Paper Flowers

Our oldest daughter got married a year and a half ago. She lives in Lynchburg, VA, and, of course, she wanted to get married there. She and her fiancé had both been living in the area for several years and they had established a great group of friends and a church family there so certainly it made sense. 

I wanted to have a shower for her but since her social group was in Lynchburg, it made more sense for me to travel there and host it in the area rather than having it in Charlotte, NC. I wanted it to be special, original, and transportable from Charlotte to Lynchburg. I needed to do as much as I could at home so the set up would be easy.

After some thought, I decided to multi-task flowers/decor and favors into one. It was Spring, so a garden theme fit in perfectly. Origami is one of my hobbies, so instead of purchasing flowers, I made them… about 100 of them.Then I made tags for each flower with a positive word on the tag; happy, wonderful, amazing, lovely, enjoyable, and so on. I used them to decorate the tables and at the end of the shower everyone received 2 or 3 flowers to take home and enjoy. My daughter kept several as a memory, too.  

Our lives are made up of memories and then we share them with others by turning them into a little story. What happy memory do you have? What did you do that was special and original?

Chocolate Jumbos

Merry Christmas and Happy Celebration!! 

I thought you might enjoy a favorite holiday cookie recipe, Chocolate Jumbos. They are a chocolate spice cookie with a butter cream frosting. They have a hole in the middle — and they just don't taste right without that hole. Even as I write this, my mouth begins to water for the taste of those cookies.

The recipe has been in the family since the 1800’s. We always make Chocolate Jumbos during the holidays and even now these cookies remain a family favorite. Recently my youngest daughter called me and said, “Mom, I want to make Chocolate Jumbos with you. I want to learn how to make them properly.” That made me feel good within my soul. To spend the time with my daughter carrying on a family tradition makes these cookies a taste of the past, the present, and the future.

This recipe is all we ever had to go by — just the ingredients, no other written instructions. I did make my own changes. I only use butter, no shortening.

My mother always rolled out the cookies with her rolling pin and used a biscuit cutter to cut them out into perfect circles. I have added my own flare by using a scoop. I scoop out the dough, put it on a cookie sheet I have sprayed with cooking spray, then flatten the dough with my hand. Using the handle tip of a wooden spoon, I swirl in a hole.

Have fun!! I truly hope you enjoy these cookies as much as my family does; a part of my life I share with you.

Back home...for a moment

This is the time of year I get transported back to my childhood in upstate New York. I sat on my front door step here in Charlotte a couple of days ago and ate an apple. It tastes different in the fall as the leaves softly float to the ground. Somehow it is sweeter, crisper, more delicious.

When I was a kid I would go out to the orchard in the back of our house. Now, I had to walk through the pasture and across the creek to get to it, but those mountain apples in that unkempt orchard were the best. They were small, red, and so very sweet. Many of them were “protein apples”, meaning they had a little worm in them — you eat around that part. But no chemicals, no GMO, just an apple. The cows liked them too. 

We also had a couple of winter pear trees. My father would lift my siblings and me up in the bucket of our tractor and we would pick pears in the fall and put them in bushel baskets. They would then be put in the cellar of our house and throughout the winter they would get ripe and we would have fresh fruit during the holidays. Mom would can many of those pears, too. I liked them better when you could hold them in your hand and bite into them. 

I think this year, as my family gathers together, I will ask my kids what memories they are fond of from their childhood. I’d like to know what brings them back home as they sit on their front door steps, too.

Right now, I think I need to get a cup of apple cider and sit on my front door step and go back to the Catskills for a few moments. I’ll return to Charlotte in 20 minutes or so.

Fire trucks, doughnuts, and cider

I LOVE the Fall!! Always have!! The cool fresh air, crisp apples, cider, sweaters, scarves, and, of course, the colors of the leaves! Love it, love it, love it!!

I grew up in a tiny community, Richmondville, New York. There are still only about 2,000 people in the village. The school, Richmondville Central School, was one main building and it housed K-12, less than 500 students in the entire school district. The brick structure had three floors and the high school was on the 3rd level. There were a couple of extra buildings for shop class and a house for home economics. 

Every Fall near Halloween, there was an evening when the Volunteer Fire Department would open and they would serve powdered doughnuts and apple cider for free to the community. The big thrill, though, was the ride on the back of the fire truck. We would step on the landing and climb up onto the heavy fabric of the hoses. When there was no space left for anyone else to get on that big red machine, the driver would clang the bell and run the siren and we were off. The air was cold on our faces and nearly everyone on the ride wore a jacket with a hood and gloves. It only took about 10 trips for every child in the community to get a ride. I participated in the tradition even through high school and college. It just wasn’t Fall without powdered doughnuts, cider, and a ride on the fire truck.

It’s a simple memory and it comes back to me every October. I live in Charlotte, NC, now and although there are no October fire truck rides (that I know of), I do have to have at least one powdered doughnut and cup of cider to welcome the season!! It just wouldn’t be Fall without it.

Here are a few pictures I took on a summer trip back to Richmondville.