Nonpareils, Raspberries and Liqueurs

If I did a main tincture, it would milk thistle to start.  Raspberry looks interesting as well but anyway.

I was thinking about what goes with what and raspberry blends and liqueurs, and then I thought about this grape we had too. I'm not into making wines really, the idea, but maybe a jelly.  Maybe. I don't know kind of grape we had but it grew almost wild and had small pearl size grapes with a thicker sort of bitter skin but a very sweet green interior.  I think it was possibly a purple grape but the inside of the flesh was green.

I think a green grape-peach jelly would be good or almost anything with green/white grape.  Purple is harder I think, but green herbs maybe come to mind.  Purple and maybe rose or purple or I guess raspberry.  The first thing I thought of with a purple grape jelly would be to add thyme.  I guess you'd have to sip something and chew herbs at the same time to figure out what works. 

The mint I have is used for creme d'menthe.  Maybe if I tried a liqueur I would just try making that, creme d'menthe and separately, raspberry something or other.  I don't know why, but for sentimental reasons, I wouldn't mind making one candy sometime, a mint from menthe maybe, like the pastilles with little soreil? dots on the top.  Little cream mints that are circular with the white dots on it.  Forget what they're called.

I looked it up and found it.  They're called "nonpareils".  This is what was on top of the cream mint drops that were always at my great-grandmother's side, and she always had a little glimmer of a smile when I went in to say hello and have one or two.  I was a little girl, and I still remember how abrupt she was to most, but if I went in, she always wanted me to have the cream mints with nonpareils.

It is my main memory of her.  And then Granny always had them until one day, she didn't any longer and I never knew why not because they were tradition.

They were solid white nonpareils, the traditional kind, not multi-colored.  And they were sprinkled on top of pastel mint cream drops.  They were pastel in color, with pale pink, and blue, and white and yellow, and green.  I am not actually sure if there was blue.  Pale menthe, pale mint green, and cream, and pale yellow, and pale pink, and they all had solid white nonpareils on them.  They were solid circles, drops with a little peak in the center.  They were creamy and melt-in-your-mouth and left a tingling minty flavor.  Sort of a minty butter creamy drop with the little crunchy nonpareils on the top.

Then, for whatever reason, I think it was after she died, much later, then Granny had pastilles in a tin from England.  ?  I think they were English.  Violet pastilles and rose pastilles.  I always asked what happened to the original mint pastels.  But maybe she had both for awhile.

I was maybe 6 years old when this great-grandmother died.  I was very young but I remember everything about her room, and where she had the plate or dish for the mints, and it was the ONLY candy or treat she had, and she was extremely specific about it.

Now I think I know why she always had a little bright smile and kind of winking eye when I took some, because nonpareil means "without equal".

She was my "Grandma Louis".

Louis was one of her married names I believe, but I can't remember what it was before.  I believe she was English and Scottish, maybe a little Irish.  She was the one who married the man from Luxembourg, Henry, Granny's father.

I even remember that sometimes I wouldn't take just any color but would pick out specific colors even though they all tasted the same.  And I remember the look in her eyes and her smiles.  She always liked me and was happy when I went into her room.  She used to scold my cousin Rory for barging in because, probably, he was around all the time.  So I would sort of peek in and approach quietly and she always lost her hard look and had soft eyes and a little SHARP in the soft!  She must have been extremely intelligent because I remember that sharp, the penetration of an eye.  She could give one look and behind it, was all this thinking but she didn't say a thing.  She could go from looking like an invalid and grumbling, to this sharp-eyed, attentive and soft woman, in a snap.  I remember some of the kids were afraid of her, but I was never afraid of her.  I almost hardly remember her face or features, but I remember exactly how her eyes were and the looks she gave. 

I think she even swatted at some of the kids for taking her mint creams.  Which sort of makes me laugh now because she never hit me. 

So if I made a liqueur, maybe raspberry or creme d'menthe or who knows.  If I made a confection, it would be nonpareils cream mints.

Granny had wanted to live in Hollywood and my Grandpa said they could live there if she wanted to, but she decided not to, in order to care for her mother so they stayed in Cashmere.  Granny always like Norma Jean-Marilyn Monroe and said so many of the actresses were so-so, but one that she thought was truly beautiful was Marilyn.  They visited Hollywood in the 50s and really loved it and almost moved there.  Maybe that's why she named one of her daughters Holly, I don't know.  I know she gave up what she wanted to do to care for her mother.  Her sister, the only other sibling, was off in Canada.  Oh I guess she had brothers in the area but their wives didn't help I don't think.  And Waverly was in Canada.

I have cousins in Canada.  You wouldn't know it, would you?

The way Canadians tortured me and my son at the border.  But then, I have family in the U.S. and you wouldn't know it sometimes, to think others get away with torturing us here.

Someone has been going through Granny's house for some time, stealing photos of family and heirlooms.  It's like they wanted to remove our history. 

Which really makes you wonder then, when the FBI is involved.

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corrections:

I guess my grandma's name was Grandma Connie.  I remember, but accidentally wrote Grandma Louis.  Grandma Louis was Grandma Connie's mother I think.  Grandma Grace Louis was a McQuerie and then remarried to Louis and she was mainly Scottish.  She is the one who helped all these animals and took in all kinds of lost and sick birds and animals and was practically a vet.

Grandma Connie, my mother said she doesn't remember? what her background is, but probably not true.  Well, before she married the Briegenzer, the Luxembourg man, her husband (I never knew this or forgot) before had the last name "Stalker".  So all of Granny's brothers were half-brothers and they were from the Stalker family.  She and Waverly were from the Luxembourgish father.  Now it makes more sense to me, because when her parents died, and her mother that she cared for had died, the Stalkers came in and tried to take everything.

They were so criminal and cruel about it, Granny finally said take what you want and she let them have whatever they wanted, feeling it was the christian thing to do and she didn't want to fight over material things.  Specifically, in the Will, her mother had left her many things, many important pieces of furniture and antiques and heirlooms, and even lots of family photos and history and the Stalkers took most it.

Anytime she talked about it, she got down. 

Their wives and people not even part of the family were stealing things and demanding things.  I guess she was totally stunned.  Just shocked that their true colors had come out.

Stalkers.