Food & Fun in 2015

January:       A jovial jubilee with celebration in the air
                     Start the year with Jackrabbit stew, if you dare.
February:     A fabulous festival, now don't get the jitters
                     We'll have some fudge and fruit fritters.
March:          A merry month of marvelous mirth
                     With milk and meatballs from the
                      land of your birth.
April:            An amazing assembly alementation
                     Apples and almonds produce salivation.
May:             A mysterious mass of a mob of people
                     Eating macaroni and muffins below the steeple..
June:             A joyous jambalaya under the sun
                      Let's have jams and juice and Jamaican rum.
July:              A joking jabberwocky-filled jamboree
                      Who's bringing the jam and jelly beans?
August:          An amorous alliance, who's counting the cost?
                       Bring the almonds and applesauce.
September:     A sagacious symposium run by the boss
                       He wants sauerkraut, salsa and squash
October:         An obligatory observance is in the loop.
                       This calls for ostrich eggs and oxtail soup.
November:     The neighbors nuptials have a redneck theme
                       With bowls of nachos, neck bones and nectarines.
December:      A daring demographic dazzles the crowd
                       Serving duck and dumplings and dessert - Oh wow!

Ah - Relaxation

Life can be fun, exciting, entertaining, stressful.  All these things and more.  And when it gets just a bit too much of whatever is going on, it's good to have a way to relax.  Fortunately I have many ways to lose myself in some form of activity and just let the world go by.

One way is to do a little painting.  I'm certainly not a true artist.  No one is ever going to want to buy one of my "works of art," but I get what I need from the activity.  This painting  has no title, maybe someone can suggest something suitable.  It's done in acrylic paint, about 16 by 20, and I have it hanging in my computer room.  I enjoy looking at it.  (But then I can be easily amused.)

I'd love to hear how my cyberfriends like to relax and get away from the stresses that can befall all of us.  Please feel free to share.

Take care and may you all have a wonderful week full of holiday cheer and lots of time with good friends.  Merry Christmas to everyone.

It's Christmas

                 (This post was first published on this site in Dec. 2012.  I hope you
                   enjoy the repeat. - Karen)

It's that time again, isn't it?  So for your consideration I present the lyrics to a song I wrote a long time ago.  First, though, let's set the scene.

It's late at night, the lights are dim, a little blues music is wafting through the air.  There is a fire in the fireplace in the snug cottage as you look out the window to snow falling softly blanketing the ground.  (Think Norman Rockwell or Thomas Kincaid.)  And someone sings softly.

                         Come On, Santa

Christmas time is coming and I'm making a list
Won't you tell me, Santa, can I have what I wish?
I want someone to love me, to hold me good and tight
So hurry up, Santa, swing on down tonight.

Chorus:    I hear jingle bells and tiny reindeer
                 Please tell me Santa, are you getting near?
                 You have got my address and I will be at home
                 Come on Santa, don't leave me alone.

I've been singing Christmas carols and decking the hall
I'm getting ready for old Santa to call
Bringing what I need to fill my lonely nights
So hurry up, Santa, swing on down tonight.

Chorus:

I have been so good, Santa, you would not believe
Looking forward to what is under my tree
If Santa got my letter and he read it just right
So hurry up, Santa, swing on down tonight.

Chorus:

Come here you jolly old elf.

Distorted Life's Journey

It can happen to anybody.  You start off with a plan.  It may even be well defined and clear in your mind.  Then something happens.  You don't know how or why it happens, but all of a sudden your vision becomes distorted or a bit blurred.  You seem to have lost your way.  Do you quit, or do you find a way to go on?

It isn't always easy to go on.  How do you do it?  All I know is, you just have to come to the understanding that you can either stand still or move.  And to me, movement is always the better course.  But how can you move when things are so bleak?  A few suggestions I have found helpful:

     1)  Step back and take time to reflect on what may have happened.
     2)  If you have taken an emotional blow, give yourself time to get past it.  But not so much time you find it easier to be totally inactive.
     3)  Remember that you can't change others, you can only work on yourself.  So focus on what you need to do to help yourself go on.
      4)  Spend a little time on your Attitude of Gratitude journal.  It's always nice to reflect of the blessings you have rather than the things you feel are lacking in your life.
     5)  Rethink your goals.  Is it possible you've missed a step or tried to take a giant step when it's time for baby steps for a particularly difficult phase?
     6)  Pick a date and plant yourself in the right place to get yourself going again.

I like a quote attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes:
     Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.

What about you?  What have you found helpful to get yourself looking forward to what can be rather than to what has faded into a distant past? 

What's Your Attitude?

I am eternally a dedicated optimist.  Oh, there are times I have my down periods, but they fortunately never last too long.  So when I decided to do a papier mache project in the form of my initial, I decided the completed form must denote an attitude.

This "K" came to mind when I momentarily had a thought of Steven Urkel, the character on the TV show Family Matters played so very well by Jaleel White.  To try to capture that attitude, I made it with a slightly backward bent with one foot projected forward while the other was placed to the side.

I put teal paint in the papier mache pulp and inserted a design of puzzle pieces.  When dried I wiped the piece with a thin layer of more teal paint  over the top of the piece, followed by polyurethane to make it water repellent.  The finished form stands about 20 inches tall.

To tie this in with my attitude I'll include a few quotes I like.

     The world is full of cactus, but we don't have to sit on it.  -  Will Foley

     I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.  -  Mahatma Gandhi

     Become a possibilitarian.  No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are,  raise
     your sights and see possibilities - always see them, for they are always there.  -
                                                                                                     Norman Vincent Peale

To Knot or Not

I have heard folks say that one of the greatest inventions is the wheel.  Now I won't say it wasn't a great improvement in the lives of people and is a direct contribution to our modern forms of transportation.  However, that idea needed earlier creations to come to fruition.

I'm talking the whole concept of all aspects of sewing.  Think of what that craft brings to mankind.  How do you come up with the idea of all the necessary steps to sew a project from beginning to end when you have never seen it done before.  And yet it happened, and not just in one place on the globe.  No, it was a world-wide development for people in very different environments.

Going all the way back to the Neanderthals, humans have benefited from the ability to obtain hides from animals, treat the hides properly to use them usefully in providing clothing, shoes, blankets, and probably other things we have forgotten about down through the ages.  One aspect of the process is the skill of making threads and laces and learning how to knot them to come up with a finished product that serves a specific purpose.

You know how little kids look when they learn to tie their shoes?  They have spent years watching the adults in their lives tie shoe laces.  These tykes determine to learn the process and work diligently to twist the two laces around and through just so, then pull tight, loop around a make a bow then pull and tighten.  And they must learn how to do at least a couple of types of knots - the hard knot necessary to secure a seam in a piece of clothing so it doesn't unravel, and of course the easy bow knot to do a shoe so you can pull it apart later to remove the shoe without effort.

This learning takes awhile to get right, even though the adults have been familiar with the concept for thousands of years.  What must it have been like to be the first to come up with the idea?  Were they sitting around the campfire discussing ways to keep those scraps of hides close to the leg so the scraps would stay in place as they walked or ran through the forests?  Did someone suggest a skinny strip of hide to wrap around the scrap of hide to hold it close?  How much experimenting was necessary to wind up with the final draft?  Did the naysayers laugh and call them names for trying to do this?

But aren't you glad they did it?  Without the laces and the ability to knot them, how could they ever have learned to attach the sharpened rock to the end of a long stick to aid them in killing those animals.  How else when you came up with a wheel could you manage to put two of those things together attached to another stick (the axle) to have a pair of wheels to later be added to a cart which could then be pulled with a horse/mule/oxen?

No, I can't see the wheel coming around without first learning the skill of sewing.  And this one craft/skill provided shelter, warmth, clothing and shoes for everyone in the community.  This was one thing that benefited all in just about every aspect of daily life.  So hats off to those unknown people who made such a positive change for everyone.

Fire House Wieners

                            (from my unpublished cookbook Fighting Fires and Feeding Firefighters)

 

    

 

 

Ingredients:  1 can (14 1/2 oz.) stewed tomatoes     2 or 3 heaping Tbsp. salsa

                      1/2 pound wieners                              black pepper to taste

 

To prepare:  Put tomatoes and salsa into saucepan.  I use salsa strength preferred by the family.  Add pepper to taste.  Bring to boil over medium flame and let simmer for about 10 minutes.  Cut wieners

into about 1/2 " lengths.  Add wieners to tomatoes and cover.  Continue cooking until wieners are nice and plump, about 10 minutes.  Serves 2 or 3 people.  Serve with cheese toast.

 

* * * * * * *

                     

City Ordinance, Little Rock, Arkansas, 1866:

     The Fire Engineer in command was given the authority to direct the hook and ladder men to cut down and remove any building, erection or fence, for the purpose of checking the progress of the fire.  With the advice and agreement of two City Aldermen, the Engineer is also given the power to blow up and building or erection during the progress of a fire for the purpose of extinguishing the fire.