Rest in peace, Anne Lord

My mom’s best friend past away today. She was our Aunt Anne.

Anne and my mom were my Girl Scout Leaders for awhile. They hosted tables at the Calendar Party at St. Barnabas every year, and we went to ceramic class together for years. Anne was a regular at the Cookie Exchanges at my house, and has been to all the important events in my life. Even though she wasn’t a family member, we considered her one. Anne was probably the single most generous person I know. She donated her time and talent to a church that wasn’t hers, gave gifts and cards to kids that weren’t hers (they were mine) and could tell a story that would result in tears streaming down your face and your stomach clenched from laughing so hard. She was extremely crafty, and mom, myself, Anne and Diane would do craft sales together. I have many things made by Aunt Anne, and still marvel at her talent.

The last few years saw Anne suffering from a rare type of cancer. She was diagnosed around the same time as my mom. They didn’t talk as much as they used to, since they were both going through such a tough time with tests, radiation and surgeries. I have a heavy heart knowing I didn’t get in contact with her to tell her I was thinking of her all the time, that I said her name out loud along with my mom’s name when I was in church naming those who needed prayers because they were sick. When her daughter came to bring her to Florida to take care of her, I procrasinated sending flowers and a card. I can only hope while in heaven, she knows that I love her, and truly appreciated the friendship that she showed to my mom, myself, and my kids.

Lesson learned? Tell the people in your life how much you appreciate them. Be generous with your loved ones. Keep in touch regularly. Say I love you. I doesn’t hurt. Really, it doesn’t.

Insomnia is good for the Blog

I can’t sleep. I’ve been lying awake for hours. I have so many thoughts running through my head to lie there gives me a headache. There is so much stress in my life right now to lie there gives me heart palpitations. So I got up around 4 am to do something constructive. Either laundry or blog. Guess which one I chose.

I figure I’ll post something innocuous and not ranting or raving. So I’ll write about the newest addition to my kitchen. MR made me a cow shelf for Christmas. Before we put it up, I had to paint the kitchen. It was gray because I wanted a neutral background for the white cabinets and the colorful Fiesta dishes that can be seen through the glass cabinet doors. We went to Home Depot and picked out a softer gray- I thought the first gray was too harsh. After about a half hour of painting, I looked back at what I had already painted and couldn’t tell where I had started. I had picked out the EXACT same color. It is a little softer, however, in the finish- it’s satin. So we hang the cow shelf, and I’m finally able to unwrap my cows!

My collection started with this baby given to me by my Great-Grandmother, Ida Arfmann , about 25 years ago. I used to go over to her house once or twice a week when I worked at the tile store. I’d go over for lunch, and she’d always served me bologna sandwiches. I always ate them, even though I hate bologna. This cow creamer was always on the table filled with milk for our tea. I commented each time I used it that it was throwing up in my tea. It always made her laugh. She’d tell me stories for that hour, and as I’d leave to go back to work she would thrust into my hands some trinket that she had lying around the house. One day it was this cow creamer. So started my collection.

“I never saw a purple cow, I never hope to see one. But I can tell you this right now, I’d rather see than be one!” Original poem by Gelett Burgess, adapted to this version by Ogden Nash. Sung to me by my Grandmother Francis Arfmann. I quote this here because these two cows are two of my favorites. I sang this to two of my under-30 friends after seeing a purple cowhide pocketbook for sale on the streets on NYC. They looked at me like I was crazy. Not because I was singing, but because they had never heard it before.

These two creamers are not like the conventional standing creamers. They’re resting. The black

one was bought on Ebay (like most of them) and has pretty gold accents. The blue and white cow should be with his cousins on the Delft shelf, but I like how they sit together.

The Delft cows. Only two of these cows are creamers. The two little ones on the plate are actually salt and pepper shakers. The small one behind them is a toothpick holder, and the one behind that is a sugar bowl. I bought these as a set on Ebay. The sugar bowl is missing her lid, but other than that they’re in great shape.

These three were found on Ebay under the Vintage Fiesta listing. I guess it was fate that two of my collections came together in one listing. Red is a creamer, yellow is a salt shaker and blue is the pepper shaker. These cows have never been packed away since they go so well with all my Fiesta.

I collect only realistic cow creamers but I couldn’t resist this square boy. He looks like he’s looking out of a box. I don’t know why a square cow creamer would be made, but he does fit perfectly on the shelf. His brother next to him was purchased in Vermont in a huge antique center.

This little girl is probably my oldest cow. She was listed as being about 60 years old when I bought her a few years ago. There aren’t any markings on her, so who knows? She has a sweet face!

This little one is my tiniest cow. She only holds one serving of milk, and has pretty violet decals. Zombiegirl likes this one the best.

This cow was one of my earliest purchases. I can’t remember if it was my second cow or my

third. Anyway, I bought this one to match the one my Great-Grandma gave me. It’s a sugar bowl, and is almost a twin of my first cow creamer. Bought in an antique center in New Jersey.

These two cows aren’t functional at all. They’re replicas of two cows that appeared in Cow Parade NYC back in 2000. The girls and I went on a scavenger hunt armed with all the cows that were placed all over NY, and took pictures of about 200 of them! We saw MOOMA, by Karen Nelson and Nicole Gaenzler, but we didn’t see the Fiesta cow, which was created using pieces of Fiestaware. I think that art cow was in another city. Anyway, I have replicas of each of them, given to me by my family at various holidays.

This is my newest acquistion. I bought this one on Ebay right after Christmas. She’s tired, but pretty! She’s Royal Crownsford Ironstone, made in England.

So my cows are out of the closet and into the light, residing on a beautifully crafted custom shelf made by my talented husband. Thanks, MR! I love it! And I love my cows! And if you look at the first picture carefully, you’ll see my favorite mug, Cowoline!

Enough. I’ve already typed this twice after my PC died, and I have to get ready for work. I’ll sleep on the train…

Hunter’s Feast

In November, I posted (almost) every day what I was thankful for. Along with that, I did a little rant (almost) every day. I ranted the first day about Stop and Shop not stocking soy yogurt and soy cream cheese. I asked them on their website to please stock these items, and I got back a wishy-washy letter back from James saying thanks for the suggestion. Well, I went shopping at Stop and Shop January 1st for our first annual Hunter’s Feast- and what did I find? SOY CREAM CHEESE and SOY YOGURT! Yay! Victory is mine! Thanks, James- you have a customer for life!

So the Hunter’s Feast was cool- all the camping families came over (minus one- guess who that was?) MR made awesome cutlets, and I burned the stew in the pressure cooker. (Anyone with experience with pressure cookers- please help! The thing still scares the crap out of me! ) Anyway, we made 2 packages of cutlets, and served the kids first. They snagged almost all the cutlets! Even with 2 platters of chicken nuggets available! I grabbed Andrew’s cutlets, since he didn’t want them, and Jodi was able to get Tyler’s. Everyone ate, no one died, and they even complimented me on the food! Go figure! What was the crowd favorite? Mrs. Wilkes Sweet Potato Souffle.

Don’t know Mrs. Wilkes Boardinghouse? Next time you’re in Savannah, GA, pay a visit. Be prepared to wait an hour or so for the family style seating, but it’s totally worth it. Down home cooking (only for lunch) for $16 a person. All you can eat! One year we went when Beena was around 8 year old. She managed to eat around 10 pieces of fried chicken. The large southern black women in the kitchen all came out to see the “little bitty thing that ate all that chicken!” They make you bus your own plate and glass, too! Of the Sweet Potato Souffle, Mrs. Wilkes said, “A lot of people buy my cookbook just to get this recipe.” MR bought me the cookbook just so I could have this recipe! I modified it one little bit, though. I skipped the evaporated milk, used walnuts, and used grated orange instead of lemon. No marshmallows, either.

4 pounds sweet potatoes, pared and sliced
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup raisins
Grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
1/2 cup shredded coconut
Miniature marshmallows
Place the potatoes in a pot and add enough salted water to cover. Cook until tender. Drain. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Mash and whip the potatoes. Add the remaining ingredients (except marshmallows) and mix well. Pour into a greased casserole dish. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cover with marshmallows. Return to the oven and continue cooking until brown. Yum!

I also made corn bread using a corn muffin mix and egg nog! Just put in enough egg nog to make the batter wet. It’s a dense, tasty corn bread, great for the holidays!

And just to show you my man can cook, and yes, those are the deer antlers he mounted: