The Hunting Widow Re-Emerges!

So....... Each year the onset of Fall and appreciation for the cooler weather stirs good feelings among us all. Yours may be different than mine, but it seems each of us is thrilled to finally get a break from the Summer heat.

For me, my first thought is Football! College football, specifically - no, specifically, it's SEC football. I love SEC football, and if I'm honest, it consumes most of my Saturdays in the Fall. I know, I know, YOU don't care about football in the least. That's OK, I'm not really going to talk about it. Just giving you an idea of where I'm coming from.

Last weekend I made Karo's Classic Caramel Corn Treat Bags

 

 

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/caramel-corn-treat-bags/detail.aspx 

 

 

Actually making caramel corn had literally NEVER crossed my mind! And my sister LOVES that stuff (and spends A LOT of money on it)! I honestly felt like a dufus after finding how easy it was to make (but I digress). I took everything over to a friend's house where we were getting together, you guessed it, to watch Football! All the kids (big & small) really got a kick out of making their own snack mixes. I had little bowls of M&M's, mixed nuts, candy corn, Jelly Bellys and Craisins. Then I had a stack of larger cups so each person could add the "fixins" as they liked.

Now mind you, my Dear Hubby wasn't even there. HE was in the woods. Bow Season started a few weeks ago, which means I won't see him much on weekends for the next couple of months. See, there's another thing I think about with the change in weather. Remember the old saying, "Give a man a fish & you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish & you get rid of him on weekends"? The same applies to Hunting.......Hello, Fall! 

And yet another Fall agenda item popped up too. The company I work for provides employee benefits for a number of State Govt Agencies, and October - December is open-enrollment season. That means I'll be out enrolling a lot of the time. 

This year I'll be spending the week of Halloween in a hotel 2 hours from home and I'll have to be on location for that enrollment by 6:30am each morning. So I started thinking - these sort of snack combos would be great 1) for DH to take to deer camp - I know they like to keep snack things with them in the stands - and 2) for ME to take to snack on in the hotel or if I have to miss lunch! Oh, the wheels got to turning................

This weekend I made more Classic Caramel Corn for DH. I also made Rosemary Roasted Cashews and a twist on a classic cereal-mix sort of thing. I also made biscuit sandwiches with ham & cheese for those early mornings and hard rolls with salami, pepperoni, havarti & butter. I've wrapped all the "sammies" individually & then put in larger bags - one for me, and one for Hubby. I've made myself smaller bags of caramel corn & cereal mix & leaving the rest so he can doctor them up however he chooses. At least I know he won't starve while I'm out of town and he's all on his own out there in the woods. Next time I see him - he's gonna have to fix me a Steak!

 

 

So whatever the colder weather brings for you, I hope you enjoy it - and like the Boy Scouts, Be prepared! Even if it's just for snack time. Happy Fall, everyone!!!

Butter... It Does A Body (and Mind) Good!

Well, first things first. We didn't have butter growing up. We had margarine. Sticks & tubs. Now to be honest, I didn't know there was a difference back then and I was perfectly fine with it. We'd fight over who got the "hat" (the little swirly part) in a new tub for our cornbread. It was fine for toast & grilled cheese. We just didn't know any better. That's what Mom used, that's what Nanny & Mamaw used. I assume it was a cost issue. We definitely didn't have much money and I know they were all very frugal.

So when I was asked to blog about my memories involving butter - my initial memory was the time we'd run out of peanut butter so my older sister decided to make her own. Yes, you guessed it. Take one stick of butter (ok, margarine) and shove as many of Dad's roasted peanuts in it as you can - using your fingers, of course. Quelle Surprise! Didn't turn out quite like the crunchy Peter Pan peanut butter we were used to. Looked about as nasty as it tasted too. For this particular usage, I'm sure Mom was pleased with the fact that it had, indeed, been margarine.

Eventually I started thinking about when I began to make the margarine-to-butter switch. And it hit me. In the summer of 1993 I was a graduate student at the University of South Carolina. As part of the program, we were to do a 6-month internship abroad in our language-designated country. So this southern girl who'd never been out of the U.S. was off to Germany.

I got an internship with Bosch in the tiny town of Murrhardt, and as it happened another fellow student did too. I didn't know him very well; we'd had no classes together. I really only knew him because I'd dated his roommate earlier in the year. Even so, we discussed it and decided that in order to save costs, it would be a good idea to look for a place where we could live together. Also Kurt (this new roommate) had been in the military and lived in Germany before - and his German was excellent (mine, not so much). We each contacted the company separately asking for help finding housing (a two-bedroom, if possible) and that we would like to live together to share expenses. They found us a great place only 3 miles from the factory. We were to travel to Murrhardt and meet our new landlord, Frau Strohmaier, at the train station. And away we went!

Kurt & me - spring 1994

 

She wasn't hard to find. We may have been the only people getting off the train at Murrhardt, and she was definitely the only woman waiting for visitors. Frau Strohmaier looked just like Aunt Bea (from the Andy Griffith show) but wearing those crazy German shoes! I later learned she was keen to heft those giant beer mugs too (quite unlike Aunt Bea). 

She took us by the grocery for before we even went to check out the apartment. Thus began my education in European grocery shopping. None of the products were what I was used to. At home I’d pretty much had the standard mass-produced sliced white bread, cornbread & biscuits – probably several others in restaurants – none of that was to be found. SO many amazing fresh-baked loaves and rolls, we had no idea which ones to choose. The same was true of cheeses, sausages and beer. But you know what they did have? Butter. Real, True, Sweet-cream Butter. And that’s when I learned to the truth about butter.

I’d never wanted to just spread butter on bread and eat it as a snack (except in a restaurant, of course). But with those hearty breads, all the new cheeses, I began smearing butter in places I’d never considered – on a roll with salami? Oh yeah! You betcha! Once I discovered that, I wanted a salami brötchen every single morning – and most days I had one (or more, if I’m honest).

 

Over those six months, I learned a lot about living in a new place. I learned to adapt to their way of life. I learned to celebrate the similarities as well as differences among people’s needs & likes. I learned how to properly pour a good Weiss Bier. Eventually I even learned to speak pretty good German too. And oh yes, I learned to truly appreciate of butter. Whether slathered on a roll with salami, sautéing garlic and onion on the stove, or melting in a big slice of Mom’s cornbread – It’s delicious and has no equal in margarine. Now that’s not to say margarine is bad or even that I don’t still buy & use margarine. It’s still perfectly fine for some things and the lower fat/cholesterol options are nice when considering your health. However, when you’re Not considering your health – and you’re going strictly for taste and creamy deliciousness – the choice is clear. And it’s Butter all the way. 

Oh, and if you're curious about the genius "peanut butter" maker - she later earned a degree in Chemistry and Doctorate in Pharmacy - and to this day, she still can't figure out why that peanut butter didn't work.

 

Circa 1977 - That's me on the right & the peanut-butter maker on the left