Grandma’s Fairy Garden

“Don't you know that everybody's got a Fairyland of their own?”

 ― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins

I want to thank all of my Google+ friends who responded to my post on Hollyhocks My Grandfather's Home and described how as children they made fairies with their mother’s and grandmother’s. 

Today my two granddaughters were visiting and we decided to see if we could make hollyhock fairies.   What a wonderful time we have had and as I write this Emily and Ruth are outside making a fairy village, in our backyard.

This is a simple activity all you need are safety scissors, toothpicks and large flower blossoms that you do not mind being picked in the pursuit of creative fun.

Do you make hollyhock fairies with your grandchildren, nieces, nephews?

Please post a picture as we would all love to see?

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Dad's Scalloped Potatoes and Sausage Casserole

Dad’s Scalloped Potatoes and Sausage Casserole

My father loved scalloped potatoes and while I never asked I believe he preferred them to mashed potatoes, unless the mashed potatoes were those of Aunt Marjorie.

Dad had a favourite potluck dish that incorporated scalloped potatoes, stuffing and sausage.  Next to scalloped potatoes, stuffing and sausage were his favourite foods, in my opinion.

This summer we found a local 100 mile Market where we now get our vegetables and turkey sausage, an alternative to pork sausage that we prefer.  The weekend we purchased the turkey sausage it was too hot to cook inside and remembering Dad’s casserole we hauled out the cast iron Dutch oven and baked it on the BBQ.  Since that meal I have set out to recreate Dad’s recipe and now have a gluten and dairy free version to share with you.  My recipe serves 4.

Ingredients:

• 4 gluten free turkey sausage
• 2 cups of gluten free stuffing (you can make your own from stale bread or purchase a prepackaged version there are many goods ones on the market now)
• Add your favourite stuffing spices about two teaspoons is what I use.
• 2 1/2 cups of gluten & dairy free mushroom soup (here again you need to make your own as I have not found a product that is both gluten & dairy free)
• 2 cups of sliced mushrooms  (Note mushrooms were not in Dad's recipe)
• 4 large potatoes sliced thin

Directions:

• Place your potato slices on the bottom of a greased casserole dish
• Take your stuffing and moisten it in 1 cup of your mushroom soup and add your seasoning, place the stuffing on top of the potatoes
• The next layer is your sliced mushrooms
• Placing your uncooked turkey sausage on last
• Pour the remaining mushroom soup over top of this cover with either the lid or tinfoil and place in a 375 °F for 45 minutes.  Take the lid or tinfoil off and return to the oven for the last 15 minutes to brown the sausage.

From Our Table to Yours

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Wordless Wednesday

Canola Fields Ontario

Grandma Snyder

©twosnydergirls

Because we are family.

We are all born into a biological family.  A group of people to whom we are connected by genetics and it is at this point that the “we are all” ends.  In the moments that followed our birth how and "what family means" becomes unique to each of us. 

The truth about my family is only my truth and while similar to the truths my siblings hold theirs will be different.  Our birth order, the age of our parents at the time of our birth, what was happening in the world all conspire to ensure that my understanding of “our” family is very different than my siblings or my parents for that matter.

There are the minor glitches in life that draw attention to this, when one member of the family recalls an event or series of events and you are left scratching your head thinking when did that happen?  And there are the major events that cause an entire family system to stumble and take stock of who and what they know about the family.

This weekend I experienced just such a stumble when one member of the family actions were experienced as emotionally painful by another with the end result being the building of a permanent barrier between family members.   

I believe we remain family regardless of barriers, anger and hurt feelings – we are genetically linked and we share the building blocks of common memories - events that helped to make us each who we are individually and as a family.

Do family members have to like each other? No, life tells us that siblings have fought and killed each other since beginning of time and they are recorded in history first as family members, then sibling and finally as victim and abuser.

What are we to do when our family stumbles?  Do we call family meetings?  Plan interventions? Some family’s do, while others disinherit, stop talking, move away and create other types of families with other people.

What will I do?  

• I will continue to pray for all of the members of my family, 
• I will respect that I do not understand what our family means to them or how being a member of the family impacts them personally. 
• I will acknowledge that a family is made up of as many truths as there are members. 
• I will move on with my life and should the day come that a call for family support, protection, and or the need just to talk to family comes along I hope and pray I have the compassion to answer the call because we are family.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2014 twosnydergirls