Memory Monday: Prayer

Me and Daddy

MY PRAYERS

            I have struggled with prayer for years.  The words did not come easily—well they came, but often there did not seem to be much depth to them.  More and more, I would catch myself praying just for things I needed or wanted.  I would remember the verse about “prayer…with thanksgiving,” so I would thank God for what He had given me.  And it always seemed that I finished the prayer with “And thank You for Jesus,” followed by the closing, “InJesus’nameAmen.”  (Those words ALWAYS had to be at the end of a prayer or it didn’t seem like a proper prayer.)

            I grew up in a family where prayer was offered before every meal.   But when I think about those prayers, one thing stands out.  From my earliest memory to the day my daddy had a major heart attack, he always said the same prayer at mealtimes.  He never varied a word, and as a little child the prayer became a ritual—bow my head, fold my hands, wait for those exact words to be said, then I could eat.

            I think ritual pretty much sums up the way I learned to pray.  I even remember memorizing the “Now I lay me down to sleep” prayer as a child and using that at nighttime.

            Though the years, and even though I was a believer, I remained a child in my prayer life—bow my head at mealtime or at the assembly, and then, when the words were over, continue on.  At times when something horrible happened, I would pray for God’s help.  And sometimes when the beauty of the day or the wonder of my children filled my heart, I would offer a prayer of thanksgiving. 

            One day several years ago, something changed.  I can’t remember if the thought came from a song or something said in a sermon or lesson.  As I started to pray, I could see myself in the Throne Room of God.  I was before Him and at His right hand sat Jesus.  The glory and power that came from Him caused me to bow low. The words came, but they were different from any I had ever prayed before.  Words of honor and praise flowed out of me.  How could I not honor the God of all creation?  I had been invited into the presence of the One who had spoken the entire universe in to existence, yet knew the hairs on my head and the thoughts of my heart.  The prayer continued, not with my wants or needs, but with thanksgiving for Jesus, who stood with me as both redeemer and intercessor.  As the words of honor ended, I felt the love of my Heavenly Father surround me and the pain of my heart opened up.  I reached out to God with worries, hurts and needs—for others and, at last, for me.  As my prayer ended, I did not want to leave that place, but God has given me a life to live and I want to live it for Him.

            I often go back to the Throne Room.  I am always amazed and humbled, brought low but loved, emptied and filled there.  At last, I commune with my God and Father.

(By the way, the prayers my daddy offered after his heart attack were very different.  He was often asked to lead prayers during the assembly on Sunday.  His words and the emotion in his voice when he honored his Creator and petitioned his God would bring tears to my eyes and many others around me.  Daddy loved and trusted God, and he finally learned to voice that love and dependency in public prayer.)

Throwback Thursday: Swimming Hole

Here's my caption:
"There's a plug down here somewhere."

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Memory Monday: Grocery Shopping

My mother

GROCERY-SHOPPING AND HOW IT’S CHANGED

            After I finish my microwave breakfast burrito and instant cappuccino, I need to plan my grocery list.  It’s really hard these days to get all the food my family needs.  First, I have to get the newspaper and look at the food ads so I can see what the specials are. Then,it is such a pain to go from store to store (to get the best deals), and  bring home bags and bags of groceries.  It takes a lot of time and muscle to lug in all those frozen skinless, boneless chicken breasts, Rocky Road ice cream, and deli meats and cheeses.  It is such a tiresome ordeal to do all that grocery shopping, but someone has to do it.

            Sometimes, I envy my mother. She had a much simpler way of handling her grocery shopping.  Because my father worked as a butcher in a grocery store, there was never any question of where we brought groceries; we only shopped at the store he worked.  Whenever Mother needed something, she simply gave Daddy a very short list of items she needed, and he brought them home in the evening.  Of course her list was short because she milked up to seven cows twice a day (so she didn’t need to buy milk, cream, butter, or ice cream--homemade peach was her favorite). She raised, killed, and dressed chickens (so she didn’t need to buy eggs or a plump hen for her homemade chicken and dumplings). She raised pigs and calves (so she didn’t have to buy pork chops, steaks, or roasts), and she had an acre-sized garden in the summer (so she didn’t have to buy fresh vegetables, and since she canned all summer, she didn’t have to buy canned veggies either). 

           Sometimes, I long for the simpler times when I all I would have to do is send a short grocery list with my husband in the morning, and in the evening, he would bring home the few I items I needed.

            Well, I just heard the paper hit the front door, so I’d better get started.

Throwback Thursday: Race?

Here's my caption:
"Wanna Race?"

What's your idea for a caption? Feel free to leave it in the Comment Section below.

Memory Monday: Tomato Soup

My mother at 16

My mother years later in Texas

TOMATO SOUP—THEN AND NOW

I love looking at old cookbooks and seeing how women made things years ago. In one cookbook, The Home Cook Book, published 1876 (two years after my great-grandmother Emma married my great-grandfather John L.). I came across several recipes grouped together with the same title. It just goes to show how women in the 1800s are like the women of today—they each like their own recipes.

TOMATO SOUP.

Mrs. Whitehead.

Boil chicken or beef four hours; then strain; add to the soup one can of tomatoes and boil one hour. This will make four quarts of soup.

TOMATO SOUP.

Mrs. Wheelock.

One pint tomatoes, two quarts water, one tablespoonful corn starch, beef bone, or cold steak.

TOMATO SOUP WITHOUT MEAT

C. 0. Van Cline, East Minneapolis.

One quart of tomatoes, one quart of water, one quart of milk. Butter, salt and pepper to taste. Cook the tomatoes thoroughly in the water, have the milk scalding, (over water to prevent scorching.) When the tomatoes are done add a large teaspoonful of salaratus, which will cause a violent effervescence. It is best to set the vessel in a pan before adding it to prevent waste. When the commotion has ceased add the milk and seasoning. When it is possible it is best to use more milk than water, and cream instead of butter. The soup is eaten with crack­ers and is by some preferred to oyster soup. This recipe is very valuable for those who keep abstinence days.

TOMATO SOUP.

Mrs. B. J. Seward.

To one pint tomatoes canned, or four large raw ones, cut up fine, add one Quart boiling water and let them boil. Then add one teaspoon of soda, when it will foam; immediately add one pint of sweet milk, with salt, pepper and plenty of butter. When this boils add eight small crackers rolled fine, and serve. Equal to oyster soup.

TOMATO SOUP.

Mrs. J. Hudson.

One quart of tomatoes, one soup-bone, one onion, one cucumber sliced, two ears of grated corn, salt, pepper and a trifle of cayenne pepper. Boil four hours, then add one tablespoon of corn starch dissolved in cold water; strain before serving.

TOMATO SOUP.

Mrs. G. W. Brayton.

For one gallon of soup, take two and a half quarts good beef stock, one medium sized carrot, one turnip, one beet and two onions peeled and cut in pieces; boil the vege­tables in the beef stock three-quarters of an hour; strain through a sieve ; add a two quart can of tomatoes and boil fifteen minutes; strain again and add salt and pepper. While this is cooking, take a sauce-pan that will hold about six quarts and put in a quarter of a pound of butter and heat it to a light brown ; add while hot three tablespoons of flour; take from the fire and mix thor­oughly; add one dessert spoon of sugar and stir until it boils; boil fifteen minutes and strain.

TOMATO SOUP.

Mrs. L. H. Smith.

Make one gallon beef stock. Take half peck ripe to­matoes, cut in halves, two carrots, two onions, one turnip cut fine ; boil all together for one hour and a half, then strain all through a fine sieve; take a sauce-pan large enough to hold it and put it on the fire with half pound of butter; heat it until of a light brown color, and add two spoons of flour, mixing well together; add to this two spoons of white sugar, salt and pepper to suit taste; stir well until it boils; let it boil and skim it for five minutes, and serve very hot. This recipe serves a large family; usually prepare two quarts of beef stock for a small family, using half the quantity of ingredients.

Now I don’t know if my great-grandmother ever made tomato soup, but I do know my mother never did. She used the kind in the can, you know, the one that was mm-mm good. As a matter of fact, I can only remember her using tomato soup for one thing (and it wasn’t served as soup). She used it for what she called “Swiss Steak,” and the recipe goes something like this:

MOTHER’S SWISS STEAK

Round steak, cut into serving sizes (from the calves she raised herself)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Flour

Shortening (when I was growing up, Mother never used anything but Crisco)

Tomato soup, large can (or two, depending on how much meat you use)

Season meat and dredge in flour. Brown steak in Crisco, then put meat to a granite-ware roaster. Add flour to pan dripping and stir. Add tomato soup, diluted with one soup can of water. Bring to a boil, stirring until well mixed. Pour over meat. She usually put this on before church on Sunday morning and when we got home, Sunday dinner was mostly done.

Mother made this quite often while I was growing up. There were seven in our family, so she made a large amount of this at a time. Now that I make it for just my husband and myself, I use two cube steaks and a regular-size can of that mm-mm good tomato soup. Lately, I have been adding some of the seasoning my son mixed up for smoking brisket. That really adds a great taste to this dish.

Do you have a favorite recipe from the time you were growing up that you’ve changed and made your own? Would you tell us what it was?

Throwback Thursday: The Smirk

Here's my caption:
"I know something you don't know."

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Leave it in the comments below.

Memory Monday: Cooking Terms

My mother's maternal grandparents

COOKING TERMS AND PRICES FROM THE LATE 19^TH CENTURY

As a writer of historical romance, I often wonder about the prices of foods in the late 19^th century. And when I look at a cookbook from that time, I find measurements that I don’t understand. Also, I never thought how to be frugal in the way meat was cooked. Thankfully, I found a book that helps out a lot.

Twenty-five Cent Dinners for Families of Six was written by Juliet Corsen and published in 1878. (This book was published four years after my great-grandfather came to America.)

 Below are a few excepts from Juliet Corsen’s book.

In calculating the cost of the receipts I give you, I have used the retail prices asked in Washington market, and in ordinary grocery stores, at this season of the year; the average is about the same as that of past years, and probably will not change much; so that I believe I have not placed too low an estimate upon them.  (Preface vi)

The following table shows how much is wasted in the different ways of cooking we have just spoken of.

Four pounds of beef waste in boiling or stewing, about one pound of substance, but you have it all in the broth if you have kept the pot covered tightly.

In baking one pound and a quarter is almost entirely lost unless you have plenty of vegetables in the dripping pan to absorb and preserve it.

In roasting before the fire you lose nearly one pound and a half.

Do not think you save the waste in the shape of drippings; it is poor economy to buy fat at the price of meat merely for the pleasure of trying it out. (p. 15-16)

The following table will give you some good hints about measuring;

there are four teaspoonfuls in one tablespoon;

two tablespoonful in one ounce;

two ounces in one wineglassful;

two wineglassfuls in one gill;

two gills in one good sized cupful;

two cupfuls in one pint;

two pints in one quart.

One quart of sifted flour, thrown into the measure, and shaken down, but not pressed, weighs one pound.

One quart of Indian corn meal, shaken down in the measure weighs one pound and three ounces.

One quart of fine sugar weighs one pound and a half. p. 18

As a reminder from an earlier blog post, here are some of the prices for food from the same book.

Price of food

Rice, 1 pound             10 cents

Flour, 1 pound           4 cents

Molasses, 1 gill           2 cents

Macaroni, 1 pound  15 cents

Cheese, 1pound         16 cents

Peas, dried, 1 pint      5 cents

Onion, 2                        1 cent

Bacon, 1 pound         16 cents

Oatmeal, 1 pound      8 cents

Salt Pork, 1 pound    16 cents

Beans, dried, 1 pint   6 cents

Lentils, 1 pound        10 cents

Indian Meal, pound  4 cents

Cabbage, 1 head          3 cents

Bread, 2 pounds          6 cents

Suet, 1 pound               8 cents

Milk, pint                     4 cents

Sugar, 1 pound           16 cents

Currents, 4 ounces      4 cents

Turkey, 1                   20 cents

Butter, 1 pound         32 cents

I hope this information is helpful when you write or read something from the past.

Throwback Thursday: Women Hugging

Here's my caption:
And this is how you do the Heimlich Maneuver.

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Leave it in the comments below.

Memory Monday: Miss

My favorite picture of my daddy

Me in college

FROM MY DADDY’S BOOKS—THE THINGS I MISS

Daddy always loved to read and growing up there was always a large bookcase that held my Daddy’s books. Mother kept that bookcase filled with Daddy’s books until she passed away, then left them to me. One of my favorite books of his was titled Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul. When I was in high school, I came across a poem in that book titled The Thing I Miss. That poem has stayed with me ever since.

In college, I borrowed this book (for several years) and kept coming back to this poem. At that time I just liked the sound of the first two verses and the rest just kind of flowed off me without great meaning. But as I got older, all the words have wrapped around my heart and continue to live there.  As I look back at my life, at the time of depression, pain, hurts caused by others and by me, sorrow and losses, I have come to love this poem even more. And I would like to share it with you.

THE THINGS I MISS

An easy thing, O Power Divine,
To thank Thee for these gifts of Thine!
For summer's sunshine, winter's snow,
For hearts that kindle, thoughts that glow.


But when shall I attain to this,--
To thank Thee for the things I miss? 

For all young Fancy's early gleams,
The dreamed-of joys that still are dreams,


Hopes unfulfilled, and pleasures known
Through others' fortunes, not my own,
And blessings seen that are not given,
And never will be, this side heaven. 

Had I too shared the joys I see,
Would there have been a heaven for me?
Could I have felt thy presence near,
Had I possessed what I held dear?


My deepest fortune, highest bliss,
Have grown perchance from things I miss. 

Sometimes there comes an hour of calm;
Grief turns to blessing, pain to balm;


A Power that works above my will
Still leads me onward, upward still.
And then my heart attains to this,--
To thank Thee for the things I miss.

-- Thomas Wentworth Higginson

I hope you enjoy this poem as much as I have through the years.

Do you have a favorite poem or saying?