Wednesday, January 29, 2014

DAY 191 - COUNTING DOWN TO THE 50TH

GOOD MORNING, CLASS OF '64

An even colder night of below zero temperatures, in the mountains, and students will spend another day off from school. But there is no new snow to be shoveled, today. The sun came up so bold and bright in the eastern sky, this morning, to shine through the bare branches of the winter trees. Let the meltdown begin of snow piled high at the curb and in parking lots. With January soon to be gone and February pushing it's way into the valleys and mountains, we've begun the trek toward spring. In time it will come, it will surely come.
In those long ago years, with winter hard upon us, some in the class of 1964 might have been carrying in buckets of coal or armloads of wood to help keep homes and families warm from the cold. Was it a pot belly stove or a Warm Morning that you huddled around on those arctic, winter days that settled on the valley? Were your evenings spent with popcorn or brownies for munching? Were you dreading that walk to school through piles of snow or standing out in the cold waiting for the bus? You probably thought nothing of it at all. That's just the way it was. We were younger and hardier, then, in those good old days in the mountains.
 ***


 REMEMBER THIS TONGUE TWISTER?



How much wood would a woodchuck chuck
If a woodchuck could chuck wood?
He would chuck, he would, as much as he could,
and chuck as much wood as a woodchuck would
If a woodchuck could chuck wood.
http://bussongs.com/songs/how-much-wood-would-a-woodchuck-chuck.php 

***
Making popcorn balls on an idle day at home, might be something the class of '64 would have done.
Old-Fashioned Popcorn Balls
1 cup Karo Syrup, Blue Label or Green Label
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vinegar
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 quarts unsalted popcorn

Combine first four ingredients in saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture boils. Continue cooking, stirring almost constantly to hard ball stage (260 F) or until a small amount of mixture forms a hard ball when tested in very cold water. Remove from heat; quickly add butter and blend. Slowly pour over popcorn in large bowl, while mixing well. Form into balls, using as little pressure as possible. Butter hands, if desired. Makes 15 about 2-1/2 inches in diameter.
Pastel popcorn balls: Follow above recipe, using Red Label Karo instead of Blue or Green Label, and substitute granulated sugar for brown. Add 2 teaspoons vanilla with butter. Tint syrup desired shade with vegetable coloring.
Old-Fashioned Popcorn Balls Recipe (1950)
 
***
You're retired. You know you don't have anything better to do. Watch popcorn popping in slow motion. Gav and Dan show you what popcorn looks like when it... pops.
 (Stand clear of the splattering oil.)
*** 

No comments:

Post a Comment