As a little boy growing up in the Osage I was terribly excited about this time of year. It was filled with decorating the house and Christmas shopping and Mom's chocolate fudge packed with pecans. And I do mean pecans with a short on the e and not a long vowel. Pe-cans with a long sound is what you do when on a long trip and the driver does not want to stop, you Pee in the Can, not good. OK, back to the season.
If anyone wants to make me very happy you can make me some fudge with pecans and make it milk chocolate. As Dad would say, "that is good eaten". In addition to fudge Mom made a fabulous fruit cake which normally I never like but there was something about hers that overcame whatever was wrong with fruitcakes. I would have to say that Cathy and Marie Heath (Aunt Peggy Heath's daughters) sold fruitcake to raise money for the Ponca High School Band to travel to the great parades we enjoyed on New Years Day each year. Those were pretty good fruitcakes as well. Also I would add that Aunt Peggy made some mean Christmas candy (that means pretty dad-gum good).
Starting a few days before Thanksgiving Mom started getting all the fixin's done. She would make home made bread which filled the house with smells of Thanksgiving plus she made a fabulous dressing with bread rather than corn bread. Her cranberry salad is still the best today. In fact she makes it every year for Larry Wayne when he comes home from South Carolina for the holidays. Now that I think about it, she does not make it for me for Thanksgiving. HUMMMMMM? He is special and ??? I am not going to go there. Now at our house we did not do the turkey thing too much but we had these giant hams in our house as we raised and butchered hogs. I may be wrong but the hams in our freezer were smoked and weighed about 40 lbs., they were huge. We use to have to take a stiffed back saw to cut them to get them small enough to cook or serve. They were always great. In fact this reminds me of the bacon and hog jowl which were fantastic. Do I like to eat?
Green beans and corn, all from our garden and put up for the winter, were served in big bowls. The beans were cooked with chunks of ham which put a little fat in them but the flavor was filling to the nose. Wow!
Now desert was heavenly. Somehow this story has gotten tangled in food. Well Mom's pecan pie and pumpkin pies were special. Although I will have to say that my sister in law's (Elaine Davis) pecan pie is nothing to sneeze at, pretty special. Now again the pumpkin pies were for Larry and Debbie and Dad as I was not a fan and still not particularly even if you put some whip cream on top. But pecan pie is heavenly. Mom used karo syrup and white syrup in hers and they were a little darker on the inside and very rich in flavor. Dad-gum-it, I can smell it now.
Every year on Thanksgiving morning around daylight Larry and I would dress in our warmest clothes and boots and put on our hunting vests loaded with shot gun shells, add a shot gun and we were off to the woods up and down Beaver Creek. We were hunting quail which were always plenty. I loved looking up in the trees empty of leaves and showing the giant red squirrel nests. The squirrels on Beaver Creek were about four times bigger than these rat looking squirrels in Edmond, OK. Plus they were pretty. We always saw lots of red birds, meadowlarks and sparrows as well as an occasional raccoon (coon as we called them). The trees were very cool as we had walnut trees with those giant black soft outer shells and then the extremely hard inner shells protecting the fruit. Plus the acorn trees had huge nuts on them compared to most varieties. Then of course there were cotton woods along the banks of the creek and elms of different varieties. Larry and I would walk up and down the creek scouting out covys of quail for hours. Larry was a great shot and I was mediocre as I was too impatient and would shoot too fast. It was great fun.
Well by the time we got back dinner (lunch for most of you all) was ready and we were starved. I don't know why but Dad hardly ever hunted with us but I know on that day he would do all the chores for us so we could hunt. Dad was a servant just like Mom.
Well I better go but get in the spirit and smell the love in the air.
What do you learn in the Osage?
If anyone wants to make me very happy you can make me some fudge with pecans and make it milk chocolate. As Dad would say, "that is good eaten". In addition to fudge Mom made a fabulous fruit cake which normally I never like but there was something about hers that overcame whatever was wrong with fruitcakes. I would have to say that Cathy and Marie Heath (Aunt Peggy Heath's daughters) sold fruitcake to raise money for the Ponca High School Band to travel to the great parades we enjoyed on New Years Day each year. Those were pretty good fruitcakes as well. Also I would add that Aunt Peggy made some mean Christmas candy (that means pretty dad-gum good).
Starting a few days before Thanksgiving Mom started getting all the fixin's done. She would make home made bread which filled the house with smells of Thanksgiving plus she made a fabulous dressing with bread rather than corn bread. Her cranberry salad is still the best today. In fact she makes it every year for Larry Wayne when he comes home from South Carolina for the holidays. Now that I think about it, she does not make it for me for Thanksgiving. HUMMMMMM? He is special and ??? I am not going to go there. Now at our house we did not do the turkey thing too much but we had these giant hams in our house as we raised and butchered hogs. I may be wrong but the hams in our freezer were smoked and weighed about 40 lbs., they were huge. We use to have to take a stiffed back saw to cut them to get them small enough to cook or serve. They were always great. In fact this reminds me of the bacon and hog jowl which were fantastic. Do I like to eat?
Green beans and corn, all from our garden and put up for the winter, were served in big bowls. The beans were cooked with chunks of ham which put a little fat in them but the flavor was filling to the nose. Wow!
Now desert was heavenly. Somehow this story has gotten tangled in food. Well Mom's pecan pie and pumpkin pies were special. Although I will have to say that my sister in law's (Elaine Davis) pecan pie is nothing to sneeze at, pretty special. Now again the pumpkin pies were for Larry and Debbie and Dad as I was not a fan and still not particularly even if you put some whip cream on top. But pecan pie is heavenly. Mom used karo syrup and white syrup in hers and they were a little darker on the inside and very rich in flavor. Dad-gum-it, I can smell it now.
Every year on Thanksgiving morning around daylight Larry and I would dress in our warmest clothes and boots and put on our hunting vests loaded with shot gun shells, add a shot gun and we were off to the woods up and down Beaver Creek. We were hunting quail which were always plenty. I loved looking up in the trees empty of leaves and showing the giant red squirrel nests. The squirrels on Beaver Creek were about four times bigger than these rat looking squirrels in Edmond, OK. Plus they were pretty. We always saw lots of red birds, meadowlarks and sparrows as well as an occasional raccoon (coon as we called them). The trees were very cool as we had walnut trees with those giant black soft outer shells and then the extremely hard inner shells protecting the fruit. Plus the acorn trees had huge nuts on them compared to most varieties. Then of course there were cotton woods along the banks of the creek and elms of different varieties. Larry and I would walk up and down the creek scouting out covys of quail for hours. Larry was a great shot and I was mediocre as I was too impatient and would shoot too fast. It was great fun.
Well by the time we got back dinner (lunch for most of you all) was ready and we were starved. I don't know why but Dad hardly ever hunted with us but I know on that day he would do all the chores for us so we could hunt. Dad was a servant just like Mom.
Well I better go but get in the spirit and smell the love in the air.
What do you learn in the Osage?
- Family is more important than our expectations
- Smell is not just with your nose but with your heart
- tradition is peaceful, go, enjoy, rejoice
Thanks for your time,
gary@thepioneerman.com
