A Little Tale of Thanksgiving.....

Heroes.....don't forget their service

Today is Veterans' Day.
A day to remind us how much we appreciate all those who have served in our armed forces.

I love these quotes:
"The price of freedom is never free."
(I don't know who said it, sorry.)

"Courage is fear holding on for a minute longer."
-George s. Patton


Here are some of my heroes:

My dad served in the army near the end of World War II.

My grandfather served in the medical corps during World War I.

My nephew Shane served in Iraq.

and...
My father-in-law served in the navy.



Thank you to everyone who has served and sacrificed for our country!

♥
JoAnn

A recipe for potato salad....sort of

My daughter Liz has been working on a family cookbook.
She has been updating the one we already have and has been asking me for recipes of some of our favorite family foods that were missing in the first version.

The problem is....
I don't have recipes for some things.
I like to throw things together and cook by trial and error.
I know what ingredients to put in, but I always guess at the amounts. Usually, I just taste things and see what is missing or needed.
(I inherited this trait from my grandmother, but she took a lot of her delicious recipes
with her when she died. My kids want our recipes to survive!)

We grew up cooking by adding a pinch of this, a dash or that, or a glob or something. Pretty hard converting over to a recipe!


(Just for fun my daughter Michelle found these measuring spoons for me!)

This weekend we tried to come up with an actual recipe for our potato salad. It was pretty interesting as we tried to measure and figure things out. It is close, but it still might require the "taste test" to see if the balance is good.

Here goes:
Potato Salad

14 to 16 potatoes- about 18 cups diced (cook until tender, peel, dice into small cubes)

1 cup chopped celery or about 3 stalks

3 or 4 cups Mayonnaise (This depends on how creamy you like your salad.)

½ tablespoon Lemon Juice

1 tablespoon onion flakes (or several green onions diced)

2 tablespoons Hot Dog Relish

1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon paprika

½ to ¾ cup milk (or more if the dressing is too thick)

6 hard boiled eggs

1 hard boiled egg to cut up on top of salad

Salt and pepper to taste

Dice cooked potatoes, celery and hard boiled eggs. Mix together everything else. Pour mixture over potatoes and stir. When salad is the consistency you want it to be, slice a hard boiled egg to decorate the top. Sprinkle with Paprika.

How do you make potato salad?

♥
JoAnn


If you are looking for some easy, low cost Christmas gift ideas check out the "party"
at Just a Girl.


At the bottom of today's blog she has a list of sites to check out.

A perfect fall day.....

(Norman Rockwell painting....from Google.com)

It's a perfect fall day!
(Who doesn't love Saturdays?)

Remember those old family excursions going to visit with relatives, or heading off on a little scenic drive? Maybe it was a trip to town to take in a movie or have an ice cream cone. The whole family gathered together. Excitement filled the air. The day held so much promise.

I have some great memories of time spent with my family.
(I wish my parents were still here!)

Today we got together with some of my husband's relatives to pay respect to Aunt Maxine, who recently passed away. She lived a good life. Her family paid her wonderful tributes. She is now with her husband who passed away six short weeks ago. Life moves on.

While funerals are a somber occasion, they are also a time to reconnect with those you just don't get to see very often. Aunts, uncles, cousins, and old friends you shared great memories with. Aren't we lucky to have our family traditions?

On another note...here are some more reasons why this is a perfect fall day:

I am lucky to have most of my family here for the weekend to help me celebrate an early birthday. (I get to spend my real birthday at school for Math Night.)
I have enjoyed rocking my new granddaughter and playing with Maddie.
We are now looking out through some sparkling CLEAN windows (only 2, but still).
The patio furniture is put away for winter.
The air has that great autumn crispness.
Golden yellow trees line the street.

Well, I'm off to see what other adventures this day has in store for us.
I hope the day is a good one for all of you, too!

♥
JoAnn

***************************
PS. The rest of the day ended up being just as nice.
We figured out my recipe for potato salad for our family cook book (it was just in my head) and we enjoyed a spiritual stake conference meeting with Elder Curtis of the Quorum of Seventy.

My first mosaic.....I'm still learning

I know- Halloween is over, but I had a lot of pictures to work with and I wanted to try to make a mosaic, so "Halloween" it is. I found out that you can go to flickr to make them, but my husband tried to teach me how to do it myself- the hard way!
(He promised it will get easier with practice.)

(If you are a perfectionist you will notice that my borders are not always consistent, and I probably could have been more artistic organizing the pictures.)

However,
I am sort of proud that I was able to create my first one.

Now I need to learn to take those breathtaking photos!
I guess the learning process never ends.

P.S. I could probably improve my photography skills at some exotic place- like Hawaii.
(If anyone is interested!)

♥
JoAnn

I linked this to Mary's mosaic party at Little Red House. Check out all the fun ones people have come up with.

Mosaics.....

Last night I fell in love with the mosaics on The Little Red House.
I don't know how to make them,
but
I intend to learn.
They are so cool!

I mentioned to Liz that I wanted to know how to do them and
tada....
she whipped up this cute one.

I guess that is one more thing she will have to talk me through over the phone!

Thanks ahead of time, Liz!
And thank you for the cute mosaic you made!
Now I need to take some interesting pictures!

P.S. Don't you think her kids are cute?

Home made apple cider.....yum!

This weekend my husband and some of our family went to spend a little time with our new granddaughter and her family. We traded places!
Her parents are "house-sitting" at a home with a few apple trees on the property, including a Golden Delicious tree.


The house includes a lovely big yard and lots of room (something their little apartment lacked) which they all enjoy.


However, the best part of the whole deal would be the neighbors who live nearby.

They have been greeted, fed, helped with yard work, and welcomed into a tight little community of caring neighbors. On Saturday they were invited to bring their apples and come together for neighborhood apple cider making party.

They all brought their boxes of apples, some jugs, and a lot of energy.

Ken enjoyed being part of the process, too.

Now they have some delicious juice to enjoy!

Wouldn't it be nice if all the neighborhoods in the world looked out for each other?

♥
JoAnn