Angie's Pie Crust

This is the recipe Angie uses to make three pie crusts. When I asked if they were for 9" pies, she got really disgusted with me for asking, as if there were any other size, so I think that's what they're for. Actually, I think she got disgusted that I would ask such a silly thing because from her perspective, you use as much as you need and either freeze the rest or make something else (like cinnamon roll-up-thingies) with the left-overs.

3 cups flour
1 cup shortening
1 1/2 tsp salt
7-8 T ice water

I just wanted to note that I'm putting this here for anyone who wants it, but I personally prefer a shorter dough made from a combination of butter and shortening :-)

Joe's Family

I don't know if I have this right, but Suzanne or someone can correct me. Joe married and had a child (Jacqueline), but for some reason they said she was adopted. Jackie eventually found out that she wasn't adopted and got in contact with the Beislers. Her daughter's name is Suzanne. Here are some photos of their family that Suzanne has sent me.

Jackie's dental school graduation, 1974


Suzanne and Ken with Santa, 1955

Suzanne 4, Ken 2; 1955

Suzanne aged 15, 1966


Christmas Photo Card, 2006:
Suzanne and Adam
Suzanne and Jackie
X

Christmas Cookies and Candy

Grandma Beisler's Caramel Fudge with Bitter Choc
1 box light brown sugar
1 T butter
1 cp whole milk

Put on stove and cook till it comes to a boil. Simmer to soft ball stage. Remove from stove and cool for a little bit. Add vanilla and beat. Pour into buttered pan.

2 squares bitter chocolate
Melt in double boiler and pour over caramel.

Mom says this is always a bit grainy, and I remember that, too.

Grandma’s Sugar Cookies (also called Aunt Dot’s Sugar Cookies b/c she made them for Gma--I remember them as always being round, about 2 1/2 inches, not various shapes--these are crisp cookies, apparently Grandma liked them rather brown)

1 cp crisco
2 cp sugar
4 eggs (room temp)
1 T vanilla
5 - 5¼ cp flour
2 heaping tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ cp milk

Cream sugar and crisco.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add vanilla.
Sift flour, bp and salt together. Add alternately with milk.
Bake at 350ºF for 10 - 15 minutes.

Aunt Anna’s Sugar Cookies (These are soft cookies.)

1 ½ cp powdered sugar
1 cp butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp almond flavoring
2 ½ cp flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar

Bake at 350ºF for 8 - 10 minutes.

Divinity

2 cp sugar
½ cp corn syrup
½ cp water
2 egg whites (¼ cp)
Dash of salt
¾ tsp vanilla
1 cp black walnuts and candied cherries, chopped

Combine sugar with corn syrup and water. Stir over low heat until all the sugar is dissolved and mixture starts to bubble. Boil over medium heat to 260ºF.

Remove from the heat and let stand while egg whites are beaten to stiff peaks. Salt is added to the egg whites while beating them.

Slowly add the syrup to the egg whites, beating on low. (Add slower at first, then pour more quickly.) After all the syrup is added continue beating on med to high until candy holds a definite shape and no long streams form a spoon. This will require at least 15 minutes of beating. A test can be made before the beating is stopped and unless the dropped portion holds its shape immediately, beating should be continued.

When it is ready, vanilla is quicky stirred in, along with nuts and cherries, and then the candy is dropped on waxed paper in teaspoon-sized pieces. It may also be poured into a pan (8 x 11 inches) and cut into squares.

Grandma’s Molasses Taffy

1 (1 lb) box brown sugar
1 bottle dark karo (2 cups)
2 T butter

Stir continuously.

Boil to hard crack (stringy): 300ºF

Pour onto marble. Pick up (when cool enough) and pull till pale brown.

Mom and the aunts talk about remembering how Grandma would take her rings off to do this and that she could pick it up even when it was still incredibly hot.

Modjeskas

2 cp sugar
2 cp heavy cream
2 T butter
1 ¼ cp white corn syrup
Pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla
¾ pound marshmallows, cut in half with scissors (or see recipe below)

Combine sugar, 1 cup of the cream, butter, syrup and salt in a heavy 3- or 4-quart sauce pan. Put remaining cup of cream in a small pan and heat it separately. Bring sugar-cream-butter mixture to boil, stirring constantly. Wipe down sides of pan with wet cloth or cover with lid briefly to dissolve remaining sugar crystals.

When it begins a rolling boil, dribble the hot cup of cream into the boiling mixture, stirring. Don’t let the boiling stop. Cook over medium heat, stirring as necessary to prevent scorching, until thermometer registers 238 degrees. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Allow cooked caramel to stand 10 minutes before starting to dip. Drop marshmallow half into caramel, then, with a fork, turn it over to coat completely and lift out, pulling the fork over edge of pan so surplus runs back into pan.

Place each piece on buttered or oiled surface, such as cookie sheets or clean counter top. When set, wrap each piece separately in square of waxed paper.

Marshmallows

2 T gelatin (2 envelopes)
½ cp cold water
2 cp sugar
¾ cp light corn syrup
½ cp hot water
2 tsp vanilla
Confectioners’ sugar

Put gelatin in an electric mixer bowl. Pour in cold water and mix well. Let stand.

Put sugar, corn syrup and hot water into a saucepan and blend well with a wooden spoon. Place over low heat until sugar is all dissolved and then increase the heat. When mixture boils, put in candy thermometer and continue cooking without stirring.

When thermometer registers 244º to 246º, remove from heat and pour into gelatin, beating all the while. Continue beating until candy thickens and is slightly warm. At least 15 minutes is required.

Blend in vanilla and pour into two pans (7 x 7) that have been lightly buttered and dusted with cornstarch. Set in a cool place or refrigerator until firm. Remove from pan and cut into pieces, dusting each piece well with confectioners’ sugar. Scissors can be used if dipped in confectioners’ sugar between cuttings, but a large knife will also work well.

Russian Tea Cakes

1 cp soft butter (2 sticks)
½ cp sifted confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 ¼ cp sifted flour
¼ tsp salt
¾ cp finely chopped pecans

Mix butter, sugar and vanilla thoroughly.
Sift flour and salt together and stir in.
Mix in pecans.
Chill dough.
Roll into 1" balls. Place on ungreased baking sheet.
Bake at 400ºF until set, not brown, 10 - 12 minutes.
While warm, roll in confectioners sugar.
Cool.
Roll in confectioners sugar again.

Makes 4 dozen cookies.

Sea Foam (one of Mom's favorites)

3 cp light brown sugar
¾ cp water
1 T lt corn syrup
2 egg whites (¼ cp)
Dash of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Measure brown sugar, water and 1 T corn syrup into a 2-quart saucepan. Blend with a wooden spoon and place over low heat, stirring continuously until the mixture begins to dissolve.

Continue stirring until the mixture boils, then put in your candy thermometer and boil without stirring over medium-high heat until thermometer registers 256º.

Remove from heat and let stand while egg whites are beaten to stiff peaks. Salt is added to the eggs while beating them.

Slowly add the syrup to te egg whites, beating continuously.

After all the syrup is added continue beating until candy holds a definite shape and no longer streams from a spoon and loses its gloss. This will require at least 15 minutes of beating. A test can be made before the beating is stopped and unless the dropped portion holds its shape immediately, beating should be continued.

Vanilla is stirred in just before candy is dropped in teaspoon-sized pieces on waxed aper. Walnuts or pecans may be added–they combine well with brown-sugar candies.

Springerle

1 lb powdered sugar (3 ½ - 4 cp)
4 eggs (room temp)
1 T + 1 tsp butter
1 T corn syrup
1 lb flour (3 ½ cp)
1 ½ tsp anise oil

Beat eggs till light yellow and thick. Add sugar, beating well after each addition. Add remaining ingredients. Bake at 300º - 325º for about 15 minutes. They should be white, not yellow or brown.

*Dust dough with cornstarch to keep it from sticking to the rolling pin.

*These are soft. If you would like them hard, leave out the butter and corn syrup.

Bourbon Balls

1 (1 lb) box (3 ½ - 4 cp) powdered sugar
½ stick butter (¼ cp)
1/3 cp bourbon

Mix powdered sugar and butter with fork. Add bourbon. Mix. Roll into balls. Chill in fridge. Dip in dark chocolate.

These were Angie's specialty. I think she got the recipe from her sister-in-law Lucille.
I have found that Old Forrester makes stronger Bourbon Balls than Early Times, which Angie always recommended.

Gus-isms

I hope I'm not repeating myself on any of these! Sorry if I am.

Gus used to say the funniest things.

• diarita instead of diarrhea
• Shirley Pimple instead of Shirley Temple
• corrigulated cardboard instead of corrugated cardboard (Why was he saying that?)
• window ceiling instead of window sill
  

Klein Siblings

Klein Siblings, 1975

Klein Siblings, 1969 (and, yes, I remember being totally
envious of Gina's outfit and also thinking I was just too cute)

Kevin's Birth Announcement

Back Row: Fritz, Gus, Kevin
Front Row: Chris, Eddie, Mitchel, Nikki, Freddie

Nikki

Back Row: Gus, Nikki, Kevin
Middle Row: Fritz, Chris, Mitch
Front Row: Eddie

Nikki, Fred, Chris and Mitch

Beisler Siblings

Clockwise from left: Vince, John, George, Mary

Joe, 1922; Expert Rifleman's Badge, Marines

Joe, 1937; Navy

Joe's military history

Serena

Angela (ca. 1960)

Vincent

Anna, Angie, and Rita at Bill's grave, Zachary Taylor Cemetary
(Bill died of a heart attack. He was married to a German woman, Frieda. Grandma always said Bill could have been president, which always made the others laugh.)

Bridget-isms, etc.

• When I was little I thought Graham Crackers were called that because you always got them (with milk) from Grandma (ie, Gramma=Grammcrackers).
• I always thought the world "suitcase" was "soupcase" and always wondered why since you didn't carry around soup with it. Sometimes it still slips out!
• It took me forever to pronounce "spaghetti" correctly. I always said "basketti."
• Since I was the youngest, I had to sit next to Dad at the dinner table. He salted my plate before I even had any food on it. He also rapped my knuckles with his butter knife if I used my fingers.
• Being the youngest also meant I had the "privilege" of saying Grace. I think they actually just liked to hear me say it because I had my own version: "...and knees I give..." I never could figure that out about the knees! Fred says I also said "from my bounty," but I don't remember that.
  
• When I couldn't sleep I'd try to count my brothers and sisters--in the right order--instead of counting sheep. Worked every time!

Grandma and Grandpa Beisler

Johanna and Mark Zimmerman (Grandma's Parents)

Max Zimmerman (Grandma's brother, died when he was 81, was "ornery": he liked women)

Grandma Beisler ca. 1970

Grandma Beisler ca. 1960

Grandpa Beisler (ca. 1930-1940)

An Article about Grandma in The CJ

Aunt Bridget's Dangerous Cooking

Mom didn't go with us the last time Mary and I went to visit Gina, so I had to do more cooking than I usually do there. My achilles' heel, as I told the boys, is over-salting things. As I was cooking, Alec started asking me questions about high blood pressure and salt. When we sat down to eat, Erik said he liked the spinach because I had over-salted it. Alec cried out, "Oh, no! Your're going to give him diabetes!" Obviously, he was getting sugar and salt mixed up :-)

Erik-isms

• Erik once asked Jim if he could cut his toast using Grandma Klein's recipe: on the diagonal, in four triangles.
• Once while waiting out in the van with Erik for Gina to get something in the grocery, I noticed that he was awfully quiet, so I looked around to see what he was doing. When I saw that he was picking his nose, I said, "Eee! Gross!" His reply: "Well, don't look!" (Mary loves this story.)
  

Pumping Angie for Info

I recently tried to pump Angie for information about our relatives in Indiana. Here's what I got:

• Grandmas had 20 (?) sisters and brothers--her father was married twice.
• Mary, Hilde, Flora, Eve, Carrie, George (wife: Kate)
• Once they told me Grandma had 7 real siblings and 7 half siblings.
• Once they also told me that Mary's husband Herman lived in the basement (?) and that he was really German and would stab anyone with his knife and fork if they put their hand in front of him (while he was eating?) and that everbody was scared to death of him. They lived on Burnett and went to St Elizabeth Church. They had 8 kids: Marie, Rose, Tony, Joe, Hermie, Antony and Antonette (twins).
  
• Grandma's dad used to bring barrels of wine (via horse and buggy) over the Ohio River to sell in Louisville.
• Mary and Anna went over all the time to pick strawberrries and play with George's kids who were about the same age.
  
• Aunt Eve (Eva?) was one of Grandma Beisler's sisters. She was a few years younger than Grandma and she lived to be 106.
• She had a home on the Knobs.
• Eve's children: Marietta, Irvine, Alfred, Bernie
  
• Angie went over there to pick strawberries and was good friends with Marietta (one of Eve's daughters). Marietta's husband died and so she lived with Aunt Eve.
• Bertha was the daughter of Carrie and was the oldest of 8.
• Raymond, Evelyn, Anna-Lee, Sr Dolorita
  
• Mom recently told me that Grandma came over to Louisville to take care of Grandpa's mother who was very sick and that she really hated it. She must have beeon only 15 or 16, so I can understand why. Apparently, his father had already died.
  

Excerpt from an Email from Kevin

Chris got a haircut, which if you looked at the picture on the website, he badly needed. He got what the inmates call a death cut. We boys would know it as one of the old man's burr cuts. Chris
said the cutters were even hot like the old man's used to be when he got to about the third kid. For the girls of the family, you may not be able to relate; but it was always good to be the first or second in line when the old man cut hair because the cutters were cool. After that, given the shortness of the cut, you could swear the old man was burning strips of hair off. If you were not the first or second in line, you could only hope that the old man had to take a break so that the cutters could cool a bit.

Daniel and Devin

Gina and I used to go visit Kev and Jo every summer when we were kids. Two particular stories from that time stand out in my memory.

When Daniel was around six years old, I guess, he had misbehaved once and wasn't allowed then to go with Kevin to check on the bees, which they were keeping at the time. The kids were very dramatic, a fact which was evidenced in Daniel's reaction. After Kevin sent Daniel to his room for being bad, we heard the usual howls and bawling. What we heard next left us laughing so hard, we all practically peed in our pants. "My daddy, my daddy!" we heard Daniel exclaiming in a voice that would make any well-trained Shakespearian actor jealous. He continued, "I love him so much! And he never takes me anywhere!"

I remember one morning talking to Devin when she threw suddenly threw into the conversation, "Yesterday, when I was older than you..." I guess she was about four years old. I remember suddenly feeling like I was in the Twilight Zone.

Short and sweet but stories I will never forget.

Call Me Again Sometime

Mary called Anna to wish her Happy Birthday. At the end of their conversation Mary said, "Well, I thank you for calling me." Anna replied, "You called me!" to which Mary answered, "I'll do that!"

It will be no wonder if I end up on the Funny Farm!

Oh, the Excitement of Funerals!

When I hugged Alec goodbye the other day, I commented that he'd be as tall as I am when I saw him next. He said, "Oh, no. We'll be back before that." "Yeah," added Eric, who was standing nearby. "We have to come back for Aunt Angie's funeral," he finished up, with a grin of excitement at the prospect of returning soon. I just about screamed that I couldn't believe what I had just heard! Of course, they are so young (8 and 10) that they really have no idea what they're talking about and how dreadful it will be for all of us when Angie does pass away. Well, I'm glad at least that they would be happy to come back as that shows that they have a good time here.

I remember Uncle Johnny's funeral as the first one I went to. I never knew who he was till he died. I remember wondering who that old man in the casket was and how it could be possible that I'd never known him if he was related to us. It never occurred to me that he was Jo Beisler's father or Aunt Gin's husband. I remember the hat he had over his hands. They say they put a deck of cards under there!

When I hugged Alec goodbye the other day, I commented that he'd be as tall as I am when I saw him next. He said, "Oh, no. We'll be back before that." "Yeah," added Eric, who was standing nearby. "We have to come back for Aunt Angie's funeral," he finished up, with a grin of excitement at the prospect of returning soon. I just about screamed that I couldn't believe what I had just heard! Of course, they are so young (8 and 10) that they really have no idea what they're talking about and how dreadful it will be for all of us when Angie does pass away. Well, I'm glad at least that they would be happy to come back as that shows that they have a good time here.

I remember Uncle Johnny's funeral as the first one I went to. I never knew who he was till he died. I remember wondering who that old man in the casket was and how it could be possible that I'd never known him if he was related to us. It never occurred to me that he was Joe Beisler's father or Aunt Gin's husband. I remember the hat he had over his hands. They say they put a deck of cards under there!

Growing up caticorner to the funeral home, it was a strange event when we actually went in there. Well, other than to collect the paper bill and then we always used the office door. I think the next time I went in the front door was when Grandma Beisler died. I was nine years old. I remember not fully comprehending what death meant. What does that mean? As if I comprehend it now that I'm older! I mean that I didn't fully understand all the implications or even understand it enough to have seen it coming. I guess I had thought Grandma would live for ever. She just was and then suddenly she wasn't. I don't remember much about that funeral home visit or the funeral or anything. Odd. Nor with Uncle Preacher. Surely not because it wasn't important to me, but, then, I don't remember being overcome with grief either. Sometimes I think I feel a lot more grief about such things now. I know this must be what it's like for Alec and Eric with Eddie. And even with Gina, their own mother. With the one, they didn't think much about his existence till he died and with they other, they think don't think much about her existence because they think she'll live forever. And with Angie...it would be just an excuse to get together and have a party. Like it was with Grandma Klein's funeral.