Vintage 8mm Film 1940's Parade Fun 4th of July Games Activities

Sue's Diner: Independence Day Cake

This week's recipe is very patriotic top me and not just because it's mentioned in the fifth installment of Before The Blood. 

It's because I actually do like it. After I wrote the passage in italics, I, too, wanted to taste Independence Cake. So Timothy, and then Rebekah, modified the recipe for the modern kitchen. And it's actually really good!

Munsonville Inn would also sell a frosted loaf, popular in Thornton, known as Independence Cake, and Bryony longed to try this food from a land so far away.

 More than once, she and Susan read the advertisement in the window, boasting it was "flavored with wine and brandy," as well as "rich with nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, mace, and citron," and "heavily speckled with currants and raisons."

Here is an actual nineteenth century recipe we found online:

"Twenty pounds of flour, fifteen pounds of sugar, ten pounds of butter, four dozen of eggs, one quart of wine, one quart of brandy, one ounce of nutmegs, three ounces each of cinnamon, cloves, and mace, two pounds of citron, five pounds each of currants and raisins, and one quart of yeast. Frost it, and dress it with box and rose leaf."

It's now my favorite Fourth of July recipe (however, no one else in my family likes it). 

Still, you can try our modified recipe on the Sue's Diner page on the BryonySeries website.

But try the recipe this week. It will be gone some time next week. A new recipe will take it's place. 

If you have any troubleshooting questions or comments, email us at bryonyseries@gmail.com. 

Here is a non-Victorian version with sprinkles - because Timothy likes sprinkles, he said. I love the color combination.

Below that is a more traditional version.

By the way, Sue's Diner is only real in the BryonySeries world. But didn't Timothy do a great job making the page look like a real menu at a vintage diner?

Here is the full diner page: bryonyseries.com/sue-s-diner. You can't really order, of course (wouldn't it be great if you could?).

July 3, 1998 Versus July 3, 2024

On July 3, 1998, I was a a single mother of six children, ages two through fifteen.

My neighbor, a single mom of two little girls, wanted to walk from our houses in Marycrest subdivision down Jefferson Street to meet one of her friends, and then over to the Billie Limacher Bicentennial Park Theatre, approximately two and a half miles.

It was one of the first, if not THE first, Independence Day celebrations at the park. But all I remember was feeling exhausted through and through.

I was getting up seven days a week at two o'clock in the morning to deliver newspapers. Six months into the job, my body and and my life still hadn't adjusted to those hours. I was tired; I was poor, and I remember sitting at the top of the hill at Bicentennial Park with the kids, unable to buy them anything to eat or drink and feeling utterly defeated.

We still had to walk back after the fireworks. And I, who'd been on my feet since two a.m., still had to get back up at two a.m.

I wish future me could have shown up and reassured me these dark days were temporary, that the efforts would translate into a brighter future for the kids, actual life for me, and how the family, some extended family, and local artists would come together to create a literary world called the BryonySeries.

I wish future me could know that standing on Cass Street Bridge and watching the fireworks each year would become a cherished family tradition for us.

Last year, our family asked if we could vend at the event. The park said yes and we turned our tent into a miniature carnival-type experience.

This year, BryonySeries is a sponsor of Bicentennial Park's Independence Day celebration. 

And we are back with an expanded tent, more games, more giveaways, gifts with purchases, and books, Ribbit-Ribbits, and other items for purchase.

The writing critique group I helped found and co-lead - WriteOn Joliet - is developing  really nice relationship with Bicentennial Park. Several WriteOn members will also be present tomorrow night with their own table/booth/tent, ready to share their writing wares with a reading world.

And we will be giving away twenty copies of "Cheetah Stories" to the first twenty people at our booth, compliments of New Lenox Dental.

Most of all, we will be celebrating freedom.

Won't you please come join us?

The Blog I Didn't Write This Morning

 Good morning!

Last week I posted "The Blogs I Didn't Finish This Week" (which you can read here, since Blogger isn't letting me link to it).

And I am now following that up with "The Blog I Didn't Write This Morning."

I finished up an extremely busy month with six straight extremely busy work days, which also followed two family emergencies and other challenges thrown into the mix.

But June is behind us, July is before us, and a new set of opportunities is laid out ahead of us, including the opportunities to finish those drafts. 

Will one of those opportunities include a jump in the lake? We shall see! (Summer is not summer top me with lakes and swimming pools).

This morning, I'm enjoying the cooler weather before the temperatures soar upward again.

I'm thankful Faith is looking alert and relaxed after a few difficult days for her.

I'm excited for BryonySeries to be part of the Billie Limacher Bicentennial Park Theatre's Independence Celebration (details are here). 

I'm grateful to The Book Market in Crest Hill for our summer display and sale (again, details are here).

And I'm so appreciative to you, dear reader, for popping into this blog this morning. Wish me luck that I'm able to finish at least one of those drafts tonight.

Let's make this day an amazing day!

Happy Monday!