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.

CHRISTMAS FOR EACH GENERATION

Just spent 4 days with our sons family in Colorado. We meant to leave Wednesday but watching the weather reports decided to leave Monday & stop for the night at Colby, KS. Glad we did!!!! At breakfast Tues. morning we ate with two other couples about our age heading for their kids in Colorado from K.C., MO & St. Louis, MO and we from Topeka, Kansas Visiting we found out we had all gone through the same process. Gonna leave Wed., then Tues, then Monday like us. We just made it here about 1pm Tues. before the snow started. A beautiful, no wind, gentle, big snow flakes falling for two days that accumulated to about 8 inches. Since I didn't have to clean the sidewalk I loved it. It was 8 degrees Thursday when we left the house at 11:30pm for Midnight Mass Christmas eve. at their church. Their dry air & little or no wind doesn't make it feel that cold. We had such a good time but each generation is different. This is the technology age & so we didn't actually spend much quality time with the kids (7th grade- High School Senior) because they always had their nose and fingers on one of the many technical things out there now. However, even as a kid we never felt poor because no one else had much either. I don't remember spending 'Quality" time with my grandparents on holidays either. We were out playing with the cousins doing something. It is us grandparents that need to be the one to think of their ages and get their attention with something we did as kids and interest them in other things we can do together OR learn that new stuff out there they know all about.

Christmas when I grew up on the farm in the late 30's & early 40's as a kid it was not surprising when you got coal or corn cobs in your sock from Santa because he was told I hadn't been a good girl. Those were depression years so we felt lucky to get one toy under the tree and that could be something homemade by your parents. It was still a wonderful life and I'm glad I grew up in a family that had to be "FRUGILE" because it taught me that stuff out there is just STUFF. How long will it take before it lays around and you never play with or use it again. You buy lots of things now because that is the times. Keeping up with the neighbors kids.

Christmas is different for each generation. When we raised our kids "Fisher Price Toys" had just came out and were so cute. Birthday & Christmas each of the 4 kids would get a house, barn, school house, playground or some other piece of Fisher Price while they were little. I really think we were buying because we didn't have those cute things & we loved them more than the kids. Of course by the time you bought a present for the grandparents, aunts & uncles & cousins your funds were exhausted but I knew how much we could afford to spend and we NEVER borrowed. Many times when we were first married and kids were small, Mom & Dad (us) never got a gift from each other because there wasn't any extra money. We survived and still together over 50 years. It seems to me the world is putting too much emphasis on things. Boy, that sounds like an old foggie doesn't it? Happy New Year.

Disney World, Florida (2nd winter)

DISNEY WORLD, FLORIDA - 2nd winter job.

Sorry I haven't been on here for awhile but when no one replies it's discouraging and I begin to lack interest. Besides, I have some Volunteer Jobs I've been working on now when they need help. Keep America Beautiful & Topeka Easter Seals Capper's Day Care. Enough about me. I was looking for a recipe to copy for someone I gave you in April and realized I never told you about going back the second winter to work at Disney World, Florida again. Disney has a policy that you can't change jobs until you have worked there 6 months. When we were working only 2 or 3 days a week for 3 months in the winter we thought we would have to work in the gift shops again. However, when we left they changed our status from Part-time to Seasonal. So we didn't get paid all the year we were gone but as far as management the time counted so when we came back we could change jobs. Working the winter before at MGM on Sunset Blvd with Tower of Terror at the end of our street & the Disney Lazer Water Show at night across the street we tryed for that and got on. The computer again told us when they needed us as replacements for full time employees. The jobs we worked at were also decided by the computer so you would work different jobs when you came. Main Gate - trying to keep the people happy while they wait to get in; Director on their walk to the theater showing them where to go; Parking baby strollers for the guests; Working at the theater as crowd control; etc. After the show everyone pitches in and picks up the large drink & popcorn boxes and mantenaince comes in later and sweeps & washes the aisles. That was a real fun job. No money to count. There were several retired couples working with us along with the college kids that we worked with everywhere. If you aren't retired and just go for a vacation the show is on everynight & no matter which park you were at you can go to it and it only shows one time and only on Sunset Blvd. unless they have changed things since we've been there. The show is awesome with a waterfall sheet of water coming down to a stream that a boat of real Disney characters are riding. A lazer show of Mickey fighting the Dragon or some other show is shown on that stream of water. Beautiful.

We never meant to work the same place twice but we sent home so much Disney stuff that our little grandkids started begging their folk to go and they said if we'd so back they would save up their money and come the next year. They did and what fun. We had been there long enough the previous winter to "learn the ropes" as the old saying goes. Like when you get there as they open that day you do NOT start doing things right there by the gate. Head for the other end of the park where the crowd hasn't got to yet so you don't spend all your time standing in line for the different things to do. By the time you get back to the gate at the end of the day you can walk right on those rides without standing in line for an hour. Don't go on Holidays if at all possible. It's worth taking the kids out of school for a few days. Spring Break and the Holidays may find you standing in line for 1 hour to get into each thing and that really ruins your experience. I would not recommend going in the summer. It gets really HOT down there.

If you have anyone in your group having a hard time walking, and there is alot of walking!! Rent a wheelchair. Your group will get to go past the long line and put in a side entrance which is actually an advantage. If you have any other questions. Remember though it's been almost 12 years since we worked there. Current things like prices you can get on the Internet. It's been fun getting back on here again. Hope I was a help. Jeanette

Posting a note to me on the Blog

I'm having people tell me they are having trouble responding to my Blogs. I tryed it myself this morning before I wrote this to make sure I can answer it. I answered the Space Center Houston (last) Blog. It's posted at the bottom of that Blog. I have several relatives that have responded but no one else. Anyone else out there reading my boring life? I will try to help you understand how to make a comment. If you notice below my Blogs is a place you can check if you thinks its funny, interesting, cool, but it also says 0 comments with a line under it (right after time posted). Click on that line and up will come a white box about 3" X 2". Type in that what you want to say and BELOW your comments is a gray box that says, Post Comment. Click on that box and your comment will be posted so I can read it. I love seeing a comment. It makes me feel like someone is out there reading what I write. The 0 comments with line under it can have any number in front of it if there are other comments but there is always room for one more. And as they say "the more the merrier". I also want to mention that with Blogs the last thing I write (like this) is at the top. SO if I am telling a story go clear to the bottom to start at the beginning. Over to the right lists the months of the year. Click on a month and everything I wrote that month will come up for you to read. Hope you have alot of time. I get pretty "gabby". If you still can't do it don't feel bad I had to learn about these Blogs myself. Our library started one on me and I didn't even know what it was. They have 3 girls in a big Van come twice a month at the complex where we live and I'm always telling them stories and teasing them so they took my picture (without my knowing it) and started the 1st blog on me. If you want recipes & stories just click on this http://www.tscpl.org/Senior (on the left side) is Senior Services and there I am. Go to the bottom of those stories and choose Last which should take you to the 1st story they put in about the squirrels then work yourself back to the last entry I made at the top. Again on the right side lists all the entries that you can click on to get to where you want to go. Hope that makes sense to you. Have a good week. Jeanette

"Space Center Houston" NASA Visitor Center

Thanks to a hometown boy visiting relatives at home. He asked when we were coming to Houston, TX. where he now lives. We said, where can we work? His reply was NASA! I sent off an update of our resume' and that's where we worked that winter. I don't know if I've told you that the resume's I did for us (with the help of a daughter & daughter in law) was a simple 1 page on the computer about our life before retirement with a space for Part-Time Seasonal above so each time we came home I could easily add at the top the last place we worked. A cover letter with both our names on it, told the kind of work we did that. I would add the last job at the top of the others when I added the last work place. It worked great. Easy for them to read what we'd done when they have 100's of applications to read. We were hired everywhere we applied. Their visitors center "Space Center Houston" is full of theatre's, rides, etc. that is all about space. As a worker there, you move from one to the other as you work. That allows lunch & breaks. The hard part was learning the introductions you say at each work station. When an employee shows up at your work station you move on to the next and what ever time you get there till you are bumped again you say what you are supposed to. In other words if you arrive at a theatre as it is starting you will give the introduction to that movie. If you arrive in the middle you sit down & enjoy the show. If you are still there at the end or arrive at the end you will give the exit. You move on to the next which may be a ride that makes you feel like you are in space and that of course has an introduction. This all works very well and you get to do a variety of things each day you work. There is no charges for anything in the Center for the guests. They just go from one thing to another like the workers do. They have a tram tour that you actually go into NASA. We were fortunate enough to be there when a crew came home from space. They will have a night that all their families & workers can come and they stand on the stage in front of you and tell about their trip and answer questions from the audience. Sign autographs afterwards. What a thrill!! We found a campground near the Center which is between Houston & Galveston. Galveston has a Marti Gra when New Orleans does and it is fun. Most of the people we worked with were young people and when they found out we were planning to go (just like everywhere) they treated us like Grandma & Grandpa telling us where to park near the end of the parade & as soon as it ends to get to our car and get out of there. They told us it gets wild after the parade. We did as we were told but hard telling all the fun things we could have gotten ourselves into. We didn't hear anything bad on the news the next day. We did come away with several Marti Gra necklaces my husband caught when they thew them off the floats passing by. It was a wonderful winter and again we only worked a few days with lots of time to see the area while we were there. Jeanette

Working part time at Disney World

If you would like to go south and spend the winter working a couple days a week this is a good time to check with them. We had two delightful winters working there. We were the fill in's for the full time workers that need sick leave & their days off. You will get a weeks training about Disney & how you are expected to work when you work for them. Everything I was taught I agreed with completely!! If you work in a gift shop (Merchantainment) the people that come in are guests not customers (customers implies that you expect them to buy something). The guest is to enjoy their visit to your store. If you aren't straightening up or replacing merchanise you are helping make the guests in the store feel welcome. NOT visiting with your fellow employees or standing behind the cash register. When you see someone pick up something and start towards the cash register that is when you go to the register and help them. One day I heard something crash. Looking where I heard the sound I saw a little 2 or 3 yr. old girl with huge eyes & scared. I rushed over to her getting there a few seconds before Mom. I asked the little girl, " If that mean old music box (little wooden piano) hurt her?" I said, "We've been having trouble with it jumping off the shelf". At the same time looking up at Mom and with a smile said, "We don't have a problem here". Letting her face relax from that terrible frown and her thoughts of what am I going to have to pay for now. It wouldn't have been down low at her height if it was terribly expensive or glass. Disney takes the loss not the guest. When you arrive to work you go to wardrobe which is "off stage." The other side of the wall where the guests are is called "on stage." You will know where you will work that day so you pick up the costume you wear at that job already washed & pressed ready to wear in your size. At the end of the shift you put your clothes on and drop off what you wore that day. The next time wherever you work a clean pressed costume is waiting for you. How great is that? We worked at several different shops on the same street. Wherever they needed help that day. Once you step on the guests side you are a Disney employee. If someone left litter on the street, you pick it up. If a little kid spilled their popcorn or dropped their ice cream cone you go to the vendor & wearing your uniform replace it for them free. When you are hired you will get an ID card (like a driver's license) that will let you into any of the 4 Disney's parks anytime you want to go. Take that card to Property Control at least once a week for bargains. Walt Disney planned his parks for kids enjoyment and doesn't want a kid to cry while they are there if he can help it.

Medicines

I'll just admit now that I will probably get in trouble with a Dr. (Veterinary), son & Nurse, granddaughter doing this entry but just wait till they get old. If the medicine prices keep going up I don't know how anyone will be able to afford medicine!!!


Last winter I started having "cold sores" on my lip, that is what my mom (would have been 100 this year) called them. I never once actually had a cold. Mom had them alot when I was a kid. I think they call it "Herpes" (different germ than vaginal) on your lips or side of nose now. They start with a tingle, then blister, then scab which will then look unsightly for two weeks. After several of them in a row I finally went to my doctor. He prescribed a medicine & when I got it at the drug store was $40 and using it 3 times a day barely lasted 2 weeks which is how long it still took to get rid of it. Next one I called him and he prescribed another medicine that cost $50 and was the same size tiny little bottle and lasted the 2 weeks. Both sores would have lasted that long if I had done nothing. I was exasperated!!!!! Two weeks later we happened to be in Walgreen's getting a toothbrush and I noticed a bottle of "Ambesol" for $2.97. I didn't know they still made it. Mom always used it for any mouth sores. I bought it and the first tingle I felt on my lip I put it on. Using it 3 times that day just like the prescribed ones. It never did form a blister so I never did have a scab. It just never developed!! I have had a couple times since that I felt that old familiar tingle and immediately grabbed the good old faithful bottle and that was it. Nothing! I have not had another one since I bought that bottle which I still have 3/4's left and have used it a couple times for a gum sore in my mouth. I am so tired of the Drug Companies prices and actions. Like, take the same product and add another ingredient so they can now call it something else and do numerous TV adds and claim it's a cure all with the price being enormous. I have yet to go to the doctor that there isn't a drug salesman setting there with his case waiting to tell my doctor how great his drugs are and we the sick people can hardly get in to see a doctor his time is so busy. I do not get any royalty from any medicine co. by the way for mentioning some of the old tryed and true that has worked for years and would really like people to add to this list with with a reply.



Cold - 1 Tab. each of Whiskey & honey mixed together (my dad's remedy)



Urinary Infection - 1 tsp cinnamon & 1 Tab. honey (and it is delicious on Milk Toast) once a week. I've been told drinking 1/2 cup Cranberry juice everyday will keep you from getting it also.


Poison Ivy - cover with egg whites



I'm not making any promises on these but you might want to give them a try. They don't cost much.

The Barn

I really hate riding down the country roads and seeing those wonderful old Barn's falling down or gone. Our red Barn was one of the great enjoyments in my growing up with no toys in the late 30's (Depression & Drought) & early 40's (War years). On the first floor of the Barn was the "stanchions" that were like a V the cows head went in while she ate the feed you put in a trough below. While they ate you sat on your little wooden T shaped stool & milked them with your 3 gallon metal bucket you set on the floor under their udder. To get the milk out of the 4 teats on the udder you would squeeze one with each hand with a slight pulling action and about 1/2 cup milk would come out. Obviously you did that over & over till they didn't have any left to give. Remember you still have two more teats yet to milk on that cow. Some didn't like having that done and they were called "kickers". If they kicked that bucket, there went your milk & all the hard work you had put into getting it. Many a cow would get a hard wack from the farmer for this. Most farmers knew their kickers so they put a metal cuff on their ankles hooked together with a chain which held their hind legs together while they milked. My dad had an old Roan (various colors) cow that was so gentle she never needed chains and would stand still while he milked. His favorite of the 8 to 10 he milked each night after a hard day of work. Sometimes he would let me milk her but when I did she would let me get the bucket about half full of milk and she would gently pick up one of her hind legs with manure on her feet & set it right down in the middle of the bucket. I WOULD BE SO MAD!!!! Evidently she didn't like the way I milked so Dad learned to treat her like a kicker whenever I milked. On the inside of the outside wall behind the cows was an area you could set on the foundation of the barn. That's where I would sit and watch dad milk & talk to him. I had to share this with the cats that lived in the barn and caught mice for their food. Dad could squeeze a teat in one of the cats direction (4 or 5 feet) and right into the cats mouth. Each one would sit there waiting their turn. Part of the barn was where the baby calves were kept. The front part of the barn were the grain bins. The Hayloft, the second story of the barn with a board floor was where the hay from the field was kept. Getting that hay there was another experience. 1st it had to get to the right height in the field and some kinds before it bloomed. You would pull a mowing machine behind the horses (later tractor) on a week that you hope it won't rain. Then you go over the field again pulling a hay rake to make the hay into rows after it dries. The rows had to be picked up with another machine and tossed on a wagon. Or a machine that would make the hay into bales tied with twine and later picked up and tossed on the wagon by hand. When you got a wagon load to the barn you opened the big upper door & a rope pully would haul the hay up to the loft being pulled by horses or a tractor when you could afford one. It is so hard to describe this to you if you weren't there. When I was a little kid & bored I would climb up the wooden ladder next to the grain bins & and play in the hay. I would also look for tiny little 1" gray & pink naked baby mice their momma had made in a nest of hay. They were so cute. Dad would harvest the corn from the field, the cows would eat the corn, the mice in the barn would eat the left overs, & the cats that lived in the barn would eat the mice. Just like the preditors on Nature channel on TV.

Rainy Night Rescue

Back to the Olden Days. By the way, Thanks to all you old timers (65 or older) sharing your stories!! Don't I have any old timers reading this?? Or don't you want to admit you are "OLD"?
My Brother (uh, 78?) could have at least made a comment.

Has anyone seen the old Lassie (dog) Movies (not TV shows) of the 40's? Back when we went to the moving picture show at the theater on Saturday night for a quarter, bought a bag of popcorn for (5 cents?). Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Flicka (horse), etc. My big husky Dad had a very tender heart which I inherited. We don't cry at sad things, we cry when everything turns out OK. Kind of a release to our bodies that have been sitting there LIVING every word of that movie. That was our family thing on Saturday Night. Go to town (5 miles) where Dad would head for the Implement Store to get what he needed for the farm & talk to other farmers. THE meeting place. Mom would go get her groceries for the week. Not much because we grew everything and she canned the excess for winter. She even made her own Lye soap. Then the ladies would sit together & visit in one of the cars till us kids would get out of the weekend movie. We now all headed for the soda fountain at the Drug Store to have a Malt or Milk Shake before going home. If the movie was one of the afore mentioned it was a family affair at the movies. Well, when the movie ended and everyone was saved & happy the lights came on, there sat Dad and I with tears running down our cheeks. Mom would look at us disgusted & walk out of the theater. We'd wipe our eyes and follow. Well, now to the REAL story. Dad got a beautiful collie - male (only needed one) dog to replace old "Boobly" who died at a fine old age of 11 yrs. I don't know Boobly's breed, (Heinz 57)? I just know he was a sweetheart & always walked across the yard with me to the mailbox on our rock road, to meet the mailman who was a wonderful local man that carried chewing gum or candy for any kid he met along the way. With every tooth in my mouth a sweet tooth I was there waiting almost everyday. I LOVED to chew gum!! Maybe that is why all my upper teeth today are false. We didn't have sugarless back then. Back to the new Collie dog. Since he was a boy we couldn't name him after our favorite movie actor so we called him Laddie. He was a SUPER dog. He knew about what time Dad would come in from working in the field all day somehow and would go down to the pasture and bring in the milking cows so they were there when Dad came in ready for him to milk. No one had to tell him this, wonderful animal instinct just told him. He saved my tired Dad from having to walk to get them (probably at the far end of the pasture) after working hard all day. When Dad & my brother would come in from the field my big tall 5 years older brother liked to pick on me if I was outside. Laddie loved us both but he knew I was younger and would grab my brother's pant leg and growl & pull trying to get him away from me. I soon caught on and would watch for them to come in and grab my brother and scream & yell even if he didn't do anything and Laddie would grab his pant leg thinking he was hurting me and do the same thing. Little sister's have to learn to protect themselves. A dog was always a comfort to a little kid when she had to go out to the old Outhouse in the dark by the Chicken House to "go" before going to bed. It was spooky out there! I would walk real brave whistling all the way out, but when the job was finished I would unlock that door and RUN like hell for the house like the Devil himself was after me. Obviously, by now you know Laddie was the best dog that ever walked this earth. One rainy night after Dad had been asleep in bed along time. Laddie (dogs never lived in the house) came to the window outside in the pouring down rain, barking and barking till Dad layed there NOT wanting to get up but Laddie had never done that before. Dad finally got up and yelled out the window to shut up. Laddie would mind but as Dad turned to go back to bed he started barking again. Finally Dad got up and went to the door to really give him a cussing and Laddie would run out a ways turning around and looking at Dad as if to say "Come on"! Finally Dad put his Raincoat & boots on and went out and Laddie took off in the lead to show him the way. We had a pasture by the barn & chicken house where the cattle were and that's where he took him. Half way across that pasture, laying beside a ditch full of rain water, was a new baby calf. The mother had given birth right on the bank and one little flop of the calf and it would have landed in the ditch running full of water and drown. Dad picked up the little calf with momma following and walked back to the barn with Laddie proudly walking beside. Well, if that didn't make Laddie No. 1 in my father's heart I don't know what would. When he finally got old and sick and the Veterinary said he couldn't help him and he would just give him a shot to kill him so Dad wouldn't have to shoot him like people usually did. Dad wouldn't hear to it. He brought him into the basement and kept him as comfortable as possible with water & food & love till he died. Now you can cry. I almost did and I'm writing the story. Have a good day. Jeanette

Apple Recipe to go with Pork Roast

When we went to that grandson's wedding in Virginia we toured the area and in Kentucky I found some of the neatest little cook books that were mostly about the south & civil war days. I was sitting here this morning (woke up and couldn't go back to sleep) reading the one called Johnny Appleseed Cookbook - Favorite Apple Recipes of Our Land. Well, since it's the end of the fall apple season and all the spring fruits are ripe (Mulberries (free for the picking, just drive out in the country and look for a tree growing along a country road ditch covered with Big juicy black Mulberries.) Yum; Strawberries, California Bing cherries & soon Washington State Bing Cherries are in the stores and are SO good right now. We have been buying some apples (Fuji) that are REALLY cheap in the grocery stores and they are still crisp and good. One of the recipes I saw that I am going to try, is to serve with Pork Loin Roast. Since I just gave that recipe for the roast I've been making for years. I thought I'd give you this one to try with it. I haven't tryed it but it sounds good and I am going to try it soon.

APPLES, ONIONS, & RAISINS

1/4 cup bacon or sausage drippings
4 medium onions, peeled and quartered
4 red apples, cored and cut into eights
1/2 cup raisins

Heat fat in heavy skillet and saute onions and apples for about 5 minutes. Cover and cook for 5 minutes longer. Add raisins and cook gently, uncovered, until onions and apples are just tender. Serve with Pork Roast.

Have a good day, try to stay cool. Here in Kansas? ha. ha. Jeanette


p.s. Johnny Appleseed was John Chapman born in Leominster, Massachusetts, 1774. By 1801 he had planted a chain of seedling apple nurseries, in advance of the settlers, from the Allegheny to central Ohio. Not only planting apple seedlings himself, he also sold them to settlers going west for a penny each. By 1828, his apple nurseries had reached northwestern Ohio and Indiana. Apples have become one of our major staples and the 1st Apple tree in America was planted in Massachusetts in 1629. The American spirit then - give more than taking away.
(Quote from the cookbook)

THE "OLDEN" DAYS

One of my daughter-in-love's that works for the state historical society suggested that I tell you some stories of the past. You all should have such wonderful daughter-in-laws as the two I have. So for awhile we'll see where we can go with this. I really need some of you "old-timers" like me to join me in the box below the stories & add your memories, too. I was born in the 30's to a dad & mother that had their own farm and that was how they made their living. It was a Milking Shorthorn, Duroc hogs, Laying hens (raised from baby chicks we bought each year and when they weighed a pound Mom would start butchering the males for food), Pasture/fields we put up for hay, crops that had to be planted-tilled-harvested. Anything I forgot Brother? Yes, I have an older brother. Just read in our local home-town paper "65 Year Ago Items" that he graduated from our 1 room country school house where we attended 1 through 8 grades with 1 teacher teaching all 8 grades in that one room. We went to school everyday in the days that no matter what the weather you went to school. The teacher rented a room just down the road from the school and no matter how high the snow, she could get there. If you had to ride a horse we had a 3 sided pole barn beside the school to leave your horse while you were in school. I can remember several times my dad would take me through the fields (snow blew off and into the road so it was not as deep there) because it was too deep to walk. Yes, we walked to school or when they invented bikes ha. ha. weather permitting we could ride to school. It might sound bad to some of you younger people but those days to educate the kids a community would dig a hole for a basement & build a building (ours looked like a house) with one large room for our desks and entrance hall to hang our coats and leave our lunch box. The basement had the big old wood furnace the teacher had to build a fire in before we got there so the building was warm. By the way most of my teachers were women with the qualifications of having graduated high school. The basement also had big tables with benches where we ate our lunch & had community pot luck dinners, etc. The school was the center of the community. One was built about every 2 or 3? square miles so the distance for the kids to walk wasn't that bad. However, I was lucky we were only a mile. I feel very fortunate to have attended that school where you heard every classes education each day. By the time you were in the 7th & 8th grade our classes were pretty easy even if you did have 4 different teachers during the 8 years. When I graduated from 8th grade the county bought school buses and everyone rode the buses which ended the one room school houses. All the kids now joined the town kids that had gone to school together all their schooling and it was quite a transition for the country kids who were used to 2 or 3 classmates.

Barbequed Pork Loin

I really do not get any money for advertising. Names just pop up in my stories. Like the fact that Hy Vee Grocery is only 4 blocks from our church so when we get out at noon that is our next stop to eat lunch (great chinese food) and get our groceries we need that week. It really isn't the prices that keep me coming back but it's the smiles. friendliness, and helpfulnesss of their employees. I have not seen that since we worked a couple winters at Disney World but that is another story. Today they were giving samples of 1-1/2 lb. Center Pork Tenderloins for $6.99. Hers was delicious but I was telling of a recipe I got years ago and was told, "put it on your blog." SO here it is.

Barbequed Pork Tenderloin

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Place 1-1/2 lb. pork loin roast in roasting pan and bake for 2 hrs. or till a stick with a fork says it's tender or 170 degrees with meat themometer. Baste with 1/2 of the sauce recipe I'm going to give you the last 30 minutes. Serve with remaining sauce.
Sauce:
1/3 cup Kraft Barbecue Sauce (you may have noticed we do not like burn your tongue spices.)
5 ounces Apple Jelly heat over low heat till blended.

I'm looking forward to eating mine.

I'm Back

We just had a wonderful trip to the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia to our Grandson's wedding. We took 5 days driving there through Missouri (ST. Louis Zoo), Illinois, Indiana (Evansville Zoo), Kentucky (I-64 east of Louisville to Frankfort) where we toured & sample Buffalo Trace Bourbon Distillery). Called that because the huge herd of buffalo came through there and stamped down a wide "trail" (the Indian word is "Trace"). Later the trail was used to travel west. West Virginia (tour and sample a wonderful little Mom & Pop Winery(Watt's Roost Vineyard) that is so small they do everything by hand. He spent 20 yrs. in the Military, came home and started his own electrical shop which he's now turned over to his son. Bought 30 acres beside the farm he grew up in a beautiful valley. Farms around him were raising beef cattle & dairying but what do you do with 30 acres? Doing some research & having a good friend with a winery he found out y0u can raise 1,000 grape plants on 1 acre of ground and get 1 gallon of wine from each plant. You do the math. It's still work & you can never tell if a batch is going to be good. Beautiful Greenbrier Award winning Resort nested on 6,500 acres in the Alleghany Mountains & the wonderful shops & eating places inside got SOME of my money. The Biltmore (America's largest home) built by George Vanderbilt at Asheville, North Carolina got the rest . After the most wonderful Southern Wedding I've ever attended we headed north to Washington, D.C. to see the Mall with the memorials to the WW ll & Vietnam wonderful young men & women that gave their lives to the cause. My 1st cousin was killed in WWll & a young man from my home town was killed in the Vietnam war. We were able to look up both their names. We saw the Smithsonian's National Zoo (of course). Now to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. For you that don't know, it is a skinny little island with Highway 12 running down the middle of it for about 30 miles with some places only a long bridge width between it and the mainland. We were there in 1956 at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina and what a change since then. Both sides of the Highway is huge homes & condo's for the people up north to come in the summer. Lots & lots of shops!!! BARGAINS!!! Good time to go. They are selling last years stuff dirt cheap to make room for the new stuff this year. With about the same visitors each summer they have to change their merchandise. Driving home across the southern end of North Carolina & Tennesse was nice but I'll take the hills of Kentucky with a little Mom & Pop shop around every corner that has neat stuff in it like old whiskey barrells full of little bags of Sassafrass, Green Apple, etc. etc. hard candies, homemade fudge flavors you don't see anywhere else. Springfield, MO is the home of the real life Laura Ingalls (that wrote all those books after she was 65 yrs. old). It was where her and Alfonzo raised their daughter who followed in her mother's footsteps and became a famous writer, also. All & all we were gone for 17 days delightful days. I want to go east on I-64 again before I die.

Pickled Beet Deviled Easter Eggs

Old family recipe again. We raised beets in the garden, pickled them & canned to eat all winter, thus the recipe. I'm off on recipes but I'm making these and thought you might want to try them and start a tradition for Easter at your house. Hurry to the grocery store TODAY so the beets have at least two days to set in pickling mixture. Buy (3) 15oz. cans sliced beets at about 40 cents a can compared to pickled beets 1 can for $1.69? Drain off juice but save, you might need some of it. Heat in large pan TODAY:
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 - 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. mustard seed
Stir while heating over medium heat. When starts to boil add the canned, drained, sliced beets to the sugar/vinegar mixture. Let set till cool. All the slices of beets should be covered with the mixture. If not, add a little of the liquid from the canned beets. Put in refrigerator. After a day or two take out some beets and eat with your meal. Good aren't they? Do not waste any of the liquid they are in. Saturday, day before Easter (like you don't have anything else to do) boil 6 eggs till hard about 15 minutes. Run under cold water and peel. Drain enough beet juice off the beets to cover the eggs in a container & refrigerate the rest of the day and night. This will dye the white of the egg purple about half way through. (Longer will start to dye your yellow and when you fix them the yellow will look off colored). Won't hurt them, just not quite as pretty. Easter morning take the eggs out of the beet juice & run water over them to get excess juice off them. Cut the eggs in half lengthwise and lay purple egg whites on a paper towel so purple doesn't bleed on other things. Take out the yellows and crush with fork, pastry blender or whatever add: 1 tsp. vinegar, sugar, butter, 1/2 tsp. salt & 1/4 tsp. black pepper, 1-1/2 Tab. (maybe 2) Miracle Whip & a drop or two of yellow mustard. Mix together. NOW for the (not my side of the family) 1 Tab. pickle relish, drained. Mix all together. Fill the hole of the purple/white egg halves and you have very tasty and pretty deviled eggs to serve for Easter as well as some good pickled beets. Happy Easter Jeanette

Multi Grain Bars

Friends we met in our travels Toni & Ted from Washington State brought me these plus recipe and it is the most moist healthy breakfast bar or just cookie bar. Good eating any time. It's made with Quaker Multi Grain (hot cereal) like Quaker Oatmeal in a round container, also. I've had a hard time finding it but found it last week at Hy Vee. It has Rye,Barley,Oats, & Wheat. A perfect blend of 100% Natural.
Combine:
1 - 1/2 cups of uncooked Multi grain
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Beat together:
1 cup applesauce
1 cup raisins (Dried Cherries are even better)
1/2 cup golden brown sugar
1/4 cup veg. oil (I used olive oil)
1 tsp. vanilla
Combine all.
Bake in a 9"x9" baking dish at 350 degrees 30 minutes or when toothpick comes out clean.
This will cut into 16 nice size bars after you cool. They freeze well also.

I have been stocking up on apples while they are so cheap. I didn't have applesauce this time so I peeled and grated enough apple to cook on low in a pan with lid on the stove till soft and used that with a little sweetener in it and it was delicious.

Raisin Orange Sauce for your Easter Ham

My mother made this sauce for eating on our slice of ham at Easter. I still love it. I know everyone thinks they have to have Cherry sauce on ham but I really think this enhances the flavor of the ham where cherries overpower & deminish the flavor of the ham. You might want to try it.

Mix in a saucepan:
1 cup sugar
2 Tab. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
1 Tab. flour

Stir in:
1- 1/4 cup cup orange juice
1/4 cup. lemon juice
1/2 cup water
Cook over low heat, stirring until it boils. Boil 3 minutes.
Remove from heat and mix in:
1 Tab. butter
1 tsp. each of orange & lemon rind, grated
1/2 cup raisins.
Right now it will be a little thin in texture but let it set and cool awhile and it will thicken.
A bite of ham overed with this is just plain good eating!! I think.

Hint: I don't go buy a orange and lemon each time I make something that calls for rind. When I do buy an orange & lemon when they are on a good sale. I grate all the outside rind off at that time and freeze each in a little marked snack bag and put each in one freezer bag. When I need some rind I just get it out of the freezer and use what I need and put the rest back. Keeps a long time and freezing doesn't hurt it in your recipe. You can still eat your orange and make lemonaide . Jeanette

Olympic Natl. PK.,WA - Linda Silvas Art Work

One day out driving around seeing things, we stopped at a wonderful store that was part of a Indian Reservation. There we saw a beautiful coffee table like we had never seen. It had a drum in it under glass so you could see it, yet use it. We knew by now we were going to keep doing this traveling awhile yet. I had lots of places I wanted to see. So we walked out declaring if we ever got back in that area we were going to have one of those. Well, years later when we went to Alaska (you'll be hearing about that trip too, one of these days) we made sure we came back through that area to visit Lake Crescent Lodge again, see Smokey, but most of all to now buy that coffee table. We walked in and asked where they were and were told the man that made those went to Arizona. They didn't have any. Disappointment!!!!! "BUT there is a lady that has a shop close by at Sequim, WA, and she makes drums". How often does one statement or being in the right place at the right time change your life?? That trip to Linda Silvas drum shop was not only the right place but we have a friend now for life. She makes the most beautiful drums, has acted in a movie, raised her grandson and knows how drugs can affect parents so travels all over the world talking to "Grandparents raising their Grandchildren" groups, teaching how to make drums, as well as running her own business making true Indian leather drums. She has written a Native American folk lore book called "Mama Bear Baby Bear" that every parent should have and read to their children. You will find that animals have a tree with forbidden fruit like the (should be) forbidden things our young are getting. It is written so well with Mama actually being (grandma bear) and her art work is beautiful on & in the book as well as on her drums she makes. A truly talented nice person. She even came to see us Kansan's when she spoke to a group in Kansas City. I could go on & on about Linda but the best thing you could do is just go to her web sight. http://www.mamabearbabybear.com/. I would like to finish with telling about the 20" drum we bought. Since we had spent the summer before at Yellowstone with the buffalo, bears, elk; she had a drum with all. The leather of the drum was buffalo hide, a soft leather drape of deer hide across it, & the drum beater (real name?) & under the drum where you hold to beat the drum is beautiful black bear fur. We brought it back to Kansas and had a friend that has made cabinets all his life design & make an oak stand to hold the drum & a glass covering several inches above to set things on. We can still take the glass off and get the drum out and beat it like a drum is supposed to be used. I was told by a fellow employee when we worked at Yellowstone and had some drums hanging behind our jewelry counter (that I would get down and beat once in awhile when I was bored). The beat I was using was the movies Indian beat and that is NOT how they beat their drums. Anyway thanks for letting me rattle on and do take a look at Linda's web sight. Jeanette

Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island, Maine

Acadia covers two fifths of Mount Desert Island, the third largest island in the continental US. Where scenic pink granite, deep glacial ponds, cobblestone beaches, ocean side cliffs and mountains meet the sea & deep woods. Separated from the mainland by only a few hundred yards of water at high tide but we can drive across a short bridge anytime. Somes Sound, the only fiord on the east coast and Cadillac Mountain (1,530 ft.) the highest point on the east coast north of Brazil. Bald Eagle, Osprey, Peregine Falcons, plus seals, porpoise & seabirds fish the cold waters of Frenchman Bay & beyond. In 1919 Acadia became the 1st National Park east of the Mississippi. When you go there PLEASE do not allow just 1 day to drive the 27 mile park loop road and leave. The fog can move in that day and you can't see 100 ft. in front of you, missing a large part of the park experience, the view to all the little tree covered islands around it. Popular activities are hiking the more than 100 miles of maintained trails, varying from easy oceon side to steep cliff side climbs up iron ladders. Walking, biking (you can rent them there) around Eagle Lake or carriage ride on this 50 miles of scenic gravel carriage roads with beautiful stone bridges built & donated by John Rockefeller, Jr. The parks had to promise to keep as built with no cars drive on them! Kayaking the deep lakes & ponds. This was once the bottom of an ancient oceon 500 million years ago. Glaciers shaped the mountains 18,000 years ago. Trees on the island differ because of a fire burning out of control sweeping across the island in 1947, burning 10,000 acres of Acadia. Sun loving Birch & Aspen replaced the spruce & fir which had dominated the landscape. Today it's a mixture of Spruce, Fir, White Pine, Hemlock, etc. Beautiful fall foliage. Some of the many things to do while enjoying the beauty is visit Hinkley Yacht & Sail boat shop. Ride along on the Mail Boat to Cranberry Island don't be surprised at what you see on that boat like a refrigerator, or whatever the residents need at the time that live there. At Bar Harbor Sail on the Margaret Todd 151' 4 masted schooner in Frenchman Bay. We left the dock as the fog creep into the bay so thick all we could see or hear was fog horns sounding around us as we slowly moved away from the dock. Once we got out into the bay the fog on the water had blown away and we could see all the small dome-shaped cloud caps directly above the tree tops over each of the small Porcupine Islands in Frenchman Bay. We did get hung up on a couple lobster buoys in the fog & trying to get loose the lines broke so our sailboat owner would have to pay for a couple lost lobster traps at $400 each. Each lobsterman has his colors licensed so they can only pull in their colors out among the many, many, different colored buoys marking the traps below. I hope Captain Hyde (5th generation fisherman) who's worked these waters for 35 years at Somes Sound still takes people (5) along with him to check his traps. It was one of the highlights of my summer. We road with him on his working lobster boat (Trawler) while he checks his 10 lobster traps. We got to help him take lobster, sea cucumbers, star fish, sand crabs out of his trap & throw everything back in the sea except the lobster he measured that was the size allowed. He baits his trap with mesh bags of little herring fish & returns them to the sea. I did see him fill a bucket of sea water and go below at one time. When we got to the Northeast Harbor he stopped & told us to turn around with our chairs facing the side and he brought each the most delicious lobster I've eaten, and I ate alot while we were there. Cooked fresh in sea water, throwing the shells back into the sea, you didn't need lemon butter. We could look up on the coast above us at the summer homes of Martha Stewart, Nelson Rockefeller, Edisel Ford's, etc. 150 year old Bear Island Lighthouse with seals playing around it. For this old Kansan it just don't get much better than that experience. End of page 1