November 6, 2016 - Christmas Cookies

          Our church is having a “cookie walk” . . . I had never heard of that phrase before.  I equated it to one of those walk-a-thons to raise money for a cause, but I couldn’t figure it out – walk for cookies?  How would that work?  Big fat question marks floated up in my mind.

          Then, the phrase “cake walk” – something easily accomplished popped into my mind.  Well, I wasn’t the only person confused by the phrase “cookie walk” and eventually an explanation paragraph was inserted into the parish bulletin.

          For anyone who is confused, obviously I must be in the minority on this subject, there are cookies for sale at various tables around the room and the customers “walk around the room” selecting their cookies and pay for them at the door for $8.00 a pound.

          Mark the date:  November 19, 2016 – Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. “Specialized festive and ethnic cookies will be available.”  Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, 1024 W. Main Street, Forest City, North Carolina.

          OKAY – I now get it.   This all depends on the “volunteer” cookie bakers.  Our little old ladies in the church are dwindling and I felt I needed to step up to the plate again on the “volunteer” squad.  I signed up for two types of cookies.  My Shortbread cookies and my Anise Toast cookies [Biscotti]. [I am actually going to make three – I’ve a surprise cookie I have never tried before – hopefully it will come out.  More on that in a future blog.]

          The shortbread cookies have a snow flake design and I thought that would lend itself to Christmas cookies as well as shortbread cookies ARE the heaviest cookies to make which will improve the profit margin for the church’s fund raiser, [Aren’t I a smart cookie?]

          The other cookie, Anise Toast is from a dear friend, Kay Fuda.   God rest her soul.  Kay was the driving force behind our “first” Church Cookbook.  And, she always came to the Ladies’ Guild Meetings with a clean joke.  She died way before her time.  I miss her, but she ‘lives’ in my heart.

          She was what you call a “wicked” baker.  Her pecan pie was to die for.  But, she was so generous she gave me the Anise Toast [Biscotti] recipe.  I was at her house, I was having coffee and she brought out a plate with these cookies on it.  First bite – I was in love!   I asked for the recipe expecting a “no – they are a secret” – but, she stood up, reached for one of her favorite recipe books, opened it up and said – “sure”.  She even got me a piece of paper and I copied it down between delicious mouthfuls.

          You know how you get a recipe, tuck it away, and then eventually get around to making it.  Well, this one – I made within a day or two, once I located the “cake flour” which I wasn’t yet acquainted with.  I had to make these delicious confections for my husband, just to get his reaction. 

          These cookies are not HARD as a rock like the ones you buy in the store.  You control the hardness [or softness] by the second bake.  I only cook mine until they are light brown.  I want to be able to “sink” my teeth into them without the crumbs falling down the front of my clothes.

          And, these are “raccoon sniff” cookies. [See my blog on November 4, 2016] for explanation.

Anise Toast

[Biscotti recipe from Kay Fuda]

Sift together three times and set aside: [You can’t skip this per Kay.]

2 ½    Cups sifted cake flour

2        tsp. baking powder

¼       tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour two (2) cookie sheets.

¼       Cup soft butter or regular margarine [I have only used real butter.]

1        Cup sugar

3        Eggs

1        Tablespoon Anise Extract

In a medium bowl with portable electric mixer at medium speed, beat butter with sugar until very light.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in Anise extract.  Add flour mixture, beat at low speed until blended.

Divide mixture in half.  Spread each half on a cookie sheet 11 x 5 inch oval.  [I pour-scoop out  ½ of batter onto center of each cookie sheet.  Then I lift the pan and tap it on the counter to settle the dough – then lightly spread it in an oval.  I don’t overdo this.]

Bake 15 to 20 minutes, or until pale golden brown.  Remove from oven. Cut into ½ inch thick slices – take a sharp knife and slice across the entire oval.

[I find my smooth edged large cake spatula works better than a serrated knife.] If the cookies stick to knife – not cooked enough – return to oven for a few more minutes. [Try tapping top of dough to see if well set  [cooked enough] before slicing.] 

Turn each slice on its side.  Bake 10 or less or until lightly browned.  Remove slices to wire rack and let cool completely.  Makes about 30 to 35 cookies.

Enjoy!

September 22, 2016 – I snagged a “Cinderella” pumpkin at my favorite garden spot!

It is squatty and ribbed and orangey and looks just like it fell out of the story book Cinderella, sans the horses.  It could possibly be a Rouge Vif D’etampes, but I am not sure.  I picked it up at Horn’s Home and Garden, in Forest City, NC – I think the area’s most friendly store! “Good people” as they say here in the Carolinas. 

When I arrived in 1985, I found my way to Horn’s Home & Garden.  Back then it was Sevil and Nell Horn who were the entrepreneurs.  I visited often as I had a new house which needed perennials, annuals, shrubs and trees.  Nell was a great herbalist and I would come to her for advice as well as just to have a good “chat up” when I was homesick. Nell even showed me how to tie a pretty bow for an arrangement.  Needless to say, I have to do about a dozen before I get warmed up and I revert to just going to Horn’s to get my bows as they are made by the experts.  Trust me; if you want a bow – that is where you go!

Nell had a great phrase she used on me when I spotted something I wanted and was thinking about coming back to buy it.  “You best get it before it gets gone!”   That is now my line when I am shopping with friends and see a bargain; it is just about guaranteed to prompt them into action.

Nell had another saying as well.  Back in 1985 people paid by cash or check and I hesitated one day not having enough cash. I asked, “Will you take a check?”  Nell answered, “We know all the good checks and all the bad husbands.” She said it with a twinkle in her eye and a great laugh.  I knew she was teasing me. 

I still miss her – she passed away in 2010.  On a hot August day I was at the church ½ hour before the funeral service and I still ended up in the balcony.  Not a seat was left by the time the service started.  The preacher gave a resounding and glowing eulogy.  It was perfection right down to the preacher reminding us of Nell’s time-tested sage advice, “You need a bit of purple in your arrangement to make it “POP”.  Soon, I will write about the color purple in the garden; what I learned from Nell Horn.  

Then a few years later, Sevil passed away in 2015.  Right up until the end he loved to come to the store and see his customers.  I picked up a phrase I use all the time from him.  “How about that.” 

After the funeral, the Horn Family sent me a copy of an essay I wrote about Sevil Horn years ago for a college English class they had found when they went through their parents’ papers preparing for the funeral. I was delighted when they offered to return a copy to me and I have re-printed it at the end of this Blog.

Not much has changed at Horn’s Home & Garden except Roger and his wife, Harriett, are there now along with Andrew and Charlotte.  They have made improvements, but the charm and friendliness is still there, and it will continue being my go-to place for my all gardening needs.

However, they have added internet sales for the beautiful wreaths they make. They are simply gorgeous! 

Visit it at: https://www.etsy.com/shop/HornsHandmade? 

Interview with Sevil Horn, August 3, 1988

          

            Even before Sevil was old enough to attend elementary school, he was working behind the counter at Horn’s Cash Store.  “We had a glass candy counter that was twelve feet long and filled with penny candy.  It was near the front window and used to pull them in.  I was so small I had to stand on a wooden tobacco box to even reach the counter.”  Back then Silver Bells [Hersey’s chocolate kisses] were six for a penny.  “You could get a big old bag full of candy for ten cents.  In those days if you had ten cents to spend on candy, you were considered wealthy.  Even now I have customers who say to me, "Have you got any Silver Bells?’”  Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, Sevil Horn, owner of Horn’s Home and Garden, is the third generation in the retail store business.  Sevil’s Granddad Horn started Horn’s Cash Store, a general store, on the Main Street of Forest City, near Smith’s Drugs in 1898.

            “I was a real hacker when I was about ten years old.”  Sevil’s smile lined face is animated as he reflects on his first retail venture.  “There was Trade Day every Monday behind the Main Street of Forest City in the parking lot behind Smith’s Drugs.  There I sold homemade lemonade.  I got a block of ice, a number three galvanized wash tub, and an aluminum dipper.  We had big old heavy glasses that were ten ounces and had deep grooves in them.  The recipe was three dozen lemons, five pounds of sugar, and water.  I used to sell two glasses for a nickel.  I had a second number three galvanized wash tub where I would rinse the glasses and use them over and over again.”  He paused to smile and chuckle.  “You couldn’t do that nowadays!”  I used to call out to everyone passing by:  "Ice Cold Lemonade, Made in the Shade, Stirred with a Spade, Best Old Lemonade that EVER was Made!”

            Sevil worked at the store as he grew up.  He saved his money, put himself through college, and after college ran the Horn’s Read-to-Wear Store.  Between those early days of retail and now, he has run the gamut of many different livelihoods, including cattle trading and dealing in machinery salvage.  He has dealt in rental properties for many years and also was a farmer for a short time.  Around 1968 or 1970 Sevil and his wife, Nell, retired and started Horn’s Home and Garden on Trade Street in Forest City.  Sevil started the business at a time when people were just becoming interested in fixing up their yards, home landscaping, flower gardens, and backyard vegetable gardens.  “The business has been successful because the timing was right,” Sevil said with a proud laugh.  Sevil continues in the retail business because he says he likes dealing with people and likes people in general.

            During the interview, Sevil’s calloused hands cut the end of a carton into an angle to create a display case for newly acquired landscaping fabric.  He propped the stock in the corner and greeted a customer, exchanging newsy gossip with his familiar saying, “How about that!” which is both a wonder of surprise and a question.  People come to him for his advice on things such as what to use to control insects or how to get black spot under control on their roses.  He is fair and honest-looking, and his personable-ness comes through in his old fashioned soft sell.  He believes in the old adage that you can’t sell somebody something they don’t want.  He is a retailing breed that is almost extinct.

            When I step into his current retail establishment, Horn’s Home and Garden, I step over the threshold back into time.  Worn wooden floors and a decorative old tin ceiling welcomes me.  At first glance I notice the hodgepodge, the stacks of things here, and the shelves crowded with lawn care products there, empty boxes awaiting to be filled with purchases, baskets hanging from the ceiling, merchandise piled, leaned, and wiggled in here and there, all cozily awaiting to be purchased. After a time, I notice there really is rhyme and reason about the place and a semblance of order in the wooden seed bins, metal shelves of insecticides, and rows of ribbons.  The establishment has such an essence of charm, sage honest advice, friendly gossip, and earthiness that it is in direct contrast to the modern facilities of his competitors who have products arranged on cold stainless steel shelves and glistening linoleum floors under glaring fluorescent lights.

            When I asked him what the secret of successful retailing was, he quickly answered without hesitation, “As my Daddy used to say, ‘Anything bought right is half sold.’  The price is it.  You have to cut out the middleman, watch your overhead, and cater to the demands of your customers.”  Sevil is a born salesman.