Friday Five: Discovery

On today's RevGalBlogPals Friday Five, Dorcas shares a beautiful experience of taking her four year old granddaughter to the symphony and wondering if young Trinity would enjoy the experience.  An avid Mozart fan, (in Dorcas' words): "[Trinity] was hopping with excitement, but we gave her lots of coaching, and when we arrived she gazed about with wonder at the lovely venue, and when the orchestra began to tune up she sat up straight and gazed, enraptured, with her mouth literally open. It was pure delight to watch her enjoying brand-new sights, sounds and surroundings."  A discovery moment for both generations!

Here is a Friday Five of my own moments of insight, discovery or awareness from childhood and later:

"Do what Daddy says."  Recorded in the baby book of my sister who is 19 months younger than I am is this precocious advice to me, uttered when she was probably two and a half:  "Sharon, if you would just do what Daddy says, you wouldn't get spanked so much."  I tried.  I tried to learn the "behave" lesson.  I'm not there yet.  Hence the pic above.  My hope: Maybe I'm making history!

Love is Awareness.  A fifth grade writing assignment was to complete the phrase "Love is . . ." with one, and only one, word.  My conclusion:  Love is Awareness

I am not a feminist!  Another assigment, this time in a seminary theology class:  Choose a non-traditional theologian's book to read and compare/contrast with more traditional theology. For those of us who had no clue where to begin with the long list the prof had given us, she suggested choosing a theologian that we thought we would not like. That was easy; this native Texan stay-at-home mom chose a feminist theologian.  I was about one and a half pages into Rosemary Radford Reuther's Sexism and God Talk and, to my incredible shock, I found that she was she was speaking my language about God things.  She made sense.  I had not even realized how much "translation" work I had been doing in order to make the gospel message real in my life. 

Please understand me!  I began to understand myself much better when I was introduced to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator in seminary. I knew that people had different personalities, but I had never had the differences explained in categories that made sense. I began to see that there are many different ways that people approach life and process information, and that we need all kinds in order reflect God's image more authentically in community. Through further testing at the end of seminary, I discovered that I had learned to function a certain way (as an ESFJ) when I had to be "on" and in front of people.  When I am relaxed and safe and "off duty" or too tired to keep up the pretense, I go about life in a far different way (INFP).  Good to know!

Grandmother world.  Because we lived in the same city until I was 13, I was blessed to spend time with my grandmothers during my growing up years.  At their houses, I discovered the world of feeding chickens, gathering eggs, flower gardening, making jam, learning to sew, eating "ladies lunch" at the department store restaurant or at the lunch counter at the drugstore.  With them, I was someone I couldn't be anywhere else: a granddaughter.  And they got to be the grandmother.  Now I'm the grandmother to a grandson.  I wonder what we will discover with each other?

The Joy of Tradition: Enchiladas!

Traditional New Mexican-style enchiladas, with sides!

In September, I made a trip to the Dallas-Fort Worth area to visit my young nieces and, oh yes, my sister Paula and her husband Jeff, too.  The girls and I got to spent some auntie-niece time when the parents went away for a few days.  Out of the 3 nights I stayed with them, at the girls' request, we had enchiladas two of those nights.  It's just what we do, and it's what we love.  In our family, enchiladas are soul food and enchilada night is family tradition.  My youngest niece, who is 11, wanted to help, and I was thrilled to be part of her desire to carry on this family tradition.  I had similar great joy when I read Amy's blog about enchiladas.

Enchiladas are just plain good food.  Really easy.  Relatively inexpensive.  Vegetarian.  Gluten-free, if the sauce is gluten free (Old El Paso wasn't when I first wrote this; they are now; always check ingredients).  The house smells like we took a trip south of the border.  So, as promised, here is the recipe our family loves, and freely adapts, for enchiladas:

Mack Family Enchiladas

This recipe serves one but can be multiplied to serve a multitude!

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
Get out an oven-proof dinner plate.

Heat 1 can of enchilada sauce (a 15 oz. can will last for 8-10 tortillas) in a pan that is larger in diameter than the tortillas you will use. If you can find Hatch brand sauce, by all means use that.  Old El Paso is good, too.  My grandmother Deedie used to add a little oregano, cumin and garlic powder to the canned sauce as it simmered, so I do that, too.  She also thought that aluminum cans should be opened and allowed to "breathe" before using the contents.  I think my grandmother Lollie made her own enchilada sauce from dried peppers, and I haven't tried that yet.

Meanwhile, chop some onion and make sure you have some shredded cheese.  I often use what's packaged as Mexican cheese. Colby-Jack, Monterey Jack, or mild cheddar will do, too.

When the sauce is good and hot, then ...

Soften 4 corn tortillas per serving (or more, or fewer).  The traditional way to soften them is to pass them through hot lard or oil.  My sister Paula gave me a healthy hint that works great:  I now wrap 4 tortillas in a paper towel, sprinkle just a little water on the towel, and microwave for 45 seconds.  

One at a time, dip each tortilla in the sauce and put on a plate -- flat.  Sprinkle cheese and onions to taste. Continue layering sauce-dipped tortillas with cheese and onions until you have the desired number, usually a number that is between 3 and 9!  Our family fun comes with the special requests:  "no onions, light cheese, heavy cheese" and so on.

Put the plate in the warm oven to keep it warm.  When our whole family gets together, and we always have enchilada night, it takes all the racks of a double oven and one person's job is to keep the list of whose plate is in what place in the ovens.

Fry an egg for each serving, or poached egg works too.  Get the plate out of the oven.  Add the egg to the top and put more sauce over it.  Some people (see this picture) like a lot of sauce!  And some people also like to squeeze just a little lemon juice (totally optional) on top.

Whatever makes it yummy!
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This recipe is participating in Hearth and Soul Hop (Volume 18)

Back to School Book Week: Cookbooks

My first cookbook

Eren at This Vintage Chica cooked up Back to School Book Week and today is Cookbook Day.

I share with you my very first cookbook.  I still have this 1957 edition of Betty Crocker's Cook Book for Boys and Girls that I must've received on some birthday in the early 60's.  My favorite recipe was the Whiz Cinnamon Rolls ("sweet and spicy and so pretty") and I made them every chance I got.  Thus began my love of cinnamon rolls and the joy of cooking as a young child.

I have an odd memory about those cinnamon rolls.  One Saturday, we went over to my dad's parents' house for breakfast.  There must have been a special reason, because Saturday was not a day that we ever went over there, and never for breakfast.  Sensing it was a special day, I got up extra early to make my cinnamon rolls to take along.  I distinctly remember my dad apologizing for the cinnamon rolls, and I remember my grandmother being totally delighted with them!

This is a small picture of a great big generational change that happened during those years.  For my parents' generation, there were wonderful new choices of new, packaged, ready-made things -- like cinnamon rolls -- that were more uniform and predictable and certainly easier than my modest home-baked offering.  For my grandparents' generation, nothing was pre-packaged, not even the Bisquick that was the main ingredient of my "from scratch" cinnamon rolls.

A New Lullaby, For Children of Any Age

I have been looking for a new lullaby or two.  Thanks to Witch Mom for introducing me to this beautiful song! I can't imagine ever outgrowing being nurtured and loved by hearing this song sung to me:

This is Roy Bailey singing "Everything Possible"
Words and music by Fred Small, who pastors a Unitarian Universalist church


 Everything Possible

We've cleared off the table, leftovers saved
Washed the dishes and put them away
I've told you a story and tucked you in tight
At the end of your knockabout day

As the moon sets her sails to carry you to sleep
Over the midnight sea
I will sing you a song no one sang to me
May it keep you good company 

Chorus:
Well, you can be anybody you want to be
You can love whomever you will
You can travel any country where your heart leads
And know that I will love you still 
You can live by yourself
You can gather friends around
You can choose one special one
And the only measure of your words and your deeds 
Will be the love you leave behind when you're done

There are girls who grow up strong and bold
There are boys quiet and kind
Some race on ahead, some follow behind
Some go in their own way and time

Some women love women
Some men love men
Some raise children, some never do
You can dream all the days never reaching the end of everything  possible for you.

Don't be rattled by names, by taunts, by games
But seek out spirits true
If you give your friends the best part of yourself
They'll give the same back to you 
(chorus, repeating last two lines for the finish)

Friday Five: Grandmother Memories

RevGalBlogPals are taking a trip down memory lane today.  As a new grandmother, I would like to honor my own grandmothers with memories of treasured moments of grandmothers -- past, present, and future.

Flowers from my mother's garden

A treasured memory from childhood:
We called my dad's mother "Lollie."  She made my sister and me matching Easter dresses every year.  I remember feeling unfairly tortured with pins sticking me all over during the dreaded fitting.  I also remember my dad taking movies of every Easter egg hunt around, and in, Lollie's beautiful gardens.

A teenage memory:
My mom's mom was "Deedie" to everyone since childhood, as she was the oldest of 10 children who had difficulty pronouncing "Lydia."  When I was 13, I endured the tragedy (to me, then) of a family move from El Paso to Baton Rouge.  It was like moving to a strange country, and we moved in March, at the end of the school year.  I was beyond bereft.  My parents wisely suggested that I might want to make a summer trip (my first pilgrimage?) back to visit Deedie, and they said I could stay as long as I wanted to stay.  I spent six blessed weeks with her, learning how to sew, visiting homebound people from her church, canning plum jam from the fruit of her trees, getting hooked on my first soap opera, and staying up past 8:00 every night to watch the Tonight Show with her.  My parents finally had to call and insist I come home!

A young adult memory:
When I was 24, my mother became a grandma for the first time when my son was born.  I loved sharing my newborn children and my new mommy feelings with her.  She wanted to be called "Gran Gran" as her maternal grandmother had been to her.  My mother is a wonderful grandmother.  All of her grandchildren have made regular pilgrimages to the fantasy world fondly known as "Camp Gran Gran."

Grandmother -- Me!

Daniel holding onto his momma

On May 31, I became a grandmother when Daniel was brought into the world.

I wonder if there is anything else I can say that will can anything more to that sentence or that picture.

Today, I think not.