Author Topic: The Library (Read 2625116 times)

Steph · « **Reply #14520 on:** December 29, 2014, 09:08:23 AM »

The Library

Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us.

We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).

Let the book talk begin here!

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My Mother loved mincemeat pie and made it every Christmas. I hate it, but she and my Dad loved it.. I had honestly forgotten about it until it was just mentioned. The things that go out of style are sometimes puzzling
I love Sweet Potatoes, but dislike the marshmallow type stuff. Like it plainer with lots of butter, etc.

MaryPage · « **Reply #14521 on:** December 29, 2014, 09:25:36 AM »

Put me down as one who loves mincemeat pie, but I don't buy it anymore. They just flat out don't make it the way they used to. But I was raised on it, and for simply decades afterwards could not feel I had celebrated Christmas unless I had some. With Crosse & Blackwell's brandied hard sauce. That was the way it was served from my babyhood. Hot, with a large gob of that hard sauce melting away on top of it. Yum, yum, Heaven!

mabel1015j · « **Reply #14522 on:** December 29, 2014, 01:06:40 PM »

My mother used to bake minced pie in the fall. I was very young when i first tried it and was not happy with the mix of ingredients, which i couldn't identify, or the taste, so naturally i never tried it again.

Ironically and serendiptously i'm reading "American Pie: Slices of Life and Pie from Americas Back Roads" for our library book discussion. It's great fun. A young woman who is heading from Calif to a new job in NYC decides she needs a purpose to keep her drive across the country interesting. She lands on the idea of finding the best pie in various states as she moves across the country. She asks a friend to join her on the trip and it becomes a "Thelma and Louise" fun trip across the country. Pie recipes are included and they meet interesting characters as they go.

Interesting to me is that most of the pies people were making were one-crust pudding/custard pies, coconut cream, lemon meringue, shoefly, etc. my mother made pies every Sat morning, but mostly fruit, two-crust pies.

Again ironically, i found the answer to a quandry i've had for decades. My mother made, what i thought was called a torte, for special times, such as when she hosted her Methodist Women's Society. I knew it had walnuts, syrup, coconut and sugar in it and that it was crustless. I have been looking for that recipe under "tortes" for decades, but, of course, what i always found were cakes, not pies (German word for cake). Well, at the beginning of the book the author - i'll have to find her name later, my book is upstairs and its a French name i'm not familiar with - talks about the difference between American pie which often has 2 crusts and a French TARTE which never has a top crust. Ahhhhh, "TARTE."

I looked up the ingredients under "tartes" and i'm pretty sure that a walnut tarte is what my mother made. She had gotten the recipe out of a Good Houskeeping, or some other women's magazine. It sounds very much the same as a pecan pie, but i remember it being much less sweet than any pecan pie i have eaten.

I learn something new everyday.

Pascale LeDraoulec, author

http://www.amazon.com/American-Pie-Slices-Americas-Roads/dp/0060957328/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1SDHHDT8JCJ892MKAKNS

Jean

bellamarie · « **Reply #14523 on:** December 29, 2014, 01:50:40 PM »

My Mom always made mincemeat pie at Thanksgiving. I loved it! I made mincemeat cookies for Christmas for many years, using the mincemeat from a jar. Yummmm....they were delicious! I don't bake as much as I used to years ago. This year it was peanut butter with hershey kisses on top, ginger snaps, sugar cookies decorated by grandkids, and for the first time ever, I made my very favorite chocolate/peanut butter/oatmeal cookie. January 2nd I begin my annual workout, diet regimen.

salan · « **Reply #14524 on:** December 29, 2014, 08:02:56 PM »

When I had my shop, the woman who worked for me made a cherry mincemeat pie. I got the recipe from her since my father loved it. I still have the recipe somewhere in my recipe files.
Sally

Steph · « **Reply #14525 on:** December 30, 2014, 08:31:40 AM »

Cherry Mincemeat.. now that sounds promising. I like cherries. I have a wonderful old fashioned cookbook .. Farm Journal pie cookbook. Probably from the 60's... Every kind of pie imaginable. You just need to cut back the sugar on most of them. Dozens of crusts.. I don't make pies very often, but still use that one and gave both of my daughter in laws the crusts I liked the most from it. They generally use premade crusts however.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #14526 on:** December 30, 2014, 05:17:09 PM »

Packing up already to leave for home tomorrow - whoosh two weeks flew by - lots of great kids here most who are in Global Studies - what interesting conversations - even within the same study one is into all the Religions another, into woman's issues among Arab Women - another into the CIA and Afghanistan another into China studies - and yet, they all share a few classes in war versus peace and small groups taking over nations and the world economics. Amazing and wonderful hours long conversations. Visited, with the boys interesting second hand book stores and eateries in Asheville.

In the middle of all this, with young people coming and going and sleeping over we had a couple of down times with a neighbor and good friend loosing his brother in W.V. and my nephew being rushed to the hospital in a coma for a few days, he is still pretty sick - and the brother of another very close friend of my daughter's having a brother being pulled back after a heart attack - of course all this meant pies baked along with pots of soup delivered, teens cared for while parents were gone and constant phone calls to my sister -

We too had mince meat pies and tarts along with a couple of pumpkin pies and apple pies - so wonderful here the apples are fresh not having been sprayed with all the chemicals - tempted to bring some home but my return boxes are full and I just cannot handle heavy carryons any longer.

Revved up this year for some reason about having lists of things to accomplish and then crossing off as I finish - do want to get my legs moving again walking so that by next year I can say I can walk 10 miles in one go - we did take a mile walk through the woods and found mushrooms all sorts of moss and lichen on one of the two days it was sorta warm and sunny - and on a rainy Sunday morning the boys took me down to walk along the river watching the rapids - that I will be glad to be back for - I am so tired of being cold.

Steph · « **Reply #14527 on:** December 31, 2014, 09:02:36 AM »

Asheville.. Oh I am only an hour away in the summer, when I am in Franklin. I think Asheville is a wonderful busy community..
Second day of drizzle here in mid Florida. Ugh.. I walk 2 miles every morning, but don't think I want to walk 10 miles a day.. not all at once anyway.

ginny · « **Reply #14528 on:** December 31, 2014, 09:04:38 AM »

Barbara, those are wonderful memories, it sounds like a perfect trip!

We should get up a Book Walkers club here or something. Even if somebody takes one step it's one more than they did yesterday. CNN recently featured a woman who works at an airport and sat all day and she developed a plan of short 10 - 15 minute walks thru the day on her breaks, and she's lost no end of weight and the best part is she feels SO much better. CNN had a film of her and the power and energy she exerts are amazing. That's going to be one of my new things this year, who can't take 10 minutes to walk somewhere? 5 down, 5 back.

I came IN to say I am reading a really good book, good in an odd sense, it's an unusual experience. It's not a new book I think it was written in 1957, called A Traveller in Rome by H.V. Morton. He apparently has written a lot of them, my loss, which I'm trying to make up now.

It's kind of essays or thoughts as he goes to Rome for the first time, etc. His disappointment with his hotel room which he had fantasized about the "balcony," and how he ended up loving the view and why...the demented elevators of Rome.....It's a slow meandering quiet book, but it's the kind of book, and this is what's interesting, that you read a little bit and put it down...I think that's the point..... but the book stays with you, the sort of ...spell....it casts stays with you and it's a good spell. You find yourself rethinking what he's said, even when you're doing or reading or watching something else....it's quite an extraordinary thing. It's not flashy and it's not shoot em up, it's.....something.

Whether or not you've been to Rome, it's a perfect armchair travel description of how Rome assaults the senses and lots of interesting tidbits and history and literature. And if you HAVE been to Rome he's spot on. So far. I am really enjoying it and it's almost hard to explain....The dying Keats and his last view of the Spanish Steps... reflections of casually looking down from the plane over the Alps and how difficult it used to be to cross it before air travel with examples.....you have to read it to understand, and the style and topic might not be for everybody in our Instant World, but if you like armchair travel (it IS 57 years old, after all) it's for you.

LarryHanna · « **Reply #14529 on:** December 31, 2014, 05:47:00 PM »

Ginny, Jane or Marice, thank you to whoever fixed the board so I could get back on now and am no longer banned.

ginny · « **Reply #14530 on:** December 31, 2014, 06:10:32 PM »

How good to see you again, Larry!~ It wasn't moi, I had to give up quickly but either Jane or Marcie appears to have turned the tide!

Strange things afoot! But you're back in!

Happy New Year, Everybody!!

jane · « **Reply #14531 on:** December 31, 2014, 09:17:28 PM »

It was Marcie! I couldn't find the glitch...everything showed you were welcomed, Larry.....so glad Marcie could yank out the bug!

Steph · « **Reply #14532 on:** January 01, 2015, 09:18:19 AM »

Oh Larry,, Computer glitches make me nuts..

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #14533 on:** January 01, 2015, 04:07:15 PM »

Steph · « **Reply #14534 on:** January 02, 2015, 08:28:13 AM »

Barb, how really nice. I have read Neil Gaiman, when he did some stuff with Terry Pratchett

Frybabe · « **Reply #14535 on:** January 02, 2015, 12:04:30 PM »

Hugh Howey has been busy while I wasn't looking His new book is called The Shell Collector. It is listed as Mystery/Thriller or a Romantic Suspense. The story revolves around a dying ocean where seashells have become so scarce that they have become quite valuable. Main characters are a journalist who does a shelling column and a very rich CEO of an oil company who privately owns some of the best beaches and also collects shells. The journalist is doing an expose on the CEO who she holds responsible for the disastrous condition of the ocean.

I downloaded it as my monthly Kindle Lending Library pick and will read it after I finish one or two other books I am reading.

Steph · « **Reply #14536 on:** January 03, 2015, 09:00:08 AM »

I am trying to catch up on all of the postponed things . The bronchitis really got me down and out, so put off a whole list of stuff. So hopefully in the next week or so, I will catch up., Still looking for a senior Yoga or gentle yoga class.

ANNIE · « **Reply #14537 on:** January 03, 2015, 11:30:48 AM »

I received an email from S&F about the passing of Norm Tock's son, Tim. He lived up near Detroit (Lavonia) and was only 58 years old. So young.

Anyway, some of us on SL probably remember Norm's Bait Shop. Mary Ann, his wife, has been answering the many posts at "Norm Tock's Son, Tim". Mary Ann says that Norm has not felt well for a few months and can't travel to the funeral which is today. So sad.

bellamarie · « **Reply #14538 on:** January 03, 2015, 11:52:45 AM »

Ginny, I love the idea of a Book Walkers club! Your armchair travel book, sounds like just the kind of book I could enjoy during our cold, snowy, icy months ahead of us here in Ohio. I just may have to see if I can get that on my ipad.

Steph, Glad to hear you are feeling better. Yoga sounds like a fun way to begin the new year. I have my very own workout room with a treadmill, bike, ab roller, yoga mat, jump rope, and exercise ball, with a tv and stereo with all my favorite music on cds, and motivational posters hung on the doors. I did really well last Jan - April in staying with a daily routine. Once the warmer weather came I sort of gave up. Seems it is calling for me to come back in again. Once the endorphins kick in, it's like you can't wait to do it again. I am my worst enemy in getting started and sticking with it, I may just venture into the room.....

Barb, Good luck working up to "10 miles in one go."

I have begun reading "The Boys In The Boat" now that is something to get you motivated. Just imaging their strength and stamina to row those oars. Ughhh....I am tired just thinking about it.

pedln · « **Reply #14539 on:** January 03, 2015, 11:56:08 AM »

Annie, I do not know Norm, but my prayers are with him and his family. Yes, 58 is young. Sad.

Happiness is: READING

More happiness is: Reading TWO books that you are totally caught up in and can't wait to cuddle with. And that's what I'm feeling now with Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch -- so absorbing, all 600 pages of it; and also with Daniel Brown's The Boys on the Boat, which SeniorLearn is discussing right now. It's so good and that only thing that makes me put it down is the other book that I'm raving about. It's not too late to join the discussion and the reading goes so easily. And tbose of you in the Pacific Northwest will really love it.

bellamarie · « **Reply #14540 on:** January 03, 2015, 12:20:37 PM »

Annie, I am not familiar with the Tock family, nor Norm's bait shop you mention, but I am only but a half hour/forty-five minutes from Livonia Mich. I grew up in Monroe, Mi., Livonia is a bit Northwest of Detroit, almost in the middle of Ann Arbor and Detroit. My memory is seeming to remember Norm from SL. So sorry to hear of the loss, my prayers go out to the family.

Here is a link to his Obituary, http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailytribune/obituary.aspx?pid=173677238

MaryPage · « **Reply #14541 on:** January 03, 2015, 10:56:26 PM »

Oh Dear! Mary Ann is Norm Tock's sister; his wife is Dot.
Norm and Mary Ann and a whole bunch of us are still to be found at Norm's Bait & Tackle in that forum in Seniors & Friends.
Yes, Norm's son Tim died suddenly and unexpectedly. Also, Papa John, one of our very long time members is dying. It is a sad time in the back room at Norm's.

Steph · « **Reply #14542 on:** January 04, 2015, 09:35:08 AM »

Could not get into Senior and Friends, so did not know him, but he is just a bit older than my sons, so it hits home.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #14543 on:** January 04, 2015, 01:01:28 PM »

New book club started by Zuckerman on Facebook.........

http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/03/news/mark-zuckerberg-2015-book-club/

Interesting!

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #14544 on:** January 04, 2015, 02:20:23 PM »

Good thing if he can get his generation re-excited about reading - they were the vanguard of the Harry Potter crowd.

bellamarie · « **Reply #14545 on:** January 04, 2015, 02:34:12 PM »

Mabel, Zuckerberg starting a book club on Facebook is interesting, my only reservation is that Zuckerberg is one of the powerful people in the world, and his choices of books may promote not only his personal/financial agenda, but his ideologies. His first book is:

The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being In Charge Isn't What It Used... by Moises Naim (Mar 5, 2013)
Pre-Order at http://amzn.to/10Iaeb5

This author sees power decaying. I myself, see power increasing, although the playing field will decrease, less and less people will be able to achieve it, giving more to those you will be able to. It does sound like a book I would be interested in reading, with an open mind. It will be interesting to see just who will follow, and join in his book club discussions.

Steph · « **Reply #14546 on:** January 05, 2015, 08:50:10 AM »

Not my type of book. Dislike any book that tells me what I ought to think..

Frybabe · « **Reply #14547 on:** January 06, 2015, 06:41:58 AM »

My morning cruise through Project Gutenberg came up with several magazines and lots of other writings about birds. Birds Illustrated (1897), Birds Illustrated with Color Photography (1898), and Birds and Nature (1901-1902) look both the same in format and content; both have color plates, essays, short stories and poems. http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/titles/b Scroll down until you get to the Birds listing. Click on the name and then on html to take a look. Birds and Nature includes things other than birds. Here is one of the magazines to peruse. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/47885/47885-h/47885-h.htm

Steph · « **Reply #14548 on:** January 06, 2015, 09:11:24 AM »

I have a wonderful hardbound copy of Birds of America. My favorite type of b ird watching.. Not so hot on finding them in trees..

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #14549 on:** January 06, 2015, 12:44:27 PM »

My friend had a huge 8 foot window installed in her breakfast room where she sits and spends most of her time reading, writing, eating and WATCHING the birds and deer and squirrels and of course the mice that come to find the seeds dropped by the larger animals and birds - she has her bird books and the most fascinating birds come to visit - she has some hummingbird feeders just outside the window and all kinds and colors hover and dart before a big bird is near. Oh and the moths - giant moths - several kinds come for water as well - mostly in the evening. Her yard reminds me of Dr. Doolittle or a graphic in a child's book about Noah.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #14550 on:** January 06, 2015, 11:31:02 PM »

Holy Moly! Have any of you seen on PBS, or, in real life, the chateau Carolands? It was the biggest house in the country at one time, 98 rooms! Harriet Pullman (yes, that Pullman) spent almost all her fortune to try to make it the best house in Hillsborough, CA, but had to give it up. Two other women since then have made it into what Harriet had dreamed. If you get a chance to see it it's a fascinating story.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolands

Pictures:

http://www.sfgate.com/homeandgarden/article/THE-HOUSE-ON-THE-HILL-After-four-years-and-20-2582214.php

I wondered what does Mr Johnson do, or what kind of doctor is Dr Johnson who have this kind of money? ............ He is owner of Franklin Mutual Funds and has 6.6 BILLION $$!!!

O.k., i guess spending 20 million doesn't bother him.

Fascinating!!!

Jean

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #14551 on:** January 07, 2015, 02:37:20 AM »

Remember being a kid and reading anyplace we could find where we could avoid being called to do a task...

salan · « **Reply #14552 on:** January 07, 2015, 03:53:37 AM »

Barb, Thanks for a great picture & a nostalgic trip back to my favorite nook in the top of a large tree in our back yard. My favorite place to read & get away from my little sister and out of sight of my mother, who always found chores for me if I was in her sight!
Sally

Steph · « **Reply #14553 on:** January 07, 2015, 09:26:00 AM »

I always hid in the barn in my ponies hayrack. Comfy, smelled nice and no one thought of me there. The pony was out in her pasture during the day. I also always took a book in my saddlebag and a sandwich,, Then I could go out for an adventure on the pony and we could rest under a tree. She to have a drink of water and some grass and me to read and eat a sandwich. We lived back up to Libby's ( the veggie people) huge tomato farm and they had given me permission to ride on all of their dirt roads and by their man made lagoon for watering.. I thought of it as my own hideaway.

MaryPage · « **Reply #14554 on:** January 07, 2015, 11:40:18 AM »

How lovely, Steph!

Doesn't the name Johnson plus money mean Johnson & Johnson Company?

ginny · « **Reply #14555 on:** January 07, 2015, 02:06:07 PM »

Jean, that is a spectacular house but I can't understand the figures or how it was the biggest house in America for a while?

It was built in 1912 according to the link you put here,

Quote

Around 1912, Harriett Pullman Carolan, heiress to the Pullman railroad-car fortune and a leader of the San Francisco social scene, decided to build a grand estate on more than 500 acres that she and her husband, Frank, owned in Hillsborough.

Carolan, one of the wealthiest women in the nation, commissioned celebrated French architect Ernest Sanson to design the more than 65,000-square-foot house, landscape designer Achille Duchêne to design the grounds and San Francisco architect Willis Polk to supervise construction.

In contrast

Quote

the Biltmore House is a Châteauesque-styled mansion built by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895 and is the largest privately owned house in the United States, at 178,926 square feet (16,622.8 m2)[2] of floor space (135,280 square feet (12,568 m2) of living area) on 125, 000 acres.

Biltmore has four acres of floor space and a total of 250 rooms in the house including 33 bedrooms for family and guests, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, three kitchens and 19th-century novelties such as electric elevators, forced-air heating, centrally controlled clocks, fire alarms and an intercom system.

Two giant houses, to be sure, but the one built in the 1800's seems to be considerably larger than the other. I am glad to see, however, they have saved Carolands from the wrecking ball. We had a gigantic house not far from here dating from the Civil War which burned to the ground but it was a glory to ride by and look at for a while. Certainly nothing like these two behemoths, however.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #14556 on:** January 07, 2015, 03:00:34 PM »

From the Smithsonian newsletter this a.m.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-books-became-critical-part-fight-win-world-war-ii-180953689/?utm_source=smithsonianhistandarch&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=201501-hist&spMailingID=21938308&spUserID=NzQwNDUzNjY5NzES1&spJobID=480835307&spReportId=NDgwODM1MzA3S0

The story of WWII is interesting in itself, but notice the last paragraph stating that they are now giving ereaders to the military so they have thousands (if they want) books to read. And its interesting that the WWII program was the impetus for paperback books.

Yes Ginny, that is obviously an incorrect statement.

Jean

Steph · « **Reply #14557 on:** January 08, 2015, 08:35:04 AM »

For the two years my husband was in the army, we were assigned to run the teen age club on the fort.. We lived in the middle of officers housing in a teeny apartment on the end of the building with the club. We were open six days a week, after school and then all day Saturday. We also went to all of the teens activities on the fort. It was great fun, and to my surprise, I had a budget that included getting boxes of paperback books every other month for the club.. plus every magazine in creation. It was such fun,, We had zero money at the time and I loved being able to get books to read.. We were quite young at the time and it made us easy for the kids to talk to. We seemed to have kids in our apartment as well as the club all the time.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #14558 on:** January 10, 2015, 05:24:54 PM »

I love this... perfect for us here on Senior Learn

Steph · « **Reply #14559 on:** January 11, 2015, 09:30:48 AM »

Whew... went to renew my Disney pass on Friday. What a mob.This is famously for being the slowest time of year at Disney, but someone forgot to tell the people this year. It was exhausting.

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Author Topic: The Library (Read 2625116 times)