I don't know where this month has gone but it is almost over. We all managed to get through the End-of-School picnic and the slumber party afterward without much trouble. Miguel had a few bruises after the baseball game and the humiliating loss to the high school baseball team. I think his and the others fellas from town's pride was the main bruise suffered. Bethy Rose and her girlfriends, with Cora's help, and Aunt Lutie's recipe, turned out a pretty good mess of fried chicken and a real tasty Key Lime Pie for the picnic before the game. Then Miguel and I managed to put up with giggling girls and, what they thought of as quietly, sneaking down to the kitchen and out on the back porch in the middle of the night; they finally settled down a little after one in the morning so we old folks could get several hours sleep before it was time to make pancakes for us all.
Jewel and Harold have been doing a lot of whispering among themselves in the cafe for the past week or so. I don't know what's going on but have tried not to be my usually nosey self and ask. I am wondering if they are going to surprise us by announcing a wedding date though. I keep looking for a ring on her finger, but then again maybe under the circumstances of the end to her last marriage (and not a day too soon as I was about to take a shotgun after Chester myself), Jewel won't want one. But then again, maybe Harold wants all the world...well, at least here in Harts Corner...to know she's been asked and said yes to his proposal, and will want her to wear his ring. These older folks can be so complicated.
Don't look at me that way. My life is complicated enough without getting involved with all that wedding bell stuff with Miguel just yet. We are both perfectly happy with the way things are going. It may not be legal as far as a piece of paper filed at the courthouse, but Miguel, Bethy Rose and I are a family. I know he is the only man for me and, I'm pretty sure, he knows that I'm not running off anywhere. I'm going to say yes one of these days. That is when I'm ready. And if Miguel asks me again.
Wouldn't it be a hoot if he never does ask again? Hmm, I wonder if he's changed his mind?
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Meringue and Limes
I'm still laughing about Cora's call. She was in panic mode about those girl's ideas for dessert to take to the After School Picnic. They had found one of the fancy cookbooks I'd bought while still in high school, thinking I might be able to cook my way out of Harts Corner, or at least find a job with some restaurant town far away, not a café in another East Texas town. In this particular cookbook, Bethy Rose found a "dream pie" as she called it, a recipe for Key Lime Pie with a tall meringue.
I calmed Cora down and assured her I'd be over on Friday afternoon before the picnic on Saturday. I'd gather up all the ingredients and help the girls make the buy. She wanted a copy of the recipe so she could make sure she had everything set out so the mixing and baking wouldn't take too long. I think she's really just curious about what in the heck kind of pie this Key Lime thing is. I dropped a copy off on my way home from the café.
Key Lime Pie
Make a graham cracker crust or buy one of the tasty ones already made up (9-inch). Set aside.
4 egg yolks 1 can (14-oz. sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup lime juice (fresh or bottled)
Whisk the yolks, condensed milk and lime juice together. In another bowl, whisk 2 egg whites until nearly stiff and fold into the yolk mixture. Pour into the crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 18 minutes, or until mixture is set but slightly jiggly. Let cool on rack.
Refrigerate, uncovered, at least four hours.
(I'll probably go over to Cora's with the girls right before we head for the picnic and have them create the meringue.)
Before serving, or carrying to the picnic, preheat the broiler.
Using an electric mixer, whisk together 5 egg whites and 1 pinch cream of tartar. Beat at medium speed, gradually adding 1/2 cup sugar, until soft peaks just begin to form. Beat at high speed until peaks are stiff, about 30 seconds.
Spread meringue in peaks on top of pie; make sure it covers to touch the sides completely.
Broil in the center of the broiler, rotating if needed, until the meringue is golden-brown, about 2 minutes.
And off it goes to the picnic or to the counter in your kitchen waiting for dessert time.
***
It's really not a hard recipe to follow. I'm sure the girls can do a pretty good job of mixing and even doing the meringue. I'll have them take turns because sometimes it takes up to five minutes to get those just-right peaks to form.
Come on and join us on Saturday for the End of School Picnic in Harts Corner, Texas, ya'all.
I calmed Cora down and assured her I'd be over on Friday afternoon before the picnic on Saturday. I'd gather up all the ingredients and help the girls make the buy. She wanted a copy of the recipe so she could make sure she had everything set out so the mixing and baking wouldn't take too long. I think she's really just curious about what in the heck kind of pie this Key Lime thing is. I dropped a copy off on my way home from the café.
Key Lime Pie
Make a graham cracker crust or buy one of the tasty ones already made up (9-inch). Set aside.
4 egg yolks 1 can (14-oz. sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup lime juice (fresh or bottled)
Whisk the yolks, condensed milk and lime juice together. In another bowl, whisk 2 egg whites until nearly stiff and fold into the yolk mixture. Pour into the crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 18 minutes, or until mixture is set but slightly jiggly. Let cool on rack.
Refrigerate, uncovered, at least four hours.
(I'll probably go over to Cora's with the girls right before we head for the picnic and have them create the meringue.)
Before serving, or carrying to the picnic, preheat the broiler.
Using an electric mixer, whisk together 5 egg whites and 1 pinch cream of tartar. Beat at medium speed, gradually adding 1/2 cup sugar, until soft peaks just begin to form. Beat at high speed until peaks are stiff, about 30 seconds.
Spread meringue in peaks on top of pie; make sure it covers to touch the sides completely.
Broil in the center of the broiler, rotating if needed, until the meringue is golden-brown, about 2 minutes.
And off it goes to the picnic or to the counter in your kitchen waiting for dessert time.
***
It's really not a hard recipe to follow. I'm sure the girls can do a pretty good job of mixing and even doing the meringue. I'll have them take turns because sometimes it takes up to five minutes to get those just-right peaks to form.
Come on and join us on Saturday for the End of School Picnic in Harts Corner, Texas, ya'all.
Saturday, June 8, 2013
END OF SCHOOL PICNIC AND SLUMBER PARTIES
Everyone who needs someone to watch their kids for a few hours, after school, or even for a day, knows they can call on me. "You know Cora just loves kids and doesn't mind them bringing mud into her kitchen, picking her flowers for "bookays" or eating all the cookies she just baked for the church bake sale." I'm smiling, folks, because even though they do these things, I do love them and enjoy having them around. I had four youngins of my own and now I have grandchildren to babysit and spoil.
The only time I draw the line on letting the kids into my life is when Leonard wants me to accompany him and the band on one of their gigs, or I just need some time to myself. Otherwise, this house is full of laughter, poutin', sometimes a few tantrums and, now and then, one or two of them sittin' in a corner for time out. I thought I'd give you a little background so you'd understand how I got roped into agreein' to allow Bethy Rose and my granddaughters talk me into lettin' them have a slumber party at our house the night before the End of the School Picnic. And for promisin' to help them cook up a bunch of food for the event. I think I have lost my mind or, as Lutie Mae Lucus would tell me I got "teched" in the head for a moment or two.
For those who didn't grow up in Texas (or the South), you probably don't know a thing about these picnics we have to celebrate the end of school. I don't know who came up with the idea but I have a thought that it was the male men in small towns who missed bein' baseball jocks and wanted to have their old dreams come true by playin' the high school baseball team once a year. They had to have a reason to call these games so they suggested all the women bring their tastiest dishes for a big picnic before the game of the year.
It's become one more of those things the town always shares. I don't anyone who would miss it. It keeps us connected. Sometimes it serves as a school reunion; those who moved away come back for the event in order to catch up with all their former classmates--and many times to do a little braggin' about their successes and to show off their families. That doesn't bother the ones who never left. They know it's a wonderful place to live, raise children, play, attend church--even if they have to drive twenty to thirty miles one way to a job.
Bethy Rose just showed up with one of MM's cookbooks. I hear her talkin' to the other girls about fried chicken and macaroni salad--that'll be easy for them. They've been hangin' around the kitchen with me and MM for a couple of years and are pretty good cooks of simple foods. No matter what they cook up, there will be so much food those tables lined up end to end will be groanin'.
What's that dessert she's talkin' about? Key Lime Meringue Pie? Doesn't she mean lemon? No, there she's repeated it again. She's explainin' it's a special pie made with limes from that Key West place. Does she think we're goin' to Florida to get the main ingredient for a podunk picnic?
I should have known this wasn't gonna be easy. And I thought agreein' to a slumber party was gonna be the biggest headache.
Help, Mary Margaret!
The only time I draw the line on letting the kids into my life is when Leonard wants me to accompany him and the band on one of their gigs, or I just need some time to myself. Otherwise, this house is full of laughter, poutin', sometimes a few tantrums and, now and then, one or two of them sittin' in a corner for time out. I thought I'd give you a little background so you'd understand how I got roped into agreein' to allow Bethy Rose and my granddaughters talk me into lettin' them have a slumber party at our house the night before the End of the School Picnic. And for promisin' to help them cook up a bunch of food for the event. I think I have lost my mind or, as Lutie Mae Lucus would tell me I got "teched" in the head for a moment or two.
For those who didn't grow up in Texas (or the South), you probably don't know a thing about these picnics we have to celebrate the end of school. I don't know who came up with the idea but I have a thought that it was the male men in small towns who missed bein' baseball jocks and wanted to have their old dreams come true by playin' the high school baseball team once a year. They had to have a reason to call these games so they suggested all the women bring their tastiest dishes for a big picnic before the game of the year.
It's become one more of those things the town always shares. I don't anyone who would miss it. It keeps us connected. Sometimes it serves as a school reunion; those who moved away come back for the event in order to catch up with all their former classmates--and many times to do a little braggin' about their successes and to show off their families. That doesn't bother the ones who never left. They know it's a wonderful place to live, raise children, play, attend church--even if they have to drive twenty to thirty miles one way to a job.
Bethy Rose just showed up with one of MM's cookbooks. I hear her talkin' to the other girls about fried chicken and macaroni salad--that'll be easy for them. They've been hangin' around the kitchen with me and MM for a couple of years and are pretty good cooks of simple foods. No matter what they cook up, there will be so much food those tables lined up end to end will be groanin'.
What's that dessert she's talkin' about? Key Lime Meringue Pie? Doesn't she mean lemon? No, there she's repeated it again. She's explainin' it's a special pie made with limes from that Key West place. Does she think we're goin' to Florida to get the main ingredient for a podunk picnic?
I should have known this wasn't gonna be easy. And I thought agreein' to a slumber party was gonna be the biggest headache.
Help, Mary Margaret!
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