Tradition

I believe in traditions; I believe in the idea of things being passed between generations and the slow transmission of cultural values through tradition.
— Graham Moore

The human soul can always use a new tradition. Sometimes we require them.
― Pat Conroy

Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.
― Gustav Mahler

One of my favorite things to wear is an over-sized shirt over leggings, so Friday I finally broke down and bought a couple of big shirts I’ve been eyeballing for a while now. And like many people, I seldom try things on in the store, which is the only excuse I can come up with for not noticing the weirdness of their design.

The shirts had a shallow scoop neck in the front, and a vee neck criss-crossed with fabric straps in the back. Maybe it was fashionable, but it didn’t seem very practical to have your back exposed in a long sleeved, tunic length shirt. I tried one shirt on, but it just wasn’t comfortable. So then I tried turning it around so the vee was in the front, but the neckline plunged just a little too low.

Here's the thing. If I hadn’t tried the shirt on I would have never known how super comfortable it was and I would have just taken them both back and exchanged them for shirts with backs in them. But . . . I did try it on, and it was really, really comfortable, and I figured there had to be a way to make it work.

Of course there was. First, the criss-crossing straps had to go so I cut them off. Then I figured the only way to make the vee less plunging was to hitch it up at the shoulder. This meant cutting off the sleeves, taking about an inch and a half off at the shoulder, re-sewing the shoulder seams, and sewing the sleeves back on.

It might have been easier had my sewing machine worked better, but all in all it wasn’t all that hard. But it got me thinking about how lucky I was to have had a mother who taught me how to sew at an early age.

While I can’t remember the lessons themselves, I remember her sewing machine – it was a Singer brand machine and you could sew forwards or backwards, that was it. And I must have been 12 or so when I learned because she died when I was 13 and at that point I was designing and sewing my own Barbie clothes. But she didn’t just teach me how to sew on the machine, she also taught me how to embroider and so I also have her to thank for my love of stitchery.

I’m sure my mother learned to sew from her mother, who learned to sew from hers. My sisters both sew as well. I love the idea of these traditions being passed down from mother to daughter. I taught my daughter how to embroider when she was little, and I look forward to the day my granddaughter follows this tradition as well.

Metanomen Monday

metanomen ~ metaphorical name

Belated Happy Valentine’s Day.

I’ve been enjoying my fully functional kitchen but one serious problem has arisen – I no longer have an excuse for not making cookies. Hence the cookies pictured above.

The recipe for these cookies is the same one my mother used. They were a special treat when I was a kid, although hers were date filled and mine are filled with raspberry jam. She didn’t make them often (which is why they were such a treat) and I came to learn it was probably because they’re such a pain in the butt to make.

A couple of years ago the hubby gave me a stand mixer for Christmas which makes mixing up these cookies much easier, but they’re still pretty labour intensive. You mix up the dough, refrigerate it overnight, then you have to roll them out and cut them.

When you’re getting them ready to bake to have to have to lay the bottom cookies out on the cookie sheet, then put just the right amount of jam in the center of each one – too much and it’ll leak out during baking, too little and you won’t taste it – and then I use a paintbrush to dampen the edges of each cookie before putting the top cookie over it. This seals it better for baking.
<.br> When the daughter had her first Valentine’s Day in kindergarten, I was at a loss as to what to do because I had no idea what the names were of her classmates. So I thought of my mother’s jam filled cookies, and for fun I put them on a stick. One cookie for each kids and a few extra for the teachers.

And I’ve been making them every Valentine’s Day since.

I thought I’d get a break when the daughter started high school, but no such luck. She even had kids she’d gone to primary school with asking her about them. And then for sure I thought when she went away to university I could skip making the cookies, but the daughter was so appalled at the thought of not having her cookies for Valentine’s Day, I hurried up and made them.

A few times I substituted pink sugar cookie dough for the oatmeal because it was easier to mix up, and once I made them like a sandwich cookie with a cut out. They did not go over well. At least I was allowed to ditch the sticks finally.

Making these cookies always makes me think of my mother though. A little bit of nostalgia and a true labour of love.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Mellisonant Monday

mellisonant ~ sweet-sounding

Happy Thanksgiving fellow Canadians! And to all my friends south of the lake, Happy Columbus Day!

Like a lot of people, we do our big dinner on Sunday, rather than the Monday. It’s usually our family dinner day anyway, and it’s just easier. Plus who wants to have to get on with their lives in a turkey coma? This way we have Monday to recuperate.

While most people would post a picture of their beautiful table right before everyone digs in, I never seem to have the time to stop working in the kitchen for that. So I’m going a different way. I’m showing you what it looks like after dinner’s over and the table’s been cleared:

Looks like we’ll be eating turkey for a while. In retrospect, I think a 15 pound turkey for 5 people was a little much. LOL

And yes, the grandbaby counts as a full person this year. You should have seen that kid pack away the mashed potatoes and gravy! And she still had room for pie. But then there’s always room for pumpkin pie.

This year the glazed carrots came from my own garden, as did the green beans for the green bean casserole. Made it kind of extra special for me.

Now I’m off to stuff the daughter’s turkey (she won’t touch raw meat, even with gloves LOL). She’s having a “friendsgiving” dinner tonight – she provides the turkey and her friends bring the sides.

I think in a world where tradition often gets lost by the wayside, this is one of the best.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Muriform Monday

muriform ~ resembling a mouse or rat

Well folks, you dodged a bullet and don’t even realize it. LOL

When I started writing this post I was fresh from the news about the new doctor on the TV show Doctor Who. I’m not happy about their choice - I’m a die hard fan but they’ve changed the show so much I’m done with it. I was three rather lengthy paragraphs into a rant about it when I realized that in the grand scheme of things, who cares? It’s just a TV show.

So ... I deleted my rant and I’m ready to carry on. You’re welcome. :-)

After an unintended hiatus, my thrift store buddy and I were back shopping on Saturday. I bought things, she bought things, and we both agreed that if we didn’t stop bringing home so much “stuff” (it’s only junk when you’re getting rid of it) our hubbies might stop letting us play together. LOL

One of the things I bought on impulse was an incomplete set of dishes:

This is the Barratts Delphatic White Ironstone Blue Roses dinnerware. I got 33 pieces for $10, including enough dinner plates with cups and saucers to use for my immediate family. It also included a platter and two serving bowls, and a set of fruit nappies.

What makes it so special is pure nostalgia. Back in the sixties, my mother began collecting these dishes. I have a vague memory of her getting them as a free gift whenever she filled up her gas tank, not sure which gas station, but she also might have got them using green stamps. Anyone remember green stamps? Yeah, me neither. ;-)

Anywho, my mother collected these dishes piece by piece until she had a whole set. They weren’t her “good” dishes, but they weren’t every day dishes either. We would use them for Sunday dinner.

After mom died my oldest sister ended up with the entire set. I’m not sure how they’ve fared over the years or even if she uses them. I suspect her set is also incomplete at this point, if it still exists at all.

But I do know that going forward I’ll be using mine on Sundays, keeping the tradition alive.