I was raised by my father (God rest his soul) in the valley of Nebraska.
The background picture is of the
Scottsbluff National Monument I took on a trip home... Thank Goodness I had Czech & German Grandmother's and Aunt's who taught me how to cook, sew and overall be the most giving person ever. The lady in this picture is my Aunty. She passed from Alzheimer's a few years ago. and was a huge influence on who I am and how I love. She and My Best Friend inspired this blog... I don't want anything to be forgotten!
Showing posts with label stories on the farm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stories on the farm. Show all posts
Thursday, December 2, 2021
Diva’s Memories of Recipes
⬗⬗ ButterBalls ⬖⬖
Inspiration from: This is a Volga German tradition in our family, Both the Rutz and Zemanek families enjoyed this in our soups. Grandma Margaret always used the fresh cream from the milk cows and fresh eggs from the hen house...YUM! The allspice makes it a wonderful divine taste. Wonderful for that left over Turkey!
Ingredients
6 cups fine bread crumbs (almost 2-15 oz plain crumb pkg) 2/3 cups sweet cream (can use cream or half and half + 1/2 c sugar) 3-4 large eggs
1 cup butter, melted 1 tsp salt 1 tb allspice, i like more for taste and usually use 2-3 tablespoons.
Directions
Put bread crumbs, salt and allspice in a large bowl; make a well. Heat cream in a small saucepan and pour into well of bread crumbs. Mix well with hands; pour in melted butter and mix again. Add eggs 1 at a time; if it is dry, add another egg. (Testing: make a ball and cook 10 minutes in boiling water, if the ball does not separate, it is ok. If it falls apart, add another egg) Roll into balls about the size of a walnut. This is the diva test: when making the balls, if the butter squishes and the ball is firm; it's perfect!
Variations
boil 10 minutes in Home made Turkey or Chicken and noodles. You can find my noodle recipe on an earlier post.
The butter balls freeze nicely for later use. Warning: the are very rich and most people can only eat a couple at a time.
Inspiration: On the Zemanek farm in Bayard, NE, milk was plentiful since we had milk cows and chickens. Sunday's were family days and we always made Homemade ice cream. There were 6 cousins and we all fought over who turned the handle and who got to poke the stick in the ice during the process. We also knew when Grandad pulled the beater out of the ice cream, we all got a lick.
Ingredients: 2 cups milk 1~1/2 cup sugar 1/4 tsp salt 5 eggs, beaten well
1 TB vanilla approx 2 Quarts milk
rock salt ice
Instructions: Scald milk, sugar, and salt. Continue to beat eggs in large bowl and slowly add hot milk mixture. Cool. Pour into 5 quart ice cream maker. Add vanilla and enough milk to reach the "fill line". Freeze according to your manufacturer's directions.
Inspiration: We had a huge apple tree in the yard at the Zemanek farm. Grandma would use a caste iron skillet to cook the apples in and also bake.
Ingredients: 1 cup cold butter, cut-up 2 cups flour pinch of salt 1~3/4 cups sugar, divided 1/2 cup ice water 3 lbs Granny Smith Apples, peeled and quartered 1/2 cup butter, cut-up
Instructions: Freeze 1 cup butter for 30 minutes. Put cold butter, flour, salt, and 1/4 cup sugar in food processor and pulse 8 times. should resemble coarse meal. Add 1/2 ice water, 1 TB at a time. Pulse just until mixture comes together and forms a dough. Turn dough out on a piece of plastic wrap & shape into a disk. Chill 2-24 hours. Gently stir together Apples, 1/2 cup butter and remaining sugar in a large bowl. Put apple mixture into a 10 inch skillet. (will be very full) Cook over low heat for 1 hour or until liquid is reduced and thickened. Put in a 10 inch baking dish. (I line the bottom with parchment paper). Pre-heat oven 425 degrees F. Unwrap chilled dough and turn onto a lightly floured surface. Roll into 12 inch circle & place over apples tucking edges of dough around apples. Bake 25 minutes or until golden brown and flaky. Invert on serving plate.
Variation: Yields 8 servings Can add nuts before putting in the apples to baking dish. I have also added cinnamon to the recipe for that added boast. wonderFUL with a scoop of Granddad's home made ice cream.
Inspiration: I loved sitting out on the porch snapping fresh green beans with grandma. We always had huge gardens and raised our own livestock. This is my favorite vegetable. It brings back warm memories of the farm, the hot sun and conversations with Grandma. The best advice came from Grandma on the porch.
Ingredients: 3 lbs Green beans, ends snapped off 1 garlic clove, minced 2 TB olive oil 3 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled salt & pepper to taste
Instructions: Steam Green beans until tender. Cook garlic in oil in a large pan over medium heat for 1 minute or until golden. Add beans and salt and pepper. Add bacon and cook for 3 minutes. Serve
Variation: Yields 10 servings Green beans are low in carbs, great for diabetics like me
The old pick up truck Grandad Dale drove took weekly trips to town with the cream we separated everyday from milking the cows on the Zemanek farm. It was a treat to sit next to Grandad as he shifted the gears over the bumpy roads to town. Scottsbluff, Nebraska was where the Platte Valley Creamery was and still is to this day; and it seemed to take forever to get there... You see, it was the anticipation of what was at the end of the journey that kept us hopping in the seat...
Home Made Ice Cream!
This was in the 60's and I remember it like it was yesterday. Grandad would take me inside to let me pick out which kind of ice cream cone I wanted and take me by the hand and lead me back to the old truck and lift me up on to the tail gate to eat the most wonderful ice cream, dripping down my chin with a huge smile on my face. The trip home I usually fell fast asleep up next to his chest and dream't of next week's ride to town.
My daughter and I still to this day NEVER go home without getting a Home Made tin roof sundae from there. It's a treat I miss and have found memories of the ride to town next to my Grandad... He made his own Home made ice cream on the farm and it was absolutely wonderful too and I will share the recipe with you soon, but I think it was the trip in the truck being next to Grandad that made it special. He has been gone since 1985 but his memory lives on in my heart.
Grandad Dale Zemanek, born February 9, 1910 was raised by Grandpa Hood. His father, Frederick William passed away a couple months in Dundee, IA before his birth and his mother Winnie Hood Zemanek Williams passed away 8 years after Grandad's birth.
1919 - Married James Edward 'Ed' Hood in Melbeta. He was a widower with two married children. His son Eddie was killed in France during WW I and daughter Winnie Hood Zemanek Williams died in 1918. Ed Hood took grandson, Dale Zemanad (typo found online @ http://www.potterama.net/private/Genealogy/d270.htm) to raise and Harvey Harward raised the Williams children.
One of the Williams girls, Lela Givens Garrett, which would have been a step syblings to Grandad Dale wrote a book back in 1981 called "Papa's Razor Strop". I remember us calling her Aunt Lela and at the time didn't understand all the connections til later on in my life. I recall stories of us being related to Monty Montana and Monty Montana Jr and we use to go watch him perform at the Denver Stock Show. I loved cowboys and to watch him swing his rope kept me in awe. Monty Sr was the son of Great great Uncle Mickel and Aunt Edna. They were Lela's Great Uncle and Aunt.
Aunt Lela's book was a beautifully written work of art that vividly conjures the warm and wonderful memories of growing up on a Nebraska farm in the early years of the twentieth century. I have a first Edition autographed by Lela in 1981. A family gift to treasure. It is dedicated to her Papa and Mama and her brothers and sisters: Oscar, Ester, Harvey, Bill, Hickey, Neda, Alice Lorene and Elden.
My favorite chapter has always been chapter 4. "That Cherished Christmas Box" It talks about how they would travel by wagon and Grandpa making the trip comfortable for the family. He would warm bricks and flatirons in the oven to put under the blankets to keep everyone warm. They take the low road to Minatare, Ne passing the Great Western Sugar factory which was a huge part of our past growing up. All our family raised sugar beets and worked at the factory in the fall. If you have never smelled the smell of a full going sugar factory... you have no idea how pungent it can be. Grandad always called it the smell of money. The Christmas ride and day they shared was filled with anticipation of the most wonderful Christmas ever. Little did they know, it was their Grandpa's last Christmas but they cherished it forever.
Cherish each day as its your last. Hold your loved ones close this Christmas, you never know if its your's or their last. Merry Christmas all.
Inspiration from: Grandad use to bring us kids home hard candy he made in a beaker on the bunsen burner in the lab at the sugar factory where he worked. When he brought in the white cardboard canister, we knew we were in for a treat. I always made lollipops and hard candy for my kids when they were growing up. I had a friend who had parties and sold tons of molds... I think we had every mold made. I preferred to use LorAnn oils when make them. Cinnamon, clove, and peppermint are the most potent. I took pride in having the hottest cinnamon candy in town.
Ingredients
2 Cups sugar 2/3 Cups light corn syrup
3/4 Cup water
1 dram oil flavor of your choice liquid food coloring powdered sugar
Directions
In a 2-quart kettle or large saucepan, mix together sugar, corn syrup and water. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves.
Insert candy thermometer if using, making certain it does not touch the bottom of the pan. Bring mixture to a boil without stirring.
Continue to cook the syrup, without stirring, until the temperature reaches 260º F; add color. Do not stir; boiling action will incorporate color into syrup. Remove from heat precisely at 300° F (temperature will continue rising), or until drops of syrup form hard, brittle threads in cold water (hard crack stage). After boiling action has ceased, add flavor and stir. USE CAUTION WHEN ADDING FLAVORING TO AVOID RISING STEAM.
Carefully pour syrup into prepared molds or onto the prepared greased and foil lined cookie sheet. (As the sugar mixture begins to set up, you may want to score with a large knife to mark squares.) Cool completely. Break sheet candy into small pieces and dust with powdered sugar, if desired. Store in airtight containers between waxed paper. If making lollipops, do not dust with powdered sugar, but place in sucker bags and secure with twist ties. Store hard candy in a cool, dry place. (Do not refrigerate.)
Variations
Be very careful with the hot syrup, extremely hot, so take precautions for yourself and anyone around you while making the candy.
Memories of a lazy summer afternoon Bayard, NE in the 60's
Funny how people take for granite of the things surrounding where they live and don't appreciate them til they no longer live there. Maybe I didn't pay attention to the beauty around me or maybe I thought the rest of the world looked the same. Growing up in a small town does that to people. Someday part of me will be returned a couple miles from Chimney Rock. My dad lays to rest here and enjoys this beautiful site everyday.
This area is a plant anchored dunes of the largest Sand Hills in North America and we considered an irreclaimable desert. As far as I can remember as we rode our horses bareback across the hills, it was mostly a sagebrush prairie, full of little tiny creeks, coyotes, mule deer and rattlesnakes. The sand and the cactus always seemed to be where I would land when Champ our horse would throw me when he was spooked by the natures of the land. My brother would become furious with me because I was too little to get back up on Champ. (I was the runt of all the cousins as they called me and the screamer who always got everyone else in trouble) Champ was a very well trained horse and our dad could make him sit to help me get on. Although, my brother Randy was not so talented with him. Many times he would back Champ up to a barbed wire fence post for me to crawl on after many attempts. If it hadn't been for the rattlesnakes, I think he would have left me.
Below is the history of Bayard, NE and was only a couple miles from the Zemanek farm. How we ever grew crops like sugar beets, corn, etc in such a sandy area is beyond me.
Chimney Rock National Historic Site – Bayard, Nebraska
Chimney Rock National Historic Site – Chimney Rock National Historic Site – Bayard, Nebraska
Seeing the awe inspiring rock on the trip from the east coast on the Oregon,California and Mormon Trail made those traveling want to stop and leave something for those that would follow behind. There were pictures describing their trip west, words of “wisdom” and encouragement were left. All were part of a great movement of people and ideas that passed by Chimney Rock in the years 1812 – 1866.
There are a number of the artifacts housed in the VisitorCenter for you to see. There is also a digital presentation of the material as part of the Western Trails Project that is available for you to view to get a better understanding of those thoughts and remnants from the brave people that headed west during that timeframe.
Chimney Rock stands at 4,225 feet above sea level. This measurement was taken by a man named David Cosad who measured his shadow against the rock’s to come up with the figure of 360 ft from the base to the top. With today’s measurement techniques it is interesting to learn that he was within 10 percent of today’s measurements!
The rock is really pretty interesting with the peak extending upward just like a chimney (therein it’s name). Although there have been stories about how the rock with disappear it certainly will be a long time in the coming. Although erosion created it and erosion will probably destroy it no one can tell how long it will be before the spire disappears.
The pictures show how the rock has changed over the years, the symmetrical lines of the past are altered some by the wind and rain so the base is less smooth than the picture from the 1930’s compared to the one from 1977.
Visiting the Ethel and ChristopherJ.AbbottVisitorCenter is a great way to learn about the Oregon-California Trail. The visitor center is open year round and group tours can be arranged in advance.
Inspiration from: Grandma Margaret always made 2 types of dressing during the holidays. Grandad always insisted on his sweet dressing too. We had a huge apple tree and they were plentiful and tasty.
Ingredients
1 cup chopped celery 1 cup chopped onion
4 cups chopped apples, peeled 2 cups raisins 1/2 cup water 1 cup apple cider
1 stick butter 8 cups cubed bread, day old 2 TB sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp salt
Directions
In a skillet, saute the celery and onion in 2 TB butter; transfer to a large bowl. Add the apples, raisins, bread, sugar and salt. In a small bowl, beat eggs, cider, remaining butter and water. Pour over bread mixture and toss lightly. Stuff into the turkey and bake or you can put it in a casserole dish and bake.
This show's my age... How many of you remember the Silver Tinsel Christmas Tree's with the color spinning wheel??? I always loved to lay on the couch and watch the silver change slowly to Green, Blue, Orange, and then Red. And we had these gorgeous little bubble lights too. A blast from the past... reminded me the other day when I was looking online for Christmas Tree's and one of the local store's had Tinsel Tree's. See if you keep things long enough they come back around. I use to think it was the most beautiful thing in the world. My dad was way ahead of his time decorating the outside. He had his home made wooden panel's of Santa and his sleigh the size of a truck... Those bulbs he used where huge too and the neighborhood kids would come and steal them. Would piss him off royally! LOL Gotta love Daddy... I miss his little quirks so. Merry Christmas.
Sunday's at the Zemanek Farm were full of fun, work and just being a family. Like I mentioned before, up before the crack of dawn taking care of the animals, then breakfast, then all of us would take care of things on the farm that needed to be done. Grandad was always in the fields all week and worked in the lab at the sugar beet factory and didn't have the time to do the up keep that needed to be done. So we would all pitch in and take care of what needed to be done.
There were only 2 boys born to Margaret (Gartman) and Dale William Zemanek, but between the two of boys there were 6 of us cousins. Uncle Lewis had LynAnn was the oldest, then Cathy, Bill and Robert. Dad had Randy and I.
Grandad Dale was born in a little town called Dundee, Iowa on February 9, 1910. It was always easy to keep track of his age, all you had to do was subtract 10 from the year. His family came from Czechoslovakia originally. He was born to Frederick William Zemanek and Winnifred Hood. This is a little History on Dundee, Iowa: http://www.dundeeweb.com/history.html. I found this interesting...
Something I didn't know was his father passed away just a couple months prior to Grandad's birth.
Frank R.Zemanek, their father was the local Blacksmith and Horseshoer of Dundee. And this is where the family as his parents and grandparents descended from Czechoslovakia in the me 1800's:
I remember Grandad being raised by another family in Dundee and I have been trying to track what happened to Grandma Winnifred. There were stories told of Grandad being a cousin of Monte Montana Jr and I am not sure if it was from the adopted family.
I will continue to do some research on this on write as I find out the results.
If you hang on to anything long enough, what was old becomes new again. My Paternal Grandparents lived on a farm just at the base of Chimney Rock, close to Bayard, Nebraska. It was always a blast as a kid to visit. Getting up at 4 am to milk the cow's and feed the chickens before the sun even decided to come up. I can remember walking back to the farm house in the dawn of morning from the milk barn watching the sun come up. Was and still is my favorite time of day. So peaceful as the sun burns off the night dew. God makes the most beautiful art.
This is just outside Grandma's kitchen with her VW bug she bought with her milk and egg money
As my brother and I approached the little farm house which did not have indoor plumbing til 1965, we could smell the bacon cooking and the coffee brewing in Grandma's little kitchen with a wood burning cook stove in the corner. Grandma would pull up a stool and put down the oven door to warm our feet and hands. Breakfast at the Zemanek farm was always like a 5 course meal. Bacon & liver from their pigs, eggs from their henhouse, pancakes very delicately whipped up by Grandma Margaret, home made rhubarb jam made with perfection from the massive garden they always had. Grandad Dale always ended breakfast with a bowl of cereal he mixed up with 4 different cereals and warm milk from the cows. Funny how things like that embed in your brain. I won't forget because I learned to not like milk from these early days. It was always warm and it was like putting solid lard on the roof of your mouth.
The reason I brought up if you hang on to things long enough... Grandma and Grandad never got rid of anything, EVER. When they sold the farm in the late 70's we went through the attic, all the barns and every inch of the farm inner fields. Grandmas attic was massive. I remember Aunt Janet handing things down to us and some of the ladies taking grandmas' stuff to the wood pile. I cried in tears to watch Grandma's face. The leather packed barn's smelled so good, but they too were cleaned out. The inner fields were packed with anything automotive from as far back as the early 20's. My brother and I played on each and every one of them pretending to be grown ups living in Paris.
Those were the days. I will continue to write the memories as they surface. Enjoy!
Chimney Rock National Historic Site – Bayard, Nebraska
