As we have discussed in the last few months, it is important to find something our children enjoy. Something he or she is good at. Something creative, worthwhile and something that keeps them OUT OF TROUBLE! As discussed in the blogs, that is easier said than done. So, in the interests of parents everywhere, do share ideas, what worked for you and how you "snagged" your talented and engaged teen.
As a junior higher in Muskogee, (West is Best) we would ride the city bus downtown and visit Hunts, Durnil's and Calhoun's. We would wear our brush rollers, in perfect rows. (Swear to you, this is true. Looking back I think this was one of my parents "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" issues) . We would bug Nancy and Leonard Howard at the camera store and eat lunch at Pete Smith's or at the Purity Drug, owned by my grandfather, Porter Clark. Those greasy drugstore hamburger's were doubly delicious, one, because they were so good and second, because they were free.
We might go to the Ritz for a double feature and enjoy a tasty D.P. and a Fire Stix . Dill pickles were another favorite but never, never eat one of the hot-dogs. Those wieners looked like they had ridden around and around in their display cooker for weeks and weeks. After the show we would try to ignore the prisoners at the jail next door as we waited for our Mother's to pick us up. The men would hang through the bars and try to engage anyone who would listen in a conversation. Remember the scene in To Kill A Mockingbird where Atticus is guarding Tom Robinson at the jail? The old jail looked just like that, but with bigger steps up to the front door.
Favorite summer activities included tennis lessons at Rotary Park, Red Cross swimming classes with Cecil Roark at Honor Heights and my favorite, cooking classes at the ONG building on Court. I still remember a certain tasty treat that involved canned biscuits and cherry jelly. And oh, how smart the lovely instructor was in her starched apron and high heels.
To this day, I love to cook. I think it goes back to that energetic woman at the ONG kitchen and Marjory Leake, who let her dear daughters and eager friends have the run of her beautiful kitchen. A nod to my long suffering Mother who did not share my epicurian passion but let me experiment to my heart's delight.
When I returned to Muskogee as a new bride I offered cooking classes for children and teens. It was something I had loved and it seemed natural to offer the opportunity to children of friends. It was such fun and I am happy to report that these grown children, now parents themselves, still use the recipes we made so many years ago. Aimee will call Cathy for Puffy French Toast and they both still pronounce it the best they have ever tried.
SO...still searching for something for your child to to pursue, to learn and perhaps even embrace? Try cooking. It is therapy. It is art. It is comfort....and the bringer of chocolate chip cookies is always the most popular person at the party!!!!
Cooking has become so trendy that a whole network is devoted to it. The television in my older son's house is always tuned to Bobby Flay or Emeril or his favorite, Paula Dean. He has even fancied himself as a chef should his current career not work out! So, get your own son or daughter started. Start them young or in the middle, but if soccer or clogging or karate hasn't cut the mustard, introduce them to cooking. Not only the actual process in the kitchen but everything associated with the final product.
Introduce gardening with herbs and easy to grow vegetables. This is a continuing project that teaches responsibility and delicious results are as quick as a growing season. Start searching garage sales and flea markets for special utensils, interesting cake pans and old cookbooks. An additional bonus? . You are also sneaking in that together time. Take advantage of our Porter Peaches, June blackberries and abundant produce stands. Is there anything better than fresh corn, summer tomatoes or purple hull peas? Additionally, healthy and fresh eating is a good habit to instill in our kids. Tie in family history with a special recipe. Great Grandmother's corn pudding is not only tasty, the dish will tie the generations. Grilling outside is a story in itself. Share stories ( and a little parenting too) as you charcoal, smoke and roast on the Hasty Bake.
If you want to plant some beginner herbs, I would suggest dill, oregano, thyme and basil.
Use the basil for the following:
As a junior higher in Muskogee, (West is Best) we would ride the city bus downtown and visit Hunts, Durnil's and Calhoun's. We would wear our brush rollers, in perfect rows. (Swear to you, this is true. Looking back I think this was one of my parents "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" issues) . We would bug Nancy and Leonard Howard at the camera store and eat lunch at Pete Smith's or at the Purity Drug, owned by my grandfather, Porter Clark. Those greasy drugstore hamburger's were doubly delicious, one, because they were so good and second, because they were free.
We might go to the Ritz for a double feature and enjoy a tasty D.P. and a Fire Stix . Dill pickles were another favorite but never, never eat one of the hot-dogs. Those wieners looked like they had ridden around and around in their display cooker for weeks and weeks. After the show we would try to ignore the prisoners at the jail next door as we waited for our Mother's to pick us up. The men would hang through the bars and try to engage anyone who would listen in a conversation. Remember the scene in To Kill A Mockingbird where Atticus is guarding Tom Robinson at the jail? The old jail looked just like that, but with bigger steps up to the front door.
Favorite summer activities included tennis lessons at Rotary Park, Red Cross swimming classes with Cecil Roark at Honor Heights and my favorite, cooking classes at the ONG building on Court. I still remember a certain tasty treat that involved canned biscuits and cherry jelly. And oh, how smart the lovely instructor was in her starched apron and high heels.
To this day, I love to cook. I think it goes back to that energetic woman at the ONG kitchen and Marjory Leake, who let her dear daughters and eager friends have the run of her beautiful kitchen. A nod to my long suffering Mother who did not share my epicurian passion but let me experiment to my heart's delight.
When I returned to Muskogee as a new bride I offered cooking classes for children and teens. It was something I had loved and it seemed natural to offer the opportunity to children of friends. It was such fun and I am happy to report that these grown children, now parents themselves, still use the recipes we made so many years ago. Aimee will call Cathy for Puffy French Toast and they both still pronounce it the best they have ever tried.
SO...still searching for something for your child to to pursue, to learn and perhaps even embrace? Try cooking. It is therapy. It is art. It is comfort....and the bringer of chocolate chip cookies is always the most popular person at the party!!!!
Cooking has become so trendy that a whole network is devoted to it. The television in my older son's house is always tuned to Bobby Flay or Emeril or his favorite, Paula Dean. He has even fancied himself as a chef should his current career not work out! So, get your own son or daughter started. Start them young or in the middle, but if soccer or clogging or karate hasn't cut the mustard, introduce them to cooking. Not only the actual process in the kitchen but everything associated with the final product.
Introduce gardening with herbs and easy to grow vegetables. This is a continuing project that teaches responsibility and delicious results are as quick as a growing season. Start searching garage sales and flea markets for special utensils, interesting cake pans and old cookbooks. An additional bonus? . You are also sneaking in that together time. Take advantage of our Porter Peaches, June blackberries and abundant produce stands. Is there anything better than fresh corn, summer tomatoes or purple hull peas? Additionally, healthy and fresh eating is a good habit to instill in our kids. Tie in family history with a special recipe. Great Grandmother's corn pudding is not only tasty, the dish will tie the generations. Grilling outside is a story in itself. Share stories ( and a little parenting too) as you charcoal, smoke and roast on the Hasty Bake.
If you want to plant some beginner herbs, I would suggest dill, oregano, thyme and basil.
Use the basil for the following:
Tomato Brushetta
Coarsely chop 4 large tomatoes- drain seeds and water
finely chop 8-10 nice leaves of basil-stems removed
(Roll up several together like a cigarette and slice thinly)
Mince or press 4 fat cloves of garlic
combine with tomatoes and toss all
with a good quality olive oil (lightly)
salt and pepper to taste
Serve with a good italian bread, sliced thinly,
rubbed with additional garlic and olive oil and lightly toasted
Offer fresh Parmesan to sprinkle on the top
Randy's Corn
Pull some of the husk back from ears about halfway and replace
Soak in a pan or sink of cold water and salt
Place on a grill and steam for 15 or 20 minutes
Remove husks outside and throw away
Drizzle corn with butter, lime juice and paprika
Salt and pepper
....and from the sublime to the ridiculous!
Gooey and Delicious Cinnamon Puffs
Combine 1/2 cup sugar with 1 tbsp cinnamon
separate 2 cans Crescent Dinner Rolls
Dip 16 large marshmallows into melted butter and then
roll in the cinnamon mixture
Place marshmallow at wide end of triangle and fold corners over
marshmallow. Seal and brush with butter.
Place greased side down in a muffin pan.
Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes
Combine 1/2 cup powdered sugar with 2 or 3 tsps of milk
and 1/2 tsp almond extract-drizzle over puffs right
out of the oven. Sprinkle with chopped pecans if you wish.
10 comments:
I had not thought about that jail in years and years-those mens arms were actually hanging through the open bars with the glow of their cigarettes in the dark.
I must disagree with your choice of refreshments at the Ritz. Had to be the big purple taffy and a Orange Crush
I used to be scared to walk across the street from Howard's camera shop
The Owl was full of scary men playing dominoes and who knows what else they were doing in there?
You could always smell cigarettes and cigars.
Wow - that was really evocative of Muskogee in the 1960's. I had completely forgotten about the jail and how you could see the people hanging out the bars. I don't know what the Owl was, though, and I don't think I remember the Howards photo shop anywhere but at Honor Heights - interesting.
Melony
I believe the Owl was closed by law enforcement in the early 70's for a little illegal gambling, a little bookieing (is that a word?)
sports parlays...kind of everything that had to do with odds and betting...Muskogee was kind of wide open for a while.
It was where JBeck and Brooks Ins is on 3rd street ..you know, right up from the police station.
Do you know of anyone locally offering cooking classes for kids?
One of the philosophies my children's day care provider has is, "if you want to be in your child's memories tomorrow, be in their lives today." While that may seem a bit simplistic, I think it is rather profound, especially in light of the non-stop running around families do today. I'm curious to see what kind of impact little league sports will have on family relationships. Is taking the kids to a couple of practices a week as well as a couple of games a week reinforcing family bonding?
I'm not discounting the value or experience of participating on a sports team, I simply wonder if parents today are stretching their kids a bit thin, going from one sports season to another and missing out a bit on those spur of the moment family weekends.
The family memories I cherished growing up were overnight trips to Tulsa, flying kites at Honor Heights Park, shopping at the various local stores (versus today's shopping of the all-in-one stores), and "camping" trips in the backyard to name a few. My memories of sports, camps, and the such I really don't associate with my family, though they were there in support.
To get back on track with this blog title, my children's day care provider also puts out a child's cookbook that the children help create, and which is filled with pictures of the children working on each of the recipes throughout the year. It's a neat project, and something that seems fairly easy to do for people that want to create something similar at home as possible gifts for others.
Another year for Christmas, my wife and I created gift baskets of home made goods for our friends and family. Most of the home made goods were first time projects for us (IE. candles, cocoa mix). My wife and I had a great time putting everything together and look forward possibly in the future to doing something similar with our two kids when they get a bit older.
I think your family focus is right on...we can all learn something from your priorities and insight.
It is either feast or famine, those of us who overbook and overschedule our kids lives and those of us who pretty much leave our kids to their own devices..
It seems like quanity and quality are both components of time with our chidlren! (Did you also climb up the waterfall to the monkey house at Honor Heights?)
The Monkey House at Honor Heights? Ha-ha...that's a new one on me, I've never heard it called that before. Though that is much better than calling it Devil's Den which is what we always called that place growing up.
And yes, we've spent a lot of time walking around Honor Heights. In fact Honor Heights just re-opened this week, they had been closed since the Ice Storm. Yesterday evening we attempted to fly kites in the park, but the wind wasn't too cooperative.
Hey, another activity to share with your children/family, kite flying. My wife has always enjoyed flying kites, now we own around 20 or so different kites. I was a bit surprised by how many people in this area enjoy flying kites as a hobby.
Had not thought about the "devl's Den in forever...it was actually the path that ran alongside the steps that led up to the house at the top
We were always told that there had been monkeys in the structure in the before our time..
Of course Mark Wilkerson is so tired of talk of the monkey house at Spaulding...and no, Park and Rec is NOT bringing it back. That was our summer entertainment...go see the monkeys and then go to Carnation for an ice cream.
Ms Wagner
I know you are directing "Oklahoma"
and i was looking forward to seeing it..imagine my surprise when I tried to buy tickets.
is the little theatre adding more shows?? surely they are. let us know.
Dear Theatre-Goer
I am sorry about the tickets-
we have added four more shows and that is just all we can do.
Drop by on the night you wanted to come, some may be turned back in or available.
Deosn't MLT need a bigger venue???
they are working on it...cross your fingers!
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