Subscribe to continue reading
Subscribe to get access to the rest of this post and other subscriber-only content.
Look Alikes… to Me.
I Love Hot Citrus.
I’m sitting in my easy chair in my living room at 2:41-2-3 am starting to write this blog entry. I am awake at this time, most mornings. I reach over to a glass beer mug that has a hot citrus drink and take a sip. I really do like the flavor of “Bill’s Drink Mix,” hot or cold. I created this drink combination about a year and a half ago, and almost every day since, I’ve drank about one carafe, cold with ice. But I’ve also heated some up in the microwave, and found it delicious each time.
Neither the picture of the beer mug nor the glass carafe are my actual items, but they are quite accurate as to how each looks. I’ve had the glass beer mugs (6 of them) since Russ & Deborah Savage donated them to “The Hem of His Garment,” over 30 years ago. When I saw them, I priced them and then bought them and took them home. I had them before I moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina from Jacksonville, North Carolina in 1995. The beer mug is “microwave safe.” It better be as many times as I’ve used one of these to heat water for tea, or re-heat coffee. I bought three of the glass carafes (each with a tight fitting plastic cap) probably ten years ago at a specialty shop near Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh. *I may be lying to you about where I bought them, but I do recall buying some glass containers at that store.
[02/18/25]
Well, I guess there comes a time for all.
Note the packet shown below. Each packet is a single serving and they come in a box of 10 each, at WalMart. One of their GV – Great Value products. I normally just slice off one end of the packet with a knife and then pour the contents (a powder) into a carafe of water, and also adding the other juices.
“Bill’s Drink Mix” consists of four items: a little orange juice, a little cranberry juice, one packet of “Iced Tea” mix from WalMart, and one packet of “Pomegranate-Lemonade” mix from WalMart. And, I must have all four of these items included to make “Bill’s Drink Mix.” Any one of them left out, and I wouldn’t be a long-time fan. *I have however replaced the flavored tea packet with actual brewed tea, and the tea can be plain tea, or a more exotic flavored tea. Of course this substitution occurred as a result of me running out of the flavored tea packets. And it’s never certain that I will find both of the flavor packets when I go looking for them on the WalMart isles. **I still long for the “Lime” flavored packet to return to the shelf. The unadulterated version, not the “Lime&XXX” version, like “Watermelon Lime.” The lime flavor was excellent. It wasn’t a favorite at home, but often after lunch, I would enjoy a limeade made with one of these lime packets. I don’t know why.
And, before “Bill’s Drink Mix,” I had two flavors that I alternated back and forth between: “Fruit Punch,” and “Dragon Fruit,” but neither had that citrus punch that I came to appreciate in my mix.
As I started to re-read the above article I came upon the idea of several items that I have used for over 30 years, and still continue to use to this day (and hopefully several more days). The three items that first come to mind are the classic beer mugs that I bought at a thrift store in Jacksonville, NC perhaps a few years before I moved, in 1995, to Fayetteville to live & work. So that’s at least 30 years ago. As I said above, I have one of these beside me as I write, filled with “Bill’s Drink Mix” and served hot this morning.
The next item is the “Revere Ware” frying pan made in 1978. The company stamped the manufacture date on the bottom of each pan or pot that was made. Paul Revere, long dead, delegated the task of making this pan for me.
When I think of how much use this pan has had over the years, and I just roasted some Brussels Sprouts, walnuts & cranberries in it last night, it brings out the New Englander’s frugal nature in me. And I was born in North Carolina. Grew up in North Carolina. And, have only been to New England once that I recall. But I did enjoy my visit with my friend, Gary Golden, very much. It was winter, and snow was all around. I will say that the one shortcoming is the handle. Not that is has not weathered well since 1978, but that it’s not oven proof, so I can’t bake or broil something in the oven with this pan.
*I’ve been on Etsy and seen Revere Ware pots and pans on sale, and some going back to the 1940s. I might think about buying one of these as a present for a young man who is going off to college (and is allowed to cook),
Below is me fixing my Zucchini/Shrimp/Kielbasa dish. Several years ago I made this from scratch early one morning and liked it so much that I’ve repeated it a myriad of times. Six ingredients: beef Polska Kielbasa, shrimp, zucchini, onion, pasta shells & a small amount of tomato (I didn’t want a strong tomato sauce for this dish.). I usually only use a couple of Campari tomatoes, quartered and they disappear into the sauce, except for leaving a light hint of red. I add S&P and garlic powder, but I also add red pepper flakes and maybe even a little cayenne powder. It is a spicy dish, but each item is supposed to be a little island of flavor, with no one thing overpowering the others.
Before leaving the Revere Ware, I would like to mention that I also have a couple of 3 Qt. pots, a 2 Qt. pot & a 1 Qt. pot that I use quite often.
I noted that the pots did not have a manufacture date on their bottoms, and in reading online the logo was changed in 1968 and manufacture dates were no longer stamped on the utensils. Eventually the company was sold to Corning, and the headquarters moved to Indonesia.
I bought a “steamer” insert years ago, that is not Revere Ware, but was made to fit the pot perfectly. This insert has gotten a great deal of use throughout the years. I love steamed asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, and cauliflower. Anything that I need to steam goes into the insert which has worked faithfully for many years.
Several years ago, I bought a “cheap” set of Guy Fieri pots & pans at Belk’s and they each had glass lids. What was nice was that these glass lids also fit my Revere Ware pots (but not the skillet) perfectly. I like being able to put a lid on a pot and be able to look through the glass at what is cooking. However, most times I will leave the lid off. I said “cheap” set, but they look to be quality, and have lasted, and are oven safe so I use these when I am broiling a steak, pork chop, or lamb chop in the oven.
Since I’ve been a batchelor all my life, I have had the opportunity to use and reuse many items that if I had a wife, she would have had me “throw out those old things” long ago. I would have had new dishes instead of the “Gibson” restaurant blue stripe plates that I bought as a set at a store in Jacksonville, NC. They were factory “seconds” so some of the striping wasn’t up to par, and a plate might have a slight warp, but none of that has stopped me from using them almost daily since. The picture shows one of my actual plates, with a favorite meal that just happened to be a vegetarian delight: corn on the cob, fried okra, a tomatillo & onion chutney and sliced tomatoes.
I bought the dish set and then was surprised when I turned one of the dishes over at home and saw “Gibson” imprinted on its bottom. I had to do a double take, because of how the “G” and “i” run together, but no, it said “Gibson.” I went online and found that there was a Gibson Company that made dishes. So as a bonus I ended up with a set of monogramed dishes at no extra cost.
Tomatillos remind me of green tomatoes, but they have a different flesh than tomatoes. *”Chutney…” I’ve eaten at the “Blue Willow Inn,” in Social Circle, Georgia, several times since my sister Donna first introduced me to the place many years ago. In fact, and maybe it was my first visit, Donna treated me, my dad Bill (her & my dad), and his wife, Sara (Donna’s mother, but not mine.) to the crowded Sunday buffet. We sat together at a table on one of the side porches and enjoyed the meal and time together on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Georgia.
*I see from their web site that the restaurant must have been closed for a while but is about to reopen. I did think the buffet was a little pricey for what you had to choose from, especially since you could get most of those same items at other “country” restaurants and at a much lower price. And, the ambiance had changed greatly for me when the wooded area behind the restaurant was cut down and a small “strip mall” was built there. I don’t care how old and beautiful the home is if you plop it in the middle of a business district.
One time I was walking along the inner circle of the Blue Willow Inn buffet (it has a U shape so you can have customers walking on both sides of the food) and I took a couple of fried green tomatoes from the bar. I then noticed that they had “tomato chutney” in a small dish beside the fried tomatoes, so I put some of this on the tomatoes. The tomato chutney was sweet and I found it “decadent” that you could have two different flavor profiles that compliment each other from the same fruit. The sweet ripe red tomato complimenting the savory fried green tart tomato.
The following story was added the next day from most of this blog posting, as I recalled another one of my visits to the Blue Willow Inn. I had finished eating and was trying to leave Social Circle and get back on I20 and I was heading back in an easterly direction, but I don’t know why. It was late in the day, and if I had been driving all the way back to Fayetteville, I wouldn’t have eaten at the Blue Willow Inn.
I didn’t see street signage pointing to I20, but I drove down a road quite a ways. I knew I was heading in a westerly direction, and I didn’t want to go back toward Atlanta. Eventually, I decided to turn around thinking I had gotten on the wrong road. I believe I even made it back to Madison, Georgia before heading back to where I thought I20 was located. Unfortunately, the road that I chose took me across I20, but there were no ramps either on or off I20 on this road. But, I continued on and tried to head in an easterly direction. Those roads wound in giant undulating swaths through country, but never was there a road heading back to I20 and an on ramp. I must not have had a smartphone, or at least a smartphone with an Internet connection because I had no map to reference. And eventually I began to wonder if I would run out of gas somewhere in this Georgia countryside. If you look at a map, I must have headed to Eatonton from Madison and only in Eatonton and Lake Oconee was I able to get back to I20. But what a circuitous and angst filled route.
And once I got home and the Internet, I went back on Google Street View and found that before I turned around in Social Circle, I had been just two miles short of getting back to I20.
And the third item that I have probably had the longest is my “John Wayne” P38 – Military Issue field can opener. *I was never in the military, but I grew up (Swansboro, Hubert, Jacksonville, Camp Lejeune) around Marines. I’m thinking that a Marine may have rented one of my aunt’s (“Sis” – Carrie Kellum) mobile homes (trailers) and having eventually moved out, left his John Wayne in a kitchen drawer, where in came directly or indirectly into my possession. However, I do recall that someone told me that the Marines called this tool a “John Wayne” and after all these years I finally googled for the reason “why.” **Seems that John Wayne did the “voiceover” on a military training video for the P-38 can opener. ***I do know why they called the rough brown toilet paper John Wayne. The joke goes it is called “John Wayne” because it’s rough, and tough, and it doesn’t take crap off of anybody.
What’s Mine is Mine… Sometimes.
As I re-read above about what an imaginary wife might have made me do. “Throw out those old things,” regarding the Gibson dishes I had, or the old Revere Ware that has continued faithfully to perform, I was reminded about something that happened to me a year so so before I moved to Fayetteville (1995).
I worked at Coastal Carolina Community College for a couple of years before I moved to Fayetteville. During my time at Coastal, I taught a few introductory computer courses (they were on the quarter system, not semester) and I worked in their computer department doing repairs, maintenance and software installs & upgrades on PCs. I was also working to complete an “Associates” degree dealing with PCs. *My age has stopped me from remembering the exact title of the degree, but if I scrounge around in my old papers, I think I may still have the degree that I earned. It was in a sturdy little folding, thick cardboard holder.
I had come across an old Marine Corps hooded poncho probably at “The Hem of His Garment.” That was the ministry that included a thrift store that helped supply donated items for people in need, and the profit from the sale of the donated items also went to support those in need.
The old poncho was made of a heavy rubber, a dark avocado military green, but despite a few holes it did it’s job well. It may not have looked good, but it did keep the rain off my head and body when it rained. So, I would take the poncho to work and leave it on a shelf just inside our office door. There was a young, attractive girl (woman) who I think was volunteering in our department, and she several times mentioned how awful the poncho looked. And I would “laugh it off” because it didn’t belong to her, and what she thought at least about the poncho didn’t matter. Well, at least it didn’t matter until one day I realized that the poncho on the shelf, was no longer on the shelf.
She had been cleaning up the place (office) and had taken it upon herself to throw my old poncho away. She didn’t ask me if she could throw MY poncho away, she had just done it. And, when I confronted her about it, it was obvious that what I thought about her actions mattered just as little to her, as what I thought about her demeaning my old poncho had meant to me. Nada.
I have given away a bunch of stuff through the years, and I’ve even given up stuff intentionally when I perceived that someone else wanted it more than I did, but this act made me angry then, and when I rarely recall it, still makes me quite angry to this day. What’s mine is mine, sometimes, but don’t take or throw away something that is mine until you check with me first. And if I don’t want you to take it or throw it away, you better not take it or throw it away.
A Shiny New Colander
A New Colander
Sometimes I buy something and don’t appreciate it at first. I haven’t had this colander long, and even so, I don’t recall where I bought it. It would almost have to be WalMart, but then I might have been in Target, which I rarely visit now. Maybe I was walking past this item and bought it on impulse. *I almost have a vision that I was in the WalMart that is across town, near the Cracker Barrell and the Mall just a few blocks away. Not sure what I was looking for there, but now I recall walking up and down the isles. I was looking for something, and I think I looked down and saw the colander.
My thought was that I needed a small colander for canned beans. Often canned beans have a thick liquid they are packed in, not just water and instead of just pouring this liquid in the pot along with the beans, it is suggested, and I want to rinse the beans off first. You might be washing extra sugar or salt away with the packing liquid. The image isn’t an actual picture of my new colander, but is much like the one I have.
I have another colander I use regularly to strain out organic leftovers. I don’t want to put these wet items in my regular garbage bag which might later leak. I keep it in my kitchen sink, and when I have the ends of an onion, or potato peels, or some food that I have had in the fridge, but want to throw out, I usually put these in the colander. This strainer keeps the items from clogging the sink. And when this colander becomes full, I take four plastic grocery bags and nest them and then dump the refuse from the colander into them and tie them up. I mentioned that I use four bags and this is to help insure that if one or two of the bags have holes in them that four should keep any liquid from draining out of the bags. I don’t need them absolutely leak proof, but just leak proof long enough to get first to my car, and then from the car into the dumpster.
I’ve used my new colander to strain some black beans that I was using for a soup.
Spice Jars & a Repurposed Lazy Susan
Next is my repurposed Lazy Susan. I used this for my spices until a few months ago when I bought a set of empty spice jars. I’ve filled most of those jars already and I used one of the packing matrices to keep the jars neat and organized. But there is still a problem that I have not yet found a solution to. I use a 3 letter code that I put on the jar lids to remind me of which spice is in that container, but with almost 48 containers, how do I organize them? At first I just placed them alphabetically. But then making a subset of the “most used” spices seemed appropriate. e.g. garlic powder, red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning, celery seed, marjoram, cayenne powder, cumin, and even turmeric. And then I thought about grouping the “warm spices”: cloves, cinnamon, ginger, mace, nutmeg and pumpkin spice (which includes the previously listed spices). *I use the warm spices to sprinkle on my fried apples. For years I just used cinnamon, but then I thought of using the other warm spices, and even included coriander. I then thought of making a “warm spice” mixture just for my fried apples.
The apples fried, I put them on a plate and then reach over to the Lazy Susan and get a spoonful of Splenda and sift it across the apples. I then reach back over and get the red topped “warm spice” mix and sift that on top of the Splenda & apples. Works great!
But, now I had the Lazy Susan sitting on the kitchen floor leaning against my portable kitchen island. After a few days I suddenly had a thought for how I might repurpose this Lazy Susan. I could put it over next to my stove and use it to organize my sweeteners (Splenda, coconut sugar, Sweet-n-Low, Agave Nectar and Cary’s Sugar Free Syrup) and several other items like corn starch, corn meal and polenta, and even the oil brush I use to spread oil in pans. No sooner had I thought of this, and cleared off the spot to put the Lazy Susan, but it came to me to try and put my ceramic container of kitchen utensils (spatulas, tongs, thermometer, etc.) in the middle of the Lazy Susan (if it would fit). And fit it did, almost perfectly. It is surprising to me that after so long, this item found its perfect place and use.
It has continued to be a welcomed change. I pull out a spatula for either a stir fry or a hamburger in a frying pan on the stove top. Or, I reach for my oil brush to spread oil in a pan. Or, I choose the sweetener I want for either coffee or tea, or adding Splenda to fried apples. And on the back side, I have my cornstarch that I use at the end of my stir fry.
Indian Long Pepper & the Grinder
Sometimes, if I see a spice, condiment or food item that I’ve never tried, I might buy it if it is cheap enough. I think that is what happened when I saw a package of Long Pepper somewhere. I bought it and then didn’t open it, for probably over a year. And then a couple of years ago I was throwing out unused items (which rarely happens until fairly recently) and happened to come upon this plastic baggie labeled with “Indian Long Pepper.” Fortunately, I didn’t throw it out without first opening the package and tasting the flavor. The problem though is that Indian Long Pepper is unlike the little round seeds that make up most other peppers, be they black, white, green or red. The Long Pepper has a gnarly shape and is very hard. It just won’t fit in a regular pepper grinder. So at first I just used my small mortar and pestle to grind my Long Pepper. But, when grinding, if you don’t cover the top with your hand, or have a cover for the mortar (bowl for grinding), its possible that some of the Long Pepper will jump out of the bowl. And, grinding with a pestle & mortar isn’t convenient.
I went online to see if I could find a pepper grinder that would accommodate the shape & hardness of the Long Pepper. Not sure of the exact words I used, but I finally came upon a nutmeg grinder that incorporated a microplane in the process. I ordered one from Amazon (later ordering more as Christmas presents for those I was also providing with a package of Long Pepper) and when it arrived I was amazed at the remarkable planning that had gone into it’s design.
There are some designs for items that are just a cut above. Form follows function. e.g. The P-51 Mustang is a well designed propeller driven fighter airplane. You just have to look at one to recognize it’s uniqueness. Or how about the old Northwest Airlines logo which I consider the most perfect logo for an English speaking people. Note that the logo incorporates a compass shape, with the pointer pointing (where) Northwest. But then the pointer portion makes the large italicized “N” also become a “W.” How brilliant could you be? I’ve looked, but never found a record of who actually came up with this design.
And a logo that will never be, because of the choice of how to name the institution: A few years ago, Mount Olive College became a university and it was decided, not by me, to name it “The University of Mount Olive.” But my thoughts then, and they have reoccurred to me since, was that it would have been a much more clever name if they had named it “Mount Olive University.” Why, more clever? I visually see them emphasizing the first three letters of “MOUNT OLIVE” as “MOUNT OLIVE.” And then incorporating an advertising campaign something the effect of, “Mount Olive University, the start of your education in Mount Olive.” Okay, maybe not exactly the best advertising phrase. And sometimes when I am passing throuh, I also play with advertising for Dunn, North Carolina. How about, “When you are “Dunn” shopping why not have dinner and a movie?”
So this microplane grinder was perfectly designed. It can grind nutmeg which is an incredibly hard nut. But I also tested it, and I could grind cumin, other small spices and the Long Pepper. There was even a storage compartment in the top of this grinder. And now for the one imperfection. The grinder is made of black plastic, except for the metal microplane, and the screw top of the storage container sometimes seizes. It locks up and can’t be unscrewed. And at least once, when it did unseize, I tried to use olive oil to keep it from seizing, but this didn’t work.
Several years into using this grinder, it just stopped working. I couldn’t figure out why, and finally I noted that the metal microplane was rotating with the grinder handle. I’m not sure if the plane was glued and the glue had come undone, but I bought some Gorilla Glue Gel and just put a dab or two on the outer edge of the metal plane. It seems to have fixed the plane again and I’m going to try it out shortly (before the 24 hours suggested setting period). If it’s going to work, I think it will have already set. *Yes! It worked! **I was hoping the glue wouldn’t prevent the grinder mechanism from rotating so I only put a little glue gel on the opposite side of where the inner protrusion was. It worked fine.
I think the ground Long Pepper is more pungent than regular ground black pepper, and I still have a regular pepper blend in another grinder.
Microwave Onion Cooker
When I was growing up there was an FCX in Jacksonville, North Carolina. The Farmer’s Cooperative Exchange sold all sorts of farm supplies: seeds, plants, equipment, parts for farm equipment, etc. In 1986 the FCX went into bankruptcy and was incorporated into the Southern States Cooperative. I think of the Agri Supply store just outside of Lumberton, NC as being a like business.
I think I may have first bought a “Microwave Onion Cooker” at the Agri Supply store. It looks like a large white plastic onion, that has two halves and a very small steam vent. It’s “first” use is to cook a whole onion in the microwave and it does that very well. But, I then started to think of other things I might cook . I can cook a white or sweet potato in this cooker. I have cooked an egg, even adding onions, peppers & cheese in this cooker. The egg concoction comes out in a flat round shape perfect for an English muffin. You could bake an apple in it, even adding a little butter, cinnamon & sweetener.
The Agri Supply store still sells this item and probably offers the best price for it.
Box Cutter Pens
I do want to mention the box cutter (pen) as one of those exceptionally useful items, not just in the kitchen drawer, but by your easy chair and in your car. Any place that you often have a packaged item that needs a quick open, the box cutter can do the job. *And it also works in helping to peel an orange.
I bought these through Amazon. They easily slice through the Amazon shipping packages, mailers, and taped boxes. Many see thru plastic packages that may contain things like ink pens, fingernail clippers, or have tamper proof seals are easily “gotten into” using this box cutter. The blade length is adjustable and there is a blade lock that is easily manipulated with a single hand. For peeling oranges, just set the blade far enough to slice through the outer rind. Tupperware had a promotional “orange peeler” that they used to give away. This does the job just as well.
Ramekins & 3 Footed Salsa Bowls
I have a set of blue and white ceramic ramekins that I have used as “monkey dishes” for years. I might mix up some cornstarch in one to pour into my stir fry. Or I might mix several spices in one before pouring them into a dish or pot. I’ve also put bacon grease in one of these. But, I also have a few 3 footed plastic salsa bowls. I had a red, yellow, and a green salsa bowl so I might put mild salsa in the green and spicy salsa in the red and homemade hummus in the yellow bowl.
—
Not too long ago, WalMart started selling these colored salsa bowls for about a dollar, so I bought a couple more colors (blue & a grayish color). And then it came to me to start using these bowls in the same way I had been using the ceramic ramikins. They are a perfect little mixing bowl, and when needed can be individual salsa, dip, or hummus dishes at a party. I almost forgot, I now put my Greek God’s Plain Yogurt in one and add in a little pureed raspberries, blackberries or blueberries and mix it all up.
Braun MultiQuick Tool
Of all the kitchen items I’ve mentioned so far, this tool with its various attachments is probably the most used over time (except for maybe the onion cooker or box cutter).
I bought the smaller, less powerful, and less capacity version of this Braun manufactured tool years ago when I was looking for a “stick blender” to puree hot liquids while they were still in their pots. I had a “Curried Apple” Soup that had onion, carrots and Granny Smith apples cooked down, but it all needed to be pureed, and a stick blender was the way to go. This tool also came with a whisk attachment, so you could get a carton of heavy cream and make your own whipped cream easily. Depending upon the size of your mayonnaise jar, you could even scoop out a little mayo, add any flavorings (curry, capers, etc.) and blend it all in the jar. *I mention mayo specifically because years ago I had a “Shrimp Po’Boy” sandwich at the Water’s Edge Restaurant on Shem Creek just across from Charleston, South Carolina. The sandwich was good but it was the “curry remoulade” sauce on the fried shrimp that made it special. I came home and tried to figure out how to replicate this sauce. At the time, I couldn’t even find a decent definition of “remoulade” online. But, I finally concluded that I would use Dukes Mayo, some Patak’s Curry Paste, and some small capers and these three ingredients when mixed together formed a yellowish sauce that went well on fried shrimp, but also on a ham or turkey sandwich. *Patak’s Curry Paste is also what I use to make my “Curried Apple Soup” and you can add chicken to this soup or leave it vegetarian.
I mentioned that I had originally bought the less powerful version of this tool, and as a result I limped along for years using the chopper attachment that was too small to hold a whole can of Garbanzo beans, and also not powerful enough to blend the whole can at one time for making hummus. When I finally bought a new larger version, what a difference. I now dump a whole can of chickpeas into the chopper, add some tahini, some cumin and some lemon (I use lime.) juice, blend and you have a delicious hummus dip for an assortment of veggies, or as I also like, for Smoked Oysters.
But I can also whip up a fast, delicious homemade salsa in the chopper. Sometimes, when in season, fresh tomatoes, but often with a can of “Roasted Garlic” diced tomatoes in a can. Roughly chop up some sweet onion, colorful sweet bell pepper, some Herdez “Salsa Ranchera” (smoked chipotle flavor) and during the late summer add some spicy, colorful peppers from the State Farmers’ Market. Or jalapenos and poblanos, that you buy at WalMart, and first roast in the oven for more flavor.
A quick trip through the Taco Bell drive thru, and bring a bean burrito back home to eat with some homemade salsa, chopped sweet onion and sour cream.
A trick for making coleslaw (the mayo version) is to rough chop the cabbage, put it in the chopper and cover it all with water, then blend with a few pulses. The water will keep the cabbage from becoming mush. Pour off the water, add some mayo and some Half-n-Half (a trick I learned from a restaurant I frequented) add S&P to taste. The Half-n-Half makes it creamier (no duh) and I don’t prefer carrots in this, but I do like carrots.
Hillshire Farms Reusable Containers
More than a year ago, I had bought a container of “Hillshire Farms Deli – Pastrami,” and when it came time to throw away the plastic container, I took a second look. It was a nice size for left overs, slightly smaller than the Rubbermaid Easy Find containers I have a bunch of. It had a clear bowl, and the tight seal lid was of semi clear red plastic. It was then that I realized the Hillshire Farms Company had planned for me (or others) to re-use these containers, and had made it especially easy to do so. The advertising was printed on a cardboard sheet and attached to the red lid with that stretchy glue substance. The cardboard and the glue were both easily peeled off. I keep my bacon in one of these and it will hold a whole pound of bacon.
It pays to pay attention to the prices for the same products at different grocery store chains. I visit a varied assortment of groceries during a week and I try to keep in mind which store has the cheapest price for a product. The Hillshire Farms Deli meats (in the 7 oz. container) can range from over $6 to under $5. And I figured that if the meat was under $5, then the storage container was worth the cost. WalMart and Aldi normally have a cheaper price on these products and also on the Beef Polska Kielbasa.
P38 Military Issue – Field Can Opener
I have a steel version of one of these that probably came via the US Marines from over 50 years ago. I got it while I was still in high school and have kept it mostly on my key chains through the years. I forget about it until I need it, and then it never fails… at least not yet.
This was issued to Marines (and probably most other services) to use in the field to open their metal cans of K-Rations. The “Jar Heads” might have called it their “John Wayne.” I don’t know why the can opener would take on that name. I do know why rough toilet paper takes on the name of John Wayne.
I’m at home using my regular hand crank can opener, and then I find a can that for whatever reason won’t open completely. The cutting mechanism doesn’t “catch” in some location and you end up with a can lid that you can’t lift up to get at it’s contents. John Wayne! And he finishes the job, plodding along at one little twist at a time.
New Electric Wok
I’ve had an electric wok that a cousin of mine gave me years ago. I run through periods of use and not use. I forget how easy it is to chop up the ingredients, quickly cook them and easily clean the wok before the next use. The wok I had was made by Westinghouse and has worked faithfully through the years, but apparently they don’t make electric woks any longer.
I have a friend who’s oldest son is to be married at the end of next May and I thought an electric wok might be a good wedding gift. If the young couple likes Chinese Stir Fry, you can’t get much cheaper that making a stir fry at home, or cooking it quickly, and cleaning the wok quickly. And you could make a veggie version, or add your choice or rotate through chicken, beef, pork or shrimp. Cheap that I am, I’ve also got a 3 in 1 Cookbook that probably cost me a dollar. It has a section for Chinese, Thai and Japanese cooking.
So that was the impetus for buying a new wok. I thought it prudent to buy one for myself, and if it seemed sturdy, to buy another for the wedding present. I chose one that looked good, from Amazon, and was relatively inexpensive. It arrived. It looked good. It cooked fine, and cleaned up easily. So I have already put in an order for another one.
New Waffle Maker
I may leave this off because I currently do not have an ideal waffle maker. It’s one of those that you pour the batter in and then flip the unit upside down. Then you wait for the green light to come on and the waffle should be ready. *I got rid of the flipping waffle maker, to the Thrift Store.
I bought a new Cuisinart Waffle Maker. It cooks really quickly, but the one thing I have noted is that the wells for the waffle aren’t deep. I’ve had that observation before with a different cheap waffle iron. Looking at the picture of this waffle iron, the depressions look much deeper than from the actual iron. But this waffle maker was only $25, so I will live with it. I got this one from Amazon.
S Hooks
I haven’t found these yet, and I don’t want to take those off my shower curtain, but those appear to be exactly what I want for my mobile kitchen cart. I want to hang my large non-electric wok on one, and maybe a pot/pan or two if they will fit.
I did buy these, but note the smaller S crook. That was a problem with some of my pans that wouldn’t fit on the small hook, and the small hook wouldn’t fit on the rod. So, I bought these, and they are working fine for all my pots & pans. They have clear plastic protectors on each end of the S hook.
Dolce K Sweet Olive Mix
In the above image I see olives, dried cranberries, currants, orange rind, marcona almonds and mustard seeds. I don’t think I see any rehydrated raisins, which I know can rehydrate to almost the size of the olives. A suggestion, although not the final one. I would put in half as much water as vinegar (don’t do equal parts.) I used Avocado oil because I didn’t have Sunflower Oil and about 1/3 of oil to 1/4 water and 1/2 of red wine vinegar. I don’t see any lemon rind. I use lime juice instead of citric acid. I put in some Agave Nectar & Honey. I did put in mustard seeds, red pepper flakes, turmeric, thyme, ground pepper & salt. I shook this all up and found it difficult to split the mixture between two jars. Difficult to pour out currants and other large ingredients and keep them in equal ratios. If I am wanting to put a new mix in more than one jar, I might keep the large ingredients out until I get equal parts of the liquid in each container (e.g. water, vinegar, oil, Agave nectar & honey).
I have enjoyed this olive mix for several years before Covid. I have only seen it on the Olive/Pickle Bar at Whole Foods. It has such a unique flavor that it is quite addictive, but I’ve never really found anything to eat it with. I’ve seen a suggestion of eating it with cheese, or brussels sprouts, and I like both cheese and Brussels Sprouts.
I think the sauce I currently put on Brussels Sprouts is a simple 3 item mix consisting of balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard and agave nectar (honey).
I wrote somewhere else recently that I wanted to “make a run at” replicating the Dolce K Olive Mix, and a couple of days ago I had found myself just finished eating an orange. I looked over from my easy chair and saw the orange rinds that I had not yet thrown away. I then thought, “Well, I have the orange rinds, if I can figure a way to get rid of the pith (the bitter white part of the rind)”. I did a quick google search and found that some people used zesters, and others use a microplane to remove the orange zest, but I wanted to remove the opposite side of the rind, the pith. I then thought that I had a cheese grater and I knew that had an area for fine grating. I figured that I could use the fine grater section to remove the pith. It didn’t work quickly, but it did work and eventually I had about four good sections of orange rind with most of the pith removed. I then chopped the rind up into small pieces.
I then got online and found the Divina link to the Dolce K Sweet Olive Mix, but they only listed the ingredients, and not the amounts/quantities of each item. They also left out currants, which I think come with the Whole Foods version, and which I like.
I started adding the listed ingredients leaving out some of what I didn’t have, and substituting as I thought possible. I did have some honey, but I also added some Agave Nectar and Splenda to sweeten the Red Wine Vinegar.
I had no Marcona almonds, but found I could order the “blanched” Spanish almonds online. I did have dried cranberries, and a few raisins left. Not sure if I had bought the raisins especially for using in the Dolce K mix, but I had eaten some with some mixed nuts. I had the whole mustard seeds and thyme, and I had turmeric which I was already familiar with from using it in various Mediterranean dishes.
I opened a can of Green California pitted olives that I had bought at Whole Foods. I’ve been buying these for years because they taste like black olives. After a day or so, marinating in the juice, the olives took on the new flavors. I mixed in all the other ingredients I had and went back later to add more sweetener, but to my surprise what I made was so close to what I can buy at Whole Foods that I can makes the Dolce K Olive Mix at home.
And one final test will be to try and add up the total cost of making this at home and see if it is less expensive at home.
— I’ve since made some more of the marinade and only have the olives & the Marcona Almonds to add to it. I bought Minute-Maid Currants at Harris Teeter today. But I do see a problem already. My first go around I was almost perfect in the choices I made. I don’t have much marinade in the first jar, but the flavors are all spot on. The problem? As I made the second marinade, I had no clue as to how much of each ingredient to add. Do I use more olive oil, or more red wine vinegar? I don’t know. The second marinade isn’t quite as spot on as the first, but it is relatively close. Do I add more water? Less Turmeric?
The dried cranberries have plumped up, and the green olives have taken on the flavor of the marinade. *An earlier attempt, I didn’t let the olives I was using marinate long enough and they still had the distinct olive flavor. But given enough time, they will become pickled.
INGREDIENTS
- pitted green olives
- water
- cane sugar (x used Splenda & Agave Nectar)
- white wine vinegar (red wine vinegar)
- sunflower oil
- almonds (marcona blanched) (x)
- cranberries
- currants (x)
- raisins
- honey
- orange rind
- lemon rind (x)
- mustard seed
- turmeric
- red pepper flakes
- thyme
- ground black pepper
- sea salt
- citric acid (x)
ORIGIN
Greece
Pitted Ripe Green Olives (365 Brand) Whole Foods
Red Wine Vinegar Pompeian Brand
Zante Currants – Sun-Maid Brand
Next
This doesn’t deserve a separate posting, but…
Last night I was hungry, but didn’t know for what. I finally decided to fix a clam/pesto/pasta dish. But, the difference was that I also added some hot pork sausage to the mix. I use the Knorr’s Pesto mix that comes in a package, and normally just add that to the clams and angel hair pasta. But, as with other things, like clam chowder, adding a little ham makes the flavors pop.
I used about half of a sausage pak, but cooked the sausage down. This did make the mix “heavy.”
As I was finishing off the left overs tonight, I knew I needed something to cut the heaviness and I came up with the idea to make a simple salad with English cucumber, sweet onion, and sweet bell pepper in red wine vinegar with some Equal sweetener. This did work very well together. **Posted later from the previous sentence: I made some Tzatziki Sauce to go with this meal. I had modified the clams & pasta, by adding finely diced Shallot (I had bought them at Whole Foods in Raleigh the other day.). I also added finely diced Shallot to the Tzatziki. This too cut the heaviness of the sausage.
As I was just taking my nightly grouping of pills, I thought of something else that I wanted to write about. I had decided that I wanted to travel to Hamlet today (Monday) so that I could have lunch at Seaboard Station. I’ve written about Seaboard Station elsewhere, but recall that they have the best fried chicken. In fact, a couple of years ago I ate there and have attested to the fact that I had the best fried chicken I’ve ever eaten, in my whole life, and that includes the fried chicken my mom made when I was growing up… all the fried chicken I’ve had at all the church and associational meeting and dinners throughout the years, and KFC or Smithfield’s Chicken -n- BBQ or anywhere else.
And, the fried chicken I had there today was also very, very good, as was the pork chop, the steamed cabbage and the Sara Lee carrot cake. *I would still like the recipe for the Broccoli Casserole that I had at Jeff’s church last year. I’m not like Donald Trump. This was the best broccoli casserole I’ve ever had and would definitely like it again and again, but I don’t know how to make it.
But what I actually wanted to write about was that since I was planning to have a good lunch, I didn’t want to eat my regular breakfast so I decided I would just order a country ham biscuit from JK’s Restaurant. My JK’s breakfast normally consists of one egg over medium, a couple of patty sausages, some of their home fried potatoes, and I eat the edges of the two slices of whole wheat toast (dry – w/o butter). Oh, and I have their coffee which is good, but I prefer the strength of the “Breakfast Blend? Starbuck’s coffee I have at home. I buy the already ground coffee at WalMart. I don’t recall the name of the coffee which I preferred before Covid, but I used to buy the “whole bean” at Harris Teeter and grind it myself at home. When Covid hit, HT stopped selling the whole bean coffees that you could bag yourself.
I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but during Covid, when I wasn’t going out to eat breakfast and couldn’t resupply from HT, I finally ran out of the last whole beans that I had. It was then that I went to my kitchen cubboard and found an unused bag of already ground Cracker Barrell coffee. I would imagine that Deborah had given this to me as a Christmas present some time, but since I preferred to grind my own (figuring that freshly ground would have more flavor – same reasoning for grinding my own pepper) It had remained unused. Not sure if was still unopened when I found it, but I made some coffee from it and thought it tasted pretty good. The next day I made some more, and it was pretty good again. And finally on the third day when I made it again and it was good, the thought came to me. “I hate Cracker Barrell coffee, but this I like.” And I do hate Cracker Barrell coffee, that they serve in their restaurants. So much so that I would always order hot tea instead of coffee. *I haven’t been to Cracker Barrell in a long while, but for several years, when I was still unretired, I would go there for breakfast every Sunday morning, except for a few holidays, and when I might be off visiting relatives or on a mini-vacation. I usually went to the Fayetteville CB next to I95.
So with Covid, I finally finished the Cracker Barrel “gift” coffee. The Covid booster shot finally came along and on the day that I took it, I also went out for a haircut, and I went to Cracker Barrell (the one over by the WalMart nearer the Mall) to buy some more of their coffee. But, what? The package was no longer the same. The package I had tried at home had shiny coppery colors, but the new package was a shiny aqua color. I checked and they only sold two types of their coffee: Caffeinated and Decaffeinated and neither package had the coppery color.
And what? I got the new bag home and made a pot, and it wasn’t the same at all. I don’t recall if it was awful, or just not the same, but in either case it wasn’t what I wanted to drink most mornings so I had to start looking for an alternative.
I tried various types and blends from various sources and each package usually cost about $9 a bag. This was an expensive process since after trying the coffee just once from each bag, I knew, “Nope, I don’t like that either.” I don’t recall how long it took, but finally I tried a bag of Starbucks’ coffee that I bought from WalMart, and it was it. Not what I had pre-Covid, or the Cracker Barrell “gift” coffee I had enjoyed, but a good strong flavor that I liked over and over. *Seems that Walgreens currently has this bag for $7.99 which is about 50 cents cheaper than WalMart.
I probably drink more hot tea than coffee for breakfast, but will probably have coffee at least once a week, and may even re-heat yesterday’s coffee the next day. And, I normally drink from a large cup that is about two cups worth.
Since about 1985, I have enjoyed Bigelow’s “Earl Grey” and “Constant Comment” teas. I think Rick and Linda Bell introduced me to both of these as I would be over at their house a lot. Rick & Linda were the pre-cursors to Russ & Deborah. Earl Grey is flavored with Bergamont, and is very distinctive. The Constant Comment is flavored with citrus or maybe orange. And despite how tea aficionados suggest drinking these, with lemon, or with milk/cream, I like both usually with creamer, but as a change up Earl Grey with lime juice or Constant Comment with no creamer.
I’ve tried other teas throughout the years, but normally haven’t found any that I like better than the two listed above, until… I tried Taylor’s Scottish Breakfast tea and the first time hated it. But fortunately I tried it a second and third time, and fell in love with it. I would describe it as having a “heavy” flavor. I probably drink more of the Taylors tea than Earl Grey or Constant Comment, but still like all three. And then there is Rooibos, which I think I first tried when I bought some loose tea at Whole Foods several years ago. It has a distinctive flavor and reddish color. After all, Rooibos means “red bush.” I like this with creamer also.
I forgot to mention Raspberry Royale also from Bigelow, because I had completely run out of this tea and had not drank any for quite some time. I first tried this tea when I was on a short vacation up in Virginia. I had stayed at a Quality Inn in Lynchburg and the next morning as I was leaving I went up to the office. They had a Continental Breakfast area, and I looked over and saw an assortment of Bigelow teas (individually wrapped bags). I saw the Raspberry Royale tea and took a packet back to my room. I made some hot water with the room’s coffee maker and used a small styrofoam cup to brew the tea. I tried it and it was good, so I took the cup with me to my car and drove to a nearby restaurant for breakfast.
After breakfast I came back to my car and the Raspberry Royale was cold, but I thought, “It will still taste good cold.” And it did. I finished it off later along the route. And that’s how I came to love another Bigelow tea. One time I bought a 6 pack of Raspberry Royale (6-20 ct. boxes) from Amazon and gave them away that Christmas as presents.
Until just recently I didn’t know where I could buy Raspberry Royale. Amazon wanted about double the price you should pay for a box of 20 tea bags, or you had to buy the 6 pack. I didn’t want to do either, and finally I thought to search on the Wegman’s web site. To my surprise they showed that they did carry Raspberry Royale in their Raleigh location and it was listed at a reasonable price. So, a few days ago I was at that Wegman’s and yes, they did have Raspberry Royale, so I bought two 20 ct. boxes. I’ve already had two cups and this is also one of my favorites. I have 5 favorites.
About a year and a half ago, I came up with a drink mix that I now call “Bill’s Drink Mix,” and I drink some almost every day and about a carafe full each day. It has four ingredients that include: Pomegranate Lemonade (mix from WalMart), Sweet Tea (mix with or without Lemon from WalMart), some orange juice, and some cranberry juice. Now all four ingredients are necessary, or it is just not the same and isn’t pleasing to me. But, I have used brewed hot tea to make this mix and that is an ok alternative if I’ve run out of the little flavor packages. Oh, and this mixture is good cold or hot. Hot, it may remind me of what Tang (the orange flavored drink from many years ago) would taste like if heated.
Not tea, but I’ve also tried milk mixed with Turmeric and sometimes have also added powdered ginger to this concoction. When I do that it starts to remind me of Egg Nog. Not exactly but sorta.
I do like egg nog, and the season is once again here, but I rarely drink it, or buy it because it has a bunch of sugar and would throw my blood sugar off. In fact there are quite a few foods, drinks and places to eat that I no longer go to, or rarely go to before I became more serious about keeping my blood sugar under control.
About a year ago I bought some Homestead Creamery Egg Nog, in a glass bottle like the one shown here. The shape is that of the old milk bottles that the milkman (before my time, if ever in the country) used to deliver milk, but I think slightly smaller than actual size. Well, I didn’t throw the bottle away after the egg nog was gone, and now I reuse it for my Half-n-Half. I like the cold feel of the glass for some reason as I pour it into my coffee or tea.
I rarely go to any buffet style restaurants, and several no longer exist since Covid. I was in the habit of eating from Taco Bell once or twice a week (1 Burrito Supreme, 1 Bean Burrito, and 1 Crunchy Taco) and at the last I might just choose two of the above instead of all three. I would bring them home and add sour cream and sweet onion (chopped) and I might make my own salsa including some of the Herdez’ “Salsa Ranchera” sauce. I haven’t driven through the Taco Bell drive-thru in months. *Let me laud the Taco Bell staff that served me when I did go through their drive-thru. They were great at taking my order, preparing it quickly and getting me on my way without a problem, and they did that over and over, and I thanked them repeatedly because I saw this as exceptional service in a low-end job. And, I don’t mean to slight them by labeling it a “low-end” job. It’s fast food, fast cheap food to some degree.
I can make a delicious salsa at home but the problem is that what do you eat it with? Tortilla chips or beans? Either can throw my blood sugar off, so I try not to buy chips. At one time I couldn’t control it. If I bought a family sized bag of tortilla chips or potato chips, I would eat the whole thing… and might finish them off by the next day. But then I found more will power, but then what? The chips go stale if you open them, and then don’t eat any more for several weeks. I will say that IGA sells a smaller bag of Wavy Potato Chips for about $1.48 that is just about right. I can have three helpings from this smaller bag. And, I normally do not buy potato chips, but these are special to go with the Pastrami Reubens that I make at home. I don’t fry fries at home, so these chips have that saltiness that along with a dill pickle spear makes the perfect accompaniment for the Reuben sandwiches. But then again the Pastrami & Swiss are both fatty and salty and bad also for the blood sugar, along with the seeded rye bread.
I’ve learned to like Sauerkraut, and I combine it with my homemade Thousand Island dressing which only has the following ingredients: Dukes Mayo, ketchup, chopped sweet onion, sugar free pickle relish, and some hot sauce (Texas Pete, or Tabasco… NOT Frank’s). After realizing that the Thousand Island dressing “turned” the sauerkraut in a very pleasant way (like sugar turns vinegar — making pickle juice), I thought, “well why not make a side dish out of sauerkraut mixed with some Thousand Island dressing” and it worked. This side would be good with a pork chop too.
I said I rarely go to a buffet, but just recently, about two weeks ago now, I drove up to Asheboro, NC for another visit. I had breakfast at David’s and they have a great price on their breakfast specials. But for lunch, I found a Chinese Buffet restaurant and ate there. It was so reminiscent of several of the Chinese buffets I’ve visited throughout the years. In fact, the chicken on a stick, or the egg drop soup, or even the sliced bananas in a cherry sauce are classics. I really enjoyed eating at this buffet, and hopefully will go back again, but not often.
At one time I visited Hibachi Grill at least once a week, but since Covid, I may have only returned once or twice. It may have been over a year since I last had a meal there. I guess I also became aware of how often you either became ill from eating the food, or got a cold from all the other people messing in the food you would eventually eat. And, I don’t need that. *When you are younger you don’t pay attention to someone with a cold, but after a cold really messes you up… I might hear someone walking down the hall at work, and they were coughing or sneezing, and I would slide my chair over and shut my door quietly. I’m also aware now when I am out and some coughs or sneezes. It reminds me of why I both like to go out, a why I don’t like to.
I do go out, almost every day, and where do I go? I go to several groceries each day. In season, I may buy raw peanuts, okra, or brussels sprouts at Pate’s Farm Market. Or, corn on the cob, broccoli, asparagus, or Romaine lettuce at WalMart… Sweet Red/Orange/Yellow Bell Peppers, Gala Apples or Cauliflower at Food Lion… Harris Teeter has the Greek God’s Yogurt and Tilapia… Sprouts has all those bins of nuts and dried fruits… I may make a special trip up to Wegman’s in Raleigh for their White American Cheese, the Intense Brie, Bucheron, or their Ciabatta rolls… Whole Foods in Raleigh has the Capricho de Cabra Cheese, the Dolce K Olive Mix… and Farm Fresh may have Red Chard or some of the okra chips, and IGA “has the meats” or eggs.
I’ve found Lidl has a good price on Smoked Oysters for about $1.29 a can and I like them with my homemade hummus. **And that’s where I start talking about my Braun Multi-Quick tool that has a food chopper, whisk, and stick blender so I can make hummus from Garbanzo beans, or make salsa with tomatoes, sweet onion and some hot peppers from the State Farmer’s Market in Raleigh.
.
**While in Aldi’s yesterday, I bought a tin of Smoked Oysters for $1.25. I haven’t tried them yet. ***I think I just tried these for the first time and here is my brief review: The oysters in the tin are larger than most of the other brands, and I didn’t think the flavor was quite as good, but pretty close.
.
If I am in Asheville in the early spring, I will look for ramps at the WNC State Farmers’ Market. And the last time I was up there I found the Dulse (seaweed flakes) at Earth Fair and bought a couple of those little sifters.
After years, I finally broke down and bought 48 clean, brand new, squarish shaped glass spice jars with aluminum lids and the plastic sifter caps that you can use, but don’t have to. And, I’ve already filled up all but about five of them. But, I see that I don’t use many of them or often, except for the garlic powder, marjoram, cayenne powder, and Italian seasoning along with the pink salt that I add to regular white salt and then grind them in my food chopper.
I would briefly like to mention (how brief can it be by now?) that I am really proud of the re-use of my Lazy Susan that I used for my spices before buying all those spice jars. At first I just put the Lazy Susan on the kitchen floor, but then it came to me to see if it would fit on the countertop, to the right of my stove. I already had my sweeteners there, and the kitchen utensils were against the wall in a large ceramic jar. Would it fit? I tried putting the sweeteners on the Lazy Susan first, and then I thought about adding the ceramic jar of kitchen tools, and then flour & cornstarch, and the oil brush (for brushing various oils on pans, or the waffle iron before cooking). It worked perfectly, and now I just rotate the Lazy Susan to easily switch from the sweeteners (for coffee or tea), or the cornstarch for the stir fry. See:
I found that I like the Indian Long Pepper’s pungent flavor, but it’s odd shape and hardness means you can’t just use any old pepper grinder. I found a hand grinder that had a microplane bottom and this works perfectly for the Long Pepper.
I’ve cut back on the fried apples and bacon I enjoy for breakfast, but I’ve even made a special spice blend and put it in a separate shaker for when I do fix these apples (Galas normally from WalMart but also might be from Food Lion). For years I only used cinnamon and sugar (later Equal Sweetener) on the apples, but then I thought that incorporating all the “warm” spices might work, and it did/does: cloves, cinnamon, ginger, mace, nutmeg, and pumpkin spice (which includes all of them already mixed). Not sure if coriander is thought of as a warm spice, but I include that also in this mix.
So, I am now rereading some of the above posting and realized that I never told you what I had originally thought about. My stories do seem more like those told by Garrison Keillor on “A Prairie Home Companion.” He would start a story, and shortly into telling it, he would lead you off onto another completely different tale, for most of the story, only at the last to bring you back to the original story, and tie that up in a neat little bow. More than once I said to myself, “How in the heck did he get me off on that other tale.” I miss the weekly visits. They were “comfort food” that I ate, not with my mouth, but with my heart and mind. And once again I digress. This was what I wanted to say. So I found myself at JK’s restaurant for breakfast on Monday morning, just like I had for so many other times, but with the limitation that I wasn’t going to have my normal breakfast there, but only a country ham biscuit with coffee.
I walked in the front door and stood in front of the “Please Wait” sign and one of the waitresses who was obviously busy called back to me as she whisked herself back into the kitchen with some dirty dishes, “I’ll be back to get you as soon as I can.” So, I stood there and then a couple of gentlemen came in behind me, but they didn’t wait at the sign. No, one gentleman was obviously older and in need of getting to a table so that he could rest himself in a chair. The other gentleman was a bit younger and seemed to be an unofficial caretaker of the more fragile man. Not sure if the protective relationship was due to friendship or to family relationship. And so, I am still standing there, which by now is a little irritating because almost immediately after these two gentleman sat at “their” table, another waitress comes from the back, whips herself around and stops at their table and starts to take their orders.
Finally, a third waitress comes to the front and starts to determine where she wanted me to sit. I already had in my mind that I would like to sit over in the back corner, a booth next to the cash register. I’ve been seated there several times in the past year. It is a comfortable spot, especially since the current practice is for each waitress to bring the customer’s receipt and payment up themselves and then bring any change back to their table before they left. So as she started forward, past me, to lead me to the table, I stopped her and asked if I could sit in the back corner, to which she replied, “I was just planning to seat you there.” And my reply was, “Perfect.”
Now a fourth waitress brings me a menu and asks what I would like to drink. I’ve come prepared with a Rooibos tea bag (a Harris Teeter store brand), but I’m willing to pay them to bring their tea bag, and I will make the switch myself. I’ll have some hot Rooibos tea with my country ham biscuit and take their unused teabag with me when I leave. She picks up on my exchange plan and says, “So you just want hot water,” and starts to walk away. And my comment trails off with her, “But I’m willing to pay you for your tea.” She brings back the hot water which she refilled later in the meal.
I took the menu and started to look for “Country Ham Biscuit” and I found it, but off to the side there was a price. No, not just a price, but something that might have been written in a contract between an Indentured Servant and their Master. “You will work seven years for your freedom.” But in this case the amount said $7.49. I looked again. Yes, it said that a single country ham biscuit would cost $7.49 and that was without coffee. I’m not sure how expensive a price I would have endured for a country ham biscuit that morning but this price was far beyond reasonable. There were prices for bacon biscuits, and sausage biscuits (patty or link), and egg biscuits. All of these within the more reasonable price range. I think $5 and some change might be reasonable for a country ham biscuit, and if I were in a rush, I might even “choke down” a $6 tag, but not $7.49. I can make a country ham sandwich (I’m probably not going to have a biscuit at home.) for less. At least I think I can. But I do question if I can, because several years ago I ordered a sandwich and some soup at Panera Bread and whatever the price was at that time, it seemed exorbitant. And I said to myself that I could make it cheaper, and later would go on to try and prove that assumption. *Was in again, a short time ago, and noticed that the country ham biscuit had been repriced on the menu to something more reasonable.
And, that is where the assumption began to crumble. By the time I had added up all the charges for the various components of the same meal, I couldn’t make it cheaper and I would still have to factor in the cost of running the dirty dishes through my dishwasher… and I couldn’t make just one meal, but had to make more than a meal, because you can’t purchase just the right amount of ingredients to make a single meal. You want to make vegetable soup, but you can’t just make enough for a single bowl, or even two bowls. You open a can of corn = 15oz., and green beans – 15oz., and roasted diced tomatoes – 15oz., and then you dice some onion, and carrots, and potatoes, and maybe throw in another 15oz. can of garden peas. I love garden peas (but they affect my blood sugar also). And I use ground beef instead of beef stew. And by this point your 3Qt. pot is almost full, but you’ve got to add the chicken stock and if they are in season you want some diced okra for that special flavor to your soup. Okay, you can get frozen or canned okra (another 15 oz.). *So I’ve also tried halving the ingredients. 7.5oz. of each, and the other half gets thrown into a large Rubbermaid Easy Find Lids container to be put away in the freezer. You can put the corn, green beans, tomatoes and even the okra in a single tub. Thaw them all out, when you’re ready, next time, and cut up the carrots, onions & potatoes afresh.
**But, anything I put in the freezer is subject to a long hard life in the “Great North,” up beyond the Tundra and into that frozen region where, if left too long, nothing survives. And my freezer is packed with several meals worth of chicken, ground beef burgers, pork chops, shrimp (peeled, deveined with tail off), calf/beef liver, steak, tilapia, and sausages (Kielbasa, Andouille, Jimmy Deans, etc.). I am pretty good, currently, about taking out one or more frozen items to thaw for tomorrow, or at least later today. The Skylark Calf’ liver thaws in about 1 hour and cooks quickly on the stovetop. The Pender’s liver pudding (mush) is ready for the pan and the chopped onions by the next morning. Oh yeah, I forgot, the Round Bone Lamb Chops from Publix have to thaw.
But “No,” I’m not going to pay $7.49 for a single country ham biscuit… at least not this Monday morning, so I order a sausage biscuit (and some mustard) and the waitress asks whether that will be patty or link sausage. Patty of course.
JK’s biscuits are distinctive. They are crumbly in a slightly negative way, and the chef will cut the biscuit in half and toast it on the grill, sometimes, even if you don’t ask. The mustard was the right touch for this, but the biscuit did crumble and it seemed that there just wasn’t enough sausage to even out with the bites of biscuit. *I may take a picture of the menu the next time I visit, focusing on the $7.49 country ham biscuit price especially. For me it’s like listing “Country Ham Biscuit” and then instead of a price, you put a caveat, “WE DON’T WANT TO SELL ANY OF THESE” where the price should have been listed. I can imagine myself standing over in the line of people waiting to, NOT buy their country ham biscuits.
With my Taylors Scottish Breakfast tea I would probably like to have a toasted English muffin with a little butter on it and some Orange Marmalade, or perhaps raspberry jam. Or maybe have some melted cheese, not cheddar, on whole wheat toast. Or maybe even an Egg McMuffin type of sandwich with the egg over hard, a slice of fresh ham, and melted cheese.
[NOTE 02/14/25]: Interesting, as I was re-reading the above posting, and after adding the picture of “the best fried chicken” I’ve ever eaten, I noted the very last comment, above. Since the time of the comment, I found “Sourdough English Muffins” at Publix, googled about, and saw they were Diabetic friendly, so I bought a package (and several packages since). I ended up making a darned good “Bill McMuffin” at home using some Wegman’s White American Cheese, a slice of Hatfield pre-sliced ham, and an egg cooked in my microwave onion cooker. The muffin is first toasted, and then the cheese melted before the egg & ham go on.
The first one of these was so good that I ended up making one each morning for several days, and not only worked through several packages of Sourdough English Muffins, but also the whole pre-sliced Hatfield Ham, which had been on special at Harris Teeter (across town, where Pharaoh’s Legacy is located). *Unfortunately I couldn’t get another Hatfield Ham, and I bought a more well-known named ham, but I don’t think it is as good, and I lost the desire for my Bill McMuffins. *I do intend to buy another Hatfield Ham and see if the desire returns.
But, I am now in a brief “Egg Salad” period, on toasted Sourdourgh bread (also from Publix) and with some microwaved bacon. Recall that I think microwaving bacon is THE WAY to go. It is quick, and not messy (as long as you have a plastic microwave safe plate cover). *I am surprised how much egg salad you can put on each (half) slice of toast and it not fall off while you are eating it. I guess the right amount of “grass fed” butter & Dukes mayo makes the smushed egg all hang together really well.
Oh, and I’ve had Pu’er tea both of the last two mornings with my egg salad. Half-n-Half & sweetener yesterday, and just sweetener today. And, today I actually tasted what I consider “tannins” so I googled to see if Pu’er has tannins, like other teas, and “Yes” it does. [end NOTE]
[NOTE]: I don’t think I had this problem with an earlier can of Sauerkraut from Wegman’s, but this one was a shame. By the time I pressed most of the liquid out of the can of sauerkraut, the can was filled with less than half of the solid cabbage product. See right pix.
[end NOTE]
40 Years Ago, I was 30 Years Old.
I just noticed an article I wrote back in 2010 entitled: “40 Years Ago, I was 16 Years Old.” I don’t know what I will write for this article, but realize that I’ve recently rewatched the videos I made, in 1984, when I was living down in Alabama at S.I.F.A.T. S.I.F.A.T. was an acronym that had a double meaning. One was for the “faith” crowd, “Servants In Faith And Technology,” and the other was for the heathen crowd (heathen my term) “Southern Institute for Appropriate Technology.” I just googled and see that the official name is “Southern Institute for Appropriate Technology,” but it IS a Christian service organization.
At 30 years old I had just ended my seminary education, short of a degree and had come to live for almost a year in rural Alabama, at a couple of locations between Wedowee and Lineville.
There was no TV at the house which meant that I completely missed the 1984 summer Olympics. Not sure if they played tennis in the Olympics at that time, but after I returned to the Hubert/Jacksonville, NC area from my stay in Alabama, when I played tennis some of the other players had picked up a saying, “my bad,” for when they made a mistake on court. I recall that I thought that was stupid sounding, so I never said, “my bad.” Not sure, but it was probably some well known tennis player, on TV, that had used that phrase and brought it into our society.
*Oh, and I am usually a stickler for using adverbs and prepositions. But, much of current society has dropped adding an “ly” to their adverbs and will say something like, “I drove quick to the store,” instead of “quickly.” And the one I really hate is, “I shit my pants.” If I am going to shit, while I’m wearing pants, and I want to tell you about it, I am going to say, “I shit in my pants,” and I’m not going to say, “I shit my pants.” And if you say the abbreviated version, I’m going to think that not only have you soiled your pants, but you also missed the English class that taught you about adverbs and adding the “ly” to the qualifying word.
I recall that one night I was playing tennis on a public tennis court in Lineville and happened to look up and between two power/light poles and there was a LINEVILLE town sign on a post, but what I could see highlighted between the posts was the word “EVIL”.
Please forgive the graininess of this image. I copied it from one of the VHS videos I made in my 1984 tour of the S.I.F.A.T. farm. This is the working part of a Water Ram Pump. Water falls over a distance (maybe falling four feet) coming in from the right (in this picture). The check valve keeps the water from returning back the way it came, and a small amount of water continues under a small amount of pressure (able to lift the water several times higher than the original fall of water. So, if the water is falling 4 feet to this pump, the pump will be able to move a small amount of water maybe up sixteen feet. But, there is a good portion of water that is wasted (a Waste Water Valve), but since you have an unlimited supply of water, it doesn’t cost any extra to waste some of it since you aren’t having to fill a bucket and walk it up the hill.
I think I have a picture of myself when I was in Seminary. I was leaning against my car, and had a brightly colored 1980s styled shirt… and I was much, much thinner than I have been for quite some time. I will try to track down that picture and include it here. *Oh, I just thought, I also have a black & white picture of me in a suit on the Southern Seminary Campus in Louisville, KY which would have been sometime between 1982 and 1984. I’ve always liked that image because there was a large tree, with no leaves on it (during a winter month) and the tree trunk is severely bent which made the tree look like it was lightening coming out of the top of my heard.
**When I first arrived at Southern Seminary, I had brought my bedroom suit. It was a nice cherry wood suite, with a full sized bed, a mirrored vanity and a taller dresser. At some point I gave this bedroom suit to an inner city family. I hope they got good use out of it, but would not be surprised if they sold it, or burned it for firewood. I say burned it, because when I returned to Jacksonville, NC after living in Alabama, I had a family living in my 204 Johnson Boulevard house. I had to stay in a mobile home that Mary Ann owned briefly until the family moved out of 204 Johnson Blvd. But, when I moved back into my house in Jacksonville, I happened to be in the back yard and saw a “burn pit” near the rear kitchen door. When I looked into the ashes I recognized the metal hinges that I had used to build a sturdy set of wooden shelving that had been on the side porch. I realized that the renting family had broken the shelving apart and used it for firewood to keep warm. I didn’t think too unkindly of this, but it did seem a little cannibalistic to me. Burning perfectly good shelving to keep warm. When do you stop? When you burn your last shred of clothing?
Things I haven’t thought about in years… When I first moved back into my house at 204 Johnson Blvd., there were many, many roaches scurrying about the place. It might have been the first night I slept in my bed there, that I was awakened by a roach running across my front teeth. Apparently, my mouth was open while I was sleeping. That’s definitely not an experience that you want repeated so the next day I went to the FCX (Farmer’s Cooperative Exchange was absorbed in 1986 into the Southern States Cooperative) and asked them what I might use to get rid of a bunch of roaches. They sold me a white powder than came in a black cardboard canister. It had a little plastic tube that you could stick down into the container and then all you did was go about squeezing the canister and little puffs of white powder would spew out onto the floor or some other area you were pointing at. I went around the house making an almost continuous stream of the white powder running along the “baseboard” of each room. It worked! I’m not sure I’ve ever killed so many bugs, so quickly, and they didn’t come back… well, until I let “Red” Reid, a homeless person, stay in my house for a few nights. This was years later, and the box of his “stuff” that he brought in with him had one roach scurry out of the box. The thing is, that white powder may have still been working because I never saw him, the roach, again.
One other thing I never saw again was my gold colored Trek bicycle that “Red” stole when he left. Unlike the roach, that was more of a “kick in the teeth” for me trying to be generous and help the guy out. There was a legal notice that came to my house, for him, some time later and it had the date & time of a court date that he was required to appear at. I made a note of this scheduled event and “just happened” to be in that courtroom on that date & time, and sure enough, “Red” came through the courtroom door and was surprised to see me. I think I only said a few words to him, something to the effect that… You did wrong and God will reward you appropriately, and I left the room never to see him again. “Red” had red hair.
I left a Global Stamp Album in the attic at 204 Johnson Blvd. when I went off to Seminary in 1981. I had collected stamps since I was in high school. The album was probably 5 or 6 inches thick. Each page was double sided and included several black & white images of the stamps on each page. The images were the size of the actual stamps so all you did when you got that stamp was to paste it over the B&W image on the page. I probably didn’t have any really expensive stamps, but I had quite a few. When I came back to live at 204 Johnson Blvd., this album was gone. I should have known that you just couldn’t leave something like that in a house that you were going to rent out.
And another thing. I had a working, floor model, hand cranked phonograph that sat on four legs, and had a place to store some records and a door that opened to the speaker (this had no electrical working parts). The lid lifted so that you could put a record on the turn table. I think I had paid about $50 for it. I bought it because I had gotten a bunch of old 33 1/3 records when I was staying with my mother up in Portsmouth, VA. She was renting a small apartment with bathroom in a sprawling old house that had formerly been owned by either a Governor of Virginia, or important politician. One day the owner of the house had me help him start to clean the attic. He started to throw out a bunch of these old records that were stored in boxes. There was a window in the attic, and he opened it and threw a box down about 3 flights onto the alleyway. I stopped him and said I wanted them if he would, and he let me have them.
So now I had over a hundred old 33 1/3 records of people and bands like Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller and others, but nothing to play them on. That’s when I found an old hand crank, console and bought it.
At some point I bought a special record. It was much thicker that all the other records I had. Maybe about three times as thick, and it had a special engraved image of Thomas Edison (embossed?). This was a special record that required a diamond tipped needle to play, a diamond disc.
What happened to this phonograph and the records. Well, when I went off to Southern Seminary, I asked a friend if he would keep the boxes of records and he kept some under his bed. But, at some point his mom wanted to clean out the house and I told him to go ahead and get rid of them. But the phonograph? I also asked a former pastor of mine, Rev. Fred High (at New River Baptist Church), if he would keep this antique for me. I had a few records in it, and the Woodrow Wilson campaign button and a copy of the Daily News that had my mother’s obituary in it, all stored together. Well, when I came back to Jacksonville after seminary and my time in Alabama, I came over to get the phonograph. And what? Well Fred said something like, “When I look at it, I think of your mother,” and I realized that he didn’t want to give it back. I made a quick decision that if he wanted it more than me, he could have it. Not that he deserved it any more than me, or that I had ever told him, “I’m giving this to you.” No, just one of those things not worth trying to hold onto… *I just googled and see that Fred died in Bessemer City, NC in January of 2018. I hadn’t heard the names Lora, Missy and Angie in a long time but saw them mentioned in his guestbook.
Back to Dinwiddie Street, Portsmouth, VA and cleaning the attic: *There was also a table top or box that had a bunch of old campaign buttons on it. They were for Woodrow Wilson. Little round buttons about an inch in diameter with his face and name on them. The owner was going to throw those out and I asked if I could have them. He must have seen my eyes light up because he changed his mind and said just take a couple. There were probably fifty of them. I never sold the one I got, but they could have easily been worth $500. **I just saw that one special button (not shown here) was being offered for $149. I don’t think I would have been savvy enough to make $2,500 by selling all of those buttons, but they would have been worth it.
We, my mother and me, had something like this. A Sears Silvertone record player & radio combination console. It was fake wood. No telling what I would have played on this but probably a 45 of “Red Rubber Ball” by the Cyrkle, or “Last Train to Clarksville” by the Monkees. I now remember, I listened to Shirley Bassey sing “Goldfinger” and cranked it up.
I might have listened to WMBL in Morehead City on the radio although that would probably have been more on the car radio.
The TV was in the front corner of the living room, and the phonograph console was to the left of the TV. I think this was the TV that I watched “Sunrise Theater” from WRAL5 TV on Saturday mornings. In those days there was no “cable TV” and all the television stations went off the air at 12 midnight. They only displayed a “test pattern” from midnight until 6am the next morning and then they came back on. “Sunrise Theater” included two sci-fi/monster/horror movies back to back and they ran from 6 am until 9 am. There was a TV antenna just outside at the end of the front porch and a coaxial cable (flat plastic with wires inside) ran between the TV and the antenna. Our antenna was on an aluminum pole and you could rotate it for better reception sometimes. Each Saturday morning I would finish watching the first movie, but just about 15 minutes before the second film finished the sun began to reach high enough in the sky to affect the TV reception. There were many of these mornings that I would run outside and rotate the antenna to get better reception, but quite a few mornings the sun would win and I wouldn’t know how the second movie ended. Two scarry movies that I recall watching on Saturday mornings were “Invisible Invaders” and “From Hell It Came.”
“Invisible Invaders” involved invisible aliens that inhabited the bodies of dead Earthlings, but were finally conquered by sonic weapons (John Agar, John Carradine and Jean Byron before she became Patty Duke’s TV mom). “From Hell It Came” had to do with VooDoo, and a man came back from the dead and inhabited a tree. The tree killed people, mostly women I think, but the creature had a knife embedded near it’s heart and finally someone shot the knife handle driving the blade into the creature’s heart and killing it.
After this black & white console TV shown above, we had a Zenith B&W portable TV. It was portable by the standards of that day, but I find my 40 inches TV today to be not as heavy as that old Zenith. I’m not sure if the portable Zenith we had was exactly like the one show here, but it was narrower at the top, front to back, than at the bottom, and the carrying handle was exactly the same. I probably would have watched “The Time Tunnel” or “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” on it. And I guess I was still watching “The Wizard of Oz,” and “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” every year, along with “Rocky & Bullwinkle,” “Yogi Bear,” and “Mutual of Omahas Wild Kingdom” with Jim and Marlin Perkins.
Sunday nights were special because the “Wonderful World of Disney” and Walt Disney almost always had a movie to show us. Might have been “Old Yeller” or “Treasure Island.” What was that Disney movie about the little boy who runs off to the circus? Or maybe “Daniel Boone.”
A day or so later from writing the above, I’m watching a rerun of “Banacek.” The one where a full sized commercial jet has disappeared from a small airport. Victoria Principal is playing the character of a young, good looking flight attendant, and she mentions to Banacek as they are riding in a jeep, that the poor local TV fare includes “The Farm Report,” and a rerun of “Circus Boy.”
in Toby Tyler
in Toby Tyler
in Zorro
My mind immediately catches on the reference to “Circus Boy” and I do a quick google. Mickey Dolenz, who would later become one of the Monkees Band, plays a young boy who runs off to join the circus. He wasn’t the boy I had in mind, so I’m going to look for another “boy runs off to the circus” movie about that time. Ahh, “Circus Boy” was the TV show, and “Toby Tyler: Or Ten Weeks with a Circus” was the Disney movie and Kevin Corcoran played the young boy in the movie. Henry Calvin would have been the iconic actor that befriends the young boy. Calvin was also in “Zorro.”
There were no children that lived close to where I lived and my mom was at work from about 7:30 am to 5:00 pm so I entertained myself with television programs. I grew up in the country, but I wasn’t a country boy. I watched Sci-Fi, horror and monsters. The Wolfman, the Creature from the Black Lagoon (Julie Adams wow!), Dracula (Hammer Films: Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee). I guess if my mom had listened to country music or played it some or a lot, I might have gravitated toward that, but she didn’t so I watched “American Bandstand” with Dick Clark, or later “Soul Train” with Don Cornelius. And every year I would stay up late on New Year’s Eve to celebrate the new year. I just thought, I was never able to kiss a girl/woman when the new year arrived. Even when I was dating Debbie Sutton, we were never together for New Years Eve.
By 1973 when the Miami Dolphins went undefeated and won the Super Bowl I was watching on a color TV. I don’t recall what company made it, but I do recall that it sat on top of a dresser in my bedroom in my Aunt Sis’s house in Hubert. I recall me standing right in front of it one day, and a very young Jaime looked up at me and asked, “Your Ami.” To which I had to try and explain that it wasn’t My Ami Dolphins, as in they belonged to me, but it was the Miami Dolphins. Not an idiotic question at all.
Mom bought me a 1971 Pontiac LeMans, blue with a white vinyl top, for my high school senior year. What a mom!!! She may have “done without,” but she made sure I had.
There was a black teacher who had a blue & white car that looked like mine, but it wasn’t a Pontiac LeMans. I recall one time that I was behind her one morning as we were in front of the Swansboro High School, and she turned in front of a vehicle which hit her. *Okay, I would have been living with my Aunt Sis in Hubert my senior year, so I would have been parking my car at the high school on most school days.
I also recall when I was dating Debbie, that I drove from Hubert down to Cape Carteret where she lived and picked her up. We drove all the way back to Jacksonville, past Aunt Sis’s house in Hubert, to see what movies were playing. Not seeing anything we liked, we drove all the way back down Highway 24, past Sis’s house again, through Cape Carteret and on to Morehead City to see what movies were playing down there. I don’t actually recall if we went to a movie anywhere that day. But I still had to come from Morehead City, back to Cape Carteret to drop Debbie off, and then drive back to Hubert. Now that’s a bunch of miles on the highway, but that’s love. I think Debbie and I saw Barbara Streisand in “Funny Girl” at the theater in Morehead City. That was with Omar Shariff? Later Dr. Zhivago.
My Freshman year at UNC-Chapel Hill I wasn’t allowed to have a car, so my mom took the two year old Pontiac LeMans to drive to/from work and I got a bicycle (from Woolworths in Chapel Hill) which I almost never rode. The 1964 1/2 Prairie Bronze Ford Mustang 2+2 had finally succumbed to the ravages of time. Recall that the first year, or few months we had it, a couple of young Marines had broken into our garage and stolen the Mustang for a “joy ride.” They had wrecked the car at Stella (a place not a person), and while on it’s side, battery acid had leaked across the engine. Mom never thought the car rode as well after the theft/accident. *And the Prairie Bronze color was changed in 1971 to a powder blue with flecks of sand in the paint because the paint had not had time to dry before mom had to bring it down to Hubert for me to drive to my prom. She had been taking the Mustang to the Portsmouth Ford dealer to have it serviced in anticipation of me using it for my prom. Someone had motioned her across traffic, and “surprise” someone was coming and hit her. I’ve never seen a larger bruise on anyone than the almost solid bruise my mom had on the left side of her body. When the other car had hit she was probably thrown severely against the driver’s side door. When she drove up into Sis’s front yard in a powder blue Mustang it was still missing two hub caps. The next day we went to a junk yard and bought two replacement hubcaps. ’71 would have been Debbie, and ’72 would have been Rida Ring. **As I re-read this posting again, I realized that since I had the 1971 Pontiac LeMans all of 1972, that I must have had the Mustang for the 1971 Prom.
I leave this section to try and help me determine the timeline for the Proms I attended and which cars I drove during those times. The Embers were scheduled one year to play at our Swansboro High School Prom, but they came out with a hit in 1970, “Far Away Places” and they backed out of performing for us. I don’t recall who we got to play that year. If I graduated in 1972 and started college classes at Carolina that August, then I would have attended my last prom in the spring of ’72.
My mother worked as a Civil Service “Clerk Typist” for over 40 years, mostly aboard Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base. She worked with Betty Brainerd, Robin Short and Rip Jackson (who lived in Sneads Ferry, I think) at Building 66, the Naval Medical Field Research Unit. This unit was where they tested out things like putting a human cadaver’s foot inside a boot and blowing it up to see the effects of a bomb blast on the human body. And, Rip Jackson got me my dog, Lassie, from the test animals. I recall that mom was rated as a GS-4 along with the other women she worked with, but at some point all but her got a promotion to GS-5s. I wonder why? She was a fast reader and a quick typist, and quiet.
Several years later he, Rip Jackson, also took the money my mom provided and bought me a fishing rod & reel (Penn Peerless No. 9 – which I still have, but not in working condition), and a fake copper colored tackle box. I recall there was a pearly white shrimp lure with the multi-hooks hanging down from it. I think it probably scared more fish away than attracted them. There was also a small vial of scent meant to attract fish. It had an almond/cherry scent so was pleasant for humans to smell. The Christmas I got the fishing gear, mom went out with me to the Bogue Pier. It was extremely cold that morning but there were a few fishermen on the pier.
One old, seasoned fisherman was fishing near where the waves broke, and he was pulling in fish, one after another. I wasn’t catching anything, so after a while mom suggested that we move down next to him. We did and I still didn’t catch anything, but we did make him move away from us… twice I think;-)
Regarding the picture with the fishing reel and the the little colorful wooden carved characters of fishermen & sea folk/ I’ve had them for years. I bought them for a dollar each. Repeatedly I have thought that I would like to create a chess set using these characters, but I don’t have enough of them, and I never came up with all the distinct pieces. One idea was to have the rooks be made of mooring posts maybe with one or more seagulls sitting on a post. And unlike several images on this page, this is a picture of the actual Penn reel that I got as a Christmas present many, many, many years ago. Possibly 55 years ago.
Several years later when mom was living with Aunt Pete (Zeta Littleton) in Portsmouth, Virginia, Aunt Pete’s boyfriend, Irvin Wilkins, took pity on a fatherless boy and took me out fishing on his small boat. Is that the Elizabeth River? Aunt Pete allowed him to keep his boat tied up at her dock which was in front of her home at 521 Riverside Drive. One morning the tide had already started to go out, and we had started late. When the tide was completely out, the little bay in front of her house would be just mud. We pushed off from her dock and maybe got out about 10 yards before the boat became stuck in the mud. The little channel of water was quickly disappearing with the tide, but Irvin finally got us out into deeper water and on to fishing. Not sure if we would have had to stay in the boat until the tide came back in, several hours later, or if we would have tried to get out of the boat and walk back to the dock. No telling how far down you might sink in that mud.
On another fishing excursion into the Elizabeth River, we made it out and both of us threw our fishing lines out into the River on different sides of the boat. At some point we both got a nibble and both started reeling in our catch, but at some point my line began to go around under the boat and then it became obvious that our fishing lines had become entangled. I don’t recall if there were two fish, but I recall the one fish, an ugly Toadfish, and that Irvin had to take his pliers out and cut the hook from it’s mouth. That was easier than trying to fight the fish for the hook and the tangled lines.
Aunt Pete must have died my Freshman year at Carolina (1972 Chapel Hill). I came home on Thanksgiving and went back until Christmas break (less than a month I guess) and when I got back at Christmas they told me Aunt Pete was dead. I said, “Why didn’t anyone tell me she had died.” By the time of her death, Aunt Pete and I were not close. In fact, she hated me, and that hate had caused my mother to move out of Pete’s house and take an apartment. I think the body language, Pete with her arms folded, sitting on Irvin’s boat, says it all. She didn’t want to be there with me taking a picture.
I think mom lived in two different places before she came back to Jacksonville, NC to live and work on Base again. She lived for a short time with an old woman in Craddock. Later she moved to Dinwiddie Street and had a larger bedroom and a private bathroom (that was probably opulent in prior days).
But, I heard that Irvin lived another couple of years and then one day they found him dead in an alleyway in Norfolk (just across the river from Portsmouth). The alleyway was so narrow that he had died standing up. Norfolk, like Chicago is famous for it’s frigid downtown weather. Irvin was an alcoholic, and I guess the loss of Aunt Pete had left him all alone. But, I loved the man and have visited his grave in the Olive Branch Cemetery a short distance from 521 Riverside Drive.
*Some years ago I went looking for Aunt Pete’s grave. I recalled that I had visited it many years previously, probably shortly after she died. But, I couldn’t find her grave and the caretaker, with his thick book of the recorded graves couldn’t find her either. Only later when I came back home and googled for it, I found that she was buried in a different cemetery. Irvin is in the same cemetery as Anna Kathleen Morton Hughes (d.12/54). She was married to Earl Booker Hughes. They have a double headstone. I’ve seen it. Pete was married to Everett Littleton briefly. ***It was Lyde and Hurley Jones that were married.
I have a picture of Lawrence and Thalia Morton when they were visiting in Virginia. They are standing in front of an automobile and the passenger side door is open. If you look through the door window, you can see Hurley Jones looking at the camera.
It was from this picture of Lawrence and Thalia that I got the image of “the Poor Farmer.” I never thought of him as a poor farmer. I knew how much he was loved by the way all his children, and Mary Ann, talked about him. I had cut his image out and printed it on several envelopes. I happened to show my waitress the envelope and to my surprise she made the comment, “that poor old farmer.” I had to take a second look, and yes, I guess he was a poor old farmer, but I never knew the man, and that appendage would never stick with me.
Irony? Well, recall that I said that my family did not tell me when my Aunt Pete died, in 1972, while I was away at school. Now many years later, and I find from Mary Ann earlier this year that Dot Pefley, the daughter of Aunt Pete died in March of 2012. That was forty years between the two deaths, and 12 years ago. She had a living son, Charles, who never contacted us to let us know. I find that rather “rude.”
Dorothy “Dot” Littleton Pefley was married to Bill. She and her husband were both successful realtors in Virginia (Virginia Beach) and North Carolina (Elizabeth City). They lived at Munden Point, and at some point even donated the property which became Munden Point Park and Pefley Lane runs through this area.
Where Dot and Bill Pefley lived, and just up this path is Munden Point Park.
Caldo Gallego & Other Things…
Caldo Gallego, South Florida Style is a recipe in the Nancie McDermott cookbook, “Southern Soups & Stews.” I bought this book at one of the Friends of the Cumberland County Library book sales for a dollar or maybe two. At some point, I put this book in the basket in my bathroom as reading material, and then forgot about it as it was pushed back behind several old issues of “Our State” Magazine. Today, I was pulling out the Our State Magazines and found that I had an old Bible beneath them. As I pulled out the Bible, I realized that I also had another book, and then I saw it was a cookbook.
I looked through the cookbook again and on many pages the name of the person who provided the soup recipe was also listed in the recipe’s title. So, when I came to the page with the heading, “Caldo Gallego, South Florida Style,” I mistakenly thought that the recipe’s author was a man named Caldo Gallego. It was only after making my version of this soup that I noted the title didn’t actually mention what kind of soup this was, so I googled for “Caldo Gallego,” and to my surprise Caldo Gallego isn’t a person, but a well known Galician stew and that “Caldo Gallego” actually means “Galician broth.”
The recipe in the book does allow for substitutions such as Andouille or Smokey Kielbasa for Chorizo, and even Spanish Chorizo for the Mexican version (they don’t mention that the regular Chorizo wasn’t from Mexico). I like the Spanish Chorizo with it’s dark reddish color caused by the massive amount of Smoked Paprika in it. The Spanish Chorizo that I have tried comes in a hard link form. The Mexican Chorizo is a fresh sausage and I don’t think it includes any Paprika, smoked or otherwise. I usually have some of the Hillshire Farms Beef Polska Kielbasa in my refrigerator (for my Zucchini/Shrimp/Kielbasa dish) so that is what I used for this soup. I also used cheap bacon.
I also substituted Cannellini beans for the listed Navy beans, more of a case of those beans being easier to find in my larder. Using the word “larder” is an inside joke just to me, because not too long ago I was watching an episode of “The Kitchen” and one of the chefs, Geoffrey Zakarian, used the word “larder” and then had to explain what it was to the rest of the chefs. I think there was some mention that the name larder probably came from the place being where you stored your “lard.”
As I often do, this reminds me of something else, the old smoke house that was located behind the house I grew up in. The house was located on the corner of Highway 24 and Queens Creek Road, and diagonally across from the old Swansboro High School (or at least the old high school that I attended and graduated from in 1972).
The old house, a two story was moved a short distance down Queens Creek Road, when Highway 24 was widened (1970s?). The current Swansboro Burger King is located on that corner now, and when I sit in a booth beside the drive thru, I am sitting about where the old smoke house was located.
The smoke house was small and tall, about the size of a large outhouse. The outside walls were covered with a sandy grained asphalt “tar paper,” and the inside was wood that had been seasoned with the smoke that had seasoned many country hams. It had a good smell, and the wood was dark, even though it might have been originally a light pine. The floor instead of dirt was covered by salt, which I guess had also covered the outside of those hams.
I never attended “a hog killing,” but there was a large black cast iron pot (a cauldron) that was probably used to cook down the fat or meat. It was beside the smokehouse, near it’s door. Actually, I don’t know what was put in the pot.
My version of Caldo Gallego turned out really well. I would definitely make it again. I waited until the soup was almost done before adding the large chunks of Russet potatoes. I don’t like my potatoes mushy and if you add them too soon that is what they become.
3 Bean Salad from Wegman’s.
I wanted to remind myself that I would like to bring a 3 bean (+) salad for Christmas to Mary Ann’s. I am supposing that I will go there at some point for Christmas dinner. Now that I know she likes the Peppadew peppers (red ones from Farm Fresh) and I think she mentioned the roasted garlic also, I have another idea. I might add a Black bean to this mix along with the peppadews and the Red Biquinho peppers. *As an aside, I didn’t connect the fresh Biquinho peppers I bought at the State Farmers’ Market in Raleigh two years ago with the little pickled peppers that I get at the olive/pickle bar at Farm Fresh.
I’m not sure why I’ve included Fava beans in my list. I think I may have thought they were equivalent to the Edamame (young green soy bean) beans that go in the Quinoa salad that I originally got at Publix. The Fayetteville Publix no longer has their deli salad bar. Recall I also liked their Wakami salad (seaweed) but have since found the basic seaweed salad at Hex in Cary, and am able to “doctor it up” to make it just like Publix offered.
I just noticed at how much the two photos (fava beans, marcona almonds) look alike. They are not and would not be use to replace each other in ANY recipe… unless you go nuts.
Oh, I do eventually want to take a strong run at replicating the Dolce K Olive & Fruit Mix which is found on the Olive/Pickle Bar at Whole Foods. This has the blanched Marcona almonds which look a lot like peeled garlic, but are slightly crunchy and taste nothing like garlic. The olives take on the sweet vinegary flavor but I think it is the orange and lemon zest that flavors them interestingly.
There are cranberries, mustard seeds, orange & lemon zest, marcona almonds and olives (not sure which kind??) in a sweet vinegary liquid. The almonds are slightly crunchy, so they aren’t roasted beforehand.
Later Note: I have since made this Mediterranean Olive Mix (Dolce “K” Olive Mix) at home successfully. The white raisins I used rehydrated to almost their original size and some were almost the size of the olives I had used.
I zested my own orange rind successfully. Here is the zester I bought to try to make the zesting process faster.
Changing the size of the bottle cap on the GV Half-n-Half container…
You have reduced the size of the plastic cap on the box and this makes it hard to open at times. You are saving money by using less plastic to make the cap, but it also makes opening the container difficult. *I heard about this on TV and up until then, I thought I was losing strength in my hands. If you absolutely can’t go back to the slightly larger cap, just don’t have a cap at all. Not having a cap would save you even more money. In the past, when I couldn’t get the cap twisted off the first time, I’ve opened the container like we used to open the little half pints of milk in Elementary school. Open one end of the cardboard container. That still works. Thanks.
So, I go online, sign into my WalMart account and try to post feedback about this product. I get everything in correctly and then the form won’t let me keep the phone number I have entered. I have entered it correctly, checked it again and again, and the simple format should be XXX-XXX-XXXX with the first set of numbers being the Area Code. *Well, one site showed the above format for the telephone number but I finally found that you just enter the ten numbers without any hyphens or other special characters XXXXXXXXXX.
I have started transferring my Half-n-Half creamer to a glass bottle because I like the feel of the cold glass when I am pouring the creamer into my coffee or tea. I am reusing an Egg Nog bottle, that is shaped like the old glass milk bottles that the milkman, in the past, delivered milk to your home. But this bottle is slightly smaller, but still the same shape.
I just recalled that I have another example of how a money saving idea makes something almost useless. I bought a nail clipper at Dollar Tree a few months ago. When I first removed it from it’s plastic package, I thought it was great because it was small and I found I could attach it to my key ring. So, I would have my nail clipper with me wherever I went with my keys, and I would also have my “John Wayne.”
At least that is what I was told it was called by the Marines that had them in the field to open their K-Rations (dark green metal cans of food). A P38 Military Issue. I probably got the one I have more than 50 years ago, and mine is made of steel, not the aluminum version. But the nail clipper proved to be almost useless because it wasn’t the standard size that has been around probably since before I was born. This was smaller, and that reduction in size makes it difficult to use. It just doesn’t fit the hand.
This simple can opener works. I’ve had a problem with some metal cans in the last several years. It may be the strength of the metal in the can. My conventional can opener won’t “catch” and start cutting into the metal can, or it will cut part of the can top, stop working for a little and then start back. The result is a can that is almost open, but not open enough to remove the contents.
I just thought of a joke about John Wayne. Well, it was about the rough toilet paper that has little resemblance to the soft white textured paper in the bathrooms of many homes. They call it “John Wayne” toilet paper because “It’s rough, and tough and it doesn’t take crap off of anybody.”
Quinoa Salad Like Publix Deli’s
The Publix I usually go to, just down from Harris Teeter in the Tallywood Shopping Center, discontinued their Deli salads a few years ago. I enjoyed this Quinoa Salad, but also they had a Wakame Seaweed Salad that I liked. I found a jar of Seaweed Salad at Hex in Cary but it has to be “doctored” to take on the flavors that I liked from the Publix salad. Add: soy sauce, red wine vinegar, toasted sesame oil, sesame seeds, red pepper flakes. This reminds me of of the Dolce K Sweet Olive Mix at Whole Foods. Not because of the flavors but because of the complexity that makes up the mix.
I was just on the Publix web site and here are the listed ingredients for their Quinoa Salad.
Ingredients
Quinoa Salad {Quinoa, Lime juice, Canola Oil And Extra Virgin Olive oil Blend, Water, Lemon Juice, Sugar, Contains 2% Or Less Of The Following: Orange puree (Orange Pulp Cells, Concentrated orange Juice, Water, Orange Peel, Orange oil) Sea Salt, Sesame Oil, Spices}, Dried fruit And Nut Mix (Cranberries{Cranberries, sugar, Glycerin, Sunflower Oil}, Peanuts (Peanuts, Canola Oil), Roasted Pumpkin Seed {Pumpkin Seeds, Canola Oil}) Spinach, Edamame {Soy Beans}.
Edamame and soybeans are from the same plant but edamame is picked from the immature soy plant in July and August before it is fully mature. “It’s like picking a tomato that’s still green.” Green edamame is harvested from a still-ripening soy plant.
*I have made this Quinoa Salad at home successfully, but not it quite a while,
As I read the first paragraph I think on how diverse my palate is. Seaweed salad, Quinoa salad, Dolce K Sweet Olive Mix, smoked oysters with homemade hummus, turmeric & vinegar added to tomatoes, sweet bell pepper and sweet onion. Chicken livers & gizzards. Beef/calf liver. Souse and liver pudding. Goat & cow cheeses.
I’m also reminded of the changes that have occurred to the Tallywood Shopping Center since I first came to Fayetteville about 30 years ago.
On the corner was a small garage that I went to for basic maintenance. I don’t recall the name of the place, but the building, after several years of being vacant, was torn down and a drive-thru coffee shop built. Next to the coffee shop location is Biscuitville, which recently (is that one or two years now) replaced the Hardees. And a MiCasita which had been next to a carpet store. But in the back where the new Publix was built were several smaller shops and a (was that?) Belks. One of the smaller shops was School Tools Of Fayetteville NC, which moved for a few years over on Robeson Street, but now is just down from the Harris Teeter and the Post Office.
.
The first Publix I recall visiting was in Georgia some years ago when I was visiting either my dad, or my half-sister Donna. Don’t recall what I bought, but after visiting another Publix, elsewhere, I noted that they were a “cut above” and with greater choices. I like this Publix and have a good rapport with the bakery. They will half a loaf with no grumbling. I like the Round Bone Lamb Chops that they have imported from New Zealand.
I also like the frozen shrimp that I use for my Zucchini/Kielbasa/Shrimp dish, but more than once have found that they either don’t have a clue that they sell this product, or can’t manage to put it on the shelf (in a timely manner). And “on the shelf” is rhetorical because the shrimp are in a freezer with a see-thru door. After asking about these, I found myself in a Cary Publix where I had no problem getting the frozen shrimp. *The shrimp come in a resealable bag, but sometimes I divide these into about 15 shrimp in smaller bags and then put them all back in the big reseal bag. Then I just have to put the smaller bag into the microwave under the “2.0” defrost setting. It takes less than 15 minutes to thaw the shrimp, and that allows for the time to cook the pasta (the small shells) . And both of those happen as the kielbasa, onions, and zucchini (with a little tomato to color the sauce) are cooking. *This process reminds me of the precise process I use to make my Pastrami Reubens (Rachels) which turn out perfectly almost every time.
Butter the outsides of the two slices of seeded rye bread and toast’em. Flip them over after the butter and bread are browned and put on a slice of Swiss on each and melt the cheese. Squeeze out the moisture in the sauerkraut to be put on the sandwich, but also put some more sauerkraut on a plate to be mixed with the homemade Thousand Island dressing. *It came to me that if the sauerkraut and dressing were good on the sandwich, they would be good together as a side dish, and they were/are.
The Thousand Island dressing consists of: Dukes Mayo, Heinz Ketchup, Relish, finely diced sweet onion (Vidalia), some hot sauce (Texas Pete not Frank’s), S&P.
I don’t heat the Pastrami but place a slice or two on each toasted slice of the rye bread. The idea being that the melted Swiss and the Pastrami will both keep any extra moisture from leeching out from the sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing and making the bread soggy. And, this works!
The sandwich has a lot of flavor and it isn’t messy, although it could be. Add some chips and a Ranch Dill pickle and maybe a side of the sauerkraut & dressing, and you have a good lunch.
And the Ranch Dill (spear) is easily made. Buy a cheap jar of the Dill Spears at WalMart. Buy a cheap package of the Ranch Dressing powder (about 50 cents at Food Lion) or the Hidden Valley packet for about $1.50. You can drain the juice to mix with the powder and then pour it all back into the pickle jar. Seal it, and put it in the fridge for a day and then enjoy, as needed.
IGA currently has a small, but not single serving size, bag of Wavy potato chips that only costs about $1.48.
The rye bread and the chips are a “splurge” for a Type 2 diabetic, and the salt and fat in the Pastrami…
Did I mention that the plastic container that the Hillshire Farms Pastrami comes in is reusable? If you can buy the Pastrami at WalMart for less than $5, then that makes the reusable container “a deal.” And the company has intentionally made this container easily reusable. Their advertising is printed on a cardboard sheet which is attached to the red “see thru” lid with some of that stretchy gluey stuff. Peels off easily. I have quite a few of the Rubbermaid Easy Find storage containers, but the Hillshire Farms tubs work well for many other things. I recently put some homemade hummus and black bean hummus in a single container. The differences in color of the two hummi (I’ve never used the plural of hummus before, and am not sure if there is a plural… but I know that it ain’t “shrimps,” but “shrimp” looked good in the container. But these smaller containers also work for leftovers, and now that I think of it, I put my bacon (uncooked) in one of the Hillshire Farms tubs. I slice the bacon in half and both halves then fit easily in the small tub.
Couscous & Quinoa Salads
I have made a quinoa salad before and was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. But, it wasn’t something that I included in my regular foods rotation.
This Couscous Salad looked good and I could either create it as is, or modify it to my liking:
I think the basic ingredients shown above include:
- couscous
- seedless cucumber
- tomatoes
- walnuts
- raisins
- coarsely chopped fresh herbs ( any combination of )
- fresh parsley
- cilantro
- basil
- dill
- mint
- S&P
And the dressing was something simple like:
- lemon juice
- Dijon mustard
- honey
I would probably substitute Agave Nectar for the honey and have already.
Oh my! The above Couscous Salad was delicious. I did add some olives but I don’t think they added anything to the overall flavor. I had this salad with baked tilapia, which was very good, again. The panko breading is “spot on,” and adding the Spicy Chili Crisp to the fish just highlights the coolness of the salad. But, I also tried a variation on the salad by using the Jalapeno Lime Dressing which I had tried some time ago. This dressing is much more savory.
The couscous took about 10 minutes to cook. A cup and a half of water brought to a boil, then add a cup of couscous and half teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil again and then lower heat to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes. While I was preparing the couscous, I chopped up some English cucumber, Campari tomatoes, sweet onion, chopped cilantro and added walnut pieces and raisins and S&P. When the couscous was done, I added it warm to the other ingredients and then in this case put some of the mixture on two different plates. On the one I used the suggested dressing and on the other the Jalapeno Lime dressing. *Forgot, but I couldn’t find the fresh garlic so I used the powdered garlic for the JL dressing. I think I still have enough salad for another meal.
As I was reading I asked myself what category couscous would be put under and the AI suggested that couscous was like pasta, a small pasta also like orzo. And in reading the recipe I think I saw that the chef suggested that you could also use small pasta (maybe pasta shells) instead of the couscous.
I might also add the following, which I consider as having Mediterranean influence: Sweet Onion, Tomato, Sweet Bell Pepper and flavor with vinegar, cumin and turmeric. And I think I’ve also added olives to this mix. The turmeric gives a strong acrid taste. I’ve also added sweetener to this. I think I also added turmeric to some dill pickles.
Bill Gibson, II 