537
Hi Everyone,
The year was 1974, and the weather outside was frightful. The day dawned with clouds in the sky, and rain all around. It was Thursday, July 25—the day my Grandmother turned 36. The weather outside might have been gloomy, but one young lady was far from gloomy. My Grandmother’s oldest daughter spent her day getting her hair and nails done because that night she was marrying the love of her life. My Mom was 19, but her love for my Papa went back to when she was 16. Papa was home from college for the Christmas break, and a friend wanted him to meet a girl named Tarri. They met one day while she was out riding her horse. It was brief—but it was enough for Papa. Tom was attending Forestry College here in Lake City at the time, so once the Christmas break was over he returned to college. When spring break rolled around though Tom went looking for Tarri, and as Mom puts it—it was love at first sight and they began dating. Tom realized that forestry was not his calling in life and joined the Navy. A year later they planned on getting married just as soon as Tarri graduated from High school—but the day the wedding dress arrived Mom chickened out and postponed the wedding until October. When the wedding invitations arrived in the mail she chickened out again—this time because Papa was due to go overseas for six months just two weeks after their wedding and honeymoon. Mom was afraid that she wouldn’t love him when he got back. He got back—and yes they were still madly in love with each other and the wedding date was set for July 25—her Mother’s birthday. My Mom and her sister’s had made a deal that they would all get married on their Mom’s birthday—but in the end Mom was the only one to follow through with the idea. The funny part was that it fell on a Thursday that year, which is not a normal day for a wedding, but Mom has never been concerned about following the norm, and while some questioned her logic, she was determined to get married on her Mother’s birthday. My Mom’s stepdad was not exactly for the wedding at first—he wanted them to live together for a year, and then if they still loved each other he would give his consent. Mom and Papa were Christians and living together was not an option. Her stepdad finally consented, but told them that he didn’t believe they would last married longer than 5 years. Well, last Thursday (what a coincidence) Tom and Tarri were able to add a “0” on the end of that 5 as they celebrated being married for 50 years! God has been so good to them—and me!
This time the day was not gloomy and rainy—but sunny and HOT! Papa spent his morning moving sheep, cows and chickens to new pastures; while Mom and I milked the cows. Then Papa hooked the bush hog mower up to the tractor and mowed some pastures and Mom jumped on the zero-turn riding mower and mowed some too. Once lunch was over they worked together assembling a little bit more of the garden tunnels in the new Market Garden area. Then they raked up the grass behind the Poultry Kitchen and hay barn that Mom had mowed. I caught them in the act of working together and took a quick video to show people how my parents spent their 50th Wedding Anniversary. You can see it here.
While my parents were outside being farmers on the 50th Anniversary, I was inside being a chef and event coordinator. Papa had asked if I could please make a special dinner—and I did. Both my parents have had some dental work in the last month and have temporary crowns—which mean they cannot eat anything hard or chewy. Therefore, a steak dinner was out of the question. I thought and thought and slowly the menu came together. I started with the dessert. On Wednesday I took some yogurt and poured it into our yogurt strainer. I was planning on making a cheesecake, and I do not buy cream cheese, I use yogurt cheese instead. When I was done milking the cows Thursday morning I came inside and sat down to read the recipe for the cheesecake—I have a terrible habit of not reading a recipe before I start cooking. Thankfully I did this time for it called for soft butter—which meant I needed to take it out of the fridge, which delayed my beginning by about an hour. When I finally got around to starting the cheesecake I had one concern—we do not own a spring form pan! I went to the computer and asked “What to use if you do not have a spring form pan?” The answers came back stating that I could use a 9 x 13, a tube pan, a Bundt pan, or two pie plates. Then I saw that someone had used muffin tins lined with paper cupcake liners, and I liked that idea best of all. That also led me to look for a different cheesecake recipe, and the one I found was even easier than the one I was originally going to use—and it didn’t call for soft butter, but that was okay for I needed it later. While I found a recipe, I didn’t exactly follow it to the t. To me recipes are for ideas and measurements—I choose the ingredients. Instead of graham crackers or chocolate wafers I used ground hazelnuts. The recipe called for 2 cups of cream cheese, but to my dismay the strained yogurt only gave me 1 ½ cups of yogurt cheese. Since the recipe called for 1 cup of sour cream, I decided to make up the lack of yogurt cheese by increasing the sour cream. In the end I had 18 little Cherry Cheesecups—and I am sharing the recipe with you on my Recipe Blog here.
With the cheesecake made I could move on to the rest of the menu. I had started with the end of the meal, it was now time to focus on the beginning—the appetizers. I made some Peach Lemonade and a Melon Salad. Then I took some time to decorate. I covered a foam board with pink and white tissue paper and then I attached some of their wedding pictures, a few of their unused wedding invitations, cut out words that said Happy 50th Anniversary, and a copy of the menu for the night. I put a rose colored tablecloth over the island in the kitchen and placed the board on it along with their Wedding album that is full of their wedding pictures. I found a box of wedding cards from their friends and family and placed them in a white wicker basket on the island too. I almost forgot—I had two bouquets of flowers too. I just had to take advantage of all the zinnias growing in the summer gardens. You can see pictures of the décor on our Facebook page at Shepherd’s Hill Farm.
To add to the already busy kitchen work for the day—I also had to make two batches of yogurt. While my goal was to have those dishes and the other dishes in the dishwasher before we ate, time was ticking by too fast and it was getting close to dinner time before I knew it. At 5:00 my parents came inside for some water before they headed back out to separate the calves for the night—and then I told them that they must get showers and be all clean and nice for their dinner. When they next arrived in the kitchen they were ready for dinner. I took pictures and then we enjoyed the appetizers as we looked at the pictures and cards. Then I heated up the carrot soup—some home canned soup that all I had to do was heat, blend and serve. Then we sat down at the table and enjoyed our soup. When the soup course was over I headed back to the kitchen to finish the main course. I had herbed white sweet potato wedges baking in the oven, now I just had to cook the Garlicky green beans and the Chicken Piccata—you can find my recipe for that here. I had the garlic and butter in the pot already and the chicken was soaking in the egg and milk mixture. I turned on the burners and sautéed the garlic and added the canned green beans—and the beans were done. The Piccata only takes 3 minutes on each side to cook so in ten minutes the main course was on the table piping hot. When I sat down to eat that course I realized that my work was done—I had accomplished what I had set out to do. All I had left to do was to serve the dessert, and it was already plated and waiting in the fridge. The meal was a huge success, and my parents were well pleased. There was just one problem when it was all said and done—the kitchen and the sink were full of dirty dishes and no one had any energy to do them. I joked that it would take until Saturday to get the kitchen clean—and truth be told, it did.
How grateful I am for the loving Christian family that God has allowed me to grow up in—and how truly grateful I am that in a day and age when divorce is rampant my parents have remained married for 50 Blessed years. Now they are aiming for their 75th Anniversary.
If you were wondering—yes, farm life really did happen last week. Cows were milked, weeds were pulled, salves were made, a calf was born and the Thanksgiving turkeys arrived . . . BUT, my parents only celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary once in their life, so I just had to tell you all about it.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare