Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind the source for blindness news and information since 1907

I have always been amazed at the resilience of animals when it comes to getting themselves into horrible situations and still managing to survive.  I have had many pets in my life, ranging from the ordinary dogs, cats and birds, to the unusual such as turtles, tree crabs, bull frogs and a river eel.  Of all of my pets there was one who managed to get himself into so much trouble that we had to call the local fire department to assist us in his near impossible rescue.

This particular pet was a ninety-pound Dalmatian named Chief and he was always a handful.  Chief only liked a few people and if you were unlucky enough to not be one of his chosen few, then you learned to call ahead before dropping by to be sure Chief wasn’t loose on the farm.  If Chief liked you, then you were his best buddy for life yet on the other hand, if he didn’t like you, then you kept a healthy distance between him and your vital parts.

Chief just adored my dad and always wanted to be outside with him when he went to the barn to feed up the horses.  He had the full run of the shed yard and was truly content running from the large shed to the barn, always keeping dad in sight.  While doing this, Chief also kept a close eye on the numerous barn cats that were fed in the barn.  To him, the cats either should be in the shed or the barn and not in-between and he made it his mission to keep them in either building while he was out with Dad.

Inky, one of our smaller black and white female cats, wasn’t close enough to the barn when Chief started his cat patrol.  Dad couldn’t believe the horrible scene that suddenly played out right in front of him in slow motion.  Chief saw Inky.  Inky then saw Chief.  Inky bolted across the far side of the shed yard through some brambles and up a tree.  Chief was right behind Inky, but little did he know the brambles hid an old dry well.  Needless to say, when Inky went up the tree, Chief went down the well.

When Dad came back inside and told us there was a problem, I surely didn’t think in my wildest nightmares that Chief had fallen down a thirty-five foot dry well.  I just knew he had to be dead, falling that great a distance.  Imagine my shock when he also said that Chief was still alive.  Chief had to be badly injured, possibly a broken leg or serious back injuries, I thought.  Maybe it would have been better if he had ended his life quickly at the bottom of the well.

We all ran to the well and Dad and Matt carefully cleared away the brambles and rotted boards that had hidden the well for years.  I could hear Chief barking and wining from a long distance away.  He sounded so frantic; it broke my heart just to hear him.  How on God’s green Earth were we going to get my baby out of that well?  I wasn’t sure if even a miracle could be hoped for, but thank God for Blackcreek Volunteer Fire Department!

My dad, Luther Peace, had been a member of the Blackcreek Volunteer Fire Department for as far back as I can remember.  We use to joke and Mom would fuss that the fire department was like a second home and a second family to him.  Actually, I grew up with so many of them, knowing that there were fathers, sons, daughters and even a few grandchildren who have made their way through the years as volunteers.  I can say without hesitation that our community could not be more proud of a finer group of men and women.

Dad’s first call was to his guys at Company 12.  Of course, they left their dinner on the table and came right away.  The firemen had the call broadcast as a Public Assist so the situation wouldn’t bring a bunch of on-lookers which could only cause more problems.  Once they arrived and assessed the situation, they straight away ruled out using a ladder of any sort.  The well was just too narrow to allow someone to go down and bring up a ninety-pound dog up with them.  They even considered lowering his kennel cage, but it wouldn’t fit.  We tried using a smaller cage, which actually did fit, but once we tempted Chief in the cage by dropping a hotdog down into it, his front half went, but his back end was not going in without a boost.

Running out of options quickly, they decided on trying to lower a noose and slip it over his head.  My Uncle Dee helped me get closer to the well’s edge as he dared, but he kept a tight grip on the back of my pants.  He didn’t want me to tumble down as well and I didn’t think I would fare as well as Chief.  My calling him would bring him to the center of the well, but as soon as the loop came close he would just duck back under the dug out edges.  Looking back, it was probably a good thing that they never managed to get it over his head.  Chief was far too heavy and due to the distance, the loop would have either choked him to death or broken his neck.  Dad told everyone they needed to take a brake and he told the volunteers to go back and finish their dinner and come back in an hour.

I didn’t want to leave him there all alone, but Matt insisted I needed to take a brake and get a cup of coffee with him.  He wanted to tell me their last resort plan.  Once he told me, I decided I wouldn’t go back out there in case something went wrong.  They were going to lower someone down the well and rig a rope harness around Chief and then haul them both back up.  I really didn’t like this plan because that someone would have to be Matt.  My husband would have to be the one lowered down into that very deep well.  There was no way anyone else could do it, because it would have been like lowering meat down to a very hungry shark.

When everyone returned to finish the job and rescue Chief, I gave Matt a hug and told him to be careful.  The firemen rigged a tripod and attached a block and tackle, which would allow Matt to be lowered straight down directly over the opening.  Matt’s harness was checked and rechecked and his line was attached in the back and down they lowered him to the bottom of the well.  As soon as Chief recognized who Matt was, he jumped up and licked his face and barked as much   to say, “What took you so long!”  Matt was able to secure Chief’s rope and then lift him up into his arms for the quick return trip.  As soon as Matt and Chief cleared the edge of the well, everyone that was not attached to the hauling ropes, scattered like the barn cats.  They were not going to take any chances on Chief wanting to thank them personally.

One of the firemen removed Matt’s harness while he quickly removed Chief’s ropes.  I don’t know who took off for the house first, but Matt never let go of Chief’s collar until they were safely inside the house.  Chief ran straight for his large kennel cage and flattened himself onto his own blankets.  I couldn’t say for sure, but I think Chief was thinking that if he never saw another cat ever again, he would be a happy dog.  I sat on the floor in front of his open cage and gave him some cold water.  The well was full of red clay dust and so Chief was no longer black and white, he was dusty red and black.  When he calmed down, I went all over him and found nothing but several scratches and a cut across his forehead that hardly bled a drop.  Safe, I couldn’t believe he was really laying here in front of me and not dead at the bottom of the well.  Dad was so proud of them all that night.  Thank God for Matt and the men and women of Blackcreek Volunteer Fire Department, I guess they gave me my miracle after all.

Memorial Day means different things to different people.  Some like the fact that they get a day off from either work or school, while others are content for just another reason to cook out and picnic in their local park.  Still others look forward to a weekend full of old war movies.  Finally there are those who use the day to remember friends and family that have died in the service of their country.  For me, however, it still has a different meaning; I am a military spouse, married to a Navy sailor, now retired.  

Becoming a Navy wife was not something I was going to take lightly, especially being totally blind and not knowing what Matt’s job actually consisted of.  For Matt’s part, he had never been exposed to anyone who was blind and he had his own set of misgivings on life when he would have to leave me alone for six months at a time while he was out to sea.  Questions needed to be asked and answers needed to be openly and honestly answered.

Matt and I both lived in Virginia Beach and shortly after we were introduced by mutual friends, another Navy couple, I felt we had known each other all our lives.  Me being blind was never an issue with him; it was just another point that made me who I was.  We had so much in common, love of our faith, importance of family and friends, simple country living and a wonderful passion for reading and discovering new things.  Simply put, we belonged together and we wanted this relationship to work.

For days and months, Matt and I talked and drank way too many pots of coffee, discussing just what it meant to be a Navy sailor and what I could expect being a Navy wife.  I had no experience except what I had learned from a friend who was also married to another sailor.  This was something I would have to learn as I went along and gained my own experience.

Matt’s Navy career started right out of high school in Las Vegas, Nevada.  His first deployment was on the U.S.S. Inchon bound for Beirut and it was there that he earned his Veteran status.  He then was trained as a mechanic for P3 and A7 jet planes, and was deployed to places like Japan, the Philippines, Diego Garcia and Saudi Arabia.  When Matt transferred to NAS Oceana, he was assigned to a helicopter squadron.  He was an AD1 First Class Maintenance Supervisor training to work on the H46 helicopters and that was when we met.

Matt’s work schedule was mostly nights, but was shifted back to days every four months and then to nights once more.  I was also going to have to get use to his hours changing at any moment and learn to deal with plans being changed because he had to work on his days off.  In other words, never write plans in ink, trust me, they would be changing more often than not.

Once we were married and I was officially a Navy wife, life settled down into a normal routine.  I worked four days a week with the Virginia Beach Police Department, Special Operations, as a clerk typist/receptionist.  I answered the main phones, transcribed fatality interviews for case files and court and worked the front counter.  I used the local paratransit system to work and Matt would take me once in a while when he was off.  We took every opportunity available to go on base and show me what he worked on.  I even was allowed to explore all around a H46 helicopter; it was a dirty job, but someone had to do it.  I’ve always been a hands on kind of person.

When his next deployment was set and the departure date announced for the U.S.S. Guadalcanal, it was time to get me set up for living alone for six months.  We maintained separate checking accounts, although I had access to both through a joint savings account.  Matt and I shared bills and he always made sure I knew all monies coming in and every bill going out because I would be handling everything when he was out to sea.  All bills that came out of Matt’s account and had a fixed amount were written out, put in envelopes ready to be mailed each month.  For those that would have a different amount, my helper filled in the amounts as we wrote the bills.  I also had a credit card for emergencies.

Teresa was my helper, my best friend who also worked with me.  She would read mail, helped me write out bills and also read my letters from Matt.  She always said she enjoyed paying my bills because it gave her a chance to spend someone else’s money for a change and not hers.  I had other friends who helped me go shopping and tend to any maintenance that came up with our townhouse.  Our neighbors always kept an eye on my comings and goings and they were always alert to vehicles that didn’t belong in my driveway.

Needless to say, I survived that deployment and three more before Matt retired with twenty years in the Navy.  I can’t express just how proud I was the day he retired in 2000.  When Matt was piped down the gangway for the last time all dressed in his uniform, his left chest covered with ribbons, stars and metals denoting all of his achievements, it was no wonder I had a lump in my throat. When he escorted me to the top of the same gangway where he presented me with roses and his Commanding Officer presented me with my own certificate of good service as a Navy wife, I couldn’t suppress my tears.

I am and have always been so proud of my husband’s Navy service. I can’t understand why anyone would want to express any disrespect to the men and women who face such inexpressible trials in service of not only their country, but also family and strangers whom they leave behind.  Blame the government if you don’t like the politics of war, but never those who follow orders.  I can’t thank them enough for something I could never do myself.  Thank you all for what you have done for me and the country I am proud to call my home.

Bees, bees, honey bees, that’s all I have heard for the past three weeks from my husband Matt, ever since our local bee keeper told him he was ready to transfer a hive of honey bees for us.  When planning out our gardens here at Dogwood Farm, there was more to consider than mere location, soil, water, plant varieties, and what we wanted to do when harvesting each garden.

Pollination is something a lot of gardeners take for granted and assume nature takes care of that for them.  Yes, that’s true, but sometimes nature needs a bit of a boost in the pollination department.  That is where nature’s most diligent workers come into your garden and stir up the flowers.

Honey bees are quite amazing little workers and truly do not get the credit they deserve.  Did you know that out of all the eggs the queen lays, they produce one of three different kinds of bees and each kind has a specific job assigned to them?  That’s right, and all that work and they only live for forty-five to forty-seven days.

The hive is constantly alive with activity, slowing down at night, but never stopping.  They continually feed the newly formed larvae along with every single bee in the entire hive.  The bees also have to keep the hive at just the right humidity and temperature levels to protect their young and to produce loads of honey.  If all of that wasn’t enough, they also have to protect the hive from robber bees wanting to take their food source to larger hornets and skunks who want to feed on their larvae and their honey.

You will find three kinds of bees in a hive, a single queen, drones, and workers.  The queen lays the eggs of course, and the drones, the only male bees, service the queen before she starts laying again.  The worker bees are all females and they tend to the young, keep the hive in order, gather nectar and make the honey.  All of this activity centers on their queen, because without her, they would have no direction and would have no means to replenish their numbers and would soon die off.

New queens are formed when the hive feels a new queen is needed, as when the hive gets real crowded or something happens to their existing queen.  The workers will feed a substance called royal jelly to a single larvae and the female bee that hatches is a new queen.  Usually, the older queen decides to look for more spacious quarters and she gathers about two thirds of the hive’s bees and they swarm to a near by sheltered location.  The queen will send out scouts to look for a place to set up a new hive and start building the hive system all over again.  This is what keeps a bee keeper busy, collecting the queen and her swarm to put in a new hive to work for the bee keeper making honey and pollinating his and neighbor’s gardens.

 I was quite excited once Matt brought our hive home and gotten it settled on the far side of one of our vegetable gardens.  He had already taken the time to show me what the brooder box and frames looked like before they were to be filled with the bees.  I knew I would not have direct contact with the hives after the bees arrived, but I wanted to be involved with helping Matt wherever I could.  I was more than willing to let Matt wear the bee suit and get up close and personal with his bees.  I’d rather wait for him on the opposite side of the garden for him to bring me the honey filled frames.

The brooder box is filled with ten frames and that is where the queen lays her eggs and the new bees are raised.  Honey is also produced there in order to feed the queen and young bees.  A frame is a square wooden frame that holds a fine woven set of wires that support a very thin sheet of bee’s wax.  The bees use the frames to build up their honey comb ready for the queen’s eggs or honey storage.  You only want the queen to stay in the brooder and not venture up into the supers.

The super is a box filled with frames just like the brooder, however, it is for honey production only.  These frames are the ones removed for honey extraction and then replaced to be filled once again with honey by the bees.  The super sits directly on top of the brooder with an opening between the two.  Covering this opening is a queen guard, which makes the opening small enough for only the workers to pass through and not the queen.  You can have several super boxes sitting on top of your brooder.  There is also an additional empty super box that is placed between the brooder box and your supers filled with frames.  This empty space is used to house feeders for the bees.  A sugar water solution and water is provided when the bees either can’t find enough nectar in non-blooming periods or when weather is too rough to go flying.

I know this is going to be a learning experience for the both of us, but that’s what will make it all the more interesting.  Something we can do together, researching and development is only half the fun.  Collecting the honey and bees wax and enjoying the sweet goodness is quite the rest of it. I’ve already been flipping through our cookbooks with Matt picking out recipes to try and a new batch of honey wine is always welcome.

I am an avid reader and thankfully so is my husband.  Both of us love to listen to audio books together and on our own.  Here on the farm we have an extensive library that includes print, audio and a few books in Braille.  Our audio collection has really been growing lately, seconded only by our cookbook collection.  So, it is a rare treat when we find an audio fiction book that also includes recipes as well, two passions in one.

One of our favorite authors is Diane Mott Davidson, who writes murder mysteries. Believe it or not, since her character’s background is a caterer, Goldy Schulz cooks her way through each book while solving a murder mystery or two that always seems to just fall in her lap.  Davidson has written fifteen books for her Goldy Schulz series, all with food titles.  Some of our favorites are, “Dying for Chocolate”, “Killer Pancake”, and “Dark Tort”. The print books always supply the featured recipes at the end; however, the audio books seldom if ever include the recipes.

Goldy Schulz is a humorous, down to earth person, who happens to be a mother to a teen age son Archie, a perfect match for her Sheriff Investigator husband Tom, and a passionate caterer who of course, loves to cook.  Unfortunately, everyday living and catering does not run smoothly when Goldy too often finds herself up to her baking pans in murder and mayhem.  Even Tom can’t figure how she can get in so much trouble.  All of her misadventures take place in Aspen Meadows, Colorado, up in the mountains about an hour outside Boulder, a beautiful background for all of her mysteries.

I had just finished “Sweet Revenge,” Davidson’s fourteenth book, and much to my surprise, there at the end of the book were the recipes being read by the narrator.  Harper Audio produced this audio version and Barbara Rosenblat was the narrator.  I wasted no time in selecting two of her recipes to try for next week’s menu.

The first was called “Unorthodox shepherd’s Pie” and the second was “Stylish Strawberry Salad”.  The shepherd’s pie was a dish Goldy had to throw together because her Episcopal Parish priest, Father Pete, was coming over to discuss a parish member who was on Goldy’s suspect list.  Since Goldy wanted to coax a bit more information from Father Pete, she came up with the name for this great sounding comfort food.

Planning these dishes for next week, I had plenty of time to assemble ingredients and set aside time for the cooking.  I would start browning the lean ground beef with the onions and celery in the early afternoon.  Then comes the flour, mixing until bubbling and slowly add the chicken stock until everything is combined.  The seasonings are thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper.  Once this has thickened, I’ll stir in the peas and corn, then set the meat filling aside.

Now, here is where you can either do the long method and fix your mashed potatoes from scratch, or use two tubs of the “Country Crock” potatoes instead.  I think I’m going to try the mashed potatoes from scratch.  Now would be the time to assemble the pie.  The recipe calls for two nine-inch deep-dish pie pans, but I will use an oval French white dish that should hold everything.  You will need to pour the meat filling in first, then spoon the mashed potatoes on top, sprinkle with cheese and then top with paprika.  This pie will bake for forty-five minutes or so, until brown.  This will feed twelve people, but Matt and I really enjoy our leftovers, so we can get a few more meals and send some home with my sister as well.

While that is baking nicely on its own, I’ll get Matt to help with the “Stylish Strawberry Salad”.  Goldy fixed this salad for the Aspen Meadows Garden Club Christmas luncheon.  The club was patting themselves on the back for a job well done in replanting trees in the Aspen Meadows Wildlife Preserve.  There had been a wildfire that destroyed over ten thousand acres, in which Goldy found herself chasing a suspect through in a previous book.

The salad consists of baby romaine lettuce, sliced strawberries and 2 sliced avocados, all topped with a sweet sherry vinaigrette.  Matt always handles the avocados; I have never been one to fight with their stubborn pit.  Matt can easily remove the pit and produce thin slices of this buttery, yummy avocado that we enjoy whenever we find them in the grocery store.  You cannot slice the avocados too far in advance because their tender flesh darkens quickly.

Knowing how much we have enjoyed Davidson’s stories, we are seeking more of her book’s recipes.  We have already tried an asparagus and Swiss cheese quiche that I was able to figure out just from the discussion of the recipe in the book.  That is one of our favorite quiche combinations and we often fix it on Fridays.  We are eagerly going to look for her latest book, “Fatally Flaky” and wonder what trouble Goldy is going to get herself into this time.  Hmm, can you imagine what recipes she’ll cook up as well?

Everyone likes to say that April showers bring May flowers.  However, I beg to differ.  The showers can’t bring flowers until someone plants them first and that is exactly what we have been doing here at Dogwood Farm. 

Matt, my husband, is a gardener by nature, but lately he has formed a passion for flowering plants.  I attribute this to the fact that he is also planning on putting in at least two bee hives by next spring and he wants to make the surrounding property is filled with plants and flowers to suit the honey bees.  So, okay, well the more flowers the merrier, right?  That was until he had made several trips to our local grocery store where they had flower bulbs on sale and he started flipping through several gardening catalogs with a pad and pen balanced on his knees.  I was in serious trouble.  That is when our gardening tasks were split into three categories: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.  

Yesterday:

The first arm load of flower bulbs that made it home from the grocery store were already ear marked for our Trinity or Mary’s Garden.  This garden is located directly across the yard facing the front of our log cabin.  Unfortunately, it was showing a bit of neglect and right away we had to hand cultivate around the existing shrubs, roses, and two garden statues, Mother Mary and St. Francis.  I worked with a three pronged hand-cultivator while Matt had the prickly task of chopping through some wild blackberry brambles that seem to encroach everywhere there is a bit of turned up soil. 

A couple of hours later and after Matt attended to several bramble scratches, we then laid out the boxes of bulbs and quickly decided where everything should be planted.  I thought the eight mixed assortment of gladiolus would be nice planted in a semi-circle around the Mother Mary statue and their colorful flowers of orange, red, white, and pink would show off brightly against the pale marble.  Next came two white Star of Bethlehem bulbs planted on either side of the St. Francis statue and then two pink spider lilies tucked in at the base of a shepherd’s crook where I had a pair of wind chimes hanging, waiting for the breezes of spring and summer. Last but not least, there followed one purple Siberian Iris, one crimson red Dahlia, and one orange Canna Lily, which Matt planted fanned out in an open area between the roses and Crepe Myrtle bushes. 

One thing to always remember before planting, especially flower bulbs, is to read planting instructions.  Prepping the soil and planting the bulbs at the proper depth is vital for that bulb to sprout and produce their wonderful fragrant blooms.  Be sure to also water the bulbs right after they are planted and keep them mulched to help not only maintain their moisture, but to help keep the weeds from taking over your freshly planted area.  Also be sure to mark each spot where a bulb has been planted either with a dowel stick or a ceramic marker found at most of your gardening stores.  This will let you know where the bulb is after the plant has died back in the fall.  You don’t want to plant something over it or cultivate two deeply and root your bulb out of the soil. 

Now that all of this was accomplished last week, we were able to move to the next category. 

Today:

With one set of bulbs already in the ground and several of the Gladiolus already sprouting in the Mary Garden, we were ready for the next plantings first thing today.  Matt would cut the grass as he went along because cutting the entire lawn and surrounding garden areas would just about take him all day and he would be in no mood to finish up the planting with me.  While I would be enjoying breakfast with my sister Pattie and one of our cousins Glenda, a treat we seldom took the time for, Matt would get started on tilling up the area for his two bundles of asparagus crowns.  He would then plant them and set up some hoop fencing to keep the deer away from the tender asparagus shoots.  The deer will eat them down to the ground, and though I don’t mind sharing every now and then, I have a feeling that asparagus shoots would be like potato chips to us; can’t just eat one! 

Now that I have the second set of bulbs from the grocery store in hand, Pattie and I will plant twenty mixed Windflowers in white, blue, and pink along with eight yellow and orange Columbines tucked amongst some of the Mary Garden’s shrubs.  Pattie suggested we plant the two pink Bleeding Hearts in front of a small grove of Paper Bark Birch trees so they will not only be sheltered in partial shade, they will also be visible from our front porch. 

When this is finished up by late afternoon, then comes the planning stage for the last category, Tomorrow.  I have a sneaky feeling that this will only lead to the categories being started all over again. 

Tomorrow:

After Matt finally set aside the gardening catalogs, we had a rather interesting order list from three different gardening and bulb companies. Then we took a walk around the property and decided where we both wanted everything to be planted once it arrived at our cabin door. 

Creeping Sedum in reds and golds would be planted as a ground cover in the very front edges of the Mary garden and would act as another weed barrier.  Matt picked out two white Dwarf Dogwoods to be planted on either side of our Dogwood Farm sign down at the mailboxes.  Matt and I paced out the location of a dividing fence that would split my chicken coop area from the larger cultivated rows.  These rows were ear marked for the asparagus crowns, and several rows of Muscadine grapes.  Planted on the front side of the fence would be three Chinese Wisteria, allowing their drooping vines of light purple flowers to drape along the fence while I plant sunflowers behind the fence for extra feed stock for my three flocks of chickens. 

Matt also ordered fifty, yes, I said fifty, more assorted flower bulbs which will add a white Stargazer Lily, purple Blazing Stars, white Peacock Orchids, mixed Freesias, Windflowers and even more Gladiolus to the ever growing bulbs.  I think I’m going to need reinforcements for manual labor. 

If all of that wasn’t enough to keep us busy for days, there is also coming three Paw Paw fruit trees, which we will continue down from the line after the Wisteria fence.  A cocktail Hedge, consisting of a Plum Bush, an Apricot Bush, and a cherry bush that will act as a divider separating the chicken area from the patio area.  The patio is still in the planning stages, but will be completed before too long. 

Finally at the end of his order, several Hostas in assorted shades of green, yellow, and white foliage, to be planted on the shady side of the cabin.  There are also four Sub-Zero Rose bushes in beautiful colors of crimson, orange, pink and yellow.  The last plants are one of my favorite fragrant plants, Old English Lavender and I’m planning on planting them next to the western side of the cabin so they will only get the afternoon sun, just right for their extremely fragrant flowers. 

With all of that planting spinning around in my head, I made sure I had my gardening tools, cotton gloves and something to kneel on waiting for me on the front porch when I returned from breakfast.  Now, bring on the April rain.  No, wait, make that for tomorrow, for today we plant!

Hands on Living

Celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day

Cead Mile Filte–Gaelic for one hundred thousand welcomes!  Here at Dogwood Farm, March not only signals the coming of Spring, but the long awaited Saint Patrick’s Day.  Both my husband and I have mixed Irish backgrounds, not to mention his only niece, Jordan, was born on this wonderful March day as well.  Two great reasons to enjoy an Irish meal among family.  Even though Jordan lives in California and we live here in Virginia, we always send her our best wishes with a bit of the Irish luck at the end of the day.

I told Matt to flip through our extremely large cookbook collection and find a new Irish recipe or two for us to fix on Saint Patrick’s Day.  Believe it or not, he found two rather quickly, one from the Internet, Beef in Guinness and a dessert from one of our Irish cookbooks, Spiced Apple Upside-Down Cake with Whiskey Caramel Sauce. Along with that I would serve a traditional Irish dish called Colcannon, the quick version, creamy, buttery potatoes with chopped spinach.  Last but not least, there would be Guinness, a wonderful Irish beer and cold hard cider, both of which would also be used in the beef recipe.

But first things first, a check of the pantry and refrigerator, the ingredients double checked and then it was off to the grocery store we went.  Always double-check your list of ingredients before shopping so you won’t be disappointed to realize you have forgotten something very important.  Trust me, sighted husbands and sisters can quickly lose their happy cooking attitudes if they have to go back to the store for that one little missing ingredient.  Been there, done that, isn’t pretty.

Spice Apple Upside-Down Cake with Whiskey Sauce

My sister, Pattie, and I started the day off with fixing the cake because it would have to completely cool before the whiskey caramel sauce could be drizzled along the edges and across the apples on top.  The most important cooking tools for this recipe are a rubber spatula, a Pyrex 16-ounce measuring cup for melting butter and a spring form cake pan.  The rubber spatula makes it easier to evenly spread the melted butter and the dark brown sugar on the bottom of the cake pan.  Then you take the Granny smith apple slices and cover the cake pan bottom in a circular pattern.  Set the cake pan aside and mix the spice cake batter according to the package directions and pour the batter over the apples in the cake pan.  Use your rubber spatula to easily scrape the bowl of remaining batter. After wrapping foil snuggly around the bottom and sides of the spring form cake pan, I always find it easier to place the cake pan in the center of an aluminum baking sheet to make it easier to slide in a hot oven.  One hour later, it was out of the oven and in ten more minutes, inverted on my crystal cake plate, cake pan carefully removed, and my husband had to be warned to keep his hands in his pockets and don’t touch the cake!

Beef in Guinness

I decided the best way to keep Matt out of trouble would be to keep him busy in the kitchen while the cake was cooling on the dining room table.  Matt wanted to fix the Beef in Guinness, so while he prepared the meat, my sister and I chopped the carrots and onions for him.  I like to use a rocker blade for chopping vegetables.  This is a rather large knife with a wide flat blade that narrows down to a normal knife point, and also has a rounded shaped blade edge which allows the knife to rock forwards and back while you chop your vegetables.  We used a beef rump roast and Matt trimmed the fat before cutting the roast in nice bite-sized pieces.

Before the meat could be browned, Matt fried up a strip of peppercorn bacon to add seasoning while browning the beef.  The beef was then rolled in flour and seasoned with Thyme and fresh rosemary from our herb garden.  Once the meat was browned, it was removed from the pot and the onions were sautéed until translucent or wilted.  Matt was then able to add the beef back to the pot with the few remaining ingredients. Best of all, 1 cup of Guinness beer and ¼ cup of Hard cider, were the last ingredients before bringing the pot to a boil and then down to a simmer to gently bubble the beef and vegetables into a tender and delicious Irish stew.

Colcannon with Spinach

Colcannon is another traditional Irish dish that we fix quite frequently on the farm.  The potato dish is usually fixed with creamy potatoes and cabbage or kale, and we lean more towards the kale.  Unfortunately, kale wasn’t on the menu since I had some chopped spinach in the freezer just waiting to make its way onto the table, so that was the winner for the Colcannon.  I made the quick version in the microwave instead of the longer oven method that is best suited when cooking with cabbage.  Look for the containers of pre-made mashed potatoes, not instant, and either fresh or frozen greens, everything else should already be in your refrigerator.

I emptied the potatoes into a microwave safe bowl and then put the frozen spinach in a smaller bowl with a bit of water and butter.  A few minutes in the microwave and the spinach was ready to be drained and mixed with the potatoes.  For a bit of matching flavor from the stew, I crumbled the one slice of bacon in the potatoes as well. Five minutes in the microwave and the Colcannon was ready to join the Beef and Guinness on the table.

Finishing Touches

Before the table was set, it was time to make the whiskey caramel sauce for the cake.  Pattie cut a stick of butter into pieces along with a ½ cup of dark brown sugar into the Pyrex measuring cup so the sauce could be microwaved slowly into a pourable rich consistency.  Then, saints preserve us, came the ¼ cup of Bush mills Irish Whiskey, stirring constantly to blend the flavors together.  Once the sauce was poured over the apple upside-down spice cake, we were more than ready to start celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day.

After our bellies were full of beef and potatoes, we couldn’t help but laugh at Matt eyeing the apple spice upside-down cake with the whiskey caramel sauce pooling along the edge of the cake plate.  We cleared the supper dishes and smaller plates were passed out, waiting for Matt to slice the closing dish of the meal.  My fork couldn’t wait to dig into all that yummy goodness.  We were not disappointed, it was wonderful and before Matt was done with his second piece or three, a third of the cake was gone.

Looking back over the day when all was quiet once again at the table, I was glad to have had the time to spend with my family doing what we so love to do, cooking, laughing, eating, and most of all, counting our blessings at the end of the day.  So I’ll close this writing with a verse from one of my favorite Irish songs sung by Robin Rich, “The Parting Glass”.

So fill to me a parting glass, good night and joy to all of you.

Hello everyone, my name is Susan Roe and I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself before submitting my first article for this wonderful magazine.  I am 47 years old and I have been blind for nearly 32 years.  My blindness was caused by deturerating and detached retinas, which after numerous operations just wouldn’t stay attached.  After ten months of home schooling, I was eager to return to high school along with the rest of my friends and cousins.

My blindness has most certainly not slowed me down nor hampered me in setting and achieving a few pretty good life goals.  I received training for a dog guide from the Seeing Eye in New Jersey right out of high school, just before I moved into my first apartment and started classes at the local community college.  I was so excited to be the first in my family to attend college and receive an Associates Degree in Business Management from J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College.  The process was challenging and I can admit that walking to school in all sorts of weather almost kept me home from classes, but my dog Posie and I were never late to class.

I later moved from Richmond, Virginia to Virginia Beach and found a part-time job with the Virginia Beach Police Department, Special Operations, where my duties were answering phones, transcribing auto fatality and boating fatality reports, interviews and recorded transcripts for the Hostage Negotiators.  I worked for the police department for 17 years and moved back to our family farm with my husband after he retired twenty years with the Navy.

I currently work from home, a wonderful log cabin, managing Dogwood Farm and my growing farm fresh egg business.  I am active in our NFB of Virginia Richmond local chapter.  I also make hand knitted and crocheted items for the Webb of Hope, a charity directed through the Red Cross.  Best of all, I wrap the wonderful aspects of life into one glorious package I like to call “Hands on Living.”  This concept is what I would like to share with the Matilda Ziegler Magazine readers.  There are tips, tricks, and techniques in everyday living and no matter what’s happening here on the farm, we always seem to end up in the kitchen, around the table and sharing our day with each other and that is what I’m hoping to do with you as well.