• A taste of Scotland…

    August 5, 2014 / 5 Comments
    If you’ve been following my blog since the early days of My Southern Heart, then you know it is my dream to visit the British Isles…especially Scotland and Ireland.  My original ancestor, Rev. William McGregor, was a Baptist preacher in Scotland – rare in those days!  I enjoy pursuing the answers to the mysteries about our Scottish ancestors.  Mama’s ancestors were Irish and I’m also on the trail of those early immigrants!  (Most of them were here before the American Revolution which makes finding them in Scotland and Ireland especially difficult.)
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    Since it doesn’t appear that I will be setting foot in Scotland any time soon, I have started a small collection of Scottish mugs.  It started with one mug, of course, as most collections do.  They are made by Dunoon Mugs in Scotland.  (The only mug made by Dunoon Mugs in England is the one with the cat.)  The mugs I’ve collected so far are either fine bone china or stoneware and have very comfortable handles.  Suprisingly, beverages stay hot in them rather a long time.
    I especially like the mugs depicting pastoral scenes in Scotland as this mug does.
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    Of course, no afternoon cup of tea in Scotland – or Ireland for that matter – would be complete without a delicious scone to accompany it!  Like the one below that I wrote about here with recipe.
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    I do have a confession though.  
    The mugs may have come from Scotland, but the tea came straight from IRELAND!  
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    Check out the brief slideshow below to see all seven of the mugs I’ve collected so far.
    …

  • Pineapple Upside-Down Cake…

    July 31, 2014 / 5 Comments

    I was at my desk working on (or at least contemplating) getting some bills paid and filing the stack of papers piled on the edge of my desk.  As I sat there feeling more than a bit unmotivated, the phone rang.  Susan, my friend and downstairs neighbor, was calling to ask if I could help her with a small writing/publishing project.  I replied sure, but that it might have to be tomorrow sometime.

    Wise woman that she is, she mentioned that she just happened to have a freshly made pineapple upside-down cake.  Warm from the oven.  Of course, she had no way of knowing that pineapple upside-down cake is a trigger word for home.  In the dessert department, there are any number of trigger words for home that she could have used:  lemon ice box pie, fresh apple cake, fried apple pies…yellow cake with homemade caramel frosting.  Any one of these would have done it.  Needless to say, I postponed paying bills for a visit and a big slice of pineapple upside-down cake.

    When I was growing up, my Daddy usually worked the 3-11 shift on Saturday evenings.  So, Mama and I had our little Saturday night ritual.  She’d make delicious homemade spaghetti, salad, rolls and lemon ice box pie or pineapple upside-down cake for dessert.  We’d take our plates into the small den adjacent the kitchen and eat while we watched Perry Mason.  I was a mystery fan even back then.

    Eventually, I was old enough to date on the weekends but usually preferred a Friday evening date to a Saturday evening one.  I enjoyed our Saturday evening Perry Mason time together and our pineapple upside-down cake…

     

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    The photo above is from one of my favorite go-to sites:  All Recipes!

  • Peace and happiness…

    July 30, 2014 / 2 Comments

    I confess that yesterday’s post took it out of me.  When the heart knows that there is so much to be done and so many children hurting, it is painful.  I want to scoop everyone of the hurting children up in my arms and soothe them.  I want to feed them and clothe them.  I want to be a loving grandmother to them.  But, of course, that’s impossible.  So, I began the search to see what I could do here…on limited resources and energy.  I would love to sit in the nursery at the hospital and rock babies who don’t have enough visitors.  I am a Registered Nurse but I don’t want that role with the babies.  I just want to comfort and cuddle them.  I haven’t looked into that one yet.  There is a possibility I could work with young adults with special needs.  I think it would also be fun to work in a soup kitchen.  I am researching and praying about it.

    In the meantime, I needed some endorphins!  I needed a sense of well being and the reassurance that not every child in this world is in harms’ way.  So, I invited myself to an afternoon of play and dinner at my daughter’s house (I have an open invitation).    I picked a good night because she was preparing Ree Drummond’s lasagna and fabulous homemade bread from the Amy’s Bread cookbook.

    While my daughter and my sixteen year old grandson ran some errands, I stayed with the other children and finished rotating the homemade chocolate chip cookie batches through the oven.  My five year old grandson wanted to play but I was manning the oven, so I suggested that I introduce him to a little 50’s and 60’s music.  His dad has introduced him to the 80’s music, so he thought that was a cool idea.  We began with Rockin’ Robin.  Remember that one?  Try standing still listening to that!  Then Splish-Splash, I Was Taking a Bath!  Then I wanted to introduce him to one of my lifetime favorites:  Elvis Presley!  I knew to choose wisely of course.  He is, after all, only five but this sweet grandson has more than his share of rhythm…just like Grandmommy!  😉  So we listened to Teddy Bear, Don’t Be Cruel and then the movie clip from G.I. Blues where Elvis sings Wooden Heart in a puppet booth.  We had a good time and, about that time, my daughter and grandson were back.

    I returned home refreshed with leftover lasagna and bread…and a sense of peace and happiness.

    Bryce

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    KandM

  • Lemon Banana Bread…

    July 13, 2014 / 8 Comments

    I spent late Thursday afternoon in the dentist chair for – what turned out to be – a marathon session:  two crowns, one filling and a last-minute wisdom tooth extraction!!  It’s just as well I did not realize before the fact that the wisdom tooth would have to be “pulled”.  It’s easier to be brave when you don’t have days to fret about something.

    So, for the past three days, I’ve read, watched a little TV, napped and taken it easy.  After three days and torture to my stomach, I am giving up the antibiotic!  Yes, I’m an RN and I know better…but the side effects are worse than the cure.  I’ve eaten lots of greek yogurt and soup, but this afternoon I decided I was actually hungry.  Hungry for some warm banana bread!  Thankfully, I had three ripe bananas in the fruit bowl.  So I followed the recipe below for a delicious loaf of warm lemon banana bread…with a drizzle of Iowa honey.  Yum…

    Lemon Banana Bread

    1 stick of butter, softened

    1 cup sugar

    2 eggs, lightly beaten

    1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

    3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

    the zest of one fresh lemon

    1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

    1/2 teaspoon salt

    1 scant teaspoon baking soda

    1 teaspoon baking powder

    3 ripe bananas, mashed

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease & flour a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.  In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar mixing well.  Add eggs.  Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.  Pour into prepared pan and bake approximately 50 – 55 minutes depending on oven.  Enjoy warm with a little butter & a drizzle of honey!

  • A thank you dinner…

    July 8, 2014 / 1 Comment

    After a few days of stifling heat with unbearable humidity, today has been cooler.  Presently, it is up 81 degrees – warmer now than it has been all day – but it comes with a strong breeze to temper the heat.  I’ll take that.

    My downstairs friend and neighbor was kind enough to feed me for a couple of nights when my neck/arm pain was so unbearable.  Tonight, I am having her for “supper” by way of a thank you.  It’s still a little too warm to crank up the oven but I’ll turn down the A/C and do it anyway.  We’re having homemade meatloat, fresh green beans, rice and fresh fruit salad.  Dessert will be Weight Watchers ice cream sandwiches.

    I hope this post finds you well and staying cool – or warm if it’s cold where you are!  Below is the meatloaf recipe.  If you try it, let me know what you think!

     

    A Really Good Meatloaf

    1 & 1/4 pounds very lean ground beef

    1/2 finely chopped Vidalia sweet onion

    3/4 sleeve crushed Ritz crackers

    1 egg, beaten

    1/4 cup milk

    1 teaspoon Kosher salt

    1/4 teaspoon garlic salt

    1/2 teaspoon black pepper

    1 tablespoon Worchestershire sauce

    1 tablespoon Toasted Onion Herb by Victoria Taylor’s Seasonings

    Mix well and form into a loaf.  Place in glass dish.

    Meatloaf topping:  1/3 cup Ketshup, 3 tablespoons brown sugar and 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard.  Combine and spread over top of meatloaf.

    Bake at 350 degrees about 55 minutes or until done.

  • Mama’s teacakes…

    June 18, 2014 / 5 Comments

    Sharing a nostalgic post today from My Southern Heart.  Originally published October 12, 2009.

    When I was growing up, there was only one car which my Dad took to work.  This meant, of course, I walked to school.  Granted, we didn’t live on a farm after my toddler years and it wasn’t a five mile walk through blizzards, but there were some cold, rainy, snowy days on my .31 tenths of a mile to and from school.

    One of my sweetest memories is coming home from school to find my Mama there and the wonderful smell of something baking.  Sometimes, there were sweet potatoes baking in the oven as part of our supper or Mama’s special meatloaf that I’ve never been able to quite duplicate.  Often there were cupcakes…warm and ready to be iced.  My favorite, however, were Mama’s vanilla teacakes…a bit like a sugar cookie but fatter and softer like a cake.  Often they were iced with Mama’s special chocolate icing.

    One day this past week, we were watching an old episode of The Waltons (I love the Waltons!).  Grandma Walton had made her special sugar cookies or teacakes.  Right that moment, I wanted one of Mama’s teacakes more than anything in the world.  After the show, I searched through Mama’s cookbook which I had compiled until I found it…the recipe for her teacakes.  I baked them on a Pampered Chef baking stone instead of Mama’s old cookie sheet which is long gone.  I also “dropped” them on the cookie sheet instead of rolling them out.  I dipped a slightly moistened juice glass in sugar then “flattened” each one out.  Next time, I won’t flatten them so they’ll be fatter and softer, but they were still delicious.

    Just one bite of that teacake, and I was a teenager coming home from school again to find warm teacakes in the oven…

    Mama’s Tea Cakes

    1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

    1 & 1/4 cup sugar

    1 egg, beaten well

    1 teaspoon vanilla

    1/4 cup milk

    2 teaspoons baking powder

    2 & 1/2 cups flour

    Cream the butter.  Add sugar gradually.  Add egg, milk and vanilla.  Sift dry ingredients and add to first mixture.  Roll out mixture to about 1/4? thickness.  Cut with round cutter and bake on a greased baking sheet at about 375-400 degrees.  Delicious iced, especially with chocolate, or sprinkle with sugar.

    Enjoy….

    Read here to find out when and how I discovered that I had actually NEVER lived on a farm!  

    That was an identity crisis!