kimberly

Deep fried turkey has become real popular. My Matty informs me he saw a partially frozen turkey put into the deep fryer and within a moment the fryer literally blew up and the turkey shot straight up in the air along with the hot oil. Luckily, nobody was hurt. Not even the turkey. They washed it off and decided to put it in the oven. The instructions that accompany the deep fryer makes a specific point in bold red letters to NOT put a frozen or half frozen turkey in it. Turkey MUST be fully thawed. Tsk tsk, men and directions!!!

Rum, you are having Etouffee...and your address is.?.?.... Waysider, to me, pesto is like bacon...everything tastes good with it.

Hey, what you guys cooking/eating for Thanksgiving dinner? The big fat hen is cooked as well as the giblets. The pecan and apple pies are made. Dressing is prepped and ready for the oven. All I have to do tomorrow morn is make the mac and cheese pie, giblet gravy and cranberry relish. There will be greenbeans and butterbeans from the garden. This is the first Thanksgiving meal I can remember not having collards. There has yet to be a frost. Frost makes the collards sweeter. My dressing recipe is from my yankee mom. We don't make cornbread dressing as most southerners do. It is made from white and wheat bread. The bread slices (2 loaves of white and 1/2 loaf whole wheat) are placed on the oven racks and dried with the temp on warm. Remove from oven when dried. Allow to cool. Crumble slices with your hands. The pieces should be small. In 2 sticks of butter, 1/4 cup olive oil, and 2 cups of chicken stock cook 3 stalks of celery small-chopped and one large onion small-chopped. When celery and onion is al dente add a dozen minced sage leaves. Simmer 2 minutes longer. Add this to bread. Mix very well so all bread is coated with butter etc. Then add 6 medium-chopped boiled eggs and 2 cups of small-chopped giblets. We prefer just the chicken gizzards, though some like to add the livers, also. Add milk to make mixture wet, not mushy. Mix together so all milk is soaked into bread. When mixture is squeezed in hand it should hold together somewhat and no milk squishing through fingers. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix very well. Let sit for half an hour then taste again. Adjust with seasonings. Maybe need to add some dry sage? We like to be able to taste the hint of sage. To this add 3 or 4 raw beaten eggs. Note: This is why you salt and pepper and adjust seasonings to taste before this stage. Now this mixture should hold together real well when lightly squeezed in your hand. It should be quite moist and realitively squishy. You DO NOT want a dry mixture. Place in baking dish that is no more than 3 inches in height. Bake, covered, 325 for 45 minutes. Or remove before dressing becomes hard. It should still be lightly squishy to the touch when removed from the oven as it will cook for a little longer in the dish when removed from the oven. This dressing is literally cut into squares. And served with giblet gravy on top. Yum, Yum, Yummy!!! I never measure anything unless it is pastries and desserts. All else is by sight and taste.

Happiest of all happies to you! Thanks!! Kimberly

Shellon, thanks for your honesty. Like you said, "So much of our frame, our dynamic salutes how we do everything else and I am proud of where I am now....." Yessiree, sistuh, it is all attitude and how we choose to deal with it or at least sort it out to make this fascinating journey work... As long as our children are proud of us, all is well with our world. Everything else is just water under the bridge. Blessings galore to you and yours. Kimberly

And all three have the same first name, Back!!! Now that is funny!!!

Weell, one big difference that sticks out to me is that Bullinger seemed to come up with his research and conclusions on his own.

waysider, your post made me reminisce. When all three of my boys lived at home I strongly considered that I needed to get another job just to feed them. The two oldest were playing soccer, basketball and baseball. They were eating machines. Now the boy is the lone eating machine at home. Well, the biggie in my fridge is the bird thawing out for Thanksgiving. In the deep freezer is quarts and quarts and quarts of the veggies put up from the summer garden. There is a dozen, or so, quarts of chicken stock, vegetable soup, and God knows what else. We are set for the winter.

Alright now, Twinky and GeorgeStGeorge, get it right...it is..."HEY, where ya'll from?" :P Some years ago an exchange student from South America, (and if my memory serves me correctly, Buenos Aires), responded to a person in our group, that said something about speaking English, "You don't speak English, you speak American." I found that interesting.

The way vpw taught believing equals receiving...no, I do not believe it. It put the focus on us humans, we were the superheroes if something grand and wonderful happened. I remember one wow year the theme was, If it's to be, it's up to me. I think now, oh my God how arrogant, how self serving. See...the focus was on us, the people. The pressure and repercussions were on us poor little souls that just wanted to do what was right. If God did not work or bring about miracles it was our fault because we didn't believe. It has been my experience in my own little corner in my own little room that my Father goes beyond what I ask or think.

Yeh, WG, Ficus hates to be moved. I saw on a gardening show that gradually moving it from outdoors to in helps it acclimate, therefore, less shock, less shedding. And spraying the leaves, just like a fern, helps it. I have one basil plant that I potted and moved indoors. It is sitting on a little table at one of the dining room windows. It gets the eastern sun until about 1pm. I am holding on to that baby as long as I can. Yum, yum, yum...fresh basil. My mom called back in the summer and asked what could be substituted for fresh basil in tomato pie and get the same results. Two words..absolutely nothing. Are you doing the force blooming with the amaryllis? They bloom here in gardens in the late spring. I have forced bloomed daffodils and paper whites with great results. That was some years ago when I had an extra fridge in the storage room. I have never thought of trying amaryllis but I am sure it could be done. The deep red ones would be beautiful just in time for Christmas. Then again, any flower is beautiful in the dead of winter!!

WEll, Miss Leafy, you are the go getter girl!! You have sheep? I dream of having chickens and you have sheep.....and you have chickens. I humble myself before you. With my schedule it will be December before getting out and weeding. There are tons of leaves, oak and pecan, and saved newspaper to spread all over the garden areas. The boy has started on one garden. I have been the slacker doing this during the past winter months. Now I am ready to do anything to beat the henbit at its scourge.

My Favorite Martian?

Only in Hollywood....the Walk of Fame.

Alas, our Leafy returns. Been missin' ya. Yikes, I am with you about no time in the garden. I look at the herb garden and cringe. The weeds abound. I had the boy put down newspaper and leaves on one garden. I keep looking out the kitchen window longing, when my work schedule permits, to get out there and do some work. Crazy, but my schedule with school winds down for about a month during December. That is usually my vacation time. We were hammered pretty good from Ida. Flooding rain for 3 days. All is well though. Only a couple of pine trees down in the road. It did much good for the water table. WG, a sweet potato vine is the most beautiful. My grandma would let a sweet tater sprout, put toothpicks just under the sprouts then place it in a mason jar of water. 3/4 's of the tater was under water. The toothpicks sat on top of the lip of the jar. Talk about some beautiful foliage!!

Well, Pen, one thing I have learned in my maturing years is that "everybody has a story." That means you never quite know somebody until you hear their life story. When you hear it you understand, maybe, even relate, as to why they are the way they are, or why they think the way they do. Expanding the circle of compassion reminds me of paradigm shift........the dad was sitting on the bus staring out the window while his children were running rampant all over the place. Others on the bus were furious with him for not making his children behave. They murmured amongst themselves about what a terrible father he was. A woman came to the dad and said, your kids are running crazy all the place and you are doing nothing about it. He came to himself and said, Oh, I am sorry, their mother just died. Upon hearing that everyone's attitude changed. They were compassionate.

potato, my love, one word you said..... determination. There is no power on earth that can stop a mama's determination for her children. I can hardly begin to tell you how your post touched me and how I can relate to so much of it, specifically, the control in the home. Keep at it girlfriend!!! I am in your corner!! Kimberly

The boy's junior year football season is over. They did not make the playoffs. He is a bit somber. Hard to lose the last home game. Can't believe the season is over already. He signaled for a fair catch at a kick off return. Just as he caught the ball he was hammered by several guys. He said they hit him so hard the chin guard and mouth piece was knocked loose. He told me this as we sat at dinner and he was complaining about his mouth and jaw hurting. I immediately said, Let me look at those teeth. (His braces are about to come off) As much money as I have spent nothing can happen to those teeth!!! When he was 6 years old he walked up behind a girl (his guy friend still teases him that it was a GIRL and it was his sister!!) swinging a bat and he was smacked right in his mouth. When his permanent teeth came in right where he was smacked they were recessed. The older he got the more the teeth moved to the back of his mouth. Off to the orthodontist Monday for a round of x-rays.

WG, I, too, love those Camillias. What a spectacular wonder in the winter world that something so beautiful is so hardy that it blooms only in the cold. I have a Gardenia bush. The aroma is intoxicating. I picked the last of the Crowder peas today. My favorite vegetable. Several years ago when I called my mama to tell her I was coming to visit I said, could you cook me some liver and onions and some Crowder peas. I cook that but it tastes better when mama cooks it. If mama would have allowed it I would have licked my plate. I know this sounds flippin crazy but I am getting the best and biggest green bell peppers now. It is getting darn right cold here at night (40's) but with day temps in the 70's. Never have the peps produced so late.

WG, looks like nobody loves us anymore. They have left us all by our lonelies here on this thread. Go get those squashes, girl. Rescue them from a life of abuse and neglect!! Maybe, you could go over, knock on their door, and say, you have the most beautiful squash I have ever seen. O. K. a little cheesy. Maybe, you could say, I have been coveting your squash. No, that wouldn't work, either. Just tell them you have been admiring the squash and wondered what kind they are because you want to try and grow some next season. Then ask them, how do you cook those kind of squash? Then take it from there.... I have been pulling henbit (before it sets seed) from the rose garden. I never did put in that pond/water fountain I wanted in the middle of it. So many grandiose ideas, so little time. Planted a Camillia bush yesterday. I forget the name at the moment (Yuletide something, I think) but the flower is a velvety red with a big, yellow feathery middle. Quite showy. While unpotting it fell into 3 seperate plants. Yea!!! Waiting for the first little dusting of frost before I cut the collards. Mercy sakes, they are beautiful.

OE, could ya check on the price of Kobe beef for me while you are there!! :)

What did Lord Monteagle, a Catholic, get?

oenophile, I heard that same thing taught once. Said God does not have perfect foreknowledge cause if He did....what you stated. Funny, I had forgotten until you posted it. It is a very good argument. Gives one something to think about. I thought about it for a little while. I don't know or have an answer or explanation. I am ok with that.

#3...for serious real though, I did watch a program on National Geographic about lightning, or as many southerners pronounce it, lightening.

I sure am feeling for you folks with sick children. As parents it is emotionally draining when our babies are so sick, especially when they run high fevers. With those high fevers they are so not themselves...lying around motionless when they are usually rip, raring and tearing. So scary when they are like that you don't leave their side. All ya'll and yours get very well soon...