A Stop at a Farm Market

 It had been ages since Shirley and I had been to Cracker Barrel for turkey and dressing but yesterday we fixed that mistake!! So glad that the CEO of that establishment came to her senses and got things back like we like them.

While driving home we stopped in a farm market... so cute a place and I bought some goodies.

 I couldn't pass up a tray of huge muscadines. Now, for those of you who are not from the south.... muscadines are wild grapes and are soooo good. Most people don't eat the skins 'cause they are tough but the taste of the pulp and juice is just divine. These were so big....

I also got some sweet potatoes. Love them baked with butter and brown sugar on them. I bought a quart of pickled spiced peaches but those are on hold for the holidays. 

As we parked back at my place Shirley noticed a grape vine growing in a tree by the parking area. It looked weird! By doing a google picture id I found out that a tiny insect called a leafhopper was causing that pretty pattern on that leaf.  I like the look. but, I am sure it isn't healthy for the vine.

I think it just puts you in a different frame of mind to get out and enjoy the sights of a new approaching season. 

Good Food, Good Reads

 Every day this week I'd say to myself, 'gotta make a new blog post' and nightime would come and I'd say 

'tomorrow, I'll do it tomorrow'. It took a week but here I am!

I had a great day yesterday, best I've have in a very long time. I was steady, strong, felt fantastic, had energy and I was happy. I just could not have asked for a better day. 

But, the nighttime wasn't so much fun! What the dickens! I just couldn't sleep. Nap coming up this afternoon. I can just feel it coming on.

I've had a problem that I finally found a solution to. I'd order things from the grocery store and then the cans or boxes would sit on the shelf for ages and I wouldn't figure out how to make a meal out of them. So.... drum roll, please.

I made a list of all my canned goods and posted it on the pantry door. Same with my box stuff. I can see at a glance what I have. I sat down with my recipe box and chose recipes to make this next week using up things I already had on the shelf. As I use each item, I mark it off the list. Sort of like taking inventory. When each item is all marked off I know it's time to order more. 

I found a can of tomatoes I had had for awhile. I like tomato pudding but I don't want to eat it very often. And, it had been awhile since I'd had any so I made some. 

Yeah, I know... if you aren't southern you are asking what in the heck is tomato pudding. It sounds gross! 

Back in the early 19th century when women had an abundance of tomatoes they devised a way to put them to use. All it takes is tomatoes (canned ones are used mostly), a little sugar, a tad of butter and you put that over broken pieces of bread and bake. It's sweet, tangy, a little tart and perfect with blackeyed peas, which I also made yesterday. I baked me a russet potato and I had lunch! 

I just finished reading 'Remarkably Bright Creatures' by Van Pelt. Oh my gosh, I loved it! A completely different story line. It was Van Pelt's first novel and I just don't know how in the world she'll ever top that! I thought immediately that it ought to be a movie so I googled it.... there's one already made for Netflix but it hasn't been released yet. I can't wait. Sally Field plays Tova, the lead character. If you get a chance give it a try. I know not everyone has the same reading taste but that's ok. 

I hope you all have a good week. We haven't had a maintence super for a little while and today we have a 'meet and greet' for a new one. His name is Alfonso. They even supplied snacks for the meet and greet. Can't pass that up. 

This is a prayer that I wrote during my cancer treatment back in 2002. 

                    Now I lay me down to sleep                                                                        I pray, dear Lord, My hand to take                                                        And guide me to the break of day                                                           So I can love and live and pray.                                                             And when the sun shall set once more,                                                 the darkness over comes the light,                                                         I pray, dear Lord, you'll take my hand                                                    And guide me with your wonderous  might.

                                        Willie Latane Barton 

Time for a 'smell good' change!

When it's wintertime we often get 'down in the dumps'. So, what would get us outta this funk?

Buying something new.... just for us! RIGHT!

I got online and ordered me some new perfume. It's actually cologne (a bit cheaper that way).

It came yesterday and I ripped open that box, opened the containers and started spraying myself. 

Charlie went on one arm!

Elizabeth Taylor's Gardenia on the other! 

I immediately felt fancy, feminine, free. UH? Where did that funk go? 

Chased away by the delicious aromas surrounding me, that's where. 

I was getting low on my 'smell good' fragrances. One was Estee Lauder's Beautiful and the other was La Roche's Femme. 

My sweet husband brought a bottle of Femme to me on his return from a Navy cruise in the Carribean years ago. It always brought back such sweet memories for me. But, time for a change, I am thinking. 

The reason for me getting the Gardenia? I am Southern through and through and if there is a southern flower that everyone loves it's gardenias. Just thought I'd play a bit on my southern roots there, play the southern damsel dabbling cologne behind her ears. A gentleman two doors down from me has a potted gardenia bush outside his door and when it's blooming I will stop and sniff the  blossoms every time I pass by. 

Time For Persimmons!

 It's that time of the year!

We are awaiting our first frost. That brings to mind my childhood when we would wait for the first frost to sweeten the lucious orange-colored persimmons hanging heavy on the tree down in the pasture.

You didn't dare eat one until that frost came, though. Turn your mouth inside out!!

The persimmon tree used to grow abundantly in this country (mainly in the south) but like so many other things, it's getting scarce. 

After Elbert retired from the Navy and we lived on our farm in Alabama, there was a persimmon tree in our pasture. 

One day he loaded me and my mom up in his truck and drove us over the grazing land, parked under the tree and we gathered ripe persimmons. 

Here's a photo of my Mom biting into one. That's just one of the sweet memories I have of the times we spent together. 

Have you ever eaten a persimmon? a native one or a hybrid one? 

Saturday's Ups and Downs

 It was COLD Saturday morning.....

and we were having a Fall Festival ... not advertised, mainly for the residents...

And, man, I dreaded it. I'd been sort of roped in to manning the pumpkin painting. 'Cause I paint, the organizer said. Oh, geez, how hard is it to paint a teeny, tiny pumpkin. But, I said I'd help so I headed downstairs.

As you can tell, I wasn't in the mood but it started warming up and I was inside. And, people started mingling. 

I took a break and got a few pictures, even did the pie walk* and won me one of those individual pies you get in a grocery store. It was lemon! 

And, then we all had free hotdogs and chips for lunch. So, I was a pretty happy camper! 

Later on that evening I watched MY ALABAMA football team lose to Tennessee. Bummer, double bummer. What a day. 

* to do the pie walk it's sort of like musical chairs. You walk around and when the music stops, if you are on the lucky spot, you get a prize. 

A Hankering for Cornbread Dressing

                                    

I have a 'hankering' for some good ole southern cornbread dressing this morning. With mashed potatoes and gravy. Forget the turkey! 

My Mama made the best cornbread dressing ever! 

Oh, that makes me remember the time I tried making dressing for the first time. It was 1957 and we were living in an apartment on Castle Street in Honolulu. There were 8 apartments and our landlord was Mr. Ching. He was a quiet man but I can still, in my mind's ear, hear him shuffling around the property wearing those leather flip-flops of his. 

picture taken from internet

He was kind, a good landlord. Once a month he'd host a luau out in the parking lot in front of our building. Those were always fun. 

Shirley entertaining everyone at one of our luaus. 

One day he came up to me  and asked, 'you from the south, right? How 'bout you making some of that yellow pudding for our next luau?'

Yellow pudding? Maybe he meant banana pudding. It's yellow. Or maybe a lemon pie, or just plan vanilla pudding. I had no clue what he was asking me to make. 

I asked Alice who lived next door. What the heck is Mr. Ching talking about? 

" Oh, he loved cornbread dressing that a previous resident used to make."

Cornbread Dressing!!

picture taken from AllRecipes online

Lordy mercy on me. I'd never made that dish in my life. And, this was decades before Google and it was too expensive to call my Mama for advice. In fact, we didn't even have a telephone!  So, I just winged it.

Luau night came, the group was in fine spirits and I nervously sat my dish of cornbread dressing among all the other yummy food on the table. The salads, the veggies, the poi, the lomi-lomi salmon.

My dressing was a disaster! Dry, not enough seasoning, just awful.

Guess you know Mr. Ching never asked me to make yellow pudding again. 

Poor Mr. Ching. Well, I tried. I really did. I can make cornbread dressing now but it never measures up to my Mama's. 

I'm Southern Through and Through

 Good Morning, all my fresh and frisky friends....

Hope life is treating you well. I am better... thank the good Lord for that...

I know we know each other, sort of... We know what the other posts about themselves. And, I guess most of you know that I am Southern. Born and bred. Proud of it, too. 

I've lived in a lot of places, north, south, east, west and I just never found that slower, gentler kind of life anywhere that you find in the South. I like slow... and gentle... 

I have trouble sometimes trying to decipher the reason we are the way we are and what makes us different. We all are humans. 

Now, I grew up eating dinner at noon and supper at nightime. Then I go to other places and lo and behold, supper disappeared and dinner has replaced it. Lunch was noon. I wonder why? I just never know which meal I am having anymore. But, I guess that's alright. Long as they call me for meals, who cares what they call it. 

Then, there is the tradition of  us Southerners have for funeral possessions. We pull over to the side of the road and give our respect to the one who has passed. It's only decent. I know, having heavy traffic, mutiple lanes etc might make that difficult but I feel bad to just keep driving as I pass a hearse. I wasn't raised that way. I hope somebody stops for me when I am on my way to my final resting place.

We southerns have our sayings, too. My grandchildren just bend over laughing at me sometimes when I let one of those southern things roll outta my mouth.. Like

when they misbehave. Or 'you're so noisy I can't hear it thunder'. Oh, I have a bunch more but I won't bore you. 

I love the smell of wild honeysuckle growing by the side of the road, or the sight of a blackberry patch, the vines hanging heavy with dark black juicy fruit. I love to wade in a cool creek or throw flintstones on the water to watch them skip over the surface. 

And, don't get me started about the cooking. Yes, we Southerners don't know what healthy eating is... everything is fried and there's lots of it. I could eat my weight in hot biscuits and country sausage gravy. Or Mama's fried apple pies (folks other places call them hand pies). There's tons of bacon in or on most of the dishes. Oh, and the pecan pie... I am gonna shut up before I have a diabetic attack! 

I'd love to hear about the traditions where you live, now and when you were growing up. We all are so different so it's fun to learn and grow and enjoy. 

I hope you enjoyed this post. I hope you'll go have yourself a piece of pecan pie and a glass of sweet tea while you read this. Love you all. 

Derby Party Fun

The Kentucky Derby was run Saturday evening. For the first time,here at Centerbrooke, we had a Derby party. Wow, what fun. A whole slew of gals cooked and decorated, held games and took pictures.... we all had a blast! 

First I will entice you with the food.... 

Kentucky Bourbon Meatballs, Southern potato salad, Pimento cheese sandwiches, Kentucky pasta salad, fruit, cheese straws.... I know I've left stuff out. So hard to keep up with it all. For desert we ate Toasted Pecan Cupcakes and banana pudding. 

Oh good grief.... I thought I had more pictures of the food than just this one. I am sure there are a bunch of pics floating around....I just didn't get them. 

At our "meet and greet" Lois gave everyone virgin mint juleps. No alcohol allowed... oh well, Who needed it to have fun?

As we registered we were given a ticket which we then took to the betting table and dropped it in "OUR" horses cup. I chose Forever Young... wouldn't you know it.. when the race was run that horse came in 3rd. But, hey, it wasn't last!! 

Most of the women wore their fascinators (hats) and some of the men had on hats or bowties. And we sat around drinking our mint juleps and laughing and having a great time. 

I am sorry but I have to break this up into two or more posts. There was just so much going on! 

I'll be back soon with more Kentucky Derby Party fun. 

Can't Beat An Old Country Store!

 Sometimes GPSs are more trouble than they are worth!! 

On Tuesday Shirley and I was trying to find a little country store about 15 miles from my apartment and I've never seen so many twists and turns on this little bitty narrow country road. There's no way I could ever find it on my own and the GPS wasn't too much help.

This place is well-known, lots of people go there. It's small, crowded, not a lot of space but crammed full of all sorts of things to eat. 

I don't or won't cook much just for myself. So, I am always on the lookout for ready-to-eat stuff I can warm up. 

I bought some home-grown sausage. Can't wait to try that. I sure hope it is good.

I bought a home-made frozen chicken pot pie. Way too big for me but I have company coming!! 

I got some chicken salad which was pretty darn good. 

And, a dozen deviled eggs. Gee, it's nice to be able to just open the fridge and get one out when I want it.  I didn't have to peel one single egg!! Yippee!

And, I got Hoop Cheese.

For those of you who don't know what hoop cheese is... Hoop cheese is farmer made, not produced manufacturally and can be difficult to find because it has a short shelf life. It used to be a common cheese product in the Southern United States in the early to mid 1900s. It's dark yellow, a bit chewy, stringy when heated. I was thrilled to see it and got 1/4 lb. should have gotten more. Had me some Hoop Cheese Toast this morning. Yummy.

Now, there is a story behind my excitement in finding it. When I was a teenager, my mom and stepdad owned a dry cleaning establishment. When I would go with them for a day my stepdad would drive up to a nearby store and buy hoop cheese and crackers plus stuff for us to make a sandwich for our lunch. I don't think I've had hoop cheese since that time. 

Seeing it in Darden's store was like walking back into my youth. 

My Week in a Nutshell

                                                                                                                      My Week

First of all let me say how much I appreciate all the well-wishes and support during this blasted Covid that's messing up my birthday celebration. I love you all and thank you so much.

                 Looking Out My Window....

I wasn't actually looking out my window this morning but I was standing on my balcony, buck-naked except for a towel wrapped around my wet, dripping body (I'd just gotten out of the shower) and waving frantically to my New York kids that had just flown in. That must have been a sight to see!! And, it breaks my heart that I can't hug them... but I'm working on getting well enough so that I can.

(this is not a picture of me this morning... nobody wants to see me in a towel!! This shot was taken when this Covid mess started back in 2020 and I was isolating myself.)

                     I Am Thinking About....

How life can just throw the craziest curve balls at you when you least expect it. The way I look at it, you better be ready for anything, just in case😁

                   Something New This Week....

Let's see, it is hard to have much new going on when you are holed up in a small apartment. About all I can think of is that my son cleaned off the top of my fridge for me. He said it was in a mess. Since I have 'shrunk' in height, I can't see up there! Glad he could and fixed it for me.

                     What I'm Reading...

Have any of you read 'Carnal Innocence' by Nora Roberts? Oh, lordy. You really should, especially if you are southern bred, love a good romance and murder mystery book. It was my entertainment while I was stuck in bed and I couldn't have wished for better. I can't decide what to read next. Any suggestions? 

P.S. Oh my gosh, I just discovered that 'Carnal Innocence' was made into a movie! Guess what! I'll have to watch it.