Family Recipe Friday - Wontons

My mother was the General Manager at the local Holiday Inn when I was little and as such she had a restaurant to oversee. I fondly remember helping dye Easter eggs for the restaurant when I was little. Talk about a kid's dream! Hundreds upon hundreds of eggs that needed dying and me and my sisters to do it.

I remember the summers when my mom was at work and we would call the number for the "Time and Temperature" repeatedly because we weren't allowed to swim unless it was 80 degrees outside.  Then we'd call my mom at work and ask for her to come and get us so we could go to the pool.

I remember the arcade that was in the hallway of the main building with the candy vending machine that we would always bug our mom for money for, and the Ms PacMan game that we would all play (and my sister, Aimee, would kick everyone's butts at....including the adults!)

While I have those memories one of the things that I remember so fondly (but didn't know it was even connected to my mom's time at the Holiday Inn) were her wontons.  Yummy, yummy, wontons!

My mother taught me how to make these wontons when I was a teenager.  It was after I went to live with her so that would be sometime in the Fall of 1989 or later.  I asked her how she learned to make wontons and she told me that she was taught during her time at the Holiday Inn.

These little hors d'eouvres are very addictive and are great hot or cold (I love them cold, personally). My mother used to get the powdered chinese mustard, mix up some of it and dip them in, but you can use regular mustard, you just won't get the spicy kick.

Normally, I follow recipes by precise measurements.  That's more of a baker's habit and I know that in cooking you need to be able to estimate.  I'm not really the best estimator and I still like my measurements, but I'm getting better at simply cooking from memory.  This recipe has some estimations, and some of them are quite odd, but you'll get the hang of it quick enough.

WONTONS


1 lb ground pork
1 egg
8 scallions, chopped
Soy sauce
1 pkg wonton wrappers

In a bowl add the ground pork, egg, and scallions.  Generously shake soy sauce over the ingredients in the bowl.  When the ingredients look lightly coated, mix it all together with your hands.  Now here's the odd part...smell the mixture...if it has a pretty good soy sauce smell, you've put in enough.  Otherwise, add more and mix again.

Put some water in a small bowl and place your wonton wrappers on a small plate.  Grab a wrapper and place it on your plate so it looks like diamond (not a square) then place a small amount of the meat mixture (it's about 1/3 of a teaspoon...the kind you use for coffee, not for measuring) in the center of the wrapper.  Dip your finger in the water and wet the top left and right corners of the wrapper.  Bring the bottom half of the diamond over the meat and seal the edges by pressing down.  Wet the bottom corner of the wonton and wrap both bottom edges around your finger, pressing to seal.  Fold down the tip of the top of the wonton and then place on a dish (my explanation is rubbish so check out the pictures and video below).

Heat canola oil in a large pan.  Deep fry the wontons until golden brown, attempting to turn once during the cooking.  Wontons will float a few seconds after placing them in the oil.  If they don't use a slotted metal spoon or tongs to dislodge them from the bottom of the pan so they don't burn.  Once they are golden, remove to a plate or bowl with paper towels to drain.

OK, now I said, "attempting to turn once" and there's a reason.  If there's any air in your wonton when you wrapped it, you're not going to be able to turn it.  It'll just flop back over.  Don't worry though.  The wontons will still cook, they just won't look as pretty.  I've been making these for over 20 years and I still get wontons in every batch that have air in them.

I don't really know what the temperature of the oil is when I deep fry the wontons.  I heat the oil over medium-high heat and I wet my hand and flick a drop of water in the pan [gasp].  I do stand back when I do it (and all throughout the deep frying), but this was how my mom taught me to tell if the oil was hot enough.

Also, if you put too much meat in the wonton it will bust open when you try to fold it.  It still happens to me, I just squeeze the meat mixture out back into the bowl and start with another wrapper.  Wonton wrappers will dry out so don't let them sit out until you're ready to use them!

It all sounds complicated, but it really isn't and they are so yummy!  Whenever I make them for a party they disappear FAST.

Good luck trying them and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!

The Unknown Collection - The Final Class Photo

At least it's the final class photo in my collection.  Who knows what may be uncovered years from now. Again, I know little except that it's from my Quirk family of the Hazleton, PA area.  Again, I don't recognize anyone in the photo, but I maintain that keeping a class photo has some significance.  Sure you keep portraits of friends and family, but you don't usually keep random class photos of some friend's kid or even another relative.  I think it was someone from the immediate family, but who?

I'm rotten at dating photos too, so if anyone has any ideas about around when it looks like it was taken, I'd love the input!

Tombstone Tuesday - Serendipity in a Cemetery

Mountain View Cemetery, West Hazleton, PA

I was preparing to post on the 1930 census with another census form, but weeding, mulching and trying to avoid being eaten by fire ants occupied the majority of my day so the census form wasn't completed. At least it's almost done so it should go up next week.  The trials and tribulations of trying to get a home in order to be put on the market!

I like sharing tombstone photos on my blog, as well as on other sites like FindAGrave.com because I know how important they can be in research, so it was only natural for me to do a Tombstone Tuesday post, but on who?

In the end I decided to do one on someone that wasn't even a member of my family.  Her name was Jane Rich, but she was known to my mom, aunt and uncle, as "Aunt Jane".  At some point, Jane began living with my great aunt Marian Brown so "Aunt Jane" she became and she outlived my great aunt Marian by about 13 years.

I didn't even know where "Aunt Jane" was buried when my mom and I went cemetery hopping this summer.  I had grabbed some flowers from the local Lowe's to put by the tombstones and we were off to Mountain View Cemetery in West Hazleton, PA to place flowers by my grandparents, Clarence and Florence Tabor nee Bronsavage's, grave.  The conversation in the car was about Aunt Marian and "Aunt Jane".  I was seeking clarification on who exactly Jane Rich was and as my mom was talking about her we looked to the right of the road and saw a tall family marker with "Rich" on it.  We stopped the car and got out and wouldn't you know we were standing there looking at Jane's gravesite.  I, naturally, had to take a picture or her stone (as well as the stones nearby).

I don't know much about "Aunt Jane" but a quick search tells me that she was the daughter to J. William and Edith Rich nee Morris.  She was the oldest of three known children of William and Edith, a younger brother named Harry (who was in the 1920 census, but missing from the 1930 census and may have died) and a sister, Harriett who would have been born a year or two after Harry was born. Her tombstone tells me that she was born in 1908 and died in 1965.

Other information that I discovered (and I will have to verify this when I get back home in reach of additional resources and records) is that Jane most likely studied at Pennsylvania State University and majored in Home Economics.  She was a member of the Chi Omega sorority (both details I discovered in Penn State's 1930 yearbook "La Vie") 

We think that after Aunt Marian died that "Aunt Jane"  ended up with most if not all of Aunt Marian's belongings.  Oh how we'd love to have some of those photos that are most likely never to be found!  One in particular was of Aunt Marian in a beautiful dress leaning against a piano.  It would be a happy day in my family if we ever found that photo!  Here's hoping that someday we'll be able to track down that photo!

Amanuensis Monday (Sort of) - Just a Little Neat Information

I was feeling a bit lazy this afternoon.  I had just finished reading a great book (Girl With the Dragon Tattoo...very good but NOT for kids!) and didn't really have the motivation to get moving on a blog post. I decided to check my files for something military-flavored for a Military Monday post.  In doing so I grabbed the obituary for my cousin Monsignor Aloysius McElwee.  Msgr McElwee had been a Brigadier General in the Army and had led quite a full life (you can read more about him in his obituary here).

Even though I had already posted his obituary and didn't have any new information on him, I became curious as to whether or not I could easily find a picture of him online (preferably in his uniform).  No such luck.  I skulked back to Ancestry.com and was about to look at family trees to see if anyone had him in there with a picture that I could beg to use when I came across a passenger list with him in it.

Extract of the S.S. Manhattan Passenger List from Ancestry.com

Apparently he was a passenger on the S.S. Manhattan that left Genoa, Italy on June 2nd 1940 and was heading back to America with an arrival of June 10th.  It also gave his address which I will have to look for his family there in the 1940 census now!

Why do I find this neat information?  Well it said in his obituary that he "...took his preparation for the priesthood at the Collegio Brignole Sale Negroni, Genoa, Italy, and was ordained by the Most Rev. Francesco Canessa, D.D., in Genoa on May 18, 1940."

So Aloysius was on his way back to America, a newly ordained priest.  To me that's fairly neat!

Now to find a picture....

Breastfeeding...Be Warned

OK...because I know that there are very ignorant narrow-minded easily offended people out there that may not wish to see a picture of a nursing baby, I will take this opportunity to state that if you are offended by that sight, then do not read the rest of this post!  You have been warned.  Do not go to the comment section and complain about the pictures when you've been told in advance to not look if you're offended by it!  So let's get to it....

A shocking surprising topic for a genealogy post?  Not so in my opinion.  We all know that at some point in our ancestry everyone had an ancestor that was breastfed.  Sure, just as today when breastfeeding fails, there is formula.  Perhaps when it failed in our ancestors' past it was goat's milk or cow's milk, but it didn't fail for all of your ancestors.  Someone breastfed.

Why create a blog post about breastfeeding?  Well, it's been a subject of some news articles recently to include Facebook removing pictures of breastfeeding mothers.  While I won't really get into the debate here, it made me want to relay my story.  My breastfeeding family history.  To those that have nursed, it is important in a way that can be hard to describe.

Why did I breastfeed my children?  I didn't really think about it.  I just was going to.  It was never a discussion my husband and I had either.  I was going to breastfeed and he fully supported that.  Is that shocking?  No, but my husband did not come from a breastfeeding family.  His mother did not nurse him or his sisters and our nephews and niece were not nursed.  Is there anything wrong with that?  No.  I was delighted and impressed that not only my husband, but his family supported me.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm blessed with my family.  The one I was born into and the one I married into!

So why was the decision to breastfeed not a choice at all?  Not even a decision I had to make?  Simple.  I was lucky enough to have a mom that gave my sisters and I another sister when we were much older than most kids would be.  I was 17 when my baby sister was born.  My older sister was 20!  I got my diaper changing experience as a teenager (I'm sure my sister is cringing at the thought!)


My mom nursed my sister.  She worked a couple miles away from the house and would come home when the babysitter would call her to nurse.  I don't recall ever feeling uncomfortable or embarrassed when I watched my mother feed my sister.  I thought it was the cutest thing in the world and I loved it.  So when I got pregnant there was no thought process to it.  During a conversation with my mother on the phone she brought it up and asked if I was planning on breastfeeding.  My response was along the lines of DUH (in a completely respectful way).  I'm sure she was relieved.

It then brought up the conversation as to why she breastfed.  Was it just the norm at the time?  Did her mother encourage her to breastfeed us?  Nope.  My mom's story was short, sweet, and rather amusing.  Yes, her mother breastfed my mom and her siblings, but apparently grandma had commented that my mom wouldn't be able to nurse because she thought her breasts were too small.  Maybe grandma needed glasses a lesson in the human body.  Mom did fine.

Since I was living in Hawaii and was lucky enough to have my aunt and uncle out there.  My aunt being a nurse/midwife I always assumed that she breastfed because, being a nurse/midwife, she knew that it was best.  Of course, I sometimes forget that my aunt had a life before midwifery.  A life when she first had her children.  Yes, I can be silly and forget things like that.  So when I asked about why she decided to breastfeed she told me that she never decided to.  That my mother told her that she would breastfeed so she did.  That got a good chuckle out of me, but it shows the loving relationship between them.

Was breastfeeding easy?  No.  For something so natural it can be frustrating and painful (to both momma and baby).  There were times that I thought my kids were going to suck my nipple right off I was going to scream it hurt so much.  Thank God for lactation consultants and family.  One visit to a lactation consultant taught me a proper latch for my oldest son and we did great.  There were some drawbacks.

I got sick over Mother's Day weekend the year my son was born.  My husband was in Australia so he wasn't there.  I had a fever of 104 degrees and was terrified (panicky mom syndrome) that I would pass out or die in the apartment and then who would help my baby.  By this time I had another uncle and his wife that moved out to Hawaii.  I called them for help.  They lived right next to the military hospital.  While they were great and I value their help, I should have been smarter and called my aunt the nurse.  Why?  Well, I couldn't have known then, but when we went to the hospital the doctor, despite my informing him that I was a nursing mother and wanted medicine that I could take and safely nurse my baby, gave me medicine that I couldn't nurse my child while taking.  I had to pump and dump and my baby had to go to formula for the next week.  If I had been smart and brought my other aunt, I'm sure she would have known more about what they could do for me.

This threw my milk production way off and I was no longer producing enough to feed him on demand and pump while at work so that he would have milk in daycare.  As hard as I tried, I couldn't get my milk to increase and I certainly couldn't tell the Army that I needed a week or so at home for lactation reasons....oh would if I could!  So from that point on, we were supplementing with formula.  I was not a happy mama about it.  I was even less happy when 9/11 happened.  It was my first time in the field since having my baby.  I even brought a pump so I could keep my milk up...and then Osama bin Jackass happened.  At that, I just put the pump away.  There was no way I was going to be able to take time away from duty to pump. I had my own reasons for wanting to hunt down bin Laden.  For what he did to America and for what he did to my breastfeeding!

Was it easier with my second child?  I'd love to say that it was and I'd love to say that something so instinctual and natural was a breeze, but it wasn't.  It was perhaps even more frustrating with my second son and I felt more like a failure when it wasn't working.  He was feeding, but he was hurting me more than his brother ever did and he never seemed to latch properly.  My older sister was my angel during this.  She came down to stay with me about 2 weeks after he was born so that she could help out and that was when I was a complete breastfeeding wreck.

My sister didn't nurse her daughter.  Her milk never came in and after several days of a frustrated mom and baby, she went to formula.  I can't say I blame her for that either.  I can't imagine what she went through, but she knew how much this meant to me, and my milk was in we just weren't having a great time and there were times that I was just a complete mess and a blubbering ball crying.  I'd gone to the lactation consultant and she was less than helpful.  I wasn't planning on going back because of how useless she had been and I had been starting to wonder if my baby was a little "tongue tied".  But my sister wouldn't hear of me not going back.  She took me to the hospital and right into the lactation consultant's office and told her that she needed to do something to help me.  It was very cool seeing my sister so forceful in demanding assistance for my nursing dilemma...and it worked.

We talked with the lactation consultant awhile and I let her know about my concerns that he was tongue tied.  We got in to see an Ear Nose and Throat doctor and wouldn't you know....mama was right.  A little snip under the tongue and several pairs of Soothies from the lactation consultant and it was smooth sailing. With my second child I managed to nurse just 2 weeks shy of a year.  I'm sure being out of the military and now being a stay at home mom made this a bit easier.

Did I ever run into that awful person that chastised me about breastfeeding in public?  Nope.  I did have a very good friend and neighbor that told me her husband would most likely be completely embarrassed if he saw me nurse, so I made sure not to nurse in front of him.  There's a difference when someone politely mentions their spouse's embarrassment and doesn't demand that you go away!

I will admit that I did breastfeed once intentionally to make someone feel uncomfortable.  One of the guys in my husband's unit really turned his nose down on women.  He was married and all, but a complete pig.  He would make comments about women in the military and how they would unfairly get promoted over men like him (it had nothing to do with the fact that a woman might be more qualified...heaven forbid!) and he would say these things in front of me.  So the next time he had a get together at his house and my baby needed to eat, I just threw a receiving blanket over my shoulder and popped the kid on.  Even though he couldn't see anything he was so offended he walked away.  I know...I'm mean.

I have boys, so I can't encourage them to breastfeed their children.  I can encourage them to encourage their wives, but it's not quite the same and most likely has less of an effect.  Breastfeeding is becoming more common now than it was when my mom and aunt had children.  It's even more common now since my first was born.  Hopefully the taboo that far too many people feel about a woman feeding her child will go away completely someday.  It certainly is the cheapest method to feed your baby!

It does make me wonder how many of my ancestors nursed.  My recent ancestors that is.  Breastfeeding.  Who would have known it was a part of family history.

The Unknown Collection Continues...

Another photo to share from my album of unknowns that was passed onto me through the Quirk side of my family from the Hazleton, Pennsylvania area.  Last week I posted a photo that I'm sure has a Quirk ancestor in it.  Call it more of a feeling than anything else since some from my Quirk line were teachers, or perhaps it was one of the children in the photo...either way, I see little reason to keep a class photo unless there is someone in it you know!  The teacher looks different in the photo here as does the school.

Still waiting hoping for someone to come along and solve the mystery of some of these photos!

Tombstone Tuesday - John J Enama

This post is in memory of my brother-in-law's father.  He lost his dad a few months after we lost my father-in-law.  That was a tough year for our family.  When I went home last summer I made sure to find his father's gravestone and to stop and pay a visit for them.

"Loving Dad and Pop-Pop

John J. Enama

Jan 8, 1940 - July 5, 2010

Life's Been Good"