Grandmothers

If you look for the bad in people expecting to find it, you certainly will. - Abraham Lincoln

I love grandmothers.  I think I have mentioned this point before.  I don't know why people have such bad impressions of growing old...some of the nicest people I have ever met are over 90 years old.  I think that with age, comes wisdom...and that wisdom comes from life's lessons...some easy and some not so easy.

My husband's grandmother is ninety-two years old.  She still has a garden...that by the way, is growing more nicely than mine....She still takes the subway to do all her grocery shopping....even though her family offers to take her...She still bakes fresh bread and cakes....and has the family holiday dinners at her house.  She now, for the first time in her life, lives alone.

I had to take my sons to a school activity in town the other day.  We would be driving by grandmother's house.  It was a hectic day...and I was not sure if I would have time to stop and say hello.  Happily, as the day came to a close, with no prior arrangements, my children and I were able to pay their great-grandmother a visit.  After all the hellos and kisses my husband's grandmother led me to her kitchen.  Smiling she pointed to a bowl she had prepared on the table.  The bowl contained flour, butter and two eggs.  Immediately, I recognized the ingredients.
Cookies...
and not just any cookies....
but my youngest son's favourites.

So I thought,"How did you know we were going to stop by? I didn't even know we would."

I have four children.  My youngest one is almost eight years old. He has the energy of 20 children bundled up into one little body. Usually, noisy children and elderly do not mix.  Though my husband's grandmother could focus on my son's flaws, she somehow manages to always miss them and instead sees the best in him.

She made her cookies and gave him a hug and said, "Do you know how much I love you."  He hugged her back and looked her straight in the eyes and said, "I know. I love you, too."

She has taught me how to value what is important...and to look past the rest.
I love grandmothers.

One kind elderly lady...(and homemade granola bars, too!)

It is almost impossible to smile on the outside without feeling better on the inside. - Unknown

When I first began working with the elderly, one lady in particular won my heart.   She had Alzheimer's disease and was trapped in her own world until a song was sung.  Then slowly she would walk over to me, sit down and listen.  Every week I looked forward to being with her.  She was gentle and never spoke.  Occasionally, she would sing a few words together with me and smile. When she passed, I was asked to sing at her funeral. I was impressed at the number of people who got up and spoke about her.  Every one of her four daughters and every one of her four son-in-laws spoke.  I had not known much about her life, but I found out more that day. When her four daughters were small, she had lost her husband.  She, however, was never defeated.  She tried to make her daughters' lives beautiful, even though things were not easy. One point mentioned stood out in my mind.  It was her love of picnics...because she never wanted her girls to miss a beautiful day. Every opportunity she could find (with good weather), they would eat outside. Since then, I have had a love of picnics..and have been searching for the perfect picnic food.  Here is what I have found today.  I hope you enjoy it as much as my family did.  



Homemade  Granola Bars
(adapted from Better Food For Kids Cookbook, by Joanne Saab RD and Daina Kalnins, RD)

makes 16 large bars

 Ingredients:
4 cups large flake rolled oats
1/2 cup unsweetened flaked coconut
1/2 natural wheat bran
pinch salt
1 cup dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, etc...)
1/2  cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup honey

4 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup corn syrup
4 Tablespoons brown sugar
2/3 cup peanut butter
1/ 4- 1/2 cup toasted sesame seeds
1 teaspoon cinnamon

1.  In a microwave safe bowl, combine:  Oats, coconut, bran, salt, dried fruit, sunflower seeds.

2.  In a one cup measure, whisk together honey and oil.  Pour over oat mixture; toss until well mixed.

3.  Microwave on high for about 6 minutes, stirring every two minutes, until mixture is slightly browned.
4.  In another medium size microwave safe bowl, combine syrup,sugar, and peanut butter.  Microwave on high for two minutes or until mixture is just bubbling.

 5.  Add sesame seeds and cinnamon to oat mixture.
Add the microwaved sugar/peanut butter to oat mixture.  Mix well.

6.  Press into lightly greased pan.

7.  Wait until cool..  Cut into bars. Uneaten portion can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Enjoy!

Big Friday

Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can.- Danny Kaye

My day began earlier than I had hoped.  Phone ringing...dog barking...
Walking downstairs, I found great-grandmother wide awake and sitting alone at the breakfast table.  She was wearing a large smile.  Cheerfully, she announced, with a Serbian accent, "Today is Big Friday!" I put a pot of coffee on for the both of us and sat down.  She continued,"You know, you can't work on Big Friday...no do laundry, no clean  (hmmm...sounds good to me)...and today, must paint eggs."  
Here are the many little hands of our household making their creations...  

A Little Shopping Trip

Apparently, there is nothing that cannot happen today.-Mark Twain.  

Grandmothers can be pushy.  Great-grandmothers can be even more pushy (but I love them, don't worry).  Yesterday, my husband's grandmother asked me to take her to the store.  Not any store...but one particular store.  It is not nearby, so I told her very definitivly..."Maybe."  She sort of squinted her eyes at me and walked away.   About 15 minutes later she came back and asked again, "Are you going to take me to Costco or not?"  Again, because it is a 40 minute drive away I said, "Maybe, we'll see"  and "by the way, what do you need to buy?" She told me she needed to buy cookies (hmm, I see...she has diabetes...)

My husband's grandmother is a very lovely lady, however,  she is not your "quiet" grandmother type.  She grew up as the only daughter in a family of 7 children back in Yugoslavia.  She moved to Canada in her mid thirties and worked very hard to provide for her family.  She knows how to hold her own.  Little did I know, how determined she was to go on her cookie shopping outing.  When no one was around, she walked up to me again..blocking my exit from the room.  Having me cornered, with her head tilted downward, eyes fixed on mine, she said in a low steady voice,"You take me to Costco...yes or no"(hmm...you know, I think I was being threatened by a 84 year old great-grandmother if I did not buy her cookies).    Smiling, I finally said, "Alright...we can go to Costco."

So, today, after my children finished school..my husband, myself, our four children, and great-grandmother went on a trip to buy cookies. ( Did I mention the store was 40 minutes away?).  

She did buy cookies....and a cake....some nice bread....(and some vegetables, too)...and she treated us to a pizza lunch.  But, you know, she didn't eat any of the cookies she bought.  She gave them all to my children and my other nieces and nephews.  She just wanted to treat her great-grandchildren to something special and to show them that she loved them...and a 40 minute drive was not going to be her obstacle.  

Great-Grandmother's Doughnuts

 Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend. - Theophrastus

Today I had a cooking lesson.  Not just any cooking lesson, but a cooking lesson from a grandmother (something I highly recommend).  This lesson was unsolicited...I just happened to be walking by her in her moment of inspiration.  "Christina, I want to teach you how to make doughnuts..."  Alright, I am game.  I stopped what I was doing and  took out a pencil, paper, a camera, and measuring cups (to properly measure her ingredients that she will just eyeball and expect me to remember).

 My Husband's Serbian Grandmother's Doughnuts  
(1 part recipe. 2 parts life stories)

Pranbaba Vema

Ingredients
2 egg yolks ( which we did not have,"ehh, its ok," she says.)
1/4 cup butter
1/2 t salt,
1/4 c sugar/ 2 Tablespoons sugar, divided
3 1/5 cup warm milk
1 pkg. quick rising yeast (or 2 1/4 teaspoons)
6  cups flour, divided
3/4 cup warm water, divided
oil for frying
optional icing sugar for topping


1. Put the first three ingredients and 1/4 cup of the sugar in a large bowl and set aside.(again...we did not have egg yolks and the doughnuts turned out fine...she said the yolks are more for colour)

2.  Add package of yeast and 2 Tablespoons sugar into the warm milk. Set aside. Wait 30 minutes  (or have a cup of coffee. Tell stories about how this recipe was learned, also from a lovely grandmother, who was a neighbour.  And more stories about working on the farm, family memories of ages past and an evil mother- in-law (who grandmother likened to a distant relative of the late German dictator)).

 
3.  Alternating, add 5 cups of flour and the warm yeast milk into the prepared yolk, butter, salt, sugar mixture.

4. Mix with hands until well incorporated.
5.  Slowly, add 1/2 cup of warm water to mixture.  Texture is sticky at this point.  Continuing mixing/kneeding with hands.  About 8 minutes.

6. Incorporate the remaining 1/4 cup warm water to mixture.
7.  Add 3/4 cup flour. Continue mixing from the edges in a circular motion. About 10 minutes (or a about the time it takes to tell a short story about how your doughnuts were the talk of your church and everyone lined up to eat them.. 300 were made and your hands were sore for a week)

8. Turn out dough onto a floured surface(heavily floured...the remaining 1/4 cup of flour).  Kneed for about 10 minutes (or for about the same time it takes to tell a story about how you passed this recipe to your best friend who didn't know how to cook...and then she also became the talk of the town). After which,  the dough should become very soft and smooth.

9.  Cover and let rise for about 1 1/2 hours in a warm, draft-free location. (give all your great-grandchildren kisses...and greet them for breakfast...tell them stories, too, about how they are going to eat doughnuts for lunch with lots of sugar sprinkled on top, while their mother reminds them that they have to eat something healthy first)

My nieces Amelia and Nea

10. Punch dough down (enjoy the ooohs and aaahs from great-grandchildren). Cover again.  Let Rise again for another hour (or enough time to eat a proper lunch while complaining to the children's mother, that the doughnuts are a nutritious lunch time food and why was a second meal made.)

My sugar-holic son Kaiden

11. Roll out dough to about a one inch thickness.  Cut dough into circle shapes. (We used a glass cup). 

My daughter and my niece watching

12. Transfer cut dough to another surface to rest. Cover.  Let rest an additional 15 minutes.  At this time, prepare skillet for frying.  Pour enough oil to come halfway to the top of the skillet.  Begin to heat oil over a burner on medium- low.

13.  Pick up dough pieces and put a small indentation in each one as you drop them into the hot oil.  Turning them over when they have browned on one side.  Remove from skillet once both sides are brown.

14.  Transfer to paper towel lined serving dish. Sprinkle with icing sugar.

15. Enjoy!

My son Ethan stealing a treat

Yum! my son Kaiden

All the great-grandchildren enjoying the doughnuts

Makes 36 doughnuts.
Somehow...with 8 children, 2 adults and 1 great-grandmother all of the doughnuts were eaten by dinnertime. All the children thought great-grandmother was magical and  of course, I showed the proper example of healthy eating, and ate only one (or maybe was it two...or was it, hmm,... I don't quite remember).

The Gift

The real voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.  - Marcel Proust

The mass of muddy paw prints on the kitchen door should have been a hint, but I only casually noticed it in my hurry.  Today is a holiday, did you know?  It is Orthodox Christmas...and as family tradition calls, we are on our way to my husband's grandmother's house to celebrate with all his cousins.
I open the door and step out of the entrance.  And to my surprise there is mud...lots of it.  Do you know what happens when four inches of snow melts overnight...and you live in the country with a dirt driveway.... with four children in their best clothing...and a big black newfoundland puppy running right towards you? (I will let you imagine what happens) But, the mud is not what I remember most from today....
My husband's grandmother is ninety years old.  The greatest gift and the only gift that she ever asks for is that we gather for holidays at her home.  When I first married my husband, the gatherings were small.  Now, with all the cousins married, with families,  the gatherings have taken on a new life.  Her small two bedroom house is alive with people of all ages and sizes....running, chatting, laughing, joking, crying, eating and just being together.  Every year without fail, his grandmother makes the most splendid chicken soup with dumplings....first in one pot, then two, now three pots...just to feed the whole crowd.  She woke up early just to prepare this special treat.  It is her children's favourite.  It is her grandchildren's favourite...and yes, it is even her great-grandchildren's favourite dish on the Christmas table.  No one can make it just like her.   But, it is not the soup that I remember most from today...
There was something more that I remember.  It is something that I have seen before.  I saw it in my own grandmother's eyes, as she sat at the side of a room and watched my cousins and I laughing together.  I saw it in my husband's grandmother's eyes tonight. As we chaotically huddled around her for a family photo, there was a look of absolute peace and happiness that filled her face.

That was most beautiful moment in the day.  I think growing old is one of life's greatest gifts....it is in age, that sometimes we can finally begin to see....