HODGE-PODGE

I found this cute country reminder on the net.

This old black & White photo has a story.
Mom usually made us a special dinner on Sunday. Sometimes her savory pot roast, browned on all sides, smothered in onions and garlic with potatoes and carrots roasted all around it. And other times a pork roast with applesauce or a variety of wild meats cooked as only mom could cook, for three hungry kids and a starving husband. Weekdays I remember a lot of potatoes and bean soup. I still remember the tantalizing fragrance of potatoes and onions frying as I played outside. It sure made me realize how hungry I was!
We had a mini farm with chickens and geese, turkeys, pigs and rabbits.
If mom decided to make a chicken dinner, dad chose the chicken and killed it, then mom held it by the legs and dunked it into a bucket of scalding water to loosen the feathers and yep, my little sister Bonnie and I did the plucking. In this picture we are sitting outside which is the proper place for such a chore. It smells awful! What you see in the picture is the chicken's naked tail sticking up. Oh how I hated plucking that part. MERCY! And we didn't even have latex gloves back then!!
When the plucking was finished, mom tightly rolled up newspapers to make a torch of one end and used this to singe all the hair off the chicken. Another awful smell! Yes they really do have hair under all the feathers. Then she took it into the kitchen and with a pile of newspaper underneath it she cleaned all the entrails out, saving the liver, gizzard and heart then cut the chicken into serving size pieces. I always wanted to be outside when the cleaning was done. The smell was atrocious. After it was washed and cooled she rolled it in flour, salt and pepper then fried it until it was golden crisp and ready for the table. It sure smelled different frying that it did during the cleaning. When I remember all the preparation I am horrified that I could even eat it, but I did and it was delicious!
When I married and had a family I cleaned and cooked a lot of chickens and turkeys but I could never kill anything.
Changing the subject, look what I found at a second hand store. It is a Bernd*es crepe skillet. These sell on Am*azon for $40-$50 dollars but I paid about $5. 50! I don't make crepes but I can cook just about anything I want in it as long as it doesn't run over the low edge. I suppose I could even cook a 'chicken' in it! :)


Ok-Ok I know I am really jumping the gun here, but I recently learned I am going to be great grandma for the 15th time come July. We don't know if it will be a boy or a girl yet but when I learned the name chosen for a little girl, I just had to run with it!
I had three girls and two boys so I know how precious and loveable they both are. However, when I learned that a little girl will be called LILLIAN ISABELLA It just tickled me. My maternal grandma's name was Lillian and I love the idea of a grandchild with her name. Besides I think a nickname of Lilybelle when she is a baby is just precious.
"Mama Aimee if you see this please don't get upset with the nickname. Remember I'm becoming well seasoned and allowances must be made. :)"

A rose is a rose and these beautiful roses were given to me for my birthday at a delicious lunch my girls had for me. I am trying to start one of these and hope it works. They are fragrant too!

This sweet picture always touches me so deeply. My mother was eighty-two and her great-great granddaughter Julia was two and a half. Mother suffered from Alzheimer and by the time this picture was taken she didn't know who her family were most of the time. She was always cold so I kept her wrapped in blankets and afghans.

This day little Julia asked me for lipstick so I gave her some. Even at her young age she knew how to apply it. After she did her own lips she asked G-G-Grandma if she wanted some too. Mother understood lipstick and made her dear lips ready to receive this little gift of love from a precious child she didn't know.

Another sweet memory captured. Thanks to my trusty camera.

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Thought for today

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Dear Father,

Help me to bridle my tongue,

So that on judgement day

I will not be found guilty of assualt

with a deadly weapon!

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God Bless you all!

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