Nancy’s Kitchen

I think I found this in a magazine when my kids were very young.

1. Learn more about foods so that I can fill my family’s nutritional needs at a reasonable cost.
2. Study economical cooking tricks.
3. Take time to get acquainted with normal prices, & with more than one store, so that I recognize a bargain when I see one.
4. Study the food ads for special buys and seasonal bargains before I go shopping.
5. Have a complete shopping list, but keep it flexible to allow for “finds”.
6. Do not buy - often anyway - on impulse.
7. Look for weight & contents.
8. Learn how many mouths I can feed from a given amount of the different foods in their different forms, & don’t try to figure cost per serving.
9. Try to avoid wasted left-overs and buy in quantity ONLY when I have safe, adequate storage space.
10. Keep a doubtful eye on tricky sales gimmicks and avoid merchandisers who mislead me.
11. Buy for value - not for premium offers or contest entry blanks.
12. Don’t be taken in by gadgetry or fancy packaging or flamboyant advertising.
13. Weigh the value of convenience to me versus its cost.
14. Once in a while throw caution to the wind and say “to heck with the budget!” BUT ONLY ONCE IN A WHILE!! - and NOT when the ad-man says it, but when YOU say it.

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Back in college, our friends Ed & Cle Dunstan invited us over for dinner. Cle made fried apples, and they were SOOO GOOD!!! I got her recipe (which I couldn’t find tonight). I don’t measure the ingredients, just sort of play it by taste! Here’s how I make them now. I use Macintosh or Rome apples. A tarter apple makes a better dish with lots of good apple flavor!

Melt a little butter in a cast iron (or other heavy-metal) skillet. Melt in brown sugar, cinnamon, and a bit of nutmeg. Add enough water to cover the bottom of the skillet. Add cored, sliced apples (skins or not, your preference, but leaving skins on gives a nice pink color to it) Stir to get the butter/sugar mix in contact with all the apples. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until apples are tender. Serve warm with dinner. Left-overs can be refrigerated and served warmed or cold.

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I had been to a prayer meeting and got out late. In fact, it was 11:00pm when I arrived at our neighborhood drug store where I needed to pick up some medications for Richard. As I got out of my car, I noticed a very tall man approaching. Keeping a distance, he asked if he might talk to me. I felt the Lord’s Peace, so I said yes. He told me he was homeless, had had a nervous breakdown, and wondered if I might have some change I could give him, even just 50¢. At the time, my mind did it’s forgetting thing and I thought I had no money on me at all. I was going to have to use my credit card to buy the medications. So I told him that, and asked if I could pray for him. He said yes, so I asked if he knew the Lord Jesus. He again said yes, and I proceeded to pray. I asked his name, he said, “Moses.” As I prayed, I found the Lord giving me words to pray for him, that he would be the leader God made him to be, and other such things. When I finished, he thanked me, and we parted company.

When I got inside the store, I realized that I had a bunch of quarters in my console that I keep there for bridge tolls. I started to go back outside, but then stopped, and asked the Lord to let Moses still be there when I was done in the store. So I went about my business. When I left the store, I saw Moses, across the parking lot, talking to some other men. He looked up and came over to me. Then I told him of the quarters and got them for him. He thanked me, put them in his pocket, and walked away, down the street. It was as if he had been waiting for me to come out.

I thanked the Lord, and prayed. At no time did I feel any fear, but only God’s Love and Grace toward this man. Upon later reflection, I thought that although Moses was not dressed “well”, he appeared clean and well-kept, and was certainly well-mannered. I had to wonder, and I still do, who Moses was, and if I will be blessed to meet him again some day.

And this IS a true story.

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I saw a young mother in the airport restroom the other day, carrying her baby. She was short and had the physical characteristics of a woman of Central American, not latin, descent. The look on her face and the way she moved through the crowded area struck me. There were women of caucasian descent, and women of African descent there in line, but as this lady moved through, I felt sad. The thought had come to me that here is a woman of an unnoticed “minority”, and she looked so very alone and uncomfortable.

In our country, the U.S.A., we think of “minorities” generally in terms of “blacks” and “hispanics”. As a “white, middle-aged, woman”, if I were to own a company, I would be included in the category “Minorities”. In our nation, it appears to me that we need to skip the categorization and just be Americans, a people of integrity, neighborliness, and good manners. If we only followed the “Golden Rule” of “Do to others as you would like them to do to you,” or “Love your neighbor as yourself,” many of our nation’s problems would cease. Perhaps then we would truly be a nation living up to our “welcome mat” that says

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” On a Plaque on the Statue of Liberty For the complete poem see here

Nancy Ivy, October 10, 2005

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