Comfort Food {Scalloped Potatoes}

Dinnertime on a snowy day in Ohio with a surplus of potatoes and some ham left over from Thanksgiving...what to do? It's comfort food time and time to go back to an old family recipe, one that isn't written down, one that has been passed on by word of mouth, generation to generation: scalloped potatoes. It's so easy and so good and even better the next day. 

This recipe is so versatile: it can feed an army or it can feed 2 people. Potatoes are the main ingredient but there are so many vegetables that can go well with potatoes. I happened to have a few Brussels sprouts on hand so I sliced them up and tossed them in. Adding ham made it a one-dish meal.

In this recipe I used potatoes, ham, Brussels sprouts and onions and used a 2 1/2 quart baking dish. So here's what you do...my apologies for not having exact amounts. This is one of those recipes where you eyeball the size of your baking dish and figure out how much stuff will fit in that dish. Cut up a little more if you need to fill it; make an extra if you cut up too much! This dish freezes well, too. Put it in the freezer the day after you bake it.

Instructions

Cut up all your ingredients:

• Thinly slice the potatoes. I used a mandoline set around 1/8 inch. I tried slicing the Brussels sprouts on the mandoline and ended up slicing them with a knife.
• Cut up the onions.
• Slice the ham.

Put a layer of potatoes, ham, onion and Brussels sprouts in a baking dish. 

Cover with a 2-3 T. of flour and dot with 2 T. butter. Stir this layer to incorporate flour and butter. 

Layer again, sprinkle with salt, dot with butter and stir. Keep repeating this step until your ingredients are gone or your dish is full.

Pour milk over the dish to almost cover the ingredients. 

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. The liquid will be soupy so serve in a little bowl if you don't want liquid to go all over your plate. 

I also made a casserole for my son while making our dinner. He doesn't like Brussels sprouts so I used carrots in his. 

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Rudolph, the Red-Nosed reindeer, aired for the first time on December 6, 1964, on NBC. I was 7 years old and living in Owensboro, Kentucky when I watched this Christmas special for the very first time. 

And what a vivid list of characters:

• Rudolph
• Santa
• Sam the Snowman
• Yukon Cornelius
• The Bumble!
• Hermey
• Clarice
• The Misfit Toys
• Donner (Rudolph's father)
• Comet (Coach of the reindeer games)

As a 7-year old kid, the Bumble scared me. I cried at the fact that no one loved the Misfit Toys. I laughed when Hermey, who did not want to be an elf but instead a dentist, removed the Bumble's teeth and laughed at Yukon Cornelius when he licked his pick in hopes of finding gold. I was mortified when Yukon Cornelius and the Bumble fell over the cliff and will never forget the line, "Bumbles bounce!". I got a kick out of Mrs. Claus saying, "Eat, Papa, eat," because Santa was too skinny and then knew that everything would be alright when Santa finally belted out the hefty "Ho ho ho," as he was getting ready to deliver the toys. I loved the feeling of Christmas joy when Santa stopped at the Island of Misfit Toys, when Rudolph and his red nose saved Christmas, when the Bumble helped decorate the Christmas tree and everyone was friends at the end. 

Rudolph was on TV this year right before Thanksgiving. I was going to boycott watching it because I don't like Christmas to encroach on Thanksgiving. But I had to watch it. It was my favorite Christmas special as a child and still is to this day. 

Thanksgiving Traditions

Every family has its Thanksgiving traditions. 

I start with sending texts to the kids asking what they want for the meal. The requests don't change, but I ask every year.

Then comes the list making...

My grandma's pumpkin bread recipe is a favorite and someone always takes a slice when it's right out of the oven.

The stuffing always gets made in a huge mixing bowl that my dad brought home when the restaurant closed at the Sears store he managed.

Dinner gets set out on the table. My mom is always washing the dishes up until dinner is served. That way there isn't a big pile of dishes to wash after the meal.

On Saturday after Thanksgiving, I make soup from the turkey carcass. I boil those bones and the meat falls right off, add some veggies and noodles, and then freeze a few jars for easy meals in the upcoming busy Christmas season.

Thanksgiving Turkey {Brining}

I've read a lot about brining turkeys and so this Thanksgiving I decided to give it a try. There are so many recipes available for brining and after looking through so many I decided on "My Favorite Turkey Brine" used in the Pioneer Woman's blog.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/10/my-favorite-turkey-brine/ 

I like this recipe because she uses everyday ingredients, not things like allspice berries, chopped candied ginger or juniper berries. Nothing wrong with those ingredients, but knowing me, those would sit in my cabinet for a year or so, lose their flavor and then I'd pitch them. This recipe is short and sweet, too...just nine ingredients, and most of them were already in my kitchen.

Turkey Brine

3 cups apple juice or apple cider

2 gallons cold water

4 T. fresh rosemary leaves

5 cloves garlic, minced

1-1/2 c. kosher salt

2 c. brown sugar

3 T. peppercorns

5 whole bay leaves

Peel of 3 large oranges

Combine all ingredients in a large pot. Stir until salt and sugar dissolve. Bring to a boil, then turn off heat and cover.

Allow to cool completely, then pour into a large brining bag or pot. Place uncooked turkey in brine solution, then refrigerate for 16 to 24 hours. (My turkey was 23 pounds and I kept it in the brine for 27 hours)

When ready to roast turkey, remove turkey from brine. Submerge turkey in a pot or sink of fresh, cold water. Allow to sit in clean water for 15 minutes to remove excess salt from the outside.

Discard brine. Remove turkey from clean water, pat dry, and cook according to your normal roasting method.

After bringing the ingredients to a boil, the house was filled with a delightful holiday smell...the fun had just begun!

Multi-Colored Radishes

Welp, my favorite grocery store (Dorothy Lane Market) got me again with a tantalizing display of multi-colored radishes! As hard as I tried, I could not resist the brightly colored globes in shades of red, purple and white.

Nothing better than dipping a radish in a little bit of salt and then biting into it...ahhh, the crisp, clean crunch followed by the tang and heat of the radish. Beats potato chips any day!

Smallest Post Office in the U.S. {Ochopee, FL}

On our way to Key West, traveling along U.S. 41 in south Florida, skirting Everglades National Park and hoping to see an alligator, Hubs and I buzzed right past this little building, a U. S. post office. We looked at each other and said, "We gotta go back and check this out!" So we pulled a u-turn down the road and went back to see what this little building in the middle of nowhere was all about.

The historical marker gives the story: The building was an irrigation pipe shed for a tomato farm. In 1953, a fire burned down the general store and post office, so the post master turned this building into the post office and has been in service ever since then.

This post office measure approximately 7 x 8 feet, offers all the postal services, and serves a three-county area with a route 132 miles long.

Small building, big delight...ahhh, roadside America!

Veterans' Day {November 11}

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, an armistice between the Allied Nations and Germany went into effect, thus ending World War I.

In November 1919, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day: "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service..."

At first, Armistice Day's purpose was to honor WWI veterans, but in 1954, after World War II and after American forces fought aggression in Korea, Armistice Day was changed to Veterans' Day in order to honor American veterans of all wars.

The observation of Veterans' Day is always November 11. This date preserves the significance of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month and it focuses attention as to the purpose of Veterans' Day: to honor America's veterans for their patriotism and love of country, and for their willingness to serve and sacrifice.

My father-in-law is a world War II veteran. He was a senior in high school when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and he and a couple of buddies wanted to enlist right away. The only thing was, he was 17 at the time and his mother would not give him permission to enlist early. He waited to turn 18 and to graduate from high school before signing up to join the Navy.

Upon enlisting, he had a choice to serve on submarines or airplanes. He told the recruiter, "I'm going air. I can see a heck of a lot more from up there than I can from down there."

He went to boot camp at Great Lakes and to Norman, Oklahoma, for aviation ordnance school, radar school and aviation gunner school before being shipped to the naval air station in Jacksonville, Florida. He and his crew flew a PBY, a patrol plane that could take off and land on water. Their job was to search for pilots and crew who had been shot down off the East Coast and to look for enemy submarines that might be spying along the coast. 

At 19 years of age, he was sent to Espirito Santos in the New Hebrides Islands to serve with Combat Aircraft Service Unit (CASU) 10. That job entailed servicing and reconditioning planes that had been damaged and ready them for service.

At one point, Dad and another airman were on a bombing mission with four other planes. They made several bombing runs and then made a strafing run. The pilot was killed; Dad bailed out of the plane at 500 feet off the ground. He landed in a banyan tree on a small, uninhabited island in Japanese territory and stayed there for a couple weeks by himself, subsisting on a chocolate bar and whatever else he could find. The Japanese searched for him but he hid in the roots of the banyan tree and avoided captivity. "I was afraid to go out in the daylight because they'd see me, and I knew damn well they wouldn't bother to haul me in. They'd just kill me." Finally, he decided to walk on a coral reef to a neighboring island, where he met a U.S. Army soldier. He spent a few days in the sick bay and then returned to his unit.

Dad spent 18 months in the Pacific. He returned home just in time to marry the love of his life. They have been married 68 years.

His story of service is one of love: love of God, love of country, love of family.

Wordy Wednesday {Malarkey}

I taught 8th grade reading and Language Arts. One of my biggest challenges was to get my students to expand their vocabulary. Many kids just wanted to complete their assignments in record time or at the last possible minute, and as a result their papers were full of weak, wimpy vocabulary. 

One instance when the lack of effort was particularly noticeable, I was quite frustrated. I knew a lecture would be tuned out immediately, so what to do for dramatic effect? Return the papers, calmly display the grade stats on the Smart Board, and then pose the rhetorical question, "Do you know what this is?" 

Answer:  MAAAAA - LARKEY! 

Well, that was an attention grabber for a couple reasons: 1. I am a soft-spoken person and typically did not raise my voice, and 2. MALARKEY is a fun word! Rather than saying something that would make me sound like an 8th grader (Your papers sucked), I told them  that their lack of effort was a waste of their time, my time, which was maaa-larkey (nonsense, rubbish). (They figured out the malarkey's definition by using the grade stats and my tone of voice).

So after that incident, in addition to the vocab words that the curriculum "encouraged," I found words and sayings to enrich and enhance their vocabularies, and those stuck with them better than the curriculum-oriented words. Make it fun, make it relevant, no more "cookin' my grits." That's just balderdash!

Bruce Munro: Light

Bruce Munro is a British artist best known for immersive large scale light-based installations. His Light exhibit opened at the Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus, OH on September 25 and will be there until February 2014. In the United States, Munro has found that botanical gardens provide the scale that he needs for his outdoor pieces. 

People of all age groups were in attendance. Quite a few children were there because their art teachers at school had told them about Light. Hubs and I got there around 9:00. It was a beautiful, clear, cool night and we were some of the last visitors to leave.

"You need a medium to find yourself and to explain things to other people, and light happens to be mine." ~ Bruce Munro

Light Shower is in in Himalayan Mountain Biome at the Conservatory. As visitors follow a meandering path over a bridge and past a waterfall, over 1000 tear drop lights hang above, creating a mass of raindrops in suspended animation.

"Eden Blooms is a hybrid creation that has evolved from a number of design concepts. But it was during a visit to the Rainforest Biome of Franklin Park Conservatory that the idea of creating an exotic, illuminated bloom was formally sown!" ~ Bruce Munro

Chindi hangs in the spaciously expansive Desert Biome. "Dust devils came into my mind and I decided to give form to these ephemeral vortexes also called Chindi." 

Over 100 individual fluorescent hang above the lush tropical vegetation in the Pacific Island Water Garden Biome. Appropriately named Lightning Storm, these tubes flash and are accompanied by rolls of thunder.

Icos makes its debut at Franklin Park Conservatory. This suspended piece contains 361 glass spheres and two miles of optical fiber.

Beacon is a dome covered in 2730 plastic bottles. Visitors can view the glowing hemisphere up close and in the round. 

A trip to Australia inspired Munro to create Field of Light. This landscape-scale installation is in the Sculpture Garden. 2750 lighted glass spheres on slender stems rise from the ground and softly glow with pulses of colored light. Crickets chirp, colors flow like ocean waves...mesmerizing, peaceful.

Five Giant Snowballs are suspended in the Grand Atrium. Each cluster of 127 glass spheres glows with an ever-changing parade of colored light.

Twelve Water-Towers are connected to light projectors and audio systems which causes them to respond to the music to create an ever-changing rhythm of colorful light. These towers are created from over 3000 one-liter plastic bottles.

In this playful exhibit, Whizz Pops, 45 glowing spheres are situated on the Zen Terrace. They look like they are filled with illuminated bubbles.

 

Sunflowers

Dayton to and from Columbus is an hour and a half drive each way, dealing with traffic and passing through mostly farm land. I don't mind the farm land...it's very pleasant...but the traffic, UGH. Lots of trucks, lots of people who place themselves in the left lane and then refuse to move, lots of incredibly fast drivers, lots of construction. (Orange should be Ohio's state color in honor of the construction barrels that are all over our interstates).

On a return trip from Columbus, rather than taking the usual I-70 to I-675, I took Route 68, a two-lane highway that goes past Young's Jersey Dairy (yummy ice cream) and through the picturesque, artsy town of Yellow Springs. Just north of Yellow Springs is a sunflower farm with the most breath-taking view: an ocean of yellow highlighted by the sun and bright blue Indian summer sky. 

Magnificent...and on the road less taken ~

The Road Less Taken

Wanderlust can be satisfied by taking a road less traveled. The other day, I went downtown to have lunch with my dear friend, Annette. On my way home, I cut through the South Park neighborhood and saw a sign for SPUG, aka South Park Urban Garden. I'm all for community gardens. It's one way of bringing neighbors together...digging in the dirt, watching the fruits (or vegetables) of labor growing, looking out for each other's gardens, trading vegetables..."I'll give you this bunch of chard for 3 of your tomatoes."

Those spur-of-the moment decisions are what satisfies wanderlust. If I had not decided to turn off of Warren Street onto a side street, I never would have come across SPUG. Gotta listen to that little voice!

This is the sign that caught my eye and made me pull a U-turn to go back and investigate

The fall garden plantings

A garden guardian ~ 

Zentangle

I have a friend who is turning 49 in a few days. For the last few months, he has been compiling a LOL (Live Out Loud) List that has 49 things on it that he wants to do before he hits the big 5-0.

On Monday, I celebrated #56 and I am going to LOL like my friend, just not in the organized manner as he is doing. Don't get me wrong, I am a list queen when organization is the priority. I am also a go-by-the-seat-of-my-pants girl; when something looks fun or interesting, it is worth investigating, and a lot of times it is right at that moment.

Through the UDLLI (University of Dayton Lifelong Learning Institute), I am taking a Zentangle class. I love art and I try to do artistic things, but my talents are limited. 

So what is Zentangle? It's a meditative artistic experience using simple, deliberate and repetitive strokes. The patterns look complicated but they are easy to draw and they are built "one stroke at a time." Zentangles are unplanned, but deliberate. The supplies are minimal: paper, pen and pencil...NO ERASER. There are no mistakes in Zentangle. An line that goes errant evolves into a new design. 

Zentangle has many benefits: it reduces stress, improves focus, increases dexterity, promotes better concentration, it's an intuitive art and an experience that you can share with others.

My first Zentangle tile...we created four different tangles on one tile. We used four patterns: crescent moon, floorz, printemps and meer.

Although everyone in the class used the same patterns, each tile turned out differently. It's an art form that mirrors life.

House Dust

This week I had a visitor, a BIG visitor...Ted!

And yes, this is typical of how the week went! Ted is a big bundle of puppy love energy. Between Ted and my dog, Hunter, there were 200 pounds of dog craziness in the house: teasing each other with toys, chasing each other, vying for my attention. Hair flew and dust bunnies grew! 

When Ted left, out came the Dyson, the Shark and furniture polish for an attack on the doggy dust. I emptied the Dyson canister three times, sneezed a lot as I dusted, and did a move-the-furniture-and area-rugs floor washing. Serious dust removal...

The area rug in the front hallway is pretty big and I wrestled around with it to center it and to settle it over the non-skid pad. But there's always that last little piece that wants to be difficult...

Not in the mood to negotiate that little bit hanging out, so yep, got the scissors out and evened things out with a couple of snips! Done deal. 

Since my kitchen floor sparkled, the counter tops needed to as well. A "recipe" for an easy, effective, and inexpensive granite counter top cleaner...

1/4 c. rubbing alcohol  

1/4 t. of Dawn dish washing soap

2 c. water. 

Put in a spray bottle and use as needed. 

Kills the germs and leaves no streaks. 

Woodman Fen {Five Rivers MetroParks}

It's amazing what a person can find out when walking a dog...a dog is a "chat magnet"; people want to know his name, breed, how old, "he looks like my dog," how much does he weigh...

So when Hunter and I were at Delco Park, a woman inquired about him and soon our conversation evolved into how an area at Delco should be planted with flowers to attract butterflies. There's a small butterfly garden in the park but this spot could be a butterfly meadow. Anyway, she asked me if I had been to Woodman Fen. I had not so when I got home, I looked it up and put it on my list of places to explore.

Woodman Fen is a 33-acre wetland ecosystem located in Dayton's Belmont neighborhood.   Many years ago, this area had been converted into a vegetable farm. In 2003, Five Rivers MetroParks bought the land and restored it back to its natural state. You'll see prairie and wetland plant species as you walk along the boardwalk. There is also a trail that circles the perimeter of the fen, but I didn't walk that because this time of year the bees are very busy gathering the last of the pollen. I sure didn't want to have them mad at me for disturbing their work!

This is a magical place in the middle of a city..."fen-nominal!"

Delco Park

Walking my dog is a daily event. There are times when walking around the neighborhood gets old so recently I've been changing up our routine.

On a gorgeous, sunny September afternoon, Hunter and I took off for Delco Park. Just briefly, Delco holds a big place in the city of Kettering's history: Charles F. Kettering was one of the founders of Delco, which stood for Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co. The company was sold to United Motors Corp in 1916 and eventually sold, under the new name of Delco Light, to General Motors in 1918 after United Motors Corp. and Chevrolet Motor Co. merged into General Motors. In 1995, Virginia Kettering convinced GM to donate the land to the city.

For Hunter, this trip to Delco was a walk in the park and for me, a walk down memory lane. Hubs and I spent quite a few years at the Delco soccer fields in the blistering heat or the freezing cold, varying degrees of rain showers/storms, and also plenty of gorgeous days cheering for our favorite soccer players! There were the early morning games when a walk across the road to Krispy Kreme for donuts and coffee was the course of action and well-timed phone calls to bring the thermos of Bloody Marys were known to happen, too. Grandparents sat on the sideline to cheer for their grandkids, family dogs came along, the siblings of the soccer players became buddies. Good times, good friends, good memories!