Hey Good Lookin'. . .

Alrighty then. Since this blog is about home cooking, comfort food, stories and just sharing everyday life out on the porch, I figure I should get started with some type of recipe and a story. When I was in junior highschool, Lincoln Junior Highschool, in Indiana, one evening while I was in the back bedroom, Poppy called out from the front room, "Mommies in the kitchen and you better get in there so you can learn how to cook!" To which I replied, "I'm back here sewing!" I will never forget his reply, "That's nice Dumplin', but I can't EAT clothes!" Poppy was the best Daddy! He was truly thankful for each mouthful of food and did not hesitate to praise you for you efforts! I mean, ever. No matter how the food turned out, he ate it and he was genuinely greatful, from the heart. Your best Sunday manners or the best acting cannot compare to truly genuine heartfelt gratitude. Poppy even noticed if you dusted and told you how pretty the house looked. Now wouldn't you just make that man anything he wanted to eat! Well, Mommie did. Afterall, I was in the back bedroom sewing! Let's start with Poppy's favourite...


BUTTERSCOTCH PIE!

3/4 c brown sugar
5 T flour
1/2 t salt
2 c milk
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten in a small bowl
2 T butter
1 t vanilla

1 9" prebaked pieshell

Combine sugar, flour, and salt into a double boiler, stir in the milk slowly. Cook over boiling water until thickened, stirring until your arm nearly falls off. ** Be sure to go to the ladies room before you begin stirring! Cover and cook 10 minutes longer, stirring occasionally. Honestly what does occasionally mean after you just stood stirring all that time before...I don't know about you but I wouldn't walk away from this pan farther than an arms length after all that stirring to get it to thicken! Stirring vigorosly, add a small amount of the hot mixture to the lightly beaten eggs yolks in the small bowl to temper them. (You don't want to end up with scrambled eggs!) Add the egg mixture back to the pot and cook 1 minute longer. Add butter and vanilla and COOL.
Pour the butterscotch filling into the PREBAKED pie shell and cover with meringue or whipped cream.

Mmm! Tastes just like Poppy's gonna give me one of his big ole' bear hugs! And he always did!

**See why it pays to read a recipe ALL the way through before you begin to cook?! And you thought it was just to make sure you had all the ingredients and equipment. Wink.

A Banner Day Indeed

Today is a banner day! Not only did I finally begin my blog today but I found out that my daughter Malia called her brother Matthew yesterday and told him that she and her husband David are expecting a baby in April! While Matt was relating this happy news to me he also told me that he and his new wife Angela are also expecting in May! Wow! I could not be happier!
I had best get some of Matthew and Malia's favorite recipes as kids on this blog, as Hoosier Hospitality is meant to be a cooking blog! Matthew and Malia were born in Honolulu so some of their favorites will definitely be 'local foods' from Hawaii. Lots and lots of love to you my Babies who are having babies of their own! Mommie loves you whole muches! And, to my new Granbabies...Grammimi loves you! You are so loved and you are so wanted and you are just perfect already!

First Blog, POST! (a little military humor)

Good Morning Viet.......Nam!!!
I just couldn't resist. I am a Vietnam Era Vet and I am married to a Vietnam Vet as well. We met in the Navy in 1974 and after the Fall of Saigon we went our seperate ways. Long story short, we were reunited after he found me on classmates.com and called, 34 years later! We were married 35 years to the weekend, that he left for Vietnam in 1975! We were both Dental Technicians (who subsequently serve as medics/corpsman in time of war) and served together in San Diego. Robb has a lovely daughter, Jennifer and four grandchildren,
Cheyenne, Maddie, Dalton, and Miss Jade! I have a wonderful daughter, Malia (and her husband David, my son-in-love) and a terrific son, Matthew (and his new wife Angela, my daughter-in-love). Matthew and Angela have a great daughter Lexie who is fifteen! Robb and I lost a beloved son at birth in 1975, after whom the book I wrote in 1999 is named, HIS NAME IS ROBBIE. I wrote this book after going to Vietnam on a humanitarian/medical mission with an incredible group, VETS WITH A MISSION, after reading about them in Oliver Norths Return to Vietnam. Vets with a Mission is a group of Vietnam Vets that travel back to Vietnam and build clinics and treat patients and do their best to make a better way of life for the people they endeavored to help so many years ago and with whom they share a common suffering, in an effort to bring reconciliation. When I went, I experienced an enormous amount of healing and the journal entries I made on China Beach became a book! I thought that His Name Is Robbie, was the end of the story...until Robb and I were reunited! So, now the story continues and the sequel is yet to be written! Thanks be to God Who loves us so much more than we can ever ask, think, or imagine and loves to give us good gifts. To God be the Glory! Let's Eat! -tinamarie