• Aprill Brandon •
• Originally published January 13, 2009 at 6:05 p.m., updated January 13, 2009 at 6:05 p.m.

Last weekend, I had an opportunity to travel to Lake Charles to see my mom.

My father had decided to squeeze in a last-minute deer hunt. His lease or "hunting club" as he calls it, is somewhere in the pine forests of Alabama. He planned to meet his cousin, Spencer, there and try to get a buck before the season ended.

This hunting weekend left my mom alone, and I thought that I would go keep her company. She is 74 now, and I wanted to be there if she needed me.

I called to ask if I could come and she seemed somewhat preoccupied. I could hear some laughter in the background and asked her what was going on. She had invited several friends over for "marathon canasta" or some type of all-night card game.

She explained that she and her friends were going to play cards and then they were all going to spend the night at her house, since it would be too late too travel home. She explained that her friends don't like to drive in the dark, and since my parents live about 30 minutes from Lake Charles, the 'slumber party' was a good idea.

I figured they would all be tucked in by about 10 p.m., but when I called the next morning my mom sleepily answered telling me she and her friends had stayed up until 4 o'clock in the morning. So much for the idea of me needing to be there for her when my dad was hunting.

Spencer had a soccer game on Saturday in Waller, which is north of Houston. I figured that was kind of on the way to Lake Charles if you detoured by about 45 miles. My friend, Janet, agreed to join me for the trip and to take her SUV. We packed it with our luggage and my two poodles.

Since we had the dogs with us, we had to pack dog crates, dog food and lots of paper towels for the puppy. I felt like I was taking a trip with toddlers.

After the game, Janet and I headed to Lake Charles, land of Cajun cooking.

Dogs don't tend to travel well for long distances, so we had to stop often and I consumed large amounts of caffeine, compliments of Starbucks coffee shops along the way. We arrived after dark, and my mom served us homemade soup.

She was still tired from her slumber party, so we retired early in order to get some of the rest I had hoped for. Due to my caffeine overload, I was unable to sleep, so I roamed the house looking at the relics of my past. It brought back memories.

My family moved to a new house when I was in junior high.

Our house was out of the city limits, so we had a septic system and a water well. These tanks and pumps were new to us since we had always lived inside the city and they took getting used to. There were certain things that could go wrong, which would result in no water until the pump or tank were fixed.

During my sophomore year in high school, the city announced that they were going to provide city water to our neighborhood, and it would be available to all the homes.

The only catch was that the homeowner had to lay a line to the "tie in," which would run along the street.

Our house was set back about 100 feet, so that meant a trench would be dug to the street and then the plumber would put in the pipes.

My father loved to save money and with three girls, he figured it would be cheaper to pay us to dig a trench than to pay the plumber. In addition, it would serve as a character-building experience for us.

I vaguely remember him saying that digging a trench was a skill we might need later, and he would pay me to dig it. As a teenager, I loved to make money, and I volunteered for the job.

It was summer, but I reasoned it could hardly be that difficult to dig a narrow trench, and I could be finished before it got too hot. My father put out stakes and then ran a string between them to give me a guide.

I distinctly remember that after almost half a day of digging, the job seemed too large to tackle in one day. I told my father I would have to finish the following day, because I had plans that evening. I explained that I had a date with Cliff, a boy from church.

My dad was usually a reasonable man, but explained that the plumber would arrive the next day and the trench had to be finished before he arrived and so he suggested I cancel my date.

I am sure I begged, whined and cried, but he did not give in. So in the end, I called Cliff and explained how "mean" my father was. His solution was to show up with his own shovel and together we finished the ditch by nightfall. We ended up being too tired to go out and had supper at home caked with dirt.

My mom reminded me of this story when I visited this weekend. I think she brought it up because we were talking about how easy certain tasks are in life when you have the right tools.

I asked her why my dad would not have hired someone to dig that ditch or even rented a "ditch witch." She smiled and reminded me that my father was trying to build my character.

When I arrived home from my journey, I began to prepare supper for Sunday night. Taylor would be returning from a medical mission trip that he had taken to the desert in the northern part of Mexico, and I wanted him to have a good home-cooked meal.

I prepared a pork tenderloin with a champagne mustard sauce, zucchini ribbons, shredded spaghetti squash and a mini-Bundt corn pudding.

This menu is fast and easy, as long as you have the right tools. A hand held mandolin slicer is essential in the kitchen. This device can be made from stainless or plastic. It allows you to make paper thin vegetable cuts, such as zucchini ribbons or potato chips.

The right tools make all the difference when you are cooking.

Spaghetti squash is a yellow, oblong winter squash perfect for low-carb diets.

Myra Starkey lives in Victoria. Write her in care of the Advocate, P.O. Box 1518, Victoria, TX 77901, or e-mail myra@vicad.com.

• SPAGHETTI SQUASH

  Cut it in half (lengthwise).

  Scrape out the seeds and pulp as you would with any squash or pumpkin.

  Bake cut side down for 1 hours at 350 degrees. Using two forks, shred the strands. ...

• SHOW ALL »

SPAGHETTI SQUASH

Cut it in half (lengthwise).

Scrape out the seeds and pulp as you would with any squash or pumpkin.

Bake cut side down for 1 hours at 350 degrees. Using two forks, shred the strands. Dot with butter and salt.

PORK TENDERLOIN WITH CHAMPAGNE MUSTARD SAUCE

Marinade

cup soy sauce

3 Tbls. brown sugar

3 cloves garlic, crushed

2 pork tenderloins

Mustard sauce

cup sour cream

cup mayonnaise

1 Tbsp. champagne mustard

1 Tbsp. finely chopped green onion

2 tsp. garlic vinegar

Prepare marinade by combining soy sauce, brown sugar and garlic. Place in a glass pan and pour marinade over tenderloin, turn occasionally. Remove from marinade after 3 hours. Reserve liquid. Pour reserved liquid into a saucepan and boil for 5 minutes. Place pork in a shallow roasting pan. Roast 425 degrees for 30 minutes. Baste the tenderloins periodically with the reserved liquid from the marinade while roasting. Pork tenderloin should reach 160 degrees. Prepare sauce while pork is roasting. Combine sour cream, mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar and green onions. Mix well. Slice pork thinly and top with sauce before serving.

CORN KERNELS AND CORNMEAL BREAD

1 tube pan or individual tube pans

1 cup white or yellow fine grind cornmeal

1 cup flour

cup sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. red pepper flakes

tsp. salt

2 eggs, separated

cup milk

cup heavy cream

1 stick butter, melted

2 cups fresh or frozen yellow corn kernels

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, red pepper flakes, and salt in large bowl. In a small bowl, mix egg yolks, milk, cream, butter, and corn with a whisk. Add egg yolk mixture with dry ingredients. Stir until mix is moist. The batter will be lumpy. With an electric mixture, beat the egg whites to soft peaks and then fold the whites into the batter. Spoon the batter into a large greased Bundt pan or individual Bundt pans. Bake in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until golden on the edges. Invert onto a rack and cool. Let stand for 15 minutes before cutting into slices.

• Print
• •
• Share
  • Share this item

    Send this to a friend

    Share on FaceBook

  • Grab the link

    Copy and paste the link:

  • Blog about it

    Blog about this page.

  • Close
• •
• Post a Comment
• •
• Favorite
• •
• Report error
  • Thank you for your submission.
    Error report or correction

    Contact name (optional) Contact phone/e-mail (optional)  

    
  • Close
• •