Thursday, August 19, 2010

Foodie Friday - Ahi Tuna at The Patio on Guerra Street

Ahi Tuna

I barely remembered to take a quick picture of the tuna I ordered at this fabulous restaurant...
The Patio on Guerra Street
McAllen, Texas
If I had to make a request for my last dinner... this would be it.
Yes, it's very rare, but that is what allows it to melt in your mouth.
Coated with what I think are white and black mustard seeds there is a rich teriyaki sauce drizzled on top. This tuna is as they say, "To die for!"
I had creamed fresh spinach with this and a green salad with cilantro dressing.
Creme brulee was for dessert.
Yes.. it was a celebration. Our friends' were celebrating their anniversary and we
were celebrating ours.


This lovely lemon martini served chilled in a sugar rimmed glass started our evening.
Just tart enough!

The Patio on Guerra Street has recently been redone, a building which has been in the Guerra family for many, many years.


Original art done by a family member lines the rooms. Deep south Texas and Mexico are the themes of the paintings.


It was a wonderful evening!


A few pictures of the old
and respected Guerra family.


I'm linking to
Food Friday from Designs by Gollum


Be sure to make a visit
for a mouth-watering treat!


Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Vintage Recipe Thursday - Meal planning in the 60's

Recipe file: 1972
Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook: 1963
Recipes & Notes: 1962 - 1976

I love writing about my recipes and the many memories I have of cooking with my mother and two grandmothers.
The Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, published in 1963 is one of the ones my mother and I would browse through just for a few ideas for the week's menu plan. We studied the grocery store sales sheets from the newspaper and then figured out the week's activities and then what the meals would be.
All thrifty and invaluable training that served me well throughout my married life feeding a husband and three sons.
The wooden recipe box was my project while my husband was in the Air Force, stationed at Kunsan AFB, Korea in 1972. I typed (on a real typewriter, no less!) my favorite recipes from my mother, grandmothers and friends.
One recipe is New Orlean Casserole, just a simple recipe of my grandmother Jean.
The note is from my grandmother Mother "B" that says, "January 21, 1976 - Karen sweet relish is delicious. We loved it with our bacon and eggs for breakfast - Love, Mama "B"
Yes... relish for breakfast -- I think sort of a West Texas tradition.
Here is a recipe from my mother that she got from her friend Betty from England. This was during my parents' early married days.

Betty's Pancakes
3 1/2 c. flour
5 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
2 1/2 c. milk
6 tbsp. melted butter
6 tbsp. sugar

Just mix all of this in the order it is listed.
I just made this recipe this week.
They're wonderful!



Visit Tales from Bloggeritaville
for Thrifty Thursday!!



A little addition: Don't think that these are all of the recipes I have.
I have several recipes files, three-ring binders full of recipes, plus approximately 200 cookbooks.
I can't part with a one of them!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

White Wednesday - Carmen's Christening Dress

Carmen's Christening
2004

Our granddaughter looked like a little doll in her christening dress and bonnet. Her maternal grandmother had made this beautiful outfit for her.
She was the best little baby during the ceremony as
if she knew it was a very special time.
I have this picture framed on my mantel.
Carmen is our oldest son's daughter.
He and his sweet family live in Mexico.



Thanks to
Faded Charm
for White Wednesday where
we get to share such
special pictures from our lives.


Monday, August 16, 2010

Toot Your Horn Tuesday -- My latest antics!

This is me - today!

Isn't this just lovely?? If you look very closely at the top of the arm... near the "ball" you can see a slight line running vertically. That is the break. I can see now why the doctor said a couple of times how fortunate I was that the break did not separate, thus requiring surgery. So, I will be laying low for a bit. Have had to cancel my trip to Austin... which is a huge disappointment to me. Why do they make slings so ugly and uncomfortable??



What happened was we went bowling with our church friends. I had not bowled in years. I didn't realize that the trend was to oil the lanes. Way too slippery for this very unathletic person. I slipped big time on the lane and landed on my shoulder. It's my right shoulder and thank goodness I am left-handed!



My husband is in Mexico on business until Saturday so I think I'm just going to vegetate for the week.



Is this what they call a "stay-cation" meaning to just lay low at home and do nothing?? No fun!

I'm linking over to
Toot Your Horn Tuesday
at A Silly Little Sparrow


Sunday, August 15, 2010

Summer Sundays -- Sunday drives

A car similar to ours

The first car I remember my parents buying was similar to the one pictured above. Occasionally we would take a Sunday drive. My parents, my little sister and me. No seat belts or car seats, you know. After all this memory was around 1953.
After my brother was born in 1954 we existed, barely,
all very tightly squeezed into our sedan. My brother would be seated in the new car seat. It was so fancy. It had a toy steering wheel with a red horn in the middle. The "car seat"  attached to the actual car seat with two large hooks.
You get the picture.
Then, when my youngest brother was born, my parents 
discovered station wagons.
 
My father on one of our family trips.

By this time my sister and I were entering out teen years.
Station wagons were so totally uncool!
My dad drove slower than anyone on the road and we nicknamed him "turtle".
He had almost total control over the radio. My sister and I wanted to listen to our pop tunes while my parents preferred the easy listening stations. On long trips we made a deal with our parents... for every two songs that my parents preferred we were allowed to listen to one of our own.
I remember my father's favorite expression,
"Good gosh!"
He rarely liked any of the music we listened to.
Never did I ever see my mother drive my father anywhere.
My father was the master, man in control, the boss, the head "honcho" of the road.
To allow my mother to drive him anywhere would have been so well... "unmanly".
Rumor has it that once he had a root canal and actually had to have my mother drive him home. I did not actually witness this. It is a bit of family lore, you see.
I've been thinking about my growing up years and our mode of transportation. While having our Suburban primped and ready for sale, my husband and I shared a vehicle for
Seven weeks!
Long story.
It made me realize that in my parents 60+ years of marriage, my mother never had her own vehicle to drive.
She and my father somehow managed to share a car.
Never, ever did I hear a cross word about it.
They meshed their schedules together and made it work.
Kudos to them as my husband I dealt with a daily
run-through of schedules in order to have wheels.
Amazing!
Well, such is life in modern times.
Hopefully I've brought forth a memory or two of
your family's mode of transportation when you
were growing up.




It's Summer Sundays at
The Tablescaper
http://thetablescaper.com/
Take a few minutes to check out the great postings!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

"Adios" for a few days!

It's "adios" for me right now.
I reread Laura's (from White Spray Paint) posting from last week hoping to get a tip as to how to look
a Geek Squader in the eye and explain how urgent
it was to get my computer up and running again.
"The look" Laura writes about didn't help me
out. Can you fancy that??
Thank goodness for the external disc drive
I have. I sure hope that it works.
Please send prayers and good thoughts my way.
My late parents' computer files were loaded onto
my computer last year. I think most of all I would
hate to lose their writings. Hopefully they are
on the disc drive... which I hardly understand how
to use.
Okay... pity party is over.
Everyone have a great Thursday.
It's almost the weekend!
And a big thank you to my husband who
stood by me at Best Buy today!