Longing for a Cowboy Christmas

Jingle Jangle Spurs — Flavors of the Season

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We thought it’d be fun to share some of our favorite holiday recipes.

Here is my Granny’s Fresh Apple Cake recipe. It’s exactly as she wrote it and the way I’ve baked it ever since I can remember. It’s a great holiday cake.

Granny’s Fresh Apple Cake

2 eggs, beaten 1 tsp. soda
1 ½ c. sugar 1 tsp. vanilla
¾ c. oil 2 cups chopped apples (approx. 3 apples)
1 ½ c. flour 1 cup chopped pecans
½ tsp. salt

Flour pans. Turn on oven to 325 degrees.

Cream eggs, sugar and oil. Add flour, salt, soda, vanilla and pecans. Mix well, but do not mash apples. Bake 45 to 60 minutes. Use Caramel Icing.

Caramel Icing

1 c. brown sugar 1 stick butter                     ½ c. milk

Cook all ingredients for minutes after bringing to a boil. Add:
1 ¾ c. powdered sugar Vanilla                     Beat till smooth and put all over cake.

Enjoy!

Phyliss

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I hope everyone is planning a wonderful Christmas and you have the gifts all wrapped and ribbons tied. Being with family and eating wonderous treats makes everything so much better. In my family, we have a tradition of making Sausage Cheese Balls — the easy way — and serving them up hot on Christmas morning. 

Ingredients:

3 cups of dry Bisquick

1 pound of grated cheese

1 pound of sausage (any degree of spiciness)

This recipe calls for no liquid. 

Knead everything all together (This will take some time but keep mixing until it’s all integrated into a ball.) Your hand will get very tired.

Roll out the size balls you like and put them on a cookie sheet 1 inch apart. Cook at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. But check on them so you won’t overcook. Eat and Enjoy!

Do you hear those Jingle, Jangle Spurs? It’s the cowboys filing in to eat their share. Better hurry!

See you all in 2020!

Much Love,

Linda Broday

 

Courting Candles

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Courting in your ancestors’ days was entirely different from now. Suitors first called on the girl’s father and got his permission and a time was set. There was no pulling up in front of the house and honking the horn. Nope. There were rules to be obeyed.

At the appointed time of the young man’s arrival, the father would get out a courting candle—a metal contraption that consisted of a heavy coil. He’d set a taper in it and adjust it by turning the candle to whatever height he saw fit. It was purely at his discretion. He’d then place it either in the parlor or on the porch.

If he liked the suitor, he might set the candle high so it would burn for a while.

If he didn’t approve of the boy, he’d set the candle low.

But whether high or low, when the candle burned down to the top of the coil, time was up and the father would show the young man to the door. If the suitor argued about it, the dad might show him the toe of his boot! I’m sure many a one left that way.

On rare occasions when the suitor met with joyous approval, the father might let a second candle burn after the first was all the way down.

These courting candles were used by rich and poor families alike and set boundaries that must be adhered to. They provided a quiet yet firm reminder that the girl’s father was boss and his word was final.

I sort of like this old tradition where no words needed to be said. The candle spoke loud and clear.

The most recent courting scene that I wrote was in Catch a Texas Star when Roan Penny courted Marley Rose McClain. Duel didn’t much want them to see each other because Roan was a drifter. Roan didn’t like it a lot when Duel told him he’d have to prove he’d stick around. Which he did.

Longing for a Cowboy Christmas is out and I’m so happy. My story, The Christmas Wedding, is about Rebel and Travis from the outlaw town of Hope’s Crossing. To take her mind off the fact that Travis has been captured by a bounty hunter and she hasn’t seen him in months, she and the other women decide to celebrate the Advent and make the entire town the calendar.

Do you have a courting story to share or maybe one in a scene from a book? I’ll give away a copy of Longing for a Cowboy Christmas and will draw the winner on Saturday.

 

Mary Porter, Queen of the Fort Worth Madams

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In almost every town in the old West lonely cowboys could find entertainment in a red light district. Fort Worth’s seedy part was bigger and a lot rowdier than most. Due to the notoriety, it became known as Hell’s Half Acre and it comprised Tenth to Fifteenth Streets while Houston, Main, and Rusk (now Commerce) crossed. Boarding houses (wink, wink,) gambling parlors, hotels and saloons lined the avenues and it became a hideout for outlaws and violent criminals. The murder rate was high on a nightly basis. But if a woman had enough guts and could stomach the hard life, she could make a good living.

One woman was Mary Porter. She was born in Ireland in 1844 and came to Fort Worth about 1885 where she operated a high-end brothel. She employed four girls: Kittie Wilson, Etta Daniels, Mabel Thomason, and May Keller.

From 1893 to 1897, Mary was arrested 130 times but never spent a night in jail. Her clients were the wealthy and powerful and they made sure they kept her in business. Her fines usually ran around $100 but she viewed that as the price of doing business.

She operated within the laws—didn’t advertise, kept fighting to a minimum, got regular medical checkups for her girls, and kept a clean house. She was well-respected as someone in that business, and her girls sang her praises. Still, depression, suicide, and murder were things they all faced.

In 1887 following the famous shootout between Jim Courtright and Luke Short, a prostitute named Miss Sally was discovered nailed to an outhouse door. The murderer was never caught.

As the years passed, Madame Mary Porter’s fame and coffers grew. But somewhere before the turn of the century, a committee made up of ladies of the Union Bethel Mission and accompanied by two officers paid her a visit. They demanded that she vacate the premises by Monday, that her house was needed for other purposes. If she refused to leave, she would be the subject of a grand jury investigation.

Mary thought long and hard, then told her girls to start packing. She moved out all right—into one just a few doors down. The committee didn’t bother her again. On the 1900 census, she listed her occupation as “boardinghouse keeper.”

She once entertained the Wild Bunch led by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid plus other notable outlaws.

June 10, 1905, Mary suddenly died leaving an estate valued at $20,000 ($500,000 in today’s currency.) They buried her in an unmarked grave in Oakwood Cemetery. Then in 2009, over 100 years of her death, a group of citizens got together and bought her a gravestone engraved with the simple words, “Call me madam.”

I love stories that give colorful accounts of what life must’ve been like before we became “modernized.” I can close my eyes and picture this seedy part of Fort Worth and the rough and tumble daily existence. I wish I knew more of Mary’s story and what led her to prostitution. Maybe she got trapped in it as so many other women were who found themselves alone. Occupations for women were very limited.

Can you imagine how scary it was for a woman alone back then? Especially if she had no one to turn to. What do you think of Mary Porter?

It’s almost time! Longing for a Cowboy Christmas releases on September 24th! Six heartwarming stories sure to put the Christmas spirit in your heart by Leigh Greenwood, Rosanne Bittner, Margaret Brownley, Anna Schmidt, Amy Sandas, and me.

AMAZON  |  B&N  |  APPLE  |  KOBO

 

Petticoats & Pistols