Anyone hungry?

All this talk about threshing and food, has put me in a mood to cook - it doesn't happen often, but when it does I usually cave in and go on a cooking or baking extravaganza.  Just as I was thinking about what I felt like cooking ( I'll tell you later), along comes the fall edition of  What's Cooking, a thin little magazine put out 4-6 times a year by Kraft Foods. Check it out at http://www.kraftcanda.com/.
If you go to the upper right hand corner of the home page click on the what's cooking archive, then 2010, then fall... and enjoy what you will find.

Do you get one in the mail?  If not you should go online and submit your name... it's free and better than that all the recipes in it are made from simple ingredients we all have in our pantries.  Good food made simply.  Anyway a recipe for Creamy Balsamic-Pear salad (pg15) caught my eye.  I have a pot-luck to attend in a couple of weeks, and I'm going to make this... I know it will be a hit.  I'll try it at home first of course, but I know it will be a keeper.  See recipe in the post above this one....

Anyway back to deciding what I feel like cooking.. well since it is the long weekend coming up, and it's fall and Canadian Thanksgiving is 6 weeks away, I decided I would make my cabbage rolls and cabbage buns this weekend.  Labour intensive but sooooooo good.  I usually make 6 or 7 doz cabbage rolls at a time, and then freeze them so we can have a quick meal one evening if we are in a rush.  My cabbage rolls are like my Aunt Olga's... hers of course are the best - but mine are a very close second.  We use ground pork and ground beef in our mixture - lots of onion and garlic and PAPRIKA (that's the magic).  And we cook them on the stove top layered in sour kraut and tomato soup.  Yum.... I can already taste them.  So Saturday's supper will be cabbage rolls, fresh bread and pineapple upside down cake for dessert ( another fall favorite in our house)... BTW - there is also a recipe in the fall edition of the whats cooking magazine that puts a little twist on my dessert.  It is made with pears and dried cranberries, yellow cake mix and vanilla pudding... okay so I just changed dessert to Pear Upside-down Cake!


Well now that I have myself good and hungry I'll get back to the story...




Winter Wheat Chapter 23

George Bell had his whole life already mapped out in his mind and nothing was going to deter him from his mission to become a pilot. He saw himself following in the footsteps of the great Charles Lindberg, the famous American pilot, who only three years earlier had been the first man to make a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Lindberg had grown up on a farm, just like him, and if Lindberg could see his dream come true, George reckoned he could too.


The world of aviation was an exciting prospect; even women were making names for themselves by winning races, and setting new records for long distance flights. If girls like Amelia Earhart, Amy Johnson, Laura Ingalls and Anne Lindberg, could do it – then so could he.

He could only imagine what the world looked like from hundreds of feet in the air, he had climbed the highest tree he could find to try and get the feel of being in the air, but in the end after all he still had only been in a dumb tree. Well that had been some time ago, but now his dream was going to come true – he’d make it come true.

The loss of his parents had set him back some, because suddenly he was left responsible for his brothers and sisters, but Karl and Emilie, and Fredrich and Annie, had now freed him from his obligation to his siblings. They had made it possible for him to dream again, and for that he would love them always. Since the night of the fire and the destruction of his home, he had thanked God, or whoever had been responsible for directing his family’s path to cross with those of their now beloved Emilie. If it had not been for her love and determination, he knew his whole family’s future would have been much different.

He knew all his family would be well cared for, and he suspected that before long, the younger kids would be calling Emilie and Karl, Ma and Pa. He paused a moment to remember his own parents, and then determinedly pushed them from his mind. He would never forget them, but it would do him no good to dwell on what might have been.

He shifted Karl’s heavy duffel bag on his shoulder, and turned to look back one last time. With tears blurring his vision, his eyes roamed the house that had been home for the past nine months then shifted to the barn where he had first told Karl of his dream to fly. Finally he gazed at the yard where he knew in a few hours time his brothers and sisters would rush to play.

“Goodbye,” he whispered around the sob that caught in his throat, then he turned and continued on his way.


Karl found the envelope propped carelessly against the sugar bowl, as he passed through the kitchen on his way to do his morning chores. He looked around the room, as if that would tell him why there was an envelope sitting there, and then he slowly picked it up. He turned the envelope over in his hands, and seeing that it was addressed to him, slowly peeled the flap open.



Karl,

I am leaving home for good. You and Emilie have more than enough with the other kids, and I figure that one less mouth to feed this winter might just be a blessing for you.

Good God – the kid had left! Karl stopped reading and reached for a kitchen chair. How in the hell am I going to tell Emilie? Was his very next thought as his eyes returned to the page he gripped tightly in his hand.

Remember I told you that I want to be a pilot? Well I figure now’s as good a time as any to learn. I don’t want you to worry about me – I’ll be fine. I’m sorry to tell you that I stole a little of Emilie’s butter money, and also your duffel bag, but I promise just as soon as I get a job and make some money, I’ll return them both.

Get a Job! Didn’t the damn fool know that no one could get a job these days? Hadn’t he been listening to the conversations of all the men on the threshing gang for the last week?

I know you love us all, and I know that you will take good care of my family. I don’t think I ever thanked you properly for what you have done by taking us all in like you did. Thank you.

Karl’s tears fell to the page he held and the ink on the part he had just read started to run. He hastily wiped the water from the page, which only served to smear the words more.

My plan is to get myself to an airfield somewhere and get any kind of job I can. I’ll even sweep floors, if it will get me close to the planes. Hopefully I will be able to make enough money to pay for flying lessons, and I’ll work at it for however long it takes until I am a pilot.
I don’t want you to worry about me, and especially Emilie – make sure she doesn’t cry.

Stupid kid! Stupid, stupid kid! How can I promise you such a thing when here I sit crying my own eyes out!

I’ll write to let you know where I am once I get settled someplace.
All my love, forever


George Bell