9 minute read
Julie Turner-Crawford Country roads
by Eric Tietze
just a thought
Across The Fence
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By Julie Turner-Crawford
Recently, I took a drive along a rural road I had not traveled in what seemed like an eternity.
As I drove, I started to remember road trips taken along the route when I took was a kid.
There was the dirt road we took that went back to the farm where we bought several market hogs to show when I was a youngster. I remember going to the farm to get those hogs because the farmer was the first person I ever wrote a check to. It was $250 for two barrows; pretty big money back then for a 14-year-old.
The name and exterior of the old convenience store on the other side of the you-have-to-know-where-it-
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Julie Turner-Crawford is a native of Dallas County, Mo., where she grew up on her family’s farm. She is a graduate of Missouri State University. To contact Julie, call 1-866532-1960 or by email at editor@ozarksfn.com.
Mississippi Brownies
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DESSERT
For the Brownies: • 1/3 C unsweetened cocoa powder • 1/2 C oil (vegetable or canola oil) • 1/2 C butter, softened • 2 C granulated sugar • 4 large eggs
For the Frosting: • 1/2 C butter, melted • 1/3 C unsweetened cocoa powder • 1/3 C evaporated milk • 1 tsp vanilla extract • 3 to 3 1/2 C powdered sugar • 2 tsp vanilla extract • 1 1/2 C all-purpose flour • 1 tsp salt • 3 C mini marshmallows
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-by-13 pan with non-stick cooking spray. In a large mixing bowl, pour oil over cocoa powder and mix. Add softened butter and mix until smooth. Add sugar and mix for 1 minute. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition. Add vanilla and mix. Add flour and salt and stir to combine. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove brownies from the oven and sprinkle the marshmallows evenly on top. Return to the oven for 2to 3 minutes or until the marshmallows are puffed. Remove from oven and allow them to cool completely. Once brownies are cool, make the frosting. For the frosting: Add melted butter, cocoa powdered, evaporated milk, vanilla, and 2 C powdered sugar to a mixing bowl and beat with electric beaters until smooth. Add more powdered sugar, a cup at a time, mixing well, until you reach your desired frosting consistency. Spread frosting over the cooled brownies and cut into squares.
Know a Good Recipe? Send in your favorite recipe to share with our readers. Mail them to: PO Box 1514, Lebanon, MO 65536; fax them to: 417-532-4721; or email them to: editor@ozarksfn.com
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just a thought
Across the Fence
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is-to-get-there town may have changed, but it looked like it still had a pretty good lunch crowd. Some say you can tell where the best food along interstates is by a parking lot full of semi-trucks. Along the rural roads in the Ozarks, it’s the gas station with lots of pickup trucks parked at the door, and farmers and old-timers gathered around two or three little tables, solving all the world’s problems and chewing on more than the daily special. We all know of a place or two just like it.
I went a little further, and there was the farm of one of my dad’s old cattle buddies. I remember very well the day D.R. stopped by the house and unloaded a pretty poor-looking bay mare that was supposed to be bred. My mom was not very happy with my dad or D.R. The mare was, in fact, bred and did produce a colt. She stayed at our place for many more years. When she died, she was well into her 30s and is buried under “her” tree. Several dairy heifers came to our place courtesy of D.R. over the years as well. D.R. has been gone for many years, but I can still remember his voice and his mannerisms.
As I continued to drive, I remembered who lived down this road or that one,
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Life Is Simple
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eased over to wasn’t quite low enough to scratch the itch that she was so desperately trying to alleviate around her tail head. Since she couldn’t jack up her rear end enough for the limb to act as a scratching post, she did what cows do – she contorted her body into a crude “L” shape and slung her head around with a force that, for all her lifetime, had resulted in her ability to make her long, extended tongue, reach that spot that itched, and thereby easing her need.
Unfortunately, for the cow, the thawed surface of the pasture was just slick and memories of days gone by seemed like just yesterday. I can’t remember what I was doing 10 minutes ago sometimes, but I remember these places and the people. After traveling that road, it made me want to venture into some other areas to revisit other memories.
Can I remember driving on a busy interstate or four-lane highway like I can the rural roads? Not so much. I don’t remember taking a particular exit to go here or there; it’s like I am just going through the motions to get from Point A to Point B. For me, there isn’t anything to remember or recall when you drive at 70 mph. Taking an exit isn’t the same as turning onto an old dirt road from a two-lane highway.
Sometimes it pays to slow down and look around. You never can tell what you might find or remember along the way.
enough that the sudden force of throwing her head back resulted in one of her rear feet slipping from underneath her, culminating in her falling as if she had been shot between the eyes with a .30-30 rifle. The fall was so sudden and violent that I really worried that she might have broken a hip, but as I approached her on the tractor, she stood up. I was surprised to see her looking around, with embarrassment, to see if any of the other cows had seen it – just like I did when I tripped over a crack, in the sidewalk last week.
