Thanks for the Memories
Thanksgiving, for me, begins with pie. P-I-E, pie. Not so much for the eating, as for the making of pies. For with the pie making come the memories.
The memories begin creeping in while I’m writing my grocery list: apples, pecans, cranberries, canned pumpkin, corn syrup, pie spices, sugar, flour, shortening. . . American Thanksgiving is a feast in celebration of North American foods gathered at the first harvest. So it follows that American Thanksgiving foods are cooked from ingredients grown, produced, and readily available in North America.
How many hours did I spend going store to store in Indonesia searching for those same unheard of items? Explaining cranberry sauce and pecans to the Indonesian custom officers; baking my first fresh pumpkin pie; the barrage of text messages heralding “Ranch Market has Crisco!”
How I would have welcomed that text as I drove from shop to shop, round and round Port-of-Spain and surrounds, Tuesday. Trinidad stores are well-stocked and carry all manner of imported goods. I’d worried some, about finding a nice turkey, but never dreamed I’d spend hours searching for ground cloves and shortening, lard, or TT equivalent.
From the time I was big enough to stand with my chin over the edge of the table, I helped. (Before that, the story goes, Nanny plopped me in the highchair with a blob of pie dough. I’d merrily mush and masticate while she rolled & baked.) She who capitalized the "P" in perfectionist, didn't allow anyone to interfere with the making of her pie. However, when the last pie was in the oven, training time--fun time--began. Nanny'd turn the rolling pin over to me.
Mimi, my neifrie (upstairs neighbor & friend) came over yesterday while I baked pies. Not to “get in my way” she assured me, but more to watch and keep me company. Before Mimi arrived, I was kind-of, sort-of . . . a lot nervous. Even with several batches of my secret weapon, Nanny’s Never Fail Pie Crust, chilling in the fridge, things could go wrong. I prefer to “make corrections” without witnesses. . .
We made a grand pie making adventure of it yesterday, Mimi and me. Mimi measured and mixed, stirred and washed while I rolled and crimped and fussed over each crust. Into each pie, along with the sugar and spice, fruit, flour and TT shortening substitute, we stirred memories—wisps of every holiday past and every person of them: my nanny, her mom and mine, our kids, our friends, our lives.
Thanks for the memories!
Sunday “Morn’n Morn’n” Trini-Style
How quickly new becomes norm. . . Our Sunday morning routine, for example. It came about as a form of penance. One Sunday morning we decided to pay for our night before indulgence with a hike up Lady Chancellor Hill, a long, shady, winding road rising up from the city of Port-of-Spain.
It’s named for Lady Sylvia Chancellor who “was born the year Queen Victoria died”, 1901. From what I could dig up, Lady Sylvia was a philanthropist who lived and died in England, so I have no clue why the hill is named for her, except that her obituary said she was a “tough” old bird and her hill, 3.2 k long with an ascent of 600 feet from base to look-out, is a “tough” old hill.
On the drive to "the Hill"—either to fortify himself and/or postpone the impending punishment—Curtis pulled up beside a road-side stand in St. James selling “doubles.”
Doubles is? are?* hands down and dripping with sauce, the most popular Trinidadian street food. A "doubles" is a curried chickpea sandwich, really, but so much more: a shot-put sized round of flat bread, called “bara” is topped with a dollop of curried chick peas, splashed with sauces, and a second “bara” is placed on top.
According to Wikipedia (my go-to source for quick info) “Doubles was invented in Princes Town, Trinidad by “Emamool Deen (a.k.a. Mamoodeen) and his wife Rasulan in 1936.” They started by topping a single round of bara with curried chickpeas. However, customers would ask them to “double the bara, hence the name ‘doubles’ evolved”
We bought a couple of doubles (2 for $8, about $1.30 U.S.) drove part-way up the hill to the Horticulture Society parking lot, sat on the edge of a planter, gobbled down our doubles, then hiked the hill.
The next Sunday we did it again. And now it’s “what we do.”
While we walk/climb/creep up Lady Chancellor, because "Trinis", Trinidadians, we pass, regardless of age or how winded, calls out “Morn’n Morn’n!” or “Guh-day! Guh-day” always two times—doubles—we do that too.
“Morn’n Morn’n!
* Is they is or is they are? My friebor Brian pointed out that doubles singular or plural is still doubles
Vant to Vin? Vampire Baby=FREE BOOKS FOR YOUR LIBRARY
Transform your Story Hour Babies & Toddlers into “Vampire Babies” with a Silly Downloadable Costume! Snap Pictures of a “Vampire Baby” and Win Books for a Library!! ---it's just that easy!
The Story Hour Kit
To play with VAMPIRE BABY's theme of teething babies and toddlers secretly being vampires, the Story Hour Kit include six different sets of silly vampire lips to cut-out. The lips, placed on an included paper “lip stick”, can be easily held up in front of a baby, toddler, or child’s lips for a funny transformation.
Following the instructions on the “lip stick” your patrons, customers, and families can snap a picture and post it on Kelly Bennett Books Facebook page along with the name and location of their favorite library.
VAMPIRE BABY pictures will be entered in a contest to win a collection of Kelly Bennett picture books for their favorite library. A winner will be drawn every 90 days from Halloween 2013-Halloween 2014. Keep snapping those Vampire Baby photos and enter to win often!
• Download Vampire Baby Story Hour Kit (PDF)
About VAMPIRE BABY:
It happens overnight: little sister Tootie goes from cuddly, ga-ga-googoo, I-want-my-ba-ba baby to…vampire baby. Now she’s sinking her pointy fangs into everything — furniture, toys, and especially her big brother. Mom insists that it’s just a phase, but Tootie’s brother knows better. Just look at her hairline! With perfect comic timing, Kelly Bennett and Paul Meisel give a fresh slant to the new-baby story, proving that even monstrous little arrivals have a funny way of staking their siblings' affections.
Why wait? Download the Vampire Baby Story Hour Kit . . . if you dare!
Read! Play! Sing! Snap! and enter to win books for your library!
- Vampire Baby Story Hour Kit →download PDF
And the Winner is . . .
Three winners have been chosen in the I VANT MY VAMPIRE BABY CONTEST. Everyone who left a comment on the Vampire Baby book trailer was entered into the contest. Here are the lucky winners:
#1 Lori Ed Templeton
#2 Nate T
#3 djdoc122
Send a reply via private message on Facebook via Kelly Bennett Books to claim your prize! Thank you to everyone who participated!
BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!
I Vant My Vampire Baby contest may be over, but the party hasn't ended.
Jean Book Nerd''s VAMPIRE BABY & SWAG GIVE-AWAY BLOG TOUR!
October 25th Friday
- Review & Spotlight Me, My Shelf and I
- Tens List & Spotlight I Am a Reader, Not a Writer
October 26th Saturday
- Review & Spotlight Two-Tall-Tales
- Music Playlist & Spotlight Best Books
October 27th Sunday
- Review & Spotlight Racing to Read
- This or That & Spotlight Sassy Book Lover
October 28th Monday
- Review & Spotlight Mary’s Cup of Tea
- Favorite Things & Spotlight A Dream Within a Dream
October 29th Tuesday
- Guest Post & Spotlight Paranormal Book Club
- Review & Spotlight Word to Dreams
October 30th Wednesday
- Spotlight Book Suburbia
October 31st Thursday
- Interview Jean Book Nerd
. . . AND a WHOLE YEAR MORE !!!!
Vampire Baby: Silly Story Hour “Masks” & Chance to Win Books
Reader Engagement Project:
Transform your Story Hour Babies & Toddlers into “Vampire Babies” with a Silly Downloadable Costume!
Snap Pictures of a “Vampire Baby” and Win Books for a Library!
HERE'S THE 9-1-1 from Curious City!
Vampire Baby Halloween Reveal
So I lied...
But this is the truth: There are 3 brand spanking new--autographed--copies of VAMPIRE BABY waiting to be won and as of this posting only 30 people entered the I VANT MY VAMPIRE BABY contest. Here are the Contest Details
Translation: Chances of winning are super good. . .
It's Halloween. Go for it. Take a Chance. You could win a treat!
But first . . .
We like Halloween!
We dress up. We Trick or Treat. We like it so much that one year, we had Halloween in July.
We were trick-or-treating along in our huge dice boxes when a couple of pranksters pushed us over and sent us flailing ala Scout in her ham costume.
Believe you, me, if I'd been fast enough, I would have happily sunk my teeth into those no-good-nicks...
HAPPY HALLOWEENING!!!!!
“TRICK OR TREAT”
#16 Vampire Baby's Movie Playlist for Halloween
Vampire Baby’s Movie Play List
Okay, so Vampire Baby isn’t old enough to have watched many movies. Nor would she be allowed to at her age—no matter how hard she bit. (For that matter, neither would her big brother.) But, when Vampire Baby is old enough to watch movies on Halloween these will definitely be on her list.*
Archie and the Riverdale Vampires (1999) Archie gets a supernatural makeover in these episodes from the Archie's Weird Mysteries TV series.
Bite the Bullet (1979) A group of ex-rough riders, an ex-prostitute and a gunfighter enter a horse race in the desert.
Bite of the Living Dead (2011) World-renowned herpetologist Joe Slowinski is bitten by a juvenile krait while on expedition in Burma. Rani has also been bitten by a krait in a rural Indian village
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) A teenage girl learns that she is her generation's destined battler of vampires.
Count Duckula, TV Series (1988-1993) The misadventures of a vegetarian vampire duck and his servants.
Let the Right One In (2008) Oskar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl who turns out to be a vampire.
The Little Vampire (2000)
A lonely boy becomes best friends with a vampire.
Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
A nerdish florist finds his chance for success and romance with the help of a giant man-eating plant who demands to be fed.
Love Bite (2012) School is over and summer has begun in the dead-end seaside town of Rainmouth. While Jamie's friends seem to be happy working in the local pie factory by day and looking for sex by night,
Love at First Bite (1979) Vampire spoof has Count Dracula moving to New York to find his Bride, after being forced to move out of his Transylvanian castle.
Man Bites Dog (1992) In this dark satire, a film crew follows a ruthless thief and heartless killer as he goes about his daily routines. But complications set in when the film crew loses their abjectness and begin lending a hand.
Once Bitten (1985) A vampire Countess needs to drink the blood of a virgin in order to keep her eternal beauty.
Bunnicula, the Vampire Rabbit, Cartoon (1982) Bunnicula the Vampire Rabbit is a supernatural rabbit whose weakness for draining vegetables of their juices.
Reality Bites (1994) Generation X Graduates face life after college with a filmmaker looking for work and love in Houston.
The Bite (1989) After a guy is bitten on the hand by a radioactive snake, his hand changes into a lethal snake head, which attacks everyone he comes into contact with
Some Dogs Bite (2010) It's a Crime to Steal a Baby! But What if it's Your Brother
More Suggestions, anyone?
*Disclaimer: Movie descriptions are cut-n-pasted from the internet. The list is not, and should, not, in any way, be consider recommendations. Watch at your own discretion.
LAST CHANCE!
Enter the "I Vant My Vampire Baby" Book Trailer Contest--is NOW!!!
Here's how: View the Vampire Baby by Kelly Bennett book trailer on Youtube. Leave a comment. You're entered to win you're very own authographed copy of the book. It's that easy! Here are the Contest Details
#15 Should Charlie be Confessing?
If YouTube would have been around way back when, my brother, Joey, might have been the brother hollering "Youch!" in a clip the way Big Brother Harry does in the infamous "Charlie Bit My Finger" YouTube video.
We have a sick fasination with biting, and the fear of being bitten. Why else would Vampire/Dracula themes be so popular?
The "Charlie Bit my Finger" clip, which as of an Oct. 17, 2013 article, is close to logging half-a-billion views, is proof. The brothers, according to the article, say the attention they garnered from the clip, coupled with the idea that "Charlie bit my finger like a rabid opossum, but Dad kept on filming because he thought it was awesome" has marred the brothers--maybe irreparably. Fortunately, money shouldn't be an issue if they decide to seek help.
An article in the Daily Mail states that this and other "Harry and Charlie" YouTube videos have earned their family more than 100,000 pounds in advertising payments.
HURRY! Enter the "I Vant My Vampire Baby" Book Trailer Contest, NOW!
Here's how: View the Vampire Baby by Kelly Bennett book trailer on Youtube. Leave a comment. You're entered to win you're very own authographed copy of the book. It's that easy!
Midnight Halloween the contest closes. Winner will be announced Nov. 1st.
#14 Confessions from a Vampire Victim's Mom
“I think Zachary was chocolate-flavored when he was little. He was bitten soooooo many times I started thinking about buying muzzles for other kids.”
Sarah Wones Tomp wrote one of my favorite picture books: RED, WHITE & BLUE GOODBYE and the forthcoming "Moonshine" Young Adult novel MY BEST EVERYTHING, (Little, Brown 2015. Her musings can be found at "Writing on the Sidewalk". And while I'm sure she'd laugh at the sight of vampire fangs, I'm pretty sure she doesn't bite!
Just a few more days left to enter the "I Vant My Vampire Baby" Book Trailer Contest--is NOW!!!
Here's how: View the Vampire Baby by Kelly Bennett book trailer on Youtube. Leave a comment. You're entered to win you're very own authographed copy of the book. It's that easy!
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