Texas Cake

I have a potluck tonight so I am, of course, making Texas Cake.  Texas cake is a very simple cake to make and one that I have known all my life.  My mom used to make it for so many events.  Family picnics, church potlucks, just because in the summer when the milk went sour.  In fact, I am pretty sure that the potluck alphabet divisions were done in such a way that S always brought dessert so that Mom would bring Texas cake or pie.  She often brought both.
From a young age I learned that a potluck or picnic required, yes required a home made dish from my mom.  Forget that fact that she worked a full time job and had five kids running amok.  She always brought a homemade dish, usually several.  As the kids grew older, it would fall on Crissy to make something if Mom had to work, but it was always homemade.  Of course, the only things we would usually eat at the potluck was the food my mom brought, I suppose that is why she always made meatloaf as well.
One of my fondest sound memories is the sounds coming from the kitchen and patio on the morning of the Martin Picnic.  I have no idea what time Mom and Dad got up, long before me, I am sure.  I usually woke up to the sound of Dad on the patio with milk cartons filled with ice.  Ever thrifty, Mom and Dad would fill the empty cartons with water and freeze so they didn't need to buy ice later. Dad would be out on the patio, cigarette hanging from his lip, cup of steaming coffee nearby, banging on the junk of ice.  The cooler would be at the ready to take the ice that would keep the potato salad cool on the way to Hannen Lake. 
Coming down the stairs, I would hear the sounds coming from the kitchen.  The squeak of the sifter handle, the scrap of the leveler on the big wooden cutting board.  The chop chop chop of pickles for the salad. 
The smells would hit at the landing.  The vinegar of the potato salad, the cinnamon of the pie, the brown sugar of the beans.  And the smells didn't mix but each held its own place in the air.  The decent down the stairs bringing a new and mouth watering scent into the nose.  By the time I hit the kitchen door, I knew all that we were taking.  Texas cake, apple pie, baked beans, potato salad and meat loaf. 
Then I would be spotted and put to work.  Usually it was something simple like gathering up my swimsuit and towel and rolling the swimsuit into the towel.  I would try to get out of the house to help Dad because he never put me to work.  All of us kids would be dinking around.  Creating more havoc then help. 
After all was baked and cooked and chilled, the pack up began.  All pans, bowls, spoons and spatulas were labeled with SNOW on medical tape and black felt tip pen.  There are still dishes at home with these pieces of tape on them, or the permanent residue of where the tape once was.  My dad would wrap the meat loaf and beans in newspaper, multiple layers to keep in the heat.  Cooler packed, hot box packed, picnic basket packed, kids packed.  That was the toughest part, who got window, who got way back.  Who sat by Sheila as she bounced. 
This is the part of the story where I get teary eyed.  When I think about my mom and all the little gifts she has left me to unwrap as I grow.  Years from now, my kids won't have this memory because there were no more family picnics.  People became too busy for church socials and school potlucks.  But maybe they will tell their kids about Great Grandma Snow and the great cook she was, her apple pies far superior to anyone's.  Yes, anyone's.  In a homemade crust of flour and lard. 
The Texas cake is cooling.  My heart is warm with my memories.  Hugs from great aunts that I didn't know.  Getting to drink Pepsi from a bottle.  walking on the rocks to get to the lake.  Burning my butt on the hot slide.  Cousins and food.  Funny how Texas cake can bring all that right back to the surface. 

Happy Birthday Jacob!

Today is the seventeenth birthday of my son, Jacob. 
Often the subject of my blogs, Jacob is a real treat.  On a daily basis he brings new and interesting ideas into my life.  And by new and interesting, I mean odd.  He infuriates and entertains.  Jacob is truly one of a kind.
In his seventeen years, Jacob has not always been the center of attention.  In fact, he as often been the one in the background keeping it all together.  I will forever remember that little guy of nine that took such good care of me while Danny was in Iraq.  He would stand on the bottom step so when he gave me a hug, I could put my head on his shoulder.  Now when he gives me a hug, I have to get on my toes to put my head on his shoulder.
While Ashlyn went through treatment and Hayley geared up to save her, Jacob never acted up.  I know that it had to be hard on him to be neither sick or savior, but his good behavior was a Godsend in such a time.  I would not have been so sweet.  I would have clamored for attention, good or bad.  Jacob took care of what he could the best he could.  A real stand up guy.
And now he is in the thick of his teenage years.  Jacob is beginning to give his future some semi-serious thought.   The world is wide open for kid like him as long as he isn't afraid to give it a sot.  Jacob is funny and smart.  He says ridiculous things all the time.  He is pretty good with numbers.  He does not serve idiots well.  I think he ought to be a game show host or a therapist. 
So we celebrated his birthday today with gifts and dinner, a movie and cake.  Jacob wanted a Lego cake, not a Megablocks cake.  I haven't made him an actual birthday cake in several years and now he wants a theme cake!  We went to Abe Lincoln, Vampire Killer.  It was a historical fiction.  Dinner was at Lonestar.  The presents, two foam rockets from Harlow.  A 12 pack of Hawaiian Punch from Brett.  A banjo from the rest of us.  He was very excited for all of it.  I quit buying the canned HP so that was a real treat.  Jacob has already been learning the opening of Rainbow Connection on the banjo.  As one of the girls so nicely stated "if a frog can play it, so can you."  It was a good day.
Being Jacob's mom has been a tremendous treat.  I hope he realizes that.  I hope Jacob knows that all those I love you's are true and real.  I hope he realizes that even though I am kicking him out of my room and serious about it, that secretly, deep, deep down, I feel so very blessed that my boy still wants to play opossum here instead of wanting to sulk in his room. 
Happy Birthday Jacob!  I love you.

First Tuesday in November

Oh election time is upon us.  Well it is still several months but the candidates have entirely too much advertising money to spend so instead of hiring the agency that does the Allstate Mayhem commercials, to create something worth watching, they are just going to buy up every moment of airspace that they can and call each other names.

I am not politically savvy.  I don’t understand pork spending unless I am at Costco and then it is buying the four pack of bacon.  I do not understand the concept of pacs or superpacs.  I imagine a superpac is a lot of regular pacs that have joined together much in the same way that the Power Rangers set aside their color differences to become an undefeatable Super Ranger.   I don’t know what bipartisanship means but it sounds like a word that would get you a lot of points on words with friends.  Here’s what I do know, the political world today is not what George, Ben and the like had in mind.

According to my Facebook page I am a moderate republican.  Meaning, stay out of my wedding reception,  bedroom and prescription files but pat me down at the airport, let me arm my home and kick ass on the battlefield.  Test welfare recipients for drugs.  It only seems fair since soldiers are frequently peeing in a cup.

I have been alive for eight presidents.  I do not remember Nixon or Ford.  Most of what I remember of Carter is his daughter’s cat, his brother’s beer and his complete debacle of the Iran hostage situation.  Ronald Reagan, who is my obvious favorite, was the president of my formative years.  He served from 1980 to 1988.  I have read a couple of books on the man and have come away with these thoughts.  He loved his wife like crazy.  He was not a fantastic dad.  He believed that everyone in a nation like ours had the opportunity to be successful.  He loved America.  He had balls.  The man broke in a new pair of jeans by swimming in them and then let them dry on his body so they would have the right fit.  That is some hardcore cowboy shit right there. 

He was a great speaker.  He moved me, even as a kid I could tell that he really believed in the United States.  Reagan loved our nation and was proud of who were and what we were doing. 

There were many scandals during his administrations.  I remember bits of Iran Contra but didn’t know what that meant.  All I knew was we were kicking ass and taking names.  In true superhero fashion, Reagan punched a hole in the Berlin wall and brought communism to its knees.  (I don’t know how true that statement is, but it would make a great tagline for a movie!). 

George HW Bush was the president during Desert Shield and Storm.  He was Danny’s commander and chief.  Again I saw a leader that loved the United States.  I also saw a leader that surrounded himself with very smart military leaders.  You thought I was going to include Qualye in that statement, didn’t you!  I am not that crazy. 

I voted for Bush in the ’92 election, but was not surprised when Clinton won.  Outside of his office sexcapades, or because of them, he was a good president.  We were financially secure and I didn’t fear for my children’s future like I do now.  I wish he would had have been more aggressive with terrorist threats, but it is hard to be ballsy when…insert Monica joke here.

Dubya.   Again, my husband’s commander in chief.  Again, a man that made his love for our nation obvious.  Again, financially, we were doing alright.  But things did get dicey in the end.  I liked that Dubya could not string three words together to make a coherent sentence.  I liked that he threw the dictionary away and made up his own words.  I did not like that he had wars on two fronts.  But I always felt like he believed in what he was doing and was doing what he could to keep the US strong.

There are many things I like about Obama.  He is very intelligent.  The big words that he uses are real words, not odd mash ups.  He is a good dad.  I think Bush and Clinton were as well.  He does a great Al Green.  But do I think he loves America, no I don’t.  Not in the way that he needs to to make her great again.  I don’t think Romney does either, though.  I think Obama can be a great leader but too many of the people that voted for him went back to their couches and are just waiting for their next check.  Oh wait, not check, electronic deposit onto their EBT card.  I realize that that sounds incredibly racist of me and I suppose it is.  But only if it is fair to say that many people voted of Obama strictly based on the color of his skin.  They did not know what his platform was or even what his expectations were of his voters.  I believe that Obama thought the fire he had started in his campaign would keep burning.  People would try to be proactive and make something of themselves.  Can he make things better in the next four years?  I don’t know.  We are a divided nation.  Not just in half, but each half is in half.  There are tea partiers and tea baggers and birthers and birth controllers and people with their hand out and most with just a finger up.  No one with a thumbs up.

And then there is Mitt.  I liked him four years ago.  He seemed to have the answers to the questions I might ask.  But now days, I don’t know.  I don’t trust a man that has just the right amount of gray at the temples.  Seems to me he is being application specific with his Nice and Easy.  And then there is the whole Irish setter on the roof of the car thing.  I realize that that was many years ago, but I get the feeling that it was not a Clark Griswald type of mistake but a more calculated, asshole kind of move.  It does bother me that none of his boys have served our nation in a way that took them out of their comfort zones and put them in a war zone.  Because they would have never needed to go into the military for the money or education, they would have entered to serve.  That they would have had a call for love of country.  I don’t get the feeling that they love their country.  Not in the way that we need it to be loved.  I also realize that there are millions of families that do not have a member in the military and they do truly love this nation.  It’s just that the Romney boys seem to think that renting a RV and traveling all counties of Iowa somehow constitutes service and love.   

Show me how you will create jobs.  Show me that you can create a nation that will grow and support my children.  Show me that there are far more important things then gay marriage.  Like  being number one in education.  Like making sure that my children will not be swallowed up in our debt.  That someone in Washington knows how to balance a budget. 

I am glad November is a few months off because I don’t know who gets my vote. I will have to weigh Mitt’s running mate against Obama’s well educated, F bomb dropping sidekick.   Not that I really believe that one vote makes a difference, huh Gore?  But if I don’t vote than I can’t bitch and I will not give up bitching. 

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July!!!  Fireworks and sparklers!  Potato salad and Texas cake!  Family and fun!
This is what this holiday has been for me my entire life.  Long before I understood what we were celebrating, I was celebrating! 
My earliest memories of July 4th are with my cousins on their farm.  I am sure that these memories are a bit muddled and I am going to confuse years and events.  But the feeling of that time is accurate.  The Hansons had four kids at the time.  We were five.  Everyone was pretty close in age.  Aunt Elaine, my mom's sister, and her husband, Arnie would host us for a few days.  I remember going swimming at a lake, and on the way my cousin Marty and I would come up with a very elaborate songs in honor of Smokey the Bear.   If I remember correctly, there was a sign of him as we entered the beach area. 
I don't remember much else about what we did on our visits, but I do remember that there was always kiss cookies.  So much so that I associate kiss cookies with July 4th and not Christmas. 
I also remember the year that my cousin Angie dropped a firecracker under my mom's lawn chair.  Ooops! 
Fireworks were at the ballpark in either Parnell or Williamsburg.  My sister Sheila and my Aunt Elaine would count the fireworks and duds.  On the bicenenteial there was a special firework that burned 1976.  I think it was hanging over one of the dugouts. 
Again, I didn't know the signifigance of theis day, just that we had a lot of fun, ate such good food and ended the evening back on Hanson's farm.  It always rained the night of the 4th.  My grandpa said it was because God wanted to be sure all the sparklers were put out!
Later 4th of July's were spent at home.  I remember watching the Cedar Rapids display from the KC parking lot.  One year, Dad and I parked at IC and walked downtown to see them. 
My first 4th as a married woman was spent in Oceanside with no husband.  I stayed at home (because I was too scared to drive anywhere!) and enjoyed the display from my little patio.  The following year, Danny was home.  Crissy and Sheila had come out to visit (and help us move our stuff to a storage unit since Ashlyn and I were moving back to Cedar Rapids) Ashlyn and us.  We watched the display on the Oceanside beach where we could watch both the city display and the Marine Corps display.  A year later, Ashlyn was all hyped up on the 4th of July.  She ran all over the place with her flag.  She was the ambassador of the day, greeting all!  She could not wait for the fireworks to begin!  But alas, after all her running, greeting and ambassadoring, she was asleep before the first fierwork burst into the air!
4th of July's in Germany were awesome!  We had two little girls running aout the base.  The atmosphere was completely different becasue there the 4th of July was just not a day off from work as it was for so many people in the states.  Ashlyn and Hayley were celebrating with the people that protected our freedoms.  People that were following in the footsteps of those first members of the United States military.  ALong with the fireworks display, we were treated to static displays of tanks, humvees and heios.  It was awesome!
Twice, Danny adn I have celebrated the hokiday in Washington DC.  Once it was just Danny and I.  The second time we took Jacob.  The one thing I have to say about the display at the Mall is this, the entire display is one big fanale!  Amazing!!!   And being in the Capital city on such a day brings a special meaning to the holiday!
Now days, we spend the 4th at home.  It's not that we don't want to go out, but Harlow likes us to stay at home.  When Barron was alive, he twice removed the screen from the backdoor.  Harlow hasn't gone that far (because we never replaced the screen) but she does a fair amount of pacing and barking and farting. 
I think it is time to start an old tradition.  Next year, there will be kiss cookies and family.  Swimming (in a pool, not a lake), grilling and maybe even a trip to see the display.