It Must Be Karma

We have been planning to go to Alabama to a National Forest Service campground to work as volunteers for some time now. We have had this planned for months, and even confirmed with them last week. The only thing is, we got an email from the volunteer coordinator at Payne Lake telling us that we would either have a site with water and electricity but no sewer, OR a site with sewer and electricity but no water. We have been trying to decide for a couple of weeks which would be easiest to handle.

In the meantime, Jim's Mom called and asked us to come up to Unicoi State Park for a little while to be close to them. Unicoi is the park where we have volunteered for the last two winters, in north Georgia, in the mountains. Since we have been there before, we know what the volunteer responsibilites are so it wouldn't be hard for us to do it again. But, the day that Jim's Mom called, I hung up from talking to her and called the volunteer resource contact at Unicoi and reached her voice mail. Since we had not heard back from them we just assumed they didn't have a need or a space for us there. We were both wanting to go to Alabama, but also wanting to go to Unicoi because that would be the right thing for us to do.

Today, we got a call from Unicoi saying that they do have a volunteer space for us. And Ellen, the resource person, said that even though she has had other people call wanting to volunteer, we were her first choice, since we had been there before. So, tomorrow we will be going back up to Unicoi until the end of March.

Now, the karma part. We have been applying for jobs out west since before Thanksgiving, and had not heard back from anyone. Not ONE. Until about 10 minutes after we agreed to go to Unicoi. Then, the phone rang and it was a park near Bryce Canyon in Utah. As soon as the man started telling me they were "very interested in hiring us" I told him that we had had a change in our plans since I sent the application last week. We would not be able to come the first week of March because we had just committed to someone until the end of March. And he said, "That is even better for us, because we don't need you until the first week of April" Is that Karma or what?? We don't have a confirmed job yet, but we are closer than we were before that phone call. As soon as we get a firm offer, I will post a link to the place. It is gorgeous!

Dang!

Sigh....Make that a BIG SIGH....I just realized that we ate the last of our yummy Utz White Corn Tortilla Chips. They are the best corn chips ever, but, alas, they are only available in Pennsylvania. They taste delish and are gluten free for a gluten free FabGrandma.

If there is anyone out there reading this, who is in Pennsylvania, who would like to make me very happy, you can do so by sending me some more of these loverly chips. I know, I am just too easy to please.

Hammy Ham Ham

When I was growing up, we always had ham on Christmas Day. My mother cooked it on Christmas Eve, and it made the house smell wonderful. We always got to have ham sandwiches on pumpernickle bread for dinner on Christmas Eve. When I was a kid, I used to think it was a such a special treat—the very best bread in the world, with a good smear of mustard, and that sweet juicy delicious ham fresh from the oven! I can still feel the mustard smeared on my cheek after the first bite. But when I got older, I finally figured out that we had those sandwiches because Mama did not have time to make anything else. That did not make the memory any less sweet, though, and I still yearn for a ham on pumpernickel whenever I smell ham baking in the oven.

When my own three children were young, and I was the one in a frenzy on the night before Christmas, I started a new tradition. Instead of spending all my time in the kitchen away from my three very special guests, I made a cocktail party for them with all the grownup hors dourves---sausage balls, raw veggies and dip, a cheese and cold cut platter, olives, pigs in blankets. And I got out my real crystal wineglasses and served up punch or koolaid. We all got dressed up in our best clothes, put on music and danced, even when the oldest of them was only five years old. The first year that my son was in the Air Force was the first time I didn’t make the traditional party for them. After Christmas, my son, who was home on leave, said, “It just didn’t feel like Christmas without our party.” I truly didn’t know it meant so much to him. I am wondering if he is doing this for his own children now.

The reason I am having these rememberies is because I bought a ham this week. I cooked it yesterday, but not before I made a loaf of gluten free pumpernickel bread. Well, not REALLY pumpernickel. I used Bob’s Red Mill Hearty Whole Grain Gluten Free Bread Mix. I add four tablespoons of brown sugar to the mix because I don’t like the taste of it if I don’t. It turns out a very dark, spicy, nutty bread much that tastes a lot like pumpernickel. And unlike the last time I made it, I actually used two 8” X 4.5” loaf pans. The result was two beautiful, if small, loaves of bread.

So, what is a two person household going to do with a nine pound ham? Well, the first night we had baked ham, collard greens and bread. The menu for the coming week looks like this:

Ham and Potato Casserole
Leftover Collards
Bread

Bean Soup
Ham Sandwiches

Ham Salad with Rice and Peas

Macaroni and Cheese with Ham
Pear Salad

Homemade Vegetable Soup
Cornbread

Ham Omelettes
Stir Fried Squash and Peppers

There are also four ziplock bags of ham scraps and fat trimmings to be used to season soups and other dishes later on. I would say that this $9.00 ham purchase was a real bargain!

Here is the recipe for my Ham and Potato Casserole

4 or 5 medium red potatoes, peeled and sliced
2 cups cubed cooked ham
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon thyme
1 small can evaporated milk
enough water to make 2 cups when added to milk
¼ cup sour cream
¼ cup tapioca flour
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 8 oz container of fresh mozzarella cheese
1 cup shredded Italian blend cheese

Spray a casserole dish with olive oil. In a large bowl, mix together the potatoes, ham, salt and pepper, thyme. Cut up the mozzarella cheese into small pieces, and add to the potato mixture. Mix well, pour into the casserole dish.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the olive oil. Add the onions and cook until they are transparent. Add the tapioca flour and stir well. Add the sour cream to the evaporated milk and water, stirring to combine. Pour into the saucepan with the onion mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened. Pour over the potato mixture in the casserole dish. Sprinkle the shredded cheese on top. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour. Take out of the oven and let rest for 15 minutes before serving.

Note: The sauce will not look like a white sauce made with wheat flour—it will be less thick and clearer. But it will taste very good.

Chicken With Salsa and Rice

This dinner is so quick, easy, inexpensive and good--all the best reasons in the world to try it. I'm telling ya, it does not get any better than this.

Chicken with Salsa and Rice:

6 pieces of chicken, skin removed
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
1 jar of your favorite salsa
1 jar of water
1 cup of uncooked rice

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Salt and pepper the chicken pieces and brown them in the olive oil. Pour in the jar of salsa, the water, and the rice. Stir to distribute the rice in the pan. Cover and simmer until the rice is done, about 22 minutes.

I made this tonight with an Apple Salsa from a farm market in Pennsylvania. Side dishes were black beans and pear salad. How simple is that?

Chicken Corn Chowder

I found a really good deal on chicken the other day—only 89 cents a pound for leg and thigh quarters. The only catch was that you had to buy 10 pounds of it to get that price. Those of you who know me know that I live in a tiny little travel trailer and have a tiny little freezer. That 10 pounds of chicken just about filled up the freezer. So I have been cooking chicken just about every day for the last week. In order to not have the same old thing day in and day out, I have been trying new things. The chicken of the day for today may be the most yummy thing made with chicken, EVER! If you have a gluten freedie that you feed, or even if you don’t this should be on your menu soon. It tastes like love in a bowl.

Chicken and Corn Chowder

2 cups cooked chicken, diced
6 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, diced
1 celery rib, diced
3 shallots, diced
salt and pepper to taste
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 ½ cups frozen creamed corn or 3 ears fresh, scraped off the cob
2 oz evaporated milk
¼ cup sour cream
1-3 tablespoons potato flour (or regular wheat flour if you are not gluten free)

Put the chicken, broth, corn and potatoes in a dutch oven and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for 30 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. In the meantime, melt the butter in a skillet. Add the onion, celery, and shallots and saute until the onions are translucent. Add the onion mixture to the dutch oven. When potatoes are done, add the evaporated milk and sour cream. Add flour and stir until desired thickness is achieved.

This is very good served with buttered gluten free bread or cheese toast.

For an interesting variation, add a couple of roasted, diced poblano peppers with the onions. Yuummmm!

Mom's Gluten Free Meatloaf

Ok, all you GF’ers, here is THE BEST MEATLOAF EVER! Just make sure all of the ingredients you use are gluten free. Those good steel cut oats make this a yum.

Meatloaf

1 ½ lbs ground meat (I use equal parts gr beef, gr pork, and gr turkey, but you can use 100% ground beef if you want)
¾ cup oatmeal
1 cup milk (cow, goat , soy, rice or any other milk is fine)
1 egg ( can be omitted if you do not eat eggs)
1 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon worchestershire sauce (GV brand from Wal-Mart is gluten free)
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon dry mustard
¼ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon sage

Mix all ingredients well, shape into a loaf and put in ungreased pan.

Top with:

½ cup catsup
2 tablespoons mustard
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Mix all together and spread on top of meatloaf.

Bale at 350 degrees for 90 minutes.

My mom got this recipe from QVC, the shopping channel on TV. It is the best meatloaf I have ever eaten. I actually won 2^nd place in a meatloaf cookoff with this, and I would have won 1^st place but my husband was one of the judges and could not vote for my entry! It turns out just right every time. Hope you enjoy it.Here I am with my second place ribbon at the cookoff.

Problem Solved

One of my favorite hobbies is collecting recipes and cookbooks. For most of my life, I have done this, and collected book after book. However, when Jim and I sold our house and all our stuff and moved into the travel trailer, the weight of books turned them into a heavy luxury I could no longer afford. With a GVWR of just 9,500 pounds, it became more important to have things like underwear, pots and pans, and a laptop than a couple of boxes of books. So, I picked out about 6 books with which I could not part, and sold the rest. My very most favorite cookbooks are:

A Taste Of Georgia

Eat Smart For A Healthy Heart

The FrugaI Gourmet

I started checking cookbooks out of the libraries in the towns we visited, and making copies of recipes I liked and thought I might someday try. But, then, I started accumulating this gigantic pile of paper. What to do?

I bought a scanner, and started scanning the recipes and saving them on my computer. But, the scanner only made a picture of the page. In other words, if I wanted to change the recipe in any way, I could of course print it out, write notes on it, and scan it in again. What a pain. And a jpeg file is huge—it takes up a lot of room on a hard drive. I had to have a better way. Especially now that I am eating a gluten free diet, I like to take the recipes I find, and use them as a starting point to change them around to make them gluten free.

The other day I was sitting there thinking about this problem and came up with a solution for it. I searched the internet for a freeware OCR program, and found one called TopOCR. I downloaded it, and installed it on my laptop. It is not that hard to use, and does exactly what I wanted it to do. It did take a little patience to figure out because the help files are not that informative, but it only took me about 30 minutes to get it installed and working.

I scanned my first OCR pages from a cookbook today and saved them in text format. Now, when I want to change them in any way, all I have to do is type the changes in the document. I wonder why I didn’t think of this a couple of years ago?

I am going to be experimenting with making gravy, using tapioca flour to begin with. I am really missing gravy now that it is cold outside. I hope to be able to post some gravy recipes soon. If anybody out there who is eating gluten free has any ideas about making gravy, I sure would like to hear about them.

So Much News!

Where to start? First of all, thank you so much to all my friends, relatives, co-forum members, and readers who headed over to 7 Babes A Blogging last week and voted for me. I am officially the 7^th Babe for the month of December. While there is no monetary reward, the personal satisfaction of knowing I AM A BABE is priceless!

We celebrated my mother’s 80^th birthday on Saturday. You can read my tribute to her over at 7 Babes. It was a lot of fun to see her reaction to her surprise party, and all the other surprises that came along with it. My surprise though, was that I got to see a lot of people I haven’t seen in years. Friends of our family, young and old, (HA! Most of them ARE old now, just like me!) came out, and I spent my day not quite getting to finish a conversation with someone before someone else came up and hugged me, and it started all over again. I cannot remember another day when I felt so loved.

I saw my cousin Steve, and my cousin Joe, who I found out was a fulltime RV’er too, having lived and traveled with his wife in a fifth wheel for 12 years before coming home to Georgia a couple years ago. (This is Joe on the left, and my older brother, Hank, who is workamping in Florida this winter. He and his wife came up for the weekend so they could be at the party.)

And Steve, one of my favorite people in the whole world, was one of the very first people to visit me when I moved into my first travel trailer 7 years ago. At that time, he was very excited for me, and kept telling me how he wanted to get one of “those driving things.” He is now the proud owner of his own motor home. I got an email from Joe this morning saying he and his wife are loading up their fifth wheel and coming over to the campground where Jim and I are to visit for a couple of days this week. I can hardly wait!

A lot of the younger generation were there, too. Only one of my own children, Emily, was there, and she looked so beautiful! Here she is (on the left) with cousin Jason, his wife Sandy, and cousin Alisa. My other two could not make in down from Maryland and Virginia.

My sister had hired a photographer to come and take family portraits. Jim and I had our first ever in fifteen years portrait done, and I can’t wait to see the proofs. The only thing, though, is that the guy was taking the pictures outside, and both of our eyeglasses have those lenses that turn dark when you go out into the sunshine. He suggested taking them off, but hey, I have worn glasses for most of my life and I don’t look like ME if I am not wearing them. We were in the shade, so maybe they will be okay. At any rate, as soon as I get my pictures, I will pop one up here to share.

Also, at the party, my sister, Linda, gave me a huge bag of gluten free items. She had tried the gluten free diet but decided it was not for her, so she gave me all the things she had bought. Among them was a Bob’s Red Mill Whole Grain Bread Mix. I decided to make that bread yesterday, and let me tell ya, it was delish! However, I must tell you all that when I read the ingredients list and saw that it had bean flour in it, I decided to add some brown sugar to it. The last time I tried a bean flour recipe, I decided that bean flour would never grace my kitchen again. But, because this was free, I did give it a chance, and I may well be buying it in the future. Hot out of the oven, with some butter, and I was in gluten free heaven!!! The mix made two large loaves. I put one in a ziplock bag and put it in the freezer, and kept the other one out on the counter. I’ll let you know how the frozen one holds up to the pressure.

And while I was at it, the baking I mean, I decided to make some cookies as I had been such a good little gluten free granny at the party and did not eat the cake or cookies there. I found a recipe for Oatmeal cookies somewhere on the internet. Since I did not have all the ingredients that were called for, I changed it around to fit what I did have, just using that recipe as a guideline. The results were mahvelous, Dahling! Oh, just be sure you use a certified gluten free oatmeal in this recipe. I know there are two schools of thought on whether or not oatmeal is gluten free, but I have not personally had any problems with eating my oats.

The pictures here don’t show you how moist and chewy the cookies were, even the next day, which all of us gluten free types know is practically unheard of in gluten free baking. Or how yummy scrummy they tasted. They were so good that my non-gluten free FabGrandpa Jim ate more than half of the first batch. He is eagerly awaiting the second batch. These cookies are not sugar free, but they are corn free if you use molasses instead of the Karo syrup, egg free, and casein free. Just be sure you use certified gluten free oatmeal in your recipe.

Gluten Free Oatmeal Craisin Cookies

1 ¼ cups oatmeal
1 cup white rice flour
½ cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon tapioca flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup canola oil
2 tablespoons applesauce
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon Karo syrup or molasses
½ tsp vanilla
½ cup raisins or craisins

Mix all dry ingredients including fruit in a large bowl. Mix all wet ingredients in another bowl, then stir into the dry ingredients. Form into balls about one and half inches in diameter, then flatten out and place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 14 minutes. Let cool before removing from pan.

This cookie dough keeps well in the fridge, so you can make up a double batch and just bake as many as you need for fresh yummy cookies on demand. They do wonders for a cup of fresh brewed coffee.

7 Babe's A Blogging

To all my wonderful readers, thank you for spending a few minutes of your day looking to see what I, the FabGrandma, am thinking. I love it that you come here to see me.

I am in a competion of sorts, to become the Guest Blogger for the month of December at a neat blog called "7 Babe's A Blogging". This blog is actually written by a group of six babe's, and they invite a 7th Babe each month to be a guest writer. As I can certainly still be called a babe, even if I am the FabGrandma, I would very much appreciate it if you would surf on over there and vote for me in the poll for December. Just click on the link, find me on the poll, and click again. Simple. And you will make one old babe really happy.

What Was Her Mother Thinking???

Jim and I were watching Good Morning America this morning, and they had some “boy band” on singing their latest hit. The name of the band doesn’t matter. And of course, there was a throng of screaming girls standing outside the studio, waving signs and looking as if they might swoon if one of those little boys walked up. The news personality or whatever it is they call them nowadays, was interviewing some of those little girls. She asked one of them how old she was, and the reply was “Eight.” Eight years old!!!

What is the mother of that girl thinking? I wondered how that little girl even knew about the band. I wondered why her mother (or her father) would take her to downtown New York to stand outside in the cold waiting to catch a glimpse of a boy band. I was shocked, thinking that when MY girls were eight years old, they wanted to be Brownies, they wanted to play on the girls’ softball team, they wanted to help me in the kitchen. IF they had a favorite singer, it was probably Kermit the Frog, singing that song about the Rainbow.

I know I am not that old, and that I am not that much of a fuddy duddy. When my daughters, who are 33 and 34 years old now, were growing up, I made sure they were dressed appropriately when they left the house. If they wanted to go to their friend Katie’s house down the street to play in the sprinkler, they were not allowed to walk down the street in their bathing suits. I didn’t let them walk to the store by themselves.

I never dropped them off at the mall. If they went to the mall, it was with me. I did not then nor do I now think that the mall is a place to socialize. It is a place to shop. With your mother. And if they went to the movies, I went with them, and sat in the same row as they did. They were not allowed to go on dates with boys until they were sixteen years old, and then they had a curfew of 10:00 p.m. And the boy had to come inside the house when they came to pick them up. And a couple of times in their dating careers, I said “absolutely not” to letting them go out with the young man when I met him. One was thrown physically out of my house for being disrespectful to my daughter in front of me.

Both of my daughters still love me and consider me to be their hero. And, they grew up to be successful, well-adjusted, happy members of society. One was an art teacher at a school for children with learning disabilities and is now assistant manager of a well-known high-end retail store; the other is a biology and special education teacher at a high school.

So, I really did find myself wondering if this little girl’s mother is using any common sense at all. If so, why is she encouraging such an obsession in a child so young? Is she living her own dreams through her child? Is she trying to give her darling daughter everything she thinks she wants?

Sometimes, I think kids ask for things they don’t really want, just to please their peers, and are hoping fervently inside that their parents will say NO. Maybe this child just wanted her mom to say no, so she could tell her friend she asked and her mom wouldn’t let her go. But sometimes, we as parents read the signals all wrong, and or we THINK this is what our child really wants, or we say YES to the most ridiculous requests because it was something we wanted when we were that age and were denied by our parents. I’m here to tell ya, folks, that just because your kid wants it, doesn’t mean they need it. And just because you CAN give them whatever it is that they want, doesn’t always mean you SHOULD. If you give them their little rock stars when they are eight, what are you going to be giving them when they are sixteen?

Just Shoot Me, Okay?

DANGER! POISON!

I should be shot. I should be punished. Oh, wait, I AM being punished. I had the idea right about Thanksgiving—don’t cook a lot of things, don’t cook anything that has wheat or gluten in it. My menu for the day was:

Roasted Chicken

Baked Sweet Potatoes

Turnip Greens with Turnips

Cornbread Dressing (no loaf bread in it, just cornbread, made with no wheat flour)

Giblet Gravy (made with tapioca flour)

So why am I having a “Wheat Hangover”? A busting, throbbing, headache, that is making my eyes hurt it hurts so bad? Because when we went to the grocery store to get the chicken, Jim found a box of cookies, made in Mexico, the ones we used to buy when we were in living in south Texas, before I stopped eating wheat, that are soooooo goooooood. Surtido Rico by Gamesa. And I ate about five of them.

Five cookies. Chocolate Sugar Wafer Cookies. They tasted so good. But they made my stomach hurt. And they made my head hurt. For two days. So if anyone sees me reaching for another cookie, just shoot me, okay?

Dinner On The Road

Today was very uneventful as far as driving days go, just routine, thank you very much! We got up around 7:30 a.m., made some coffee, put away the coffee maker, rolled in the slide outs, and got on our way. The pic above is on US 58 between I-95 and I-85, leaving Emporia, Virginia. By the way, that Yogi Jellystone Campground there is only 375 yards from a VERY BUSY railroad. Trains all night long. Other than that, it was ok. They had many long pull-through sites with water, electric, and sewer connections.

We stopped for breakfast around 10:30 at Cracker Barrel. I used to love their gravy and biscuits, but could only sit and watch as Jim ate them today. But, let me tell you, their cornbread muffins are really good with bacon and eggs, and a little blackberry jam.


Here we are on I-85 near Rocky Mount, North Carolina. I am a little surprised that the leaves are still so colorful so late in the year. I don't remember them being this pretty last year when we left Urbana, Virginia on November 15 . Hmmm, maybe I am just getting old...NAAAHH!

We got to our destination for today, the fabulous Fleetwood RV Resort at Lowe's Motor Speedway at about 3:00 p.m. Yes, we stayed at this place last year, too, on our way south. It is nothing fancy. It is rather boring looking. But is is right next door to the Lowe's Motor Speedway. Nascar fans probably love this place. But for us, it is just a place to stop for the night.

For dinner tonight, I made a thrown together goulash with things I had hiding in the pantry.

1 large onion, chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped
1/3 lb ground meat
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large can pitted black olives
1 can Progresso Creamy Mushroom Soup
1 tablespoon tapioca flour
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups gluten free pasta, cooked

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the onions, celery, and ground meat, cook until meat is browned. Add the olives, sliced if you like, the soup, and the tapioca flour. Stir together well. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve over noodles. Have seconds.

I served this with pear salad. Put a dab of mayonaise in the middle of a pear half, top with grated colby cheese.

Tomorrow we are taking the truck to a Ford dealership for them to check it out before we get back on the road. Jim thinks maybe it needs a new alternator because the batteries are not charging up right. He wanted to wait til we get to our home town to do it, but I said, "What would happen if it went out, and the truck wouldn't start, and we were in the middle of nowhere with no cellphone signal?"

On The Road Again, Sort Of...

The wheels started rolling about 9:20 a.m. As we pulled out of the driveway of Granite Hill, Jim looked over at me and smiled and said, “We’re late. I wanted to get out of here by 9:00 a.m” But he was smiling. It was snowing, and we were just glad to be getting out of there when we did!

We drove about 60 miles down the road, and had just passed by the exit for Business 15 off of 15 south in Leesburg, Virginia, when we decided to pull over to the side of the road and visit Mrs. Murphy. When we stopped, we heard an unusual noise that sounded like something fell off the trailer behind us, so we walked all around the rig looking for whatever it was. We didn’t find anything. We left the truck running, and went into our little trailer to do our stuff. I went first, and as I was coming out the door I heard a Slap! Slap! Bam! Coming from our truck!!!! Oh, crap!

When Jim came out the door, I told him to look under the hood because it sounded like a belt broke under there, and there were little slivers of what looked like shredded belt under the truck. When he opened the hood, it was not the belt but the pulley off the flywheel. It had broken off and slammed around under the hood.

So, there we sat on the side of the road, in Leesburg, VA, not knowing a soul to call. We just sat a minute and thought about it. Crap!

I got out my AT&T cellphone and called 411. I told them we needed a tow truck in Leesburg but I did not know the names of any. She gave me the first three numbers on her list. I called the first one and explained that we needed to be towed to the Ford dealership, but that we were towing a 34’ travel trailer, too. He said he couldn’t handle the job, but he knew someone who could and that this guy might even be able to fix the problem right there at the side of the road. Yeah, I’m thinking, we are going to get a mechanic to come out here on the side of the road on Sunday morning and fix our truck, just like that? And I believe in the Easter Bunny, too!!!

A few minutes later, my cellphone rings, and it is Jimmy Counselman, the mechanic who drives a tow truck for The Body Works Towing in Leesburg. He asked me what the problem was and where I was located. He arrived about 20 minutes later, checked under the hood to determine what to do. He said he needed to go get a part and he would be back in a few minutes.

Our Hero!

So, another 20 minutes later he is back. And in another 20 minutes, he has the truck repaired, and we were ready to go. The charge was $260 for replacing the pulley, on the side of the highway, on Sunday morning, in 39-degree weather. Not bad, if you are the one stuck there, freezing. So, yeah, I guess I do believe in the Easter Bunny now.

Thank you, Jimmy. We really appreciate your hard work, and the fact that you got us back on the road in so little time. If anyone needs any repairs done in or around Leesburg, Virginia, Jimmy is the one to call. He operates Daddy’s Garage, in affiliation with The Body Works of Virginia, Inc. Their phone number is 703-777-5727 in Leesburg, Virginia.

The Wheels Are Rolling Tomorrow

The wheels will be rolling tomorrow morning on our travel trailer. We finished our commitment to our job at Granite Hill Camping Resort yesterday. There were times when it seemed like this day would never come. It has been a long, long season.

We spent most of today getting ready to go. We are taking a good bit of Pennsylvania with us, literally. Jim got two cases of Yuengling beer. I got three huge bags of Utz Tortilla Chips, they are the best! I also went back to Hacienda Shiloh and got some garlic and some of that good Autumn Rub that they sell there, and some other things. A trip to the Rose Garden Natural Foods store to stock up on buckwheat flour, rice flour, and rice pastas since I don’t know when I will find another source. What else? Hmmm…

I have a half dozen pints of green beans, some frozen cooked turnip greens,three bags of cooked mashed pumpkin, a gallon bag of chopped sweet red italian peppers, and some apple sausage in the freezer. Some acorn squashes, and a few apples, all came from Harbaugh’s Farm. There is a large jar of sweet pickled cauliflower, two jars of apple salsa, a jar of cherry butter, and several small packages of dried cranberries, dried pineapple, and roasted pumpkin seeds from the farm market across the road from the campground. It will take us a long time to clear Pennsylvania out of the pantry.

I would say that if any of you gets a chance to visit or workamp in the Gettysburg area, it will be a real treat. It is a rural area, with lots of agriculture, so there is an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables, with farm stands down almost every road during the summer and fall. We have certainly enjoyed our stay here.

But, as the song says, I can’t wait to get on the road again…

What Do They Really Mean When They Say I Am Their Hero?

The other day I was looking at my younger daughter Emily’s MySpace page, and saw that in the space where you can name who your heros are, she had written “My Mom”. So, I went to Rebecca’s page, and saw that she, too, had named me as her hero. I have never considered myself to be anything special, or extraordinary, so I got to thinking about what a “hero” really is, and wondered why either one of my daughters would think of me that way.

When you look at the dictionary definition of the word “hero” it is defined like this:

1. a man distinguished by exceptional courage and nobility and strength; "RAF pilots were the heroes of the Battle of Britain"
2. the principal character in a play or movie or novel or poem
3. someone who fights for a cause
4. Greek mathematician and inventor who devised a way to determine the area of a triangle and who described various mechanical devices (first century)
5. a large sandwich made of a long crusty roll split lengthwise and filled with meats and cheese (and tomato and onion and lettuce and condiments); different names are used in different sections of the United States

And in the thesaurus, suggested words for hero are

1. Brave man
2. Champion
3. conqueror
4. Idol

After looking at all the things that a hero can be thought to be, I wondered which of those things my daughters actually think of me as. So, I investigated the different meanings of each of those words suggested by the thesaurus.

Since I am certainly NOT a brave man, (and don’t consider myself to be a brave woman, either) I skipped that one just on principle. Next up, a Champion. A champion is a winner, a champ, a victor, a title holder, and a defender. To Champion something is to defend it, such as in side with, stand up for. And a defender is a supporter, a backer, a campaigner, an advocate, or a guardian. So, in the sense or meaning of Champion, yes, I could be that, since I was a single mother for most of the time I was bringing up my children, and I supported them not only financially, but emotionally, physically at times, and spiritually. I supported them in everything they attempted to accomplish, and I must say they accomplished a lot.

On to Conqueror. What does that mean? Defeator, vanquisher, subjugator, and captor. I don’t think that meaning is relavent at all. At least I hope not. Did I inadvertantly vanquish any of their dreams? Did I defeat their attempts at anything? Did I hold them captive to my desires? I guess I will never know the answer.

Last on the list is Idol. The handy thesaurus gives us icon, statue, god, diety as substitutions for that word. An icon can be a star, a model, a symbol. Am I the model of the person they want to be? Am I a symbol of what they want to achieve. Oh, I hope not. I hope they accomplish more than I have; I want more for them than that. I certainly am not a god or a diety. But, again, in the sense of the meaning of idol, as a model or a symbol, I guess that could be closer to what my girls mean when they say I am their hero.

Or maybe they think of me as crusty and cheesey and full of baloney, a hero sandwich!

Going to Fred's For Dinner

We meet some of the most interesting people working at campgrounds. This season at Granite Hill Campground in Gettysburg is coming to an end, but we take with us the memories of friends we made during our stay here.
One of the most interesting people we have ever worked with is Fred Brantlinger. He is one of those people who is smiling every time you see him. He always has something nice to say, no matter what is going on around him. I had many occasions to talk with Fred over the summer, as I work in the office and any time he needed something he came to me at the front desk.

During his working career, Fred was an art teacher in the public schools in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He taught mostly the middle school age kids. While he was a teacher, he wrote some art curriculum books that are still for sale even today on Amazon.com.

What To Do For Bulletin Boards;: A collection of creative art ideas for the school bulletin board,

And, because he was an art teacher, and was in acquaintance with Fred Rogers, he made some appearances on "The Children's Corner", which aired on WQED in Pittsburg beginning in 1954. WQED was the first public television station in the nation. And, "The Children's Corner was the beginnings of the famous "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood" that aired for more than 30 years.

Fred's last day to work with us was last Sunday. That afternoon he came over to our trailer and invited Jim and me to his house for dinner. So, on Tuesday night we drove over and had the most delightful visit with Fred and Marian, his wife. I wish I had taken my camera. (I did think about it but I thought it would be rude to take my camera to their house and start snapping away)

Marian was a very gracious hostess, and just as interesting to talk with as Fred has been. She worked in the medical field in a doctor's office. She collects bone china tea cups, and many of the patients would bring her cups and saucers from their travels. She showed me many of them, and they are really beautiful and fragile. One had been lovingly glued back together after it had fallen off a shelf when their son in law slammed a door. She had cups from England, Ireland, Japan, China, Israel, Denmark, France, as well as all over the United States.

Fred and Marian lived in the Pittsburgh area before coming to Gettysburg twenty two years ago. They live in a real house, not an RV like Jim and I do. They share their home with Marian's brother, Ralph and a little white dog named Abbie, who had more energy than all five of the humans who were present.

For dinner Marian served Ham Loaf, which I have never had before, Scalloped Potatoes, Green Beans, and Pickled Beets, all of which were home made. Dessert was a home made Pumpkin Pie with whipped cream, and served with coffee, mmmmm. And of course I ate the pie, crust and all, as I did not want to offend my hostess. I only wish we had had time to go and visit with them earlier in the year, so we could have spent more time with them. We will really miss Fred.

Raising Up Royalty

A while back I wrote about my niece and her ministry to girls and young women. She had chosen the name Hadassah House Ministries for this effort, but soon after she started it she was contacted by some people who were already using that name, so she had to change the name. The new name is Raising Up Royalty.
Here is what Stacie wrote about changing the name of her mission:

"...We're getting a name change! Shortly after things began to really take off, I received a letter from an organization stating they had trademark rights to the name "Hadassah." Although our name was not the same as theirs and our purposes are completely different, we still have to change our name. Although this was disappointing at first, I've decided to look at it positively. Hadassah's name was changed to Esther when she moved into the palace. If you've read or heard my testimony, you know that my name was changed from "rejected" to "Complete, Lacking Nothing." So it only seems appropriate that the name of Hadassah House Ministries would have to change as well...."

Stacie has really been surprised by the rapid growth of this ministry. She has enrolled girls and women from several states, and is currently on a trip to the Ukraine, taking her mission to girls in orphanages there. Here is an excerpt from a message she sent me:

"...{Raising Up Royalty} Ministries goes International!
Yes, you read correctly! When God gave me this vision, I always believed there would be more than one house, and I believed it would be an international ministry – I just didn't expect it so soon! We have been contacted by a lady who organizes ministry and missionary trips to Ukraine! She has seen our program, and has asked us to come on board with her. She has people who can translate our materials into their language, and they also have an empty building in Ukraine. She has contacted the leaders she works with in Ukraine, and is planning a mission trip for us to go and introduce the program at an orphanage that houses 45-50 girls ages 3-17. We will do the exact same program there that we will do when the {Raising Up Royalty} House is built here. We will have workshops for the girls to participate in, and end the trip with a coronation ceremony in which we will crown the girls with tiaras and commission them to be the princesses God created them to be. I'm going to start the passport process today! Can you sense my excitement?..."

Stacie and her group left on November 1st. They will be gone for two weeks. I think this is a great and wonderful thing that she is doing, and just wanted to share it with you.

Stew Day

A couple of years ago when I was anticipating a visit from my vegetarian daughter, I was looking for a good vegatarian recipe to make for dinner. The recipe I found for Italian Mushroom Stew looked very good, and believe me, it is very yum! I have altered the original recipe a bit, because Jim and I are not vegetarians, and we do like the flavor that a little bit meat adds to this dish. If you don't eat meat, just leave out the sausage, the mushrooms will have a flavor all their own. This is of course, gluten free.

8 oz white button mushrooms, slice half, finely dice the other half
8 oz portabella mushrooms, chopped
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup diced celery
4-5 cloves garlic, minced (I use a whole head of garlic, but we love garlic)
1 Italian sauage, remove the casing and crumble up (about 1/4 lb)
2 16 oz cans stewed or diced tomatoes
1 can water
1/2 lb. fresh or frozen greenbeans, cut in 2-inch pieces
1 tsp. dried basil (I use more, use your discretion)
1 tsp. dried italian seasoning
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Sautee the mushrooms, onion, celery, and garlic until the onions are clear. Add the Italian sausage, and cook until the sausage is browned. Add all the rest of the ingredients, bring to a boil. Turn down heat, cover and simmer for an hour. Serve over rice or pasta.

To go with this delish stew tonight, I made some bread sticks from a prepackaged mix from Chebe. They were ok, but could have been better if I cooked them just a bit longer. With this mix, you add two tablespoons of oil, 2 eggs, and 1 cup of cheese, and then knead the dough with your hands until it is smooth. It reminded me of making sausage balls with Bisquick back when I still ate wheat, so I am thinking I might try making some sausage balls next time just to see how they turn out. Hmmmm...

Gluten Free Chicken and Dressing

I wanted to go back over to Harbaugh Farm today and get some more green beans to go in my freezer, but in order to have room for any more vegetables in the freezer I had to get rid of some stuff that was in there.

I had been keeping half a loaf of corn bread in the freezer for a couple of months, thinking that I would make some dressing with it. So, today was the day. For dinner I made roasted chicken, cornbread dressing, green beans, baked butternut squash, and some giblet gravy.

This is the first time since I started eating gluten free that I have attempted to make gravy, and I know that I will definitely be making it different next time, but it was not that bad.

Gluten Free Cornbread Dressing
Make your favorite gluten free cornbread. I make this using the cornbread made in a small iron skillet, about 8 inches in diameter. Let it cool, put half of it in the freezer. Crumble up the other half in a large mixing bowl. Next, crumble up two or three slices of your favorite gluten free sandwich bread into the bowl. Add a cup of chopped celery, a chopped large onion, and 4 tablespoons of poultry seasoning. Add four eggs, and three cups of chicken broth. Mix well, pour into a greased baking dish or pan. Bake, uncovered, for about 20 minutes in a 425 degree oven. Take it out of the oven, stir well, making sure you mix the cooked parts on the sides with the uncooked parts in the center. Place back in the oven and cook another 20 minutes.

Giblet Gravy

3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste
cooked chicken giblets (liver, neck, gizzard) diced up

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add cornstarch and mix well. Add the chicken broth and stir until thickened. Add the salt and pepper and the giblets. You can also chop up a boiled egg in this.

Baked Butternut Saquash

I have never cooked or eaten a butternut squash before, ever, so this was just how I cooked it today.

Cut the squash in half and scrape out the seed and "stuff" that is inside. Spray with olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. I put them in the same baking dish as the chicken I was roasting, and cooked them until the chicken was done. When it was about half way, I sprayed the squash with olive oil again, and put a little pat of butter in each half.

No, this was not a low calorie dinner, and probably not a low cholesterol one either, but it was yummy.

Fall In Pennsylvania

By now you all probably think that all Jim and I do is drive around on our day off. Well, you could be right! Last week we were out for our drive, as usual, looking for a farm stand to buy some veggies for dinner. But, Karen, it is mid-October, you may be thinking. Yes, but the harvest goes on until the first frost, which has not happened yet, so I knew there would still be some goodies out there for the finding.

We drove down Jack's Mountain Road, out of Fairfield, Pennsylvania, and when we got to Pennsylvania 16, we turned right towards Waynesboro. A couple miles down 16 we saw this sign:
So, we decided to follow the arrow, and boy are we glad we did. We turned onto Sunshine Trail, and it took us to the next sign, pointing to Harbaugh's Farm on Harbaugh Road, in Harbaugh Valley. Charlie Harbaugh was working at the produce stand on his farm when we arrived. He told us the farm has been in his family for "generations".

The veggtables for sale were a little bit old, because they had been picked on Saturday morning and we were there on Wednesday afternoon. We bought a peck of sweet red Italian peppers. There were about 20 or so peppers in the basket for only $4.00.

We got a head of broccoli, a huge bag of green beans, a butternut squash, a small pumpkin, some apples, a large onion for making some onion rings, and some turnips. I asked Charlie if he had any turnip greens, and he said they usually cut them off and throw them out because nobody around there eats them. But, he said, if you want some you are welcome to go out to the field and pull some yourself! I was overjoyed, because being a girl from the south, I grew up eating turnip greens and can not imagine anyone just throwing them out! He even gave us a bag to put them in.

Off we went down to the field, and guess what else we found there? We wound up picking another big bag of green beans, a fresh head of broccoli, and one of cauliflower, in addition to the huge bag of turnip greens to go with my turnips.

(Here I am with my treasure of turnip greens)

I felt like I had hit the vegetable jackpot. When all was said and done, I got all that stuff for $13.00. I put four pints of green beans and a gallon of chopped Italian peppers in the freezer. I cooked the turnip greens and put half of them in the freezer, too. We still have some green beans to be cooked in the refrigerator. I am thinking about going over there again this week to get some more green beans and broccoli because my little freezer is not full yet.

Here is one more picture for you from this trip, a barn right at the edge of the road.

Oh Say Can You See...

(click on the pictures to see them larger)

When we got up this morning we had two items on our plan for the day. We had to go to Hagerstown for Jim’s lab appointment at the VA Clinic, to test his TSH level; and I had to go to the bank. You would think that going to the bank would be a simple thing, but Bank of America, my bank of choice, does not have any branches in Pennsylvania. There is also not a branch in Hagerstown, Maryland, a town with a total urban population of more than 120,000 people. Hell, they have a VA Clinic but no Bank of America.

So, after Jim was done at the VA, we took a leisurely drive over to Thurmont, MD, where they do have a Bank of America, even though the population is less than 6,000. We took Maryland 64 north to 77, which goes east over Catoctin Mountain. The bank, in downtown Thurmont, was in one of those old bank buildings that you often see in downtowns around the country that have been converted to beauty shops or thrift stores, but this one was still serving as a bank. And it was beautiful. I don’t know why I didn’t take a picture of it.

Then, after I got my banking business accomplished, we looked at our map of Maryland to find a route home that we have not taken before, just to see what we could see. And right there on the map, right off of Maryland 77, were the words, “Keysville, The birthplace of Francis Scott Key.” Off we went to find the home of that famous American.

On our way, we passed through a tiny town called Detour, Maryland. It was just a blink, but who could resist taking a detour through Detour?

(looking back to see Detour)

And so, we drove on. We found the little place called Keysville, but there was no sign, no placard, no monument, no nothing. I felt a little let down that even though the great state of Maryland was proud enough of Mr. Key to put a little blurb about Keysville being his place of birth on their map, that they were not proud enough to put at least a little marker to show us where he took his first breath, in preparation of singing that great national anthem. You know, the one that starts out “Oh say can you see?” Apparently not his birthplace…

However, if you ever get to this area, it is worth the drive because it is so scenic. The pictures I have here don’t really show how beautiful it is.

A Drive Today

Today we got up very early (for us). I started a pot of bean soup with ham in the crock pot, the we drove down to Washington, D.C. to the VA Medical Center so Jim could get the stitches taken out of his face. It was very crowded in the parking lot, so I had to let him out and circle around about three times waiting for someone to pull out of a space so I could park. I got very lucky because two cars pulled out in side by side spaces. If you have never had to park a pick-up truck with an crew cab, you really won't appreciate that, but anyway, I got parked finally and went upstairs to the third floor.

They had already taken Jim in to an exam room, so by the time I found him, they were just starting to pluck those babies out. And since I was not there when she introduced herself, I don't know what her name was, but it was the same doctor we saw the first time when they did the biopsy. As she was taking the stitches out she was explaining to Jim that although this cancer was not CAUSED by smoking, smoking aggravates it and can make it worse. She advised him quite strongly to quit, and I agree with her. She told him he has to go every 2 months for a year to be examined by a dermatologist, so we made an appointment with the one in Atlanta for December.

We had already decided to stop for lunch in Frederick, Maryland on the way home because we have been wanting to go to a place we have passed on several occasions called "That Cuban Place". Man, I wish we had stopped in there before now! After eating lunch there today we made a mental note to go there at least one more time before we leave Pennsylvania next month.

Jim ordered a Cuban sandwich, which looked very delicious, and it must have been because he ate every bite, and looked like he wanted to lick the plate. He had eaten a cuban sandwich at a place in Florida several years ago, but he said that must have been a cheap imitation because he doesn't remember it being as tasty as the one he had today.

I had the Tilapia. It was sauteed in olive oil with peppers and tomatoes, and served up with rice, beans, and fried plaintains. Oh, oh, oh, those plaintains were scrumptious, or Muy Bien'! The owner offered us a free expresso at the end of our meal, which Jim accepted, but not me because I don't like it.

After lunch we went over to Borders Books because I had a couple of gift cards to spend. I got a new cookbook called The No-Gluten Cookbook and an Arizona Highways magazine. I haven't looked at either one yet. So, that was our Tuesday, how was yours?

Oh, I almost forgot, I made another batch of soap yesterday. This one has Clary Sage essential oil and some cinnamon powder for scent. I haven't cut it yet, but I smelled it this morning and it was devine!

So, now for dinner we'll be having that bean soup with some cornbread. It is smelling really good right now.