Meringue Miracle...in which the Farmer's Wife finds the perfect recipe and saves the world. Or something like that.

I'm going to just say it.

Meringue is a very strange and wonderful substance that I want to just stick my face into and eat until it's gone.  It's like eating clouds, isn't it? 

It's big hair, for pie.

I never have much luck making the stuff....it's always shrink-y, or water-y or just plain ugly.  And there's NEVER enough of it in a recipe to make that mile high poof that one sees in Southern Living magazines. I've tried doubling, to get the effect, and there's no such thing....one really can't double meringue recipes with any success.  Heck, one really can't make ONE meringue recipe with any success, often times!

BUT....I've found THE perfect recipe for meringue.  It's brilliant.  It's astoundingly simple.  It's stunningly foolproof. (I would know...being the fool who tested it and found success.) 

And I'm going to share it with you! 

I tested it on key lime pie...(Hi, Patricia!)
BEHOLD....

*Actual, unretouched photos

It's a little weird, compared to your conventional meringues, but I think that's why it worked for me.  If you already have a great recipe and make lovely confections with it, don't mess around with this.  But if, like me, you have had flops instead of fluffs, this will make you look good. 

Miracle Meringue

1/2 cup cool water
2 T. white sugar
1 T. corn starch

Mix these ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thick and clear. (It won't be crystal clear, but it will lose the cloudy corn starchy look.) Remove from heat and set aside.

In a large glass or metal mixing bowl, beat
3 egg whites (handily left over from the pie recipe)
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1 pinch salt (couple shakes from the shaker, I think)
Beat until the mixture is foamy.

Mix in
1/2 tsp vanilla extract and gradually add 6 T. white sugar, beating constantly until soft peaks form.

Add the corn starch mixture to the egg mixture, gradually, beating until stiff.

Spread over the top of a WARM pie, all the way to the edges of the crust to seal it.  (There will be PLENTY!  I promise.  You'll even be a little overwhelmed at the amount at first, then giddy that your meringue is so big!) 

Brown in a 450 degree oven. 

Have your camera ready when it comes out, because you'll have such a case of Pie Love that you won't be able to restrain yourself....you'll have to show everyone.  (Sort of like those crazy *ahem* people who show pictures of their flowers to anyone who will stand still long enough...)

It's in the bucket...

A couple years ago, a movie came out called "The Bucket List"...I'm sure you're all familiar with it.  Basically, a couple guys were dying and one of them was a billionaire who decided they should do all the things they always wanted to, before they died.  He funded the experiences and they didn't worry about the risks, just went ahead and tried everything they could. 

Since the movie, the term "bucket list" has been used to label a list of things one wants to do before they die. I think most people sort of have this mental list....some write it down, even!  I love lists.  Perhaps it's because they organize all the flotsam and jetsam in my head, whether I do them or not.  I have a list that I wrote when I was about 23 years old, of things I wanted to do in my lifetime, and some of them make me laugh, now! (One of the things that makes me laugh is that I was 23, for heaven's sake, and thinking I'd probably die around 40 years of age, so I wanted to get busy with my dreams....)

Anyway, one of my friends said something about "that's on my Bucket List..." the other day and I started thinking about what my current Bucket List is. It's long, so you won't get the whole thing. And some are private, so you don't get those either.  Some are silly, some are on the impossible side...there's a lot of travel involved.

(Incidentally, when I went to Boulder this spring, Chad and Sara unknowingly helped me knock three things off the current list!  1. Go to a big zoo.  2. Eat at a really good restaurant that has tiny servings of incredible food.  3. See Pat Green in concert.)

So here are some of my things:

• Go to the top of a lighthouse.
• Learn to play acoustic guitar.
• France...at this point, it doesn't have to be Paris; I just want to go to France.
• Learn to tango. (That's a silly one, but I think it would be FUN!)
• Have a restored, shiny red 1937 Chevrolet pickup truck to drive...not to park in a garage covered with a tarp. 
• Learn to fly fish and then, do it often.  (This is completely do-able....it's been on my list since age 23.  That drives me nuts.)
• Go to a Broadway play.  I love theatre, and this, too, has been on my list since 23.)
• Go to a professional football game! My standards have slipped, here....now, instead of specifically having to be a 49ers game, I'd go to any professional football game.  Even...and this pains me to say....a Denver Broncos game.  (Okay, so there are no standards, whatsoever, anymore...)
• Downhill ski.  Yes, that's right...I live in Montana and I've never downhill skied! (Ranchers don't ski...they stay home and feed cows in the winter.)
• Go on a sailboat.
• Have a great hat...you know, like a fairly modest Kentucky Derby hat. 
• Go to Donaghadee, Ireland....where my great-grandmother was from.
• High tea...I want to have a proper high tea, with all the little cucumber sandwiches and petit fours, wear a dress and hat and heels, and all the frou-frou stuff that goes with it! 
• There's an island, somewhere in the tropics, with my name on a cabana and miles of sand and sun...

I'll stop there...it's getting longish and rambly 
What's on your list?

*I'm a big fan of writing it down, because when I found my list from my younger days, I was sort of surprised at how many things I was able to check off! It made me realize that even though my life sometimes looks like it's fairly ho-hum, it really has been full of amazing experiences.

I can't buy this....

....and, my friends, neither should you. 

This is a public service announcement, from The Farmer's Wife.

Last week in Walmart, (Yeah, that phrase right there should lend credit to anything I'm about to tell you.) while waiting to check out, I saw a product called Pajama Jeans. 

That's right.

Pajama bottoms styled to look like "designer" jeans!

From the box, it looked like they were from one of those late night infomercials and I assume it was being marketed to insomniac, stay-at-home moms like me.  So we would be ready at a moment's notice to answer the door and the UPS man would have NO IDEA that we are still wearing our pajamas at two in the afternoon!  The packaging indicated that, heck, we could probably even get away with interviewing for a job in them or a nice evening out on the town.  (Sorta takes "casual Fridays" to a new level of laid back-ed-ness, doesn't it?) 

They were ONLY $49.95, predictably, and the only size I could find there was extra large.  It was almost my turn to check out, so I didn't have the opportunity to think of something I'd forgotten and roam the store looking for a People of Walmart model wearing a size small, which presumably had sold out. 

The other thing I found that gave me cause for concern for naive consumers was in Albertsons last night.  I was looking in the deli area for proscuitto and stinky, imported cheeses when I came across a pre-packaged, cellophane wrapped PARTY PACK of sushi. 

That's right.

A loaded gun laying right there beside the Reser's potato salad and chevre cheese.

There are a couple things (besides Pajama Jeans) that you don't want to buy in Eastern Montana....one of them being a tshirt proclaiming that you're a vegetarian and voted for Obama, the other being raw fish with a blurry "Sell by" date to feed to your party guests.  On both counts, I can't guarantee you'll live to regret your choice. 

(I personally think sushi should be eaten within 15 miles of the shore where it was caught.  The further from the shore, the dicier the proposition of eating it.  Likewise, I'd be suspicious of steak tartare in Polynesia.) I suspect this sushi was older than the cheese from Ireland that I bought. 

I don't know how many of you were aware of these products, but I felt compelled to warn you that they are out there and to urge you to guard against *impulsive buys!

*Better to wait and buy the Pajama Jeans through the informercial, because you always want the "But WAIT! If you buy now, you'll also get..." offer, right?

 



Soggy doggies

The accumulation of rain, as of yesterday afternoon around 3 p.m.:

(It went on to rain more, bringing the total, this morning to 3 inches and 1 tenth...inconceivable!)

Everything is wet.

And grumpy.

Twilla, complaining about having to stay in the porch...

 Lily and Willie, unimpressed with this turn of events....if they go out of the shed, they get wet.  If they stay in the shed, it's loud.

Figaro, yelling at me about the wet grass! (Like I can change it or something...)

Note the prissy paws....

The only things that seem to enjoy this relentless moisture are the flowers.

Angus "saved" some worms.  These have been handled and mauled and loved to death...literally. At least they didn't die a lonely death, right?

And neither will this child, who it would appear went out the door, threw himself in a puddle, rolled around until he could stand it no longer and returned to the house requesting a hot bath and some cocoa if it wouldn't be too much trouble...(Those socks WERE white, when he left.)

I think today....because it's STILL rainy....we'll make key lime pie and listen to Kenny Chesney and Jimmy Buffett and wear shorts and put little umbrellas in our orange juice and pretend like we're someplace sunny!

Weed it and weep...

I know.
That title has a distinct Elmer Fudd feel to it. 
And I apologize for all the gardening posts in a row, but it has been raining non-stop here and I've been escaping the madness of the house for the relative solitude of the flowerbeds, so this is what's on my mind.  I have wet dog pictures, too, but I'll save that for later today.  Gives you something to look forward to, right?  (In the top 100 worst blog post teasers, "Stay tuned for wet dog pictures" has got to be in the top 30!)

This is perfect weather to weed in, because like all other living things, weeds lose the will to fight after three days of rain.  And it's SO gratifying to pull a world record dandelion out by the root and hold it up like a trophy from a great and noble battle!  Then, after admiring the 8 inch root on that sucker, to throw it on the pile with the rest of the victims, cackling with satisfaction.

The tricky thing I've found, about weeding, is what to do with the volunteer flowers that are growing where I don't want them.  Starting my flowerbeds from nothing, for the first couple of years I found it charming and encouraging.  "Oh, look!" I'd exclaim to myself. "Flax!  Poppies! and I didn't even have to plant them!" 

Self-sowing annuals are the passive aggressive garden inhabitants.  They take full advantage of their flower-ness and quietly scatter where they will, invading the bed like Huns in China.  They KNOW it kills a gardener to have to yank them out, because they really are lovely little plants that we had to pay good money for seed just a year ago.  And they KNOW we can be beguiled by their lovely blossoms, which turn into gazillions of seeds which turn into a veritable carpet of whatever they are. 

Take flax.
Really.  Take all of it you want; it's engulfing my beds.
I want some  flax, because it's a lovely sky blue that is hard to find in the plant world, and it has an ephemeral feel to it.  I planted some seeds, it came up and charmed me, and then moved in like a homeless relative, sprawling all over insouciently, elbowing out my aquilegia and thumbing its nose at me.  It took me a long time to be able to yank it out with no twinge of "what if I eliminate it and it never grows back" feelings. 

Poppies are the same way.
AND....the worst part is that just as I wade into the bed, sleeves rolled up, mouth pursed, heart full of determination, they have the nerve to bloom.  OH...drats!  How to yank up clouds of sky blue flowers, when nothing else is blooming? (Nothing else is blooming, I reflect later, because the flax has engulfed it!) 

I'm developing a hard heart where some of these plants are concerned.  Here's my list of plants that look like friends but are really bullies in the garden.  Think Moe, in Calvin and Hobbes.

• Flax
• Poppies (The California kind....they invade Montana just like the residents of the state from which they originate.)
• Yarrow (Public enemy #1, here in my yard.)
• Salvia (I'm still wrestling for control, but I think I have it disciplined.)
• Hollyhocks (They are the WORST!  And there's always, always guilt associated with yanking them out because they're such sentimental flowers!  It's like slamming the door in your grandma's face or something.)
• Malva (Hollyhock's close cousin...smaller and less well known.  I think of it as sort of a shirttail cousin twice removed and don't have nearly the guilt eliminating these.)
• Did I mention yarrow?

My mantra, that I say over and over as I wade and weed is, "Just because it wants to grow there, doesn't mean it should be allowed to grow there!"  The other thing I say is, "DIE, yarrow!!! DIE!!!" 

Gardening is a brutal, blood sport and not for the weak of heart. 

Wet dog pictures to follow....ALSO not for the weak of heart.

Dirty hands

*This post is for Fontie!  Everyone else will probably be bored to tears unless you are a gardener...

In May, my hands look like this almost every day....

....it's completely delightful!

I was allowed to go to the greenhouse, unsupervised, for about an hour on Wednesday. 

This is big.

I don't like shopping...despise it, in fact, except for books, shoes and plants.

A girl can never have too many of any of those, really.

I showed remarkable restraint this trip and only brought home six perennials and a handful of bedding annuals.  It's a bit too chilly for the annuals, but this is perennial weather and if my budget hadn't been quite firm, I'd have just backed up the car and hauled off a bunch more. Maybe rented a UHaul...

Yesterday morning, since it was too muddy to brand, I planted my loot.

Meet Veronica....

Isn't she lovely, with her coy, curling ways?

I have high hopes for this girl! 

One of my beds has been neglected, and I needed something with distinct form and moderate height....I think Veronica will give me what I'm looking for, here. 

Zone 3-7.

And the fussy sisters....Agastache

I messed up, here, and probably will chalk these ladies up to very expensive annuals due to garden amnesia.

The first rule of my gardening manifesto is:

"Thou shall not culture fussy plants."

I completely blew the zone...6-9....when I'm a 3 or possibly 4 on the right side of the house.

I was all entranced by their delicate mango blossoms and healthy growth.

I've been eyeing agastache in High Country Gardens, pretending I could incorporate them into my beds and then accidentally went and bought a couple.

We'll see.

Rudbeckia, my little workhorses....

They look so...short and pointless, right now! 

One of the things I love about gardening (and gardeners) is that one can look at a tiny, seemingly insignificant plant or seed and see the promise of full grown plants.

Relocated Alcea (hollyhocks)....

They don't LIKE being moved around, so I'm hoping they'll forgive me and grudgingly grow here.  I need the height in this spot and am too impatient to wait for the seeds to grind away for two years before blooms appear....

Love/hate tulips...

Maggie wants purple tulips next year....

Perhaps, if I think of it in time, we can find a good spot for purple tulips.

Little pansies, waiting for a home.

No blooms!

When I worked at the greenhouse, I had a hard time convincing customers to buy the plants without the blossoms, even though those are the ones you really want. 

When a plant starts putting all its energy into the bloom, the foliage and roots come in second and third place.  I like looking at the blooming plants in the green house, just to see what they'll be for sure, but when I buy my plants to take home, I look for the ones that haven't started yet.

AND if they do have blossoms, I pinch 'em off as I plant them.

That sounds mean, doesn't it?

It's really doing a favor to the plants and ensures stronger, healthier growth in the long run.

Sort of like spanking kids to discipline them. That's how I look at it, anyway.

Here's a row of marigolds that have been shorn of their flowers, waiting for their tomato companions to be planted next to the white stakes.

I know.  Blows your mind that I planted anything in a straight row, doesn't it?

Here's an intoxicating little plant:

Chocolate mint

It smells like a peppermint patty! 

It gets lots of love, because everytime anyone comes near it, its little leaves get rubbed to release that glorious aroma...

Lemon balm....also much carressed and adored.

Baby chamomile! 

Chamomile smells like apples....even on the hottest days of summer, if I crush some chamomile and smell it, I get a cool, fresh feeling. 

Some of the seeds I planted last week are coming up!

Actually, they're exploding out of the dirt in the raised veggie beds.

Peas are the most beautiful little plants.  They have little tendrils that reach like arms and very humble, straightforward leaves.  I smile when I look at baby pea plants....because I can't hug 'em.

Carrots are not so adorable, as babies, but they make up for it later by being all feathery and elegant, when the peas have become tangled, misbehaving plants that quarrel amongst themselves.

Little envelopes, filled with gardeners' dreams....

It's raining again today, and I'm looking forward to slogging out and planting the patient little pansies, pulling weeds and making more plans for my next trip to the greenhouse!

Dieciséis de Mayo!

*Pinata pictures added! Scroll down.

Other people have Cinco de Mayo parties....we have ours a bit later. 
(All the stuff is on sale, that way!)

Actually, the fiesta this year was held on the last day of school as a farewell/thank you party for Celestia and Jasper, our teachers for the last five years and dear friends for much longer than that.  It was tons of fun, but there was also a tiny bit of sadness, because we're going to miss them so very much. 

It has been raining...a LOT...so we weren't sure there was going to be much of a crowd at all. Fiestas are much more fun outside, but this year we set up in the Cohagen Gym and it worked out pretty well, actually.  It helps when there are miles of tacky plastic Mexican cut-out flags to string around and sombreros for everyone! Add mariachi music, lots of good food, great company and margharitas and it all comes together into a great party....

Cowboys, desperados, and senioritas...

Pancho and Lefty....appearing on posters in U.S. Post Offices near you.

The guests of honor, hitting the taco/enchilada line before anyone else.  Cohagen cooks are excellent and generous, and we enjoy every morsel! There was a particular chocolate brownie trifle that we all want the recipe for....if I get my hands on it, there'll be a recipe post, here, because it's to die for. (In fact, I think the cook called it Death By Chocolate, come to think of it...)

Everyone looks cooler in sombreros, don't you think?

The problem we ran into was hugging!  Apparently, Mexicans don't hug too often; either that or they have developed a technique that allows for it without knocking sombreros off left and right. 

AND there's almost nothing cuter than kids in sombreros!

Witness the adorable vibes....

Good vibes coming from the Bull Pen, too!

I wouldn't exactly call it adorable, but good vibes nontheless...

This picture doesn't do Baby Hannah justice.  She's the most adorable little thing!  I talked her folks into letting me hold her while they ate....pretending it was a favor, when really it was a favor for ME.  We played by the stereo; she was enthralled with the mariachi music and it was fun to dance and swoop with her! 

Three of my favorite women in the world, discussing the meaning of life I'm sure....

Speaking of desperados....

If it wasn't for the big hat, he'd have been able to slip in the line and abscond with a couple dozen Jello blocks, unnoticed.

Traci told me that she ordered a cake (last minute, at Costco) with Mexican wishes, but when it was time to leave, she had to grab a "Happy Birthday" cake instead; the other cake wasn't anywhere to be seen.  So she scraped the wrong sentiment off and put an appropriate Thank You on it.  We think somewhere in Billings there's a birthday party with a Hasta Luego cake...

And the pinata!  I don't have pictures of the destruction, but Traci does and as soon as I can talk her into sharing, I'll add them to the post...

The pinata got knocked off the rope, but still didn't break, so I had to hold it while this little girl whacked away at it.  She was last in line, being the oldest, so I thought it only fair to let her work on it, having had to wait through all the other kids.

 Ended up having to just shake the candy out...

...on their greedy little heads and sombreros. Incidentally, if you're wearing a sombrero and picking up candy while more is falling, the hat acts as extra hands because candy falls on the brim!

Making sure there's no more candy in the pinata.  The little girl beside me swiped up one package of licorice and was good with that.  Just open it and eat it and let the other shmoes scrabble around in the dirt.

Loot

Nice job! Plenty of candy for the first day of summer vacation!

My co-host, looking quite spiffy in her sombrero!

A good time was had by all and we are already looking forward to next year's party!

Crazy Mary....the May Edition

I have a few questions from an anonymous (and I think, perhaps, mutually crazy) reader.  They're probing, in-depth queries and I hope I can do them justice in just one post.  These are questions you've probably always wanted to know about crazy people, but were afraid to ask....

Well, pour a mimosa, kick off your fluffy bunny slippers and prepare to be amazed.  (Amused. Appalled.  There's any number of "A" words that work in that sentence.

1. What’s your favorite non-sport game?

Tricky. 

I have two.

If forced with a gun to play a board game, I'd choose Pictionary.  I really have a hard time with board games and cards because they require me to sit in one place a long time.  But Pictionary is actually fun and there's action, suspense, and quite often, humorous results from the speedy drawings. 

One memorable time, I was playing Pictionary with the Yosts and Ty and I were partners.  We were smoking along until I got the word "lungs".  Timer started, I drew the body shape and then added (what I thought were perfectly drawn) lungs.  Ty said, "I'm not guessing that one, Mary Jane.  I'm not going there!"  I had NO idea what he was talking about and was getting really impatient with him not guessing.  When the timer ended, me mad and him embarrassed, the girls were DYING with laughter...like, tears it was so funny....at my picture of what looked likes sagging...anyway.  That picture hung around in the box for just ever and we laughed every time we ran across it. 

The other non-sport game I like, which was the one I was going to list first but wasn't sure it counted, is pool.  Billiards.  It is so much fun!  And I'm absolutely the worst pool player in the world, but I love that there's strategy, physics (angles and applied force), teams, lots of visiting between times you shoot....there's action.  You can walk around the table, chalk your cue stick, take tons of time pretending to set up an impossible shot that accidentally sometimes works...this is my favorite non-sport game. 

There was an old pool table in the high school dorm where I lived and we figured out the weird tilts to the table, the particular curves to each stick, the rough spots that would slow a ball.  Sort of messed us up for REAL pool, it turns out; level tables, straight sticks, smooth felt.

2. What’s your favorite riddle?

It's obscure and ancient.  I learned it from an antique nursery rhyme book and no one has ever really heard it....see if you are familiar with it:  "Thirty white horses upon a red hill; now they prance, now they dance, now they stand still."  What are they?

3. Outside God and His immediate family, who is your favorite biblical character?

I like Peter.  He was impulsive; walking on the water without thinking about the impossibility first. He was passionate; cutting off the ear of the Roman soldier who came to arrest Jesus.  He was loyal and at the same time, a bit cowardly; boldly stating that he'd stand beside his Lord, then denying him three times out of fear. But did you ever notice? Peter was only one of the two disciples that followed Jesus to the court of the high priest. Even though he denied Christ three times, he still was one of the only ones to follow to that scary place! Impulsive. Passionate. Loyal. Scared.

 I think Peter must've been the disciple that the others called crazy, but in a good way.  

4.  What’s your favorite movie theme song?

OH! Really?  A movie theme song?  I actually put a lot of thought into this one...sadly, since I could've been spending time and brain cells coming up with some sort of solution for global warming. 

The one song that I LOVE hearing is the Indiana Jones theme song.  It's grand, big, bold....one of the songs that perfectly embodies the complete feeling of the picture.  You can hear that song anywhere and immediately go straight into adventure mode. At least I do.  I think THAT would be a great song for graduation!

5. Who is your favorite Greek god/goddess?

Hermes.  He was a messenger from the gods to the mortals, protector of travellers and shepherds and cowherds, god of literature and poets, of athletes, of inventors and of commerce.  He also takes care of old crones, which I'm starting to see as a really cool thing.  The Greeks attribute the invention of fire, the lyre, and...this is funny...the sport of boxing to him.  Not many people remember him, because of Apollo, Zeus and all the big dogs.  

6. What toppings would you use to create the perfect hamburger?

Here's how I would make the perfect burger:

First, the burger would have a dip in the center, concave instead of the convex burgers we usually wrestle with.  That way there'd be a handy little cup for the sauce.  Barbeque sauce that's homemade, dark and complex, probably concocted by my dad. He makes the best sauces! It would be warm, too...just off the stove where it had been simmering. 

I have to have bacon...not the wimpy two strip deal, but four or five strips not too crispy, not too limp.  They would reside UNDER the burger, between it and the bun.  Does it drive you crazy that the bacon always slides off as you eat the thing?  It does me, and I think this would eliminate that problem.

Speaking of the bun....I want a Fuddruckers bun.  Better than homemade but sort of like homemade.  If you haven't had the pleasure of meeting a Fuddruckers hamburger bun, I strongly suggest you hunt one down and discover the wonder. They're made to taste sort of buttery and they feel too light to hold a burger but somehow they stay together.  And you don't end up with that whole "it's all bun and no meat" feeling.

Okay...back to the toppings....I'd have a slice of grilled pinapple on top of the barbeque sauce, melted white cheddar cheese over that, and some sliced green chili peppers on the cheese that have been lightly sauteed in butter.  A twist of fresh ground pepper...just one twist....and  top with the other half of the toasted Fuddruckers bun. 

That would be my perfect burger. 

And so ends the rather longish list of fun questions!
Send any questions you have...there's none too stupid for me to tackle...and I'll do a Crazy Mary post. 

True Confession #317

It's been awhile, hasn't it? 

Yeah, well....some of you are still reeling from the whole People magazine love.  I didn't think it would be good to spring another confession on you right away. 

But it's time. 

This will make my brother and a couple other friends roll their eyes and snort in their beer.  Ah, well...

Here it is:



I love sports movies. 
Love 'em!
Any sport....football, basketball, soccer, figure skating, rodeo, hockey....you name it, I like it.  EVEN (and this is the most painful part of the confession...) NASCAR movies.  Although, and I have to say it, I don't quite understand how rodeo is NOT classified as a sport by ESPN, but NASCAR is.  AND...this still baffles me...poker!  I digress...

The second half of the true confession...and this is where the rolling of the eyes will commence....is that I cry in nearly every one.  Yes.  Small town-local-kid-does-good movies can make me sob.  I cried during The Replacements, for heaven's sake.  And Miracle.  And Karate Kid. And that silly Ice Castles movie. Hoosiers takes me completely out....every time. 

Tonight, I made my family watch The Rookie. 
They were just excited that I was going to sit and watch a movie with them, so they agreed to anything. 
Turns out, I'm the only sports movie fan in the house. 
It moves too slow, there's too much to figure out, they don't really understand baseball. 

It had Dennis Quaid in it! I don't mind telling you,  I'd watch a remake of Captain Kangaroo with Dennis Quaid in it.  He wouldn't even have to say anything, just stand there and look handsome.  And grin.  And wink his blue eyes.....*sigh*

What was I talking about?

Oh, yeah...The Rookie. 

It had all the ingredients for a good sports movie.  Young kid, big dream; misunderstood, cold father; small town; cute little kid; smart mouthed teens; impossible, amazing, too-good-to-be-true winning season after two (or 10) seasons where only one game was won each year.....
AND it was rated G.

It took place in West Texas...Big Lake....and I swear they cast my Aunt Bert as the wife of Jimmy Morris.  The whole movie, I was stunned how much that woman resembled Bert! 

The thing that really made me emotional was that the coach who came from a small town and went big was about my age, now, and he never stopped liking baseball.  He never stopped pitching, even if it was at night, against a fence, with his son asleep in the back seat.  He did all the right things, like getting a real job and taking good care of his family, but he never lost the passion or spark for baseball.  And he worked at passing it on to the next generation. (I know.  Just like all sports movies...)

That, and it was Dennis Quaid.  I mean, my goodness...!
:)

So now you know....sports movies are probably the only kind I'll actually sit down and watch all the way through without stopping to change the laundry around or check my email.  Sports movies and Downton Abbey.  And I'll cry, so if that makes you uncomfortable, you can go check YOUR email while tears run down my face; sappy, happy tears.