Remembering Grandma

Before I get into talking about grandma, I'd like to welcome back everyone.
Welcome back Mark, michelle, Bob, Peter (Holtsie), Karen, and Simon just to mention a few.

Well, this post has to be about my mother's mother, because my father's mother passed away just weeks before I was born, so I never knew her.

My Grandmother had some very unique things about her, but one is.. her maiden name was Fortier, and she married a man named Fortier! (of course no relation)

We lived in a two family house, with our family on the second and third floor and grandma and grandpa on the first floor. She was an AMAZING cook, and the matriarch of the family. What she said, WENT!

She came from a big family in Vermont (and before that Montreal, Canada), and at least once a year, most of the family came down to her house during the summer to visit.

When family came to visit, she pulled the padded cover off of her mahogany dining room table that would seat about 12 people (but of course, the kids were relegated to the smaller kitchen table).

She's the inspiration for the meat stuffing (not dressing) I made for this past Thanksgiving.

She also made the absolute best coffee cake I'd ever had. When my friends and I used to play in our basement, I used to sneak up and cut off a piece to share with my friends. Even they knew the sweetness of her coffee cake.

But I digress. When her family used to come down from Vermont, they always brought down cases of maple syrup as some of them owned sugar farms. She had a full size upright freezer, that at times, was almost full with just maple syrup! I never knew there was such thing as artificial syrup until after I was much older.

In the winter, she used to open a dozen or so cans, and boil it down slowly to make... well, I can't spell it, but phonetically it would sound like "tsear" (and roll the r). You could pour a spoonful of it over snow, and it would harden into almost a taffy. Best of all, you put it in a small bowl in the fridge, then when the urge hit, take a spoon and very slowly, wrap it around and around, then take the spoon with you and kinda suck on it. It was highly sugary, but hey, I was a kid!

More on her another time.

We have 2 parties to go to this weekend (one for our wine tasting club, another for a college graduation party for very close friends of ours.

That's it for now...(and I know not to make posts too long)... on to the news:

Female burglar discovers hidden office key, spends hours burglarizing office and putting items in her car, then accidentally locks herself out of the building...with her purse left in the office she just burglarized

What do you call a moose stumbling drunk on fermented crabapples in front of a dive bar with christmas lights tangled in its antlers? Buzzwinkle, of course (with pic goodness)

Scotland spends six months and $250,000 before unveiling their brilliant new slogan: "Welcome to Scotland"

Chilean prostitute pledges 27 hours of sex to charity, telethon ratings skyrocket

Here's a math problem that'll drive you nuts! (but it's SO fun!)

That's it for today... have a wonderful weekend!