Picture Girl

Pam set out to get a few 'candid' photos of the granddaughter.  Oops, I think she has seen the camera.

She was going to take a nap with her animals. Oh well, no nap now.

Kira with "Pink Bear".  Boy, what a smile! What a ham!

Flower Girl

Kira is making preparations for her Flower Girl responsibility at a recent wedding. Her mother's friend, Monica, may not have realized what she was starting when she asked for a 2 1/2 year old to act as flower girl in her recent wedding ceremony.

How do you keep a 2 1/2 year old flower girl busy during the wedding ceremony?

Spinning and Grinning!

Ain't it great to be the baby sitter. I recently took this video of the grandkid, Kira, while she was playing with one of her toys. Here she is on her 'Sit & Spin' doing what a kid is supposed to be doing on a 'Sit & Spin', she is spinning and grinning!

For more information on the "Sit and Spin" see:

http://www.hasbrotoyshop.com/

Recipe Wednesday: # 14

Pam's Favorite Breakfast

This is the recipe for French Toast which I believe may be Pam's favorite breakfast. I'm not really sure why! She is not French and as far as I know her primary heritage is Italian and American Indian. We have never been to France and she has never really expressed much interest in going there. I found a possible clue as I was researching a possible recipe for this week. I was looking through the Recipe Book she had as a child, Betty Crocker's Cook Book for Boys and Girls, and I found the following recipe for:


French Toast

With beater blend -----------2 eggs, beaten, 1/2 cup milk, 1/4 teaspoon salt

Cut in half -------------------6 slices stale bread

Heat frying pan or griddle moderately hot. Grease with butter or bacon fat.

Pick up bread on fork, by half-slices. Dip both sides into egg mixture and put on hot frying pan or griddle.

Brown on both sides, turning with pancake turner.

Serve hot with syrup or jelly.



I believe I have used this little Recipe Book on previous posts as it was the Cook Book my wife had when she was very young. I don't have any publication information like date and publishing house for the book since it is missing the first few pages. I would surely give that gredit to the original publisher if I knew. I suspect the book was printed some time in the early or mid 1950's. Pam may have had the French Toast from the Cook Book and it is now one of those "fond childhood memories". I do know that she uses a variation of this recipe and no longer uses the butter or bacon fat and now uses olive oil (that shows her Italian heritage) for greasing the pan. She doesn't use the salt in the egg and now substitutes cinamon instead. She usually uses the whole piece of bread without cutting it in half and I don't believe she is likely to use "stale" bread. She is more likely to throw that away and get the fresh stuff. I'm not so sure about the "stale" part either. I'm not sure if that would be advisable today. What if someone got sick from your French Toast. I don't suppose we could just blame it on France. That might not be politically correct. Oh well, that could be another whole story.

I hope you enjoy the French Toast!

Recipe Wednesday #9

Well let’s try to get back into a routine. This is Wednesday and I did miss a recipe day last week. More about how busy I’ve been and why I missed last week’s recipe at a later time. Let’s get right to the recipe.
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This week I have taken the recipe from Creative Cooking, you may remember that was the cookbook inspired by and dedicated to my sister, Michal. (Refer to my previous Recipe with the Creative Cooking link. [Mouse Hint (no not the mice in your attic): When you put your cursor over the link, right click and choose "Open in New Window" or "New Tab" and you will not have to keep using the 'Back Arrow' in your Browser.] The recipe this week is another one of her recipes and is entitled Five Can Stew. I don’t remember if she ever made this when I was visiting with her. She did not do a lot of cooking when I was around. I do remember her cooking once and inviting me over for a special recipe she wanted to try. As I recall that recipe was Swedish Meatballs. I can’t seem to find that particular recipe and there is an interesting story that goes along with that recipe but, that will have to be at a later time. For now, the Five Can Stew seemed to be a proper substitute. Please try this recipe and enjoy Five Can Stew with your family and friends.
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Five Can Stew
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2 lb. ground meat
1 medium onion, chopped
1 (No. 303*) can mixed vegetables
1 (No. 303) can tomatoes
2 (No. 303) can whole new potatoes, diced
1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce (such as Hunt’s new tomato sauce special with tomato bits, onion, celery, and green peppers)
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Brown Meat and onion. Drain excess grease. Add vegetables, tomatoes, diced new potatoes and tomato sauce including all juices from cans. Bring to boil; simmer 20 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serves 4-6 generously.
Easy and the perfect solution to what to fix quickly after work for super.

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*Please note: A No. 303 can is a measurement of 2 cups or 16 oz.

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Disclaimer: Please remember that I type these things in just as they are printed from the original source in order to retain the original flavor (more than obvious reference to recipes and food) of the recipe as printed. Please note super at the end of the recipe. I guess this is supposed to be supper. I guess it could be a reference to a super supper or perhaps a super husband for whom you are preparing this supper. When I type these recipes the ‘spell checker’ and ‘grammar checker’ go wild. Recipes seem to be filled with phrases, incomplete sentences, and run-on sentences. I guess I need a ‘Recipe’ setting in the word processor which will allow these kinds of phrases which appear to be numerous in older recipes. At any rate, I hope you will try this recipe from my sister Michal. I’m sure she would hope that it will bring you and your friends and family a bit of enjoyment and fellowship at your next meal whether it is super or supper!

Oops! You can't do that.

One of my own items on the Summer "To Do List" for this summer is to organize and clean up some of the photos and videos on my computer. I was looking through some of the earliest videos taken and I found some interesting mistakes which have been made. Here I'll share one of those earlier problems which I didn't give much thought to at the time. A couple of years ago I gave one of those small digital video cameras to Pam for Christmas. You know how Christmas goes. You open the package and want to start using it immediately. No one has time to read instructions or look at the sugggestions for use. We really never did that as I remember and we have been using that camera occasionally to get short, quick videos at various special family events. What follows is one of those early videos we took at the Birthday Party for Quianna at her second birthday. She is the daughter of my niece, Meridith, and her husband, Victor. Take a look at this video:

Did you notice the problem with this video? I'm sure you noticed it needs to be rotated for the image to be upright. I knew that rotation of photo images was possible in several of the photo programs I currently use. Oops! It never occured to me that I would not be able to rotate video images, or at least if it is possible, I have not yet found the program which will do this. I would appreciate any comment which might help me with this problem.

Recipe Wednesday #7 - Oops, It's already Friday!

I guess this will have to be 'Recipe Friday #1' or maybe 'Late Recipe Wednesday #1' or perhaps it should just be 'Recipe Wednesday #7 - Oops, It's already Friday!'

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I apologize for the late Recipe posting. I was extremely busy with close out procedures and other duties at my place of work. Some of you may know that I work in the field of education. For those who do not know, I work at a large public high school as a counselor and some of my duties include such things as preparing student schedules for next school year as well as grade and credit verifications for all grade level of my high school students, especially for those senior students who are graduating from school. This does include the unhappy task of helping those students with the upset of failing grades and incomplete credits. These students will either not promoting in grade level or will not graduate. They must plan for summer school or some other means of recovering the grade and credits required. As you can imagine the end of the school year can be one of the busiest times of our year. For another perspective and for a look at a different level of education and how busy the school year can be for educators you might be interested in my brothers Blog post "It's Always a Learning Experience" or "The End of an Era-Sort Of". These give his "perception of the world" as another educator. He is a kindergarten teacher at his current school assignment in Central Texas.

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Well, whatever the reason for the tardiness (more than obvious reference to the classroom and education) and whichever title you prefer, here is the Recipe for today:

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Aunt Dora's Pulled Mints

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2 cups sugar, 1/2 stick butter, 1 cup water, 1/8 tsp. oil of peppermint.

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If color is used, add at the first and cook in coloring. Combine ingredients. Put on stove and boil to 264 degrees F (hard ball). Pour out on marble. Cool 2 or 3 minutes. Make a fingerprint in the center of the candy and put in it 1/8 tsp. of peppermint. Fold all edges over. Pull until stiff, with little ridges. Stretch out on the edges of marble, away from the hot-spot. Cut with scissors. Leave on marble and cover with wax paper for the night. Store in airtight box. Might need to put a little butter on hands for pulling.

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Now, for the story behind this recipe. No, I don't have an Aunt Dora and neither does my wife! I was looking through one of our family recipe books for this weeks recipe. I found a piece of paper with a recipe printed on each side of it. This is not a hand written recipe. It was printed for public distribution by some individual or group. There is no other identification or reference to anyone or anything other than the two recipes. Neither my wife nor I are familiar with the recipe or the paper and where it might have come from. The cook book in which I found the paper is entitled "The Family Cookbook". I have not used this book for any recipe yet. The paper looks like it might have been cut or torn from another part of some kind of circular or advertisement. I simply thought the recipe looked good and it seemed like it might be easy to try. Please enjoy "Aunt Dora's Pulled Mints".

Grandparents - 2, or Two Grandparents

Pam and I are doing that Grandparents thing again (see my previous Blog from March 9, 2008). We have the granddaughter, Kira, for the day since mom and dad are both at work. Although it is work tending to a young child (I'm not sure we can say she is a baby now - she is growing up so fast) it is one of those things you don't mind and one might say it is even enjoyable. This is the 'Second' Blog entry for this topic - thus the title 'Grandparents - 2' but, Pam and I usually do this together as 'Two Grandparents'. I never really thought much about what these kinds of days might be like before I actally became a Grandparent. Yes, there have been some trying and even painful times going through through that 'Parenting' process. Yet, it has all been memorable and the Grandparenting thing seems to be making it all worthwhile. My brother recently entered his Blog on "Re-Looking at Re-Cycling" and it occured to me that Grandparenting is 'kind'a like' Re-Cycling Parenting.

I will occasionally Re-visit this topic of Grandparenting to share some of my thoughts and experiences on the topic.

Now for the real reason for this particular blog post - an opportunity to share with you the joy of Grandparenting:

Nap Time, No Not Yet!