Sunday, June 19, 2011

If you live in the South, you will totally understand this post...

This was sent to me by Helen:

Things I know from living in the South
 
 
A possum is a flat animal that sleeps in the middle of the road.
True. 
There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 of them live in the South.
True. 
There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 of them live in the South, plus a couple no one's seen before.
True. 
If it grows, it'll stick ya. If it crawls, it'll bite cha.
Mostly True. 
Onced and Twiced are words.
True. 
It is not a shopping cart, it is a buggy!
And you carry people to town, you don't give them a ride to town. 
Jawl-P? means Did y'all go to the bathroom?
I did, thank you for asking. 
People actually grow and eat okra.
And it slid-d-d-e-e-s-s-s-s  down your throat because it's so slimy. Yum! 
Fixinto is one word. It means I'm fixing to do that.
Ah'm fixin ta post on mah blog. 
There is no such thing as lunch. There is only dinner and then there is supper.
True.  Don't get these mixed up or you could miss a meal you are invited to. 
Iced tea is appropriate for all meals and you start drinking it when you're two. We do like a little tea with our sugar. It is referred to as the Wine of the South.
That and Co Cola..... 
Backwards and forwards means I know everything about you.
If I don't know it then someone in the family will know it.  
The word jeet is actually a phrase meaning Did you eat?

I didn't.  Can I have a biscuit, please? 
You don't have to wear a watch, because it doesn't matter what time it is, you work until you're done or it's too dark to see.
Did that just today. 
You don't PUSH buttons, you MASH em.
You will get you a finger ache from mashing buttons, too. 
Ya'll is singular, all ya'll is plural.
And everyone else is referred to as Susan and them. 
You measure distance in minutes.
And do not ask for directions in Kentucky.  No one can give them.  :) 
You switch from heat to A/C in the same day.
True in Michigan more than in Kentucky. 
All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, grain, insect, or animal.
We just had the Blueberry Festival this weekend. True. 
You know what a DAWG is.
Got a house full of them. 
You carry jumper cables in your car - for your OWN car.
Ture. 
You only own five spices: salt, pepper, Tonys, Tabasco and ketchup.
Well...I also have maple syrup but then where I lived for 30 years before living here, it was a staple and I got used to eating it. 
The local papers cover national and international news on one page, but require 6 pages for local high school sports and motor sports, and gossip.
Exceedingly true. 
You think that the first day of deer season is a national holiday.
 True nearly everywhere there is a deer season.
You find 100 degrees Fahrenheit a bit warm.
 Just a tad.
You know what a hissy fit is.
And I can pitch one with the best of them. 
Going to Wal-Mart is a favorite pastime known as goin Wal-Martin' or off to Wally World.
And you can go garage sailin', too. 
You describe the first cool snap (below 70 degrees) as good chicken stew weather.
Yeah, it was that way tonight. 
Fried catfish is the other white meat.
Good stuff! 
We don't need no dang Driver's Ed. If our mama says we can drive, we can drive, dag-nabbit.
Momma is always right. Always. 

The Art of the Biscuit

Back in 1938, Momma and Daddy eloped.  There were probably a lot of reasons, I think most of them had to do with Daddy being from a very wealthy family and Momma wasn't.  But at dinner one night, Grandpa Will was saying there was just nothing like a good biscuit.  Then he pointedly looked at Momma and asked her if she could make biscuits.  For some reason, Momma couldn't cook.  I don't know why, she lived in a home with several sisters but she was one of the middle ones and just never learned for some reason.  Then she lived with my Great Aunt Esther and apparently didn't learn there, either.  So she told Grandpa Will that she couldn't cook.  I never got to know Grandpa Will, he died way before I was born but if Daddy was anything like him, then I can just imagine his reaction, what had his son done?  Married a woman who could not cook a biscuit?
So I have been in pursuit of the perfect biscuit.  I'm not there yet, but getting closer.  I need to apply what I have learned to a recipe that Jerry brought home one day, if I can achieve that, I will have the perfect biscuit.
I go shopping on the weekends and get the food for the week as many do, but I also cook most of what we need for the week, either partially or completely.  Today I made the biscuits, cooked up some chicken breasts with pepper, onion and celery to be sliced up for chicken sandwiches for lunch, I have a pound or so of stew beef, also with pepper, onion and celery, in the small crockpot which will cook until 11 tonight.  I probably won't do anything with that but put it into a tupperware and freeze it for a beef pot pie some night.  If the beef is precooked and tender, it's not much to cook a few potatoes, throw together a pie and have it out of the oven in just over an hour.  I will be doing a stir fry in just a bit, veggies are chopped, but will make it just a bit closer to dinner time.  Basically onion, green pepper, zucchini, crookneck squash, broccoli, carrots.  I stir fry this and just add whatever rings my bell, so will probably be oregano, garlic, basil, and will serve these with some Parmesan cheese on top.  Lastly, the "casserole".  Take two cans of vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Throw in a package of whatever kind of macaroni you like ziti, penne, even just plain spaghetti.  Let it cook as long as it usually does, then turn off the heat and stir.  Put in one can of diced tomatoes, lots of oregano and basil, and half of a jar of whatever spaghetti sauce you like (freeze the rest for the next time).  Dump in half a package of the little Walmart Italian meatballs (thawed) and mix well and heat a few more minutes.  OH, YUM!  The vegetable broth gives it an unbelievable taste.  Don't drain it, leave it all in.  I put some mozzarella cheese on top, too.  The original recipe had teeny tomatoes cut in half (Jerry can't have the seeds), and then Jerry remarked that it would be wonderful with some black olives in it (I don't like them) so this is our compromise.  You can do what you like with it, even throwing in some of the veggies I chopped up for stir fry would be very good and very interesting.  Anyhow, I make a whole pound and it lasts us for 3 meals or so.
I am making some macaroni salad to have for lunches, too, as I pack our lunches each day.  I try to have something different each day so will have macaroni salad two days and apple cobbler and peach cobbler (I didn't make that) two days.  Hoagies, roll ups and regular sandwiches.  I got so tired of velveeta sandwiches when I was a kid.....
I have been trying to use up some stuff in the pantry, I get things and think "this looks good" and then don't do anything with it.  Or get six on sale and then for whatever reason, just forget about the last two packages.
It's really handy to have stuff ready to just heat up after a long day.  And, on that thought, I must go now and move some more hay.  We don't have very much left to do but my energy level is just sapped today.  It's not that hot, but maybe it's just that I've done so much my mind is saying "'Scuse me, do you realize it's Sunday, a DAY OF REST?"  Well, yeah, I do but someone's gotta do the cooking around here and I'm not doing it when I get home from work every day!

Friday, June 17, 2011

The Fascinating Skies of Kentucky

If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you know the fascination I have with the sunrises, sunsets, clouds and other phenomenon that occurs in our skies.  I took these photos this week over a period of about 20 or 30 minutes, some in the east, some in the west.  There was a front or two or three that moved over and the lovely and unusual clouds that occurred were really something to see.  I was happy that I was home and able to take these photos.
So let's start with the first one.  We had a front that passed over and Jerry yelled at me to come outside and see this cloud to the east of us (was moving from west to east):
It looked like a big spaceship.  Here are some more:




Then, when this passed by, there was a rainbow.  Not only a rainbow, but a full rainbow and the hint of a second one next to it on the right side:

My camera just could not quite catch the full beauty of this rainbow.  It was spectacular.  This was also seen in the east.
Back to the west, we then saw this:
Which was a light pink that did not show up very well in the photo above.  Then it became this:
And then this:
In a couple of minutes, it then became this:
I have never seen a show like this in my life.
Out to the east, the rainbow had disappeared but it was still lovely:
It went on the next morning.  I got up to find this to the south:
 I love my new state and wish all my friends could be here with us!