Donna Hechler Porter

On my last last blog I shared my Chocolate Buttermilk Pie recipe, which is great comfort food even if its not good for your waistline. I mentioned I froze my pie crusts ahead of time so that I always had them handy. Doing so is a great time-saver. So this week, after several requests, I am sharing my frozen pie crust dough recipe. And, let me say up front, I have no idea where I got this recipe from, so credit, unfortunately, cannot be given.

I have always wanted to live in an old house with history (although I draw the line at ghosts.) I also wanted said house to have lots of “junk” in the attic, the closets, the garden sheds. I picture myself going through all the “junk,” which would really be little treasures along the way. All with a history. All now . . . mine . . .

Every now and then I come across a couple that are so sweet with each other, it makes my heart warm. Usually, but not always, they have been childhood sweethearts. However, all the relationships I’ve ever had with men have been fraught with angst, turmoil, and just plain friction. It makes for some highs and lows, but rarely is the relationship showered with the ongoing tenderness I see in these sweet couples. on’t get me wrong, there is tenderness. But there’s also an awf

“Nay, it’s not the Devil been leading her astray. It’s books! That girl has been nothing but trouble ever since she learned how to read.” From The Winthrop Woman by Anya Seton. My life with books began before I ever entered school. And, like Elizabeth Winthrop, but to a lesser degree, they have caused me some trouble . . .

. . . Not only do mothers sacrifice their bodies to bring children into the world, but they lose THEIR time, THEIR interests, and have to broaden THEIR goals and THEIR world to include their children. A woman’s life is never the same once she has children, and for most of us our life is divided in half, our life before children and our life after children. It could be said that Keeping Secrets is a story of two mothers – Mary McKechnie and Abigail Cayle – both of whom sacrif