Make Small Funnels for Spices Bought in Bulk

Guest Writer:  Ruth Morse

Fun With Funnels

As I have written in the past, I like to buy spices in bulk from Pine Ridge Grocery Store, Bainbridge-- a store run by Mennonite folk. The spices are good quality and the prices are so much cheaper than good quality sold in groceries. The problem is they come in little tubs and it can be messy transferring the spice into a usable shaker bottle.

I have found a FREE solution to the problem. Well, almost free since we live in a state with nickel bottle deposits, so we do sacrifice a whopping five cents for this method.

Take an empty water bottle and cut around the bottle about 2-3 inches from the top.

The neck of the bottle is just the right size to fit into regular spice bottles and the opening is large enough for dry spices to pass through easily......

Kent's Korner I-20 Exit 33 Re-Opens

Crazy busy day today with the Grand Opening of the Kent's Korner #18 Truckstop over on I-20, exit 33 - for those "in the know."

So....

Yeah, this could have been you.

We gave out free Hunt Brothers Pizzas to any customer who looked hungry was nice to me came in the door.    Hunts Brothers Dudes maintained a great attitude all day long despite being very, very busy and hot......

Best Baskets Ever!

Cindy Cook O'Reilly with WCC World Class Carriages out of Cameron, NC works with the Fair Trade organization and the ladies in Africa who make these awesome baskets.  Cindy had a booth set up at the Live Oak International in Ocala FL.  Tom and I stopped by to watch the horse and buggies compete on March 24 and when we browsed the market tents, I fell in love with these baskets.

That thick handle?  Is wrapped with leather!  You know it's not going to tear the first time you have a heavy load.

I like handcrafted.

I like fair trade.

Tom bought me my favorite basket for my birthday (4 months away).  Does that mean I should have bought him the horse buggy he was admiring?

Upon leaving, Tom carried our chairs and waters; I, my basket swinging jauntily from my arm.
So um,

....do I have to wait til my birthday to use my basket?

Greek Style Tomato Salad

Here is a great salad recipe to make up for my previous fattening Tasty Tuesdays.  Mmkay?

6 tomatoes, sliced
1/4 lb. feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1 3.5 oz. can pitted olives, drained and sliced
1/2 c. olive oil
1/3 c. vinegar
4 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp basil, salt and pepper
lettuce leaves

Place tomatoes, cheese, onion and olives in a 13 x 9 baking dish; set aside.
In a small bowl with fork, mix oil,, vinegar, sugar, basil salt and pepper.  Pour this over the tomato mixture.
Gently flip the tomatoes to cover with mixture.
Cover baking dish and refrigerate at least 2 hours to blend flavors.
To serve, line platter with lettuce leaves.  Arrange tomato mixture on top.

Isn't it Ironic...

When I crawled back in my car to retrieve my pocketbook, I found this cupcoaster jarred out of place.  I found it ironic.  I had a good laugh and took a quick photo while teetering in the vehicle, then slowly backing out to the shaking heads of the men who don't understand women.

The Greatest Generation: Feat. Jim Sliker

"He was really good in Choir and believe it or not, First Aid, but really bad in History and English." 

- Pat Sliker

On a recent trip to visit my mother-in-law, she gave me another tiny glimpse of my late father-in-law, Jim Sliker.....

 loud giant steps while he can because he's already noticed that when you grow up, even if you do keep walking as big as you can, you have to be quiet about it, or other people get headaches   ~Brian Andreas

Cheesy Baked Pork Chops

Apparently, I'm on a high-fat binge here on Tasty Tuesday, but this is another family favorite from long ago that you will love.

6 pork chops
seasoned flour
3 egg yolks
2 c. white sauce
Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese

White sauce:
4 Tbsp butter
4 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 c milk

Melt butter in saucepan.  Add flour, salt and pepper.  Stir until well-blended.  Slowly add milk and Parmesan cheese.  Cook til thickens, stirring constantly.

Pork Chops:
Roll pork chops in seasoned flour.  (I use flour, seasoned bread crumbs, paprika, garlic, and thyme)
Brown pork chops on both sides over high heat until well browned.
Reduce heat.
Cover the pan and cook about 30 minutes, turning frequently.
While chops are cooking, beat egg yolks well and stir into white sauce.
Transfer chops to a baking dish and cover them with the white sauce.  Sprinkle with grated mozzarella cheese.  Bake in oven at 350 until cheese is melted, about 8 - 10 minutes.

Cooler Corn: Another email hoax?

Cooler Corn

Sent in by an alert reader

Have you seen this unusual way for cooking corn on the cob?  Apparently, this email has been flying around the internet.  It was submitted here from an alert reader near Raleigh, NC.

If you try this, please let me know how it turns out.  I'm a little lot skeptical.

Get your Coleman cooler from the garage and wipe it clean, then fill it with the shucked ears. "Next, two kettles-full of boiling water are poured over the corn and the top closed.Then nothing.

When we sat down to dinner 30 minutes later and opened it, the corn was perfectly cooked. My mind was blown. And I'm told that the corn will remain at the perfect level of done-ness for a couple of hours."

NASA TweetUp with Astronaut Ron Garan

"Social media platforms enable us to bring the public along on our missions not just as spectators but as fellow crew members."

- Ron Garan

Fellow crew members?!?  Eyes lit up all around me, big smiles, even some cheers.  NASA Astronaut Ron Garan (@Astro_Ron) was speaking to a select group of NASA's (@NASA) Twitter followers at one of NASA's famous Tweetups.  Referring to us as virtual crew members let us know he "gets it."

NASA "gets" social media. In fact,

NASA masters social media.

" It was nice to send down (via twitter) pictures from space and get your feed back on those pictures."   - Ron Garan

Communicating with the public has always been important to NASA.......

Talkeetna Alaska, Air Taxi Glacier Tour

Today's FlashBack Friday goes back a couple summers to when some friends told us we should go to Alaska with them.  It didn't take us long to pack our bags.  Turns out "Ya'll come go with us" is just a southern cliche' and isn't to be taken literally.

  It's a southern way of saying "Good Bye."  

We Jersey folks didn't know that.

So we went with them.

In Talkeetna, we took an AirTaxi over the glaciers.  This is an expensive outing, but one you must do if you go to Alaska.  It was breathtaking.  At some point during the trip, we landed on a glacier, got out and walked around.  Enjoy the photos.

See more photos...

Stop Your Pot from Boiling Over

In Hot Water Again....                                                Guest Writer: Ruth Morse

Did you know that if you lay a wooden spoon over a pot of boiling water, it won’t boil over?

No kidding! I read this hint on one of the forwards with a gazillion amazing household hints. This email had pictures, so that got even my ADHD attention.

Being the skeptic I am, I had to try and disprove the hint. .....

Ruby Falls, Chattanooga, TN

On a recent trip to Nashville, I stopped in Chattanooga to stretch my legs.  All those billboards for Rock City (!!) and See Ruby Falls (now!!) got to me.  I hung a hard left and began the ascent up LookOut Mountain with the promise of, not just Ruby Falls, but also a Starbucks at the peak.

I took the 20-buck cave tour to see Ruby Falls, America's highest underground waterfall.   It was absolutely stunning.  Despite being in a crowd of tourists including the proverbial crying kid and screaming, swatting mom who is quite sure she is getting ripped off and the whole world is out to get her, it was well worth the time and money spent.

I would do it again in a heartbeat and this time, take people with me.

Enjoy these pictures as a glimpse of what you'll see when you go.....

Chicken Pacific

This is a family favorite I found when my kids were small.  I'm not sure whom to credit for this.
I often double the recipe.

1 1/2 c sour cream
2 tsp salt
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp garlic
4 chicken breasts
1 1/2 c cornflakes, crumbled

To crumble your cornflakes:  Put cornflakes in a large bowl with high sides.
Take a glass in your hand and pound the cornflakes repeatedly with the bottom of the glass.  Press them and smear them against the bottom of the bowl.  This doubles as a wonderful anger management tool, unless, of course, you break the glass.

• Combine sour cream and seasonings.
• Dip chicken in sour cream mixture.
• Roll chicken in crumbs.
• Bake in well-buttered pan, 350, one hour.

Rally For Real Pizza with Freschetta

Join Freschetta Pizza and

Boycott Blah!

You just might

win free pizza

for a year.

Submit a photo to Rally Mosaic on Freschetta's Facebook Fan Page for a chance to win FRESCHETTA® pizza. Through the month of March, they will select 100 winners to receive 5 FRESCHETTA® pizzas. On March 30, they will select 10 winners who will receive

a year supply of FRESCHETTA® pizza.

For details and information, go to RallyForRealPizza.com

Also.... 

Twitter Profile Photo Challenge

Every day March 16 – 20 at 7:00PM EST, @Freschetta will randomly select 5 Twitter followers showing off their Rally Badge.

How to Enter:

1.Change Your Twitter profile picture to your favorite Rally Badge. Get badges from RallyForPizza.

2.Follow @Freschetta.

3.Tweet "I'm Rallying for Real Pizza @Freschetta. Join the #PizzaRally (http://bit.ly/ziA7Vl) for a chance to win pizza for a year."

Disclaimer:  I am a Freschetta Blogger.  By blogging for Freschetta, I am entered in various contests to win monetary -- or pizzalicious -- prizes.

The Lorax Movie and Dr. Seuss Birthday Party

Recently?

I met The Lorax.

He gave me The Lorax book by Dr. Seuss to bring home to Eva and invited me to his very own Dr. Seuss Birthday Party:

In which they took photos that made me look absolutely huge.

It's a Seuss-like character of myself.

Right?

Welcome to Thneedville

a city they say

that was plastic and fake

and they liked it that way....

Until...

..... Want to see something cool?

Whoa! What are they?

Trees!

They used to grow all around here!

The Lorax movie is now in theaters.

Eva and I loved the movie.

It made me a little uneasy as it examined gluttony and self-indulgence, ignorance, appetite that leads to self-destruction.

This has been a growing dis-ease with me as I've become more entangled with smart phones, apps, facebook, google and location based services.  The Lorax sheds such a stark light on it all.  I don't know about you, but I really feel like building a cabin in the woods and going offline.  Let Google and later, the government, eat you alive while keeping you happy by feeding you marshmellows.

See the movie.

You'll know what I mean.

Springtime Photo Op

I once saw an image of a kid holding an empty photo frame up to his/her face.  I thought it was a great idea at the time.  Months/Years ? later I drove up my drive to find an old photo frame on the ground, leaning against the treehouse.  My eyes lit up.  I knew exactly what I needed to do with this old frame!
Thanks to whomever put that frame there! (did I use "whomever" correctly?)

See more...

From Fear to Love

My ability to process successfully and productively my sadness, my anger, my fear will powerfully impact my ability to feel the positive feelings of  happy, excited, tender, hope and peace.

I popped in my earbuds and scrolled to a Midday Connection podcast during a recent lengthy drive only to find myself face-to-face with an issue I've been trying to get a grip on in my own life.  Listen to this, all straight from the Midday Connection interview with Ray Kane, author of From Fear to Love (links below):

Fear causes us to control.

Out of our fear, we become controlling and that squelches other people from receiving or being able to be in a caring, loving, kind relationship.

If you're walking down the steps and you slip, you grab for the handrail to regain your physical equilibrium.  Control is fear's handrail.

AMA National Enduro Round 3, Sandlapper 2012

 

The Sandlapper came to town this past Saturday.

Two or three of the national enduros come close enough to my home that I can go watch them.  I used to cover them for The Race Shop out of Atlanta, but The Race Shop closed its doors a couple of weeks ago.

Now I just go to the enduros for fun and to visit some of the guys I've met along the way....

Oven Baked French Toast

This is great when you have a crowd overnight. Prepare it the night before, just heat and serve in the morning.

1/2 c butter
1 1/2 c brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
8-12 slices bread
8-9 eggs
salt
1 3/4 - 2 c milk

Melt butter and put it in a 9x13 pan.  Add brown sugar and cinnamon.  Lay slices of bread on top.
Beat eggs, salt and milk together.
Pour egg mix over bread.
Hold overnight in the fridge.
Bake at 350, 45 minutes
Turn upside down on a plate to serve.

Dumps Along the Highways

Is this something new?

In all my travels, I haven't noticed landfills along the highway until recently and now I'm seeing them everywhere.

I always thought landfills -- dumps -- were underground.  I thought we buried trash.  So I was surprised to see these large mounds of dump covered with some dirt and disguised as a cute little hill, except for the hundreds of birds flying around.

When I looked closer,

Disaster Relief Often Requires Only a Listening Ear

When a person loses everything, it is our tendency to come clean up the debris so they can move on.  We think they need a comfortable place to sleep, some food, some shelter.  We take time off work to help and we need to be efficient, so we begin hauling things away with all good intentions.

And they lose everything again.

When providing disaster relief, it is vital to tap into the survivor's mind.  You have to work with and around shock, confusion, humility, pride, ownership, loss.  For some people, you can march in there and remove the debris and that is the best help.  For others, you have to let them sort through the debris and hang onto as much of it as they want.

They'll let it go when they are ready.

Often survivor's have a lot of anger as well.  The family members bear the brunt of this anger.  Pulling the survivor to the side and walking through the emotions with them will give family members some relief and will allow tempers to cool.

I visited a neighbor as he was sifting through the debris that was his home before a tornado tore it apart. He was looking for something.... anything.... that his wife had made.  His wife passed away a few years ago and I believe he misses her as much today as he did back then.

Disaster survivors have a variety of needs.  Disaster survivors often have a surplus of relief help and assistance.

We are a humane people.

We want to help

give

share.

The abundance of food, firewood and help has impressed this resilient man.