In the classic Lutheran tradition the women who worked the luncheons and receptions were called “Church Basement Ladies.” You were either considered a Mary or a Martha (I would qualify as a Martha) and you had a wide array of aprons for every occasion. To get a better sense of Lutheran culture I suggest a little light historically accurate reading in the form of “Growing Up Lutheran.” Even if you didn’t grow up in a Lutheran church (which I did not) or become one “accidentally” you will find this read hilarious. As previously suggested I am going to start a “weekly” feature (we all know how my weekly features turn out… weakly) and bring you the best of the best in Basement Lady recipes.
This week’s feature is from the Widow Stensruud herself.
Easy Tomato Aspic
2 C. canned tomato juice, heated with bay leaf. Remo leaf after heating. Add 1 pkg. lemo jello. Pour over hopped onion and celery. (Add a can of crab meat, if desired). Pour into mold.
This is most certainly true.
Warning: as of this writing I am on my 3rd shot of gin.
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If you come to my house you will be greeted with a few things. The first is my crazy dog. Once you get past her (if this is your first time visiting) you will be offered a drink and then shown how to get your own from then on. The third thing that will greet you are my cats. Julius will be the first to greet and then maybe, if her royal highness deems you worthy, Isis will show her presence. Your first reaction at the sight of this cat is, “damn, what are you feeding her?” Kitty (what we normally call her) is fat. We all know she is fat. She always has been. She’s a tiny little cat, but is so blubber you can’t help but squish her.
Lately, Kitty has gotten slightly more blubbery. She started to get fat rolls over her elbows. Then she started laying down in random places. Then, last week, as I was trimming her nails I noticed that her skin was red. That last one caused me to call the vet. In 14 years this cat has only been to the vet a handful of times. She never gets sick.
The doctor asked us if she was always blubbery like that. She is fat and rather squishy rather than thick and fat. We said, yes. Well come to find out, the blubber (that we thought was just fat) is fluid. There may be fat in there somewhere, but what she’s put on in the past few weeks is fluid. They kept the cats (we took both for senior wellness checks) for the day on Friday and when we picked them up the Vet filled us in on her condition. It’s pretty serious.
There is no clear diagnosis, but the office sent out for labs. That is what we knew at the end of the day yesterday. Fluid, not good, blah blah blah. This morning we woke up and Derek noticed that Kitty’s whole neck and chest were all wet. Her front legs were also wet. What is happening is that everywhere they poked her to try to get a blood sample is like popping a hole in a water balloon. She is leaking. It is pretty constant and 24 hours later it is still happening.
I called the vet’s office this morning and the vet called back. The leaking is fine. It won’t hurt her. However, what the vet told Derek is that it is possible that she might have cancer. She isn’t to that diagnosis yet, but she wants to run more tests and do an ultrasound. All to the tune of much more money than we have.
I found all of this out about 10 minutes before I was supposed to walk out the door to go to work. So I pretty much moped around the store while the boys did everything they could to cheer me up. They are good boys (boys at the store, not my boys, but my boys are good too).
I’m very worried about my baby girl. Imagine your most treasured pet. That is Kitty. I love both of my cats very much, but Kitty is my little sidekick. The thought of something being wrong with her is slowly killing me. So much so that I just sent Derek out to purchase frozen dinners.
The area around the nursery I work in has a fairly large Russian population. They mostly keep to themselves and somehow convince the Walgreens in the area to put up an “Apteka” sign. Every so often we get a stray shopper in the store and every so seldom I get up the courage to at least say thank you in Russian. That is often met with shock and further shyness. Today was a little different.
A woman came into the store today who, when she opened her mouth, was clearly Russian. She wasn’t like most of the Russians that frequent our establishment. She spoke remarkable English and asked questions. She didn’t dismiss me as this young thing that didn’t know anything. At the end of our conversation I had to ask where she was from. She said, “Russia.” Well duh I knew that (I totally did not say that to her). I asked where in Russia and she said St. Petersburg. I told her that my son was from Russia and of course that sparked the normal conversation asking if I had married a Russian. I told her my son was from Khabarovsk and that we adopted him. My statement stopped this very large lady in her tracks. She said that her father was from Khabarovsk and he was an orphan as a child. Me telling her that we adopted this little boy from her father’s home town nearly brought her to tears.
She asked to see photos, mentioned that Oleg looked like us and when she asked his name and I told him she coyly said, “ahlezhek.” She told me to be firm with him and not baby him too much. She said give him a very good education while he is young and he will turn into a good man. I have heard that from nearly every Russian woman I have encountered and I follow that advice to the tee.
I told her briefly about our work with Sweet Hope and she asked when I was in the nursery. She wanted to come back and talk to me about it and somehow wanted to help. Then she gave me a giant hug.
There are days that the thought of Sweet Hope makes me very tired. It is usually about the second week of chocolate making that I stop and think, what the hell am I doing. Then there are times like today that I remember why. I remember that my experience in Russia and becoming a Russian (Swedish/Irish) American family is so worth it. I thank God everyday for giving me the opportunity to create this beautiful project. It may not be moving at the pace that I would like, but it is moving forward. That is all I can ask for. And as for hugs from giant Russian ladies… bring it on.
It doesn’t feel like it, but today is my birthday. Up until this moment I always thought I had a Summer birthday. The weather is currently 55 and cloudy. It doesn’t look like it is going to get much better.
Look at me, it’s my birthday and I’m talking about the weather. I must be getting old. So how old am I? Last week I had to use a calculator to figure it out. Seriously. Once I turned 30 I lost track. Of course if I put two and two together (although at my advanced stage of aging that is more difficult than it seems) I would realize that we brought the boy home the year I turned 30 and this September we will celebrate our 4th Gotcha Day. That makes me 34.
I know, not really old.
I don’t have any huge plans for the day. I work this afternoon and I received my gift from the trusty husband over the weekend. I got a little netbook (which I’m typing this post on). I lurves me my little netbook. If only it were purple.
Our church is putting together a cookbook “fundraiser.” It really isn’t a fundraiser per-se. It was more that the kitchen/custodial staff wanted a cookbook and I volunteered I said that we needed to give the old ladies something to spend their money on and tell them it was going to a good cause. At the time we were fundraising the heck out of the congregation for the China trip and I came up with the idea that we could spend the money on new “furnishings” for the kitchen since it is going to get remodeled this summer. The old ladies liked this idea, but like any Lutherans they don’t work quick. I wanted to send the cookbook stuff off at the beginning of March and here it is late Junuary (it has been a horribly cold June around here) and I’m still not finished with the book. Sometime around April I crapped out and decided to go with a publishing company because I just can’t type all of the recipes myself.
There is much more to this whole cookbook story (including me purchasing a new scanner because my old one died), but my point was Jell-O.
If you follow me on Twitter or are friends with me on Facebook you’ve seen a few random bits about Jell-O recipes. If you don’t know anything about Lutherans just know that Lutherans loves themselves some Jell-O molds. In fact, our church kitchen has a cupboard dedicated to nothing but Jell-O molds. Lutheran Jell-O molds nonetheless. They are the same as Catholic or Methodist Jell-O molds, we just use them more frequently.
When I mentioned that I was the one organizing the cookbook one of the quilters decided that we needed to include recipes from the old books too. Books no one has ever heard of or seen. But somehow the Widow Snustead (not her name, but it could be) had the last remaining copy and she marked it up for me with recipes that “should be included.” Knowing the Widow Stensruud I was not to argue and I went about my business photocopying parts of the old book. Then I began to scan the recipes.
Normally when I’m doing projects like this I put it all together and then go back and edit. That was my plan until I came across a recipe for Crab Salad. We’re from the Northwest, this might be good… if you are INSANE!
Crab Salad
2 small packages lime jello dissolved in 2 C. hot water
When partly set add:
1 C. cream, whipped
1 C. Mayonnaise
1 C. stuffed, green olives, sliced
6 hard cooked eggs, chopped
1 C. diced celeryAfter set put a crab louie dressing on the top and 1 C. flaked crab over the dressing.
Sounds delicious right? It doesn’t end there.
This morning I was going through a few more.
Chicken Gumbo Salad
1 pkg. lemon jello
1/2 C. boiling water
1 can condensed chicken gumbo soup
1 can tuna (or 1 C. diced chicken)
1/2 C. sour cream
1/2 C. mayonnaise
3 T. minced green pepper
1/2 C. diced celery
1 T. grated onionDissolve gelatin in boiling water, mix in remaining ingredients. Pour into a 5 C. mold or 6 – 8 individual molds. Chill until set. Serve on lettuce, good for luncheons.
And one more just for good measure…
Delicious Sunshine Salad
2 pkg. orange jello
2 1/2 C. boiling water
1 small can crushed. drained pineapple
1 can mandarin oranges, drained
1 small can frozen orange juiceMix and set in 9″ x l3″ pan.
Topping:
1 pkg. chiffon pie filling
1 C. whipping cream, whippedMake pie filling as directed on pkg. and add whipped cream. Spread over set jello. Sprinkle grated parmesan cheese on top.
That last one was good up until the parmesan cheese on top. I have half a mind to do a regular feature of some of the most whacked out Lutheran Cookbook recipes since I have no less than 5 books.
