vintage

two rad 92 year-olds, grandma beth and grandpa woody on christmas day 2012.

a strand of thought that emerged over the holidays:

why are the 90-ish year-olds so cool?

i had the good fortune of spending time with a handful of ninety-plus year-olds in the past week, including my amazing grandma beth, and i always marvel at the special-ness of this particular demographic.  i don't think it's just generic wisdom obtained by a long life.  i do think there is something unique about that generation, and the economic hardships, the wars, the sea-change in technology, medicine, and nature that these people have witnessed.

there's a humanity, and a privileging of people over things, that seems especially present in my 90 year-old-ish family members and friends.

one of my aspirations this holiday season was to learn how to make the plum pudding i've heard so much about from my grandma beth's recipe box.  last night, aunt bonnie dug out her recipe box and found the crumbling newspaper clipping with the recipe.

i vow to make it before new year's, (i need to find citron and suet--will probably have to go to salt lake for it) and i vow, in 2013, to spend a lot more time with my favorite generation of people.

vintage plum pudding recipe:  cannon plum pudding

when served mrs. lewis telle cannon's famous plum pudding for dessert, guests are happy.  santa claus could do no more.  this is how:

4 lbs. raisins
3/4 lbs. citron
2 lbs. pecan meats
2 pints light molasses
2 pints ground suet
10 c. flour
2 level t. soda dissolved in 1/4 c. boiling water
1 T. salt
1 1/2 t. each of cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg

add soda water to molasses.  gradually mix in suet, milk, flour, spices, and lastly fruit dredged in part of the flour.  steam 3 1/2 hours.  serve with lemon sauce.

many utah recipes stem from foreign lands, handed down from mother to daughter.  take sparkling mrs. effie evans of  665 e. 1st s., whose home is seventen miles north of edinburgh, in the village of kelty, over here on the exchange-teacher program.  

"i'm amazed," she said, "at the amount of salads americans eat and the size of the steaks.  and we have chicken only on very special occasions."