MERRY CHRISTMAS

Hope this season is a wonderful one for you. We are in Florida spending it with Mickey Mouse.

http://www.tscpl.org/senior

Just made Calavasa. Always look forward to the butternut squash season and I almost missed it. Before I started my own Blog I was doing one for the Topeka Library and the recipe for this is in that Blog. When you type in the title. When it comes up, you will notice on the left side of the screen it says, a day in the life of Jeanette with a line under it. Click on that and you will be in my library blog which is mostly stories and recipes. If you go to the bottom of the 1st screen you will see pages 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. Go to Page 3 and down to the 4th entry and there will be the recipe for Calavasa and I think you'll like it. Is this a sneeky way to get you to read my other Blog, also? Love to all, Jeanette

Lena MY Orangutang at the Zoo

Just haven't read all my Blog's and wondering why I have Orangutang pictures on my slideshow on Thanksgiving. I tryed to find some turkey ones but was unsuccessful. Read my 75th Birthday Party at the Zoo and you will understand why all the Orangutang pictures.

Happy Thanksgiving

Yes, I'm back. Thought maybe some of you preparing for a Thanksgiving dinner might enjoy some recipes I've enjoyed.

If they are company coming and staying with you this is a quick easy delicious breakfast roll.

Delicious Cherry Coffee Cake
1 white cake mix
1/4 cup water
3 eggs
1 cup sour cream
Stir up and put in a jelly roll pan or one at least 10" X 15"X 1" depth (1/2") depth runs a little over the side and on your racks and on the floor of your oven. MESS. I have a grill pan that came with the stove 13"x13"x1' deep I have been using and works great.
BEFORE putting in oven, spoon 1 can Cherry Pie filling & 1/4 cup pecans gently over the batter. Bake 350 - 25 to 30 minutes or till starting to brown and firm to touch. Over baking makes it dry not moist.
Let it cool a little while you mix up your butter frosting. powdered (1 cup?) sugar, 1 Tab. butter, milk and tsp vanilla till runny enough to pour a thick stream back and forth across your rolls.

The day will be set right if you start the morning out with these.

Tuesday or Wednesday make this delicious Pumpkin Torte for a change from Pumkin Pie. I got it from my sister-in-law years ago.


PUMPKIN TORTE
(1) 24 graham crackers crushed (1 3/4 cup) 1/3 cup sugar, 1/2 cup butter(melted). Keep in refrigerator. We like Ritz crackers crumbs without the sugar & butter better just patted in the bottom of 9x13" pan, but to each his own. Old man don't like sweets!
(2) 2 eggs beaten, 3/4 cup sugar, 8 oz cream cheese
(3) 2 cups pumpkin, 3 egg yolks, (keep whites for later ) 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp. cinnamon.
(4) 1 envelope Knox gelatin dissolved in - 1/4 cup cold water
(5) 3 egg whites
1/4 cup sugar
(6) Cool Whip

Mix #2 ingredients and pour gently over crust. Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees.
Cook #3 on top of stove till thick. Remove from heat and add #4 (gelatin dissolved in cold water)
COOL.
Beat #5 (3 egg whites) like a meringue and fold into above. COOLED! mixture. Pour over rest of ingredients. Let set in refrigerator to form a little crust on top to put (#6) the Cool Whip on. Cut into squares before serving.

I'll try to do better from now on keeping you informed. Have Fun. Jeanette

Do You Really Know The Constitution? | Personal Liberty Digest

Do You Really Know The Constitution? Personal Liberty Digest

The Olden 1930's & 1940's Days

My husband watches commercials on TV and sees these specials at restaurants, etc. I'm a coupon clipper. SO yesterday (because he saw a Taco Bell commercial) we went to eat one of the $2 specials for lunch. On my way back to get my refill on drink I passed a man in a booth that had ordered the box lunch and he had a sack in there with the most interesting looking things in it. I stopped (haven't met a stranger yet or if they are when I talk to them they aren't anymore) and asked him what they were. I told him they looked like "Cracklens". He was about my age so knew what I was talking about. He said, "try one". I did, and boy are they good. Kinda like a big fat cheese curl without the cheese but sprinkled with cinnamon & sugar. Yum. Yum. I had to go buy me a 79 cent sack of them to take home for an evening snack. When I was a kid growing up on the farm and Dad would butcher a hog. They would cut off the fat and cook it and make Lard for cooking. What was left after the fat was cooked out was (we called them) "Cracklens". Dad would put them in a box in our storage cave by the door. They were very tasty. As a kid as soon as you could walk & carry an egg basket, it was your job to gather the eggs each night. I put the eggs in our cave or cellar whichever you want to call it. Going out the door it was a habit to reach down and get a cracklen and eat it. I liked them! After I gathered the eggs from the nests the hens would go and sit in when they needed to lay an egg. Usually there were several eggs in the nest because she left after laying her one egg for the day and another hen would use the nest. Thus, several eggs would be in the nest by evening. Sometimes you would get a "setting hen" that the mood had hit her to hatch a bunch of baby chicks. We didn't have them for that, so as soon as they started doing that Mom would kill them and we would have baked chicken. Anyway when a hen was sitting on that nest and wouldn't get off and you tryed to reach under her to get the eggs. She would peck you. HURT. So I decided, without telling Mom, that if I reached around behind her and grabbed her by the tail and pulled I could pull her out backwards from that nest without getting pecked. There was one little bitsy problem. Fighing me, not wanting to be pulled out of the nest backwards. She would dig her sharp toes into the nest break some or all the eggs under her. If lots of hens layed eggs in that nest that day there may be lots of broken eggs. I was quizzed each night on how many eggs I got. On one of the "sitting hen" nights the count could be pretty low. Mom knew how many laying hens were in the chicken house and when the count was low or lots of cracked eggs in the basket, I would get quizzed about it. Every hen didn't lay an egg every day but mom knew the average count. We always ate the cracked eggs & sold the good eggs. People worry about so many things now but then the food WE raised we knew how old they were & how they were taken care of and we don't know that anymore about the things we buy in the stores. We always had one old rooster. He was always mean and liked to chase little kids and peck them with his sharp beak. I hated him and would watch for him and try to sneak by without him seeing me. He especially liked to attack you when you came out of the hen house with a basket of eggs. Thus you would run or kick at him which again didn't do your eggs any good banging against each other. SO whenever the count was low with lots of cracked eggs the rooster would get the blame. Mom died at 96 and I don't think she ever knew about my pulling the sitting hen's out back of the nest by the tail as a kid. Each spring we would buy about 150 baby chicks from the hatchery North of us in Atchison (20? miles away) or later a little town about 10 miles south called Rock Creek that started a hatchery. The reason to buy them all at one time and not let our sitting hens hatch them through the year was when chickens are babies you have to keep them very warm so we had a "brooder house" equipped with heat lamp they could get under to keep warm on chilly days. They had their own special feederers & waters just the right size for them. When they would weigh close to 1 lb. Mom would start butchering them. One for lunch each day till my brother got big and could eat a whole chicken by himself. Then she had to fry two each day. She never believed in going to all that trouble to get ready & clean up for 1 or 2 chickens so she would kill several at a time. The rest would go into the freezer to eat that winter. Killing them was an operation in it's self. First the big bucket of boiling water to dip the chicken in so you could pull out the feathers. After she "rung their head off by hand" swinging them around & around. What muscle. I could never accomplish that. I had to have a block of wood with to big nails the distance between being the size of a chicken neck. You held them gently HA! and stretched their neck between the nails & holding onto their heads with a very sharp little hand ax chop their heads off. The 13 yellow outside cats (mom loved yellow cats) were always there to grab the head. When you let go & they were headless they wouldn't just lay there they would hop all over the yard spurting blood out of their cut off neck before finally laying down dead. As a kid it was a game when mom would stand there ringing off the heads of several chickens and they were hopping all over the yard & you had to keep out of their way or get splattered with blood. Gee, growing up on the farm in the 30's & 40's was fun. Never a dull moment and we didn't even have toys but we did have a radio. That was the great depression years when it burnt all the crops up and the grasshoppers came in droves to eat everything in sight. Your crops, garden, and when desperate enough they ate the outsides of fence posts & wooden handles of your shovels, spades, pitch forks, etc. Imagine having to work with a handle all splintered up by grasshoppers eating on them. Most farmers wore gloves but that didn't do your gloves any good either & no crops, no money. Then we joined the war against Germany and Japan and in a REAL big hurry needed metal to make fighting equipment so all farms would take every piece of metal machinery, etc. they could spare for the scrap drives & women went to work in defense plants helping to build airplanes, etc. City people were starving because there was no excess food. What little the farmers could grow went to feed his family. People in the cities would send their children to family or friends on farms so they would have food to eat. We had no TV (wasn't invented yet) and was lucky to have a radio to get the news. Some funs shows you had to use your imagination to visualize them on radio like "Fibber McGee & Molly". Never, ever did I feel deprived on the farm because we always had something to do. No one else had any more than you did so the kids just made up games and played together. We heard about the war but was not subjected to seeing it unless you went to the moving picture shows that always had a cartoon & 5 minute news report in pictures which was usally about the war before the main movie. We were lucky in a little town 1,200 to have a "moving picture theatre" a couple in our town owned & ran on Saturday nights. The short was news so we did see pictures of the war a few minutes then. It never really hit home to a kid what was going on until you lost a loved one. My oldest cousin Eldon Reichart crossing the bridge on the Rhine River when the German blew it up. I loved as a little kid. He played with us little ones and held us on his lap. His mother (my aunt) never got over his death and lived to be 90. War is so bad!! WHY can't people get along. I wonder if Mother's were the leaders of EVERY country and had to give up their sons to war would there be a much better communication? After all we went through child birth to have them and raise & love them. Better sign off before I think of something else about the olden days that I remember now at 75 better than what happened last week.

Responding to me

I've had several people tell me they try to respond to some of my Blogs but they can't. I don't know if it is something I should have done or did do and shouldn't. I always like comments (good or bad). If you would like to make a comment and can't. e-mail me at jbrose35@cox.net. Sorry

MY 75th BIRTHDAY - Born May 28, 1935

I had so much fun yesterday. I had planned my own birthday party. Haven't had one since mom threw me a surprise sweet sixteen party (I wrecked the car coming home from a friend that afternoon) & it was that night with all my classmates. Outside in the front yard. We danced and had such fun.

Well, the one I planned yesterday was at the ZOO. Guests were my family (kids & mates, grandkids & mates & 7 little great grandkids 5 years down to a few months). 32 total. What fun!! We started with the early arrivals playing on the toys by the train. Then we all rode the train. On to the zoo seeing all the animals and spending time with them. Lena, the Oranutang was on display inside, up on the shelf by the window with Mawa the male. When I called her name she came down the ladder, climbed the limb up to be eye level with me and put on a show. 4 years ago when we moved to Topeka, KS. They had a "walk on the wild side" sponsored by the local hospital. When we showed up they took our blood pressure, etc. etc. Then led us around the 1/2 mile around the zoo. What a great place to get excercise for $25 dollars a year and you can go anytime and what entertainment while you do. I try to walk 3 times a week weather permitting (bad back) and have a parrot that whistles with me in the rain forest. The zoo had adopt an animal for $20 to make money for the zoo a couple years back and I adopted Lena, the Oranutang that always entertains me with kisses on the other side of the glass. I love playing with her and wish I could give her a great big hug. I had rented the big Gary Clarke's Educational Building from 3pm -5-pm. Abouds catered us a wonderful Sandwich & salad bar..The zoo provided a cupcake cake with Lena's picture on it, ice cream cups & juicy juices with the cost of the bldg. Then the real hoot. I met Scott & Nikki Lewien somewhere and kept their business card. They bring a large booth with chairs & all kinds of silly stuff, crazy hats, feather boa's, etc. etc. (Remember the booth in the Woolworth stores that you put a quarter in and it gave you a strip of pictures?) Several can get in the booth if you want too and do silly faces, crazy hats, etc. and each person in the picture gets a string of pictures and one for the birthday girl that goes into a photo album that everyone writes silly stuff in. I've never had so much fun. Some of my family came along way (South Dakota, Colorado, other side of Missouri) to be there which I really appreciated especially since it's Memorial Weekend. I think I might take a nap this afternoon. Hope I don't get Alzheimers soon so I can remember this fun party a long time.

My Comments on - VINTAGE PEOPLE by Dr. JERRY OLD

No trip - No recipe- Just some feelings about a wonderful, laugh the whole way through, speech I heard and I read his book I want to share some of it. It was as if he was reading my mind.

1st of all I want to say I have no terrible disease that I am going to die that I know of but when we get older and have seen more in life, we do have feelings. I did not think about or feel this way at 25, 50, or even 60 but at 75 years the time is getting shorter and I hope I don't live till I'm 90 or 100. Any Republican out there I want you to read Senator Bob Dole's response to his book. "I support Dr. Old's "Vintage People" as an inspiration and empowerment to older Americans. The contributions of character that they make cannot be discounted." The Secrets of Successful Aging is on the cover of his book. He is a Board Certified Family Physican at Arkansas City, Kansas. On the Volunteer Faculty of the University of Kansas School of Medicine etc. etc. The book includes many delightful vignettes from and about aging people with a positive attitude - Vintage People. Can you imagine an extended conversation with a popular and experienced unpretentious M.D. who is actually willing to learn from every patient he treats? This book proves we can all live out our dreams, regardless of age. I want to share some of his last chapter of the book.
"Going Home"
"It's exciting to watch CPR on television. It was exciting for me as a young medical student & resident. I loved be in charge of the "paddles" and watch the patients muscles contract as he or she heaved up on the table as we shocked them. It is indeed dramatic! But as I got a little more mature, I began to realize that someday that body on the ER cart might be me! Ask most doctors and nurses who work in the emergency room and they will tell you they want "NO CODE BLUE" tattooed on their chests. If I have something wrong with me that is so serious that I stop breathing and my heart stops - I am satisfied that it's the end. The treatment may be worse than the disease. Most older people he admits to the hospital want "DO NOT RESUSCITATE" written on their charts. Relatives are too upset to do anything at a time like that. Everything progresses so fast and the paramedics are intent upon their protocol (which is designed to fit all patients). After 3 or 4 days of testing & evaluation, the medical staff determines that the patient has no brain activity. NOW the family has to decide whether or not to "pull the plug". If everyone is lucky, the patient may die in spite of the life support and make the decision for them. If not, this may go on for quite some time. There is a huge hospital bill, and the lives of all friends and relatives are disruped for a long time. Death has not been prevented but prolonged."
(Me again)
I have not talked to one older person that wants that. Even with a living will & a copy of it at the hospital you may be around strangers at the time that doesn't know that, so they call 911 and off you go through the whole procedure. If that happens to me & it's an OLD person like me I would check their breath, pulse, try artifical respiration checking their belongings for any instructions BEFORE calling 911. By this age we usually have enough things wrong with us that being put through all that and live longer to get more & more health problems for a few more years of life just doesn't make sense to me. We don' t put old animals through all that. When Indians were dying they would go off alone in the forest and die. Have we invented so many wonderful tools to use to keep people alive & have to justify the cost that we save everyone. I do not want my family having to decide if they unplug me. Guess I'll have to tape my living will to my chest every morning. ha. ha. JUST THINK ABOUT IT.

LACY COOKIE CRUNCH WITH STRAWBERRIES

LACY COOKIE CRUNCH WITH STRAWBERRIES DESSERT

Make Mousse {No. 1-below} the night before you are going to make the dessert.
{No. 2} Lacy Cookie Shell
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup Minute Oats
1/4 cup sugar
3 Tab. pecans, finely chopped
2 tsp. water
Combine ingredients in a heavy little skillet or pan.
Stir ove low heat till butter is melted. Remove from heat. Drop by tsp. (I use Tab. to make larger shell) at least 3" apart on a heavy cookie sheet that is greased & floured or put parchment paper on cookie sheet and bake on it (my peference). Bake 350 degrees 8 to 10 minutes. Remove when lightly browned. Allow a few minutes on cookie sheet to set up, but not too long. It still needs to be warm or it won't form over dish. Try your spatula to loosed all around the edges. Gently try to remove the whole lacy looking cookie and put very gently over the bottom of a small dessert dish to cool. Put the mousse in the bottom of your cooled lacy shells you've set in a dish.
{No.1}
I'm not crazy about this mousse recipe so if you have a better one use it and send it to me. Make it the night before you are going to make the dessert.
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tab. water
1 Tab. Bailey's Irish Cream or Tequila Rose Irish Creme
Bring to a boil . Remove from heat and add 2 oz. white chocolate & 1 egg. Beat well. Chill till cool (important). Fold in 1 or 2 cups whipped topping. Chill overnight. Keeps well in refrigerator. Spoon equally among the lacy shells. Cover with sliced fresh sweetened strawberries. Drizzle with thinned Marshmallow Creme.

Without the Strawberries, Mousse, & Marshmallow Creme you can just make very fancy cookies with the butter, oatmeal, etc. mixture. After baking them using (1 tsp.) dough put over your rolling pin to cool and form. Delicious cookies.

FRESH CALIFORNIA STRAWBERRY RECIPES.

Dillon's Grocery had 4 lbs. nice large (no moldy ones on bottom ) Strawberries on sale for $1.49 a lb. I bought them Monday (ad ended on Tues.) and that night had sugared slices on vanilla ice cream. Yum! First thing I always do is pour them out and (now) wash in soapy water & rinse and divide them by ripe, not so ripe, & kinda green (lots of white & not very red). I use the little & really ripe strawberries cutting out any spots and use soon for ice cream. Keeping the others divided I use all the medium or large for around the Pizza Dessert (recipe next) and also Spinach/strawberry salad. The greener ones I keep to make fresh stawberry pie because they will keep longer. That recipe will follow soon.

Tuesday I made a PIZZA DESSERT that is the best I've ever eaten given to me 1975 by a lady named Berniece Knapp who's husband was on the Dairy Co-op Board that met every month in Kansas City, Misssouri with my husband. Us ladies always went along & went shopping.

CRUST: 1 cup flour, 1/4 tsp.salt, 3 Tab. butter, 2 Tab. Lard; Cut shortening into flour & salt and sprinkle 3 Tab. of milk one Tab. at a time stirring with a fork gathering & shaping into a ball.
Roll out on pizza pan and prick several places with a fork to keep it from puffing up when baking. Bake 375 degrees 18 minutes. Cool. While cooling make topping to put over the fruit after it cools & the crust cools.
TOPPING:
1 cup orange juice
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 cup sugar
3 Tab. & 2 tsp. Cornstarch. Cook and cool for glaze on top of fruit. After everything is COOL.
Beat : 4 ounces cream cheese, 1-1/3 cups whipped topping, 1/4 c. sugar. Spread on cooled crust. Place around the outside edge on the cream cheese mixture medium or large halves of strawberries. Place them big end to small end all around in one row with sliced side up. Next row around inside beside the strawberries, place slices of banana, then a row of drained Mandarin Oranges, if you have room for another row inside the mardarin oranges do another row of bananas. To finish it off in the center I make an X with two sliced strawberries, if only room for 1 stand it up, etc. It's beautiful. Now cover it all with the Orange glaze. Let it all cool in refrigerator before you slice it. Defineately worth the time.

Today with lunch I had: FRESH STRAWBERRY SPINACH SALAD
(1 peck - (grocery bag full) $1.50 at the Farmer's Market Saturday.)
Washing & picking through them when I got home. The torn looking and pieces I cooked.
I am saving the rest in a pastic bag in the refrigerator. I check each day & if dry. sprinkle with
water. I have another spinach recipe I'll put in here later. I should get lots of spinach for my $1.50.
FRESH STRAWBERRY/SPINACH SALAD
Fresh Spinach leaves, pull out the stem
Fresh stawberries, sliced
Purple slices of onion
Roasted slicered almonds (to roast put in cake pan and broil (watch closely) a few minutes .
Dressing: Honey 1 Tab, 1 Tab sugar, 2 Tab Balsamic Vinegar, 1/4 tsp. poppy seeds.

I really look forward to the fresh california strawberries coming to the store this time of year. I will have strawberries this week till they're gone so more recipes coming.

13 Ham Meals for (2 people ) from a 4-1/2 lb. Bone-in-ham & Ramblings

One of the things I look forward to each Easter is "cheap" Ham. I love the flavor & bone of a bone-in-ham. This year the best price I found for a lean bone-in Butt end ham was $1.29 lb. I was lucky enough to be invited to my son & daughter-in-law's home this year & didn't have to cook the big Easter meal. I just played with the great-grandkids. How great is that??? I love ham and get tired of chicken, fish, beef at home & at restaurants all year & the only time you get ham is Easter. Pork is getting a bad rap. My dad had a little bit of everything on our farm I grew up on but he was noted for his Hogs. They always got top price when he took them to market. Maybe some of you don't know that is where pork comes from. So we ate lots of pork and my mother lived to be 96 years old. How bad was ham for her? She didn't smoke either but was exposed to it all her life because of brothers & her husband the hog farmer but he only lived to 68. I think we go overboard on our thinking sometimes. Like paying a fortune for organic foods when a government agency requires documentation but no one actually watching over them to make sure they aren't using synthetic fertilizer along with their "natural" manure, etc. they are supposed to be using. Their isn't enough animal fertilizer to raise all the food we eat in America and we don't want to join other countries & use human waste or we will REALLY have problems. Just an OLD (still alive) woman rambling.

(((((Ham Meals (13 total meals ) for 2 people from a 4-1/2 lb. Bone-In Butt Ham)))))


HAM & NAVY BEAN WITH CORNBREAD (2 meals for 2 people)

Trim the ham off, cutting towards the bone. Don't trim too well. You want some on there to eat when you cook it in your beans. Buy a small bag of small dried Northern (Navy) beans. Put beans in large pot (the beans will double in size when cooked) cover beans & ham bone with water (saving the juices from cooking the ham to make gravy for mashed potatoes later). I put 1 tsp. soda in water & beans & let set in refrigerator over night. (soda help's w/gas we normally get from eating beans). Next day. Cook as the bean bag tells you for time. While they are cooking make your cornbread.

CORNBREAD -
Beat: 1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup butter, melted

Mix together and add the following, stirring with a fork till all ingredients are mixed well.

1-1/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup yellow corn meal
1/4 cup sugar
4-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

Pour into a well greased 9 X 9 baking dish & 425 degrees 25 to 30 minutes.

My family put molasses over our beans/ham and butter on our cornbread when we ate it.

My husbands family put maple syrup on their cornbread and covered it with the ham /beans.

We both still eat it our own way.



When I cut the ham off the bone I cut the rest of it up for the other meals & put in plastic bags. Label each & put all in 1 large gallon plastic bag labeled with what is in it (so you know later) when you want to use it. Freeze all till you want a ham meal some day. Remember the price? Frugal, Frugal, Thrifty. My grandmother said, "save your pennies & the $1's will take care of themselves." A little harder now than in her day but it still means the same.
That wise old woman also said, "A woman can throw away with a spoon more than a man can make with a shovel". In those days the shovel was used alot. But it still holds true that waste not want not!!! That is not being "cheap" just "frugile" and we could all use a little frugilness.


HAM SLICES W/CHERRY SAUCE (husband) or ORANGE/LEMON/RAISIN SAUCE (me) (4 meals for 2 people) I was able to get 4 nice slices of ham in each of 3 bags plus the 4 slices (2 per person) we ate the day I baked the ham. Again I grew up putting raisin sauce on our ham slices when we ate it & my husband likes cherry sauce on his.

Cherry Sauce - 1 can Cherry Pie Filling & 1/4 tsp. ground cloves. Heat together & serve.

(watch all year for Wilderness Cherry Pie Filling to go on sale usually when ripe ones are on the trees - they need to get rid of the last years crop but they will be good yet for a Long time

Orange/Lemon/Raisin Sauce = Mix in small pan 1 cup sugar, 2 Tab. cornstarch, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1 Tab. flour. Stir in 1-1/4 c. orange juice, 1/4 c. lemon juice, 1/2 cup water. Cook over low heat stirring until it boils. Boil 3 minutes Remove from heat and stir in 1 Tab. butter, 1 tsp. each grated orange & lemon rind. 1/2 cup Raisins. When I buy a lemon or oranges I grate off some of the outside rind and put in small snack bag & keep in freezer till I need some rind in something.


HAM LOAF & CHERRY SAUCE (2 meals for 2 people)

The chunky ham that didn't make nice slices I ground. I was able to get at least 2 lbs. for Ham Loafs & Ham Salad Sandwiches.

1/2 lb. ground cooked smoked ham
1 lb. ground fresh lean pork
2 beaten eggs
1 cup bread crumbs
1 cup milk

Mix and lightly pat into 8X8 or 9X9 greased pan.

Combine: 1 tsp. mustard
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cloves

Spread over the top of the meat.

Bake 350 degrees at 1 1/2 hour.
Serve with 1 can Cherry Pie filling & 1/4 tsp. ground cloves heated together till warm covering the Ham Loaf with the cherry sauce before serving.


HAM SALAD SANDWICH (1 meal for 2 people)

(1/2) lb. ground ham
2 hard boiled eggs ground or chopped
2 tsp. pickle relish (my homemade is the best) I'll give you that recipe so you can make it this summer when the farmers market has cucumbers reasonable.
1/3 cup Miracle Whip. Mix together & eat in buns or bread slices.

HAM & CHEESE SLICE SANDWICHES (Using one of your pkgs. of ham slices) (1 meal for 2)

HAM & CHEESE OMELET (you minced in small pieces) & w/shredded cheese make a Breakfast egg Omelet (If you don't know how to make. Type me a comment and I will put it on here. (1 meal for 2 people)

UPSIDE DOWN HAM LOAF/PINEAPPLE (2 meals for 2 people)

1 lb. ground ham

1 lb. ground fresh pork

Mix meat with: 2 cups bread crumbs, 2/3 cup milk, 2 eggs, 1/4 tsp. pepper,2 tsp. salt 1 tsp. dry mustard. Press the meat mixture on top of 1 cup crushed pineapple/6 Tab. of brown sugar.

Bake 350 degrees 1 -1/2 hr till done. Let set awhile & cover with a platter & flip everything over so the pineapple is on top to serve.

Above are my favorite left overs but Ham & Scalloped Potatoes, Ham Balls, Ham & Kraut rolls, Ham Croquettes are very good, too. If you want the recipe for any of these just make a comment.

SUMMER VACATION IN MICHIGAN Page 2

If you have more time head north to Mackinaw City - Historic Mill Creek - very interesting about lumbering there in 1790's. Colonial Michilimackinac - at the base of the 5 mile bridge to Michigan upper Peninsula.
UPPER PENINSULA - Sault St. Marie boat ride of locks US & Canada.
WHITE FISH POINT (north) -Lighthouse & beach (look for Agates (rocks - get a book) on the beach) If you stay at Paradine eat at "Fish House" - fresh fish $6.95, owner catches, fillets & serves great fried or grilled. Looks like a little fast food but it isn't!
TAHQUAMENON - Upper & lower falls State Park Pictured Rock Natl. Lakeshore - near Munising (Take the boat ride). Driving Hi. 2 along North Shore of Lake Michigan going back to the bridge - notice -Pasties (spelled right - no- r) at every place to eat. Try one.
THUMB AREA - Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron, Alpena - Presque Isle (nearly an island) Old (1840) & New (1870) Lighthouses (1 mile apart). Notice names of towns like Mesick-Winyah..
TAWAS CITY - Huron National Forest, Tawas Point State Park, Large Springs-Au Sable River
Lumberman's Monument, Sand Lakes, Camel Road, Chef's Table -delicious baked goods (pies, bread, etc.
BAY CITY - Beautiful homes & churches (Hi. 25) The thumb is beautiful farm ground. Drive around the top of thumb Pt. Aux Barques - Port Hope Lighthouse.

You can tell we like to see things and love Natl. & State Parks. We love to eat at new places & in different area's where you find food of a country the people in the area's ancestor's came to America from. Some you'll like and some you might not but what the heck you at least tryed it and can get a burger down the road. I, myself never found anything I didn't enjoy eating. Thanks to my mom & dad that made me eat at least one spoonful of anything my mother sat on the table. Some I thought was awful then, is my favorite now in my second childhood (or adult). Hope you go this summer and this will help you have fun!!!

SUMMER VACATION IN MICHIGAN

As I have told you in a previous blog. We worked at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore one summer 3 days a week as volunteers. I worked at the Dunes Book Store & my husband worked at the main park visitor's center at the town of Empire. We really enjoyed the area. {Don't forget when you get your park map as you enter all Natl. parks, momuments, Lakeshores, etc. stop at the visitors center and mark it with their stamp with the name of the park & date. Years later you can look in your file and know when you went to the..} being near the penisula area where all the cherry trees are. Yum, Yum. We are now hooked on dried cherries & will be till we die. I still send off and get a huge bag each year. We were first introduced to REAL (from the trees) Wisconsin Maple Syrup, also. I still send back and get that too. Anyway, enough about me and on to the things to do in that area. The mileage listed is from the previous town listed.

HONOR - (2 miles W. from Park) American Resort Campground on Deadstream Road. Two miles east of Honor is a Rock Shop where you can buy rocks for your rock collection. You must get one of the famous State "Petosky" Stones (beautiful and only found in a Northern Michigan State Store). They are found nowhere else on earth. If you are lucky you might find one on the ground just walking around.
BEULAH - (7 miles) Cherry Hut Restaurant (BEST cherry pie) & you can stand outside and watch them make the pies before you go in or after you eat. Market Basket next door is a must.
BENZONIA - (8 miles) Gwen Frostic Art Studio local (colorful) artist. Died the year before we worked there but I'm sure her wonderful Studio & Nature Artwork is still there. I hope so.
EMPIRE - (10 miles) south of the park Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park Visitor's Center.
Hike - Empire Bluff Trail (easy 1-1/2 miles round trip).
Drive- Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive (7 miles)
Climb - Sand Dune (5 miles N. of Visitor's center at Empire) ask at the Book Store at the Dune to see the tape of "Legend of the Sleeping Bear" if they don't have it on the screen so you know why the sand pile is there. Take a kleenex. The first thing we got there in the morning we were to turn on the tape for visitor's to see. Some employees about went nuts listening to it all day but I enjoyed it and the visitor's expressions & comments after seeing it. You can also buy the tape or probably DVD now.
GLEN ARBOR - (2 miles from sand dune) Totem Shop - get a, "I climbed Sleeping Bear Sand Dune Button" $1.50.
CHERRY REPUBLIC - several homemade cherry Ice Cream
Boom Chucka cookies.
Cherry Hot Dog or Hamburger
Cherry Republic Store - free - Chocolate covered cherries samples, cherry salsa, dressings,
jellies, etc, etc, etc. A MUST!!!
GLEN HAVEN - (1 mile) Maritime Museum - if there at 4pm stay for the Raggedy Ann & Andy
rescue by Ranger.

LELAND - (15 miles) you can take a short boat trip all day at Manitou Island (awesome).
NORTH POINT LIGHTHOUSE (30 miles N.) tour inside & surrounding buildings.

South of Empire

POINT BETSIE LIGHT HOUSE & BEACH
FRANKFORT - Beautiful Crystal Lake - rich summer cottages
ELBERTA - Peach capital. Mayfair Tavern Friday night fish fry $6.97 (worth the wait)
and if you have't seen Beulah & Benzonia drive around the lake. Same area also
PLATT RIVER POINT - 3 ft. deep has big tubes float trips on slow shallow water that runs to Lake Michigan.
INTERLOCKEN - Highway 31 - half way between Honor & Traverse City is the Famous Interlocken Arts Center -STOP - almost every night a concert. Free if you want to sit under
the trees outside Kresge's Auditorium like alot of locals.
Hofbraus Tavern - Prime Rib Sunday Buffet $9.00 11:00am (to die for)!
TRAVERSE CITY - old airport road off Highway 31/37 around the city.
Sara Lee Point - Outlet Store
Gordon Food Supply - Best Raspberry Vinigerette you've ever eaten.
8th St. - Victorian Homes
Bay Walk - along Grand Traverse Bay.
Meijiers or Prevo grocery - for 4 lbs. dried cherries or Chocolate Covered
cherries for $19.95!
Cherry Festival (July 9 & 10)
North on Highway 37 from Traverse City
OLD MISSION PENINSULA - Beautiful drive through cherry orchards, winery, looking down at East & West Bay of Grand Traverse Bay. Recommend eat at Old Mission
Tavern - Sunday noon are special dinners - lots of cherry dishes. If you eat the Chicken Cherry Salad - $8.50 you will know why I had to stock up on their raspberry vinegarette at Gordon Food Supply.
LIGHTHOUSE - at the end of the Peninsula to walk around & on the beach
North on Highway 31 from Traverse City - along east side of Grand Traverse Bay through towns
of ELK RAPIDS - our 1st fresh Michigan strawberries
CHARLEROIX - (beautiful little tourist harbor) can take a boat trip over to Beaver Island.
HARBOR SPRINGS - "Little Traverse" Oijbway Indian Village
PETOSKY - same as "the" stone. If you have lots of time & not pulling a rig Hi. 119 high above Lake Michigan with oceon view on narrow winding hilly road through GOOD HART to CROSS VILLAGE. Eat at "Legs Inn" famous Polish restaurant for decor as well as food. Ask about the legs decorations.

NOW - AWAY FROM LEELANAU PENINSULA AND TRAVERSE CITY AREA - fast way to Mackinwac Island -Arnold boat ride over very smooth water to Mackinac Island. No cars on the island but carriage ride is great. Good lunch at Fort catered by Grand Hotel (tour if time).
near Mackinwac City - Historic Mill Creek - very interesting about lumbering 1790's.

I better stop and start another page for the rest. We worked there several years ago so don't hold me to it if the prices and places aren't the same. These were all things we enjoyed the summer we were there.

EASTER BUNNY

That a rabbit became a holiday symb0l can be traced to the origin of the word "Easter". According to the Venerable Bede, the English historian who lived from 672 to 735, the Goddess Eastre was worshiped through her earthly symbol, the Hare. The custom of the Easter hare came to America with the Germans who immigrated to Pennsylvania in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. From Pennsylvania, they gradually spread out to Virginia, North & South Carolina, Tennessee, and New York, taking their customs with them. Most eighteenth-century Americans, however, were of austere religious denominations, such as Quaker, Presbyterian, & Purian. They virtually ignored such a seemingly frivolous symbol as a white rabbit. More than 100 years passed before this Easter tradition began to gain acceptance in America. In fact, it was not until after the Civil War, with it's legacy of death & destruction, that the nation as a whole began a widespread observance of Easter itself, led primarily by Presbyterians. They viewed the story of resurrection as a source of inspiration and renewed hope for the millions of bereaved Americans.

CELEBRATING EASTER

WOW!! Been along time since I've been on here. Since MONEY has become a problem I thought I'd share some old timers ideas that got us through the REAL Depression. When we were happy just to have something to eat. Forget about toys. We didn't need them we used our (as Walt Disney would say) IMAGINATION!!!!!! As I am writing this it is 4 days before Easter April 4, 2010. Almost time to get those hard boiled eggs colored for the little kids basket.
THE PERFECT EGG - Place eggs in single layer in saucepan. Cover with at least 1 inch water over tops of shells. Cover pot with lid and bring to a boil. As soon as it begins to boil, remove from heat and let stand in hot water 18-20 minutes. Drain off hot water and immediately cover with cold water and add a few ice cubes. Let stand in cold water until completely cooled.
THE PERFECT COLOR - Why spend money on packaged egg coloring kits when you probably already have everything you need right in your kitchen? To make a rainbow of egg hues, you can use either liquid or paste food coloring. Paste seems to make extra bright and depending on how much paste, more intense color. BUT if you already have that little cheap box of red, green, yellow & blue bottles that you've used to color other things you make USE IT. Paste wasn't even around in my kids day. Now - you need a separate cup for each color, large enough to hold an egg and the liquid. Use 1 cup HOT water, 6 or 8 drops of food coloring, 1/4th cup vinegar and your egg dye is ready to go. We would put one end of the egg in one color and let it dry & dip the other end in another color for a little variation from all the solid color eggs we did. It can also teach the kids about color. When done using the 4 colors. Let the kids pour 2 or 3 together and find out what color they get by putting red/blue, blue/green, red/yellow, etc. together and dying the rest of the hard boiled eggs in the mixed colors. I think I and my kids had the most fun finding out what colors we would get mixing the colors. We did get some pretty black looking eggs once in awhile.
Oh, if you have been doing the coloring for the Easter Bunny, just tell the kids this year that you all are going to help the Easter bunny out (he's so busy) and let them do it. Just set them out for him on Saturday night and let HIM hide them.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park, Michigan

It's time to be thinking of where you would like to spend your summer. If you are retired and think it would be fun spending the summer there and working a few days a week get the resume' up to date and let them know you are available. I would recommend Sleeping Bear. It's a beautiful area. Twenty six miles from Traverse City near the peninsula and all those delicious cherries. I worked right at the Sleeping Bear (sad story) huge pile of sand & my husband worked close by at the National Park Visitors Center at Empire. I will let you know later some ideas for the summer vacation travelers. Try to keep warm.