Fun lessons from Mom

Growing up, Mother often used a phrase that still resonates today, "A wasteful will is a woeful want."
Of course, like so many other Mommyisms, it took me a few years to figure out she was saying that if you deliberately waste things, eventually, you will desperately want.
Like everyone who grew up in the 1950s and 60s, at nearly every meal, I heard, "Sydney, clean your plate. There are starving children in Africa."
I'd have gladly sent those children my peas, salmon cakes or my fried bologna. I'll bet they would have loved my cold, soggy, fried egg sandwich, with ketchup, Mom would send me off to school with every Wednesday.
Of course, that's the part that never made sense to any of us, right? Those poor children weren't going to get any of our food, whether we ate it or not.
But it is something I thought about today when my husband and I visited our little "farm," a part of the Community Garden, and found so many tomatoes that had gone to waste. I felt bad about it.

So that brings me to a few more Mommyisms that popped into my head today.

Here's one: "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."
In today's world it's a reminder not to discard something valuable in your eagerness to get rid of some useless thing that's associated with it. I heard a politician use the phrase today while I was watching the news, and it reminded me of when my little sister and I were very young.
Mother would take a bath, and when she was done and dressed, she'd put the two of us in the bath together, using the same water she had just bathed in. She'd warm it up a little before we got in, but it wasn't something I ever gave any thought to.
As I got a little older and my sister and I no longer bathed together, Mother would remind me to save the water for my little sister. 
Puts a new meaning to that little 'proverb,' doesn't it?

And speaking of baths, she'd also say, "Wash as far as possible and then wash possible." Yikes, I don't even want to think about what that meant. But I can tell you this - we for sure didn't want her to have come in and wash us herself. She was downright brutal. She'd could literally scrub a mole off my face. I swear, she used sandpaper. Whew!
And one more thing about bathing; is there anything more disturbing than having your mother spit-shine you in front of your friends? She'd lick her thumb and then press it back and forth across the dirty spot on my forehead. Yuck!

In the 59-years I knew my mother, I never heard her say one single curse word. I think I've mentioned this, but it's worth telling, again. There's a wine my husband and I buy called Fat Bastard, and we'd often try like the dickens to get my mother to read the name on the label, but all she would do is smile. 
I, on the other hand, have been known to have the mouth of a sailor (no disrespect intended). Letting my anger about something get the best of me, I once cursed in front of Mom (and I do mean only once). Her response was - and this is priceless - "Something just came out of your mouth that I wouldn't hold in my hand."
Isn't that great?

Parting thoughts... 
My husband always leaves a restaurant with a toothpick sticking out of his mouth. It drives me crazy, and I always try to pull it -- sometimes to the point that he gets angry with me. I'm pretty sure it's my mom's fault that I feel this way. She used to say, "Never pick your nose or your teeth in public. Nobody wants to see what comes out of either one."

Of course, she also said, "Never try to be someone you're not. Be genuine and be yourself." So, I guess if a toothpick sticking out of the side of his mouth is the worse thing about my husband being himself, then I can accept that and be grateful for what I have. He was always so good to my mother, deeply misses her and remembers her with great respect and love.

I love you, Mom, and miss you like the dickens.

 

The Mizpah Prayer and Devil's Food Cake - Fate Brought Them Together

While my cousin and her husband were here last month for their surprise visit from Colorado, she gave me the gift of an old recipe book, published in 1925 by one of the Circles of the Methodist Episcopal Church in St. Joseph, Illinois. The book had belonged to my aunt (my mother's sister) who gave it to my cousin's mother as a wedding gift (when she married my mother's brother). I'm thrilled to now have it in my little collection.

 

But what immediately caught my eye was the name of the Circle - The Mizpah Circle Ladies.

Was it fate?
In my mind, it was just that - an early connection to what would be my later,
very fortunate, fate - marrying my Jewish husband.
Mizpah is Hebrew for "watchtower," and is often related to Genesis 31:49.

"The Lord watch between me and thee

while we are absent, one from another."

I was taught by a Jewish friend, probably sometime in junior high school, that the verse was often referred to as the Mizpah Prayer.

I was drawn into the cookbook, because of it's connection to my own past; my mother having lived in Homer, Illinois right outside St. Joseph, and her oldest sister being the original owner of the book. But, in a way, that cookbook is also a part of my present.

So, lets' delve inside this no-nonsense, picture-less recipe book, and see what we can bake today. Each of the many recipes is nothing more than a paragraph. No list of ingredients, just the directions, and there are quite a few of them for Devil's Food Cake - so I picked one that was marked on the page. I'm thinking there must be a reason for it being marked. Perhaps after it's baked and frosted, we'll learn this is the best cake recipe ever. It comes to us compliments of one Mrs. Cynthia Fiock from St. Joseph, Illinois.

Devil's Food Cake - Cream one cup sugar and 1/2 cup butter together, then add two well-beaten eggs. 1/4 cup of cocoa in 1/2 cup boiling water; 1/2 teaspoon soda with 1/2 cup sour cream; 1 teaspoon Royal baking powder; 1 1/2 cups flour. Flavor with vanilla.

That's it -- that's all it says.
I'm guessing it goes into a 350-degree oven and I'm guessing it will either make two rounds or one 11X9-inch baking dish.
Let's give it a whirl and see.

I gathered the ingredients, but don't you do what I almost did and forget the vanilla flavoring.

Here's the creamed sugar/butter, the cocoa mixture and the beaten eggs.

I added the eggs and beat the mixture until it was fluffy. Then I added the cocoa mixture and beat well; added the baking soda, sour cream, baking powder, flour and about a teaspoon of vanilla and beat it on medium for about a minute.

I decided to use a prepared 11X9 baking dish.

It went into the oven at 350-degrees and took 25-minutes to bake.

 

 

I made half of a recipe for a classic chocolate frosting to top it:
1/2 cup softened butter, a couple tablespoons of cocoa and about a 1/2 box of 10X powdered sugar, with about 1/8th cup of milk and a teaspoon of vanilla.

It's delicious, moist, chocolaty and it's a recipe from a 1925 cookbook

that took only minutes to prepare - very easy.

I know, it's easier to pick up a box of cake mix, even easier to buy one already baked, but try this. I'm sure you'll like it.

Many of you have probably heard of a Mizpah coin. It's a gold heart inscribed with the Mizpah Prayer, but halved, so that each of the two persons can carry a piece of it. It's what I gave my husband as a wedding gift and we each carried our halves on our key-rings for many years. Today, neither of us knows what happened to them, sad, I know, but still it was a part of our lives.
And now, this little cookbook created by the Mizpah Circle Ladies of the Methodist Episcopal Church of St. Joseph, Illinois is also a part of my life - thanks to my cousin.

Here's a funny advertisement from the cookbook.

I love and miss you, Mom