Cooking up favorite memories and recipes

Posted on July 10, 2009 by moonbridgebooks

Today is a big birthday for me – AARP is after me now! I’m okay with this, but wanted the day kept low key. My girls insisted on making me one of my favorite cakes – from scratch! – one which I have not made in ages. And that reminds me of the importance of passing on favorite recipes.

It’s easy to assume our parents and grandparents will be around forever to cook our favorite foods, and how many people write to the newspapers or cooking magazines asking if others know a recipe like their dear mom used to make. My mom was a good cook in her day, before dementia stole her abilities. As kids my sister and I drooled over her meaty enchiladas, golden sweet potato tempura, wontons like you’ve never had in any restaurant, her angel food cake concoctions. My mom-in-law makes such hearty, lip-smacking, southern-style meals that people hire her to cater their special events. My step-mom, too, can lay a spread for a crowd like nobody’s business, including her yum dilly potato salad. For my own little family, I am waiting for the day my husband goes off his seemingly perpetual diet and the kids grow up enough to be less picky. Meanwhile, I have collected my favorite mom recipes for that someday time.

Heaven forbid we lose our favorite mom recipes. And imagine how treasured they would be if in Mom’s own handwriting! It’s a good idea to watch your favorite food being made so you’ve had some experience with it and can ask questions, because you know there can be finer nuances accompanying a written recipe. I’m so glad my mom taught me how to fold those wontons, I’m so glad my mom-in-law showed me how to make the dumplings just right in chicken and dumplings. And what better way to make memories and bond with someone than by cooking together!

Angel Apricot Nectar Cake

One angel food cake, baked from mix
1qt 14oz can apricot nectar
2 c sugar
½ c cornstarch
Large tub whipped cream (Cool Whip)

Tear up cake into medium size chunks, place in bottom of 13”x9” cake pan. In large bowl stir together sugar and cornstarch, add 1 cup nectar and mix well. Pour remaining nectar into a medium size saucepan and simmer until thick. Pour over the cake pieces. Cool, then cover with whipped cream and refrigerate. Beautiful when made into a trifle in glass bowl(s).

Linda Austin
“Cherry Blossoms in Twilight”
http://www.moonbridgebooks.com
Posted in capturing memories, recipe | 1 Comment

Hurrah for the red, white and blue – immigrant stories

Posted on July 3, 2009 by moonbridgebooks

As America celebrates her birthday, some people will be more grateful than others for the blessings they have found in this country. They are the immigrants, many of whom have escaped war, oppression, or grinding poverty. While they quickly realize none of our streets are paved in gold, they still are relieved to be alive and free to reach for their dreams. Many who remain in poverty or have suffered a difficult transition or other hardships are still thankful to be in America. The illegal immigrants often brave horrors and death to come here and live a marginal existence, still believing it is worth it. Today, those who struggle here have help through organizations such as the International Institute of St. Louis, The Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Service, The Refuge and Immigrant Family Center in Seattle and many others across the country. Each of the immigrants has a story.

–Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario who traced young Enrique’s dangerous trip from Honduras via the tops of trains and hitch hiking to find his mother working somewhere in the U.S.

–They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky by Benjamin Ajak, Benson Deng, Alephonsian Deng, three orphaned boys who escaped the Sudan War and came to amazing America

–God Grew Tired of Us by John Bul Dau who was separated from his family during the war in Sudan and spent years in refugee camps before coming to the U.S. and experiencing culture shock

–The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang whose family escaped from Laos to a refugee camp in Thailand and then went on to adapt to the upper Midwest, a vastly different culture that did not understand them

–Breaking Through by Francisco Jimenez whose family of illegal migrant workers was sent back to Mexico only to return to California where life was hard and they felt a definite culture clash (YA)

–When I was Puerto Rican by Esmerelda Santiago whose mother took her children from poverty in rural Puerto Rico to the poverty of big city Brooklyn, NY, but the author succeeds as she struggles with the transition, going on to attend Harvard on scholarship

Linda Austin
“Cherry Blossoms in Twilight”
http://www.moonbridgebooks.com
Posted in bad memories, multicultural | Comments Off on Hurrah for the red, white and blue – immigrant stories

Dance, tell your stories while you can

Posted on June 28, 2009 by moonbridgebooks

The recent deaths of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett have made a big dent on the world. Farrah, known best for her tossing mane in the original Charlie’s Angels series and her (in)famous poster, was a weekly fixture on my 1970’s TV screen. Michael Jackson is within months of my own age so I was there for his rise – and spectacular falls. While these two entertainers only lived for me through my television, I can’t help but feel an odd twinge at their passing. The deaths of entertainers not of my generation are sad to me if I was old enough to have enjoyed the latter part of their years (Bob Hope, Jimmy Stewart, etc), but the deaths of those closer to my age, those I grew up with, are even more dismaying because they are more a part of my history. Then I start to understand how our parents feel when so many of their friends begin passing away. Soon it will be my turn to be in the twilight generation.

As it happens, death results in stories as we remember those who passed on. The news and social networking sites are overflowing with stories about the history and the personal moments of Farrah and Michael. The living rejoice in and reflect on the life stories of those no longer with them as a way to celebrate those lives.

While we are alive we can rejoice in and reflect on our own life stories. Don’t wait for the funeral when we can’t participate! We can tell our own stories, laugh at ourselves, teach lessons, inspire, give advice. Here’s an inspirational poem from Michael Jackson:

HOW I MAKE MUSIC
People ask me how I make music.
I tell them I just step into it.
It’s like stepping into a river and joining the flow.
Every moment in the river has its song.
So I stay in the moment and listen.

What I hear is never the same.
A walk through the woods brings a light, crackling song:
Leaves rustle in the wind, birds chatter and squirrels scold, twigs crunch underfoot,
and the beat of my heart holds it all together.
When you join the flow, the music is inside and outside, and both are the same.
As long as I can listen to the moment, I’ll always have music.
© 1992 Michael Joseph Jackson – Dancing The Dream

Linda Austin
“Cherry Blossoms in Twilight”
http://www.moonbridgebooks.com
Posted in memories | Comments Off on Dance, tell your stories while you can