Curtiss Ann Matlock

May 17

Gluten-Free Raisin Pie

I baked hubby’s favorite for his birthday yesterday– raisin pie. Since I’ve had a couple of requests for the recipe, I decided to post it here.

I base my recipe on one I found when I inherited my grandmother’s copy of The United States Regional Cook Book, copyright 1949, which provides the interesting tidbit that another name for raisin pie is funeral pie. In the pioneer days, people often had to travel a long distance to funerals. Of course, they had ‘dinner on the grounds’, and raisin pie was favored because of the general availability of raisins and because the pie would keep on a journey of days. Although the pie does not keep for days around here.

I got this photo of the remaining two pieces from last night, before they were scarfed up.

Gluten-Free Raisin Pie

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Filling:

3 cups dark raisins
1 cup each orange juice and water
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons tapioca or arrowroot starch
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind

Mix all the ingredients in a sauce pan. Heat over medium heat, stirring often until the mixture thickens, about ten minutes. I’m guessing there, and everyone’s stove is different. Set aside to cool (it will thicken even more) while you make the crust.

Pastry crust of your choice. For gluten-free, I recommend Gluten-Free Pantry Pie Crust Mix. Line a 10 inch pie pan with the crust. I’ve resorted to just patting the bottom crust into place.

Pour the filling into the pie crust. Traditional topping for a raising pie is lattice work pastry. I roll out a circle of gluten-free pastry and cut it into triangles that I arrange on the top, leaving wide open spaces of filling. This not only makes a nice design, but it is easy to do.

Bake on the bottom rack of the oven at 425 degrees for 10 min and then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and cook another 20 – 25 minutes, or until the crust is looking nicely golden. Best when cooled completely to serve.

And our little Sweetie-Pie had whipped cream on his.

Since I’m not a real cook, someone be sure and email me if you see a mistake in the recipe.

Blessings,
CurtissAnn

May 5

2 Comments

Love In A Small Town

Everyday people with ordinary lives fill the pages in a Matlock novel but the tension, emotion, humor, and frustration come through loud and clear. And she shows us in each story how love is a treasure, sometimes throwing in just a touch of magic to remind us of the serendipity in everyday life. ~Amazon review

Mollie and Tommie Lee have been married for twenty-five years. They grew up in Valentine, Oklahoma, and were sweethearts from the get-go. But something is missing in their marriage, and Mollie can’t bear to stay where she doesn’t feel loved. Tommy Lee is confused and hurt and angry when she leaves for the refuge of Aunt Hestie’s empty cottage, but he has complaints of his own. In her unique voice, Curtiss Ann Matlock uncovers the heart of their story—their passion and promise, their hopes and dreams.

Excerpt from Love in a Small Town:

With resignation she began rinsing the dishes in the sink and putting them into the dishwasher. A dark line on one of the plates caught her eye, and she paused, gazing at it. The plate was one of the set her mother had bought for them up at the old TG&Y store in Oklahoma City, when she and Tommy Lee had gotten married. The plates were cream colored, with a black and yellow line and a single spray of yellow daisies around the rim of each plate and cup. There were only three of them left, and the dark line on this one was where it had been broken and glued back together. Staring at that line, Molly counted back the years and thought maybe she should send a letter of testimony to the makers of Super Glue.

She thought, too, how the plate was a reflection of her marriage.

The next instant, she lifted that plate and smacked it on the divider of the white enamel sink.

Sounded like a ball going through a window. Molly scrunched he eyes as tiny pieces of china peppered her face and flew into the air and out across the counter and down on the floor. The bigger pieces clattered into the sink.

Molly was shocked. She stared at the shards.

Goodness! What had she done?

Mortification crept in. It simply wasn’t done, breaking an innocent plate, no matter that it had a glue line. It certainly wasn’t done by Molly Jean Hayes, mother of three grown children, certified public accountant, and upstanding member of both the chamber of commerce and Methodist church. The action was destructive, wasteful…and possibly a little deranged.

But by golly the reckless act felt so darn good that she did it twice more with the two yellow daisy plates remaining in the sink. Lifted the plate and brought it down, felt the impact and the disintegration, and heard all the shattering, then did it again.

There. She supposed she could break a few dishes in her lifetime if she wanted to.

I don’t know how you responded to that passage, but I read it and began to chuckle. Molly and Tommy Lee’s story is one millions of couples have experienced. It is about about learning that love is a choice, one you have to make every day. And that we manage to do it so often is the magic of living.

There is much about my own life in the story of Molly and Tommy Lee, but let me be clear: I have no sisters, only one son, and my mother never gets up for breakfast.

Take a break from the world and enjoy a little Love in a Small Town!

Blessings
CurtissAnn

May 1

GOD WINKS

Reblogged from The Alzheimer Roller Coaster:

One of my daughters has always used the term, “God Winks,” whenever something appeared to be a coincidence. There are no coincidences,’ they are little nods of approval from God, but you have to be open minded and have an open heart to see them.

Today was a beautiful breezy, sunny day. A perfect day for pushing a wheel chair around the grounds of the memory care unit, for sitting on the patio and chatting.