All Posts for July 2009

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Midlife Musings

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

Midlife Musings I

Early-English Style

By Ellen Sue Spicer-Jacobson

I originally posted this in www.menupause.info under the title Menopausal Musings, but I think it really belongs here, since it is about growing older and longing for a companion. The words in CAPS are now extinct, so I put their definitions at the end of each line of the poem. It was a challenge to write, and I had a lot of fun doing it. Writing rhymes takes my mind off my problems, so it has a healing effect.

MIlesburg#1IMG_0023

Ah, my CHAIR DAYS are here, there is no cure.           (indicates evening of life)

I rant and I rage as I CHANTEPLEURE.                    (to sing & weep at same time)

Oh, for a BOONFELLOW to hold me tight                             (warm companion)

And banish the MUBBLE FUBBLES day and night.                   (melancholy)

Once I was a BELLIBONE, a bonnie lass.                             (lovely maiden)

No PRICKMEDAINTY could match my sass.                                 (a dandy)

MIlesburg#4IMG_0026

I received TUZZY MUZZIES by the score                                    (nosegays)

And LIP-CLAPS and TIPSY-CAKES at my cottage door.   (kisses) & (cakes saturated with wine or liquor)

Ah, my chair days are here, I don’t need a cure

Just a MERRY-GO-SORROW so I can chantepleure.  (Tale evoking mixed feelings of joy and sorrow.)

Milesburg#2IMG_0024

“Extinct” words are from Poplollies & Bellibones: A Celebration of Lost Words by Susan Kelz Sperling

Posted in Ramblings | 3 Comments »

Three Day Pickle Recipe

Monday, July 27th, 2009

A couple of weeks ago I interviewed a classmate, Mary Lou Meyers, whom I met at my 50th college reunion. Her husband David, Mary Lou, and I met at Longwood Gardens and a review of her poetry book, Whisperings Along the Octoraro, will be posted later this week. In the meantime, we all “talked shop,” that is: organic food, gardening, and the movie, Food, Inc., which I reviewed a couple of weeks ago. A few days later I received the Meyers’ pickle recipe with the note that the cucumbers are prolific, so pickling time is now! Thanx to the Meyers for their simple recipe and photo.

myerspickles_3.jpg

Ingredients

Crock pot that holds 2 gallons
1 gallon spring water or well water (cannot use tap water)
About 20 pickle cucumbers
10 peppercorns
4 bay leaves
5 cloves of garlic, sliced
2 bunches of dill. washed
1/2 cup kosher salt
2 1/2 cups white vinegar

Directions

1. Wash cucumbers thoroughly and cut off both ends of each one.
2. Arrange the cukes in the crock.
3. Add peppercorns, garlic, and bay leaves in the crock.
4. On top of stove bring spring water, vinegar and kosher salt to a boil.
5. Pour this liquid over the cukes in the crock pot.
6. Place the dill loosely on top of everything in the crock.
7. Put the crock in a cool place.
8. Keep the cukes in the brine for 3 days. (If you make them on Saturday, take them out and place them in jars on Wednesday.)
9. When you put the pickles in the jars, drop a few slices of garlic and a sprig of dill in each jar, along with the brine to cover them. This makes them look nice as well as keeps extra flavor in them. The pickles must be refrigerated until use.

Note from Ellen Sue: When I lived in Lewisburg, PA and shopped at Walnut Acres, a mail order natural foods store with a retail outlet close to Lewisburg, they sold pickled zucchini. If your zucchini are as prolific as mine used to be when I had a backyard garden, you might try this recipe with zucchini spears. Then you won’t have to throw the extra zucchini in the back of someone’s car with an open window!

Posted in Kitchen Nutrition | 3 Comments »

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