If you happen to not be a sports fan, this is one weekend of the year when you need to find other manners of entertainment. There are other weekends like it but this is one of the worst in my opinion.
So I decided to get creatively cooking. I had a spaghetti squash sitting on the counter for a week or so waiting for my creativity to kick in. You see the hold up is that Butch has made it clear on more than one occasion that he will endure spaghetti squash if he has to but it is far from what he considers the real thing. So I stabbed the squash for an air vent, placed it in the microwave and cooked it for 15 minutes. In the meantime, I sauteed some green pepper and onion chunks in a small amount of olive oil, added a partially drained can of chicken chunks letting it reduce. Then I sliced open the spaghetti squash and removed the seedy center. It had cooked perfectly and formed its strands as hoped. Not sure what I planned to do, I decided to use only half to see if it turned out okay. So I placed the fluffed up spaghetti strands from half the squash in a bowl, added half the chicken mixture along with a mixture of 1/4th cup sour cream and 1/4th alfredo sauce from a jar. Mixed all together and tasted it. I thought it was quite tasty so I placed it in a 8 x 8 pan, sprinkled the top with shredded cheese. Baked it in the NuWave oven at 350 degrees for 7 minutes. It was a hit with both of us! So I decided to make up the other half for future use.
As I was enjoying this tasty meal I thought I needed to get it recorded. However, I was aware that writing it in recipe form was going to be too much of a challenge and that is how this post came about. I am very much looking forward to the second half. Yum!
Saturday, March 19
Thursday, March 17
Spring Break etc.
Yesterday Butch and I went to Harlingen. First off we went to Tropic Winds RV park to visit with Brian and Mary Carlson. Mary was a classmate of Butch's in high school. Some of you might remember Mary Ellen Minnihan. They talked of plans to come to Jefferson this summer and stay in the Brooker RV Park and we are excited about that happening.
Then we picked up Marlene and Bernard before making our way to South Padre. We were fully aware that Spring Break is in full bloom but we decided to see how it was, assess the situation and adjust our plans accordingly. I have always been convinced that the spring breakers most likely did not let their feet hit the floor till well past noon. The only problem with our plan was that we did not make our way in that direction till 11:00 AM or after. The Spring Breakers had indeed scraped the mattresses from their backs by the time we were there but still getting around was not impossible.
We first enjoyed a delicious meal at Pirate's Landing in Port Isabel.
Marlene and Bernard Kelley- Still looking very good after 65 years of marriage!
Here is proof positive that Butch and I are not able to get a good selfie. Not even close!!
Putting these on the blog is proof only that I still have a sense of humor.
Then we picked up Marlene and Bernard before making our way to South Padre. We were fully aware that Spring Break is in full bloom but we decided to see how it was, assess the situation and adjust our plans accordingly. I have always been convinced that the spring breakers most likely did not let their feet hit the floor till well past noon. The only problem with our plan was that we did not make our way in that direction till 11:00 AM or after. The Spring Breakers had indeed scraped the mattresses from their backs by the time we were there but still getting around was not impossible.
We first enjoyed a delicious meal at Pirate's Landing in Port Isabel.
Marlene and Bernard Kelley- Still looking very good after 65 years of marriage!
Here is proof positive that Butch and I are not able to get a good selfie. Not even close!!
Here are a couple of really good looking pirates!
And then what you have all been waiting for...pictures of Spring breakers!!
Enjoy!
The O'Brien Girls
I grew up with the O'Brien girls. We were in school and church together. You know how it is with classmates; you may know each other but not really spend that much time with them. When Butch and I returned to Jefferson we were in touch with several people who had done the same thing thus giving us a common bond accentuated by knowing them from our youth. So now they are in "our group" of closer friends we have in Jefferson. Readers of this blog are well acquainted with Colleen. Well, Colleen has a sister Denise who is every bit as talented. The girls, as their mother called them, are a year apart in age. Denise is 6 months older than I am and we were in the same grade in school. Colleen is 6 months younger than I am and we didn't know each other very well until many years later. They also had a younger sister Jeanie who they lost to cancer a few years ago. These girls are all remarkable in many different ways but also carry similarities such as a special love of color and being writers.
Denise wrote this article for the Iowa Living magazine and after some finagling, I was able to get it copied and pasted for the blog. Enjoy!
Barb B.
LOOKING BACK
Front pages were full of war news
By Denise O’Brien Van
Local papers during WWII
When Mikki Schwarzkopf and I were researching
what the World War II home front had been like
in Greene County for the program we did at the
museum last November, we read more than 500 editions of the
Jefferson Bee and Herald. We came to understand the important
role local newspapers played during wartime.
Those Bees and Heralds were the epitome of good old-fashioned
local journalism. The articles gave the readers the basics
of journalism: the who, the what, the when, the where, the why
and the how. It wasn’t personal journalism, although longtime
Bee editor Vic Lovejoy did put in his two cents worth in his
front-page “Seasonable Sermons.” His was the only by-line. It
was community journalism, journalism for the community.
It wasn’t unusual for the front pages of both papers to have
more than 20 stories, although there were few photographs.
The editorial pages always had comments by the editor, as well
as reprints from other Iowa papers and from national publications
such as Wallace’s Farmer. On the inside pages, there was
news from all the towns in the county and dozens of items
about clubs and socializing in the “personals” columns. The
inside pages also contained informative stories about conserving
energy and food, about good agricultural practices, and there
was sports coverage, including box scores.
The papers were rich with advertising. Local newspapers
then were one of the few outlets where small-town merchants
could advertise.
All this news and information helped bring the community
close during the war years, as readers throughout the county
learned of births, deaths and marriages, of accidents and parties
and, of course, about what was happening to “the boys,” which
is how the papers referred to Greene County men in the armed
services.
The newspaper traveled the world with those boys.
In a May 2, 1944 Bee interview, Staff Sgt. Clyde Crow of
Dana — who had spent seven months and seen 49 days of battle
“in the wilderness of Burma” — said, “All the boys like to read
the newspapers from home. It’s a touch of the U.S.A.”
We looked through the Bee and Herald issues from 1941
through 1945, bound in huge books that the historical society
saved from destruction when the local papers were sold a few
years ago. In 1941, there were one or two stories about preparing
for war. As the conflict accelerated, the front pages were
full of war news. Finally, on the Bee’s Nov. 27, 1945, front page,
three months after the end of the war with Japan, there was not
a single war story.
The author, Denise O’Brien Van of Jefferson, is a
volunteer for the Greene County Historical Society.
You can write her at dovan@netins.net.
Denise wrote this article for the Iowa Living magazine and after some finagling, I was able to get it copied and pasted for the blog. Enjoy!
Barb B.
LOOKING BACK
Front pages were full of war news
By Denise O’Brien Van
Local papers during WWII
When Mikki Schwarzkopf and I were researching
what the World War II home front had been like
in Greene County for the program we did at the
museum last November, we read more than 500 editions of the
Jefferson Bee and Herald. We came to understand the important
role local newspapers played during wartime.
Those Bees and Heralds were the epitome of good old-fashioned
local journalism. The articles gave the readers the basics
of journalism: the who, the what, the when, the where, the why
and the how. It wasn’t personal journalism, although longtime
Bee editor Vic Lovejoy did put in his two cents worth in his
front-page “Seasonable Sermons.” His was the only by-line. It
was community journalism, journalism for the community.
It wasn’t unusual for the front pages of both papers to have
more than 20 stories, although there were few photographs.
The editorial pages always had comments by the editor, as well
as reprints from other Iowa papers and from national publications
such as Wallace’s Farmer. On the inside pages, there was
news from all the towns in the county and dozens of items
about clubs and socializing in the “personals” columns. The
inside pages also contained informative stories about conserving
energy and food, about good agricultural practices, and there
was sports coverage, including box scores.
The papers were rich with advertising. Local newspapers
then were one of the few outlets where small-town merchants
could advertise.
All this news and information helped bring the community
close during the war years, as readers throughout the county
learned of births, deaths and marriages, of accidents and parties
and, of course, about what was happening to “the boys,” which
is how the papers referred to Greene County men in the armed
services.
The newspaper traveled the world with those boys.
In a May 2, 1944 Bee interview, Staff Sgt. Clyde Crow of
Dana — who had spent seven months and seen 49 days of battle
“in the wilderness of Burma” — said, “All the boys like to read
the newspapers from home. It’s a touch of the U.S.A.”
We looked through the Bee and Herald issues from 1941
through 1945, bound in huge books that the historical society
saved from destruction when the local papers were sold a few
years ago. In 1941, there were one or two stories about preparing
for war. As the conflict accelerated, the front pages were
full of war news. Finally, on the Bee’s Nov. 27, 1945, front page,
three months after the end of the war with Japan, there was not
a single war story.
The author, Denise O’Brien Van of Jefferson, is a
volunteer for the Greene County Historical Society.
You can write her at dovan@netins.net.
RV Tip-cutting board
Make your own custom sink-matched cutting board
by Greg Illes
by Greg Illes
Our RV kitchen came with a small board that filled in part of the sink area. This was handy because the whole sink is not always in use and counter space is at a premium.
After a few outings we found out that our water-savings plan meant that the sink was very rarely in use. We also found out that the filler board (made from countertop material) needed an additional cutting surface to prepare food. Thus began a search for a combination counter/cutting board. We soon found that no such off-the-shelf product exists, much less customized for our Itasca sink. So off to the plastic shop we wandered to buy some HDPE.
"What?" — I hear you cry in great confusion. Ah, Grasshopper, that little acronym stands for High Density PolyEthylene, the gold standard for cutting board material. This stuff doesn't soak up fluids like wooden boards, it's easy to clean, very easy to fabricate, and is available in thicknesses from 1/2 inch to 1 inch and greater.
To build one of these, it's best to make a cardboard template to match the outline of your cutting board. Trim this exactly to where you want the board to fit. Then, measure the depth from your countertop to your sink edge — this is the board thickness you will need. Buy the next thinnest standard material and use some nylon screws as shims to make up the thickness so your finished board will sit flush (the screws are needed because stick-on feet don't stick very well to HDPE). If you are handy with a router, you can buy thicker material and rabbet-down the edge. We were lucky — a 3/4-inch standard layup fit our setup perfectly.
Note that if you have a flush-mounted sink, this project gets a bit more demanding. You'll need an oversized template, and a rabbeted edge (which needs a router to cut), and the board can't sit completely flush.
The HDPE cuts easily with hand or power saws. File and sand the edges smooth and you have a custom-fit counter extender and cutting surface, all in one. I also chose to cut a sink-access hole so that we wouldn't have to lift the board out for pouring out a stale cup of coffee (or whatever).
Sunday, March 13
Off to Mexico!!
Marlene texted me yesterday and asked if we wanted to go to Mexico with them. We said "yes" so in about an hour we will take off to meet them at the gate. There are a few more items we want to pick up, so this could be our last trip down and then again maybe not.
Update- We did meet Marlene and Bernard in Mexico on one of the busiest days I have ever seen there. While we were waiting for the Kelley's there was a double lineup to get in that went across the street!
On the way over we may have witnessed the first of an exodus to Mexico. This truck was loaded up with all their worldly goods and they were headed in- not out.
Next stop was the pharmacy- Marlene and Bernard doing a price check.
These ladies were preparing cactus (nopales) for sale. I gave her a dollar to take her picture but after reading this website perhaps I should have purchased some nopales.
This tortilla factory has been in business a very long time.
Decided to add these health benefits of Nopales:
Update- We did meet Marlene and Bernard in Mexico on one of the busiest days I have ever seen there. While we were waiting for the Kelley's there was a double lineup to get in that went across the street!
On the way over we may have witnessed the first of an exodus to Mexico. This truck was loaded up with all their worldly goods and they were headed in- not out.
Next stop was the pharmacy- Marlene and Bernard doing a price check.
These ladies were preparing cactus (nopales) for sale. I gave her a dollar to take her picture but after reading this website perhaps I should have purchased some nopales.
Health benefits of nopales
- Nopales are one of very low calorie vegetables. 100 g of fresh leaves carry just 16 calories. Nonetheless, its modified leaves (paddles) have many vital phytochemicals, fiber, anti-oxidants, vitamins, and minerals that can immensely benefit health.
- The succulent paddles are rich sources of dietary fiber, especially non-carbohydrate polysaccharides, such as pectin, mucilage and hemicellulose. Together, these substances help bring reduction in body weight, LDL-cholesterol, and blood sugar levels. This rich fiber and mucilaginous content in cactus pads aid in smooth passage of digested food particles through the gut and help relieve constipation problems.
- In addition, the juice extracted from the noples has been suggested to have immune-booster, and anti-inflammatory properties.
- Cactus pads feature moderate amounts of vitamin A with 100 g fresh pads carrying about 457 IU of vitamin A, and 250 µg of ß-carotene. ß-carotene converted into vitamin-A inside the body. Studies found that vitamin A and flavonoid compounds in vegetables help protect from skin, lung and oral cavity cancers.
- Further, nopal pads contain small levels of B-complex group of vitamins such as thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B-6 (pyridoxine), and pantothenic acid. These vitamins are essential for optimum cellular enzymatic and metabolic functions inside the human body.
- Fresh pads contain average levels of vitamin-C. 100 g provides 9.3 mg or 15% of this vitamin. Vitamin C is a water-soluble, natural anti-oxidant, which helps the body protect from scurvy and offer resistance against infectious agents (boost immunity), and help scavenge harmful, pro-inflammatory free radicals from the body.
- They contain small amounts of minerals, especially calcium, potassium, magnesium and iron.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)