Potica Making
We have recently tried our hand at making potica (pronounced pah-teet-za), a Serbian sweet bread. Our mom grew up familiar with this delicious item, but was only able to eat it at the homes of “rich people,� due to its high cost. We never knew it was possible to make this at home, so when a friend gave us the recipe (and pictorial instructions), we jumped on to this opportunity.
Here is the table prepared with a fitted flour-smeared sheet and with older sheets all around it on the floor. In the middle of the table is the potica dough.
This is the filling cooking on the stove.
We pull the dough slowly out farther and farther.
The dough is pulled far enough when it hangs down on all sides (this can be used to make cinnamon rolls, which no one is hungry enough to eat after having potica).
Then the dough is sprinkled with cinnamon
After that, the filling is spread out (or rather, spooned out), trying as hard as possible to cover every inch of the dough.
Cut the excess dough off the sides of the table
Roll up the dough into a long long log.
All finished! Then this is cut into bread-pan-sized pieces, baked, and sliced. Mmmm!
Posted in Everyday Life on February 2, 2006 | Comments (3)
Christmas
Christmas is over, although you wouldn’t know it from looking at our house. Our tree is still up. We think we will have to tackle that this weekend. I truly enjoy our tree, filled with ornaments that are wonderful memories of years past. We moved a chair out of the family room to make space for the tree. Just last night my husband said that he hoped we would get right to work making a new slipcover for that chair when the tree comes down. Our friends the Cottrills made a slipcover for one of their chairs, and Steve seems certain that we can do it. There’s always something new to learn.
December was a very busy month. We made four quilts in November and December. The first to be finished was a quilt for our son Micah’s fiancée so she has one like our other girls do.
Then there were others made as Christmas gifts.
Martha made our first ever cookie tree. It was a success, but we never had the time to perfect it – for example, the star would look better dipped in yellow chocolate – and we never had time to mass produce them for people. We’ll save that for next year.
Naomi perfected the art of crocheting doilies and gave them to friends as gifts. The one she is working on now is her most beautiful yet.
Everyone was home for New Year’s. Although there was no snow, which is quite unusual, we had a wonderful time. We hosted an engagement party for Micah and Emma. Their wedding is on February 4th, so we are counting the days. Steve has taken to referring to his “five daughters� instead of four. There are no words to describe what a miracle girl Emma is and how happy we are to have her marrying Micah. God has truly blessed us! I think it must be very sad for people who have to be part of their children’s weddings when they have reservations about the perfectness of the match. We are going to celebrate unreservedly!
The day after our company left, we headed to Tennessee to attend a bridal shower for Emma. We had try-ons for the bridesmaid dresses, which Emma and her Mom sewed themselves. It was wonderful to meet so many people who love Emma as much as we do!
Now we are attempting to get back into the swing of everyday life. We have several projects going so we still feel busy. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season!
Posted in Everyday Life on January 16, 2006 | Comments (1)
Pie Making
Last week we had the privilege of learning how to decorate 2-crust pies from a friend who makes multiple pies every year for an auction at the Mennonite church. She is well-known for her skills and was so kind to pass them on to us.
Here we are rolling out our dough.
Here are our pies - two apple, one blueberry, one cherry.
One apple pie got small apples all over the top. The apple was cut with a small cookie cutter and the leaves were just cut freehand with a knife. When decorated this way, each slice of pie will have an apple cut-out on it.
The other got one large apple. The veins of the leaf are pressed in with the back side of a knife. Notice the shape of the slits she cuts for vents.
Here’s the blueberry and the cherry pie after baking. The only trick to adding cut-outs on pie is to moisten the back of the piece with water before placing it on the pie. This insures that it sticks. We saw in a magazine that you can brush the top of the pie with one beaten egg mixed with one tablespoon water. This will give the pie a shiny look. We have not tried it yet.
For a Thanksgiving pumpkin pie, she often decorates the crust with leaves. Instead of crimping the edge of the pie, she cuts out leaves of different sizes and overlaps them all along the outside edge. In a local craft store we found a set of cookie cutters that had three different shapes of leaves with three different sized cutters for each shape. That will be easier than cutting them all freehand. You can also cut out a turkey with a cookie cutter, bake it separately from the pie, and place it in the center after the pie is baked.
Here are the four of us with our instructor.
Posted in Everyday Life on November 10, 2005 | Comments (0)
An Update
This weekend is made happy by having our grandma and our cousin Carl visiting. We’re trading significant sleep for significant memories.
Thursday we went for a drive to view the fall foliage.
We stopped at our friends’ farm to pick up some apples and other items of culinary and aesthetic delight.
An old cemetery caught our eyes.
To entertain ourselves on the way home, Naomi played the harmonica while Carl and the rest provided vocal accompaniment to a lively rendition of “Oh When the Saints.�
True to the counterculture dogma we so vociferously defend, after dinner we gave a visible demonstration of men’s and women’s roles (ha ha).
The next day we discovered that we had inadvertently dressed in the appropriate colors – boys in blue, girls in pink. We thought it was so funny we had to document it with a photograph.
Posted in Everyday Life on October 22, 2005 | Comments (0)
How Much Fruit Would Fruit-Canners Can If Fruit Canners Could Can Fruit?
Fifty pounds of fresh blueberries. Yummy!
Hannah and Alice washing the berries
Cherry pie filling going into the hot water bath
Martha and Mom cutting peaches
When it's time to fill the jars, we are a well-oiled machine. Everyone has their own job.
Yes, they actually do suck on the pits during breaks in the action!
Naomi filling jars.
Twenty-eight beautiful jars of salsa!
Posted in Everyday Life on September 7, 2005 | Comments (0)
Joni and Friends Family Retreat
Camp is always one of the highlights of our year. Here are a few pictures.
Here we are with our friends we hung out with this year. Hannah worked as staff so she was not assigned to a camper.
A week of camp is full of activity. There is the silliness at the annual campfire...
not to mention an abundance of s'mores. Mmm!
There are lots of games.
If you can't tell, the young boy next to Martha is supposed to be dressed up as a reindeer. Takes a little imagination, huh? The panty hose on his head with the legs stuffed with balloons are supposed to be his antlers. Cute nose though.
Everyone makes new friends and takes the time to visit.
Pool party night is always fun, although we got banished from the pool half way through this year because of thunder.
It was great that Joni stayed the entire week of camp. Everyone really loves her, and her presence was such an encouragement.
We just had to put up this picture of our good friend Mike. Isn't this shirt great? I want one, but mine would have to say, "Just because I keep talking and talking doesn't mean that I have anything to say". When I told him that he, of course, agreed with me.
&mdash, Posted by Tammy
Posted in Everyday Life on July 6, 2005 | Comments (1)
Hospitality
“There is also a fundamental principle regarding hospitality which we are all very apt to lose sight of: to contribute in some sort to the cheerfulness of our community is undoubtedly a duty, and a house closed against its neighbors is not the home of a good citizen. The truly hospitable door stands always on the latch, the spirit of the house is the generous intention to welcome with cordial readiness all those who find pleasure in lifting it.� From Home Thoughts, copyright 1901.
If you think we have been slow to post on the web site lately, you are correct. We are not, however without excuse. We have had company at our house for the last three weeks and have been quite preoccupied entertaining, cooking, and having just plain fun. The first of our visitors was the McDonald family from Houston with their nine children. We had a wonderful time while they were here, and I admit to being quite thrilled with the fingerprints on my front door. The Lord willing, it won’t be long before I have a steady stream of fingerprints in my house from my own grandchildren! With only one shower, the bathroom schedule was highly regulated, but we managed just fine. After they left, my mother visited us from Minnesota. We were thrilled to have her and Naomi celebrate their birthdays together, as they used to do when we lived in Minnesota. Naomi turned 23 and Grandma turned 81. What a blessing!
In the middle of Grandma’s visit, our niece Bethany and her three year old daughter, Shahiza, showed up from Hawaii. Talk about fun! We have sung lots of “She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain� and “I’m a Little Teapot�,
have been reminded of the evening ritual of “bathtime�,
and have asked her to repeat certain stories over and over just to hear her voice. We went camping for a few days, and Shahiza roasted her first marshmallow and had her first s’more.
Then, to top it all off, we had a short visit from our niece Emily from Oklahoma. It has been two years since these cousins had seen each other, so it was a real treat.
Tomorrow Bethany and Shahiza leave and we will miss the excitement of company. I have been reading yet another old book, Home Thoughts (copyright 1901), and found this short excerpt from the chapter titled, Moral Responsibility of Entertaining. After emphasizing the importance of having all family members unselfishly share in the welcoming and caring of guests, the author states: “If [the children] gain the idea that it is a part of life’s pleasant duty to make their homes places of rest and good cheer, and that the dispensing of heartfelt and inspiring hospitality, which shall enlarge the world’s fountains of refreshment and pleasure, is an integral quality of the best family life, they will not readily lose sight of these fundamental principles in later years.�
Had any company lately?
Posted in Everyday Life on June 19, 2005 | Comments (0)
Another Child Graduates.
Child number four, Martha, has officially graduated from our home school. Instead of the usual party to celebrate, we gave Martha a trip to Italy. She and her brother were gone for ten days and had a wonderful time. Martha spent months reading and studying in preparation for the trip. While she was gone, I was busy sewing.
I have made each of our children a quilt for their graduation, and I finished Martha’s just ten minutes before she arrived home! I pray that these quilts will warm and comfort them for years to come and always be a reminder of how much their mother loves them. I am quite sure the quilts will outlast me, and when I am no longer there to put my arms around them, I pray that the quilts will be a reminder of the eternal Comforter who will always be near.
Posted in Everyday Life on May 31, 2005 | Comments (2)
Home-keeping hearts are happiest
Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest;
Home-keeping hearts are happiest,
For those that wander they know not where
Are full of trouble and full of care;
To stay at home is best. (Longfellow)
We had a wonderful four days of “home-keeping� activities that left all of our hearts happy.
Our friends Joanna, Christine, and Elise were visiting us. During the day, Joanna and Elise sewed on their quilts. Elise actually finished hers before she left. Yeah! Now she and Alice have matching quilts. One more visit and Joanna will be done. For months we have been talking about having an old-fashioned taffy pull, so this seemed like the perfect time. Now we know why taffy pulls were so popular. We couldn’t stop laughing. We are still experimenting with recipes and when we have settled on the best one we will post it, along with all the little tricks we are learning. The cookbooks from the ‘20s seem to be the most specific with tips for success. It was really fun.
With all the activity going on, Alice still managed to get in a biology dissection. My niece’s brother in law dissects with her. She really needs him too. He actually touched the crayfish! We can hardly wait to see the face she makes when they cut open that big, fat frog!
Posted in Everyday Life on April 15, 2005 | Comments (1)
Books, books, books
Over the Easter holiday, we had the pleasure of stopping at our favorite used book store. It is in a small town two hours east of here, so we do not get there very often. Micah was home from Texas, and he especially enjoys the chance to pick up some new (old) books. “Some� on this trip meant twenty-five.
As you can imagine, these new acquisitions provided him with a packing challenge on his trip home. Who made up that fifty pound rule the airlines hold you to?
I found a new treasure. It is a book for newlyweds written in 1850 by Rev. Daniel Wise. He wrote one of our other favorites, The Royal Path of Life. Have any of you ever heard Little Bear say not to bother looking for any good old books since he already has them all? I can’t help thinking of him when I stumble on a good find. I want to know if he has this one. I am enjoying Rev. Wise’s wisdom gained through years of experience. Part of the section on Friends and Relatives gave me quite a chuckle. Here is an excerpt:
“A happy domestic life should be regarded as a prize worth having, even at the cost of many struggles. Nor can it be reached without high purposes and decided efforts. Still, if you both determine to enjoy it, it will unquestionably be yours.
In becoming man and wife, you have not only changed your relation to each other, but to your respective families. Both have been admitted into a new family, and very much of your conjugal happiness depends on the union of your families now brought into intimate connexion by your marriage. A delightful harmony, a troublesome jealousy, or a painful indifference will shortly spring up to bless or to trouble you. By proper caution on both sides, a harmonious union, which will make sweet music, may be permanently established.
Should there be a step-mother or a maiden sister who has previously acted as housekeeper for the bridegroom, the young wife may have a task to perform which will demand the employment of all her energies.
In such a case, it is the duty of the husband to transfer, fully and formally, all domestic management from his mother or sister to his wife. There cannot be two mistresses in one domestic establishment; and it is the right of the wife to preside as a queen over her own household. Any attempt to divide authority between her and another will certainly create trouble; while no sensible mother or sister will complain, if, at the kind wish of the son or brother, she is requested to defer to the lawful mistress of his home; though very much depends on the gentleness and kindness with which the bride exercises that authority. She should do it with all that love and respect which becomes a daughter or sister-in-law.�
Our older girls have been spending more and more time living with their brother. His house is cleaner, he eats better, our girls have adjusted to being away from home, and it has relieved some of everyone’s sadness due to our family’s separation. We have some entertaining stories of the girls’ arrival at his home after he has been on his own for a while. One of the funniest was a telephone call the morning after two of the girls arrived when they moaned, “This apartment smells like boy!� The girls have often mentioned how nice it will be to visit Micah after he is married. They daydream about arriving at his house and seeing all his shirts already washed and ironed and being able to help in the kitchen without first having to purge his refrigerator of its moldy contents. That is why this part of the marriage book was so funny to me. I suppose Rev. Wise is correct that it may be hard for a new wife to feel she has to keep house at the level Micah’s sisters have, especially since they have years of knowledge about what his preferences are. I doubt, however, that anyone will put up a fight for the title of “queen of his domestic establishment�. “Loving sister� and “frequent visitor� minus the role of “housekeeper� will be wonderful stations to fill.
—Posted by Tammy
Posted in Everyday Life on March 29, 2005 | Comments (0)
