Tale as Old as Time

Well, maybe not quite as old as time, but we purchased our dining room set in 1973. It was new and shiny and beautiful. We had a large table and 6 chairs with matching hutch. At that time our family consisted of Johnny, me, a 2 year old and a baby. The toddler cut teeth standing on the chairs and chewing on the backs of them. They both crawled under and over them and made forts under the table. The hutch served as backdrop for family photos. We moved several times, each time selecting a place to live that had room for our table, chairs and hutch. Two more children came along and many joys were shared around that old table.

The children grew up and the chairs grew old. The shiny wore off and they developed a tackiness that would adhear to skin. The beastly brutes were particularly fond of the the area just behind your knee.

Not long ago a friend took the chairs and stripped the finish, glued the rungs and stained them to match the set. He finished them with wax and they no longer bite, they are once again shiny and beautiful.

The Pickle Project

Not all pickles are created equal, or equally created in this case. There are pickles that you make by mixing vinegar, water, sugar, salt and flavorings; packing in jars and processing . Those are good.
There are also pickles made by fermentation. Cucumbers sit in a bucket of salt water and flavorings and form their own vinegar. That is what I have brewing in the kitchen right now. We will know the results in 3 weeks.

Speaking of fermentation, that is what happens to cabbage to make sauerkraut. It has gone very well and will be served tonight with Polish sausage. Shredded cabbage, water, salt and three weeks are all it takes to make sauerkraut.

Slowly Wiping out the Paper

I don't know if it is environmental or economic,
but the toilet paper tube is shorter than it was before.
















Yellowstone Park has gone green and removed the center from the soap.

Magical Kitchen English Muffin Recipe

1 package dry yeast ¼ cup warm water 1 cup milk, scalded 3 Tbs butter room temp 2 Tbs sugar

1 tsp salt 5 to 5 ½ cups flour 1 egg room temp Cornmeal

Dissolve yeast in warm water, whisk and set aside
In a large bowl add milk, butter, sugar, salt, and 3 cups flour. Blend. If this mixture is warm and not too hot for the yeast add the dissolved yeast. Beat 150 strokes or 2 min with mixer. Beat in Egg
Spoon in remaining flour, ¼ cup at a time. When dough cleans sides of the bowl, turn onto floured surface and knead, till smooth and elastic
Lightly grease dough let it rise in mixing bowl. Cover and set in a warm place until double in size.
Punch down the dough knead for 30 seconds and set aside to rest for 10 minutes
Sprinkle work surface with cornmeal and turn the dough onto it roll out the dough until it is ¼ inch thick. The dough is very elastic and draws back when rolled, let it set a few seconds and roll again. Cut into 3 inch rounds, I use a large jar ring.
Knead the uneven pieces together roll out and cut more rounds, repeat till all dough is used.
Set rounds on a corn-mealed surface and let rise till they are ½ inch thick
Heat heavy griddle to hot. Bake the muffins for 2 minutes on each side, Reduce heat and bake 6 additional minutes on each side. Be careful not to scorch them;
Cool on metal rack.
Pull apart with tines of a fork and toast the insides.

These freeze well.

English muffins

My afternoon project, 39 English muffins. Some to eat fresh, some to freeze and some to share.

Estes, Etc

I was part of a group form Yellowstone Harmony attending Rocky Mountain Roundup in Estes Park. The Buzz, an international champion quartet taught a fabulous seminar. We learned a new song.
We had lunch at the Stanley Hotel. The Stanley has a wonderful history.
http://www.stanleyhotel.com/index.html
Connie and I went on the Ghost tour. The tour was very interesting, but we didn't see any ghost.

Saturday night Cody and Tina came and went to the final show with me.

Ice Station

You will never, ever, ever guess what I put in my freezer tonight. Well, you might guess if you know that I go to Cody on Tuesdays and that I sometimes pick up and deliver things for my work.


It would also help to know that the lady I work for makes rugs for a taxidermist. Quite often I deliver bear-skin rugs, but tonight I picked up a different type of hide. This one was wet so that It can be stretched before it is rugged. She does the stretching too. The taxidermist wraps the wet skin in plastic and freezes it so it will keep till it is stretched.

So right there in the center shelf of my freezer on top of the beef is a package of zebra. Next week it will be a nice rug and the beef will be dinner.

Not long ago she did a musk ox. It was all stretched and ready to go when it came to us. We get the mount before it is touched up, this one still has tissue in his nose to hold its shape.

Lost Mountain Lion

There was excitement in Powell Sunday morning. This guy was in a tree about 3 blocks from our house.http://powelltribune.com/index.php/content/view/1054/2/

Showtime

Yellowstone Harmony Chorus took the stage at the old Cody theater for our musical production Brother Can you Spare a Gallon. We sang several old songs woven into a script about hobos befriending a local business woman. In the photo we are singing a song I wrote for the show, Cody Stew.

The last post now has a title:

Saving Time

Time to Blog Again

I went to a meeting of a local writer's group. They allowed me to read my children's book and a poem about my brother.
Each month they give a writing assignment that you can read to the group the next month.
This month we are to write a couple paragraphs about a slice of life and give it a title
Here is what I have written.

“Take out your cell phone and turn it on.” The speaker said, “yes, I know that during church that is unusual, but I want you to set your alarm.”
I found my cell phone and I was able to find an alarm mode.
“Set it to 3:16P.M.”
Mine was blinking 9…9…9…I pushed a button and the minutes blinked 00. I pushed another button, I was back to 9…9…9.
“Everyday when this goes off you will be reminded of John 3:16, ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ ”
9,9,9, 00, this isn’t working, I need instructions; randomly pushing buttons is not producing good results.
The object lesson was over and we had moved on, “turn to number 560 in the songbook” the words to the song appeared on the overhead screen and I held my blinking cell phone as I sang.
Living By faith in Jesus above,
Trusting confiding in His great Love.
From all harm safe in His sheltering arm,
I’m living by faith and feel no alarm.
I grinned as I turned my phone off and dropped it back into my purse.

Possible titles are:
Time After Time
Time and Time again
Timeless Faith
Marking Time in John

Amazingly Beautiful

This morning the sky displayed a phenomenon of refracted light. As the sun rose, ice crystals formed colored light shapes on either side of it. These are referred to as sun dogs.

Week Two

Saturday was beautiful for this time of year and we went to Jodi's for a ride on Jesse.

This week's game was Scrabble. I can't imagine playing that in a foreign language, Min Jeong knows many English words and catches on quickly. She went with me to rehearsal on Tuesday and watched the Pink Ladies rehearsing Shine Your Light and the chorus learning new songs. Church supper on Wednesday and Thursday night we watched Newsies.

She made a wonderful seafood, rice stew and another marinated beef dish. Tonight she used the rest of the package of frozen seafood to make seafood pancakes. These were served with a sauce made of a combination of pineapple, soy sauce and red pepper. We served carnitas for lunch and Johnny explained the meaning of Tex/Mex.

Dried Seaweed is Good

Tonight Min Jeong made dinner for us. She fixed a marinated steak and sushi. We have had a busy week. We taught her to play Boggle, took her to a baby shower and a special prayer meeting on the side of the highway in the snow. We introduced her to several of our friends. She has gone with us to Wednesday night supper at church and our monthly pot luck on Sunday.

We Have a Guest

We began the new year by hosting a Korean teacher. Thirty elementary-school teachers from Incheon, Korea are studying in our area and one of them is living with us for 6 weeks. She has been assigned to observe in an elementery school in Powell. Living with an American family allows her to improve her English skills. Wanda, her American name, has been teaching English in Korea for 6 years and she communicates quite well.

2008 finished with a housefull. 3 of our sons, their 3 wives, 2 grandsons and 2 dogs were here for Christmas. We had a wonderful time.