Category: Commentary

This past week was an awesome one, not only did I get to see the Grandchildren and great-grandchildren in the Devine, Castroville area, on the way to Devine I had a phone call from my grandson who is in the process of moving from Hawaii to Florida, which is his next station. He and his family came in on Friday evening and we had a wonderful time together. The kids wanted to go fishing, so we went to my sister’s stock tank and drowned a few worms. Two of the little ones caught very small catfish and were as happy as they could be. The main thing was, they got to go fishing! Yes, I did spend a lot of time untangling the little boy’s line, he could get it tangled easier than anyone would have thought possible. I asked him how he did that, and he just looked at me with a big smile, of course, he always gave me a hug when I fixed it for him, fixing it was worth the hug!
This coming week is going to be a busy one with a couple of meetings and being hostess for my Pokeno group. I am going to make old-fashioned gingerbread from my grandmother’s recipe. It is always a treat, especially to people who remember it from their younger days and just don’t have the time to make it anymore.
Have you ever given a thought to the numerous times we use mustard? Hamburgers and hot dogs immediately come to mind for most people. It is a condiment that many people do not care for because of the pungent, spicy taste, however, many recipes are made just a little bit better for the addition of a couple of teaspoons or tablespoons of this bright yellow condiment. Most recipes specify whether to use dry mustard or prepared mustard, others don’t, in that case, they usually mean to use the prepared. More and more recipes are beginning to ask for a specific type of prepared mustard, i.e., Dijon, spicy brown, etc.
This is the information I have in my files from a previous column, so it is what I used.
Mustard is a plant of the genus Brassica, a genus in which several other food plants are also found, including turnips, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, collards and broccoli.
The principal source of commercial mustard is B. nigra. It is an annual that is two to three feet high, has stiff stems, bright yellow flowers and smooth narrow pods. Dry mustard is a yellow powder and is made from the ground seeds. The seeds of white mustard and the Indian or Chinese mustard are also used. These are B hirta and B. juncea respectively. Neither is indigenous to the United States. Chinese mustard and Japanese (B. japonica) mustard plants are eaten as a salad plant, using the first large lower leaves.
For many years ground mustard seed has been used as a condiment. It can be used alone or combined with other ingredients, as in prepared mustard. In ancient times, it was used a medicine by Hippocrates. It is used as an emetic and in times past, as a mustard plaster on your chest for a bad cold and cough.
Would deviled eggs taste as good without a dollop of prepared mustard? In fact, some recipes for deviled eggs call for a small amount of dry mustard rather than the prepared mustard. Many recipes for potato salad or pasta salad also call for mustard to be added. A hot dog or hamburger, to many, without mustard is not really fit to eat.
Mustard seeds are used frequently in pickle or slaw recipes, as well as in some salad dressings. Homemade mayonnaise has dry mustard as an ingredient. If you check in your cookbooks, you will be really surprised at the number of recipes that call for one or the other.
Dry mustard can be really pungent and spicy if you use the least bit too much in a recipe. As with any spice or condiment, use it sparingly until you get the taste you want. (This is why recipes sometimes say add…”to your taste”). It is much easier to add more than it is to try to remove some when you have added too much.
Any of these recipes or any others calling mayonnaise really taste great with the following homemade mayonnaise. It is not difficult to make using your blender. My mother used to have a glass jar with a perforated plunger that you dashed up and down, (just as you would a butter churn to make butter), to make mayonnaise. It was a little more complicated and time consuming than this recipe is.
Mayonnaise
1 egg
1 teaspoon dry or ¾ teaspoon prepared mustard
½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons lemon juice or vinegar
1 cup cooking oil, (divided use)
Break egg into blender container, add mustard, salt, paprika, lemon juice or vinegar and ¼ cup oil. Place cover on container, turn on blender to low speed, remove center cup from lid and in a very slow stream, pour in the remaining oil while it is still on low speed. Continue blending until thick. It makes one cup and is ready to use. Do not double the recipe. If you need more than one cup, make the recipe a second time.
Deviled Eggs
8 to 12 eggs
1 small rib celery, diced very finely
2 to 3 tablespoons sweet pickle relish (or the sweet/dill relish that is now available)
1 tablespoon prepared mustard (about)
Mayonnaise
Salt and pepper to taste
Hard cook eggs, remove from heat and drain well. Shake around in pan to crack them, cover with cool water and allow to set for a few minutes. Drain the eggs, peel, and cut in half lengthwise, placing the yolks in a bowl. Thoroughly mash the egg yolks, stir in celery and pickle relish, and then add the mustard and enough mayonnaise, mixing to desired consistency. Use a spoon and place mixture into egg halves. Sprinkle with paprika or chili powdered if desired. If you want this to look a little fancier, place yolk mixture into a cake decorating bag, using a large star tip and fill the halves using that.
Spam Salad
1 can Spam
½ cup finely chopped celery
½ cup pickle relish or chopped dill pickles
1 to 2 tablespoons diced pimentos
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
Mayonnaise or salad dressing
Use a coarse grater and shred the Spam, or coarsely chop in a food processor. (Be careful with a food processor, as it will make the Spam into a paste, if you process it too long)! Put Spam into a bowl and add the remaining ingredients, using enough mayonnaise or salad dressing to make the mixture into a spreading consistency. This makes great sandwiches or tastes equally good with crackers.
Grandma’s Old-Fashioned Gingerbread
½ cup shortening
2 eggs
½ cup granulated sugar
2½ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon nutmeg or cloves
1 cup boiling water
1 cup molasses
Sift together: flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices; set aside. Cream together shortening, sugar and eggs until fluffy; and add sifted ingredients with the molasses. Add boiling water last and stir in gently, just until mixed. Pour into 9×13 pan and bake for 45 minutes or until done. If you like, sprinkle the top of the dough with a tablespoon or two of sugar before baking, or when cake is done, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Well, last week was pretty busy, as in addition to my usual times of working with the Auxiliary, either in the gift shop, or work shop, I added a couple of shifts helping at the library during the book sale that is an annual affair. It is always interesting, and one of the times, in the past that I helped; my friend and I were our own best customers! This year, there weren’t too many customers as this is one of the first years since the pandemic and they just aren’t coming out.
Wow, it’s that spooky time of year again when tiny princesses, robots, and various scary people will be knocking on doors, shouting, or saying politely, “trick or treat”, “trick or treat”, and we will hand out candy or perhaps pencils or stickers. Living as I do, several miles out in the country, I know that there most probably won’t be any of these cute kids at my home. Also I am invited to a friend’s home in town and all of her guests will be helping her give candy, pencils and all sorts of things to the “trick or treaters”, who come to her home. She lives on a street that the tradition is to go to homes on that street, as in years past, those people had the most and best treats. I’ve been told it is the old “silk stocking” district, or the street where “rich people live. The crowds of children that come to this street is sort of like it was when my children were small and we lived on Colonial Parkway in Devine and frequently used 20 or more pounds of candy!
Costumes have changed quite a lot since I was a child. Back then, we had masks shaped like a dog or cat or some other animal, but most of us wore the little “Lone Ranger” type of mask that had an elastic band that went around our head. (Also, probably because this type of mask only cost a dime and that was all a lot of people could afford). Many of today’s costumes and masks are really elaborate, with the masks being made of rubber and covering the whole head. You can be almost anyone or anything you want to be, from the president of the United States to a rock star, or almost any animal or hobgoblin you choose.
One year, at Halloween, when I was in Galveston, with my daughter, her son decided he wanted to be a green crow, of all things. Believe it or not, she and I with a little help from her husband created him a costume by sewing layers of nylon net to a backing and then cutting into it to form ‘feathers’. He was as cute as could be. Over the years, with my children, I created all types of costumes, for them as well as for myself.
The year I was helping as a volunteer at the nursing home (then called Leisure Lodge), I went as a mummy and had to be pushed around in a wheelchair all evening because my wrappings kept coming off. It was a hoot, as the residents couldn’t figure out who I was. We had a great time.
At home, I usually answered the door dressed as a ghost; and we frequently had “headless Fred” hanging in the tree by the front door. For many years, when the kids were smaller, there would be several of us mothers who would get together and take our children trick or treating as a group. It was safer in those days to even go trick or treating. When I was growing up, I really don’t remember actually going trick or treating, except to two or three homes in my immediate neighborhoods; however, I do remember friends or relatives having Halloween parties that we attended. Also, our mothers brought treats to school for the class, which was allowed in those long-ago days! Of course, in the mid 40s, when I was of an age to go trick or treating, sugar and shortening were rationed, as were tires and gasoline, so the greatest distance we would have been able to go would have been around the block, or over to any friend who lived within walking distance. Also, during part of this World War II time, we were subject to “blackouts”, where you were not allowed to have any lights on in your home, or if you did, you had to have blackout curtains on your windows so that no light showed through. At this time, the streetlights were extinguished, and this would preclude anyone walking around with a flashlight or a pumpkin with a lit candle. If there was any type of light on in your home during this time, the Air Raid Warden would be sure to tell you to put it out, and you would possibly be given a ticket.
The origins of Halloween date back to the Celts. They lived in the area that is now known as England, northern France and Ireland. It was the Celts who traditionally celebrated a holiday called Samhain, which was celebrated on the night before the New Year began, marked the end of harvest season, and the beginning of the long, cold winter. They believed that on this night, witches and ghosts ruled, and that the souls of the dead would rise to visit the places where they had lived. Fires were built to frighten the witches away, but food and lanterns were set out to welcome the ghosts and dead souls.
At a later time, Roman conquerors combined their own celebration of the dead with Samhain. November 1 was named as “All Saints Day” or “All Hallows Day”, the evening before was named “All Hallows Even”, way back in the ninth century. Although churches attempted to turn the people away from these celebrations, tradition and myth prevailed. People kept their beliefs in the wandering of the dead on this evening. That probably accounts for ghosts being associated with Halloween.
In spite of church teachings, many Pagan ideas and customs still remained. The people in Ireland lit candles and lights to frighten the unwelcome ghosts and spirits away on Halloween night. They wore masks and costumes to ward off spirits and ghosts if they ventured away from their homes. Another invention of the Irish was trick or treating. Villagers in groups would go from house to house begging for food for a community feast. Those who gave generously received promises of a prosperous year; those who gave little were cursed and threatened.
One of the best and safest types of masks for the children is to use face paint. That way, they’ll be able to see where they’re going. If Daddy is a hunter and has paint that he uses, when he has on his camo hunting gear, this is great, if not, the following recipe works really well.
Peanut Butter Crispy Treats
1 cup light or dark corn syrup
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup creamy or chunky peanut butter
6 cups crisp rice cereal (i.e. Rice Krispies® or a store brand)
Lightly grease a 9X13 baking pan. Set aside. In a large saucepan, over low heat, stir together syrup, sugar and peanut buttter. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and pour over cereal, toss and stir to coat well. Press into prepared pan. Cool thoroughly and cut into 1X3-inch bars or cut into squares.
Popcorn Cake
6 quarts popped, unsalted popcorn
¼ cup margarine or butter
35 to 40 large marshmallows (1 large = 10 miniature)
1 to 1½ cups candy (red hots, jelly beans, candy corn, or M&Ms)
Lightly oil or spray a tube pan (i.e. Angel Food cake pan or Bundt pan) and set aside.
Melt margerine or butter and marshmallows together. Pour over popcorn and mix well with greased hands; add candy of choice and press mixture into prepared pan. Allow to cool thoroughly and remove from pan. Decorate with additional candy if desired. (I used to make this for my family with seasonal candy, red hots for Valentine’s Day, jelly beans for Easter and at Thanksgiving or Halloween with candy corn. Christmas, of course, bring out the red and green M&Ms).
Halloween Face Paint
1 teaspoon cornstarch
½ teaspoon water
½ teaspoon cold cream
2 drops food coloring
Mix all together in small bowl. You will have to do this for each color you want.
Now, here is a recipe for using some of those wonderful avocados that are available at this time. The flavor is a little different from your regular guacamole because of the tomatillos, and it is a little bit labor intensive, but the results are worth every minute of the time involved in the preparation.