MINCEMEAT PIE, CIGARS AND CIGARETTES

/ The Coastal Crone / 37 Comments

The officers and crew on the USS Lexington celebrated Thanksgiving 1945 somewhere in the Pacific after months of fighting; but WWII was finally over and they had much to be thankful for.

MENU COURTESY OF THE LEXINGTON’S HISTORIAN, MELANIE TEMPLIN

Along with the usual turkey, dressing and cranberries to remind them of home, sailors were offered mincemeat pie, cigars and cigarettes.

Today I doubt that cigars and cigarettes would be listed on the menu and there might not be mincemeat pie for dessert.  Mincemeat pie seems to have fallen out of favor as a Thanksgiving and Christmas tradition.

Today’s mincemeat (mainly raisins, apples and spices) does not contain meat.  In Victorian times it sometimes  would.  Mincemeat comes in a jar or condensed in a box and can be made into a variety of desserts:  cookies, pies, fruitcake, etc.  One of the oldest brands is None Such Mincemeat and is the one I use to make pies and cookies at Christmas.

For the past few years I have had trouble finding it in local grocery stores, especially the condensed in a box that I use for cookies.  This year I could only find it in jars and had to drive to Corpus Christi for it; I bought two jars even though the price has almost doubled from last year.  It is even higher on Amazon.  The None Such website promises to have condensed by the 2025 holiday season – we will see!  For the first time None Such Mincemeat is available online with a limit of two per order.  The link is shared here for those who may be fans of the old-fashioned.

Growing up, I remember that for Christmas we always had fruitcake and mincemeat pie.  I have already made a mincemeat pie and fruitcake.   Cheers and Happy Holidays!

FRIDAY FOTO: LIBRARY MURAL

/ The Coastal Crone / 39 Comments

PERSONAL NOTE:  It seems I have been mostly absent from WordPress since late July.  Husband and I got COVID, thankfully it was mild, and then Husband experienced a medical emergency that involved two hospitalizations, blood clots and a fractured ankle.  He is home now and recuperating well.  I venture back into the blogging world with this Friday Foto and look forward to visiting my blogging friends again.  TGIF!

Portions of mural on the outer walls at the entrance of the local public library (Portland, Texas) by artist Cameron Walls completed in 2024.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STARS AND BEER

/ The Coastal Crone / 28 Comments

Image from Freepik.com

StarDate is the public education and outreach of the University of Texas McDonald Observatory heard daily on my local public radio station KEDT 90.3.   Sometimes I listen to it on my morning walks.   I am sharing the full episode from June 18 titled “William Lassell.”  Stars and Beer seemed an appropriate title for this post.

“Building the Albert Dock in Liverpool gave a man a powerful thirst. Workers drank up to a dozen pints of beer a day — and that was during the work day, with beer provided by the company. And while the workers drank, beer baron William Lassell got rich.

Texas beer courtesy of Husband

Lassell used some of that wealth to study the stars. He designed and built one of the world’s largest telescopes, and used it to make many important discoveries.

Lassell was born 225 years ago today. He made his first telescope by age 21. In the 1830s, he built an estate in Liverpool and called it “Starfield.”

At the time, there were few professional astronomers anywhere. Much of the leading research was done by wealthy amateurs like Lassell. In the 1840s, he designed a steam-powered machine to grind the mirror for a 24-inch telescope — one of the largest in the world. The telescope was a trendsetter, because it could track objects across the entire sky.

Using this new instrument, Lassell discovered Triton, the largest moon of Neptune, plus two moons of Uranus and one of Saturn. Later, he moved the telescope to the Mediterranean to escape Liverpool’s rainy, polluted skies. And later still, he built an even bigger telescope.

William Lassell died in 1880. But his contributions remind us of an important era for astronomy — an era made possible by the thirst for knowledge — not to mention the thirst for beer.

Script by Damond Benningfield”

 

INDEPENDENCE DAY 2024

/ The Coastal Crone

I am grateful to be  able to celebrate another Independence Day  and to still have hope for the future.  It seems the political divide grows with every new headline but then I am reminded that we have been divided before and survived. I am grateful we have a president instead of a king; may our democracy/republic hold in 2024. Americans disagree on many issues but we should agree to be civil.

Have a happy and safe July 4!

COMMENTS ARE CLOSED.

FRIDAY FOTO: THE BICYCLE

/ The Coastal Crone / 49 Comments

We live next door to a small city park where a school bus picks up neighborhood kids.  About the last month of the school year this bicycle started showing up in the park.  Sometimes it would be leaned against a tree like this; sometimes it would be leaned against playground equipment; once it was left in our front yard; sometimes we would see a boy riding it home.  Was it a shared bike?  Was it a stolen bike?  ( I thought of The Bicycle Thief)  I guess our neighborhood is safe enough that it could be left at the park in the morning to be picked up after school.   It had a chain with lock combination but it was never locked and was in good condition.

School was out last week and we have not seen the bike again.  Maybe it will appear again in the fall.

WITCH BOTTLES

/ The Coastal Crone / 43 Comments

From the Museum of London: 17th century stoneware jug used a witch bottle found containing a heart-shaped piece of felt pierced with pins and 11 nails.

Witch bottles originated in the late-Middle Ages in  England and were used as protection against witchcraft or to cure an illness.  It was believed that a witch or evil spirit could be lured into a bottle and the spell could be broken.  A bottle sealed with a cork would commonly contain the victim’s hair, nails, body fluids and even twine; some would contain red wine, rosemary,  feathers and whatever talismans seemed to work at the time.  Then they were buried or hidden, often under a fireplace or inside a wall; they could also be tossed into a stream or river.  The one cursed would be safe as long as the witch bottle was hidden and unopened.  Superstitions and belief in witches and evil spirits helped explain the world around them.  Belief in the power of witch bottles was carried over to Colonial America; a small number have been found in the U.S.

The Museum of London’s website had an article titled “Sorcery on Display:  Witch Bottles” that presented an authoritative history if one is interested in further reading.

Jace Tunnell, Director of Community Engagement for the Harte Research Institute at Texas A & M, Corpus Christi, has found eight modern day glass witch bottles on our local beaches.   He has not opened them and keeps them on a fence in his back yard as he wife will not let him bring them into the house.

The HarteResearch Institute Facebook page describes them this way:

“Folks in certain cultures around the world put vegetation or other objects in a bottle, They are counter magical devices whose purpose is to draw in and trap harmful intentions directed at their owners.”

Tunnel speculates that they come from South America or the Caribbean.

If I find one on the beach, I don’t think I will open it or bring it into the house either.

Witch bottle found by Jace Tunnell, Director of Community Engagement, Hart Research Institute at Texas A & M University, Corpus Christi

FRIDAY FOTO: ODDS AND ENDS AND CHECKING IN

/ The Coastal Crone / 26 Comments

DESERT BIRD OF PARADISE BLOOMING AT BRIAR COTTAGE SPRING 2024

It seems I have taken an unannounced and unplanned break from posting on my blog.  I slowed down for the holidays and then continued to coast along happily reading blogs I follow.  Then suddenly it is past spring and past the total eclipse that raced across Texas.  Hurricane season before I know it.

TOTAL  ECLIPSE:  It was too cloudy here to see it but I am more of a moon watcher.  Give me a full moon rising to watch  and I am enchanted.  No glasses required.

TAXES:  I volunteered again for Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) through United Way of the Coastal Bend one morning a week during tax season.  Most of the returns are uncomplicated with income limitations, but there is always some new  change in a tax law or a circumstance I have not seen before to challenge me.

ONE BOOK LEADS TO ANOTHER BOOK:   While searching for a fiction book to download, I found The Library of Burned Books set in WWII involving three women whose stories intertwine. That lead to a non-fiction book, When Books Went to War: the Stories That Helped Us Win WWII.   I think I will read the non-fiction first ; it will require a trip to the library.

BANNED BOOKS:  I support and join librarians  and those who are against banning books.  May we remember what happened when books were burned in Germany under Hitler.

I will close with a quote from Mary Oliver’s poem,  “The Summer Day”.

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with this wild and precious life?”