Petty Aunt Pie

           Do you follow Post Secrets?

I follow Post Secrets. Every week I’ll get a new email with secrets in them. And who doesn’t love secrets!

“What is Post Secrets?” you ask.

PostSecret is an ongoing community mail art project, created by Frank Warren in 2005, in which people mail their secrets anonymously on a homemade postcard. Selected secrets are then posted on the PostSecret website, or used for PostSecret's books or museum exhibits. — Wikipedia

A couple of weeks ago someone sent in a recipe for her grandmother’s Apple Cream Pie along with this message on the back.

This recipe has been a family secret for 100 years. It's a great pie and deserves to be shared. My petty vindictive aunts don't deserve to keep it to themselves. I love and miss you, Grandma!

I didn’t think much about it but the next time Frank posted about this recipe it was because people were making it, commenting on it, and calling it Petty Aunt Pie

One clever person made the pie and posted a photo of the dessert with a scoop of ice cream on top, writing, "Revenge is a dish best served a la mode."

Someone else said it was so good they’re “adding it to their list and sharing it and the recipe with family and friends.”

A little girl thought it was so good she wanted to have it for supper — and mom was inclined to agree with her.

This Post Secret generated thousands of comments!

Now I’m intrigued and have to make it myself.

This week I did that.

 It was an easy recipe to make and it was good but my all-time favorite is still the French Apple Pie recipe in my old Betty Crocker Cookbook. That might have more to do with the brown sugar crumble topping than anything else though.

Grating the apples gave it an interesting texture and now I can’t help but wonder what the Betty Crocker recipe would taste like if I made it with grated apples instead of sliced apples. Maybe someday I’ll try that.

In the meantime, I had a whole pie to get rid of and truth be told, I could probably have eaten the whole thing myself! Not in one day of course but definitely over the course of several days. But who needs that! Not me! Besides, pies aren’t as fattening when shared. So, I shared.

Mike and I took half the pie down to the Kipps. It was still warm and because it stuck itself to the pie plate, I made a mess of it getting it out. But that only affects the appearance and not the flavor.

“Try this,” I said to Miss Rosie.

She did. “Mmmm. It’s good.”

It was passed over to Lamar and he tried it too.

“It’s good,” he said and dove in for another bite.

It was only then that I thought about getting a picture for my letter blog. “Let’s have a bite shot,” I said.

Neither Miss Rosie nor Lamar were sad about having to have another bite, Lamar took an exaggerated bite for us...

...but Miss Rosie only took a dainty little bite. I suspect she didn’t want to fill up on pie before she’d had her supper.

The Kipps are such good sports and I love them both!

Tiger!

Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!

He climbed the screen door and balanced himself on top.

“He can’t get down,” Mike said.

“If he got up there, he can get himself down,” I said.

Mike went out and lifted Tiger down.

Guess what else he did this week?

I know you can’t so I’ll just tell you.

The extra bags of cat food were plopped down in front of the open ones and since they weren’t in my way, I left them there.

It wasn’t long after we got the new bags that I heard a lot of bag-rattling goin’ on in the pantry.

Now, I’m kinda used to hearing the crinkle of the cat food bags. Macchiato, for a long time now, prefers to get his food straight from the source rather than share a bowl with the rest of the tribe. He’ll reach up with his front paws and pull the bag open if it’s full, otherwise there’s a lot of noise until he gets it worked down to where he can reach the food.

So when the bag-crinkling noise didn’t stop when I thought it should, I went to investigate. I found Tiger grabbing a corner of a new bag and pulling it.

I laughed at him. I thought it was cute.

Well that stinker worked and worked and worked on a bag until he worked a hole in it! Keep in mind that this is the same food that I put in the dish for him. Does it just taste better when he has to work for it or what!

I opened the bag and dumped it into the almost empty non cat-chewed-a-hole-in-it bag. Then I pushed a tub close for him to get on so he could eat right out of the bag — just like his big brother does!

>>>*<<<

Mike got his haircut this week. I rode along so I could stop at the post office and mail a birthday gift for our grandson. I’m only telling you this because I took a couple of road pictures.

“Did you see the dogs?” Mike asked.

“No.”

Mike stepped on the brakes, put the Jeep in reverse, and backed up.

Beautiful dogs.

Coming in the driveway, we had a herd of deer in the yard. How many can you count?

The next morning the sun came up and lit the tops of the trees. If I’d’ve waited even one more minute I wouldn’t’ve gotten this picture.

Snow!

We got snow!

Not a big one but I was excited to go out and get pictures for all of my thin-blooded friends and family. You know who you are! You think if the temps sink below 70 that you have to turn on the furnace and break out the winter jackets!

I went out early, after taking care of the critters, and it was still snowing. You may recognize that in some of these shots.

The winter berries aren’t growing on this branch even though it looks that way in the picture. The winter berry was comminglin’ with a nearby evergreen.

I decided to walk down to the creek to make pictures.

The sun breaking through the clouds.

            I love our little creek.

It was a quiet walk. I didn’t hear any birds calling or critters scampering. All I heard was the crunch of snow under the tread of my rubber boots. Which I’m glad I had on and am happy to report that they’re waterproof. At least one of those shots was gained by stepping into the creek and up on a rock.

I didn’t see any tracks other than my own. Even the deer were sleeping in on this lazy winter morning.

I headed back to the house.

I think I’ll go see what the Bittersweet looks like, I thought.

On my way up the hill, I pass my organic scrap pile. The bright yellow of the cut flowers I tossed out stand in contrast to the bleak winterscape.

Bittersweet.

The Bergamot with their snow caps on. 

Our country home.

Dried pods of the milkweed.

I check the time and know the Kipps will soon be heading out on their morning walk. I give them a call. “Are you walking this morning?” I ask Lamar.

“Yup. Just as soon as Rosie gets her socks and shoes on.”

“Okay. We’ll see you in a bit.” I knew they’d stop at the house on the way home but this morning, since I was already out, I decided to walk down the road and meet them.

But I’m cold! my toes whined.

You’ll be okay, I assured them.

I hav’ta go! my bladder chimed in.

You can wait. I wasn’t going to walk the whole route with the Kipps, just to the back driveway, then I’d go home.

We’re getting cold too! the fingers of my right hand complain.

I tucked my hand into my pocket when not taking pictures and cursed that I hadn’t thought to bring gloves.

I push all future complaints aside and head out the driveway. A walk wouldn’t hurt any of us!

I snapped a picture of a snow-covered cable and lock we no longer use.

At the end of the driveway something else catches my attention but when I tried to take a picture, I discovered my battery was dead.

I’m not going for a walk if I can’t take pictures! I turned around and walked back up the driveway. My toes and bladder thanked me.

Skirting the house, I head for the kitchen door where I can take off my boots and not track the whole way through the house.

“I’m home!” I call, pop the battery from my camera, and put it on to charge.

I know about what time the Kipps will be in and start watching for them. I see bright colors coming up the back driveway and yell at Mike, “The Kipps are here!” I grabbed the battery from the charger, popped it back in the camera, and went out to greet them.

“GOOD MORNING KIPPS!” I call in my cheery, sing-song voice.

“Morning,” they call back.

“Let’s have a picture,” I say.

Miss Rosie turned her face up to Lamar, “What’d she say?”

“She wants to take a picture,” I heard him say.

“Oh,” and she laughs a little.

“Been out taking pictures this morning, Peg?” Lamar asked.

I knew he’d know. I knew he’d see the tracks and know it was me. “Yep! And I bet you even know where I went.”

“I do.”

Once the Kipps were settled at the table for our morning chat, I showed Miss Rosie what I was working on for Christmas gifts.

“Did you know that Santa hasn’t always worn a red coat?” I asked.

“It’s been red for as long as I can remember,” Lamar said.

“One website says it was originally green but Coca-Cola changed it to red for their marketing campaign.”

“I like the red one,” Miss Rosie said. “I bet you never thought you’d hear me say that!”

In fact, I didn’t. For two reasons. First, she hates the color red and second, green is her favorite color. But I understand the appeal of the traditional red-suited Santa.

But I have a couple of problems.

I don’t have a lot of red and I don’t have a lot of red.

Okay! Okay! Same problem but for different reasons. The red I do have is either cathedral or variegated; that is to say it’s either semitransparent or mixed with other colors. I wanted a solid red color red for Santa’s suit. And red is one of the most expensive colors of stained glass.

“Why’s that?” I know you want to know.

That’s because they have to use gold to get the red color.

“Maybe I could get a sheet of red next time we go out,” I said to Mike earlier in the week. Then I remembered that Hobby Lobby doesn’t carry a solid red. And that’s because most people like the variegated colors for their stained-glass projects. “Maybe the gal up in Vestal Center has solid red,” l said aloud and wondered if Mike would take me up there for it. I called but she was closed Monday’s. Sigh. “Never mind. I’ll just use what I have.”

Mike. Bless his heart. He’s a really good husband. For all the complaining he does when I make and give things away, if I need something — he gets it for me — and this time was no exception. He got online, found red for me, and ordered it.

Slam-slam!

Bark! Bark! Bark! says Tux.

“Was that a car door?” I asked.

Mike looked at the security camera. “Fed-Ex.”

“My glass is here!” I was excited.

Tux kept barking.

“TUX!” Rosie said. “He’s not here for you!”

Mike went to get the package and I stayed with the Kipps. He brought it in and opened it. Inside was two sheets of beautiful red glass — and a ton of packing peanuts!

“Rosie, do you need these?” I asked.

“No,” she answered. She didn’t even have to think about it.

“They probably dissolve in water,” Lamar said.

I was so surprised! “They do!?”

“They make ‘em from starch,” he said.

You know me, right? I had to try it. I got a peanut and held it under the water. It dissolved! 

I was shocked and amazed. “How did you know that?!”

“I know a lot of stuff,” Lamar said. “I’ve read a lot of things and some things I’m still reading.”

I laughed.

“If I were you,” Lamar said, “I’d take them out and sprinkle them in the yard. The next time it rains, they’ll be gone.”

I may just do that!

Even though the weekend was coming, and I knew I wouldn't finish it, I was excited to cut a Santa from the new glass.

I’ll tell you what! This Santa gave me the fits! Not cutting the red, that was easy, but cutting his beard. Inside curves are the hardest to break without breaking your project piece and this is the fourth one I had to cut for this Santa! The tip of his beard broke off of the other three. I could modify the pattern and just not have the tip of his beard curve up to the hat — and I bet that’s exactly what’s going to happen if I have many more fails!

And that’s not all!

I hardly every cut myself, but in the process of cutting out this Santa I nicked myself twice! Two times! Now I have Band-Aids on two different fingers!

Speaking of getting stuff in the mail — look at this happy surprise!

“I didn’t order these,” I told Mike.

“I didn’t order them either. What are they?”

I knew what they were as soon as I saw them. “They’re hot pads for the handle of your pans. I wonder where they came from.”

“Maybe it was a free gift when we bought something else,” Mike guessed.

But I had a different idea. “I wonder if Patti sent them to me.”

My beautiful, and much-adored, older sister sometimes sends me things without giving me a heads up. Is this something she uses and loves and thought I would love too? I wondered.

“Did you send me something?” I asked Patti.

“They’re for your iron skillets.”

She knows that I have the most beautiful collection of iron skillets and if you’ve ever used an iron skillet then you know how hot the handles can get.

“They’re perfect! I love them!” I gushed. “And they’ll save my pot holders from getting greasy.” Invariably, the grease will splatter, splash, or I’ll drop the corner of my pot holder into the grease.

Thank you, my love.

>>>*<<<

 “You know something, Peg?” Mike asked one morning.

“What?”

“I need a winter project. How about if we get some crown molding? It wouldn’t be that much money and it would give me something to work on.”

Can anyone say road pictures?

This place is crazy with all of the Christmas yard ornaments.

“There’s a name for that kind of stuff,” I said as we went past. “Do you know what it is?”

“Junk?” Mike hazarded a guess.

I Googled it. They’re called Blow Molds. Some sites list it as one word, others two.

“They’ve been putting out that display for years!” Miss Rosie told us. “When the girls were little, we used to drive over there at night to see them all lit up.”

My pictures don’t actually show the magnitude of it.

Towanda from the bridge. I like the lighting.

“Get a picture of that truck with all the axles,” Mike said.

He doesn’t ask me often so I took it for him. I guess we like pictures of different things.

I couldn’t decide if the cat was real or a cut out.

We went to a discount home store called NASCO. It’s just across the Pennsylvania border in Waverly, New York. I think they get deals on overstock items so you never know what you’ll find there.

Mike found some wide molding, five and a quarter inches, at a dollar a foot, and sixteen-foot board lengths. We couldn’t haul it in the Jeep. We’d have to come back with Big Red.

I took a sunrise picture the next morning. And we were out of the house early.

The sun coming up over the Susquehanna. 

Have you ever seen anything so sad? Three deer hit all at the same time. One vehicle or more, I don’t know.

I was going for the tractor tire leaning against the foundation and got a cat.

The eagle’s nest.

We got the crown molding loaded and paid for and headed for home. All the bumps in the road caused the molding to slide from the dash and Mike had to stop and adjust the load. 

I just sat in the truck and waited for him — and took a picture. We were pulled off the road in front of this place.

Picking up the deer family.

Now here’s something we don’t see a lot of. It’s not that people don’t speed it’s that we’re so rural we don’t have a town police force.  

Add that to the fact that we don’t go out a lot.

Oh. And I have this picture on my camera.

I went to get the mail and saw something glinting in the road. I couldn’t tell what it was so I walked down to investigate. It was a drink bottle. I turned around and started to walk away but a little niggle started in the back of my mind.

Pick it up, Peg, it said. You walked the whole way down here; you might just as will pick it up.

I probably could’ve left it but didn’t. I picked it up. I just don’t understand why anyone throws trash out of their cars these days.

I’m looking at it as I’m walking home and think of all the flowers I’ve seen on the internet that were made from plastic drink bottles.

I’ve never explored the topic much because I don’t have any drink bottles and don’t buy bottled drinks. I haven’t had a soda drink in probably seven or eight years now. I’m strictly a coffee gal these days, black, no sugar.

I could pick up enough off the roadside to make some, methinks. It would turn trash into something pretty plus it cleans up the roadside.

Will I?

I don’t know. I’ve got plenty of projects to keep me busy as it is. 

>>>*<<<

I saw this item come up for sale on Facebook. The words came up before the picture.

          Pink Zebra dog simmer pot on hand, it read and I thought, a pot to simmer dogs? I was afraid to look at the picture.

          Turns out it’s one of those things you put scents in and warm — it was just decorated with dogs.

          I hope that gave you a little chuckle.

>>>*<<<

           Check out this sweet guy, would ya! This is Art, one of the guys from the hunting club at the bottom of our road. Art’s taken quite a shine to us Lubys and stops to visit every time he comes up to the cabin. Most times he brings a gift. Sometimes it’s something sweet to eat but he brought flowers last time.

“Peg!” Mike calls from the other room when he answered the door. “Your boyfriend’s here!”

Art has a wife, and I have a husband, but he is now officially my boyfriend.

This time Art brought me a Christmas poinsettia. Isn’t it beautiful?

I don’t expect him to bring me gifts, but I think it’s just something he likes to do.

>>>*<<<

And now, this week, let’s finish up with an Itsy update, shall we?

I’ve got Itsy’s medications down to a routine. The vet gave us a topical foam to put on her skin three times a week.

“Every other day?” I asked Dr. Lori.

“I wouldn’t use it four times a week,” she said.

So, I picked Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to use that.

On the off days I’ll use a hydrocortisone cream to help with the redness and itching along with an ointment my beautiful friend Jody gave me. She had extra tubes of an allergy medicine for her dog Mick that she didn’t need and Dr. Lori said it would be good to use on some of the bad spots on Itsy’s back.

I’ve picked Saturday to give her a bath with homemade oatmeal shampoo. I think she needs it after having stuff put on her all week long and it’s supposed to soothe irritated skin.

Itsy gets a full dose of gabapentin twice a day with a half-dose in between and I can also give her Children’s Benadryl.

That’s a lot for such a little dog.

I still get up at 1 and 5:30 to take her out and during the day I watch for her to get out of her bed. Most times she’ll come and find me and I’ll take her outside. Once in a while she’ll pee on the floor. But that doesn’t happen near as often now that I’m hypervigilant with her.

Having said all of that, Itsy still cries a lot. I try not to let her and have been trying different things to soothe her. Sometimes a back rub until she quiets does the trick. Sometimes she’s hungry.

OY! Her diet is another whole issue all on its own! She stopped eating her dog food. She likes cat food (which isn’t good for her) or raw meat. I’ve cooked hamburger, added a scrambled egg, then, once it’s cooked, add in her soft dog food to help it cool. Sometimes she’ll eat that like it’s going out of style, other times she won’t touch it. I’m beginning to see a pattern here. It seems like she only eats well every other day. I think she’s hungry on the other days and I’ve tried all kinds of things to tempt her, but she won’t eat.

The other night nothing was working to quiet her cries and I wondered if she was cold. I took her blanket, covered her bed, rubbed her back for a few minutes, and she went right to sleep.

Itsy wants to be held now. This little girl hasn’t wanted to be held in 15 years!  

Today was another day when nothing was working. Not food, not a back rub, not her blanket. Finally, I picked her up and put her in my lap. Don’cha know that she settled right down and went to sleep!

Unbelievable!

Itsy has never (not ever!) slept in my lap before.

We’re thinking it’s time to put her down. Another few days? A week? Probably — definitely before Christmas.

And with that, let’s call this one done!