Greetings From Shirley St.Clair

Hi from Shirley (daughter of Oba & Dorothy): Want to get this to all you St. Clair cousins galore before the end of the year so I can at least feel a wee bit timely!

In July, I visited Aunt Marian in Reedsport to talk St. Clair Genealogy. She made and served a fantastically delicious Blueberry Torte and shared her recipe which I have written down for any of you who might want to try it. You can see her holding the finished product next to the recipe below.

In August, hot on the trail of St. Clair Genealogy, I went to the Scottish Festival in Winston. Being so near Tenmile, I stopped by to see Uncle Harold and Laveta. As you can see from these pictures, our rough & tough eldest St. Clair guy was looking fit and feeling good. He most definitely looks 20 years younger than his 81 years!

Since September I have been taking weekly genealogy classes to learn methods. One of the many things I have learned is how challenging and time-consuming it is to track down information even with the many sources available on the internet. I am so in awe of how Aunt Marian traced the St. Clairs back to Alexander in 1698. She did all this by regular mail, following leads and dead-ends, and once completed she gave us each our personalized heritage histories. She did all this (a really monumental task) without the benefit of a computer or the internet. Thank you, Aunt Marian, for your foresight and diligence and for caring.

My goal is to track our heritage back to Scotland; to see if I can figure out what part of Scotland bonny Alexander hailed from and actually go there eventually.

Shirley

PS: Dear Bunny - Will you please share your Mom's (my Aunt Sally's) recipe for fruit salad that you fixed for Thanksgiving.

PS: Dear Nancy - I was so pleased to see the pictures you posted of your Mom (my other Aunt Marian - Bud's Marian). Please tell her "Hi" for me.



Aunt Marian's Blueberry Torte

Crust: 1 stick oleo
1 cup flour
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Mix well with pastry blender & press into 9 x 13 pan. (Aunt Marian used a pie pan. Worked great!)
Bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees.
Cool completely.


Filling:
1 pkg cream cheese (8 oz, room temperature)
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Whip until creamy, fold into:
2 cups Cool Whip

Spread onto crust. Top with:
2 cans blueberry pie filling

Chill and serve with Cool Whip on top.
* * * * *

When Aunt Marian made this for me, she cooked up frozen blueberries instead of using canned filling and used real whipped cream instead of Cool Whip. It was absolutely, positively wonderful!
...... Shirley