The Countdown

In one week the week of all weeks will have arrived. Sitting on my counter are three - so far - bags of grocery supplies. Recipes are tucked inside the bag and spices have been gathered. Menus are formed and activities planned. Let the fun begin! This is an incredible time for our family. This week, family will gather from Ohio, Michigan, California, Washington and Colorado. There are four generations to hug and kiss and bask in the glow of shared activities. There will be an Asian grill, a Texas barbecue, a tailgate party, a Beach bums baseball game to be enjoyed and more! Every night over drinks and apps there will be an ongoing cornhole game that pits in ever changing permutations and combinations all family members.



After dinner we'll pit men against women in a gin game called Slip Ass - there I said it! Facing each other across the table a couple plays a gin game. Scores for the round are tallied and whichever side wins slips to face a new opponent. My Dad - The Iron Duke - is the master of the game and teaches the uninitiated. His team of men receives admonishment and coaching from him throughout the evening. Believe me you don't want to let him down. Even the youngest generation participates. Cammie learned years ago and plays well. Eli anticipates the time he can stay up to play. After being snuggled in bed he sneaks down to sit on his dad's lap and help his Dad play. He asks when he can stay up to play. His Momma and Daddy assure him he needs to be older than he is. He goes after playing cards with a vengeance. Mom and Dad have a deck of cards with 26 pairs of trout flies used to play Go Fish. Before he even had hopes of reading Eli learned all of the cards by name! He could look at the card and announce the name of the fly.



Since we have so many little guys aged 6, 3 and 3 months lots of time is spent in child thrilling activities. Gabe and Eli love soccer and baseball so there will be lots of that and Mira will be cuddled and passed from person to person to meet and greet her family. Cammy will bring a friend who has some history with us and knows the drill of the Henry week. We'll have a bonfire one night with somemores. We can canoe and paddle and swim and the sun worshippers will be risking melanoma.



The food is incredible. We start the week with Mimi and Bobo's Tony Packos hot dogs and pickles with beans and Mimi's potato salad and brownies. Various people take nights and plan meals for the family to enjoy. I am generally the culinary risk taker. This year the Asian grill will be my personal challenge. It will be comprised of three entrees with sides and a souffle cake dessert. The entrees will be smaller more so people will have bites of different things rather than a normal portion. Should be great fun. My Dad makes an incredible brie with nuts and sweet topping. I found a recipe for an Asian version with macadamia nuts which should be great. I'll share the recipe later.



So for the people who always require a recipe I'll share a dish I made last week for Lee from the garden. It was a great meal shared with laughter and new tastes. An ode to the week to come with my precious family!



Eggplant with Summer Squash



2 medium eggplants peeled and sliced lengthwise

2 eggs

panko bread crumbs

1/2 salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

vegetable oil



2 summer squash cut in chunks

1/2 onion chopped

1 clove of garlic minced

1 green pepper cut in med chop

2 roma tomatoes cut lengthwise and then sliced in medium chunks

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 Tbsp. capers rinsed and drained

1 tsp lemon zest

juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp. herbes de provence

salt pepper

2 T. butter



Heat pan and add vegetable oil to 1 inch depth in a large frying pan. Bring the oil to a high temp. Beat the eggs and add 3 Tbsp. of water and combine thoroughly. In a shallow dish put the eggs in another dish place the panko and salt, pepper and garlic powder, mix well. Dip the eggplant in the egg mixture then dip in the panko and then fry in the oil. When one side is brown turn the eggplant to the other side. Alternatively you can place the eggplant on a greased pan and spray with a little PAM. Bake in a 425 degree own until done. Flip over once after about 15 minutes. The eggplant is done when a fork easily pierces the crust and eggplant beneath. Keep warm.



While the eggplant cooks, heat a large pan with a Tbsp of olive oil. Add the onion and saute about 5 minutes then add the garlic and squash. Saute until tender. Add 1 tsp of herbes de provence, lemon zest and juice, and capers with pepper and salt. Toss gently and add the knob of butter to melt and combine with the juices and herbs to make a butter sauce.



Put some eggplant on a plate for each person. Top with the squash and serve. It's really yummy and so rewarding thinking that most of this came from your garden!

A cozy family lunch

Today was such fun. Sister Sue, Lee, Aunt Dorr and I had a wonderful family lunch in Cincinnati. Sue started a tradition of taking Aunt Dorr and me to lunch every year as a Christmas treat. Sue graciously included Lee who loves spending time with our family. Lee's family is in Texas and her Mom passed away last summer. Most opportunities for her to get a fix of being with family come through mine. She's found similarities to her own parents in Mimi and Bobo. She and my Mimi are two chatterboxes when they get together. Lee loves to talk about family issues with Mom and thinks its critical to share important news with her as well. Lee also is very fond of my sisters and my aunt so getting together is fun for everyone. The bonus was we were able to see Tom, Sue's husband and my very favorite brother-in-law. It was too cold to golf so Tom was home making chicken divan and planning to work out.

The lunch at Parker's was delicious and fun. It's an old house with fireplaces and cozy seating. Aunt Dorr returned from a 3 week trip to Petra, Egypt and other haunts last month so we needed to hear about the trip. Pretty amazing for a woman in her mid-eighties to travel half-way around the world. She had a great time. She and another woman friend arranged to travel through a group. She did lots of sight seeing, a cruise on the Red Sea and lots of shopping. Aunt Dorr is well known for her awesome shopping and bargains. I have to digress to tell an Aunt Dorr shopping story. When my children were about 4 and 2 one of the things we loved to do was to go to Cincinnati to visit the Christmas display at the Krohn Conservatory. Aunt Dorr's been a volunteer there for many years and knows just what to see. Outside the conservatory was a nativity display with live animals. We were gathered in front of the display when Jon yelled and said "Aunt Dorr, the sheep are on sale!". All of the sheep had tags on their ears and Jon was convinced there was a markdown and that this was a real buy. Needless to say it's been a great story that touts the fact that Aunt Dorr's found some very interesting bargains.

Time together today included some reminiscing about her Mom and Dad - Grandma and Grandpa Oechsler. Aunt Dorr recounted that Grandma was very social. She had bridge club and garden club, civic duties and her work as secretary for her national music sorority Mu Phi Epsilon. She usually arrived home from these activities about 30 minutes before Grandpa returned from work. Aunt Dorr told us that often there were written instructions for Aunt Dorr and Mom about getting dinner started. After these duties, Mom and Aunt Dorr went up the block to stay with Mrs. Randall until their parents returned home. Grandma was very organized. She was the manager for the team of secretaries in a Toledo law practice when she met Grandpa who was a cashier at the Toledo Trust bank. They dated before Grandpa went off to WWI. They corresponded through the war and married after he returned. She carried her organizational skills through to her home.

She loved us deeply and was very proud of all of her family. She was affectionate and warm but she really believed in holding fast and firm to society's rules. She had definite ideas about women's roles and what little girls should do and not do. Granma called my Mom every day to offer lots of guidance to my Mom about how to run her home and her family. Grandma was convinced that Mom was very lucky to have married my Dad. My grandparents loved music and in particular loved classical music and music from the theatre. She and Grandpa were also avid gardeners. Their backyard was incredible and when they moved to a smaller home after retirement they lavished attention and hard work on the new garden. They loved fresh vegetables and would drive to the country to purchase vegetables from their favorite farmers. It was wonderful to go with them and see the array of vegetables and some choices that were unique back then. Some of the best was patty pan squash and eggplant. At our house eggplant was fried and Dad loves it with maple syrup. Grandma made a wonderful scalloped eggplant baked an served in the shell that is still a favorite with me. Here's Grandma's recipe for scalloped eggplant. It's great as a dinner sid and wonderful for lunch with a salad.

Scalloped Eggplant

1 large firm eggplant
3 T. olive oil
3/4 C. onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 C. chopped celery
1 C. chopped raw mushrooms
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 C. milk or half and half
1 C. crushed cracker crumbs (Ritz)
3 T. melted butter
1/2 C. grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Grease a baking dish and set aside. Preheat oven to 350.
Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise. Carefully remove the eggplant from the shell leaving a 3/4 inch shell. Cut the eggplant pieces in small cubes.

In a large skillet, heat the oil to medium high. Saute the onion, mushrooms and celery for 7 minutes then add the garlic. Add the chopped eggplant and saute until lightly cooked. Transfer to a large bowl. To the contents of the bowl add mushroom soup and milk. Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste. Mix well and spoon the eggplant into the shells.

In a small bowl mix together the crumbs, cheese and melted butter. Sprinkle the crumbs over the eggplant. Place the eggplant in the baking dish and bake for about 40 minutes. It should be bubbly and brown. If you'd rather not use eggplant shells you can place the eggplant mixture in a greased baking dish, cover with crumbs and bake.

This is one of my quintessential Grandma Oechsler recipe memories. Thanks again Sue for a wonderful lunch and an opportunity to make more family memories!