My Old Friend, Maxine
This time of year reminds me of my old friend Maxine. The walnuts, bare trees & leaves crunching all remind me this was the time of year I spent every weekend with Maxine last year. I can't bake a thing without thinking of Maxine because that is what I did for her when I visited her. Last fall and winter, I spent every weekend baking every treat Maxine used to make when her eyes were good and her hands were able. Maxine would tell me what she wanted, and I'd get busy on it right after we had a cup of coffee on her old couch, and when she wasn't feeling well, on the edge of her bed. Maxine was full of opinions on how and why you do things certain ways, especially in regard to cooking, and it wasn't long before I realized she was almost always right.
One day Maxine was full of hilarious words of wisdom. I wrote a few down:
"My sister Ruthie put marshmallows in her jello, not bananas, so I didn't go to her house anymore..."
"My one sister and her husband were so tight, they'd cook one egg and one would eat the white and one would eat the yella. Can you imagine that? One egg between the two of 'em."
"My daughter brought home Chinese food one time and I took one look and had to run out of the room to throw up all over the place."
One of my favorites: "I know I should not feed Dude (her dog) off my plate. My Dad would have a fit about it. But, he's too fat to lick his own behind so I don't have to worry about that at least."
I am still finding out Maxine is always right- just yesterday we discovered on Man vs. Food that briskit IS INDEED right behind that flappy, fatty neck meat on a cow. Maxine always told me I could cook her any cut of beef, but DO NOT try to feed her briskit! Just the idea of that flappy thing made her sick! Whenever I cooked her meat, she asked me to make sure it wasn't briskit or "mutton" before she'd eat it. She was going blind, so she made me solemnly swear never to trick her. I respected her wishes, but assumed she was nuts! I keep finding out, even now, Maxine was right!
Maxine had many more quirks. I wish I had written them all down because I'm already forgetting. Maxine would fret and worry about her shades in her bedroom being just so. They were just plastic mini blinds, but she didn't want them hanging slanted or sideways, and didn't want any of the louvers to be flipped the wrong way so as to appear like "hick shades." One day, she called me back into her bedroom half a dozen times to fix or check on her shades because she was "not going to tolerate no hick shades." What would the neighbors think?!
Another day Maxine must have been laying in her bed thinking about death. She called me in as she often did, "Nickeeeeeeeeeeeeel!!" and I went. (She claimed she couldn't remember my name was Nicole, so she called me "Nickel" or "Nickelodeon." Yeah, that's easier to remember!) I went in her bedroom and Maxine asked me, "Nickel? When I'm taking a nap, do you check on me a couple of times while I sleep to make sure I'm not dead?" I could tell she was hoping for a yes, so I told her I did. "Oh good," she replied, obviously relieved of that worry.
Maxine was fairly annoyed at impropriety and shameless talk, so it shocked me one day when she told me, "When I was young, nobody told me about sex, but somebody must have told Alfred!"
Maxine was very opinionated on child rearing. She very clear that she did not like ill behaved children. One day Maxine told me, in regard to children, "I wouldn't give a nickel for one, but I wouldn't trade none of what I had in either." Maxine seemed especially fond of visits with Willy, whom I brought from time to time on shorter visits. Maxine always welcomed my children in her home. For that, I was honored.
The kids and I spent Christmas Eve at Maxine's house last year. Maxine would not use the soap I gave her as a gift. She saved it so she could look at it and smell it. She got very upset that night at Dude, her beloved fat rat terrier, because he tore his dog toy to bits seconds after opening it. He's lucky he didn't get the lamp cord! The evening was a blessing to all of us- a lonely old woman, and a mother with 4 children who's husband was working on Christmas Eve. It was an odd pairing, but Maxine's house was warm and there was plenty of hot chocolate cookies for the kids! It's one of my best memories with Maxine and I'm glad the children brought her joy that evening, her last Christmas.
Maxine went downhill fast after the first of the year. I'm sorry I was so busy I wasn't able to spend more time with her that spring. Maxine died not long after her 90th birthday in the summer. I was able to attend her party with Willy. I knew she would not last long when I saw her on her birthday. The light was gone from her eyes and she was just hanging on. She is a stubborn old lady and I know she lived to be 90 because the party was planned a year ahead and come hell or high water, she was going to be there!
I knew Maxine little more than half a year before she died, and she enriched my life. She enriched all of our lives. There are things I do differently and think about differently because of Maxine. Oddly, the first day I worked for her, I could not stand her. I cried all the way home for having to work for her. I told myself I would work for her one month and then decide what to do. I learned later Maxine was nervous about me working for her, and when she's nervous she spouts at the mouth. After awhile, she runs out of nice things to say about people, and resorts to gossip! Anyone who knew Maxine had to put up with a certain amount of that, but I learned to squelch it, gently, whenever I could! Who'd have guessed after that first visit, I'd end up missing her so much?
Fall and winter will never be without memories of Maxine for me. Every time I bake, pick up a walnut, or gather a hen's egg from my chickens I think of Maxine. A baked custard at our house is a tribute to my old friend and is made with her recipe. We picked up all our walnuts and brought them to the huller this year. 150 pounds of hulled nuts will be cracked and put on tables across America this year, not left to rot my yard, another tribute to my old friend. Maxine taught me a walnut is a treasure not to be wasted. Maxine bought her groceries in the winter on money from the sale of nut meats from her walnut tree that she and her husband picked out every night during the winter when he was laid off of work. I'll never see a walnut the same again.
I'll never see many things the same again. I wish I had known you longer. I wish I could have another cup of coffee on the edge of your bed this winter. I hope to be able to say "hello old friend" to Maxine in Glory someday.
Love,
"Nickel"
YOU Can Make Artisan Bread. Don’t Let The Experts Fool You!
Would you like to make a loaf of bread like this one? My 11 year old son and husband made it! YOU can make bread like that too. It's easy! We followed this recipe found on this youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Ah9ES2yTU
Here are some written instructions for those of you plagued with slow internet like me!
3 c. all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. instant dry yeast
1 1/4 tsp. salt
Mix these dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add 1 1/2 c. lukewarm water. Stir it all together with your hand (no spoon needed) until just mixed. Don't use a mixer! Let dough sit in a bowl, covered, for at least 12 hours. (So, you can make the dough at night, go to bed and finish it in the morning.)
Heat oven to 500 degrees with an iron dutch oven with a lid in the oven to get it blazing hot. Pour dough out onto a heavily floured surface and pat into a round. Handle the dough as little as possible so you don't deflate it. (Do not roll it out.) Fold dough over from each side like an envelope. There will be four folds that all overlap. Flour the outside of the bread dough heavily with wheat flour. Carefully throw dough into the preheated dutch oven, seam side up, put the lid on, bake for 30 min at 500 degrees. Then, remove lid and bake another 10-12 mins. Remove from dutch oven and cool on a rack. Cool bread before you cut.
Notes: You can put wheat in place of white flour. I used bread flour, not all purpose. You can rise it anywhere from 12-20 hours before you bake it. You can play around with the recipe and change it some. My opinion is the only things you cannot do this recipe without is the long overnight rise, the cast iron dutch oven, and mixing without a mixer. You get your flavor from the long rise, your crust from that dutch oven, your large holes from mixing without a mixer. The longer you rise it, the more sourdough flavor develops. Also, I have doubled the recipe with no problem. The recipe as is makes a rather small loaf. My kids ate it all in 10 minutes. The loaf pictured is a double recipe.
Have fun!
