Text 38115, 148 rader
Skriven 2010-05-22 12:07:16 av Ruth Haffly (1:396/45.28)
  Kommentar till text 38017 av Janis Kracht (1:261/38)
Ärende: Growing potatoes                                         [2]
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Hi Jais,

>> the Scranton/Dunmore PA. area, and we were in NY.. Though my parents
>> would bundle us all up and make the trip to PA. each weekend, in my
>> mind it still wasn't the same as "living" close to Grandma's house

 JK> > Lucky you.  When our girls were growing up, they were the only ones
 JK> of > their cousins that didn't live within 15 miles of Steve's
 JK> parents.  It > made seeing their cousins more special.

 JK> I guess that's how it was for us as well.. We'd be really happy if the
 JK> cousins would stop by Grandma's but they all couldn't do that every
 JK> weekend (grin). A good number of them did come by though.  And I guess
 JK> it would depend on which grandparent we were visiting (mom or dad's
 JK> parents).

As I said before, we don't have any first cousins on my mom's side; the
cousins we do have are much older.  On my dad's side, some of the first
cousins once removed are about the ages of my younger siblings.  Their
parents are closer to my parents in age.  OTOH, Rachel is the 2nd of 7
oldest, Deborah 3rd oldest cousin in the line up from Steve's family. On
my side, they're #s 1 & 2; the next one down is 4 years younger than
Deborah.  Our 2 are my parents only grand daughters too.

 JK> >  For a while, they saw one of
 JK> > my sisters older son regularly when we lived in AZ.  Now they see
 JK> all > but I think the youngest (and maybe him, I don't know since he's
 JK> 13) on > Facebook. (G)

 JK> I recently deleted my facebook account.. that was just before they
 JK> made the recent changes to all the 'privacy' stuff.. I didn't like
 JK> where they were going then, and personally I think it's worse now than
 JK> ever.. given the reports I've read.  That's just me (g).

I'm not on it--too busy to spend more time on the computer than I do
now. (G)  Steve is on, on a limited basis tho.  It's one way to keep up
with our girls and friends from previous assignments.


>> It's the way my Mom always cooked.. and if you ask Ron, he'll tell you
>> I inherited that umm.. cooking for armies mentality (laugh).  I

 JK> > My dad's sister was like that too; he said it came from their mom
 JK> before > her heart got so weak she wasn't able to do as much.

 JK> That's always hard to see and deal with in terms of remembering how
 JK> much they did before, but you know it happens :(

I know, even tho my mom was never a great cook, her cooking has gone
down hill more so in the past few years.  I think Dad had taken over a
fair amount of the meal prep before he broke his hip.  I saw, taped to
the inside of one cupboard door, the measurements needed to make the
various cooked cereals they eat during the winter.  I don't recall them
there last year; he must have put them up origninally when he started
making it.  Now they're a help for my mom to remember how much cereal
and water to use.  Two simple ingredients (plus salt), for something
she's made so much in the past but now needs help remembering how much
to use, how to cook it.

>> would stop by our house.. The first thing her friends would do was
>> check out the leftovers  - "Ooh, can I eat this??" (bg).  Bet you had
>> similar things happen.

 JK> > Somewhat so.  More than how I was brought up; I think less than how
 JK> > Steve was.

 JK> One of her friends was notorious for it, I didn't mind.. there was
 JK> always too much in the 'fridge (g).  Matter of fact, she came to
 JK> picnic as well... remember the girl with red hair who we caught on
 JK> film eating durian?  That was her :) She's a great person and
 JK> considered part of our family pretty much :)

I remember her--she did not care for the durian, did she? (G)

 JK> > lasagne but made up for it in the # of meat balls she had. (G)  I'll
 JK> be > teaching her how to make them next week.

 JK> She'll enjoy that :)  My son really and truly takes after my Uncle
 JK> Ralph.. Mom tells me he used to hold chicken up to the light to see if
 JK> there was a lot of fat in the piece before he'd touch it Lol.. He grew

But there's hidden fat too. We weren't allowed to be picky--too many
mouths to feed on too little pay meant take it and don't complain.


 JK> up to be an astrophysicist at Nasa so being picky didn't hurt him any
 JK> (bg).  He's retired now, but they just contacted him again to work on
 JK> their Mars project.  That must be so exciting.

It does sound interesting.  As long as he's willing to work--it'll help
him keep his mind sharp too.


 JK> > You have to be creative. Pea soup became green soup, tomato was red
 JK> > soup. Broccoli was trees, cauliflower became brains. (G)

 JK> haha didn't matter to him .. meanwhile I had to control how much my
 JK> daughter was eating.  :)  What a difference in the two of them.
 JK> That's something that always astounded me, how two children could be
 JK> so different (smile).

Yes, you would half think they weren't siblings. (G)


 JK> > Ever been in far west TX or some areas in AZ? You feel you're about
 JK> the > only ones on the planet in some of them--and miles of miles to
 JK> go to get > to any sort of civilisation.

 JK> We've been to Houston but not far west TX .. now that town was
 JK> humid!!!! Never been to AZ though-   But what you're describing sounds
 JK> like parts of VA I've seen (g)  and parts of NYS haha

No, way beyond that.  In the east, it doesn't take too long to see some
sort of civilisation (houses, communities, etc). Out west, there's a lot
more distance between them.


 JK> > Hmmmmmmmmmmmm, interesting thought.  We don't keep djohn on hand on
 JK> a > regular basis; I'll buy it if I need it for a recipe & we'll
 JK> gradually > use it up.

 JK> Even Guilden's brown mustard is great.

We've been buying a lot of Plochmann's stone ground with horseradish
lately.  Good stuff!

>> Last night, we had a salad made from pea greens, baby beet greens, and
>> baby lettuce leaves. The way I plant most green things is to way


 JK> > Meanwhile, the thinnings make good salads.

 JK> Yes, they do.. the beet leaves at this point are starting to take off
 JK> so the little ones enjoy you removing a bundle (grin).

And soon you'll have baby beets, which will grow bigger and bigger....


---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net  FIDO 1:396/45.28


... Some are so educated they can bore you on almost any subject

--- PPoint 3.01
 * Origin: Sew! That's My Point (1:396/45.28)