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!