How to Preserve a Husband

I know some of you who know I write mystery are thinking I'm looking for a way to hide a body. ;) 

This is a note I found under Preserves and Pickles in The Oregon Trail Cookbook by Leslie J. Whipple. This is a cookbook I purchased years ago while working in a stationary store. It is getting pretty ratty because I not only use many of the recipes but I also enjoy reading the anecdotes about families that traveled the Oregon Trail.

How to Preserve a Husband

Dorothy Winn Crawn

Be careful in your selection; do not choose too young, and take only such varieties as have been raised in a good moral atmosphere. When once decided upon and selected, let that part remain forever settled, and give your entire thought to preparation for domestic use.

Some insist on keeping them in a pickle, while others are constantly getting them in hot water. Even poor varieties may be made sweet, tender, and good by garnishing with patience, well sweetened with smiles, and flavored with kisses to taste, then wrap well in the mantle of charity; keep warm with a steady fire of domestic devotion, and serve with peaches and cream. When thus prepared they will keep for years.

Another of my favorites in this book.

Wedding Cake

Ralph M. Wade

Four pounds flour of love,
One and one half pounds of buttered youth,
One and one half pounds good looks,
One and one half pounds sweet temper,
One and one half pounds blindness of faults,
One and one half pounds sifted forgiveness,
One and one half pounds powdered wits,
One and one half pounds dry humor,
Two tablespoons sweet argument,
One and one half pints of rippling laughter,
One and one half wineglasses full common sense.

Put the flour of love, good looks, and sweet temper in a well furnished house. Beat the butter of youth to cream. Mix together blindness of faults. Sift forgetfulness, powdered wits, and dry humor into a sweet argument, then add this to the above. Pour in gently rippling laughter and common sense. Work it all together and bake gently forever.

                      Happy Valentine's Day!

Register Rock

I'm on the road headed to Romcon in Colorado Springs. Yesterday I left Oregon and drove across Idaho. I made several stops, but not of a historical nature until less than 40 miles west of Pocatello, ID.

Driving along the freeway I was in awe of the wide, blue Snake River that wound along the bottom of a draw below the road. I've traveled along the Columbia River many times in my travels and have always been enthralled by the depth and breadth of it. And the way it is in constant motion with white caps, and movement. I've also rafted the Snake in the Hells Canyon and felt it's power and energy as the large raft bounced, nearly folded, and recovered in the rapids. But this portion of the Snake River along Hwy 86 runs slow and languid. The blue stretching from shore to shore like a large mirror. I kept staring at it imagining when it becomes the river I know from my rafting trip.

 I pulled my gaze from the river and spotted a sign that said Historical Site Register Rock. So I swung off the freeway and followed a paved road two miles back the way I'd traveled and found a small pristine picnic area and a large rock surrounded by chain link fence.

 This is a spot along the Oregon Trail where pioneers stopped for the night or sometimes a few days to rest. Men, women, and children carved their names and dates on the rock to let others know they had made it this far.
The First historical western romance I wrote had a bit in it about the Oregon Trail. But that's one book that will never see the light of day. It was a practice book. ;)

 There was also a fenced off rock a little ways away from the large Register Rock. This one has two heads carved on it. A preacher which was hard to see on the left and an Indian that is on the right and easier to see.

If I find anything interesting today, I'll toss it up tomorrow.