Year End 2021

It was a year to remember. This is my annual report for 2021. Life has continued.

This year I achieved the status of Old Person with the arrival of my 80^th birthday. I enjoyed another year of longevity with Pete Weiler by my side. We are still a couple after five years, and still single. Pete is good, generous, helpful, enjoyable and a wonderful companion. Having him with me mattered greatly during a year of staying at home much of the time due to the Covid-19 pandemic. I stayed home a lot but still found things to do.

Pete and I played card and board games, watched streaming programs and videos, brought home plenty of carryout meals and went on a few short trips around the state. We saw some American Players Theater professional plays in person or online, and we visited Ten Chimneys, the home of actors Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. We traveled to Milwaukee and took in an immersive exhibit of Van Gogh paintings which were greatly enlarged and projected onto walls.

One highlight of the year was granddaughter Andrea’s wedding to Jed. Our families got together on Labor Day weekend in the great outdoors of Spring Green and enjoyed all the festivities. It was wonderful to have all my adult children there and see this great couple tie the knot. They are living and working in Madison.

A less pleasant occurrence was the break-in at my home in June while I was vacationing at Washington Island (more about the island later). Someone broke windows and entered my home. Daughter-in-law Sherry discovered a broken bedroom window when she came to water my outdoor plants. She and my son John found drawers emptied onto the floor, contacted the police, and then called me. I am thankful for my loving family. Fortunately, very little was taken and apart from two broken windows there was no vandalism. Most of my valuables, which are minimal anyway, were not taken. Whoever did it might have chosen to rob someone who actually had something to steal besides a lot of original artwork. The burglar didn’t even take the drawerful of my (deceased) mother’s jewelry. We never found out who broke in. 

I took several trips of Washington Island during the summer. My island home is the local campground. In addition to staying there I showed three of my colored pencil drawings at the island Art and Nature Center’s annual exhibit for the summer. One of the island visits was tent camping with daughter Dori and her husband Steve and their son Robbie. I am getting old for camping in tents, but it was fun and went well. The other times at the island included housing in a cabin on the campground. I love being there in the woods. Pete did not accompany me to the island. 

The pandemic lessened my volunteer activities during much of the year. The library reopened for in person service in September so I went back then and resumed my usual duties. The senior center arranged to have committee meetings on Zoom; I am honored to be on the Committee on Aging and the Senior Center Foundation board. We did some other gatherings online as part of my volunteer tasks for the senior center.  Giving back to the community by volunteering is important in my life.

We had a year of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, which I think of as a plague. A new President took office January 6 while protesters enacted a violent riot at the Capitol; we watched it with shock via television and the internet. Mass shootings ocurred in schools, shopping centers and even a Christmas parade. Businesses, churches, schools and workplaces closed their doors for much of the year while Covid raged and many people worked and studied at home via Zoom. Many have reopened with some requiring masks and vaccinations for participation. Wildfires consumed the American west. All these happenings contributed to my stresses and wondering where it all is going and what will happen next. That’s the news for the year.

 

Cooking as Autobiography - Zucchini Bread

 

Cooking as Autobiography .

Zucchini Bread

In years gone by, people kept recipes on 3.5 inch cards in files in boxes. I have a box like that and I also treasure the very old box from my deceased mother-in-law. The cards told us how to prepare specific dishes, with more or less detail. But they do more than that sometimes. They remind us of the circumstances that prompted us to write and save them. That can be reminders of our life experiences or events. When I dig around in my old box, I see recipes from old friends and relatives, from old cookbooks of the past, from forgotten but newly remembered times. And then there are recipes about how to prepare something without having to find the old cookbooks that provided them. Boxes of memories.

Here’s a happy example from when we lived in Green Bay. I was surprised one day when daughter Elizabeth (Libby), then about eight or nine years old, came home with a card in her hand. She had been playing with neighbors Leah and Erica. It was summer and the zucchini was ripe. The girls’ mom, Randee, had a recipe for zucchini bread, which Libby wrote onto a new recipe card and brought home. It is written in Libby’s little-kid writing with associated little-kid misspellings. I didn’t ask for it but was glad to have it. I look at it now and it warms my heart for all the good times those kids had when they were little. It reminds me of Randee’s neighborliness in offering me a way to cook something. Zucchini bread is very good.

I have been making zucchini bread from that recipe on the old card ever since. I made it again yesterday, with a bit of modification. When I eat and share the bread, I share the memories. Recipe cards can be autobiographical. Now my recent recipes are word processed and placed in a 3-ring binder. The old box is obsolete but remembered.

Here is the recipe as given to me on that beautiful summer day, with misspellings corrected. Libby is a smart adult person who now spells words better. She cooks well too. 

Zucchini Bread (2 loaves)

2 cups sugar                                                1 teaspoon salt 

1 cup oil                                                       1teaspoon baking powder

3 eggs                                                            3 teaspoons cinnamon

2 cups chopped zucchini                        3 cups flour

2 teaspoons vanilla                                  2 teaspoons baking soda

Mix sugar, oil and eggs until well blended. Add zucchini, flour, soda, salt, making powder, vanilla and cinnamon. Mix well. Put in 2 medium sized greased and floured loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Use tooth pick test. 

p.s. My modification is to use less sugar. It’s still good with 1 ½ cups sugar.