Good Eating

 According to my West Coast brother today is National German Heritage Day and also National Noodle Day. I am not at all surprised that these two events should be celebrated together.

My father's grandparents immigrated from Germany to the United States sometime in the early 1800s. While they became citizens and gave up speaking German, they did not, happily, give up their German food traditions.

Every Christmas, Thanksgiving, or other festive celebration feast at my Aunt Dora's house included noodles, always, always served on top of mashed potatoes. I loved watching my aunt make mashed potatoes. After she boiled and drained the potatoes, she would dump them into a large mixing bowl, add lots of butter and a little milk, and whip those potatoes to a froth with her trusty electric hand mixer. I have used her recipe for years. Then she served them with plenty of butter melting on top. 

Everyone would take a heaping helping of mashed potatoes as they were passed around the table. Then came the noodles, boiled in beef or chicken broth with plenty of tasty bits of meat. The noodles went on top of the potatoes, of course. Even though there was plenty of other food being served, meat, vegetables, salad, etc, I was always happy to fill up on noodles and mashed potatoes.  If you've never tried noodles on mashed potatoes you really must. If you have had such a feast, I bet your mouth is watering right now. I know mine is. 

Looking back...

 My spouse's brother-in-law is visiting with us for a week, and, as seems inevitable when three 80+ age family members get together, the conversation today focused mainly on things past.  

We have compared cars we have driven, places around the world where we have been, either to live or visit, friends and family still with us or long since gone to their reward.  Talking about what our children and grandchildren are doing has been a happy topic of discussion.  Our personal ailments, fading eyesight, creaky knees, etc. took up some time as we compared notes.

Because his brother-in-law also grew up in Fort Wayne, my wonder spouse took us on a long drive around the city this evening, past old homes, old schools and other remembered haunts, like favorite restaurants, the dentist's office, and the best slopes for racing bikes.

We went to Clara's Pizza King for supper and the pizza was just as delicious as we all remembered.  The sweet tea was so good.  It was fun using the table telephone to place our order.

After supper my wonder spouse drove us past the huge new soccer stadium so our guest, who now lives in Florida, could see that some things do change in good old Fort Wayne. All in all it has been a delightful visit so far, but now I'm wondering what we will talk about for the next eight days. 

the perfect spice

 My west coast brother has informed me that today is "Cinnamon Roll Day."  Since I wrote about cider yesterday, and since cider and cinnamon so often go together in our household, I thought it would behoove me to write about cinnamon today. (Don't you love that word 'behoove'? I don't get to use it very often.)

Cinnamon is the inner bark of evergreen trees found in Ceylon and other similar places with a hot climate, plently of rain and good drainage.  If you want to grow your own cinnamon you can Google it and get the complete instructions. 

Personally, I am happy to buy it in little tin boxes at the grocery store. It comes in 'ground' and 'stick' form. We always have a supply of each on hand.  I am pretty sure it's one of the basic food groups, right up there with chocolate. for me, and honey for my wonder spouse. 

I will now share with you my two favorite cinnamon based recipes.

1. My favorite breakfast is a thick slice of toasted cinammon swirl bread slathered with butter and coated with cinnamon sugar.  I have a cinnamon sugar mixture handy at all times.

2. One of my favorite drinks is hot cider (the real stuff, as described yesterday) with a cinnamon stick floating in it to add an extra special taste. 

Well, I'm ready to go drink some cider, with a cinnamon stick.  I hope you are too.

Real cider...

 Real apple cider has a taste all its own.  Apple juice, which we get with kid's meals from Culver's (we're not proud, they're very good little suppers) is tasty but it doesn't compare to cider.  

Last fall my spouse and I were astonished to learn that the Amish market where we bought fresh pressed cider, usually on Wednesday afternoons because they pressed it on Wednesday mornings, would no longer be able to sell cider because what they were selling wasn't "pasturized." 

It was bad enough the one Wednesday we drove over only to learn that they were sold out.  A gentleman had come in just before us and bought their last 20 gallons.  They suspected that he was going to sell it by the glass in his restaurant, but maybe he was just going to have a really big party? That really wasn't the seller's concern. 

But not being able to sell it because it's not pasturized surprised us.  You pasturize milk and other dairy products.  It's a mild heat treatment process that kills harmful pathogens and spoilage microbes in foods and beverages to make them safe and extend their shelf life.  

In our household extended shelf life has never been a problem when it comes to cider.  We like it heated with a cinnamon stick added or cold, it's all so good.  I don't know if the owners of our favorite Amish market are now pasturizing their cider, or if that requirement was changed, but my spouse was delighted to find it for sale when he went to the market today, and I'm happy to report that it tastes just as delicious as ever.  Pasturized or not, we will definitely keep buying it until the season is over. Cheers!

In case you're wondering, yes it does taste different and better than the cider that you can buy at Krogers.  Nothing against Krogers, we buy most of our groceries there, but I'm sure their cider is pasturized. 

special days

 Well, here we are in October and the days will pass quickly as we get closer to October's grand finale - Halloween!!  One of our neighbors, obviously ready to skip right to Halloween, has lavishly decorated their yard with skeletons and pumpkins and lots and lots of cobwebs strewn from tree to bush to tree and all across the front of the house.  Not really my decorating style but certainly in keeping with the theme. 

And this is all fine, but I think it's unfortunate to skip over so many other October holidays on the way to Halloween.  

Take today for instance.  October 2 is, among other things, "National Body Language Day," "National Name Your Car Day." and "World Smile Day."  Each of these days is important to me personally.  

I have been accused of using too much body language.  It's true that I tend to wave my arms around when I talk, and everyone knows that I love a good hug.  I can't think of any body language better than that, especially if it includes a kiss. 

As for naming my car, I had some help with that.  My faithful Fiat is blue, so when one of my granddaughters asked me (12 years ago when I bought it) what I was going to name my car, I said that I would just call it Blue.  The same granddaughter then gifted me with a decorative plate for the front of my car.  There was a space since Indiana only requires a license plate on the back of a car. The plate says "Nana's Blue." It's a little faded now but still quite legible.

As far as smiles are concerned, what a great way to brighten someone's day.  I love it when people smile at me, sometimes they smile first, sometime they are responding to my smile, but it always cheers me, and hopefully them too.  There's a reason why 'Smile Day' is a world wide celebration.  Smiling is truly a universal language. And easy to learn.  My seven month old great grandson has a wonderful smile. 

How old is old?

 My ever loving west coast brother, who is ten years younger than me, so obviously not old, has informed me that today is "International Day of Older Persons." 

He also said that their slogan is "The older I get, the older 'old' gets." But, while I certainly agree with this sentiment, I think he might have made that up. 

On December 14, 1990, the United Nations General Assembly voted to establish October 1 as the "International Day of the Elderly." Personally, I prefer the term 'older persons' over 'elderly.'  Evidently so do others of my age, since the name of the day was changed.  

An older person, or an old person if you prefer to be blunt, can be getting along just fine, thank you very much, but the term 'elderly' sounds rickety and in need of lots of assistance.  On a recent newscast, I heard a man involved in something news worthy referred to as 'elderly.'  Later in the same show it was revealed that he was 65.  I'm sorry, 65 does not sound elderly to me.  

The theme for this year's "Day of Older Persons" is "The Age of Longevity - Rethinking Systems for Longer Lives."

I can suggest one thing that will make a life feel longer. Decide, with your spouse, or another relative or friend, to put together a 1000 piece jig saw puzzle.  If and when we finish the one we are working on right now, my wonder spouse and I will gladly pass it on to the next puzzle addicts. We guarantee that all the pieces will be there.  Send me you address and I will mail it to you. Anywhere at all!