The Couch

Beware of monotony; it’s the mother of all the deadly sins. Edith Wharton

Margaret Griffith was a gregarious and simultaneously cantankerous lady. She had an elegant Chippendale couch. Or so she told me. My grandmother survived some rickety times in the 1930s. Afterwards, she carefully reclaimed a few household furnishings that aligned the family with her notion of a House Beautiful though she knew better having experienced the fleeting nature of things.

The highlight of her living room - the couch - was upholstered in mauve silk brocade and flanked by two chairs each with needlepointed cushion seats. The couch stood counterpoint to a large petticoat mirror. The space was used during winter afternoons to knit or to receive callers (those folk who she phoned to prearrange visiting privileges prior to our week-long visits.)

After discovery that the couch did not dissolve from the material world along with my grandmother, my mother took the piece into her own home because she had absorbed the family penchant for stories around worldly goods, a reverence which can easily jump into a child’s imagination. By placing the couch in the mental frame of “loo-de-do,” Mother honored my grandmother’s plight.

Later when we ventured out to recover the sacred divan while purchasing an embroidered canvas to enliven the somber piece, she said, “I really don’t like this couch.” I knew better than to challenge maternal insanity and complimented her when it became a part of the cozily designed center of her home. In a final irony, she took her last living breath upon that settee.

Destiny would provide me with redemption, a chance to learn in a generational cul-de-sac. In fact, I gained the opportunity to avoid the sentimentality that clutters the heart, the home, eventually freezing the soul in a twist of fate.

When my father first suggested that we give the couch to his astonishing new girlfriend, I heard a familiar voice squeek, “No, I’d loovvvee to have it in my home.” I placed that dead weight front and center and there it sat collecting dust for a decade.

In time, while remodeling our kitchen, a carpenter tromped through to the front door and passing the couch, a pair of comfy chairs and the very same petticoat mirror, he stopped with a dead halt and said, “What a gorgeous couch!” With a rush of relief, I sighed and said, “It’s yours - when can you pick it up?”

I’ve since settled on the fact that the quality of memory should be life giving and have recognized a sacred replacement for the couch - a warm and beloved family recipe. It has the good character to inspire a story and feed people. With a supernatural tendency to carry on, these instructions have gone so far as to gather subsequent generations for dessert with their ancestors.

Almond-Glazed Poppy Seed Bread/Cake

The women in my family have revered the idea of sweet bread or cake. I remember the delight of sharing a warm slice in their midst. Though I don’t possess my Grandmother’s favorite recipe, I do have this shining star straight out of Beyond Parsley via the Junior League of Kansas City, Missouri. My mother and I have this made this delicacy countless times. Displayed on a glass cake stand in the 1950s, followed by a ceramic cake plate in the 1970s; the heirloom of shared cake is deliciously irreplaceable when served with hot tea in the winter or fresh strawberries and candied violets in the spring.

Bread/Cake

Always loved the generous fact that this makes 2 large loaves or 5 small loaves.

3 cups all-purpose

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup oil

2 1/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract

1 1/2 teaspoons butter flavoring

Almond Glaze

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1/4 cup orange juice

3/4 cup sugar

Combine all ingredients and beat with a mixer 2 minutes. Pour into 2 large or 5 small greased loaf pans. Bake large loaves at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until brown. Cool 10 minutes and remove from pans. Spoon glaze generously over tops and sides. Cool completely. Wrap in foil to store or freeze.

To make Almond Glaze, mix ingredients together. Until sugar is dissolved.