Wisdom From Grandma

Grandma loved to bake peach pies or top pancakes with peaches instead of syrup. During the summer months, she would buy baskets of seconds and freeze them. Freezing peaches was much easier and faster than canning them, so she rarely bothered with canned fruit. Since she didn’t have a vacuum sealer, she used containers to hold her peaches. However, Nan, my mother, and I all use a vacuum sealer to prevent freezer burn. I really recommend this recipe over the more traditional peach canning recipe, because it is so simple to do and is not as dangerous as using a pressure canner. (Those things make me nervous.)

Ingredients:
Fresh peaches
3 cups of sugar
4 cups of water

Directions:
1. Wash peaches thoroughly.
2. Cut the fruit in half and remove the pit.
3. Peel the skin from the peaches.
4. Bring water to a boil.
5. Add your sugar to the boiling water and stir it in until it is thoroughly dissolved.
6. Let the syrup cool. Grandma put hers in the fridge for an hour.
7. Put three to four peaches into your container. Add enough syrup to thoroughly cover your peaches, but be sure to leave about an inch of room if you are using traditional containers. (You should use approximately 1/2 cup of syrup for each pound of peaches.)
8. Seal and label your container and place it in the freezer. (If you use a vacuum sealer, freeze the fruit and syrup for an hour or so before sealing or the syrup may get sucked out.)
Your peaches should last for a year, but if you are anything like my family, you will run out before next spring.
If you plan to freeze a large quantity of produce, you may want to take a look at the Food Saver, my favorite vacuum sealer:

After Grandpa Troutman died, Grandma had to provide for three children alone. However, she managed to balance the books with careful management and a simple financial policy that has passed down through the generations, thinking about big purchases overnight.
I remember the first time my mother repeated this bit of wisdom to me. I was about to buy my first car. The dealer told me this was the best offer I was going to get and I had to buy it right then. I was sure that if I thought about it overnight, I would lose the car, but there were other cars and other dealerships, so I agreed to follow her advice. Bright and early the next morning, the dealer called to offer me the same price he offered the day before with lower financing. Ever since then, I think about major purchases overnight.
The other day, my sister’s husband decided to buy her a car for her birthday. Of course, before they signed the paperwork, my sister wanted to think about it overnight and the next day they shopped around a bit more. Although she didn’t get to drive out of the dealership in her shiny new car on her birthday, my sister saved four thousand dollars when she got her car at another dealership the next day.

My grandfather loved to fish and retired to a house on the Chesapeake, where he could fish and crab to his heart’s content. However, he was a bit too good at what he did! He and Nan picked crab for hours and sent containers of crab meat home with everyone. Even the cat dined on fresh crab meat. Nan modified one of Grandma’s casserole recipes and it quickly became a family favorite.

Ingredients:
1 pound crab meat
Small green pepper
1/4 cup of celery chopped fine
Tablespoon of fresh parsley
Teaspoon of mustard
1 egg
1-2 tablespoons of mayonaisse
Dash of Worcestershire
Dash of salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Saute pepper and celery in a tablespoon of butter.
2. Add parsley.
3. Remove sauted ingredients from stove.
4. Mix sauted ingredients with all the other ingredients in a casserole dish.
5. Bake for 15 minutes at 375 degrees.