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and I looked forward to them every time we visited! I think hers were a different recipe, however; I suspect they had red hots in them, as they were bright pink and very cinnamon-y. I just bought a watermelon this week--you've inspired me to give it a try!
Have you ever tried processing them (ie water bath or pressure canner)? My fridge space is limited.
Bookerc1,
I imagine they were delicious w/ the red hots in them. It is interesting how many variations of Watermelon Rind pickles there are.
I hope you do get the chance to make them; please let me know how it turns out.
My mother processed them eons ago but we haven't processed anything w/ a water bath or pressure canner in probably over 30 years so I certainly can't remember anything much about canning. I can't even remember why we stopped canning; maybe our canning supplies burned up in the house fire.
Thanks so much for reading and commenting.
April
Durn it, when I cut into the watermelon, it has almost no white layer. It goes almost immediately from hard green rind to pink flesh. Wonder if the seedless melons tend to be that way, or if I just picked a poor one for pickling (say that three times fast!). Harrumph. Now I'll have to buy more watermelon!
Bookerc1,
Maybe the seedless are worse about that since they are hybrids. Picked a poor one for pickling, picked a poor one for pickling, picked a poor one for pickling. I can write it, but I can't say it. I think I might add that to my idioms. That would sound good. If there are problems of any type on anything, I could say; Well, I guess I picked a poor one for pickling. LOL
Well, at least you'll have lots of watermelon to eat. If you put watermelon in a blender (or in my VitaMix), it makes a great juice.
My grandma used to make these as well, and I remember they were always a special treat when she did. Grandma was a great cook who didn't need recipes. She just grabbed a pinch of this and a handful of that and everything turned out great. I remember once when I was pretty small, I wanted to make a recipe that someone had given me. Of course, I had to have Grandma's help, but she didn't deal with the 1 1/2 cups of that, 1 teaspoon of this. It confused her and the recipe wasn't the same. Looking back I really have to admire the way she cooked. Not only was it instinctive, she had all her recipes memorized, because they weren't written down anywhere.
Here's my favorite Grandma recipe: When I was finished with my freshman year in college, Grandma had been in a coma for many months. My Mom and I visited the nursing home twice a day. Just a couple of weeks before she took her last breath, Mom and I were sitting in her room discussing the things we wished we'd done with her, talked to her about, etc. I said that I wish we had her boiled custard recipe (It's a rich, warm holiday drink, similar consistency as egg nog, but a totally different taste). No more were the words out of my mouth, than a soft whispery voice said, "Well, it's easy. You just separate a dozen eggs and put the "yellers" (that would be the yolks) in a pot with a gallon of milk (that would be whole milk, of course) and several handsful of sugar (2 cups seems to be right). Boil it for a little while (5 minutes), then whip the whites and take the pan off the stove and fold in the stiff whites. Add a little bit of vanilla (2 Tablespoons) or other "flavoring." ("Flavoring" in my tee-totaling part of the Bible Belt mean whiskey).
Grandma had not spoken a word in months and this recipe was the last thing she said. I had written it down on a piece of scrap paper and I thought it had been lost over the years. Then, recently I was getting Mom's house ready to sell, and I came across that scrap of paper. This holiday season, we'll have grandma's boiled custard. And I guess I'll have to hurry up and make her pickled watermelon rind now that I have a recipe!
Wow tomtedbear, what an incredible story! Just goes to show that often those in comas are still in there somewhere, and can still hear what you say! How wonderful that you still visited her so often, over such a long period of time!
I sure wish I'd spent more time baking sweet rolls with my grandma, instead of just eating them! She'd won so many ribbons at fairs, and they were famous. Her recipes were like your grandma's...pinches, handfuls, sloshes. She could tell everything she needed to know by how it felt and looked.
What a memory; thanks for sharing the story and her recipe. Amazing.
I understand; my grandmother made wonderful biscuits when she was old and blind AND at our house, not at her own kitchen. She said for us to just put the ingredients on the table; she would know the items by feel.
She measured by a pinch and a fist, too. The biscuits were wonderful. It is one of the last memories I have of her.
Thanks, tomtedbear, for taking me down memory lane also. I'm glad you have some recipes to share with the generations to come. I wish I had a recipe for Grandma Potter's Biscuits.
Here's yet another off-topic story that ties in. My Mom was already in the hospital in bad shape when she suffered a heart attack. It was obvious she was on her death bed. My sister made some remark that caused the nurse to ask us to step out of the room. She told us that recently another woman was dying and her family had gathered around her. But she hung on for a while. Eventually, someone from out of town commented that they couldn't keep missing work, but they didn't want to go all the way home then have to turn around and come back for the funeral. Then somebody got around to saying that if nobody else wanted it, they'd like to have her car. Someone else mentioned something they would like to have. And so on and so on.
As you've probably figured out, she came out. Her first words? "I'm sorry I'm not dying fast enough for you!!!"
Remember these stories whenever you have a loved one who isn't conscious. You can share your memories with them and maybe you'll get a long-lost recipe. Or you can talk about what how inconvenient the ordeal is and who gets what after they're gone and be very embarrassed (and possibly disinherited!).
I think I'll make your grandma's recipe. What was her first name (or her last)? I'll name it ______'s Custard if anyone asks for the recipe. Would that be okay?
I'm sorry about your mom. Was this recently? My DH's dad died recently and I was upset about something someone said while standing over him as well. I'm glad the nurse told you all the story.
Tomtedbear,
As I recall, my mother made hot eggnog (the only way we ever drank it was hot!) and the recipe your posted seems to be exactly the same!
I remember her whipping those eggwhites and folding them into the hot custard mixture. I remember a sprinkling of cinnamon on top of the eggwhites, and the addition of some pure KENTUCKY BOURBON "flavoring".
I tried to get all the favorite recipes I could from my mom before she died from lung cancer, and the one I missed was this one! It was a New Year's Eve tradition to have friends over for eggnog and cookies!
