Aftermas

That is my term for the days following Christmas.

We were some of the lucky ones to have a white Christmas...  Actually the snow didn't start falling until just about dusk Christmas Day.  By the time it stopped snowing here in the Carolina pines, we had about eight inches.

Today is the first day since Christmas that I am going to leave the house.  I am taking my Christmas cookie filled butt to the gym...

Move Over, Santa!

His list of all the good boys and girls may be long, but I'm thinking my list of things to do to prepare for the holiday is longer!

I still do not have my Christmas tree decorated!  Since most of the kids live away and their gifts need shipped,  I should have had four huge boxes at the post office this week so we do not have to spend $1,000,000 on postage.  But I'm still shopping!

 If you have kids - big or small - on your holiday shopping list, you have to make a video of Santa talking to them from Portable North Pole.  They will love it and want to watch it over and over again.  I took time out yesterday to make a message from Santa to one of the grandsons and will make one for the other tonight.  Be prepared with pictures so Santa can put them in his book for the message...

Have you heard of "Elf on a Shelf"?  Today was the first time I've heard of him.  You can check him out here.   I'm thinking I've got two little guys that may need their own elf.

With so much to do, I doubt I will be blogging over the next fifteen (FIFTEEN!  IS THAT ALL THE TIME I HAVE LEFT????) days...

Help Wanted

Must be able to cook, clean, bake, sew, decorate, wrap, stand in long lines at post office.

December 1 already???

Happy Thanksgiving

May your stuffing be tasty.
May your turkey plump.
May your potatoes and gravy
Have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize.
And may your Thanksgiving dinner 

Stay off your thighs.

Stay off your thighs.

Whirled Peas, Please

from neoformix.com

 Annyong ha shimnikka

Since today is World Hello Day and since one of our grandsons is here for the weekend, I thought I would greet you in Korean.    

He understands Korean and can speak it well for a three year old.

World Hello Day began in the fall of 1973 in response to the conflict between Israel and Egypt.

By saying hello to ten people today, you show the importance of personal communication in preserving peace.

 from happybirthfdaypeace.com

 

 How about saying hello in one of these languages?

Konichiwa (koh-Nee-chee-wah) is hello in Japanese.
Jambo (JAM-bo) is hello in Swahili.
Hola (OH-la) is hello in Spanish.
Ni hao (nee-Ha-OW) is hello in Chinese.
Bonjour (bohn-Zhoor) is hello in French.
Buon giorno (bwohn-JOR-noh) is hello in Italian.
Annyong ha shimnikka (An-YOH HASHim-ni-kah) is hello in Korean.
Czesc (Chesht) is hello is Polish.
Zdravstvuite (ZzDRAST-vet-yah) is hello in Russian.
Al Salaam a' alaykum (ahl sah-LAHM-ah-ah-LAY-Koom)) is hello in Arabic.

from brickfish.com

 

Late Bloomer

 This heirloom tomato plant has been growing outside our back door all summer long.

 

 It has been growing and growing but producing no fruit.

 

 Until last week. 

I had to take the calendar out and show this little tomato that it is almost Thanksgiving.  I reminded him that we do not live in Florida or California and that we have had frost and a hard freeze. 

Maybe I should put fresh homegrown sliced tomatoes on the Christmas dinner menu...

Vacuuming the Carpet

A couple of weeks ago I shared the new carpet that was laid in our yard.  If you missed it, you can see the post here.

This week, we have seen the first of the city workers come around to vacuum that carpet. 

It would be so much easier if  they would come into the yard and we did not have to get the leaves to the street.  (Like I have picked up a rake this year!)

Notice the haze above the truck?  That is created by all the little leaf particles being spewed back out of the truck. 

I have often wondered if they would rent this truck out for vacuuming the inside of the house.  I hate to vacuum.  But with all that spewing of fine particles after the vacuuming, I'd have to dust.  I hate to dust.

Craigslist Special

Hubs is always searching Craigslist for free stuff or low cost materials that he might need to redo our home.

Today I received an email from him containing a link to a FREE post on Craigslist.

"Two Healthy Pumpins FREE to good home. These pumpins have served their short purpose in life of uselessly decorating our front porch to make our neighbors think we are cool. They are very well-mannered and house broken. Due to their social nature, we need to adopt these two out together. We'd like to see them go to a home with a sunny porch where they can rot togehter in peace.

If not picked up in the by 11-11 we will have no other option but to humanely euthanize these beautiful creations via a lethal blow with a baseball bat."

I hope someone picks up these poor pumpkins...

Happy Sandwich Day!

Today is Sandwich Day because on this date in 1718, John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich was born.  

 from Wikipedia

While the sandwich was named after him, there is debate as to whether he was the first to create and eat a sandwich.

Since today is Sandwich Day, I thought I would share some more recipes from my vintage Better Homes and Garden New Cookbook.

This is called a Choo-choo because the bottom crust is not cut so the bread is still coupled like a train.

I grew up reading the comic strip, Blondie.  So when I think of a sandwich, I think of this guy - Dagwood Bumstead.  He was created by artist Chic Young in 1930.  Dagwood could eat a huge stack of sandwich and in all those years, he never gained an inch.

from NewsRealBlog

Here is the recipe for the sandwich named after him.

I love how this sandwich is topped with an olive.  How appropriate!

from Citrellasmarket.com

I'm joining Suzanne and Vintage Thingies Thursday again this week. 

Make Sure to Get Yours

from inforum.com

New Carpet...

...has been laid in our yard.

 The colors are perfect.

Being from Kansas where there are few trees, the results of the change from summer to fall amazes me.  I'm not used to all the leaves laying on the ground.  I'm also not used to mountains...mountains of leaves. 

First Post

October 28, 2008 was my first blog post. You can read it here.  I would not advice it unless you are looking for something to help put you to sleep.  What a snoozefest those first post were!

When I first started this blog, I had no idea what direction it would take.  I knew I wanted it to be a documentary of my new life - an almost fifty year old emptynester transplanted from her home town in the midwest to an old, run down house in the south.  My blog was a way for friends back home to keep track of what was going on in my day to day life.  Those first posts were like letters to those friends back home.

My blog has a different look and a different voice than it did back then.  I still write for my friends back home but I also write for those I have met in blog land over the last two years. 

The next day, I posted about harvesting the herbs from my garden before the frost got them.  Those herbs were hung in the sun room off Hub's office.

This picture was taken last week before I took down and threw away the brown, crumbling herbs I hung to dry two years ago.  Some things do not change...I can still procrastinate. 

No Spam, Ma'am

Has there ever been a food product more maligned than SPAM?  Monty Python's Flying Circus used it in a skit.  Surely it was a zonk prize on Let's Make a Deal.  David Letterman quipped about SPAM-on-a-rope in case you got hungry in the shower.  

Like bologna, SPAM was another one of those "meats" I would not eat while growing up.  (I'm not about to start eating it now, either!)  The neatest thing about SPAM was the way you opened it.  There was a little key on top of the can that was used to roll a thin tin strip off the can which would sever the top from the can.  Mom would never let me open the SPAM.

Facts about Spam:

• SPAM was first created in 1937 by Jay Hormel who needed a way to package pork shoulder so it would not go to waste.
•  In a contest to name the new product, Kenneth Daigneau won $100 for his contraction of spiced ham.
• Since 1937, 7 billion cans of SPAM have been sold.
• People living in Alaska and Hawaii buy the most SPAM.
• 100 million pounds of SPAM were issued to the US, Soviet and European troops during World War II.
• Waikiki, Hawaii hosts the annual SPAM Jam. 
• SPAM has its own museum in Austin, MN.

 This is a cookbook of mine.  The copyright on it is 1953.  I love looking at the vintage pictures and reading the recipes used back then.  This is a picture from the cookbook.  Crown Roast Dinner from the Jiffy Cooking section. 

Here's the recipe.

  Crown Roast Dinner?  Really?  How can you think SPAM could look like this?

 from simpleanddelicious.com

Maybe that is why in this cookbook copyrighted some time in the mid-1970's (I lost the cover page!)...

the recipe was reworked and renamed.

The 1970's cookbook also has this recipe using SPAM.

It doesn't matter how you slice it - I'm not eating it!

SPAM facts gathered from www.butlerwebs.com/recipes/spam.htm and www.spam.com/

It has been a long time since I have joined my vintage loving friends at Vintage Thingies Thursday.  I'm going to join the party this week.   If you like vintage things, you will like what you see at Suzanne's.