Sunday Scribblings and a Keeper from the Recipe Box

The Sunday Scribbling topic this week is Spicy. I love to bake, but I stay true to recipes. I guess I don't know enough about the different tastes and textures of spices to experiment much. The smell and taste of each of the spices above are familiar, but when it comes to mixing up a recipe I just follow the spices and amounts listed. Recipes that create a warm, spicy flavor are favorites of mine. Ginger can stand alone in a cookie and have a delicious flavor. Most of us have had cinnamon alone in a crisp or on toast. I like cinnamon in small doses. I like it blended with other spices, but not when it overpowers the others. Cloves reminds me of the gum we used to chew as kids. I also used to love to take off the lid of the whole cloves and smell them at Christmastime. My favorite of the four is nutmeg. I love rice pudding with nutmeg only. It gives a special taste to rhubarb custard pie. It adds a nice finish to hot drinks like eggnog and Tom and Jerry's.

I don't care for allspice and the pumpkin pie spice and apple pie spice you can buy now. The combinations don't seem right. I just go back to my traditional spices and follow the recipe.

The recipe below is one of my favorite sweet bread recipes. Combining pumpkin, chocolate, and these spices creates a delicious bread. The nutmeg is the perfect spice for the glaze. This may not sound good in early summer so tuck it away to enjoy "when the frost is on the punkin".

Pumpkin-Chip Bread
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cooked or canned pumpkin
1 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped nuts
Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 TB milk
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Cream together the butter and sugar, blend in the eggs. Add dry ingredients (which have been combined)- alternately with the pumpkin- beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Fold in by hand the chocolate chips and 1/2 cup nuts.
Spoon into two greased and floured 9x5x2 1/2-inch pans. Sprinkle with remaining nuts. Bake at 350 for 45-50 min. Test for doneness. Remove from oven, let cool five minutes. Remove from pans and drizzle with glaze. Best held overnight before slicing- it gives the spices a chance to set in.
Yield: 2 loaves
Freezes well also.

For other Sunday Scribblings posted using Spicy go here.

One More Week to Go

It is hard to imagine that in five weekdays another school year will come to a close. To cheer myself up before the students came in this morning I wrote out this list of things to do. Revisiting the list I think I should do all of them.

As I wrote up the daily routine on the white board this morning I felt a hint of sadness. As a group we have cried over death, laughed over mishaps, sang over birthdays, and celebrated over books we enjoyed. We have bonded and learned much together.My desk did have a stack of "stuff" this morning to put in piles to do before the year ends. At least I could find my desk. There have been times when that was impossible!

As I sat quietly in the morning sun before any students arrived I thought back to the beginning of this journey we embarked on this year. Because of staff adjustments we had to combine our middle school students. I had a 6-7 group and a 7-8 group. At first students were unhappy, but as we all adjusted to the changeit worked out okay. I think students ended up working in teams much better than expected. I will have two of the same grade levels again next year and the 8th graders will just be in the other building. That is what I like about a small school district. Tomorrow I will watch my former students go through the ceremony of graduation. There will be luncheons and parties to celebrate. This is a landmark year for me. When the seniors were in kindergarten it was the first year I taught at this school. They are the first group of students I have known and taught through twelve years of school. Congratulations to the Class of 2007!

The Reasons I Love Roses

I love roses for many reasons. I love them because they are surprising. Just when you think one is dead from winter kill it pops up and presents this bloom.

I love roses because they smell so fragrant even if your nose is stuffed up still from a cold.
Roses combine with other blooming shrubs like this honeysuckle for a lovely contrast.
This Peace climber is hardy. That is another reason I love roses.

Some roses can be moved numberous times and still continue to bloom like this Rio Samba.
Roses do what you want them to do. JEJ trained this climber to move over to the shed a couple of years ago. It is doing just that.

Gertrude Stein said " A rose is a rose is a rose." That is another reason I love them. They are pure perfection.

What's In My Journal?

I think many of us that enjoy writing have tried journaling at some point. I have gone to bookstores and bought very fancy journals. I have had a black and white composition book and written along with my students. Calendars have ended working oftentimes as a timeline journal of events. I love the following poem by William Stafford. As he opens his journal up to us-it's a metaphoric journal:its contents are objects, jokes, images, and things that make him unique. Put together they say quite a bit about who he is as a person. When I read this poem I want to create that metaphoric journal myself. What would be in yours?

What's In My Journal

Odd things, like a button drawer, Mean
things, fishhooks, barbs in you hand.
But marbles too. A genius for being agreeable.
Junkyard crucifixes, voluptuous
discards. Space for knickknacks and for
Alaska. Evidence to hang me, or to beautify.
Clues that lead nowhere, that never connected
anyway. Deliberate obfuscation, the kind
that takes genius. Chasms in character.
Loud omissions. Mornings that yawn above
a new grave. Pages you know exist
but you can't find them. Someone's terribly
inevitable life story, maybe mine.

-William Stafford

Here's To You Papa Pert

Eleven years ago today was my father's funeral . Earlier in the week I wrote about the weeks leading up to his death here. My niece The Princess was around during the time Dad was very sick. One day I took her with me to Spokane because I had a hair appointment and I thought she could go for a field trip. She was five at the time. When The Princess was older she also reflected on his death and wrote the following poem to her Papa Pert, my dad.

I have kept it ever since.

Why?

I am not sad. I do not cry,

I just want to know why you had to die.

For dying is a mystery to me,

I never knew that could be.

Whey did you have to die?

You were always there for me.

Is this supposed to happen?

Is this really true?
When I get old will I die just like you?

I know the answer.

It is yes, but is it really for the best?

The good part of dying I know this is true.

You go up to heaven. When I go up I hope to see you.

My friend says we will not know each other if you die,

I hope not, that would make me cry,

For it you didn't know anyone in heaven, would it be so great?

Would you really want to go so much if you knew you didn't know so much?

I hope not because that would hurt, very much.

So Papa Pert please answer my questions.

What does Heaven look like?

Do you miss me?

I remember when I sat in your chair.

It was funny... you sat on me like I wasn't there.

And I remember you taught me how to eat spaghetti on a fork.

How you twisted it just right.

I remember the sad news.

The news that you died.

I really didn't think that much of it,

I didn't really care, but now I realize

the importance of you being there.

I don't remember the funeral

Only bits and pieces of what I think it was,

There were a lot of old people and I was scared.

I think of it though because I didn't cry.

Remember? I didn't care.

haven't cared for so long, but now I am ready to be strong.

Too bad I can't hug you, too bad you can't hug me.

Well, here's to you my Papa Pert

The one that means so much to me.

by your granddaughter

The Princess

On that field trip eleven years ago I took my niece to

McDonald's to play in the pit with the balls .

You Gotta Love June!

Nothing says June like the first bowl of strawberries from the garden. I love the taste of the ripe, sweet fruit on top of vanilla ice cream. Having both strawberries and rhubarb ready at the same time created a perfect opportunity to make a pie. The double exposure shows my Grandma Woolum's Betty Crocker cookbook open to her favorite recipe overlapped with the baked pie.

I heard JEJ call out today from the raspberry patch that they are almost ripe. You gotta love June!