Down Home Cooking

Let me start off by saying that my Grandma is amazing. She's like some kind of homestyle cooking genius! Her soups are incredible (always) and I still crave her chicken-fried steak (even though it's been about 10 years since I've had it), cornbread, shepherd's pie, pork chops smothered in her own BBQ sauce, fresh green bean sauté, etc. Everything she makes is yummy. When we were remodeling our kitchen, she took pity on us and made us 2-3 meals a week, sometimes more! We're spoiled, I know. It's the very best having her & Grandpa living only 4 blocks away now. We take evening strolls over with the kids quite often, we get to see them at church every Sunday, and I steal eggs from them all the time...

(Evelyn Alice circa ~1955)
She used to invite me for nights over at her house when I was little. These were just the best times EVER. Having three younger siblings at home, I reveled in the quiet, orderly atmosphere of Grandma's house. She would let me help her cook things (like cake), feed me lots of toast and jam, and even showed me how to wash my face and feet before slipping into the fresh, cool feeling of cotton sheets that smelled like Grandma's house. She would tell me about growing up on the farm in West Virginia during the depression, about her Grandfather Frantz (the local Baptist preacher),

(Great-great grandparents, Abraham and Lovey Frantz)
how her brothers used to call her Bobbie to tease her about a boy that liked her and it stuck- forever,

(Jason & Gaylord, two of her brothers)
about the mortician she was engaged to before breaking it off and moving to California,

(Grandma in Cali)
about her father who was a carpenter in the winter, a farmer in the summer, smoked a pipe, and played fiddle for them at night,

(Great-Grandpa Noah Early Hylton Frantz, Harold, Gaylord)
her quiet mother who taught her how to cook,

(Great-Grandma Elfie)
catching fireflies in a jar, and drowning an ornery chicken (but that's a story for another time).

(Grandma on the right)
When she was still very young (8, maybe?), it was her responsibility to cook lunch for the rest of the family who were working in the fields. I think that is why she's such an amazing cook!

(Grandma, two brothers, and a friend- look at those bare feet!)
So, last night, I was having a craving for meatloaf and the ones I've tried in the past have been ho-hum. As I often do when in a cooking quandary, I called Grandma. I made her Meatloaf last night and we scarfed it down so fast, I don't even have a picture! But, then, do you really need one? So in honor of my angel Grandmother, who never refuses to share a recipe:

Bobbie's Meatloaf

1 1/2 lb hamburger
1/2 lb country sage sausage (from New Seasons)*
1 medium sweet onion, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic minced (or some garlic powder)
2 eggs
2 C rolled oats
3/4 C Ketchup, Heinz Chili sauce, tomato sauce (whatever you have)*
3 T Worcestershire sauce
1t dry mustard
salt/pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in large bowl. Now, Grandma shapes hers into a loaf by hand and places it on a broiling pan to allow the fat to drain away. I don't have one of those, so I used a silicone bundt mold and tipped the fat out after about 3/4 of the cooking time. You could also use muffin cups to make individual ones, or just a regular bread pan. Spread a little of the ketchup over the top. Cook in a 400° oven for about an hour (more or less, until done). Turn oven down to 350° if it starts to get too brown.

**Note: I didn't have any sausage, so I used 2 lbs of hamburger and added about 2T of dried sage leaf. I also just used ketchup, but added about 1T of Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. It was still awesome.

A Dam Fish Tale

Doug is not a dam fisherman, he's not even a lake fisherman. He will be the first to tell you he thinks it is one of the most boring things you can do (this from the man who can watch golf all day long). It really is a strange thing for me who grew up in a house where Dad would take us fishing most Saturday mornings; we camped all summer long, fishing, and we always seemed to have canned salmon or smoked fish around (which we kids ate like candy).
Anyway, our kids hadn't been exposed to fishing yet so when the Rowes invited us to go with them on Saturday to Bonneville Dam for the free fishing clinic they were hosting for kids, I persuaded Doug it would be fun. Saturday morning, bright and early, we headed out to the gorge. We arrived a mere half hour after they opened, hoping to get there before most people were up and before it got too hot. Apparently everyone else had the same idea because a dam attendant was turning people away at the gate, saying they were full and recommending us to come back in an hour.

We drove to Multnomah falls to kill some time hiking and I almost wished we could have stayed for the whole hike, it was so gorgeous!












The kids were reluctant to leave too and we had to entice them with promises of dam fishing to get them back in the car.
Luckily, the dam crowds had thinned enough to park at the Hatchery and we registered the kids for their dam fishing "passports" which required stamps at various dam stations before they would let them fish. They learned about keeping the rivers clean from garbage, how to cast, how to wear a life jacket, and about various kinds of dam fish.

We even saw a very large sturgeon through the underwater viewing aquarium. Finally, after waiting at least half an hour in a dam line for the last dam station, the kids were able to fish.
Evie was allowed to try her hand at fishing in a large tub stocked full of fish. They had a 20 minute time limit and, surprisingly, she caught nothing. Sterling (because he was in an older age group) had to wait about an hour in one of the several long lines formed at the bank of the dam creek. He also had a 20 minute time limit or a two fish limit, whichever came first. He was lucky enough to get a spot near the shade of a large tree where all the dam fish seemed to be congregated. He caught his first one within 5 minutes (10.5") and then the second within another 5 minutes (9.5"). He did get a little impatient waiting for the dam fish to bite, despite the instant gratification of fishing in a stocked creek, but was thrilled by actually catching something.




They packed his dam fish on ice, gave him a dam certificate, and all of us free pop and chips and we made the long drive home. The two youngest fell asleep before we even left the dam parking lot! (No, the dam jokes don't get old for me.)


I'm ashamed to admit I almost couldn't bring myself to gut and clean the dam fish. It's been too long and I've gone soft... But here they are frying in Bacon grease, lemon-pepper and garlic. Mmmmm..... The kids loved it!

An Oldie

Circa July 2006, the Rowes, the Churches, and the Wheelers

These people come up in conversation occasionally and new people often wonder just who these Wheelers are. We had one of these moments last night at girls' night and as I was browsing through my photos I came upon this old picture of all of us- our last group picture, as a matter of fact, because they had already moved away.
It just brings up good old times of no kids, watching episode after episode of Alias until all hours, eating out (again, sans kids!), birthdays, Beach trips, Thanksgiving, corn maizes, game nights, camping, etc. We were the inseparable sextuplets for a long time and we still miss "these people."