Happy 4th of July

Finnally some real time off. I am heading back to Utah for almost a full week. I can hardly stand myself. All the kids, except Nathan-his request for leave was denied, will be coming to stay the weekend at the Huntsville home. Mom & Sam will arrive on Friday. Two of Jan's brothers and her sister, with their families, will also come. It should be a great time for all. Huntsville town swells from 2000 people to around 12,000 people. They have races, a carnival, a rodeo, a parade-with horses, bicycles and lawnmowers included, a dance later in the day, an action, a patriotic play, a talent show culminating the day with fireworks. These aren't like most fireworks. They have a drop zone marked out. Outside of this area, everyone lays out blankets and lays flat, looking straight up. The fireworks seem to flash directly over head. We don't consider it a good time unless we have to put someone out from smoldering amblers. It's all tones of fun. Anyway, if anyone is in the area, they have a place to come and enjoy the 4th. I hope everyone has a great holiday and I want to publicly thank our service men and women for protecting our freedoms. Be safe and have fun.

corn on the cob 101

Basic recipe for corn on the cob. Really nice flavor.

Clean corn, put corn in a pot, with cold water 1 inch above corn. Put 1 teaspoon sugar and 1 tea spoon lemon juice per quart of water.

Put lid on pot. Bring to boil, continue to boil, cook 7-8 minutes. Check with fork, when its easy to put fork in corn its ready. Enjoy

James' Mountain Man Breakfast

This has become a family favorite. We've made this meal with a dutch oven, over coals or briquettes, and even in a frying pan over the stove. We have enjoyed it for dinners as well as for breakfast.
Ingredients:
Potatoes 12+/- med.size
Bacon strips 4-5 (or more) slices
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped bellpepper
1 small can of mushrooms
1 pound of cheese
6-8 Eggs
1/4 cup vegetable or olive oil.

For dutch oven cooking:
First, cut the bacon into 1/2" pieces. Then cook the bacon on the upside-down dutch oven lid, over coals. I usually mix the chopped onions and bellpepper the last few minutes. When the onions become translucent, put the grease, bacon, onions and bellpeppers in the dutch oven. Slice potatoes and place on top. At this point, I like to season the potatoes with seasonal, I estimate +/- 1/2 tablespoon. Go ahead and add the small can of mushrooms. Mix all ingredients in the pan. Add the 1/4 (or more) cup of vegetable or olive oil to the mix. Now, crack the eggs over the top of this mixture- no mixing necessary. Finally, spread grated cheese on top of the mixture. I usually will cook this for 45 minutes to an hour. You can eat this by itself (this is good enough for me), with salsa or use it as the filling for burritos. Another ingredient I like to add, unless someone objects, is a chili pepper to give it a little kick. You can mix the diced pepper in with the onion and bellpeppers.

If you cook this over the stove in a pan, I cook the potatoes with the seasonal until they are about half cooked. The bacon, onions and bellpeppers are cooked in a separate pan, same as above. Again, when the potatoes are just getting soft, I add the bacon mixture and small can of mushrooms. Please note, you will need to add a little more oil to this mixture to cook the potatoes. I usually, don't use the bacon grease in this type of cooking, because they are both cooking at the same time. If you're like me, I like to cook my potatoes a little on the crispy side. So, just before I think the potatoes and mix are done, I crack the eggs on top. I then add the grated cheese all over. Remember, no mixing or turning is necessary. I cook everything a little more and then its ready for serving.
Bone Appitie.

Visitor!!!!

Ronnie Hansen just stopped by early this morning to visit as he and his family were here in Paradise to attend a friend's graduation party. It was so wonderful seeing him . Jim and I enjoyed visiting with him and catching up on all his news.
Ronnie came back later and brought Luchia so I was able to see her also. Jim was napping at the time and missed that visit. His visit brought back so my wonderful memories of when all the kids were younger and our family was all nearby in southern california.

On The Road Again

Well, here I go again, driving back to Utah to see Jan and the girls. This commuting is getting old fast. I was wondering if anyone else out there has experience with this kind of a commute? I am particularly interested in how to prevent or sooth a sore tail bone. It increases in intensity the longer I drive. I am willing to try almost anything for relief. Besides a stiff drink or two, to take the edge off, what other ideas do you have? No, I don't really drink (not yet). Besides isn't drinking and driving bad anyway? Your ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Sauerkraut left out

I can't believe I left out the most important ingre. you put a jar or can of sauerkraut after rinsing it in the pot with other ingre.

Missing ingredient!!!!

Linda: Did you pull a Debbie and not list all ingredients??? Like "saukerkraut"....

Sauerkraut & Ribs

1 lb. pork ribs (more if you like) I have also used country ribs.
1 small onion chopped fine
1 med potato chopped small
pour chicken broth (sometimes I just use water) over all ingre in big pot.
1 tab. natures seasoning (more if you want)
I sprinkle caraway seeds over top a couple of times (approx. 2 tab. maybe less and more to taste.
1/2 teas. garlic granulates
After simmering for 1 1/2 hours on stove (I put in crockpot for all day on low or 5 hours on high)
I check to see if the ribs are tender. turn off heat.
I boil 6 potatoes and make mash potatoes out of them and then put rib mixture on them and broth. I also boil some yellow Lentals (Not a lot) and mash them with the potatoes and butter. then I put the rib and broth over them. hope you can understand this as I did it in my head.

Need recipe!!!

Linda: You use to make spare ribs with sauerkraut (sp?) Do you still have the recipe??? Dena

Posting 101

OK everyone who wants to post. Here are the basics for posting. After acessing the blog, look at the top right side of the blog. See where it says POST, just to the right of you email address? Go ahead and click it. If you had to log in, after clicking POST, you will be at the post window ready to go. Otherwise you will have to log in first. Items to look for: Title-make one up. The body of the post is the main part of the post. Simply start typing. Below the Title box are the tool selection icons. Look for the one with blue sky. Press it. This is the icon for uploading a photo. Just do what it asks and you will upload to your post. TIP- I always place the file I want to upload on my desktop. In this way, I always know exactly where the upload ready file is located. When you have ID'ed the file, press UPLOAD. It may take a few moments to upload. After uploading, you can view it or you can keep typing into the body of the post. After completing your message, look below the "body" box for a much smaller box called "Labels." Go ahead and give your post a label or two. I use my name. In this way you can search for all the labeled post with your name or something else. Now go ahead, press the orange button, "PUBLISH POST." Your post, with the picture can now be viewed on the web. You are now a posting machine. Happy posing. jvh

contest

Hello All: How bout we have a pet contest for the cutest pet. Here is my daughter Zoey:) She lets me live with her teehee

I know we all have bragging photo's.

Chow Chow relish

5 cabbage heads
5 lbs. onions
5 lbs green tomatoes
1 -1 1/2 lb. green & red bell pepper
1/2 lb. Jalapeno pepper
(different kinds if peppers if you want)
Shred all above
Add 1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vinegar (white vinegar is what I used)
Simmer all of above about 40 min.
On top of each pint put 1/2 tea. salt.
Approx 20 pints.
I put these in a water bath and boil for 15 min.
It is really good on any meat.

yee-ha cowboy

yee-ha cowboy

This darling picture is of our ggrandson and grandson. Isn't he cute.

RJ is Gayle Moran"s (Freeman) grandson. He had a major roll in the Fountian Valley High School play, 12 Angry Men. He was the foreman of the jury.

Heat

I forgot to tell everyone how hot it is right now. It is 110 degrees out side. I hope it doesn't hurt my 12 x 12 ft. piece of grass. Our neighbors asked us why we only put such a small piece of grass on our 1 1/4 piece of yard. and the rest is gravel. Because that is all he promised me. I said I want a piece of grass and I didn't care if it was only 10x10ft so I got a deal. hahaha

bread & butter pickles

use small unwaxed cucs & tiny white onions.
6 cups thinly sliced cucumbers
1 pound small onions
1 green bell pepper shredded
1/4 cup salt
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 tea. turmeric
1/4 tea. cloves
1 TAB. mustard seed
1 tea. celery seed
2 cups cider vinegar
mix the cucs, onion (sliced if large) green pepper, and salt. Cover and let stand for 3 hours. Mix the remaining ingredients in a large pot, bring slowly to a boiling point, and boil for 5 minutes. Drain the vegetables in a colander and rinse them well with cold water. Add them to the hot syrup and heat to just below boiling point. Spoon into hot sterilized jars, fill with the cooking syrup, leaving 1/8in. headspace and seal. Or if you want to you can process in a boiling water bath for 10 min. Jack if you want I also have a dill pickle recipe. Also a chow chow recipe but I have to hunt for that

Family, I am looking for a pickle recipe, do you have one, if so please share it here.

FAMILY REUNION

Aunt Joyce called me today and asked if I was going to this years reunion. This years Thomas Family reunion is Saturday, August 21st at the Long Beach Park (the same park down from Grandma Thomas' home). People should start arriving between 11 AM and 12 PM. As for me and the girls, I am not sure this far out. If I can, I will be there. Hope to see you all.

Memorial Day

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day holiday. We spent Sunday with Jan's mother, two brothers and sister and their respective families. Zachary & Kayla, Zac's new bride, and Anthony were able to come as well. It was great. We went to the cemetery after dinner, were we placed flowers on over a dozen different plots in two different cemeteries. I was amazed at how well she new everyone and their history. Besides the normal father, mother, and grand parents, she was going back well into the 1800's. It was awesome. We all learned a lot. I also learned that you can nail live plants and their pots to the ground with large nails. This prevents them from falling over due to wind. Interesting! Anyway, we all enjoyed the stories and each others company. I hope someone was able to put a flower or two for grandma and grandpa Thomas and Uncle Thommy.