Sharing Simple Pleasures with a Granddaughter ...

Sometimes in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, we lose sight of simple little things in life that give us pleasure. A lot of things give us pleasure, such as a new car, or boat, or new clothes ... but I'm not talking about things. I'm talking about simple pleasures ... like rocking your grandbaby. Our three-year old granddaughter Avery Grace has almost outgrown my lap, but I dearly love rocking her in the creaky old rocking chair that I rocked her mama in when she was a baby. I cherish our "rocking times" and guess I'll go on rocking her as long as she'll let me, no matter how big she gets. I also love cooking with her. She's like a little sponge and her eyes just light up when I say, "Let's make cookies!" or "I need some help making potato salad," which she loves. Recently, we made a Lemon Pie ... [If you'd like a delicious and easy Lemon Pie recipe, and would like to see more pictures of Avery making ours, please read my "On Cooking with a Granddaughter" post] Another Avery-related "simple pleasure" turned out to be not so simple -- growing Morning Glories. I wanted her to experience the whole process of planting the seeds and watering them and watching them grow. I even bought two packets of seeds, just to be sure some would come up. I also bought her the cutest little gardening gloves and little yellow watering can. I didn't think we'd ever get all her little fingers in the right fingers of the gloves, but we finally succeeded and I showed her how to "dig" the holes, drop the seeds in, and cover them up. Then we filled her watering can and she gently watered them in. And then we waited ... and waited, and watched, and watered, and waited some more ... and NO Morning Glories. Well, after about two weeks of watering and waiting and watching, I decided those seeds weren't going to come up, so I bought three more packets and planted them. I know, I know ... I probably shouldn't have done that, but I just couldn't stand for her flowers not to come up! Every weekend when she came to see us, we would check for sprouts and water some more. Then, lo and behold, one day I saw these little fellas poking through the pine straw ... Kind of pitiful looking, but at least I had something to show Avery, and I couldn't wait 'til that weekend. She was so excited when she saw them, and we watered and pulled weeds around them and envisioned a profusion of blooms covering the fence. We had "high hopes" for them, but I've never seen such slowwwwwwwww-growing Morning Glories. They took their own sweet time, but, after a while, they had little tendrils reaching out for something to cling to. We went to Home Depot and bought a trellis for them to climb, and every weekend Avery checked to see how much they had grown during the week. Finally, our high hopes paid off -- we had a Morning Glory! Again, I had to wait 'til the weekend to show it to Avery, but she was delighted and called her mama, granddaddy, and her great-grandparents (my parents), outside to see the Morning "Gwo-ey" (Avery-talk for "Glory"). I'm going to have my camera handy when I show them to her this weekend, because, at last, I think you can say we have a "profusion of Morning Glories" ... I'll post a picture next week of Avery when she sees the blooms for the first time. I can just see her little face light up ... and that's always a pleasure for her Grandmama. Sincerely,

On Cooking with a Granddaughter

One of my favorite things to do with our three-year-old granddaughter Avery Grace is cooking. There's nothing like seeing the excitement in her eyes when I say I need some help making cookies, or blueberry muffins, or in this case, a Lemon Pie. She loves pouring the ingredients into the bowl, and mixing and stirring, and will stand in a chair at the sink for as long as I let her "washing the dishes."

I have sweet and happy memories of times spent in the kitchen with my grandmother and I hope someday Avery will cherish these times with me as well.

This recipe is from one of my favorite old cookbooks (Looking at Cooking, by Mildred Swift) written by a lady who had a cooking show on our local tv station when I was a little girl (waaaay before celebrity tv cooks came into vogue).
Someone gave it to me as a wedding gift and, even though the cover came off and its pages are splattered from years of use, I still treasure it today.

Here is the recipe for "Easy-Does-It" Lemon Pie, along with some pictures I took of my little helper:

Are you sure you want to put this in our pie, Grandmama?

Ingredients:
1 Egg, beaten
1 Can (1-1/3 cups) Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 Teaspoon grated Lemon Peel
1/2 Cup fresh Lemon Juice
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Prepare graham cracker crust (see below) and chill.
(Or you can use a ready-made crust, if you'd prefer)

Combine remaining ingredients, stirring until well blended. Pour into chilled crust and chill for several hours before serving.
(Makes an 8-inch pie)

Graham Cracker Crust:
Mix one cup fine graham cracker crumbs with 1/8th cup butter or oleo, or whatever it takes to make the crumbs stick together. I think I used about a 1/4th cup in mine. Press evenly and firmly on bottom and sides of an 8-inch pie plate and chill well.

This vintage aluminum juicer was my grandmother's and I love using it and sharing things like that with Avery; even though she doesn't really comprehend it now, one day she will.

Tadaaaaa! -- All done!