"Miss Manning Marries in S. L. Temple" - Provo Daily Herald 11 Jun 1961

Marriage of Marilyn Manning and Carl Reed described in Provo Daily Herald on 11 Jun 1961. - on Newspapers.com

Marti, Becky, Kim: Do you remember being flower girls at aunt Marilyn's wedding in 1961? Did you know that Gordon B. Hinckley (you may have heard of him) officiated the ceremony in the Salt Lake LDS Temple?

In celebration of what would have been Grandma's 99th b-day

Today is August 23rd which is Grandma Manning's birthday. If she were still alive she would have been 99 years old today. I thought this was the perfect day to post an essay that Melissa wrote about Grandma.

Melissa had written this essay as an entry to a contest that Deseret News was having asking their readers what they had learned from their own Julia Child. The 4 best entries would get 2 tickets to see the movie Julie & Julia.

I asked Melissa if it was OK if I posted her essay here on the family blog & she gave me her permission. If you want to see the entire Deseret News article click here.

EDITH WAS MAGIC

A visit to the house of my grandmother, Edith Paulson Manning, always greeted me with savory smells from the kitchen. She was an excellent cook, known for her signature dishes: homemade bread and rolls, chocolate roll, lemon pie, chili sauce, divinity, emerald Jell-O salad, seven-minute icing, fudge ... I could go on.

A meal at Grandma's house was always served on a beautifully set table with tablecloth and centerpiece. Meals were the main course of the visit; they were savored and enjoyed in both appetite and conversation.

Edith was magic. She could conjure up a delicious meal cooked from scratch and lure the entire family — teenagers included — into sitting around the table for hours eating and talking.

Food was Edith's potion to bind our family. She graciously served her love on the plates of all who came to her home. She didn't have to fix an extravagant meal every night. The fulfillment was the same whether it was tuna casserole or Sunday's roast. She took the time to make mealtime and food meaningful.

One Thanksgiving, she made 13 pumpkins pies, one for each grandchild.

She noted on her recipe cards when and with whom she made the recipe. She listed grandchildren's names, ages and dates of baking together.

Edith also taught me that good cooks aren't just born. It takes practice and a lifetime to master.

When I became discouraged learning how to bake bread or make candy, she would tell me stories about her early cooking experiences: When she was a young newlywed, she was learning to make bread. She was unfamiliar with using yeast. When her dough didn't instantly rise, she kept adding more yeast. A short time later, the dough had expanded over the entire kitchen counter. Not willing to admit failure, she took the dough and buried it in the flower garden outside. The bread continued to rise and Grandpa immediately started to treat the garden for gophers and hired an exterminator. Edith refused to fess up.

For another meal, Edith made too much rice. Wasting food during the Great Depression was a sin, so she secretly took the extra rice to the outhouse and dumped it. Her landlord, after visiting the outhouse, promptly called the exterminator because he had seen maggots!

To honor her life, three generations (my mother, myself and my daughters) compiled a cookbook of her trademark recipes. We included our memories in the kitchen, photos of mealtimes and quotes she had written and filed in her recipe box. This became her life history and cherished legacy for our family.

Edith's Chocolate Roll

(You'll never find a better recipe!)

Chocolate roll:

6 egg yolks (beaten)

4 tablespoon sugar (rounded)

5 teaspoons cocoa (heaping)

1 tablespoon flour (heaping)

6 egg whites

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Sauce:

1 cup sugar

2 level teaspoons cocoa

1/2 cup water

Dash vanilla

For Chocolate Roll: Mix sugar, cocoa and flour and add to beaten egg yolks. Whip egg whites stiff; add baking powder to egg whites while beating. Fold into the egg-yolk mixture. Line a jelly roll pan with parchment or waxed paper and pour batter in pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Cool. Turn on cloth and remove paper. Spread sweetened whipped cream (1/2 to 3/4 pint cream, sugar and vanilla to taste) on cake. Roll and store in refrigerator until ready to serve. Slice and serve with sauce.

For sauce: Mix ingredients and cook 3 minutes and cool. Pour over each slice of chocolate roll.

— Melissa Mecham,

Salt Lake City

Thanks Melissa! I remember Grandma telling us those stories of her early cooking experience. They were so funny. Grandma was the best cook.

Melissa suggested that we should all make Grandma's chocolate roll today in celebration of her birthday & post about it later. I'm not sure if I will be participating in this challenge or not. I'm not much of a baker or a cook (I guess I didn't inherit the cooking gene). Plus it's too hot to turn on the oven here (more excuses). But if anyone out there wants to try, please do so, and don't forget to post about it. And send me a piece!!!

Kim

2nd Time Around Tuesday-Grandma's Rocker

This is my first week participating in 2nd Time Around Tuesday hosted by Diane at A Picture is Worth a 1,000 Words. Be sure to visit her blog to see the fabulous estate sale treasure she found as well as this weeks list of participants. If you love 2nd hand treasures like me, not that I'm a 2nd hand treasure, I just love them, then you too will love this weekly meme.

For years my Mom had this rocking chair in her house. It had originally been in my Grandma's house and when she died, my Mom took it home to her house. All these years I've loved this chair & have told my Mom that I wanted the chair. I figured that someday when my mom was gone that it would be my turn to love & take care of this chair.

But luckily for me, I didn't have to wait. A couple of years ago my Mom gave me the chair for Mother's Day. It was the best Mother's Day gift I ever received.


The chair sits in our living room (with our ugly teal carpet). This isn't your typical rocking chair. This one has springs that it rocks on. The one thing about this rocker is that you have to be real careful how you sit in it. If you sit back too far, you almost get dumped out of it backwards. So you have to balance yourself just so to sit in it. But I have learned how to sit in it without tipping it back too far.
When my Grandson comes over (which is not very often), I love to rock him in this rocking chair. And even when I don't have my Grandson. I love to sit & rock in this chair. This is something so soothing & comforting about a rocking chair. Especially one that has memories attached to it & is as old as this one.
I wish I knew more about my rocking chair. I called my Mom this morning to see if she knew anything about it. She said no. All she knew is that it belonged to her Mom, my Grandma. She wasn't sure if it had belonged to anyone else in the family or not.

So if anyone else in my family knows anything more about the history of this rocking chair, let me know.

All I know is that I feel loved while rocking in this chair. I love it and will treasure it always.

Friday the 13th!!!!!

Watch out for black cats, avoid mirrors & ladders and by all means, don't spill the salt!!!

Remember how superstitious Grandma Manning was? I can remember driving down the street and a black cat was crossing the road. Grandma stopped the car, turned around, and went the opposite direction.

Mom also told me that Grandma didn't want Mom born on the 13th of May. Grandma did everything in her power to make sure Mom wasn't born until it was the 14th.

Whenever it is Friday the 13th, I always think of Grandma and her superstitions. Do any of you have any superstitions?

I found a cool website you might want to look up if you want to know all about:
How the fear of Friday the 13th began
A few quirks about 13
Why is Friday so fearful
Friday the 13th phobia
Good Fridays & other 13 stuff
Silly rituals and cures to protect you on Friday the 13th


www.brownielocks.com/fridaythe13th.html


Check it out & you will learn alot of interesting things about Fridays, the number 13 & Friday the 13th.

I'm trying to think of my superstitions. I always "knock on wood". I really don't believe it, but why take any chances. Other than that, I really don't have any. Whenever I see a black cat crossing the road, walk under a ladder or are handling a mirror, I think about the superstition, but I don't worry about it so much that I alter my path. Instead I think of Grandma & smile.

What are your superstitions? Or what do you remember about Grandma being superstitious? Put you answers in the comments to this post. It will be fun to remember & share our memories of Grandma.

Kim

Welcome

Welcome to the new Manning Family Tree blog spot. I made this as a place where we can all come to find out what is going on in each of our lives. As we get older it gets harder & harder to keep in touch with one another. I really miss when we were kids & we would get together and have fun. I miss that connection with each of you.

I want this to be a place where you can post what is going on in your life, or the lives of your children and/or grandchildren. You can even post pictures. Or you can just write down favorite memories of Grandma and Grandpa Manning, or anyone else connected to this family. It doesn't matter how mundane you think your life is or how exciting for that matter, someone in our family wants to know about it.

I've wanted to do this for about a year now, but I am such a procrastinator. So I figured Christmas was the perfect time of year to kick this off. I loved how Melissa and Aunt Marilyn did the recipe book. It brought back lots of great memories. That is what I want this blog to be about, a place to remember great memories & create new memories and reconnect with one another.

I hope that all of you are exited as me to contribute to this blog. It will get boring real quick if I am the only one to contribute. If you have any questions, email me at kasmlc@hotmail.com.

Love to you all & I can't wait to find out what is going on in all your lives.

Kim