Author: lbeth1950

lbeth1950https://nutsrok.wordpress.comNow that I'm done with the bothersome business of workday world, I am free to pursue my passion, capturing the stories I've loved all my life. The ones you'll read on my blog are good old Southern stories, a real pleasure to relay. Here in the South, we are proud of our wacky folks. I've preyed shamelessly on my family, living and dead, friends, neighbors, and acquaintances, often changing the names to protect the innocent and not so innocent. My mother illustrates my blog. I come from a rollicking family of nuts, hence the name of the blog Nutsrok Enjoy.
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The Heartbreaking Tale of the Post-Mortem Fruitcake

Egyptian archaeologists discover the world's oldest fruitcake.

Christmas revolved around fruitcake.  Mother pinched pennies for weeks to buy the candied fruit and nuts required to bake the perfect fruitcake.  On December 22, everything else was in readiness for FRUITCAKE baking.  She chopped the nuts, candied fruit, brought out her spices  and pulled out her time honored recipe for the perfect fruitcake which only graced our table during the Christmas Season.  Baking the fruitcake was a sacred tradition, which we looked forward to it simply because it meant Christmas was almost here.  The eating of the cake was irrelevant.  The tradition was what mattered.

My maternal grandmother died December 16, 1964.  We were all devastated. She was the indulgent figure in out lives. Her rare visits had a holiday quality.  Her gifts were provided a few luxuries in our lives  I couldn’t imagine life without her.  She had mailed her Christmas gifts to us on the morning before she died in the night..  It arrived two or three days after her funeral.  It was a macabre feeling, being anxious to find out what she’d sent, knowing she was in her grave.

In the way of kids everywhere, we rallied and had a wonderful Christmas.  The gifts had special meaning, knowing they’d be the last.  I still have a tiny jewelry box from that year.  My poor brother managed to turn this sad situation into a mess.  Grandma had included a small fruit cake in a red tin box.  Mother put it up, intending to serve it on a special occasion.  Naturally, this fruitcake from her mother was elevated to the sacred.  Well, my brother Bill must have had a special occasion of his own.  Mother found the empty fruitcake tin hidden in his room, not a crumb left.

She was furious!  He had eaten her dead mother’s fruitcake……….the last gift she’d ever sent.  He lived to regret his theft.  She didn’t let him forget it for weeks, getting weepy every time she saw the shiny red box, sitting in a place of honor on the table. She keeps buttons and thread in that box till today.

This is probably the only documented story of anyone ever actually eating, much less stealing a fruitcake!

Amazing Times at Cypremort Point State Pork

What was the last thing you did for play or fun?

Before Thanksgiving we visited Cypremort Point State Park on Vermillion Bay in South Louisiana. It is incredibly lovely. The park is pristine and well-maintained with an abundance of amenities. With several pet-friendly cabins and numerous pull-thru camper sites, it is easy to find the perfect spot. The cabins are roomy and well-maintained. The screened in porches. The beach is beautiful. There is a long walking pier extending over the marsh, perfect for nature walks. We saw many birds, turtles, deer, and nutria. Alligator trails were clearly visible. Amazingly, we only saw three pieces of litter in this park. Our visit was a total pleasure. We will return.

Do yourself a favor and check out Cypremort.

Great Homemade Mincemeat Recipe

I wasn’t able to find mincemeat in the grocery store when I did my holiday grocery shopping, so I ferreted out this recipe for homemade. It could save your holiday if you’re craving a traditional treat. It is good! Mincemeat is a combination of dried fruits, spices, sugar, nuts, distilled spirits, and, traditionally, mutton or beef suet. However, many modern mincemeat recipes do not include actual meat. It is often used as a pastry or pie filling.

These are the ingredients you’ll need to make this homemade mincemeat recipe: 

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  • For the spice blend: ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, and ground allspice
  • For the mincemeat: green apple, raisins, white sugar, dried currants, raisins, butter, chopped almonds, grated orange zest, ground cinnamon, and a cup of brandy

How to Make Mincemeat 

  1. Make the spice mix. 
  2. Sterilize the jars and lids. 
  3. Cook the mincemeat ingredients (excepting brandy) according to the detailed instructions in Steps 3 and 4.  If you choose you can replace brandy with orange juice.
  4. Remove from heat and stir in the brandy or orange juice.

How Long Does Mincemeat Last?  

In the tightly sealed sterilized jars, the mincemeat should last for up to six weeks in the refrigerator. 

Ingredients

Original recipe (1X) yields 24 servings

Mixed Spice:

  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon ground allspice

Mincemeat:

  • 1 large green apple, peeled and finely chopped
  • 1 ¼ cups sultana raisins
  • 1 ⅛ cups white sugar
  • ½ cup dried currants
  • ½ cup raisins
  • ½ cup butter
  • ½ cup chopped almonds
  • 1 ½ tablespoons grated orange zest
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 cup brandy( or orange juice)

Directions

Ingredients

Mixed Spice:

  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon ground allspice

Mincemeat:

  • 1 large green apple, peeled and finely chopped
  • 1 ¼ cups sultana raisins
  • 1 ⅛ cups white sugar
  • ½ cup dried currants
  • ½ cup raisins
  • ½ cup butter
  • ½ cup chopped almonds
  • 1 ½ tablespoons grated orange zest
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 cup brandy

Ingredients

  1. To make mixed spice: Combine cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice in a bowl. Reserve 1 heaped teaspoon for the mincemeat. Store the rest in a small jar for a later use.https://0bdf8e0558c21b281d3bfd16bfd94984.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html
  2. Immerse two clean, 12-ounce jars in simmering water until mincemeat is ready. Wash new, unused lids and rings in warm soapy water.
  3. To make the mincemeat: Combine apple, sultanas, sugar, currants, raisins, and butter in a saucepan. Cook over low heat and stir gently until butter has melted. Stir in chopped almonds, orange zest, 1 teaspoon mixed spice, and cinnamon.
  4. Bring mixture to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, 5-10 minutes
  5. Remove from heat and set mincemeat aside to cool down for 30 minutes. Stir in brandy. Spoon into sterilized jars.

Feliz Navidad

My adorable niece wants to wish you a Merry Christmas and Joyous New Year!

Miss Laura Mae’s House Part 10

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One of my favorite eavesdropping episodes was about a friend of Miss Laura Mae’s whose husband was in prison and daughter in the orphanage.

“I got a letter from my friend Alice Marshall today. Her husband has been out of jail a long time now and her daughter Helen just had her fifth. Just look at this picture she sent me of Helen’s family. She is so proud.” she said, passing a picture to Mother.

I wanted to see that picture so badly I forgot I wasn’t supposed to be listening in. “Let me see! Let me see!” A daddy, a mother holding a baby, three little girls, and a small boy stood in front of a car. The woman and little girls had on matching dresses. The man and boy looked neat in dark pants and plaid shirts. “Their dresses are all alike! How did they get dresses alike?” I had to know.

“Helen can sew real good. She makes everything her and the girls wear. Ain’t that something?”

I had to agree. “Mother, can you make dresses alike for me and you and Phyllis?” It seemed like a small thing to me.

“I don’t know,” Mother said. “That would cost a lot of money. I don’t have patterns for matching dresses, and I sure don’t have that much material.”

“Please, Mother. Please……….” The whining did it.

“Stop that whining! Go play in the yard. You’re not supposed to be in here listening to grown people talking, anyway.”

I gave up and sat on the back step, feeling sorry for myself as Miss Laura Mae went on with her story. “I know Alice couldn’t see nothing but hard times when Martin got sent to prison. It was back in The Depression. He stole a hog ‘cause they was hungry an’ got five years in Angola. Alice moved back in with her mama in Baton Rouge, but it wasn’t long before her mama died leavin’ her nowhere to go. She got a job in a hotel restaurant washing dishes and got a meal with her shift. She rented a room in a boardin’ house, but didn’t make enough to feed Helen. She had to put the poor little thing in a church home. Poor child had to stay there four years. Alice went to see her ever’ Sunday, and kept tellin’ her they was all gonna be together agin. I didn’t see how they ever would, but Martin finally got out of jail. He was able to git a job at a sawmill and after a month or so, they got enough together to git a place an’ get Helen home. You never saw anybody so proud as Alice an’ Martin. I was real proud for ‘em. They had a couple of boys after than an’ done real good, but Alice always felt bad for puttin’ Helen in that home, but pore thing, she couldn’t even feed herself. Don’t you know Martin felt awful fer puttin’ ‘em both in that spot. He was a good man and never did git in no more trouble. I don’t believe he ever would’a stole that hog if he had’na been tryin’ to feed his family, anyhow. Them was some hard times, real hard.

Changing Leaves

We don’t usually get vivid fall colors in Louisiana but these trees seem to have been decorated for Christmas.

Grocery List

List your top 5 grocery store items.

Bread

Milk

Dog treats

Eggs

Fruit

Miss Laura Mae’s House Part 9

gossip 1Once again, I was sitting on the back step of Miss Laura Mae’s house with a biscuit. Miss Laura Mae was all flustered. I heard the phrase, “female trouble” and my ears perked up. Anything about “female trouble” got kids shooed outdoors. “Complications” rated even greater secrecy.

I’d just heard both. I hummed a tuneless something just so they’d be fooled into thinking I wasn’t listening. Occasionally, I said something to Miss Laura Mae’s old hound.

“Bessie, Floyd’s oldest sister was wild as they come when she was comin’ up. She slipped off an’ married when she was fifteen, and just stayed long enough to have them two young’uns. She like to drove her mama crazy. You couldn’t believe a word she said. She’d climb up on top of the house to tell a lie when it would’a been easier to stand on the ground and tell the truth. It seemed like she settled down an’ was gonna do good when she married Ben. He was a good feller an’ treated her kids good. He had that nice house his mama left him, worked steady and put his pay in the bank. I never heard him fuss with her. She was even Sunday School Superintendent down at the Mount Lebanon Baptist Church fer a while.

One year right before Christmas, she went to work in her sister’s café, waiting tables to git a little Christmas money. Ben didn’t want her to, said he could git whatever they needed, but she was bound an’ determined to do it. Wasn’t long before she was runnin’ around. She dumped them kids on her mama and run off with a feller named Jett. ‘Course, that didn’ last till the water got hot.

Next thing we knew, Bessie was in the hospital, her kidneys ‘bout shut down an’ she like to had a stroke. She pulled through but wasn’t able to do anything for a long time. Her sister Marthy took her in an’ took care of her an’ them kids for a good while. When she finally got back on her feet, she went back to Ben. The crazy thing was, she told ever’ body she’d been the one takin’ care of Marthy, ‘cause Marthy had been runnin’ around an’ got thataway while her husband Joe was off in the service. She claimed Marthy had took a bunch of quinine an’ got rid of the baby but it like to kilt ‘er. The whole thing was crazy. Ever’body knew what Bessie had been up to and knew about her being so sick in the hospital. I don’t know why she tol’ that crazy story layin’ it off on Marthy after she’d been so good to her. They just wasn’t no need. That was just how she is.

From my perch on the back step, I listened in, making no sense of the story, but knew it was good. I made up my mind to remember when I got a little older and smarter, I could figure out what it was all about.

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Funny Christmas Cards

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Found these on  Christmascardsayings.net