Baubles And Butter

Woohoo ... it was a warm one yesterday!  It's weird how we can go from a fabulous 78 degree day, and literally the next minute be a toasty 98.  I kept thinking it was just ME until even Cooper started panting.  How silly of me to have turned the AC off completely.  

In an effort to remain healthy enough to attend my first Elks Lodge Meeting in thirteen weeks, I didn't do much.   I didn't even go to the dinner portion because I wouldn't last the evening.  Though my back feels just great in the mornings, by noon it's reminding me in no uncertain terms that I should sit my butt down and quit using my right hand.  Tough, since I'm right handed.

So here's a few treasures that belonged to my grandmother, and now live in my china cabinet.  Most people have only one thimble ... maybe two.  My grandmother Grace had six.  She did all that sewing for her grandkids by hand, not to mention most of HER clothes.  Look closely and you will see a pair of very old earrings.

I think I got my love of 1880 clothing from her, since she wore many of the old dresses I love so much.  This is one from her younger days that I still have today.  I modeled it for a photo shoot.  It's actually made of velvet.  Can you just imagine sewing THAT kind of fabric by hand?       

Then there is this .... can you guess what it is?  This is a hand carved butter mold my grandmother had in her cupboard.  You turned it so the design was facing up, and stuffed as much butter as you could possibly get in the mold.  Into the ice box it went.  Later, when you wanted to impress your friends, you would pull it out and push the handle down (like it is now), plopping the beautiful creation on a plate.  It was hard as a rock and difficult to carve a piece off the side for your toast.

I guess we never had any influential friends to impress, because we never used a mold.  We just dug it out of the wooden butter churn (after I turned it for what seemed like an hour), slapped it in a big glass container and tossed it in the ice box.  There was always a chunk of butter on the table, about the size of a loaf of bread.  It lived on the table so it wouldn't be so hard to cut.  

Apparently I had a screw loose because I would climb up on the table and eat it by the handful.  That's probably why I really don't care all that much for butter today.  Correction:  Except on hot fresh baked bread!!

I may make the bread, but no worries, I won't be making butter any time soon. That requires a cow, and I'm not going there.

Around noontime, I decided to whip up some chicken marsala.  When I found out how easy this recipe was, I often made it for company back in the day.  Pounding the devil out of the chicken makes it nice and tender.  It's also makes it enough to feed six people.

Throw in an entire box of mushrooms, along with a few onions and garlic.  When the kitchen smells just YUMMY, you make the sauce.

What could be better than chicken broth and cream?  Oh yeah ... Marsala wine.  It's about the only one I cook with.  I'm a lightweight when it comes to wine.  In my opinion, this is SO much better than that steak they will be serving at the Lodge on this night.  

It took me some time to get ready to go to this shindig.  Dinner meetings happen twice a month, and as an officer, I'm supposed to wear the appropriate stuff.  Levis are not on the list, but Levis I wore.  If you're going to sit for an hour or more, you might as well be comfortable.  You can get fined for this indiscretion (all in fun they tell me), but I slipped through the cracks on this night.

One thing you will always find at an Elks dinner meeting is a raffle.  They raffle off enough booze in a year to sink a ship.  This night was no exception.  I used to pick up a few tickets, but honestly, by the time you hit up three or four meetings, your checkbook begins to dry out.  I love donating, but there's a limit.  By the way, this is NOT my Wild Turkey.  I've never even HEARD of this kind before.  

At long last I was out the door and headed home.  Since I'm up so early every morning, I'm not a night owl, but there's always an exception to the rule.  My phone started blowing up.  One of the ladies did not show up for the meeting and didn't answer anyone's call.  I stay out of these conversations, because they can go on for hours.

Someone called 911.  I'm sure she appreciated the police pounding on her door in the middle of the night, but she was located, apparently just fine.  Gosh, I've been gone for 5 weeks, and no one sent the police to my door!!  29 text messages later, I actually received one directed to me.  I’m happy to report the very sweet lady is fine. 

You know how when you just went to bed and your phone buzzes?  Do you get up and answer it or just lay there awake for the next hour wondering who the heck would call you at this time of night?

I got up.  Anyone else have a realtor that messages you at 11:00?  I told her she was working WAY too late.  She said it's never too late for good news.  The appraisal came in at the sales price.  Had I won that bottle of Wild Turkey, I might have taken a slug to celebrate!!!