Tag Archives: Food

Cooking Collard Greens: A Family Tradition

24 Oct

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

Since October first, life has been a little crazy here in the mountains. Hubby was scheduled for a simple procedure that turned out to be not so simple, leading to tests, more doctor visits and complete but temporary diet changes.

At one point he was only having clear liquids such as jello, broth and clear beverages. I have to confess that the days of clear liquids were a mini no cooking vacation for me.

Eventually, the clear liquids worked and he is on the mend.

What I really want to write about today is collard greens. I have wonderful memories of cleaning and preparing collards with my mom and I look forward each fall to going to the produce market to choose a couple of bunches.

According to my mom, the secret of tasty collard greens is they must be harvested after the first frost, or at least once the temperatures drop into the lower 40s.

This week, the temperatures dropped and on one of our fun road trips for doctor visits, we stopped and shopped. I bought two double, lovely bunches.

My mom taught me to cut the bottom stems off, then run a knife along the leaf stems to remove them. I prefer to do this messy job on the porch but the day was too cold for sitting outside. The weather forecast for the following day was warmer and i stored them in the refrigerator.

On Collard day I gathered up knives and the necessary paraphernalia and set up on the porch.

The first two bundles went by quickly. As I began the third bundle, I began to think I may have bought too many. By the time I finished the final bundle I was sure I had bought too many.

I put 2 bunches of collards in the kitchen sink and began swirling them in the water. Fortunately they had a scant amount of dirt and only required one wash.

I have the large pot my mom used to cook collards in and I was able to fit all of the washed ones into the pot.

Then the nightmare began. I like my collards to be tender and these collards would not cooperate. I think I cooked them for three hours.

Then I had to chop them up.

I use a Rada hand chopper. It does a good job. I love all of the Rada products.

Photo credit Rada website.

Finally that batch was finished and put into the fridge. I washed the second batch and that was as far as I got. I left them out to drain the water off them and went to bed.

The next day I decided there had to be a better way than my mom did it.

I asked Grok if collards could be cooked in an electric pressure cooker. Grok said yes and even gave me cooking instructions. Using the pressure cooker was so much easier.

The cooked collards are now sitting in my fridge and in the morning I will divide them up for the freezer.

I should have enough collards to last until next fall.

I'm a winner

After my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience.  Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites,  Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix

In addition to blogging, I’m a general  “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books  

My 2025 goal is continue to use my love of photographs and words to be an encourager on social media.

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Peaches!

29 Aug

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

Peaches are my favorite fruit. Always has been and probably always will be.

“This year’s peach crop in the South is exceptionally delicious. We’re fortunate to enjoy freshly picked peaches at their peak ripeness. However, peaches destined for shipping must be harvested before they fully ripen to ensure they arrive in good condition.

Ripe peaches are fragile. We have learned to wrap them in bubble wrap if we are taking them to Florida. Our daughter was visiting last week and took some home to her neighbors. She received a text this week from the neighbor saying she had one for lunch. It was the best peach she had ever eaten.

I made three batches of peach ice cream and still have a 2 quart batch in the freezer. We try to eat low carb and clean ingredients so we/I make our ice cream. I have two of the freezer bowl machines. I bought this one several years ago and it works great.

Photo Credit Amazon

The machine capacity is a little larger than a quart. After a few years I decided I would like a larger capacity machine. On the other hand, I didn’t want to give up kitchen space for a second ice cream maker.

Ninja has an ice cream maker, the Creami. I looked at it several times but it simply didn’t appeal to me.

Someone on social media mentioned the Kitchen Aid mixer offered a mixer bowl attachment with a two quart capacity.

Photo Credit Kitchen Aid

For a few weeks I argued back and forth with myself. The tipping point was that aside from the ice cream paddle, there would be no parts to store.

I have had some blips learning to use it. As I was making my first batch, I didn’t seat the paddle correctly. As the ice cream thickened the paddle slipped out of place. The machine began flinging ice cream over the side. I wish I had taken a picture.

Overall I am very satisfied with the attachment.

In anticipation of our daughter’s visit, I made a batch of peach ice cream in each machine. I am mulling the idea of making a vanilla or chocolate base and dividing it between the machines. By adding different mix-ins I would have two different flavors.

I haven’t limited my peach enjoyment to ice cream. I made a peach coffee cake, peach bars and no bake peach cheese cakes. (My daughter made the cheese cakes.)

I found most of my low carb recipes at All Day I Dream About Food

Grok AI is my source for different flavors of low carb ice cream.

Peaches are going away but apples are coming!

Mutsu is my favorite apple. Do you have a favorite?

I'm a winner

After my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience.  Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites,  Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix

In addition to blogging, I’m a general  “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books  

My 2025 goal is continue to use my love of photographs and words to be an encourager on social media.

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Between Cake and Pie-Part 1

3 Nov

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

There are several good desserts that I like to make – and eat! – that are neither a cake nor a pie.  I don’t have a specific name for those types of desserts – just that my family and I and those who partake of them – enjoy.  Here are a few:

Apple Dumpling.

Credit Pixabay

Now, don’t get wonky about this – these are not your average apple dumplings.    Granted the crust is the usual pie crust – homemade is best.  And the apples used are whatever is a favorite – but “tart” apples are best.  The cinnamon and sugar is standard stuff.  But most people use a sweetened cream sauce of some type to top the dumpling off with.  But not these dumplings!!  No Sir!  My Mother had a warm sweetened lemon sauce that was poured over these dumplings that made the dumpling absolutely magnificent!!  Here is the recipe – try it yourself sometime!!

APPLE DUMPLINGS RECIPE

Place half a tart apple in a square of pie crust, about 6″ square.  Over the apple, put  one (1) tablespoon sugar, a hefty dash of cinnamon, and a pat of real butter.

Fold the edges of the pie crust together, and press, so that the juice will not run out while baking.  Mother (Agnes Lites) used to press it with a fork after pressing it together.

Brush the dumpling with melted butter.

Bake in a moderate oven (350º) about 30 minutes.

Serve with lemon sauce.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

LEMON SAUCE

1 egg beaten

1 cup sugar

1 lemon rind – grated

Juice of 1 lemon

½ cup of water

Mix ingredients together, and cook over low heat, until it boils hard.  It is necessary to stir well at all times while cooking to avoid scorching!  Serve warm over Apple Dumpling.

Mmmmmmmm – delicious!!

From Agnes A. Lites [my mother]

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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Let’s Eat!-Part 7

28 Jul

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

There is a restaurant where Fred and I eat occasionally, that we really enjoy.  It is a seafood-specialty restaurant, and we do love seafood!  However, it is rather pricey, so we don’t make a habit of eating there regularly.  As a matter of fact, I’ve told people that we don’t eat there unless we have been given a gift card.  

But we had been given a gift card, so we went there recently – it’s called Bonefish Grill.

Photo Credit Google Search and Bonefish Grill website

We’ve discovered their Bang Bang Shrimp® appetizer, and get one every time we visit this eatery.  Now, I’ve never really enjoyed spicy hot food – it’s usually so hot that all I can taste is “hot” rather than the flavor of the food.  The Bang Bang Shrimp® is just hot enough to get my nose running, but not so hot that I can’t taste the shrimp.  It’s delicious!!

There was a time (my grandson Forrest taught me this) that I would share the Bang Bang Shrimp®® appetizer with Fred, then have the Bang Bang Shrimp® tacos as my entree.  However, I learned the hard way that my system doesn’t like that much spice!  So I order another entree, and just enjoy the shrimp as an appetizer.  But BOY! is it good!  Fred usually orders the salmon, which is really good!

Another seafood restaurant where we like to eat is called The Catfish Place.  It is located in St. Cloud, Florida.

Photo Credit Google Search and Catfish Place website

Now that’s a bit of a drive for us, so we had not gone there very often until a few years ago.  You see, our hair cutter was working out of a salon about five minutes away from our house for many years.   Then, she purchased a tanning/beauty salon in St. Cloud – about a 30+ minute drive away from us.

Photo Credit Google Search and Herve Andrieu

Photo Credit Google Search and Tan Linz & Cutz website

So we’ve made it a practice to eat lunch at The Catfish Place every time we need to get our hair cut.  Perfect! And since we get our hair cut every three weeks – we get to eat at The Catfish Place that often, as well!

This is what we call a “Mom and Pop” restaurant, since it is not part of a chain of restaurants.  But this has a reputation far and wide.  By that, I mean that I remember an episode of Emeril Lagasse being done in that restaurant!  I had read that he was doing an episode there, and made sure that I watched it.  He was quite impressed with that eatery!  On their menu is a list of other “notable” names who have eaten at that eatery.

My very favorite entree to get there is their fried shrimp.  They use a batter coating for the shrimp that is wonderful.  And the shrimp are quite large – no tiny shrimp at this eatery!  They have a lunch special on Thursdays – ½ pound of shrimp for a couple of dollars off.  That’s probably more shrimp than I need to eat, but I can’t resist!  It comes with two side dishes.  And they make the very best tarter sauce there that I have even eaten.  Fred sometimes orders the shrimp (the regular lunch size is six shrimp), but usually gets another type of fish usually snapper.

The Catfish Place has been owned and operated by the same family for many years, and has just sold it to others.  We have been there several times since the new owners have taken over and are pleased to see that most of the servers and cooks have stayed – so the food has not changed.  That’s always a possibility, but it didn’t happen with this eatery.

They advertise the best catfish ever.  Since I’m not a catfish fan, I’ll stick with my shrimp!

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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Let’s Eat-Part 6

14 Jul

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

While Fred and I were living in Fort Worth, one of my dad’s brothers married a lady who owned a dress shop. They both lived in Louisiana, near Shreveport.  They would drive to Dallas twice a year for her to view and purchase clothing for her dress shop.  She had really good taste in garments, as women from Shreveport would drive the 30 miles just to shop in her store.  In the times they came to Dallas, they would call us and invite us to have dinner with them one evening during their four-day stay.  While neither Fred nor I can remember exactly the name of the restaurant where we ate, we both suppose it was the restaurant in the hotel where they stayed.  The main reason I remember it, is because they introduced me to grilled pork chops!  I had always breaded and fried the pork chops I fixed for us, and the grilled ones were delicious!  I never fried them again!

Credit Pixabay

I know that Pizza Hut is well-known in the U.S.  And we have enjoyed eating at those eateries most of our life.  

Credit Google Search and Pizza Hut

When we moved to Florida (Kissimmee, actually), there was one Pizza Hut in town, and we frequented it often.  One day they put out a “barbeque” pizza.  We cautiously tried one slice of it – and found we LOVED the taste!  It was chicken with barbeque sauce on it – all on top of the regular tomato pizza sauce, cheese, etc.  So every time we went to Pizza Hut after that, we asked that they make us a barbeque pizza.  It was great!

There was also a Shoney’s eatery in Kissimmee, where we ate occasionally. 

Credit Google Search and Shoney’s website

 Shoney’s was known for their breakfast menu, and we enjoyed it.  However, when we tried some of their lunch/dinner offerings, we were less-than-impressed.  I didn’t know anyone could make a “bad” soup – but Shoney’s managed!  I don’t remember just what kind of soup I had ordered, but it came with about one-half inch of oil on the top!  Yuck!   So we limited our eatings at Shoney’s to their breakfast buffet.

We both enjoy seafood, and were pleased to find a really good seafood restaurant in Kissimmee, called Shells.  I’m not sure we tried everything on the menu, but I found something on the menu called “Godfather’s Shrimp” and I loved it!  It was what I ordered every time we ate there (which was usually after church of Sundays).  Fred found a great Mahi-Mahi Italiano that was his favorite.  Also at Shells, I found they had a wonderful coleslaw that had Mandarin Orange slices in it!  I’ve never had that before, and was pleased with the taste.  Amazing!  Unfortunately, Shells in Kissimmee is no longer – I think the ones in Central Florida are in Tampa, Brandon and St. Pete Beach – and that’s really too long a way to go for seafood.  Shucks!

Well, okay it’s a long way to go for seafood, but Fred and I travel over to Titusville every-other month for lunch with my brother Bill and his wife, DiVoran (about 45 minutes).  And our favorite place to eat is Dixie Crossroads

Credit photo Google Search and Dixie Crossroads website; Steve Hunsader

And it’s a seafood restaurant!  They have a house specialty that is unique.  They serve Rock Shrimp.  Now, Rock Shrimp used to be what Fred calls a “trash fish” – the shell is so hard that it was nearly impossible to get to the meat inside.  And then, someone made a tool that would cut the hard shell and open up the good meat inside.  It has a “lobster” feel and taste to me, and I thoroughly enjoy it every time we go there. Yummmm

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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Let’s Eat-Part 2

23 Jun

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Funny thing – I had never even heard the word “pizza” until I was in high school (1950’s)!

Credit Google Search and Pixabay

I remember a girl in my chorus class flopping down on a chair and saying that she couldn’t move because she was so full of pizza!  Pizza?  What in the world is THAT?  Turns out there was a great little pizza eatery on Central Avenue (main street of Albuquerque, U.S. Route 66) called Casa Luna, that made the best pizza I think I’ve ever had.  After that recommendation from my fellow student, a bunch of us would go there often – and I fell in love with pizza!  Unfortunately, that place is now a carpet shop!

After Fred and I met, his parents would occasionally come to town, and they would take us to the Officer’s Club on Kirtland AFB.

Credit Google Search and Kirtland AFB website                               Credit Google Search

A new experience for me, but one we’ve repeated on most of the bases where we’ve lived, since Fred was commissioned as an officer himself. (More on that later)

Another place where we liked to eat (but it was only introduced to us after Fred and I moved away) was called Bella Vista, and it was about 20 miles into the Sandia Mountains East of Albuquerque itself.

Credit Google Search

Great fried fish – all you could eat!  Unfortunately, after the owners turned it over to their children, the kids turned it into a sports bar – and it is no longer in existence.

When I was still a teenager – fresh out of high school and a year of college, I went to work for Civil Service located downtown Albuquerque.

Credit Google Search – Simms Building –  where I worked

I discovered a “hole-in-the-wall” little eatery just around the corner from my office building.  I would go there for lunch frequently, and occasionally after work for a burger before heading home.  It wasn’t a big place at all.  It had counter space for about eight stools, and about five two-top tables.  The counter faced the grill, which was quite large – as big as a dinner table.  The burgers were delicious, and I found that adding the home-made chili to the burger made it mouth-watering!  I was in there one day after work, and was watching the owner/cook making the chili.  He had it spread all over that grill and was working it.  I asked why he made so much, and he told me that one time some people from Boston had come in and had some of his chili and loved it so much that they commissioned him to make them X-number of quarts of the stuff to ship to them to Boston each month!  WOW!  He also told me that several people wondered why he didn’t expand his space.  But he told them (and me) that it was just exactly the size and amount of business he wanted to handle.  I admired him for that.  He knew what he wanted, and didn’t need more.  I don’t remember the name of the place, and have no idea whether or not he is still in business.  It was a great little eatery, and is still in my memory.

~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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Let’s Eat-Part 1

16 Jun

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Credit ChurchArt

I think most of us have a “favorite place” where we like to eat.  For some, it’s at home with all the home-made cooking we like to do, or like Mom used to make.  I’m from the generation that came from that.

My family – Thanksgiving 1956

To eat “out” was a rare and precious privilege.  There wasn’t a lot of money to throw around in my parent’s house, so we only ate out at special times.  That got better as time went on, and going to the local Furr’s Cafeteria for lunch after church services became the norm.  And we loved it.

Furr’s was known as the best grocery store in Albuquerque at the time, so when they added a cafeteria, we were ecstatic.  And the food was good.  We’ve eaten in many a “cafeteria” in past years where the food was only passable – and they didn’t last too long.  But Furr’s was an exception.  I’ve just checked online and found that it is now located in cities and states other than Albuquerque and New Mexico (Colorado, Texas), but it is still in existence – now known at Furr’s Fresh Buffett.

Credit Google Search and Furr’s website

My family also loved to eat Mexican food, and Albuquerque was loaded with just such places.  Some of our favorite Mexican restaurants were in Old Town – either La Placita 

Credit Google search and explorall50.com

Credit Google search and Pinterest

La Placita was known for the trees growing inside some of the rooms or La Hacienda.

Credit Google Search and Pinterest

They were practically next door to each other in Old Town, and only a few minutes from our church, so that was also an after-church place to eat.  Of course, those were highly “touristy” restaurants, and they seemed to take turns having “good” food and “not so good” food.  When one wasn’t too good, the other one was.  And then it would take a change and we had to guess which one to go to that next time.

But then a really good Mexican restaurant opened its doors, called El Pinto.

Credit Google Search and b.zmtcdn.com

It opened after Fred and I married and moved away (1961), but Mother kept telling us it was her favorite place to eat.  So we always went there when we visited Albuquerque.  It lived up to Mother’s reviews.  I just checked online and found it still in business with many glowing reviews. 

We lived in a house just two doors down from a main auto artery, Lomas Blvd.  If I walked to Lomas, and turned right, there was a little strip center there, with a small hamburger joint on the end of it.  I don’t remember the name of it, but they made the BEST hamburgers there!  They put chopped onions and mustard on their burgers, and wrapped them in wax paper, creating an aroma that I’ve never found since then.  I think the nearest aroma to that I’ve found is when we were in Texas and ate Whataburgers.  They are the best!  And their burgers come the closest to that little burgers shop I’ve ever found.  I really loved that place.

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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My Favorite Breakfast-Part 2

21 Jun

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

As I grew older, I finally came around to enjoy what my folks liked for their breakfast.  By then, their taste had changed to scrambled eggs, bacon or ham, and toast with coffee. Of course, I was still drinking milk with my breakfast and didn’t pick up the taste for coffee until much later in life.  This breakfast usually supercharged me for most of the morning but made me sleepy during my late-afternoon classes at school.

Photo Credit: https://www.juddscatering.com/breakfast.html

After leaving home for a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy (at shore stations and onboard several ships), my breakfast usually consisted of scrambled eggs (powdered), sausage patties (from canned war surplus, some dated 1943), home fried potatoes, and milk (powdered).   The alternative was commonly known as ‘SOS’ (anyone associated with the military will know what that acronym stands for).  Neither one of the above-mentioned breakfasts is the most appetizing breakfast, but since I didn’t have much of a choice and I didn’t want to starve, I learned to tolerate them.  Your guess is as good as mine about some of the items shown in the photo below.  I believe I recognize the eggs and maybe one of those gray blobs is beef-gravy (?) and the toast, but  the other, you got me.  

Photo Credit: navy-tales-life-and-food-aboard-an-aircraft-carrier/

After my tour with the Navy was done, and during my college years my wife, DiVoran and I were living on a very tight budget and my breakfast consisted mainly of a stop at “Randy’s Big Donut” for three or four freshly baked French donuts ($.10 each back then) and a half-pint carton of milk.  I usually didn’t have time to eat the donuts there in the donut shop, so I mostly ended up eating them on my way to class once I got to school.  

Photo Credit: https://images.search.yahoo.com/randys+big+donut

That was a quick and easy breakfast for me at that time because that was about all I could afford on my meager part-time job. The chocolate covered French donuts were my favorite.  Many of my breakfast choices changed for the better once I landed that full-time job and my schooling shifted to evening classes.

Photo Credit: https://www.google.com/search?q=french+donuts

After finishing college, our family moved to Florida where I worked at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on NASA’s Manned Space Programs for many years.  My breakfast during those hectic years reverted back to my childhood, usually consisting of cold cereal, with milk, and maybe coffee, if I got up early enough and had the time for any breakfast at all before heading off to work. 

Photo Credit: https://images.search.yahoo.com/breakfast/cereal/coffee

My sister, Judy, tells me that she and her husband, Fred, now enjoy scrambled eggs with Canadian bacon, buttered toast, and hot English Breakfast Tea for breakfast.  That sounds a lot like a left-over family tradition from their college days when Fred lived with our folks for a year before he and Judy got married.  She tells me that when they were stationed in Germany, with the U.S. Air Force, they enjoyed Sara Lee Pecan Coffee Cake and hot English Breakfast tea.  After moving back to the U.S. their favorite changed to Sara Lee Butter Flavored Streusel Coffee Cakes with their hot tea.

Photo Credit: https://images.yahoo.com/sara+lee+coffee+cake+butter+streusel

—–To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 65 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

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Try a Little Dirt

24 Feb

My Take

DiVoran Lites

DiVoran Lites

DiVoran Lites

Children need to eat a peck of dirt before they grow up. Have you ever heard that? It has been around a long time and if you’d been reared in the way I was, you’d believe it. I read recently in a magazine that germs in good clean dirt can teach a child’s immune system the difference between good and bad bacteria and save them developing allergies.

Here are some things you can do to strengthen your children’s immune systems.

1.   Encourage them to bite their nails. Remember, though, it can be as habit-forming as smoking, so you have to take that into consideration. If they do take up smoking, they can get the nicotine they come to crave, from electronic cigarettes and by-pass the tar that would coat their lungs. That would be good, but it has nothing to do with nail biting.

2.   Let them kiss the dog. You can even let the dog lick their faces. Now why didn’t I get to do this? My parents thought the dog’s tongue had been in terrible places and let me know about it. But you know what, as it turns out dogs have healing stuff in their saliva, so I could have been just as chummy with my dear dog as I wanted to be. Oh, well, it’s all saliva under the bridge.

3.   Don’t bathe them every single day. In this case for sure a little dirt won’t hurt. But, what about the sheets, what about sand in their beds? Well, if they wet their beds, you have to change the sheets every night and every morning, anyhow. The kids have to have a bath too, so bathe them in the morning when you change the sheets and everything will be good and clean all day. I mean the sheets will be clean. We hope the kids will find a little dirt to play in. I had no idea how complicated this might become.

4.   Put the baby’s pacifier in your mouth to clean it off. Don’t forget, though, babies are deadly. I’ve caught my best colds just from sharing a bite of cookie. Besides, I don’t mind doggy spit, but baby’s? Yuk, no.

Now here’s my childhood experience and I’m really quite healthy. The worst disease I’ve ever had was the flu and that only a couple times in my life. No, I don’t get flu shots, but you go right ahead. I’m not responsible for what you do.

Anyhow, my childhood girlfriend, Suzie Q., and I emailed our memoirs to each other one cold winter. That was fun. We were as honest as we could be. One thing we discovered was that we lived an incredibly dirty life. Everywhere we went there was dirt—the school playground was all dirt. It had scattered pieces of old broken glass here and there. (The broken glass was a treasure. We saved it and used it to play hopscotch.) My brother and I liked to explore the prairie and vacant lots. Susie Q’s brothers had a thriving fishing-worm business. That was not a clean job. And here’s the clincher…none of us ever took a bath more than once a week. We may have washed our hands now and then, though. I really can’t remember, I had to wash dishes every day so why would I need to wash my hands?

Did the dirt show? Yes. Once when I stayed at Grandmother’s she noticed that my elbows were crusted with ground-in dirt. Even though I did bathe once a week, no one cared how clean I got. The more Grandmother scrubbed, the more determined she became to remove that offending layer of skin. Oh, goodness, my elbows haven’t been dirty for a minute since.

But I like Suzie Q’s story better. Her bath usually took place on Saturday night, but one Friday after school, her aunt and cousin came through town on their way home. They invited Suzy to attend a school program the cousin was in, and they left in a hurry taking a change of clothes for Suzie.

Suzie got the first bath. She was company, after all. She’d never had the first bath before because she had two older brothers who out ranked her. Yep, water was scarce. Most families bathed the whole bunch in the same few inches, one at a time, of course. Here’s good news, though, in my mother’s family, they always bathed the baby last! Anyhow, on the night of the play when Suzie finished taking all the dirt off her skin, she found it was stuck to the inside of the bathtub. There wasn’t anything she could do but dry off and get dressed for the play. She was so embarrassed when her kindly aunt simply cleaned the tub and drew new water that she never forgot it.

Dirt is good, but here in Florida, we have lot of sweat, especially in the summertime. In America, stale sweat is rude, so even though we often have water shortages, too, we still have to bathe more frequently than we might wish. We also get sand in our shoes, we have sand almost everywhere, but unfortunately, we have no dirt.

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Our Trip to Italy-Part 4

28 Mar

A Slice of Life
Bill Lites

Bill

 We had a wonderful lunch experience at the Caffé Pedrocchi.  DiVoran had “Toast” which was a grilled cheese and ham sandwich and hot chocolate with whipped cream on top, while Marcia, Erika and I had pizza, hot tea and coffee.  It was all Yummy!  After lunch, we checked out the many shops around the Prato della valle where Erika bought a copy of Taming of the Shrew in English and DiVoran bought some Italian puzzles for Billy and Renie.

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We discovered that the famous University of Padua was built around 1190 AD, and had the first operating theater in history.   I’m sure it was very primitive and unsanitary with all the doctors and spectators watching and asking questions as the doctor tried to operate

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And, it is said that Padua was the setting for Shakespeare famous play “The Taming of the Shrew” which it is believed he wrote sometime between 1590 and 1594.  We strolled around the beautiful Prato della Vallethe central square, which is lined with 78 statues of famous Italian citizens from over the centuries.

1a

That evening, we went to a pig roast hosted by Marcia’s friends Stephano and Roberta, at their horse ranch.  The occasion was a surprise birthday party for David, one of Marcia’s co-workers.  The party was held in a large dining hall above the tack room, where their family and friends met every Sunday for their meals.  The matriarch, Maria, had done all the cooking and had it laid out with the whole small pig as the center piece.  The food was wonderful and was served with five different types of wine and two different desserts, plus Grapa.

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I met Roberta’s 67-year-old uncle Lorenzo who, after he found out I was a motorcycle rider, took me down to the garage and showed me his 1952 single cylinder 500cc Moto Guzzi motorcycle that was in mint condition.  He told me that he and about 20 of his friends go riding every weekend, weather permitting.  They all ride vintage Moto Guzzi motorcycles of one model or another, and love them.

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On Monday, DiVoran rested while I walked into Mogliano Veneto to the farmer’s market and bought fresh bread and artichokes.  The farmers market had every vegetable you could imagine, and the fresh fish stalls had every kind of fish and shellfish including lots of squid and eels (live and dead).

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That evening we had a 5-course dinner with five of Marcia’s cast members  at the Hotel Vicenza in Mestre.  This time there were only 3 kinds of wine and 2 kinds of dessert plus Sconti.  We found out that the Italians really enjoy their food and eat very slowly-this meal lasted from 7:00 to 11:00 PM.

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On Tuesday, Marcia took the day off and we drove to the little mountain town of Asolo, at the foot of the Italian Alps.  We walked up and down the streets of the town checking out the little shops.

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The Hotel Villa Cipriani was the most beautifully decorated and picturesque place I have ever seen.  We had lunch at a very nice little Ristorante there in Aslol, and then went to Treviso to see some of the sights of this beautiful walled city.  Marcia, Erika and DiVoran cooked their version of an Italian dinner that evening and we ate in the apartment.

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—–To Be Continued—–

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