Oatmeal Short Bread

This being the first recipe, I'm realizing a couple of things.  We have to remember the kind of kitchen that Grandma Marsden was using.  She was married in 1876, and while gas stoves and ovens may have been available at the time...any of us who have been to Cardston, Alberta for those family reunions, it is much more likely that Grandma was cooking with a wood burning, or coal burning oven.  Thermostats were unlikely to have been used, hence you'll see that this recipe for Oatmeal shortbread calls for a "moderate" oven.  Grandma would probably begin to heat up the oven, and would stick her hand in to test for temperature.  I'm sure she got good at feeling what a "moderate" oven felt like, and could make this recipe in her sleep.  The nature of the recipe as you will see in the picture I took is very colloquial in its organization.  It was written down in a strange order, and it took some interpretation in figuring out how Grandma assembled the recipe.  Below is my best guess as to how this recipe works.  I'm open to comments from those of you who try it out.

Oatmeal Short Bread
Batter
1 3/4 cups oatmeal
1 1/4 cups flour
1 cup brown or whit sugar
2/4 cup lard
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Filling
Stone (I'm guessing this means crush) and cook 1 cup dates in about 1/2 cup cold water until stiff, stir often then let cool.

Mix (batter ingredients) with sweet milk about 1/4 cup to make fairly stiff batter.  Spread half of mixture in pan, spread dates (filling) on.  Cover with rest of dough.  bake in moderate oven (350 degrees) 45 minutes.

Some history on Grandma Isabell and grandma Mary Emma

Isabel Harker Marsden was born  November 17, 1856 in Taylorsville, Utah and  was married to Charles Thomas Marsden in Salt Lake City, Utah on September 11, 1876.  They had 13 children.  They left Utah and moved to Cardston, Alberta, Canada in 1892.  Isabel had a reputation of being a hard worker and was known for her compassionate service.  She remained home with 7 children in 1909 while her husband filled a full time mission in the Eastern States Mission. 

Mary Emma Marsden was born August 12, 1893, in Cardston, Alberta, Canada the ninth child of Charles Thomas Marsden and Isabel Harker.  Mary loved the beauties of nature.  She wanted to work in a tailor shop, save her money to take a nursing course.  She had a good opportunity to do so but her father said that good girls did not go into those professions.  He felt that they should keep house and learn to be good homemakers.  She did just that.  She kept house for many people when their babies were born, and worked keeping house and cooking for men at every opportunity. 

On December 17, 1913, Mary married Thomas L. Workman at the home of her parents in Cardston.  They made their first home in Cardston where he did blacksmithing then worked for the Marsden brothers.  Their first 4 children were born in Cardston.  They subsequently moved to Nephi, Utah where Tom did odd jobs as well as blacksmithing.  They returned to Cardston 4 years later.  They rented a farm 3 miles south of Kimball.  By this time the family had 6 children and all lived in a one room granery in the winter and a tent in the summer.   Mary was primary president and Tom was in the bishopric.  Tom was a good singer and his family and friends loved to hear him sing.  They moved to Oregon in the Spring of 1937 where Tom blacksmithed in Corvallis, Independence and finally Woodburn where he served as branch president for 13 years with Mary as Relief Society President.  They had 10 children by this time. 

Tom served in the Woodburn council for 6 years and was Mayor of Woodburn for 4 years.  He sold his blacksmith and metal fabrication to his son Benare in 1960.  Both Tom and Mary died in 1964 and are buried in Woodburn.

In the Beginning...

Several years ago, my grandmother Fobert gave away just about all of her personal belongings.  She was beginning to show the initial stages of dementia, and wanted to get rid of what she had because she was moving in an out of retirement homes.  Our family (well most of us) are not real pack rats, and she was getting rid of all of the stuff that she has.  While Grandma was not a pack rat, she WAS a great family historian.  She and Grandpa had served a full time mission for the LDS church in the mid 90's at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.  If you know anything about family history, the Mormon Church is one organization on the face of this earth who has the largest reserves of family history records in the whole world.  Our faith places a great emphasis on families, and the eternal nature of families.  Part of connecting with the people in our families has to do with the artifacts that we pass down from generation to generation.  My cousin Niki Allen (Sigleer)--my FAVORITE cousin-- and I got to talking one day about this LEGENDARY family recipe book.  It was fabled to be old, tattered, and full of weird things like how to dress a body for a funeral and remedies for rheumatism and gall stones.   One time when Niki came to visit, she handed over a SUPER old looking book, and entrusted me with a bit of family folklore.  Sure enough, I found not just family recipes for cakes, sauces and pickles, but I found those weird remedies I spoke of earlier.  I wanted to find a way to somehow share these recipes with the whole family, as well as with the world.  Being a former Social Studies teacher, I am always intrigued with primary source documents, and this is quite a beauty.  Food tells us a story, gives us comfort, and helps us celebrate the good times.
The recipes that will appear on this blog come from a recipe book that was compiled by my great-great grandmother Marsden.  She is my father's mother's, mother's, mother.  Half way through the book, the handwriting changes, and shows additions made to the book by my great-grandmother Workman (my father's mother's mother.  While I never knew my great-great grandmother Marsden, or my great-grandmother Workman, my hope is that through this recipe book, and eventually through making each of the recipes in the book, that I will be able to connect with my ancestors.
My dad is working on a comprehensive post that will go more into detail about who Grandma Marsden and Grandma Workman are....stay tuned.  In the meantime...look for the first recipes to be posted!