Recipes: Beef BBQ

Aug23

Grand Daddy Holland’s Beef BBQ

Grand Daddy Hollands Beef BBQ recipe was lost when he left us. But Gary’s cousin Kevin,  has been perfecting his version of that recipe as he remembers it. It’s pretty close to the original. But even if it’s not exactly the same, it’s still fantastic!

Every time we make this, Gary remembers a weekend on the Lake in Love Valley, NC where Grand Daddy built a cabin. The whole family would gather there during the summers and enjoy the water, the woods and the many cook outs. I hope your family can make your own memories with this yummy family tradition. Continue reading →

Table Talk: Talking To Your Kids About White Supremacy

Aug16

White Supremacy Propaganda, Extremism and Online Recruitment Tactics

Yesterday I read an article about parents talking to your “white sons” about how white supremacists are using the internet to recruit kids (White supremacists are recruiting white teens online). The article included a link for how to talk to your kids about this topic and why it’s important to do so (Propaganda, Extremism and Online Recruitment Tactics).

What struck me deeply was the article included a story about a Virginia family, who dismissed the signs of their son’s interests as he just had a deep interest in history. Until he killed two people and was charged with a hate crime.

We’re from Virginia, and my son has a deep interest in history and he’s a great kid. But as a Mom, I worry about that balance between protecting my teen son, while giving him a sense of trust and privacy in his own home. Plus this issue is impacting unsuspecting families all around the world. Whither it’s Islamic Extremists, or White Supremacy groups. We have to talk to our children and make them aware of the dangers. Continue reading →

As A Mom, Your Heart Drops!

Mar30

Alexander Cougars

The Impact of School Shootings

It seems everyday in America, parents face the dangers of sending our kids to school. Our biggest concern used to be worrying about their behavior in school. Wondering if they’re being respectful to teachers and their classmates. When they’re very young, we worry about them being taken care of by teachers and administrators, as we put their fate into the hands of these strangers.

But today, regardless of what age they are, we worry about them coming home safe and alive! That’s the impact that school shootings have placed on many parents in America now.

My son is 15 and a sophomore in high school. We live in a rural county in North Carolina. The kind of place where you wouldn’t think of worrying about school shootings. But there isn’t any place in the U.S. where you don’t worry about someone hitting a breaking point and responding with gun violence. Whither you’re out in the middle of no where, in a big city or a sprawling suburban area. No one is immune. Continue reading →

In My Life, I have watched…

Mar16
Weekly Observations

Weekly Observations

What We Saw This Week

I came across a social media posting this week, concerning the impact and insights about the Trump Administration. I liked this posting, so I went on a search to find the original source.

The article was written by Charles Pierce in Esquire Magazine on October 3, 2018, in response to Trump mocking Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony before Congress for the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court Confirmation hearings.

In the article Pierce calls out the vile attack by this president and then puts his comments into perspective. The piece of the article that is being passed around on the internet, leaves out the first paragraphs of the original article. So I’ll paste a link to the original story below. But here’s the part people, including me, are capturing as a rebuke of this hate filled administration.

“In my life, I have watched John Kennedy talk on television about missiles in Cuba. I saw Lyndon Johnson look Richard Russell squarely in the eye and and say, “And we shall overcome.” I saw Richard Nixon resign and Gerald Ford tell the Congress that our long national nightmare was over. I saw Jimmy Carter talk about malaise and Ronald Reagan talk about a shining city on a hill. I saw George H.W. Bush deliver the eulogy for the Soviet bloc, and Bill Clinton comfort the survivors of Timothy McVeigh’s madness in Oklahoma City. I saw George W. Bush struggle to make sense of it all on September 11, 2001, and I saw Barack Obama sing “Amazing Grace” in the wounded sanctuary of Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Continue reading →

WordPress Blog Creation Date

Feb10

Happy Anniversary

My Blog’s Anniversary

When did I first create my WordPress blog? You might be surprised by how many people want to know this after years of blogging.

Back in 2011, that date of creation was fairly easy to find. You could go to your Dashboard, Options and Domains. On that panel, you’d find the date you assigned the domain to your blog. For most people, that date is the date of creation.

But for others, the blog may have been up and running long before purchasing a domain name. Then what do you do? Yeah, good luck finding that.

If you search for this topic, you’ll find a wide variety of suggestions. Continue reading →

Bangers and Mash

Jan23

Bangers and Mash

Garrett’s Bangers and Mash

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Bangers and mash, is a common British dish consisting of sausages (“bangers”) and mashed potatoes (“mash”). And is traditionally served with onion gravy.

Bangers and mash is a staple of the country’s overall cuisine and is a popular pub dish. The term bangers supposedly originated during World War I, when meat shortages resulted in sausages’ being made with a number of fillers, notably water, that caused them to explode when cooked.

The sausages may be pork, beef, or lamb, but one of the most traditional meat sticks is Cumberland sausage, a coiled pork sausage from northwestern England.

This is a traditional recipe that we’ve tweaked just a little to our own Americanized taste. Continue reading →

Virginia Beach Creamy She Crab Soup

Jan21

Virginia Beach She Crab Soup

Virginia Beach Creamy She Crab Soup

I LOVE She crab soup and have a bowl any time I can get it when we eat out. I’ve had many versions of this soup all over the east coast, a few places in Texas and California. I’m sorry folks, but no one makes She-Crab soup like the east coast does.

In 2004, Gary and I went to Waterman’s Restaurant in Virginia Beach, where we had the most delightfully tasty she crab soup. It is by far the best version I have ever had! So if you ever go to Virginia Beach, head south on Atlantic Avenue and visit Waterman’s! Everything they have is wonderful.

Unfortunately we were not able to get the recipe from the restaurant. Can’t blame them. So we’ve been trying to recreate it on our own the best we can. It’s under gone a lot of tweaking, but we’re getting pretty close. It’s not exactly the same, but we need to go back to the beach for another visit and another taste testing to figure out what we’re missing.

Here’s our current very tasty version so far. Continue reading →

Tuna Salad

Jan21

Papaw’s Tuna Salad Sandwich

Papaw’s Easy Tuna Salad

My dad loved meat salads. Tuna, chicken and ham salads were his favorites. And he made each one from scratch and usually during the spring and summer months.

This is how I remember his tuna salad dish. He usually had these with crackers. But he’d make them into a sandwich for lunch now and then too.

Preparation time: 15 to 45 minutes
It depends on what you put into the salad mix. If you’re going to add boiled eggs, it’s going to take a little longer. Continue reading →

Irish Potato Soup

Jan21

Vickie’s Easy Irish Potato Soup

Gary and I have been delving into our Celtic roots and trying some of Scotland and Ireland’s dishes.

This is a recipe I stumbled on one day from a BBC cooking show. We’ve tweaked the ingredients a little, just to update it for our own taste. And that allowed us to modify the original preparation and cooking process to make fixing this soup a little easier and less time consuming.

I guess you’ll have to call this an Americanized version of Irish potato soup, for busy families.

Preparation time: About 1 hour
Serves: 6

Continue reading →

Garden Salad with Chicken

Jan21

Garden Salad with Grilled Chicken

Vickie’s Garden Salad with Seasoned Chicken

Everyone in my extended family had a vegetable garden. It wasn’t unusual to sit at my grandmother’s dinner table and see a plate of freshly cut tomatoes, or cucumbers next to the main meal.

There was always room for a salad on my Maw Stoots’ table for lunch. She loved garden salads and always fixed one for me when we were in Tennessee for a visit.

As you grow older, your taste buds change. You learn to enjoy the variety of flavors in foods of all kind. And that’s how my Garden Salad with Chicken came about. They’re scrumptious for dinner or lunch.

Preparation time: 45 minutes  Continue reading →