable amount of ground cloves. We didn’t really know, but took a guess and put in a teaspoon or two of ground cloves. We heated the soup and dished it up. When we took our first spoonful, we quickly realized that it had way, way too many cloves! It was awful! We couldn’t eat it. But we were hungry and we didn’t want to waste a pot of soup. So we decided that if we doubled the recipe without adding more cloves, it might be saved. We went to the basement and got another big jar of canned tomatoes and doubled the recipe. That helped, but it was still pretty awful! I think we might have eaten a little bit of it, but in the end we had to throw it out. I still don’t care much for the taste of cloves.

As yet, I haven’t found the recipe, so I can’t share it. The cookbook that has the recipe was a hard bound cookbook that I remember as having a dull blue cover. It is still around somewhere because after Mother died, we divided up her cookbooks, and it either went to Maurice, Mary, or me. When we locate it, we can scan the recipe and add it to this story.

This fiasco happened sometime in the mid to late 1940’s when I was maybe 8 years old, but I still think about it whenever the subject of tomato soup comes up. 

- Max Miller
son of Hollis and Joy Miller

Brodie’s Favorite “Green Stuff”

To explain how this came about I first have to tell you another story. When Joel first moved to Iowa he went through a slight bit of culture shock. One of the things that perplexed him the most was our (Iowans) obsession with everything Jell-O. Apparently they don’t eat a lot of Jell-O in Illinois. As a result Joel received a few Jell-O cookbooks to indoctrinate him into our culture. He laughed and the cookbooks were set aside. A while back I decided that I would work my way through the different Jell-O recipes in his cookbooks to give him a sampling of what he has been missing out on all these years.

My idea was to make a new Jell-O dish every time we got together for something. On one of those occasions I had planned to make the Watergate Salad recipe. I don’t remember the exact circumstances, but for some reason Brodie was having a really rough day so I decided to distract him. It was a pretty simple recipe so I had Brodie make the first “Green Stuff.” It worked so well that the other kids got upset that they didn’t get to make a salad! LOL Go figure. You can’t go wrong with cool whip and mini marshmallows. It will win over any kid's heart!

Needless to say I haven’t gotten too many of the Jell-O recipes tried yet. Every time we have a get together Brodie requests that “Green Stuff, you know the kind with the tiny marshmallows!" LOL He gets really bummed if I don’t make it, so my distraction for Brodie has now become a family favorite and is made for most occasions!

- Jennifer Figgins

daughter of Jesse Figgins and Mary Bryan

Watergate Salad

Ingredients:

1 pakage (4-serving size) Jell-O Pistachio Instant Pudding & Pie Filling

1 can (20 ounces) crushed pineapple, in juice, undrained

1 cup miniature marshmallows

1/2 cup chopped pecans 

1 1/2 cups (1/2  of 8 ounce tub) thawed whipped topping

Mix dry pudding mix, pineapple, marshmallows and pecans in large bowl until well blended.

Add whipped topping.

Stir gently until well blended. Cover.

Refrigerate 1 hour until ready to serve.

Jazz It Up: Serve this treat in small individual dessert dishes garnished with a maraschino cherry. 

Serves: 8 (1/2 cup servings)

Let the Fun Begin! 

Brodie starts by stirring the pineapple and pudding together.

Stirring is serious stuff!

Notice Drew in the background keeping a watchful eye.. he's waiting for his turn and the mini marshmallows! =)

Finally it's my turn! Brodie has already picked out his tasting spoon and is trying to be patient!

Silence is all the approval you need from these two!!

Have a great JELL-O filled summer!