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Muffins and Mayhem, Recipes for a Happy (if disorderly) Life
AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader
Dear Reader,
It's always good to hear from you. Thanks for taking the time to write. I answer all of my mail.
From my Email Bag:
"Dear Suzanne, you wanted to know how things turn out when we try your recipes. Today I made your Skunk Beans for the second time. They are delicious. But I would like to know, and so would everyone who eats them, where the name originated? It's such a curious name for such a good bean recipe."--Nancy Austin
(Suzanne replies:) My Skunk Bean recipe is one of my all-time favorites, but the story behind it didn't make my book, because I didn't discover it until after the book was published. Looking through old recipes I'd found in my mother's kitchen cupboard after she passed away, I discovered a folded, yellowed piece of paper with the heading, "Beans for Skunk Party." Instantly I was smiling, because I realized how my favorite beans got their name.
Almost every other Sunday evening the Tindell clan (including my dad, his four sisters, and Grandma and Grandpa Tindell) got together to play some serious Euchre. The kitchen in Grandma Tindell's house was so tiny, when the table was pulled open to seat everyone you had to hold your breath to walk around it. But that didn't matter, get out the blue and red chips, which represented pennies--it wasn't about the money--it was all about winning the game and could you "skunk" your opponents in the process.
Euchre isn't a complicated game, but until you've played awhile, the table talk can sound like a foreign language. "Fishing out, dead-set legend, the ribbit, farm hand or no ace/no face, follow suit, trump, and skunked--which means you and your partner lost the game without scoring one single point. Rumor has it that in some Euchre circles the partners that gets skunked, also get a "bum run." (If you and your partner get skunked you must run about a predetermined route--naked!)
I was just a kid, who sat in the living room watching The Wonderful World of Disney--alone, because none of my dad's sisters brought their children along. There was a wall between the kitchen and me, so as far as I know no one ever did a bum run, but I do remember my mother frequently taking Skunk Beans to the Sunday evening Euchre party.
So as it goes with life, out of something bad (constantly losing in Euchre) came something good--tasty Skunk Beans.
*To view my favorite recipes and recipes readers have submitted, go to: http://tinyurl.com/SuzanneRecipes
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
www.muffinsandmayhem.com
AUTHORBUZZ: LOVE ADDICT, by Ethlie Ann Vare
If you've ever curled up on the floor in a fetal position, staring at a phone and willing it to ring...felt your heart leap into your throat because you saw HIS car drive down the street, or gone out of your way to drive past HER house...it's what therapists call love addiction and I call affection deficit disorder. That's the bad news. The good news is, we can recover, and we can even laugh at ourselves along the way.
Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader, click on LOVE ADDICT to read more. Author Ethlie Ann Vare would love to hear from you.
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