Mosaic Monday: It's all about family...

It's all about family...

We just put our son, his family and his mother-in-law on the plane this morning, headed south to their home in Mexico. They were here for

three weeks. Lance is our oldest son and our business partner in our farming operation.

The farms are located near Manzanillo.

Lance and his wife, Marcela,

their two small children and Marcela's mother,

our youngest son, Ryan, my husband and I all

went to South Padre Island, Texas

to enjoy the beach, Schlitterbahn,

shopping, seafood and just a lot of fun.

Our granddaughter enjoyed two weeks

of swimming, golf, raquetball and

making new friends at the summer camp

sponsored by the club we belong to.

This will probably be the only visit up here for the whole family. Now we will have to make

trips down there to see them.

My son proposed a new idea this visit

which I am thrilled about.

He wants his daughter to learn more about

U.S. holidays, so we are going to

go down there for Thanksgiving!

Lance baked a turkey last year,

complete with gluten-free dressing

(our granddaughter has celiac disease)

and other traditional dishes.

So, we will be spending Thanksgiving

in Mexico!

I just wanted to share with you a few

of the pictures from the past three weeks.

The top left picture in the mosaic is

my granddaughter and me. She helped to

serve birthday cake for a joint birthday

party we gave for our sons.

I'm linking over to Little Red House

for

Mosaic Monday

http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com/search/label/Mosaic%20Monday

It's Summer Sunday and I Solved A Silver Mystery!

Jean's Silver Tablesescape

September 25, 1954

I just wrote about Jean a couple of days ago, so if you missed my posting and

are a bit curious about Jean, please go back to my posting on Thursday.

Jean loved to use her silver. This table was set for the small wedding of

my aunt and uncle.

This evening as I looked at this picture which came from an old slide of my father's, I enlarged the picture to see what was in the hutch.

You may need to put your glasses on, but if you look at the picture below

and focus on the hutch, look on the bottom shelf at the white round plate.

Just in front and a little to the right of that is a set of salt and pepper shakers.

I am sure they are lusterware.

AND they are on my family room shelf with the rest of my lusterware and with a tiny sticky note

on them and in my mother's handwriting it just states, "Old!"

Okay... "old" but I had wondered for quite some time

whose "old" S&P shakers these were.

They were Jean's!

Yayyy!

Mystery solved tonight.

I'm linking to

Visit The Tablescaper

It's a Summer Sunday!

http://thetablescaper.blogspot.com/

Miss Mustard Seed outdoes herself with an amazing give-away!!

Thank you, Kim, from Savy Southern Style! She tipped me off about Miss Mustard Seed's 2000 Follower Give-away. And what a give-away it is!!

Antique Baby Dress

(hanger and drawer not included)

Six Bakelite Knives

Antique Postcards

This isn't all. Not by a long shot!

Visit Miss Mustard Seed

at Miss Mustard Seed in a Box - 2000 Follower Giveaway

http://missmustardseed.blogspot.com/2010/07/miss-mustard-seed-in-box-2000-follower.html

While you're at ...

become of follower of both these

talented ladies!

Show and Tell Friday - "Jean"

"Jean"

Giovannina (Genevieve) Elizabeth Teti DePasquale

(October 1, 1903 - April 16, 2001)

Jean was about 16 years old when she had this photograph taken in

Ithaca, New York. She had already been in the United States, for seven years, having come from Italy, learned English and graduated

 from high school.

I love this photo even though it is cracking. I am not sure where to get it repaired but I will start researching that soon.

This photograph that I also own was taken when my grandmother was about 14 years old and was a bridesmaid in her oldest sister's wedding.

This is a photograph of Jean taken in 1963.

"Jean" was my maternal grandmother. She insisted that we call her by her first name as she insisted she was much too young to be a grandmother... 45!

What a character she was.

She loved to cook, organize and entertain.

She decorated her home beautifuly.

There will be many stories about Jean in this blog as she made such an impression on me in my life.

I love Show and Tell Friday

from My Romantic Home

Jean would have loved the many beautiful things

on Cindy's blog. Be sure to visit her!

http://romantichome.blogspot.com/

Vintage Thingie Thursday - Carlsbad Caverns, a boy in a basket!

Carlsbad Caverns

White City, New Mexico by Jim White

As a little girl I remember stories about Jim White, the man who discovered Carlsbad Caverns.

I made two visits there.. one as  a child and one as an adult with our sons.

The story goes, Jim White and my grandfather

were friends in New Mexico. My grandfather was in the hotel business in Roswell and Portales, New Mexico.

Around 1926 Mr. White was busy promoting Carlsbad Caverns. He had told my grandfather about his discovery several years earlier. It wasn't until 1926 that he offered to show my grandfather the caverns and would even take my father who was only about two years old at the time.

Mr. White is pictured displaying the bucket that

was used to lower the first tourists into the caverns. The means by which my grandfather and father were lowered was described to us

was a basket. My father says he remembers

going "down, down into pure darkness".

Personally I would have found that incredibly

frightening, however, my father never let on if he was scared. But he did remember the experience!

Here is a picture of my grandfather and father

about the time of their "journey into darkness".

I was very fortunate to find this publication with

the pictures of Mr. White in an antiques mall in Austin, Texas. It is autographed by Mr. White.

It's a great story and it was obvious that he was an amazing adventurer.

I wonder now how much this childhood experience for my father

led him into further experiences in his life that would call for

extreme bravery... combat in WWII, living in Africa, Syria, Iran, Pakistan during a times of

government turmoil. Viewing the Kyber Pass knowing that it was probably the most dangerous spot in the world.

His close calls were many.

Most of us would never consider lowering our small child into a dark cavernous pit. I'm not sure what my grandmother was thinking

when my grandfather took my father on an adventure of

a lifetime. But one thing my father learned that day... he set a high standard for surviving danger.

I wonder if I allowed my children to ever have such an experience.

I can't wait to ask them what was their first memory of

danger... and did I condone it?

I am linking to

Colorado Lady

for

Vintage Thingie Thursday

http://coloradolady.blogspot.com/

If you enjoy vintage items as well as the search for

family, you will enjoy her blog!

Camarones a la Diabla - It's the RED in your day!

Camarones a la Diabla

We are back from a great time at South Padre Island, Texas. I'll share some pictures soon, but I wanted you to see this scrumptious dish that

our daughter-in-law, Marcela, and her mother

made for us.

Basically this translates into something like

The devil's shrimp... a sauce hot enough for the devil that is...

Well, this is a cooled down version.

Marcela peeled the shrimp.

(Actually this is to show you a picture of our son's beautiful wife!)

Here's the sauce that when the lid to the pot was removed the whole condo had the most mouth-watering aroma.

The unpeeled shrimp was cooked to perfection.

When ready, the sauce was poured over the top

on individual plates and rice served

to the side of it.

Warning: NAPKINS REQUIRED - LOTS OF THEM!

This is how you eat this ... mind you it's finger-food so pick up a shrimp, suck the sauce off (everyone will be doing the same thing so don't be shy), peel the shrimp, dip it back in the sauce and eat.When you've finishd the shrimp, stir your rice into the rest of the sauce and eat.

Delicioso!!

I could not get measurements for this recipe so I took one from the Food Network that sounded really good.

Ingredients

4 cups water
5 whole ripe tomatoes
2 medium red onions, divided
6 cloves garlic
14 ounces canned chipotle
24 ounces ketchup
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 pounds shrimp
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
Directions for the sauce:


Put the water, tomatoes, 1/2 an onion, and garlic cloves in a large pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the tomatoes are soft. Remove from heat and let sit to cool for 2 minutes. Pour into a blender and add the chipotle, ketchup and salt. Blend for approximately 30 seconds.

For the shrimp:

Slice the remaining 1 1/2 red onions. Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the onions and saute until golden brown. Stir in the shrimp and garlic salt and cook for 2 minutes. Pour sauce over shrimp and let simmer for 5 to 8 minutes.

I am linking over to

It's a Very Cherry World

for

Wednesday is Rednesday

http://suelovescherries.blogspot.com/2010/05/rednesday-forever-lost-optimus-prime.html