{"id":4713,"date":"2018-07-17T17:36:43","date_gmt":"2018-07-17T21:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/HatchetOnline\/?p=4713"},"modified":"2024-08-15T16:02:20","modified_gmt":"2024-08-15T20:02:20","slug":"bridgets-kitchen-winter-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/bridgets-kitchen-winter-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Bridget’s Kitchen, Winter, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

First published in Winter, 2013, Volume 8, Issue 1, The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nI love Fall River in the Springtime. People comin\u2019 through the town from somewheres else lots of thymes will say how warm it gets here in the spring, with our balmy breezes comin\u2019 off the water. They\u2019re nice too (they don\u2019t know who\u2019s Irish unless we start talkin\u2019). I feel like tellin\u2019 \u2018em they oughtta come back in the Summer and try that out, but then I\u2019d give away my bein\u2019 Irish and they\u2019d pay me no mind whatever I said. So me and my cousins and friends just nod and smile. I was tellin\u2019 Cousin Mary th\u2019other day that people must think Fall River has the most people who canno\u2019 talk in the werld.<\/span><\/p>\n

The fair weather that blesses us in early Spring reminds me of my days in County Cork, and it\u2019s been more than one thyme that I\u2019ve caught myself day-dreamin\u2019 of just those days. The nice days bring weddins to mind too. And sure if the men are askin\u2019 their ladies to take that walk (with some it\u2019s a \u2018run\u2019) down the aisle with \u2018em.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have a steady fella. But I figure there\u2019s plenty of thyme for that. I enjoy my day and a half off from the Borrdens too much to give them up for house keepin\u2019 seven days a week. But some day I\u2019ll take the plunge, I\u2019m sure. I have a secret hope that when I\u2019m ready I\u2019ll go back to the old homeland and marry an upstandin\u2019 young man who has the same last name as mine. When I was makin\u2019 handkerchiefs an\u2019 undergarments for my Hope Chest, I went and sewed (I wanna say \u201cembroidered\u201d but I\u2019d never get through that werd without messin\u2019 it up) \u2013 ennyway I went and sewed \u2018Bridget Sullivan\u2019 on everything, and got fancy writin\u2019 paper with \u201cB.S.\u201d on the tops. So it\u2019s either be an old maid (I don\u2019t think I\u2019d get into enny other kinda job) or marry a guy named Sullivan. But all that\u2019s a ways off yet, since I don\u2019t make enuff money to really save ennything. Some day if I come into a lot of money, that would do it. Mrs. Borrden tells me often enough that she\u2019s leavin\u2019 stuff for me in her will if I promise to stay till the end with her. And so I have.<\/span><\/p>\n

I make enuff to do me a little shoppin\u2019 downstreet, since I don\u2019t have to pay for the doilies and curtains myself like Mrs. Borrden does. It couldna been long ago that I happened to be in the same store as Miss Lizzie. The stores sell a lot of different stuff under one roof, which does save some on the shoe leather. I was lookin\u2019 for a pair of gloves but was havin\u2019 trouble findin\u2019 my size, when Miss Lizzie told me I should be gettin\u2019 rubber gloves cuz the next job comin\u2019 up for me was to wash the cellar down with bleach.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The clerk, who kept a sharp, helpful eye on Miss Lizzie asked her what the bleach was for when she got up to the counter with it. She told him. He looked concerned and said, \u201cWhy, Miss Borden, have you not heard that soon it will be considered not legal to be washing things with bleach?\u201d No, she had not. And she asked why. \u201cThere is a new discovery that\u2019s come out, that if you treat any area with a certain chemical, it will show that the area has had blood on it. This will be a boon to the scientific and criminal world. But one thing negates the results, and that is bleach. Perhaps you might wish to choose a different cleaning agent.\u201d She thought and said, \u201cSo bleach will make this \u2018blood finding\u2019 chemical null and void? Blood will not show up?\u201d \u201cWell,\u201d said he, \u201cbleach and a few other cleaning detergents.\u201d Miss Lizzie, she carried the bottle of bleach back to the shelf she got it from and picked up a second bottle.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

She looked for me in the store, but I was crouchin\u2019 down behind a barrel of flour. I knew why she was lookin\u2019 for me. Wantin\u2019 to stick me with the carryin\u2019 of those big bottles of bleach back home. I didn\u2019t just fall offa the turnip truck. That happened when I was about ten year old, so enny injuries I\u2019ve had since then had plenty of thyme to heal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s thyme to go into the kitchen. Now these are good recipes, an\u2019 if ya make it up at home, drop me a line to tell me how yours come out, whydontya. Taday we\u2019re makin\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

BOXTY<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Irish\u00a0Potato\u00a0Cakes<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Yer gonna need:<\/span><\/p>\n

Raw potatoes (grated), a half a pound <\/span>
\nSome milk<\/span>
\nMashed potatoes, a half a pound <\/span>
\n1 egg<\/span>
\nFlour, a half a pound<\/span>
\nSalt and pepper<\/span><\/p>\n

Mix yer mashed potatoes with yer grated ones. Put in the salt and pepper, and the flour. Beat yer egg and add that. Then ya add just enuff milk so this stuff is thick enuff to drop from a spoon. Watch ya don\u2019t add too much milk, or you\u2019ll end up with the stuff too runny and all you will make for dinner will be a mess. This has happened, and I never herd the end of it from Mr. Borrden for wastin\u2019 an egg.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heat up yer fryin\u2019 pan. When it\u2019s good and hot drop yer potato mix onto the pan and cook for three or four minutes on each side. And believe it or not, that\u2019s it!<\/span><\/p>\n

My dear sainted mother back home used to add some chopped onion to it. If ya do that, twouldn\u2019t be a bad idea to cook the onion some before addin\u2019 it to the potato mixture, otherwise you\u2019ll have raw onions in it.<\/span><\/p>\n

But with onions or without, these are good enny time for breakfast, yer noon meal or dinner. This recipe here makes enuff for about 6 people.<\/span><\/p>\n

If\u00a0God\u00a0sends\u00a0you\u00a0down\u00a0a\u00a0stony\u00a0path,<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

May\u00a0He\u00a0give\u00a0you\u00a0strong\u00a0shoes.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sherry Chapman assumes the identity of Bridget Sullivan and offers her favorite recipes for your eating and reading pleasure.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":4903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bridgets-kitchen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4713"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5022,"href":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4713\/revisions\/5022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}