Hinds County News
 for November 2015

Written October,20 2015

You all, I was making cookies yesterday, The Friends of the Holdrege Library are having a book and bake sale this week.

 I saw on Facebook they were asking for bake goods to sell. ” I can do that” I said to myself and I am thrilled to be able to contribute to an institution that has over the years, meant so much to this community.

Kitchen before cookie making commenced 

After.....

   I am not a “Friend” of the library, I am however a frequent patron and a huge fan of the library.  I do not know exactly what it would require for me to become a “Friend” but, it has been my experience when you join a group, they expect you to show up for meetings, I found out long ago I do not attend meetings well.  And it is not that have anything better or more important to do, because, Lord knows I don’t.  But, often the only decision made at the meetings I was involved in, seemed to be, when to hold the next meeting....It could be exhausting
 But I can bake cookies ‘til the cows come home!

cookies ready to go!

All of that, is not what I started out to tell you.

This is what I wanted to say, while I was in the kitchen baking the cookies for the library sale, I went to pondering on all of the cooks that came before me, like who invented Mayonnaise? If you have never made mayo, it is not hard, but it is a process and it must be followed precisely.

Not only did I wonder Who, but why? Did someone  begin to  beat eggs,  add oil  and  it turn in to mayonnaise!?  They had to be very smart, maybe a scientist?

 Now days, if a chef comes up with an idea.. such as... the of combining chipotle peppers, basil, or cilantro with Mayo he calls himself inventing a new recipe and he considered cutting edge by "foodies"…But he did not invent Mayonnaise....The hard part was done long before he was born.....Long Long Long before he was born.

 What about making candy, who first came up with the idea of combining cream, sugar and butter, cooking it to a particular temperature, and voilà a confection to die for! caramels!  What about meringue?     Sheer genius if you ask me.

And Oh My Word!!! What about Puff pastry or croissants! The lamination of butter and pastry dough! Giving the world those delightful treats to enjoy! Puff pastry and croissants and are not hard to make but, they are extremely time consuming and again must be precisely prepared…. they cannot be hurried! I make both, but never could I have invented ether. 

I said all of that to say this…. I am in awe of the brains that came up with the likes of mayonnaise, Ice cream, pavlova, cookies, apple pie, popcorn balls, potato baloney, cake, popovers, hot dogs, wine, pasta, jelly etc.

 We were taught in school about the invention of the cotton gin, Eli Whitney, radio Gugliemo Marconi, etc.   Now we have all the Tech inventors out there in Silicon Valley, making millions of dollars.

But after a morning in the kitchen in very deep thought, I have come to believe the first cook to boil a potato, mash it, stirred in butter and cream has brought more joy to humanity then the inventor of Twitter. 

Love to all

OH!!!  let’s not forget and the one who rolled out a piece of dough, covered it with tomato sauce and cheese and baked it!  Hats off to you too!!!! Every youth group in America is in your debt!

Home for Sale: 201 Luster Street, Edwards, MS 39066

Taking a sentimental journey....

Recently I found this video, Julie Patton Johnson, my realtor with Keller Williams Realty put on you tube when she was selling the house.   I did not know it existed!  I was thrilled to find it!

I




 Lots of memories were born here.

Hinds County News  for October 2015
Life as I see it....

   As I am writing this, Sunday, September 20, 2015 the pups and I have been in Nebraska one year and two days.  We arrived in the late afternoon of, Thursday the 18^th, we were supposed to close on the house at 4 o’clock, we missed that, due to a detour in Kansas, I got lost and went way west to Dodge City Kansas.

   There was no option but to close that day, on this house, that I bought sight unseen, we had to have a place to sleep.  It all worked out we closed late that evening….And we all slept on the floor….Slept on floor several night waiting on our furniture to arrive.

   I just love the location of our house (“our” being me and the pups, Miss Shelby and Emma) the library, bank, court house, post office, the farmers market and city hall, are within three blocks.   Within 5 blocks there are four restaurants and a coffee shop. There are various other business in the downtown area, sporting goods, dress shops, furniture stores, second hand stores…seems to be lots of beauty shops….Oh!! Oh!!And a movie theater!

   And across the street is the beautiful Bethel Lutheran church,  lots of activity over there, they have a preschool, funerals, weddings,…lots to see from my white wicker chair on the front porch...and every Thursday this summer the lawn was mowed…. I am easily entertained.  And!! at dusk they light up one of the beautiful stained glass windows….When my Mississippi friends Jacqueline and Lindsey came in June, we sat on the porch every evening waiting for the window to be lite 9ish….stayed on the porch until it went out…10:17 If I remember correctly….Jacqueline and Lindsey are also easily entertained.

    We (We being the pups and I) are adjusting to the move, it is taking a bit longer then I had expected.  Actually Shelby adjusted straight away, the first night was a bit rough for the dogs.   At the time I did not have a fence and when I let them out … they just ran to the car and sat there looking at it expectantly….My guess is they were ready to get on back to Mississippi.

    But by the next morning when Shelby was breathing much better in this dry climate she was happy!   Emma found this yard too confining for her taste, and walking on a leash, that took some getting used to, Bless her, she had been a free range dog most of her life, but she is now fully acclimated to her new home on the plains, and enjoys her long walks tethered to the leash.

Emma checking out the neighborhood 

Shelby in her hidey hole...she thinks I can't see her
 Shelby hides when the leash comes out her..
I do not make her go.

  However, I am still adjusting…I have not  fully adapted to living in a 654 Square feet….and the tiny yard. , However I adjusted real quick to the less maintenance! 

     So anyway back to making adjustments....I grew up in Nebraska, I do not remember Nebraskans being so serious….these folks are far more serious than my experience with southerners.   Mid-west folks are hardworking, community spirited, lots of service organizations. Holdrege has a beautifully maintained parks, a very nice museum, a senior Center that serves tasty meals, city government seems to work very efficiently.

I said all of that to say this......If there is such a thing as a normal person, he/she will be discovered somewhere in the mid-west. 

 All of my Mississippi friends and acquaintances, to put it in the gentlest sort of way, were leaning rather heavily toward eccentric, A few even bordering on quite peculiar.  But every one of them were exceptional, original and creative…with big personalities. Characters really…not unlike those in plays and novels set in the south. Southern writers are talented, and I believe it is due in part, by the fact they were exposed to so many Characters. In fact there is a saying, “Here in the south, we don’t hide crazy, we parade it on the porch and give it a cocktail.”  Over the years, there were many many crazies, being served cocktails on my front porch.

The delightful thing about Southerners...They are convinced they were the only one normal...because everyone they know are at least a bit crazy. Early on I it tumbled to me that in the South our own crazy is normal. 

   I will adjust…But will these folks adjust to me?

     Speaking of Southern writers, Topher Payne, a Mississippi boy and playwright,  has a play opening in New York! New York! In October! Perfect Arrangement”

Topher Payne
Playwright 

Add caption

  Topher’s mom and dad. Cleve and Sheryl Payne live between Edwards and Bolton.    Topher calls Atlanta Georgia home…where has been involved with the theater, and has been won many awards.

    I know for sure Topher was inspired for at least one of his plays by people he knows…Because he wrote a hilarious play, inspired by the delightful, sometimes scatter brained, Henderson sisters, his mother and aunts. 

Miss you all, if you are ever this way please stop by!
Pictures added for blog

What Emma And I saw on our walks this weekend

Saturday walk

Paintings on the side of the Mosaic building 

Headed East down 4th Avenue

                                                Our Sunday walk.....

looking  west on 4th avenue
Dale Hotel

Looking East Down 4th avenue

 It is chilly On the Avenue this morning....the leaves are turning color! Fall is coming!

45 Degrees
 according to my elderly
thermometer 

I do not have a cornfield

but I do have

 a field of concrete leaves 

First wash of paint

Gloria Christiansen

MississippiOnThePlains@aol.com

September, 17, 2015

 I must say we southerners are awfully fond of our homes …..Regarding them not unlike a dearly beloved pet.  In fact in the South our houses are often named.

     Our house in Edwards was “Suttle House” named for the family that built it in 1920. We were only the second owners of "Suttle House" we purchased it in 1986 from a daughter of the builder, Ben Suttle.
    The house was not actually named until we moved into it, the Suttles no doubt considered it entirely too new for it to have a name.  Oh, I feel sure it was called the Suttle house by folks in town, but did not have signage declaring it so, until Doug Turner constructed and painted a sign making it official.

Porch at "Suttle House"
note sign on the right in picture

I said all of that to say this: I named my Holdrege house long before the dogs and I arrived here a year ago, I contemplated on the name.. a good while, looking at pictures the realtor had on line, because I bought this house without ever looking at it in person, Then one day it suddenly came to me “Mississippi on the Plains”!  Now there is a sign in the front yard declaring it so.

New Sign!

The front porch of "Mississippi on the plains" is taking on a decidedly southern appearance....That is my intention anyway.

front porch at
 "Mississippi On the Plains"

   Some folks may think naming a little, tiny, 654 square foot house, a bit pretentious....but you have to know, I have lived somewhere in the south since 1976, where being pretentious... if considered a flaw at all in ones character, a very minor one.    And in some circles pretension is encouraged...as long as it is carried out with humility.

Love to all
Gloria
MississippiOnThePlains@aol.com

   

I Love This Town!!!!

From the Holdrege Daily Citizen September, 14, 2015

10:58

9:22

The street (and Alley) where I live....

September 8 2015

Rather Foggy this morning,

Looking South toward downtown

North up west Avenue

Alley looking North

Alley South

Alleys are so useful, the trash is picked up from the alley and all utilities are serviced  from the ally...Keeping the street neat. I enter my garage from the alley...very handy.

Fixing to out and make a concrete leaf, later today I will be going to town for a manicure...maybe something exciting will happen...if it does I will take a picture, you can be sure of that!

 we will just have to wait and see.

That is it for now!  From the avenue!

Gloria Christiansen

Christiansen201@aol.com

http://gloria-ruralhindscountymississippi.blogspot.com/

September, 5, 2015

Cooking Collard Greens

In my 35 years of living in Mississippi, I never cooked a collard green, did not even eat many, if I was a guest and I was served greens, I ate them....but did not developed a hankering for them....not like some southern dishes.

This spring I planted a patch of collards. Those collards were much pampered, in hopes they would reach a size that would be suitable for making a concrete leaf. As the one in the picture below.  I found it in Bob Kemp's Compost pile years ago.

                           I am quite disappointed they never grew to my expectations.

                                So I whacked them off and fix'n to boil them in a pot!

I text two of my Mississippi buddies Lindsey and Jacqueline asked how to cook collards...Lindsey had never cooked them either! I could not believe it! until I remembered she spent much of her youth in the North...even attended college in Chicago for a time. 

  But Jac knew how to cook them!

Onion sauteed in bacon grease, then add chicken broth and ham hock.... cook a while then add the collards.   Must take Stems out. "Stems are tough." Jac said

 And apparently you can not have collards with out Cornbread....Because she added "don't forget the cornbread!!" 

The collards were delicious!     Super Yummy!

That is it from here on The Avenue....

Here I am in Holdrege Nebraska! 

On the Avenue!   West Avenue!

    The other day I received notification that it was time to renew the subscription to the local paper Holdrege Daily Citizen.  “Oh My Word! I cannot let my subscription lapse!” I said out loud.    I was nearly in a panic, I look forward to closing the day, on the front porch, reading the Citizen.

 The Citizen has a column called The Public record….  log of police incidents.

Note:  9 am

Love this one too!

But I must say Sunday March 15 1:24 am is my very favorite.

You can clearly see why I cannot be without the evening paper.

  “But I paid for the whole year!” I continued with my rant.    I told myself, in a very authoritative voice, “Very first thing in the morning, you walk over to the citizen office, and get this subscription thing straight!”
 Way on after while it dawned on me, I did buy a year’s subscription and that year was fast coming to an end.  Hard to believe it has been nearly a year since I moved north, to where I was born and raised, Nebraska.

  I am settling in to my little house, and my little yard…..After nearly forty years, in my big old Edwards house, the house and big yard had begun to wear me down.
   The main floor of this house is only 624 square feet, that is official, got that info from the Phelps County tax records web site. 

     There is one bedroom, the living and dining room are combined, a very little bathroom, and a small kitchen, an open front porch.

south

north

 and a very small enclosed back porch…That is it!!!!.  It is gray with white trim, and I had a white picket fence installed.  It is cute for sure but petite.

   When I first arrived I was thrilled with my tiny house and tiny yard…. Then slowly it began to feel small…really really small. It is after all, 2,000 square feet smaller than the Edwards house!

       It has taken a bit of time, but  I have become quite thankful for the size of this house…..I believe it was when I came to realization that my computer did not have to have its very own room, that my brain begin to embrace and appreciate the advantages  of living in tiny spaces.  When I take a notion to clean house, it does not take long!  In fact I can mow, weed eat, and clean house in a single morning!

     The kitchen  took the longest to get used to, it has very little cupboard space, but found a cute cabinet in the attic, my brother came and helped me bring it down,we placed it on the south wall of back porch. That is where I store things like the blender, Crock pot, and food processor…big bulky things.   The kitchen items, which I maybe use once a year ( or never) are stored in the basement, on shelves that were already here.  My washing machine is in the basement too….it is harvest gold so you know how old it is.

    There is another small room in the basement with shelves, where I store my extra groceries and wine…do not have a nice big pantry like I had in Edwards.  Well I do… sort of…. the door to the attic stairs is in the kitchen, I store my coffee, cereal, flour, cookbooks, etc. on those steps. 

  There is a room in the basement that is almost finished…nice big room, I have a bed and desk in it, and most of my clothes are hung on racks in that room.   Emma Dog and I slept down there for a while…but Shelby dog would not come down…she just laid at the top of the stairs looking pitiful, so we moved back up…left the clothes though….the closet in the bedroom is not quite 3 feet square.

    That is it from here,.... “Mississippi on the Plains”!  That is what I named my home.
The sign is ordered!  It is black with white lettering, made from cased aluminum.  Can’t wait!
 Love to all

First Published

Hinds County News
September 2015
Pictures added