My short story, First Flight, is up at Tor.com. It has absolutely goooooorgeous art by Pascal Milelli, which looks enough like my actual grandmother that my mom was disappointed that she didn’t have earrings on.
Why is it cool that she looks like my grandmother? Because she’s based on Grandma, even if the name isn’t the same. My grandmother, is still alive, well, and sharp as anything. She was born in 1905.
I got the story idea because we were sitting around talking about things she had seen and it is staggering. She remembers World War I, for crying out loud, and the Titanic. Anyway, when she turned 100, she said, “I figure the Good Lord put everyone on this earth for a reason. I just haven’t done my yet, so I better get busy.”
To celebrate, I’d like to share these recipe cards with you. I made them for Grandma’s 101st birthday and they are some of my favorite things she makes.
Here’s a teaser of First Flight.
Eleanor Louise Jackson stood inside the plain steel box of the time machine. It was about the size of an outhouse, but without a bench or windows. She clutched her cane with one hand and her handbag with the other. It felt like the scan was taking far too long, but she was fairly certain that was her nerves talking.
Her corset made her ribs creak with every breath. She’d expected to hate wearing the thing, but there was a certain comfort from having something to support her back and give her a shape more like a woman than a sack of potatoes.
A gust of air puffed around her and the steel box was gone. She stood in a patch of tall grass under an October morning sky. The caravan of scientists, technicians and reporters had vanished from the field where they’d set up camp. Louise inhaled with wonder that the time machine had worked. Assuming that this was 1905, of course—the year of her birth and the bottom limit to her time-traveling range. Even with all the preparations for this trip, it baffled her sense of the order of things to be standing there.
So, go on, read about my Grandma.
The recipes are amazing. Once I’ve printed them, they’ll go right into my ceramic mouse recipe card holder. Can’t wait to read the short story–but as I took a momentary break from The Water Horse movie, I’ll finish that and then go back even further in time.
Thanks for sharing the recipes; they do remind me of all the things I learned to cook from my Grandma, such as wild blackberry with dumplings, navy bean soup, game hare, peach cobbler, blackberry cobbler, cornbread dressing, etc., the list can go on….
One question though – what kind of peppers in the pear recipe? Bell, or spicy? These days red or green can bounce all around the chili spectrum….
Bell peppers in the pear relish. It’s great on beans or greens. I have to have it on my New Year’s Day Black-eyed peas.
I love that illustration, so beautiful and the colors are amazing. Thanks for sharing this.
I’m so lucky. He does beautiful work.
Thanks for the recipes! They all sound great. I love to find old recipes-can’t wait to try these out.
Favorite details- “garlic buds”, and “enough salt to float an egg” . I am also charmed by the evidence of such a long life that lemon lime soda makes it into the mix. Thank you so much for sharing these. The pears are ripening on our tree, and I think I’m going to put up a batch of pear relish… or better yet, I’ll wait and we can do it together once you arrive.