Country Cousin

Irish...

Hi Folks!

The snow is gone, and unless we get another onslaught (which isn’t really unlikely, given this is Wisconsin) Spring is here. Imagine! if the weather holds things should have dried up enough to have an outdoor egg hunt on Easter Sunday. Seems almost a certainty there will be outdoor blooms in time for May baskets.

Recall one year we celebrated Easter outdoors. That was the year Dad retired. That was in March when he and Mom promptly headed south to enjoy his new leisure, and avoid another cold and miserable Wisconsin spring. The day they left was beautiful. The ironic part is the weather just kept getting better that year, so they didn’t avoid any dreary cold at all. Of course, it was warmer where they were, but we at home were exceedingly happy with what we had too.

On Easter Sunday, the rest of the family, sans Mom and Dad, had an outdoor barbecue and even ate outdoors. Easter baskets were hidden in the bushes, and we had contests to see who could find the most eggs. We color-coded the eggs, with yellow ones hidden in easier spots for the youngest of the youngsters, red and purple for the next group, blue and green for the oldest, including their parents. Anyone finding an egg belonging to the younger group had to just say nothing and leave it there. Ditto if you found someone else’s basket. Some of the kids - all very much adults today - still cherish that as the best Easter ever.

FIGHTING IRISH

St. Patrick’s Day always brings to mind when our Catholic high school in Marinette was Our Lady of Lourdes, St. Patrick was our special patron, and our team was the Fighting Irish.

In those days the Catholic congregations in Marinette were somewhat segregated by nationality, and in the early years sermons were offered in dual languages.

Our Lady of Lourdes Parish was the Irish church, with parishioners like the Murphys, Donovans, Kerrigans, Murrays, Doyles, O’Neills, and many more, some Irish and some not.

Sacred Heart, the Polish congregation, was probably the last to offer sermons in both English and Polish.

St. Joseph’s was mainly the French parish.

Not sure what nationality dominated St. Anthony’s parish, but do know there were some French, some English and some German families there.

Incidentally, came across some Irish surname definitions, in honor of the great Irish/American holiday.

Murphy (o Murchadha), means “sea warrior.”

Kelly (o Ceallaigh), translates to “bright headed.”

Walsh was a name used for the hundreds of Welshmen that came to Ireland with the Normans in the 12th century, and then later - much later - came to America.

O’Connor meant “hero, or champion.”

Doyle referred to “dark foreigner,” and the family is believed to be descended from Norsemen, according to some Irish historians.

McCarthy, meaning “loving person,” was the family credited with building the famous Blarney Castle. A certain Cormac McCarthy lived in the castle at the time he was avoiding submission to Queen Elizabeth’s rule. He did so and lived by writing evasive answers to her letters demanding that he submit, and thus began the legend of “kissing the Blarney Stone.” The belief was that kissing the Blarney Stone would endow a person with the gift of evasive and eloquent speech.

The name Murray (o Muireadhaigh), is derived from “lord, master,” and the family is believed to be of Scot descent.

Daly (o Dalaigh) means “assembles frequently,” making it particularly appropriate for the many politicians that apparently descended from the family tree.

O’ Connell (o Conaill) means “strong as a wolf.”

Kerrigan (o Ciaragain), translates “black,” and perhaps relates to the term “black Irishman” that we used to hear but don’t any more. Not sure the interpretation is right, but it always seemed there were some Irish families that tended to have black hair and dark eyes, and others that had red hair and blue eyes.

The name O’Donnell (o Domhnaill) meant “world mighty,” and the original family seat was in County Donegal.

And they were among the great Irish migration that brought so much humor and hard work to America, and gave us the tradition of St. Patrick’s Day that we wannabe Irish will celebrate along with our truly Irish brethren on Saturday, March 17.

INFLATION

Alvin Schaut of Pound recently found an old Peshtigo Times - dated July 13, 1939, and a Cashway Stores flyer from May of 1938. There were Cashway grocery stores in Coleman, Lena, Marinette, Oconto Falls and other areas of the state.

My, how times, prices and shopping habits have changed in 73 years! Remember, that was at the end of the Great Depression, and before America got involved in World War II. Moms almost never worked outside the home, but they worked very hard inside. Most things, including bread, were homemade, and you could buy flour in bulk - $2.49 for a 98-pound bag. Fancy Red Salmon was 29 cents for a pound can. A pound can of cocoa cost 13 cents. Price of Yellow Front coffee was 43 cents for a 3-pound bag. The pricier Nicolet coffee cost 27 cent a pound. Sardines were five cans for a quarter. Canned shrimp, two for 39 cents. (They must have been saved for a real treat.) Cheese was 17 cents a pound. You could get two cans of beets for 17 cents, six cans of corn for 65 cents, and two cans of grapefruit hearts for 29 cents. Three 13-ounce boxes of Miller’s Crispy Corn Flakes cost 25 cents. Three 10 1/2-ounce cans of Hillside fruit cocktail cost 27 cents.

Cleaning supplies offered included four bars of P&G White Naphtha soap for 15 cents, two boxes of starch for 17 cents, three cans of lye for 25 cents. Don’t know what “Silver Dust” was, but it with personal and household cleaning supplies in the ad, and at 21 cents for a large package, you also got a free dish towel.

THEY ATE WELL

The flyer was printed in partnership with McCall’s Magazine, and included a week’s meal plan and recipes to go with it. Don’t know if anybody ate that way in real life, even back then, but if they did, there was a whole lot of work for Mom and a whole lot of eating for everyone.

For example, the menu for Monday’s breakfast called for grapefruit juice, ready to serve cereal, soft cooked eggs, toasted raisin bread, coffee and milk.

On Tuesday they suggested treating the family to plum nectar, oatmeal, French toast, strawberry jam, coffee and malted cocoa.

Wednesday was a biggie. Orange juice, ready to serve cereal, bacon, eggs, toasted English muffins, coffee and cocoa.

Look for one of the old recipes in today’s “Cookin’ Time” section, and more in the weeks to come. Some are good ideas that somehow got lost over time, and others probably deserved to get lost. Hopefully, all the ones you read here will deserve resurrection.

FIRST BLEACHERS?

With all the focus these days on improvements in Peshtigo - particularly the downtown and Badger Park areas - it was fun to come across an article in that 1939 newspaper about putting up new bleachers at the Badger Paper Mills Softball diamond, that would seat an estimated 500 persons.

The new seating was to be erected along the third base line in two 60-foot sections, each six rows high. Installation was expected to take about a week.

A large crowd was expected for the game with the Astor Bombers, featuring Green Bay Packer players.

Incidentally, the Badgers were playing the Oconto Lauermans on Thursday night, July 13, 1939 on the mill diamond. They had a busy day planned for the coming Sunday, with an afternoon game at Johaness Park in Green Bay against the Daubers, and then back to Peshtigo for an 8 p.m. game against the Columbian Squires of Green Bay.

Don’t know. Was the field lighted for night games in those days?

TAKING THE TIDE

There’s quite a to-do on the web the last few days about thieves targeting Tide laundry detergent. Don’t know if they ever figured out why the thieves prefer Tide over other brands (except that it does seem to clean better) but the thefts have spawned some good clean jokes.

For example:

“They will sell the Tide, launder the money, get caught and then some dirt-bag lawyer will take them to the cleaners and hang them out to dry.”

“This is not white collar crime, just some ghetto folks that heard you could make a clean getaway with Tide.”

“It (the thefts) will be tied back to politicians and oil companies. They are wanting to clean the money they are stealing from us and what better to use than stolen soap?”

And finally, someone thought maybe the thieves just wanted to get enough soap to turn the Tide.

Well, maybe not good, but at least you have to admit they’re clean jokes!

COOKIN’ TIME

CRAB CAKES

A meatless treat to make yourself for far less than the purchased variety. They taste better too. More crab, less crumbs.

1 6-ounce package frozen, cooked crab meat or one 6-

ounce can crab meat, drained and cartilage removed

1 egg, slightly beaten

2 tablespoons finely chopped green onion

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 tablespoon snipped parsley

2 teaspoons Dijon-style mustard or Creole mustard

2 teaspoons snipped fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried

thyme, crushed

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs

1/4 cup cornmeal

2 tablespoons cooking oil

Lemon wedges

Tartar sauce (optional)

Thaw crab, if frozen; drain. In a mixing bowl combine egg, green onion, mayonnaise, parsley, mustard, thyme, Worcester-shire sauce, salt, and 1/4 cup of the bread crumbs. Stir in crab; mix well. Shape into four patties about 3/4 inch thick. Combine the remaining bread crumbs and cornmeal. Coat patties with cornmeal mixture. (At this point, you can chill or even freeze the crab cakes.) When it’s time to use them, thaw if frozen. Heat oil in a large skillet, and when hot enough, add the crab cakes. Cook over medium heat about 4 minutes on each side or until golden and heated through. Add additional oil, if necessary. Serve hot with lemon wedges and, if desired, tartar sauce. Makes 4 main-dish servings.

TEA MOONS

This 1939 recipe is somewhat reminiscent of an Irish Scone turnover. Extremely easy to make, and comparatively healthy for an after school snack. Make six turnovers, and if your package still has biscuits, either double the filling or bake them plain and eat for breakfast tomorrow morning, reheated briefly.

1 package flaky biscuits

3 tablespoons peanut butter

3 tablespoons orange marmalade

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Flatten each biscuit into about a three inch circle and put half a tablespoon filling onto one half of each biscuit, keeping it back from the edge. Fold the other half of the biscuit over the filling, moisten the edges, and use tines of a fork to seal it on the round side. Bake 15 minutes. While warm spread with powdered sugar frosting, or even canned frosting. Stir in a bit of yellow food coloring to make your moons golden, or green coloring for St. Patrick’s Day.

WEARIN’ O’ THE GREEN CAKE

This isn’t authentic Irish, but is green (because you make it that way), and it’s easy to believe St. Patrick and his little leprechaun friends would have loved this cake.

1 package white or chocolate cake mix, (18.25 ounces)

3 tablespoons creme de menthe liqueur

16 ounce can hot fudge topping

8 ounce container frozen whipped topping, thawed (or real

whipped cream)

2 tablespoons creme de menthe liqueur

Multi colored sprinkles

Prepare one box of white or chocolate cake mix as directed, except substitute 3 tablespoons Creme de Menthe flavoring or liqueur for 3 tablespoons water. Spray a 13x9 inch pan with cooking spray and in to it put the prepared cake batter. Bake according to package directions. Remove from oven and while hot, poke holes all over the cake with a long-tined fork, then quickly pour on the fudge topping and spread it all over the top of the cake so it soaks in a bit. Refrigerate (or freeze, if desired). After the cake is thoroughly cooled, mix whipped topping with the remaining 2 tablespoons of creme de menthe and spread on cake. Sprinkle an arc of sprinkles across the cake to look like a rainbow, and if you’re feeling really artistic, add a round dob of golden colored sugar sprinkles to look like that legendary pot of gold. Refrigerate cake until serving time. Freezes very nicely.

Thought for the week: We should live joyfully, roll with the punches, and make the best use you can of the time and materials that come to us. Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it is about learning to dance in the rain.

COUNTRY COUSIN

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