Since our kids are grown and we have no grandchildren yet, I’ve been putting up just a 3-foot tree. Sometimes real, sometimes not. This year not. As I pulled out our rather sad little old fake tree I noticed my mom’s sadder little old fake tree. What should I do with that scraggly thing with the frayed needles? Mom wired small pinecones on it to “look natural.” Just like her to do something like that. Mom has been gone ten years now and her little tree pulled at my heart.
I put my tree on the end table by the window in our living room and put my mom’s tree on the floor in the corner by the TV and bookcase. My little tree has colored lights and some shiny German ornaments but on my mom’s tree I put a strand of red wooden beads that are supposed to be like strung berries. More natural, like the pinecones. I put a few of my oldest ornaments on it, some from my childhood and some wooden ones made by my mom’s friend years ago. I added a couple clusters of shiny fake berries – Mom would have approved. And just like that, I love that scraggly little tree. A Charlie Brown Christmas moment.
Merry Christmas! Wishing all a warm and safe holiday season and a new year of good health and many blessings!
Naughty Squirrel Nutkin destroyed one of my pie pumpkins! I always buy two and brought the other in to safety. Because I MUST have fresh pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving! My sister clued me in to using fresh pumpkin puree a number of years ago and I cannot go back to using canned, and I especially do not want a storebought pie. The recipe she (now we) use does not have all those spices like the usual pies, which can be intense. This recipe only uses cinnamon, and the simple ingredients make for a lovely, light, custardy autumn pie with vanilla accent.
People love this alternate version of the often not-that-well-liked usual pumpkin pies. Of course, I only use Penzey’s cinnamon and vanilla – or that from The Spice House (a Penzey online relative). Quality matters, especially when baking. I’m sharing our “secret” recipe, below.
Homemade Fresh Pumpkin Pie
1.5 cups fresh pumpkin puree*
3/4 cup sugar (I use less)
1 egg
1/2 cup milk (the mild flavor of oat milk probably okay)
1.5 tsp real vanilla
Preheat oven to 375F. Mix all ingredients together using a blender. Pour into a smaller-sized, not deep-dish unbaked pie shell. The aluminum pans from the store are the right size. I use a homemade graham cracker crust with cinnamon and ginger added. Carefully push the filling up a bit along the sides so it doesn’t shrink from the crust while baking. Sprinkle cinnamon across the top – don’t forget! Bake about 45 minutes until set, like a custard pie. Cover crust edges with strips of tinfoil if it starts getting too brown.
*Cut a pie pumpkin (not the big Halloween ones) in half and clean out seeds. One at a time, place a half cut side down on a glass pie plate and add water to about 1/4 inch high. Use a paring knife to cut slits in the skin. Microwave on High for about 5 minutes. Keep microwaving, checking every few minutes, until flesh is soft and can be scraped out into a bowl. Repeat with the other half. (Alternately, bake cut sides down in the oven at 350F until soft.) Puree the flesh with a blender. Unused puree can be put in your breakfast oatmeal or yogurt or added to pancake batter to make amazing fluffy orangey pancakes.
I grew up in the midst of cornfields and went to a small town college in the midst of cornfields. Illinois has a lot of cornfields. Going to elementary and high school in a small town surrounded by farms, most kids knew me and knew I had a Japanese mom. But in college, nobody knew me and kids thought nothing of asking “what are you” and “where are you from—no, really.” Sometimes I wanted to say I was from Mars, but other times I wanted to scream, “I am a human being born in Chicago—Illinois!” Some years ago I learned there is a term for this being sick and tired of being asked about your race by strangers, it’s called “racial fatigue.”
Recently, while working on my big project digitizing old print photos—still not done and I have “digitizing fatigue”—I came across a very old photo of the Chicago lakefront hospital where I was born. I couldn’t find any lakefront hospital on Google Maps and asked my dad its whereabouts. All he remembered was that it was in Lincoln Park (not in the zoo!). Nope, no lakefront hospital but I saw a park pavilion that is in my old photo. Then I remembered I was born in Columbus Hospital. I researched it.
Columbus Hospital was founded by Italian Catholic immigrant Mother Frances Cabrini in 1905. Mother Cabrini worked in this hospital and died there in 1917. She is known in New York, Chicago, and across the U.S. and worldwide for her missions to educate and provide health care for the poor, especially immigrants and orphans. Many churches, schools, and hospitals are named after her. Mother Cabrini was the first U.S. person to be canonized as a saint (1946). After her death, her room at Columbus Hospital became a pilgrimage destination until a shrine was built for her on the grounds in 1955. My parents, not being Catholic, did not bring newborn me to pay homage to Saint Cabrini else maybe I would not have gotten that terrible sickness when I was a wee tot (apparently measles complications, prior to vaccine development). On the other hand, perhaps by nearness of her caring spirit I did survive.
In 2002 Columbus Hospital was closed and, lakefront property being in high demand, later demolished to build a luxury condo. A big miracle was that Mother Cabrini’s shrine was left alone to be refurbished and re-dedicated in 2012. I can see the very tall high rise on Google Maps, with the short national shrine attached behind it—a strange combination. Across the street from the high rise is the Lincoln Park Gazebo along the shore of the North Pond. That gazebo is in the old photo I have! It helped me find where the hospital used to be, before I remembered the name. Mother Cabrini is thought of as Chicago’s saint and is the patron saint of immigrants.
UPDATE! Angel Studios is releasing “Cabrini,” an indie film about Mother Cabrini, starting March 8, 2024, which is International Women’s Day. Watch for it to come near you!
SECOND UPDATE: This October 2012 WTTW article “Chicago’s Mother Cabrini Shrine Reopens” gives more history and a video of the beautiful shrine. I found a Facebook group Columbus, Cuneo, and Cabrini Hospital Friends, not very active but anyone with these hospital connections can post and maybe find answers and fellow staff/nursing students. Also, someone asked about finding old patient records from Columbus and a genealogy friend suggested contacting the Cook County Health Department.
I found only a couple actual photos of Columbus Hospital, Chicago, online so am posting mine (from my dad) here in case others want to see it within its setting of late 1950s. It is taken from the east side of the North Pond, looking west to the hospital and the gazebo that’s still there.
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