My favorite pie

Made with cherries Margy picked at our local orchard last year and froze. A nice gesture as she is not partial to cherry pie. It's my favorite however and once you have a fresh one the canned variety will disappoint. This recipe calls for a little almond extract, a nice addition. The listed sugar amounts make a fairly tart pie, add more for a sweet tooth. This time I added a cup of blueberries too just because we had them.

Cherry Pie

4 cups sour cherries

1/2 cup cherry juice

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup sugar

4 T. minute tapioca

1 T. butter

1/8 t. almond extract

Pastry for 1 1/2 10" crusts for lattice top
Combine cherries, juice, sugars, and tapioca
Let stand 15 minutes.
Pour into pastry-lined pie plate. Dot with butter.
Place crust or strips on top as preferred.
Bake at 425 for 10 minutes, then 375 for 30 minutes.

The recipe is in this book, published in 1957,  a favorite of the Frysinger family. It also contains the family's chosen unique pancake recipe. Margy received her own copy after leaving home. It is inscribed:

To make use of that 1/4 Dutch blood!
With love, Dad & Mom  6/1974

driven to abstraction

Whipple Dam State Park, Pa.

Chicken of the Woods

Or Laetiporus sulphureus. I found these on a walk on Sunday. Supposedly one of the most easily recognized and thus a "safe" choice for less experienced foragers like myself. And they do indeed taste a lot like chicken, so much so that the vegetarian in the household doesn't care for them.

I sauteed them in lots of butter with salt. Served on top of a zucchini, green pepper, onion, tomato ratatouille with cous-cous. Pretty tasty.
I'll post again tomorrow if it turns out I'm wrong and they have ill effect. Or not.

Did you hear the one about...

..the dumb black dog?

It's hilarious!!

No, it's not.

Every Sunday morning...

around 8 o'clock Mr. Barto leaves his home "uptown"...

and walks the mile down West Gatesburg Road to...

the Ross Methodist Church.....

where at 8:50 AM he rings the church bell to call in the faithful.
It sounds like this.

On December 16th Mr. Eddie Barto will be 90 years old. He has lived his entire life in Gatesburg. He has been ringing this church bell for at least the 30 years I have lived here.
Mr. Barto left Gatesburg to serve his country in the army in WWII spending time in the south seas, England, and France. When the war ended he came home and married Genevieve, the girl next door who was also born and raised here. His younger brother, Merrill, married her younger sister, Frieda. In the early 60's the two brothers built houses next door to each other where they raised their families. And there the two brothers and two sisters have lived as neighbors ever since.

Bowl of Stone

Bowl of soup. Bowl of fruit. Bowl of stones. Bowl of stone.
Cherry, river stone, 10" x 10" x 4 1/2"
The stone is fixed, a bowl that is never empty.

Beet Soup

Margy grew some nice beets this year. I made up this soup last night and we thought it was pretty good.
 
Beet Soup
4 large beets, trim ends, quartered
1 qt vegetable broth
1 large onion
2 T. minced fresh ginger
4 lg cloves garlic, minced
1 t. ground cumin
2 T. olive oil
1 T. each vinegar, lemon juice, vermouth or sherry
lots of black pepper
salt to taste

Boil beets until tender. Rinse in cold water, remove skins. Saute onion, garlic, ginger in olive oil. Put it all together with broth and puree in blender. I added a cup or two of water as it was too thick.
Serve with dollop of sour cream.

be still like this .....

Shoes on a wire

This image seems iconic or symbolic to me but I'm not sure what it means. These are in an upscale neighborhood albeit a 1/4 mile from a huge high school.

It conjures up the image of the junior high bully grabbing the required gym shoes from a hapless bloke who fearfully pleads "Aww c'mon man I need those". It is a power play with mean intentions.

We've all seen it. Is it purely an American thing? It speaks of waste, a perfectly good pair of shoes thrown away. In another place the bully would keep the shoes would he not? But here you just get another pair; it's not worth the trouble to get them down.

At this moment how many pairs of shoes are hanging thus? What is the life span of shoes on a wire? Do power companies routinely remove them or do they hang until the laces rot?


How hard is this to do? I've never tried it. Is it something you practice and get good at? "Oh, Hammer, he's the best, first try every time. I've never seen him miss." Is it a verb? Do you wire some shoes? Do people keep count like notches on your bed post or nicks in your scalping knife? "I am so on a roll. I wired three pair this week. I'm up to 26 and the last pair was some fine Nikes" There's a thought - does it mean more depending on the value of the shoes.

As it turns out, not surprisingly, I'm not the only one to consider this social phenomenon. Several websites give possible explanations: Wikipedia or The Straight Dope

I found it interesting. It is not always as I imagined. Some of the reasons given are benign, a kind of rite of passage, the shoes used are worn out or not needed and the one flinging is the owner. It happens in many parts of the world.

Gatesburg's Bicentennial

I actually live in Gatesburg though my mail is sent to Warriors Mark, a good 8 miles away. Gatesburg has a population of about 70 and hosts two churches, several farms, and maybe two dozen houses. One of the farms is owned and operated by the Gates family, descendants of our founding father. This summer Gatesburg celebrated its bicentennial with all the fanfare they could muster. A committee was formed and enthusiasm was high. They commisioned and raised funds for a veterans memorial to be built on church ground by the picnic pavillion at the "center' of town. It is a plaque mounted on a low brick wall inscribed with the names of all Gatesburg residents who have served in the armed forces from the civil war on. I was asked if I served and wanted my name included.

The committee put together a small book of the town's history and a cookbook of recipes contributed by residents. They organized a parade that lasted over an hour: fire engines, antique cars and tractors, a couple of floats, baton twirlers, the town's dignitaries and I think a few folks who just wanted to be in a parade. There was free food with a corn boil and hot dogs, and a pig roast. There were civil war re-enacters with tents and cannons, and demonstrations. There were yard sales, vendors, and live music including an over 60 jazz ensemble aptly called the Second Winds.

Note:It seems this embedded slideshow sometimes gets cock-eyed when down the page. Refresh browser to set it right again.

We took in the festivities with visiting family, a young niece and nephew and rode home on a hay wagon enveloped in diesel fumes, engine noise, giggling kids and warm summer air.