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Me Musing .
. . on
Winter Solstice (Return of the Light), 2007 . . .
This musing
could be titled 'From Nativity to Maturity in 6 days'!!!!!
For the past
few years I have been thinking about organizing our collection of
favorite recipes. The inspiration to finally get to it came last
week after our 4 year-old God-grandson, Alfredo, asked us to come
and watch his (current) favorite movie, 'Ratatouille'. He told us
it was about a rat in Paris who wanted to become a chef.
(We went to
the Seniors for lunch today
and one of the ladies made these for table decorations . . .
is this perfect timing or what???????)
Many
know that Eb is not fond of anything French . . . but he
agreed to go and watch! And it was a delightful, action-packed animation.
Remy, the young rat's cooking idol was the Parisian Chef, Auguste
Gusteau, whose favorite saying was: "ANYONE can cook"!
The next morning
I decided it was time to begin this project.
'Ratatouille'
had animated me into action! And Chef Gusteau would approve I am
sure, as 'anyone can cook' from our 'See Spot, See Spot Run' kind
of recipes! If it takes fancy ingredients or more than one page
to type . . . you won't find it in this notebook!
Perhaps that
is because both Eb and I come from 'Pioneer' stock . . . (no cooking
pun intended!)
Most of you
know the story about Eb's great-grandfather, James Mims Wilson,
who with his wife and nine children, and his wife's brothers and
their families left Missouri for California by wagon train in 1863.
There were 32 covered wagons in the train, made up of the 2 families
(Wilsons and Walkers) and James Wilson was 'appointed' Wagon Master.
A few others joined up with them as they traveled west.
There were
many hardships along the way, the worst being, the Wagon Master
(Eb's great-grandfather) was accidentally killed while climbing
from his wagon to get on his horse so he could go ahead of the train
and find a night camp for them. The families buried him near Lone
Tree Station in Wyoming and continued on to California, finally
settling in this valley.
I, on the other
hand, was the first of my family to leave Ohio and venture
west!
The most celebrated
of my ancestors was my 4th great-grandfather, Balser Hess, born
in 1747 in Pennsylvania. At a young age he was apprenticed to a
shoemaker and at age 21 (in 1768), he had fulfilled his responsibility
and began his new life with a new suit of clothes and a complete
set of tools for shoemaking.
He joined the
American Revolution in 1775 in the army of General George Washington
and was with Washington at the crossing of the Delaware River. Later
he was taken prisoner by the British and was one of the few to survive
the harsh treatment while confined at an old Sugar House on Long
Island.
In 1782 when
the War for Independence was over he returned to Pennsylvania, married
and set up business.
In 1798 he
sold his home and business to begin the trek of 100 miles over to
Pittsburg, down the Ohio River to Portsmouth, up the Scioto River
to Chillicothe and then to Hopetown.
In 1802, Balser
moved his family with ox team and cart, horses, cows, pigs and chickens,
tools and equipment the fifty miles north to Franklinton (now Columbus)
along the Olentangy River. The town had only been started in 1797.
The land he selected had no road to it, no wagon had ever passed
that way, only hunters on foot had tread there. He and two oldest
sons cut their way through the thick unbroken forest along the river.
The cost of
the 400 acres of land was $800 . . . $2.00 an acre!
My great-great
grandfather was born on that land. My great-grandfather worked the
land as a farmer, then passed it on to his daughter, my grandmother,
and she and Grandpa farmed the land until they 'retired' from farming
in the early 1960's. I spent the first 3 years of my life on that
wonderful farm. I do believe, however, that watching Grandma cook
3 meals a day for the family and hired hands, putting gravy on everything
to make food go farther, was probably the reason you will
not find one recipe in the assemblage with gravy on it!
Sooooooo .
. . for
the past 6 days I have been sorting through all my recipe files/books
to distill them into a smaller version of our favorites. The end
result was a mere 144 recipes!!!!!
I read somewhere
years ago that the average person has about 25 recipes they 'really'
use, of which about 10 they use repeatedly!
As I began
re-typing and editing recipes (from my memory of their taste), I
realized that all of these 144 are the 'holy
of the holies'!
What began
as a simple: 'type the recipes', ended up as a major work!
I realized
I needed a special notebook (Café Ratatouille), sheet protectors,
tab dividers, index . . .
Then I decided
it was looking so good that it would be a great 'heritage' gift
for Eb's two sons and two grand-daughters, my brother and my niece
. . . and of course, one for Alfredo, who could possibly grow up
to be a famous Chef!
Oh . . . and a CD containing all the
recipes as I wasn't going to print out all 144 for them!
For those of
you who aren't aware of our little 'community', here is
a 'snapshot'.
Some
History of Cheeseville,USA
From what we
have been told, a J. D. Shelley built the community of Cheeseville
around a cheese factory and creamery he started in 1889.
At that time he also printed a Cheeseville Newspaper!
This photo
we obtained from the Historical Society and says it is
"Cheeseville looking north on Callahan-Yreka stage route, 1889,
owned then by J. D. Shelley. The white building being the cheese
factory."
This photo
I used on the Recipe Notebook cover and its accompanying CD was
taken in 1979 of what remained, at that time, of the original creamery.
And finally,
this photo was taken of what remained in 2003 (and pretty much to
this day in 2007).
Since being
'appointed' in the mid-1970's, Eb has retained the title of 'The
Mayor' for a rather small constituency of families who live along
'Old Cheeseville Road'. No one is quite sure WHY they later changed
the name of the road.
I hope that
you have enjoyed reading my Musings this past year as much as I
have enjoyed 'Musing' them!
Enjoy
this day's Celebration of the Return of The Light!
And the Holy-Days ahead . . .
taking
us to . . .
The Day of Epiphany . . .
January 6th (Eb's birthday!!!)
Yowie
. . .
since this is the 7th day . . .
I think I'll eat some good food
then . . .
just rest . . .
Bon
Appetite!
from . . . The Mayor and 1st
Lady
P.S.
Here's how they turned out!
 
Until soon,
Che'usa
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