Beauty, silver, tickles and giggles!!

Hydrangeas ...

under construction!

Amazing what I will show ... I just treated myself to

these at Pier 1 yesterday. I fell in love with hydrangeas

when I made a visit to Blowing Rock, North Carolina

during the Mitford Days. Real hydrangeas were

everywhere!!

Now I have to see if I can create an arrangement with them.

Silver Tray...

Frankly, I do not know my "silvers", but this was

beautiful... after I polished it. I'm a weird sort... I love to

polish silver. It's very theraputic, you know.

Would you believe... I bought this for

$15!

"Bree-os-kee"

Recently my refrigerator has not had a bottle of

Brioschi in it. It's a lot like Alka-Seltser. That's a first in probably 40 years of marriage...

or my lifetime! The local stores and pharmacies here have stopped selling it. So I ordered a box on the internet.

When I was a little girl my sister and I would take just one

little piece of Brioschi to plop onto our tongue.

Ohhhh... the tickle and the giggles!!

Have a super weekend, everyone!

Stay warm...

It's Show and Tell Friday

So make a visit toe

My Romantic Home

http://romantichome.blogspot.com/

Smudgy - one of a kind... maybe 7!

Smudgy - One of a kind... maybe 7!

Smudgy was one of those "hand-me-down" pets. He was too much for my grandparents and aunt, so my parents took him in. In the late 1950's it was still okay in our town in Texas to have a dog loose... no chain and rarely a collar needed. Smudgy was probably half German Shephard and half Border Collie with whatever else mixed in there that made him so wonderfuly special to us.

It was proabably about 1958 when I entered him in the local

pet show at the high school. It took my mother and sister and me to contain him as he had rarely ever been around so many other dogs and seldom with a collar and, heavens,

never a chain. He was entered in the mixed-breed division, however, from the pictures I wonder if he didn't get mixed up in the wrong division. When the judges came by I remember telling a friend who was standing nearby... loud enough for the judges to hear, "Smudgy has seven breeds of dog in him."  I was terribly proud of that! Oh, how little I knew. Needless to say, Smudge and I got an "Honorable Mention". Oh well...

That is me, the blonde, squinty kid. In one of the pictures is my mother with my younger sister and brother... and our parakeet, "Tweety", who always cheeped himself into a near stroke if he ever saw Smudgy trying to sneak inside our home.

Fun memories!!

Today I am linking to two wonderful sites:

Little Red House for

Mosaic Monday

http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com/

and

Brynwood Needleworks for

Memory Lane Mondays

http://brynwoodneedleworks.blogspot.com/

By the way, this is the first installment for "Memory Lane Mondays" from Brynwood Needleworks. For those of us who especially enjoy reminiscing or reading about someone's favorite memories from years gone by you will love this. It will take place the last Monday of each month. So come by for a visit!! It's going to be fun.

Happy 7th Birthday, Carmen!

Happy Birthday, Carmen!

You brought a light into our lives that was

so new to us. Grandchildren have a way of

doing that. You are our first grandchild though

and so you have a very special place in our hearts.

You love your jeans and your "Pop's" and Dad's

school... Texas A&M.

One of the first things those special men in your life

taught you was to make the "Gig'em" sign.

You learned to sing the school song right along with

"Mary Had a Little Lamb"!

And you love dressing up and modeling whenever

you get the chance.

A very respectful and loving child, honor student, fluent in

English and Spanish and the best older sister,

we are so proud of you.

Have a wonderful and blessed day, Carmen!

Pops and Abuela love you.

Fresh for the table and all in RED!

My husband brought home fresh cherries from

Sam's late last week. He was disappointed in their

flavor... so they sat. I "pitted" them and cooked them

in some sugar water, later added some cornstarch to thicken

them.

Then, there were the fresh beets that were sold at our

church Farmer's Market which we hold on Sundays.

I had always avoided cooking fresh beets because of all that

red. On a whim I decided to give it a try. Besides, with my

new black sink, who would see the red??

Here are the beets after I cooked them for an hour

in simmering water. I cooled them just a bit and the skin came off easily. I diced them up and let them cool a little more I mixed up some thicken cornstarch, sugar and a bit of the red water the beets had been cooked in. I added this mixture to the beets and also added a tablespoon of butter.

Here is the finished product with the cherries.

It's my old Topsy Turvy Cobbler recipe from

Betty Crocker Cookbook for Boys and Girls.

I have used this recipe several times on this blog...

hope no one is getting tired of it!

I'm thrilled to have done some cooking so that I can

link to two blogs I really enjoy...

All the Small Stuff

http://allthesmallstuff-cole.blogspot.com/

AND

It's a Very Cherry World

http://suelovescherries.blogspot.com/

Polish Sausage Making... A Family Tradition

Polish Sausage Making...

a Family Tradition

This past December my husband and I were invited to 

join the Skloss family as they revived their family

tradition of making Polish sausage.

The Skloss family had migrated from Poland to Texas

many, many years ago and they, along with other

Polish families, established the town of

Cestohowa, Texas.

They eventually continued on to McCook, Texas where

they bought farmland and grew grain, corn and other

dryland crops.

The language of the community was Silesian.

Sausage making was a family tradition enjoyed by

all of the Polish families. The sausage is made of 2/3 pork and 1/3 beef with salt, pepper and some garlic. The mesquite smoking of the sausage gives it the unique flavor.

Family was scattered in the past few years but recently

the young people decided they wanted to revive the

tradition. It was a full day of work, however, not only was

some of the wonderful sausage enjoyed for supper, but

the satisfaction of bringing the old tradition back

was best of all!!

I am linking to

Little Red House for

Mosaic Monday

http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com/

Come join us for some wonderful

collages of pictures!

I left the Skloss homestead in McCook that evening wishing I had just a drop of Polish blood in me! The family traditions and the love they all share for each other is beautiful and so special.

Three White Favorite Things!

This is just simply for your pleasure.

Last night's sunset at

Las Islas Ranch - deep South Texas

photo by my husband

Three White Favorite Things

These are three cherished mementos I have that were passed down to me from my mother.

Maria DeChellis DePasquale was my great-grandmother.

Framed by my mother is one of my g-grandmother's stockings along with a binding she used for my grandmother, Jean, when she was a newborn baby.

=

Binding was used on babies a long time ago (and are making a comeback!) to support the baby and give them

and added sense of security. They also believed their

babies would have straighter backs.

This is a picture of my grandmother, Jean,

my aunt, Deddie and my mother, Rosemary,

on the right.

The brooch belonged to Jean.

I am linking to

Three or More Tuesday

at Gypsy Corner
http://www.thegypsyscorner.com/

and

White Wednesday at

Faded Charm

Three or More Tuesday

http://fadedcharmcottage.blogspot.com/

I'm also enjoying

A Few of My Favorite Things

at Bargain Hunting and Chatting with Laurie

http://bargainhuntingwithlaurie.blogspot.com/

Happy 33rd Birthday, Daren!!

Love, Mom and Dad

(We spelled your name with one "r" because

you are a blend of Dad and me...

"D" for David and "aren" for Karen.)