Yesterday, I became a Church Lady, the kind that bakes and carries her goods to people who are sick or shut in. But let me give you some background before you think I have really lost it for good.
I go to church on Sunday, alone. Not a conventional church, but one for people who don’t like church. I take from it what I need for the week. I sit in the bleachers with a few hundred other people, all kinds of people. Dressed in jeans, shorts, sundresses, flip-flops in casual California beach style. I go to Bayside of Granite Bay and it has been church to me for the past five years. It feeds me and lifts me up when I need it the most. The music rocks me and reminds me that I am alive and that Jesus is too. I like the anonymity of worshiping with hundreds of people. It just fits.
I got up Sunday morning, early. I can’t help my internal alarm clock. Made coffee, read the paper and baked coffee cakes. I planned to visit a friend, recently diagnosed with breast cancer and decided to take something baked with me, hence the Church Lady imagery. I pulled out a package of Bisquick and made coffee cake. I think this is one of the first recipes I ever made. I made two, one for home and one to go.
My friend was happy to see me and I her. We worked together 8 years ago keeping in touch sporadically through the years. She knows my husband and knew my Grandma. She is a beautiful woman, inside and out, a supportive wife and loving mother and grandmother. And she is fun. One of our most memorable experiences together was a Jimmy Buffett Concert in Mountain View where we wore Bikini T-Shirts that she sewed belly button rings on. What a blast that entire day and night was! I will never forget sitting in the car in the venue parking lot, eating our Togo’s sandwiches before walking around, when a young man approached the car wearing a grass skirt and a coconut bikini top, carrying an ice chest and a sign that said, “Beer for Boobs”. His gig was, show me your boobs, take a picture, and you get a beer, Corona. We just laughed him off but she called her husband and told him we weren’t even out of the car and someone wanted to see our breasts! Good times.
Now she has already had one surgery and is going to have another. She is dealing with it just the way I knew she would, with humor and the support of her loving husband, family and friends. We drank tea, ate coffee cake, told stories and listened with our hearts. She radiated beauty as she sat on the couch telling me about her cancer. I thought of all the women I know and have met who have battled and won this fight. My mother of course and just recently the young mothers’ I met fundraising for Komen Race for the Cure. I told my friend about the 100-year-old woman, a 20-year breast cancer survivor who spoke at the Survivor Ceremony at the Race. She had some great advice on how to live. I can’t remember exactly to quote her but I recall she said to use olive oil when you cook. Have a drink, but not too much. Eat your vegetables. Surround yourself with people you love.
Good advice for all of us.
I left there glad that I had made the trip and happy to see that she is in survivor mode and supported by people who love and care about her. She did share with me that her mother used to make this coffee cake without the streusel, slice it horizontally, fill it with strawberries and top it with whipped cream. Sounds yummy. I wonder if I have two cups left…
Bisquick Coffee Cake - Taken from the back of the box
Cinnamon Struesel
1/3 cup Original Bisquick® mix
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
½ teaspoon firm butter
Coffee Cake
2 cups Original Bisquick® mix
2/3 cup milk or water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
- Heat oven to 375°F. Grease 9-inch round pan. In small bowl, stir streusel ingredients until crumbly; set aside.
- In medium bowl, mix coffee cake ingredients until blended. Spread in pan. Sprinkle with streusel.
- Bake 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown.
Did you know that Bisquick has been around since 1931?
No comments:
Post a Comment