a walk in the garden

As I walk around my garden I find little things that make me smile. Sometimes it is a blooming flower, a fancy spiderweb ,a bug or a bird, a squirrel or a fallen branch that looks like a mystical creature. Today on my walk this little metal dragonfly caught my attention.

Today’s Quote

“Instinct is the nose of the mind.”
– Delphine Gay de Girardin

About Delphine Gay de Girardin

French writer Delphine Gay de Girardin was equally well known for her patriotic poetry and for the brilliant literary gatherings at her home. She was born in France on January 24, 1804; her mother was the well-known author Sophie Gay. Delphine called herself the “Muse of the Nation” for her poetry about France. Under the pseudonym Vicomte Charles de Launay, she wrote a gossip column with comedic sketches of Parisian life. She died on June 29, 1855.

A memory and a quote

While I was cleaning up the kitchen today I was thinking about childhood memories and wondering what a typical person thinks about when they remember their childhood? 

A memory came to mind, I was in 5th  grade excited that the campfire  girls meeting was going to be at my house. My mom  loved to bake and I was excited to see what type of  after school  snack she had dreamed up. On arriving home I found my mom , sitting in the corner  covered in  blood, crying,  wrists slit and  blood on the  walls as if she was painting with her own  blood. She had  smeared her blood all over the  living room wall. I  had my little sisters  and the campfire girls  go outside and  play while I cleaned the walls and sent for help. I had to have my  mom  admitted into  Puget  Sound Mental hospital and my great Grandmother  Mable  came to stay with us for a few weeks. 

So many things I have  kept to myself over the years and  little  by little I  share  the things that have molded me into the  person I am today. 

“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.”– Marie Curie

About Marie Curie

star gazing 24 x 24

Marie Curie, the pioneering Polish-born French chemist, was the first person to win Nobel Prizes in two different fields. She was born in Warsaw on November 7, 1867. No Polish school would admit a woman, so she worked as a governess, sending her sister through medical school in France. Her sister, in turn, sent her to the Sorbonne, where she met her husband, Pierre Curie. Together they studied radiology, discovering two new chemical elements and inventing the term “radioactivity.” She died on July 4, 1934.

star gazing

CQ

Yesterdays post about my time in the army triggered another Military Memory where I got in trouble for doing what I thought was the right thing to do. I was working the night shift at the welcome center at Fort Lewis which is where all new soldiers went to in processed. A family of 5 came in, Both parents were active duty. They were sure they would be able to wanted to get paid but sadly the pay checks were still going to the bank IN Germany, (which they had closed out.) We have to wait until the funds are sent back before we can issue payments. They had less than $20 on them . I ordered the family a pizza , paid for a cab to a local motel 6 and covered the room for a week. I was told I was not allowed to spend my money this way and was given weekly CQ duty for 3 months! For those that have not served in the military CQ duty is 24 hour duty doing pretty much nothing or doing stupid useless shit! This is a photo of people pulling CQ duty! Thankfully I got to transfer to out processing shortly after this experience.

Demoted

Cynthia Freese

In the late 80’s I was working in the military finance office in Washington DC. We had a shut down and people were calling me all day long to ask when they would receive pay. I politely gave them a very special number to call and told them to ask for George. Yes, I got demoted and fined for giving out the private number to the white house but I have no regrets.

Freese pancakes

Ingredients

3  eggs
3/4  cups milk
3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt

1/2  cup butter, melted
juice of 1/2  a lemon
confectioners’ sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. beat the eggs and milk until they are well blended. Add flour and salt, stirring the batter until it is slightly lumpy.

Set 10″ pie plate in the oven to melt the butter. When the butter is very hot, pour in the batter and bake for about twenty minutes or until the pancake is brown and puffed. Sprinkle with lemon juice and confectioners sugar and cut into wedges.

Serve immediately as it will deflate quickly.

Serves 4

Butter

As a kid I made Butter in a Jar it was very easy and just took some time.

Ingredients:

Heavy whipping cream – any amount 6 cups makes about 1 pound of butter
1/2 teaspoon per pound of butter – optional, used for preserving butter

Jar with lid, any size, baby food jars are great for kids to make it with.

Some people like to put a clean marble in the jar and when the marble gets quiet you know it’s starting to thicken. Just don’t forget to remove the marble when you are done.

Have the children shake the jar. A figure-eight motion seems to work best, but let your kids go wild (not so much, if the jar is glass). If you have a plastic container with a tight lid, you can even roll it back and forth.

Pour Heavy Whipping Cream into jars no more then 3/4 the way full. It is best to leave room for the shaking and turning action. Next begin shaking! And Shake and Shake. Some music to shake too makes it fun for the kids and helps pass time. Something with a fun and quick beat. The best way I figured to shake the jar was to hold it length wise in my hands with the lid in my palms and the base of the jar wedge in my forearms.

It takes about 5 minutes before you notice a thickening forming in the jar. This heaviness is the beginning of the fat changing and sticking together. At this point you really just have a thick whip cream in the jar. Keep shaking.

butter

As another 5-10 minutes pass you will notice the jar filling with the foamy cream. It feels as if there is no room in the jar as the thick Heavy Cream is aerated even more with the shaking, but keep shaking. It will look like this:

Serves 8-10

Breakfast Sausage & Apples

Ingredients

2 lbs sausage link
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 large tart apples , peeled cored and sliced
1/3 cup water
1 large chopped onion

Instructions:

Brown Sausages. remove form heat and drain drippings.

Mix remaining ingredients and cook for 8-10 minutes.

Stir in Sausage and continue to simmer until ready to serve.

Glaze thickens as it cooks and coats the sausage.Serves 8-10

sasauge_n

Pear mango bread

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter , melted                1 cup Mango

2 tsp baking powder                     2  large eggs

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour         1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar

16 ounce can pears, drained and chopped (if you have fresh pears that is even better)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, mix together the melted butter, mango nectar and sugar. Beat with an electric mixer until the sugar dissolves. While beating, add eggs one at a time. Add the flour mixture and thoroughly blend with a wooden spoon. Stir in chopped pears. Pour into a greased and floured loaf dish.

Bake 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Eggs Issaquah

Ingredients

4  eggs                                             2  Tbs  melted  butter

1/2  cup  cream                                 1/2 tsp pepper

pinch of cayenne                               2 tbs grated cheddar  cheese

2  toasted english  muffins                6  slices of  crisp  bacon

Instructions

Melt  Butter with Cream in skillet.  ad  eggs and sprinkle with pepper and  cayenne. when egg whites begin to set , sprinkle with cheese. Finish cooking and place on English muffin half with some of the  hot cream and  butter.  Serve with bacon slices.

serves 2

Grape Bread- This recipe is for my friends in Prosser!

labor day 127

Ingredients:

3 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup oil

3 cups flour

3 cups seeded Concord grapes

3 cups brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt 3/4 tsp baking soda

¾ cup chopped walnuts

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla until light in color. Mix dry ingredients together and fold the dry mixture into the egg mixture until moist.  Do not beat!

Gently fold in grape skins and nuts.  Pour into two greased and floured pans.

Bake for one hour or until it tests done in the center with a toothpick. Gently remove from pans and cool.

Makes 2 loaves