Vi had six kids, five boys and one girl.
THAT POOR GIRL!!!! :)
And Vi knew her way around a kitchen, for certain! I enjoyed learning from her, and her mother, Rose, was one of the most amazingly spiritual women I've ever met. She was a strong, Catholic grandmother, widowed young, and she never dated... or sought another relationship. She would say to me, "Ruthy! What would I have done, to fall in love with someone who might not love my kids? Or if he was mean to them, after we'd taken vows?"
Rose did great work for the church. She worked, helping everyone she could, always setting that cheerful, loving example of speaking well of everyone. She taught me so much, and I use her example of sacrificial love in many stories. I write it, but Rose lived it.
Simply wonderful!
So Rose loved to bring treats for the kids. Vi would make cookies or Scotcheroos and Rose would often drop a plate off....
She also made Pizzelles, the best I ever had, and she would make them and bring them in an old, Christmas tin can to keep them fresh. Everyone would get excited when they saw that can!!!
She made rice pudding, too, but it wasn't good and I never had the heart to tell her. It would have been wrong. I knew it then. I know it now.
But she'd drop it off, just now and again, and say, "My grandkids aren't big on this, they don't like it, but I'm sure glad your kids do!"
:)
So, yes, I lied to Rose to protect her feelings, and I'd probably do it again because she was such a good person. I get the irony of that, but let's move beyond, okay???
SCOTCHEROOS
Level: Easy-Peasy
These take about ten minutes to make and about 30 minutes to cool.
1 cup corn syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
6 cups Rice Krispies
Heat corn syrup and sugar in big kettle (I love that word!!!). Stir until boiling and sugar dissolves. Remove from heat, add peanut butter, stir until smooth.
Add Rice Krispies. Mix until coated with deliciousy wonderful peanut butter sauce.
Gently spread in 13 x 9" pan and pat into place.
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
2 tablespoons butter
Melt together, spread over Krispy treats and cool completely, or almost completely depending on how organized you were about starting time.
:)
We have a LOT OF WARM TREATS around here, LOL!
We finished pumpkin sales on Halloween.... and had about 8 bushels of butternut squash left.
Those all sold by Monday. Word got out and folks called and stopped by so this week I reclaim my garage.... and the 9 week chicks move OUT of my garage.
And firewood and cars move in after some studious cleaning!
The treats look yummy, but I love your story of Vi and Rose. Rose reminds me of my grandmothers - such strong, faith-filled women who survived such difficult lives.
ReplyDeleteDid I ever tell you about my Grandma Ruth. She took in something like 50 foster children after raising 6 of her own. Her husband was a NYC policeman, but he died when I was only 1. She would take the bus into the city several times a week to go and read books for recordings for the blind (back in the days before all this technology made it easy). She was on every committee at church, loved to cook and bake, had a fabulous old house right behind ours, and loved to listen to opera on the radio. What an amazing woman.
My other grandmother, May, raised 7 children after losing her husband when the baby was 2. Such wonderful stories I have about her, but my strongest visual memory is seeing her sitting in her chair (when she was crippled with arthritis) saying her rosary all day long.
Thanks for prompting the memories, Ruthy.
Rose was just like this! Where has that amazing devotion gone? She was hard-working, yet tireless. She was devoted and sacrificial. She sounds just like your two grandmothers!!!!
DeleteWell now I'm all teary-eyed over these grandmamma stories. Sniffle. Amazing how strong these women had to be. So much on their plate but they still went out of their way to do more for others. Thanks for sharing Ruthy and Mary.
ReplyDeleteThese Scotcheroos look intriguing. Especially like that topping mix. I never have corn syrup on hand -- never used it before so making these will be an adventure.
Kav, they're super easy but I do cut them when they're still a little warm. They firm up once the sugar/cornsyrup/peanut butter hardens. BUT SOOOOO GOOD!
DeleteThey are possibly the best and simplest bars on the planet, Kav.
DeleteThere should be a book called 'Memories from Ruthie's Kitchen'. Your neighbours sound like remarkable people -- I'll bet from your current generation your neighbours will be saying much the same good things about you.
ReplyDeleteI have a similar recipe that's simply called Peanut Butter Bars, but with a topping that isn't exactly the same. I like the sound of yours better and am going to give it a try. :)
Carol, tell us what you think! We've got to do those luscious peanut butter cup bars here, too, I don't think we've ever done that, and my daughter-in-law Lacey has a fun way of doing them in candy wrappers. And they're adorable and fancier than my big ol' tray, cut into bars! But either way tastes great!
DeleteCarol, I was thinking the same thing! Ruthie's Friends... her next big bestseller. Complete with recipes!
DeleteHAHAHA!
ReplyDeleteOK, first, as a mother of four boys and two girls, I can say the life is never boring.
Now, the part where you lied and never told her that your kids didn't like that dish made me think of our own sweet, elderly friend who was such a loving grandma figure to our family for 15 years. She made amazing bread. She ground the wheat (with an electric grinder, she wasn't Amish), and used a lot of honey in the recipe. It was heavenly!
Anyway, she also brought over a pot of chili was some really odd bean in it. Maybe it was lentils. It was chili, but not chili. Anyway, we ate half of it (miracle in this house since it usually disappears completely) and I didn't have the heart to tell her we didn't like it.For the next ten years, we got a pot of that chili every few months. She loved to cook but had to grandchildren or children nearby.
The cats really liked it, though, and I sort of wish we'd had a dog then. He REALLY would have enjoyed that chili.
Be glad it was chili and not some home decor trinket. I knew someone who did that to someone, all nameless here, then everytime they'd come over they spent a few minutes enjoying the trinkets they'd given hanging on the wall. It was like a huge TRAP. They came over weekly which was very nice and the lady (and her mother) were very lovely people. But those trinkets could NOT be moved and if one of them was missing, they inquired where it had been put. Some of it was bizarre stuff, too. And yet their hearts were so kind (in a manipulative sort of way!)
DeleteLOL! This happened to a friend of mine, but it was her mother in law, and the trinket was a 2 foot tall angel figurine with a cloth dress and (wait for it...) fiber optic wings that shimmered in a rainbow of colors. The first time I saw it on her piano I thought she had lost her mind.
DeleteThere is really just NOTHING more delicious than these little darlings. LOL
ReplyDeleteI have a very similar recipe using corn flakes and peanuts in place of the Rice Krispies and we call them Baby Ruth Bars.
I also use one cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and one cup of butterscotch chips and NO BUTTER. But I think I might try your frosting. Obviously it'll be MORE frosting right? And if more frosting is wrong, I don't wanna be right.
Why is it the simple things are the most delicious?
ReplyDelete