Which Firefly Character are you?

My sister introduced me to Joss Whedon’s Firefly and I love that series!

I found a “personality” quiz that asks a few questions and then assigns you a character that most closely matches your answers…

Here is me

Which Firefly Character Are You?

More on Firefly. Created by BuddyTV

Cheezeburger Funny

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Christmas Candy

My family tradition is divinity, but this is FLORIDA.  There are very few days dry and cold enough to chance making it.  Humidity and warmth plus divinity means you stand there and eat it with spoons as you scrape the puddles of creamy sugar off the wax paper.

One year Sis and I turned her AC down to frozen solid and made one batch so Daddy would have his favorite treat.   They were OK, but just not the creamy goodness our mother always made.

Mother hand whipped the egg whites with a special whisk (shaped more like a spatula than the traditional whisk) that was ONLY used for divinity and carefully stored in the back of the utensil drawer for the rest of the year.  We guarded the unique tool as she was convinced the only way she could make a decent batch of divinity was with THAT beater.  I remember when we found the same one in a junk store and proudly presented it to her.  She was glad to have a duplicate.  The original was coming out of the wooden handle by then, but it was still the primary implement.  Now you see them everywhere, and even Rachael Ray uses one.

Not only did Mother beat the whites by hand but continued beating while drizzling the boiling sugar mixture into the bowl with the other hand.    I remember the year I was finally tall enough/old enough to handle the heavy pan.  The mixture had to be poured at precisely the right speed and correct spot into the bowl.  It had to be done the RIGHT WAY.

Sis and I cheated and used the mixer.  LOL.

Mother also used the eggs from our own chickens.  She even bought an egg scale to make sure the eggs were large enough.  Using the HUGEST eggs was important to the final product.

The recipe was Grandmother’s (Daddy’s mother) and here it is

2 and one half cups sugar

one half cup white Karo

one half cup boiling water

2 extra large egg whites

1 teaspoon vanilla

Cook sugar, Karo, and water until hard ball stage then pour one half of the syrup mixture over beaten egg whites.  Put remaining half of syrup back on stove and cook slowly for EXACTLY 5 minutes (just bubbling).  Pour into eggs and syrup mixture and beat until ready to spoon.

Ready to spoon when holds shape when poured back in the bowl.

Spoon onto wax paper to set.  After solid, flip over so the bottom also dries.

Best results on cold, dry days.  Also good eaten with a spoon…

You Tube – Bailey the Unknown Reindeer

Amazing!

Cookie Exchange

A group of friends are planning a cookie exchange!  Yay!  I haven’t baked cookies in YEARS so get to dust off some favorite recipes.  Cookie recipes are addictive.  Each one I read makes me want to find the next one. And the next.  Then the next.  A collection?  Naw.  An OBSESSION!

But since I last baked cookies, I’ve read so many new recipes and have some ideas…with Food Network there are fascinating recipes for nibbles and cookies everywhere.  Hmm.  Savory nibbles along with the cookies!  A little salt added to the sugar rush, just what the dr ordered.  Spike your blood sugar and at the same time make your ankles swell from excess salt…LOL.  Moderation?  What?  with holiday goodies???

I love coconut macaroons and have an easy and delicious recipe that makes moist and flavorful cookies.  But at least one person doesn’t like coconut.  Nuts are out, too.  The coconut non-appreciator told me to go ahead and make them, that her family likes them.

Here is the recipe from the Miami Herald, from Linda Cicero’s column, Cook’s Corner.  Probably from about 1984-1985.  You can see why I want to make it…EASY PEASY

2 7-oz pckages flaked coconut (5 1/2 cups)

1 14 oz can sweetened concensed milk (fooey – aren’t they now 8 oz cans?  Conversion to come)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 and one-half teaspoons of almond extract

Mix ingredients together thoroughly in large bowl.  Drop by rounded teaspoonsful onto aluminum foil-lined and generously greased baking sheets.  Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly browned around edges.  Immediately remove from baking sheets; the macaroons will stick if allowed to cool.  Store loosely covered at room temperature.  Makes about 48.

Conversion for 8 oz cans of sweetened condensed milk:

16 oz of flaked coconut (If I can multiply and divide with a calculator correctly, that works out to be about 6 and one quarter cups of coconut)

2 8 oz cans of sweetened condensed milk

same amount of extract although you could measure

2 and one quarter teaspoons vanilla extract

1 and three quarters teaspoons almond extract

and you might get 54 cookies!

I’m also thinking cheese straws.  I LOVE cheese straws.  When I was in college they had them for every “tea” or reception and there were NEVER any leftovers.  This was Georgia.  I always wanted the recipe, and this might be pretty close, from the book “Being Dead is No Excuse” an hilarious recounting of traditions and customs of the Deep South.  It is funny because it is SOOOOO true.

Cheese Straws
From “Being Dead is No Excuse”

4 c all purpose flour, measure before sifting
2 scant tsp salt
1 ½ tablespoons cayenne pepper
approx 4 sticks salted butter, melted
4 (10 oz) packages of extra sharp cheese, finely shredded
5 dashes Tabasco
5 dashes Worcestershire (Lea & Perrins)

Sift the flour, salt, and cayenne together.  Work the melted butter into the shredded cheese with your hands.  Use the amount of melted butter needed to produce a consistency appropriate to your cookie press.  Incorporate  the flour mixture a little at a time, still using your hands.  Add the Tabasco and Worcestershire to taste.  Fill the tube of the cookie press.  Using the ribbon disk produces a real bite, while the smaller disc produces the familiar squiggle.

Bake at 350 degrees for approx 12 mins, or until firm to the touch and slightly brown around the edges.  Squiggles take only about 10 mins.

Makes 10 dozen.

Another contender in the Cheese Straw race is Craig Clairborne.  I found this recipe on a website many years ago – probably during my WebTV days.  Ahh…those were the days – sitting in my easy chair surfing the net on the TV set.

Cheese Straws
Craig Claiborne’s Southern Cooking
Wings Books

*8 tablespoons butter
*1/2 pound sharp cheddar cheese — or blue cheese
*1 3/4 cups flour
*salt — to taste
*1/2 cayenne pepper — more or less
*1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Put the butter and cheese in the container of a food processor. Add the flour, salt, cayenne, and Worcestershire. Cover and blend thoroughly. If a food processor is not used, put the flour , salt and cayenne in a bowl. Add the butter, cheese, and Worcestershire, and using two knives or a pastry blender, blend thoroughly.
Use a cookie press outfitted with a hounds tooth or star dispenser. Push the dough out onto an ungreased baking sheet to make individual straws. Or, if desired, roll the dough out to a 1/8-inch thickness and cut it into individual strips, which can be twisted if desired, or other shapes. Arrange the pieces on 1 or 2 ungreased baking sheets.
Place the baking sheet or sheets in the oven and bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until the straws are crisp and lightly browned. If you wish a darker color let them cook longer. Remove and let cool.
Makes about 6 dozen.

I do like the idea of not having to melt the butter first.

Of course, with my obsessions I might just have to troll the internet for the RIGHT recipe as it has been years since I looked.

A note:  the same column that had the coconut macaroons also included country fried steak and cream gravy…belgian waffles…pineapple tart

Squirrels!!

Here on the outskirts of the big city it is amazing at the amount of wildlife that can be seen. Lots of birds, and our friends the squirrels. I was at a park recently to take some ebay pictures and as soon as I had stopped my car a gang of squirrels ran right up to me. One of them were brave enough to sit quietly for me while I got out my camera. Another ran up a tree and watched carefully to see if I would have any treats for him/her.

The squirrel up the tree couldn’t have picked a prettier place to perch – green leaves and moss artistically draped over a weathered broken branch!

Cheezeburger – Blue Bird of Happiness

One of my favorite places to go each day for chuckles is icanhascheezeburger.com.  Mostly cats, but other creatures too with creative captions.

Sometimes it expresses just how I feel or just gives me a good laugh.  Guess which one this is?

a clue: LOL

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Postcard – Mar-a-Lago – Joseph E. Davies Estate – Marjorie Davies!

When I first saw this card I was intrigued and wanted to find out a bit more about Joseph E. Davies.  There is quite a bit to find out – he was a US Ambassador to Russia, married and divorced businesswoman/socialite/philanthropist Marjorie Merriweather Post and much more.

But this is where we depart from Joseph and focus on Marjorie.  While married to E.F. Hutton (yes, the one you are thinking of) she sold her Palm Beach estate and began construction in 1924 on Mar-a-Lago situated between Lake Worth and the Atlantic Ocean.  It was designed by architect and Ziegfeld set designer Joseph Urban.

Some of the features of the 114-118 room (numbers of rooms differ from resource to resource) include decorative Italian stone, 15th century tiles from Spain (embossed with plus ultra, Latin for “beyond the ultimate”), tapestries from the palace of the Venetian Doge (wonder if she was in a bidding war with the Ringlings for those…).  While constructing the ceiling in the Grand Salon, her artists used all the available gold leaf in the US and had to import more from Europe.

The estate had a nine-hole golf course, 10,000 potted plants, and a sand path that allowed the family dog to visit the trees without getting it’s paws dirty (awwww).  If you were a guest, you would receive a list of activities each morning, watch first-run movies in the evening, and might even be entertained by the entire Ringling Bros, Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Not just a symbol of the gilded age of socialites, Marjorie maintained a seat on the board of General Foods until forced to retire at age 71, owned a pair of 20 carat diamond earrings belonging to Marie Antionette, and the largest privately owned sea-going yacht (the “Sea Cloud”).  During the depression she put her jewels into a vault, canceled the insurance and used the money to fund a soup kitchen in New York City that fed over 1,000 people a day.  Her charitable donations were many, but I found that one to be an “outside the box” concept!

She intended for Mar-a-Lago to be used as a winter White House, but it was bought from the Post estate by Donald Trump in 1985.

She was quite a fascinating lady, and I really enjoyed the research into her exploits.

YOU can own this card by winning the auction on ebay, item 400015492341 or click on http://tinyurl.com/56zsak.

Pecan Pie from Winter Park Memorial Hospital (Florida)

I looked all over the internet for a copy of this pecan pie to make for Thanksgiving, but Google failed me.

A bit of a story first:  about 30 years ago my mother was a patient of Winter Park Hospital for a lengthy stay in ICU and CCU.  During that time they served a pecan pie for dessert that was simply the best she had ever eaten – it had even beat Ann Lander’s version!

Later she found and clipped the recipe out of the Orlando Sentinel newspaper and I came across that recipe only a few years ago.  I have retyped it and sent it to various family members.  Of course I didn’t have it when I was making desserts for Thanksgiving, so decided to put it in a blog entry so I could actually find it in the future!

As mentioned above, this was copied from the Orlando Sentinel newspaper and other than that I don’t have a publication date or any other specific information.  I do know it is about the best pecan pie EVER.  Enjoy!

Winter Park Memorial Hospital Pecan Pie
Makes 3 pies

4 c pecans, chopped
6 c brown sugar
3 C granulated sugar
6 Tbs flour
12 eggs
¾ c milk
2 tsp vanilla
3 tbs butter

Mix brown sugar, granulated sugar, and flour.  Beat in thoroughtly eggs, milk, vanilla, and melted butter.  Fold in pecans
Pour into unbaked pie shells.  Bake at 250 degrees 40 to 50 minutes