Down Memory Lane

I did something this weekend I rarely do....and had a great time.  I spent the weekend with several friends and we went out as a group Saturday night & listened to good music, played pool, showed off on the dance floor, swapped stories and had a great time. 

Like many of you, with the combination of work, kids and other obligations in life, I go out like that maybe twice a year at most and we had a lot of fun.

Now as I am back to work on this cool, rainy Monday I have thoughts of winter on my mind and the crazy things we used to do for entertainment during those (seemingly) endless winters.


Image Courtesy of Dan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 Long ago when my sister and I were young, my dad had 25 acres of flat land pasture and we would saddle a horse, fire up a tractor, or any available 4WD truck we could find and pull a little red wagon through the snow just as fast as we could go.  The neighbor kids loved to come to our house through the winter in hopes of a ride.  Often times the little red wagon, I think we had one of those Radio Flyers, was in such a state of disrepair that we had to do some rebuilding after every high speed run.

We had a lariat rope and would loop it through the handle and then either take a dally (loop around the saddle horn) if we had a horse or tie it to the bumper of a vehicle and everyone would take turns piling in for a ride, usually 2 - 3 at a time.

If you timed it just right, and put the bigger kids in back, that little red wagon would stand up on the rear wheels with a fast start.  If that didn't dump everyone then a carefully executed series of high speed turns often would do the trick.  Just like a skier behind a boat, the wagon would pick up blinding speed in the turns and come very close to passing the horse or truck.  There were rollovers and crashes and when you hit a bump just right, you would fly through the air before coming back to earth with a thud.

There were bent and broken axles, busted wheels, bent handles and who knows what else that were fixed all winter long on that wagon.  Luckily my dad could repair anything and he would take it over to the shop and hammer out the dents, weld the broken axles and pronounce it road worthy again.

I don't recall any broken bones from those high speed adventures, which is a wonder in itself, but there was a TON of good times had by all.  My dad was often the high speed motivation riding the horse or driving the truck that made endless circles through the pasture.

I don't know what happened to that Radio Flyer from all those years ago and if there were any pictures they were few and far between but I would give a princely sum to have either one today....

Feel Good Friday - Money Changes People??

I don't know about you guys but I'm a voracious reader.  Magazines, books, articles, and especially news items consume a significant part of my life.  I own a television but don't have satellite or cable and apart from watching a movie with my boys, rarely turn it on.  I get fed up with the endless stories of tragedy, heartache, betrayal and "blood & guts" as I refer to it.

I have found that I am infinitely happier in my life when I don't listen to it.  I stay very informed about the news of the day especially as it can affect my little corner of the world but apart from that I could care less.

I do however, love to hear real-life stories of triumph, perserverance and personal sacrifice for the greater good.  Those stories that lift you up and make you proud to be in my case an American but in yours wherever you call home.  The stories that renew your faith in your god, country and fellow man.  The ones that bring a smile to your face later that day, week or month.  Those are the ones that we don't hear enough about and this is my small effort to change that.......

Read this article from Lottery Post......

Canadian couple gives away entire $11.2M lottery jackpot.

A Nova Scotia couple won $11.2 million from a lottery ticket in July and now every penny is gone.

But Allen and Violet Large of Lower Truro didn't spend any of it on themselves.

They say they decided to take care of family, organizations and institutions instead.

"What you've never had, you never miss," said Violet, 78.

Married since 1974, the couple does not live large. They don't travel, they don't gamble (beyond playing the lottery) and they don't buy what they don't need.

"We have an old house, but we're comfortable and we're happy in it," Violet said.

They spent 30 years in Ontario where Allen was a steel welder and Violet worked for cosmetics and chocolate companies. They retired in 1983 and returned to Nova Scotia.

"We were pretty well set, not millionaires, but comfortable," said Allen, 75.

So when they hit it big in Lotto 6-49's July 14 draw, they decided to give it all away.

All that money "was a big headache," Allen said.

Violet said she was concerned about "crooked people" who might try to take advantage of them.

But the big win came at a difficult time in their lives: Violet was undergoing treatment for cancer that doctors discovered in the spring.

"That money that we won was nothing," said Allen, choking back tears. "We have each other."

Violet has been through surgery and finished her last chemotherapy treatment a week ago.

After the win, the couple took about a week to work out the details before embarking on their $11,255,272 spending spree.

They took care of family first and then began delivering donations to the two pages' worth of groups they had decided on, including the local fire department, churches, cemeteries, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, hospitals in Truro and Halifax, where Violet underwent her cancer treatment, and organizations that fight cancer, Alzheimer's and diabetes.

The list goes on and on.

The couple won't say how much they gave each group, but they've received plenty of phone calls, letters and plaques of gratitude. While they're thankful for each one, they didn't do it for the recognition.

"It made us feel good," said Violet. "And there's so much good being done with that money."

She and her husband said they feel privileged to be able to give back to the community, to help the firefighters, the doctors and nurses and the volunteers who have helped them.

"We're the lucky ones," Violet said. "I have no complaints."

Allen and Violet Large, both in their 70s, said their good fortune earlier this year had been a 'big headache' and they had decided to give it all away to family and a long list of charities.

 
How did this story make you feel?  Do you have an uplifting story to share??  Tell us about it in the comments.....

All My Heroes Wear Camo - Happy Veterans Day!!

November 11th holds a very special significance to many in the US.  It is the day that we honor our soldiers, past and present, for the sacrifices they made for our country. 

I come from a family of veterans, my father, grandfather, uncle and step-father to name a few served in all four branches of our armed forces many years ago.  I always wanted to follow in that tradition but was turned away for bad knees.  My oldest wants to be in the Air Force and while he is still very young, nothing would make me prouder than to see him fulfill that goal many years from now.

No matter your views, we all have reason to give thanks to our veterans that serve(d) our country with honor.  Some people do not agree with my views honoring the military and supporting our country and they proclaim it loudly.  I support their right to do so even if I disagree with their message as they might disagree with mine.  The important thing is the American soldier fought for their right to live in a free country where they can express their feelings from the rooftops as I can express mine from this one....:-)

I want to personally thank from the bottom of my heart those who served our country, past and present, and those who will do so in the future.  I understand that you make the choice to protect us and all that our country stands for and I thank you.  You're one of a kind.....

Read this story from The Washington Post......

On Veterans Day, honoring Marine who lost limbs in Afghanistan, but not spirit.
By Michael E. Ruane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 11, 2010; 9:28 AM



The morning that Marine Cpl. Todd A. Nicely received his medal for valor, he and his wife, Crystal, paused in a restroom at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to pull the trousers of his uniform over his artificial legs.

Crystal maneuvered his pants past the carbon fiber feet. Then they fitted the prostheses onto the stumps of Todd's legs.

He put on his tan utility shirt, which she buttoned, attached his artificial left arm and slipped his metal pole crutch onto the stump of his right arm. When he donned his camouflage Marine Corps hat "low on the brow," he was ready.

It was the first time in six months that he had been back in his "cammies" - since the day in March when he had stepped on the explosive device in Afghanistan that tore off his hands and lower legs.

The blast broke his jaw, punctured his ear drums and left him, according to the latest statistics, one of only three men - a soldier and two Marines - from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to survive an attack as a quadruple amputee.

They now top a grim hierarchy of more than 1,100 military amputees from the two conflicts, which includes 21 people who have lost three limbs, 258 who have lost two and 832 who have lost one.

Nicely's wounds resulted from an explosive encountered on a foot patrol; his survival stemmed from good body armor and quick life-saving actions by comrades.

In the months since his injury, Nicely, 26, has endured numerous surgeries. He has cycled through three kinds of artificial legs and worked with three types of artificial arms.

He has had to strengthen his butt muscles to help operate his computerized legs and learn to use his shoulder muscles to help activate his artificial arms.

Nicely has spent weeks at Walter Reed learning to stand, walk, climb stairs, zip a zipper and unscrew a bottle cap. He still often needs someone to light his cigarettes for him as he motors around the hospital campus with an artificial arm sticking out of the back pouch of his wheelchair.

He is thin, thoughtful and bespectacled and is slightly taller on his mechanical legs than before - 5-foot-9 vs. 5-foot-8.

And he can be so matter of fact about his wounds that it's easy to forget that his limbs are metal and plastic, not flesh and bone

"I'm just a regular guy who joined the military," he said.

As he sat outside in his wheelchair one day recently, with his artificial legs off and his right prosthetic arm in his lap, he smoked a cigarette, pushed up his glasses with his mechanical left hand and looked like a man waiting for a bus.

Yet he gets a distant gaze when he recounts his wounding. A squad leader, he stifled his screams for the sake of his men.

He does not dwell on his injuries. A younger Marine in his platoon was shot in the head and killed instantly four months before he was wounded.

"All you can do is be thankful you're alive," he said, "which I am."

When he was dressed that sunny morning of Sept. 17, he and his wife drove to Mologne House, an outpatient residence at Walter Reed.

In a courtyard out back, about 50 of his Marine buddies had gathered - many driving from Camp Lejeune, N.C., the night before - to see him get the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, with V device, for valor.

He was receiving the honor for his meritorious work in the weeks before the explosion.

At 11:30 a.m. he stood at attention - unsteadily for a moment - before his old company commander, Capt. Scott A. Cuomo, while the citation was read aloud.

After Cuomo pinned the green ribbon to Nicely's shirt, he gathered the Marines around him. Nicely, weary on his "C-legs," sat on a wall beside him.

"I just want to make sure that you understand how proud I am and we are for what you've done," the officer told him.

The courtyard was quiet except for the sound of a waterfall in a fountain. After Cuomo's talk, the Marines lined up in front of Nicely and took turns embracing him.

The afternoon of March 26, Nicely was leading his men back from a routine security patrol near the town of Lakari in southern Afghanistan.

They were walking in staggered formation on a road that ran along a canal. Ahead was a crude, single-file bamboo bridge over the canal.

Buried at the foot of the bridge was a bomb made of 40 pounds of homemade explosives.

Nicely had taken his men on scores of patrols like this before. They had found ammunition caches and explosives, waded through freezing cold water and come under enemy fire.

On this day, they were on a road they had often walked before. "I should have known better," he recalled.

Nicely had been in Afghanistan five months. He was in charge of 12 Marines in the 1st Squad, 1st Platoon, Company F, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines.

He had already served a tour with the Marines in Iraq in 2008. There, it had been relatively calm.

Around Lakari, it was not. The terrain was flat and interrupted by irrigation ditches and tree lines from which the Taliban regularly attacked.

"The first week that we actually owned the land, you couldn't go 400 meters outside of our base without getting shot at," he said.

Nicely, a native of Arnold, Mo., outside St. Louis, had found his calling in the Marines. He loved being responsible for younger Marines, loved being, at 26, "the old man." He had also found his wife, Crystal, 24.

Crystal, a native of Wathena, Kan., was a Marine, too, when they met on the Internet.

They were stationed at nearby bases in North Carolina. After dating for several months, they were married Feb. 20, 2009, in Jacksonville, N.C. "We did the courthouse thing," he said. She left the Marines the next June.

They made "quite a pair," she said recently.

He said, "We're actually kind of opposites."

"We are," she said. "I am the calm, collected [one] . . . and he is the wild, rambunctious, 'I have many stupid moments' man.

"We equal each other out," she said. "It's an adventure."

During his deployment, she had moved back to Kansas to be with her family.

'Just keep breathing'

The day he was wounded, Nicely was walking in the lead.

"We always patrolled on foot," he said. "It was just a regular security patrol to make sure the Taliban was staying out of the area."

"I had decided to cross [the] bridge," he said. "Of course, I went first."

He stepped on a pressure plate rigged to the explosive and triggered the blast.

He does not recall any sound, just hitting the ground near the canal and water splashing on his face.

"Aw, God," he said he thought. "What happened?"

Lance Cpl. Felix Camarillo, 19, of Los Angeles was third in line, behind Nicely and the platoon's commander, Lt. Brian J. McGrath Jr., 27, of Glenside, Pa., who was along to interact with locals.

Camarillo saw Nicely engulfed in dust and debris. "Nice!" he yelled.

The explosion knocked down the whole patrol, Camarillo said.

McGrath tried to quickly sweep the area with a metal detector to make sure there were no other bombs. But there were so many fragments on the ground that he threw the detector aside and rushed to Nicely.

The blast had blown off Nicely's helmet and flak jacket.

He looked awful.

"I almost lost it," Camarillo said. "There were bones sticking out. . . . His right leg was just completely gone. His left hand was gone."

Much of his right arm was also gone and his left leg was barely attached, other Marines remembered.

He also had a wound that looked like shrapnel had gone through the bottom of his jaw and come out his left cheek and an abdominal wound with part of his bowel protruding, his friends said.

Camarillo and Lance Cpl. Sean Harrigan, 19, of Methuen, Mass., who were trained to treat combat trauma, put tourniquets on what remained of Nicely's limbs to stop the bleeding.

A strapping corpsman, Jerrod Francis, 21, of Louisville, sprinted over from another squad and went to work on the other wounds. He was amazed that Nicely's vital signs were decent.

Nicely recalled: "I remember . . . thinking to myself . . . 'Just keep breathing so you can get back to your wife.' "

"I remember screaming once or twice," he said. "You know, those curdling, bloody screams that they do on the movies, like: 'Waaaah! Waah!' I did that a couple times, and I remember thinking to myself: 'Don't do that again, because this is the last image that these boys are going to have of you in their heads. So stay strong.' After that, I just shut up."

He knew he gotten "blown up pretty good," he said. "I knew I was going to lose some. I wasn't quite aware that I had lost all four."

The Marines called for a helicopter, which arrived quickly. They put Nicely on a cot and carried him to the "bird," and he was flown away.

Camarillo did not think he would survive.

Later, after he had been evacuated, his buddies found one of his hands during a search of the area.

'To me, it was still Todd'

Back in Kansas, Crystal Nicely was visiting one of her sisters when the Marines tracked her down.

"They put a sergeant major on the phone with me, and he asked me to sit down," she recalled. "He told me that my husband had been injured. I asked him if he was still alive. He said yes. He said, 'I don't know the extent of his injuries, but he is injured and he is missing some limbs.'

"All I kept telling them was: 'You've got to get me to him. . . . I need to see him.' "

She and his parents were flown on a commercial flight to the military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, where Nicely had been taken.

He had lost his right leg at the knee, his left leg just above the knee, his left arm at the wrist and his right arm at the elbow.

"You always think it's going to be worse than what it actually is," Crystal Nicely said of the moment she saw him. "I mean, it wasn't good, but to me, it was still Todd. His [missing] limbs didn't really affect me. . . . I saw him breathe, and I was like: 'Okay, he's still alive. He's still with me.' "

Nicely was flown to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, where his family began a vigil.

"We didn't know if he knew" the extent of his injuries, Crystal Nicely recalled. "And we didn't know how he would take it, if he would go down which path - the bad path, or if he would take some kind of hope."

Late one night, he woke up and told her: "I don't know what's wrong."

"What do you mean, 'You don't know what's wrong?' " she asked, sensing he meant his injuries.

"Do you want to know what's wrong?" she asked. He said he did.

"Well, baby, you know you're missing your legs?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said. "I know."

"Did you know you're missing both hands?" she asked, crying.

"No," he said.

He was quiet for a minute, then asked, "Did anybody else get hurt?"

She said no.

"Good," he said.

"And that was the end of it," she remembered.

'I-hate-amputees tool'

One day in September, Nicely sat in his wheelchair at a table in Walter Reed's Military Advanced Training Center, where amputees get physical and occupational therapy.

His recovery was well advanced. Accompanied by his wife, he had attended daily therapy, worked hard and aimed to be finished at Walter Reed within a year of his injury.

Over the summer, he and Crystal moved to an apartment in Montgomery County with her dog, Reese. They commuted to Walter Reed in her Jeep. "This is the easy part," she said. "The hard part's over."

On this day, Nicely had on black shorts and a white T-shirt. He was not wearing his artificial legs.

He wore a battery-powered myoelectric prosthesis on his left arm and was using it to put a prosthesis on his right arm.

He looked like he was girding for battle - slipping the right arm's support strap over the back of his neck and looping it onto his left arm.

He flicked a tiny black switch on the right arm, set his right elbow at a 90-degree angle and said, "All right."

On the table before him was a checklist of tasks labeled "Activities of Daily Living."

It included such things as "open top of pill bottle," "take bill from wallet," "open pack of cigarettes." There was a four-part grading system beside each task, from zero (impossible) to 4 (smooth).

Nicely had become a good "crane operator," his therapists said, coordinating the mind and muscle skills required to move his arms and operate his hands. "It's pretty much like playing a claw machine" at an arcade, he said.

He had to practice buttoning a shirt, a brain-bending task that was done with a simulated shirt front and small wire hooking device he called an "I-hate-amputees tool."

There was the pill-bottle task, in which he spilled too many pills but expertly scooped them off the table and back into the bottle.

Then there was the open-a-bottle-of-Gatorade task.

"I'm going to spill stuff everywhere," he told occupational therapist Josef Butkus. The therapist replied, "Let me get you some towels."

Nicely wrestled with the bottle for several minutes, dropped it in his lap, started over and finally removed the cap.

With the 25-pound pinching power of the artificial hands, he partly crushed the paper cup Butkus gave him. But he managed to pour a drink, pick up the cup with his teeth and drink it.

Butkus then tossed the bottle cap back to him and said, "Your favorite part."

But Nicely easily replaced the cap, picked up the bottle and rotated it 360 degrees with a robotic hand.

It did not leak.

'If it wasn't for you guys'

Nine days later, Nicely sat on the wall in his uniform before his fellow Marines in the courtyard behind Mologne House.

He had just heard his old battalion commander, Lt. Col. John McDonough, tell the gathering that he hoped his children might one day have the courage that Nicely has.

Now it was Nicely's turn to say something.

He pushed himself to his feet with his pole crutch.

"I just want to thank everybody," he said, gesturing with his artificial left arm. "I'd like to . . . thank my platoon for getting me back. If it wasn't for you guys, I don't think I'd be alive today.

"Other than that, I really don't have much more to say," he said.

He rubbed his nose with his flesh-colored left hand, shifted his weight on his legs and added, "I love you guys."

On this Veterans Day 2010 I want to again say "Thank you" to all those who served, continue to serve, and will serve....

What's In Your Diet Wednesday - Twinkies You Say??

We are inundated with information daily on the choices we make in our diet.....  "Don't eat this!  It's loaded with saturated fats!"  "Everyday you're drinking 10 teaspoons of sugar!" and on, and on, and on.  As you all know, these facts don't always ring true for everyone.  We all have the friend who can and does eat everything in sight and never gains a pound.  We also have another friend who rarely eats and is overweight.

Does it really matter what we put in our bodies as far as nutritional value??

Read this article from CNN Health.....

Twinkie diet helps nutrition professor lose 27 pounds

(CNN) -- Twinkies. Nutty bars. Powdered donuts.

For 10 weeks, Mark Haub, a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University, ate one of these sugary cakelets every three hours, instead of meals. To add variety in his steady stream of Hostess and Little Debbie snacks, Haub munched on Doritos chips, sugary cereals and Oreos, too.

His premise: That in weight loss, pure calorie counting is what matters most -- not the nutritional value of the food.

The premise held up: On his "convenience store diet," he shed 27 pounds in two months.

For a class project, Haub limited himself to less than 1,800 calories a day. A man of Haub's pre-dieting size usually consumes about 2,600 calories daily. So he followed a basic principle of weight loss: He consumed significantly fewer calories than he burned.

His body mass index went from 28.8, considered overweight, to 24.9, which is normal. He now weighs 174 pounds.

But you might expect other indicators of health would have suffered. Not so.

Haub's "bad" cholesterol, or LDL, dropped 20 percent and his "good" cholesterol, or HDL, increased by 20 percent. He reduced the level of triglycerides, which are a form of fat, by 39 percent.

"That's where the head scratching comes," Haub said. "What does that mean? Does that mean I'm healthier? Or does it mean how we define health from a biology standpoint, that we're missing something?"

Haub's sample day

Espresso, Double: 6 calories; 0 grams of fat

Hostess Twinkies Golden Sponge Cake: 150 calories; 5 grams of fat

Centrum Advanced Formula From A To Zinc: 0 calories; 0 grams of fat

Little Debbie Star Crunch: 150 calories; 6 grams of fat

Hostess Twinkies Golden Sponge Cake: 150 calories; 5 grams of fat

Diet Mountain Dew: 0 calories; 0 grams of fat

Doritos Cool Ranch: 75 calories; 4 grams of fat

Kellogg's Corn Pops: 220 calories; 0 grams of fat

whole milk: 150 calories; 8 grams of fat

baby carrots: 18 calories; 0 grams of fat

Duncan Hines Family Style Brownie Chewy Fudge: 270 calories; 14 grams of fat

Little Debbie Zebra Cake: 160 calories; 8 grams of fat

Muscle Milk Protein Shake: 240 calories; 9 grams of fat

Totals: 1,589 calories and 59 grams of fat Despite his temporary success, Haub does not recommend replicating his snack-centric diet.

"I'm not geared to say this is a good thing to do," he said. "I'm stuck in the middle. I guess that's the frustrating part. I can't give a concrete answer. There's not enough information to do that."

Two-thirds of his total intake came from junk food. He also took a multivitamin pill and drank a protein shake daily. And he ate vegetables, typically a can of green beans or three to four celery stalks.

Families who live in food deserts have limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables, so they often rely on the kind of food Haub was eating.

"These foods are consumed by lots of people," he said. "It may be an issue of portion size and moderation rather than total removal. I just think it's unrealistic to expect people to totally drop these foods for vegetables and fruits. It may be healthy, but not realistic."

Haub's body fat dropped from 33.4 to 24.9 percent. This posed the question: What matters more for weight loss, the quantity or quality of calories?

His success is probably a result of caloric reduction, said Dawn Jackson Blatner, a dietitian based in Atlanta, Georgia.

"It's a great reminder for weight loss that calories count," she said. "Is that the bottom line to being healthy? That's another story."

Blatner, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, said she's not surprised to hear Haub's health markers improved even when he loaded up on processed snack cakes.

Being overweight is the central problem that leads to complications like high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol, she said.

"When you lose weight, regardless of how you're doing it -- even if it's with packaged foods, generally you will see these markers improve when weight loss has improved," she said.

Before jumping on the Ding Dong bandwagon, Blatner warned of health concerns.

"There are things we can't measure," said Blatner, questioning how the lack of fruits and vegetables could affect long-term health. "How much does that affect the risk for cancer? We can't measure how diet changes affect our health."

On August 25, Haub, 41, started his cake diet focusing on portion control.

"I'm eating to the point of need and pushing the plate or wrapper away," he said.

He intended the trial to last a month as a teaching tool for his class. As he lost weight, Haub continued the diet until he reached a normal body mass index.

Before his Twinkie diet, he tried to eat a healthy diet that included whole grains, dietary fiber, berries and bananas, vegetables and occasional treats like pizza.

"There seems to be a disconnect between eating healthy and being healthy," Haub said. "It may not be the same. I was eating healthier, but I wasn't healthy. I was eating too much."

He maintained the same level of moderate physical activity as before going on the diet. (Haub does not have any ties to the snack cake companies.)

To avoid setting a bad example for his kids, Haub ate vegetables in front of his family. Away from the dinner table, he usually unwrapped his meals.

Haub monitored his body composition, blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose, and updated his progress on his Facebook page, Professor Haub's diet experiment.

To curb calories, he avoided meat, whole grains and fruits. Once he started adding meat into the diet four weeks ago, his cholesterol level increased.

Haub plans to add about 300 calories to his daily intake now that he's done with the diet. But he's not ditching snack cakes altogether. Despite his weight loss, Haub feels ambivalence.

"I wish I could say the outcomes are unhealthy. I wish I could say it's healthy. I'm not confident enough in doing that. That frustrates a lot of people. One side says it's irresponsible. It is unhealthy, but the data doesn't say that."

This is certainly something to make you scratch your head.  I know that my great-grandpa ate everything in the world that you're not supposed to eat.  Every single meal was cooked with lard, and came with generous helpings of bacon fat, fried foods and whole milk fresh from the cow.  He lived to be nearly 90 years old and was in the best of health....he also worked outside from daylight to dark in the fields behind a team of horses.

I truly believe it doesn't matter so much what you eat as it does your activity level.  People today are much more sedentary than our ancestors and it shows in our waistlines....Tell us your diet stories.....Can you eat anything or do you have to be very careful??

Tasty Tuesdays! Eggplant & Cheese Lasagna

How is everyone liking the time change so far??  I was grateful for the extra hour of sleep when it happened but I'm verrrry tired and my get up and go took off somewhere without me....  Of course that could have something to do with the fact that we worked cows for the entire weekend!! :-)   It's times like these that I realize I'm not 25 anymore....I creak and pop and snap more than I used to while I'm engaged in all of these day to day activites and it takes a lot longer to recover.  My dad just laughes at me and says....."Wait until you're in your 60's and then tell me how you feel!!"

We got all of the cattle worked, nobody got hurt, and there was a lot of good food and good times had by all.  What more could you ask for??

This week's post is a tasty creation cooked by my friend Michael Fusco of Michael Fusco's Riverside Grill in Tulsa, OK.  For those of you that may not know, Michael is a 5 star chef and good guy that has allowed me to share some of his awesome recipes on the blog for all to see.  Let's get to it....

Ingredients:

• 2 eggplant, peeled and sliced lengthwise, very thin, salted (salt acts as a draw for the bitterness)
• 4 lasagna sheets or 1 box lasagna blanched (cook pasta "al dente")
• 1 cup rice flour
• 1 quart milk
• 2 oz butter - 2 oz rice flour
• 3 cups or more shredded mozzarella
• 24 oz. whole milk ricotta or more
• 2 cups pecorino feather shredded
• Salt & pepper to taste

Preparation:

Dredge the eggplant in flour and shake off the excess.  Saute the eggplant until golden.  The flour protects the eggplant as you sautee with a small amount of oil, high heat (400 deg to sear, seals outside, holds flavor)

Combine the milk with the roux and nutmeg.  Bring to a boil while stirring, and then reduce and keep on low heat until it becomes thick.

Cover the bottom of a Pyrex with some of the bechamel sauce, (Italian white sauce) and then put one layer of noodles, then white sauce, then cheese, then eggplants, then white sauce again, etc.  Continue with the same process: spread the remaining cheese on top and bake in the oven for about 1 hour at 375 degrees F.

Cooking tips:              You can add sauteed minced meat in between the layers.

Preparation time:         40 minutes

Cooking time:              60 minutes

Zucchini or summer squash can also be used if preferred.

Bechamel sauce - (Half butter and half flour) Melt butter and add rice flour slowly.  Flour becomes encapsulated in the fat.  Keep on high heat until the roux has a very light white color.  When you combine milk, return to heat nad the flour will soak up moisture making a thick creamy sauce.

Eggplant is not my favorite food in the whole world...Alright I admit it, I never eat eggplant because I just plain don't like it!!  However, I was always taught to try everything on my plate and eat a respectable portion so as not to insult the host.  I did so and found that in this case, it was good!!  Perhaps it's because I love pasta so much, maybe it was the bechamel sauce, I don't know, but I liked it and that is saying something!  It's also Gluten Free!!

Enjoy!!

This post is part of the following blog carnivals.....Go check out these great sites!!

Midnight Maniac Meatless Mondays

Monday Mania

Mouthwatering Mondays

Hearth 'n Soul
Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays
Tuesday Twister
Real Food Wednesday
Gluten-Free Wednesdays
Pennywise Platter Thursday

Feel Good Friday - The Right Place At The Right Time

I don't know about you guys but I'm a voracious reader. Magazines, books, articles, and especially news items consume a significant part of my life. I own a television but don't have satellite or cable and apart from watching a movie with my boys, rarely turn it on. I get fed up with the endless stories of tragedy, heartache, betrayal and "blood & guts" as I refer to it.

I have found that I am infinitely happier in my life when I don't listen to it. I stay very informed about the news of the day especially as it can affect my little corner of the world but apart from that I could care less.

I do however, love to hear real-life stories of triumph, perserverance and personal sacrifice for the greater good. Those stories that lift you up and make you proud to be in my case an American but in yours wherever you call home. The stories that renew your faith in your god, country and fellow man. The ones that bring a smile to your face later that day, week or month. Those are the ones that we don't hear enough about and this is my small effort to change that.......


Read this story from Bossip......

SMH: Another Day, Another Baby Falls Seven Stories?

A 18-month-old baby boy fell seven stories in Paris before bouncing off a cafe awning and into the arms of a quick-thinking passerby, police said.

The Parisian toddler was playing with his 4-year-old sister while their parents went for a stroll Monday, a French holiday, when he somehow he fell out of the seventh-floor apartment window.

A young man saw the baby tumble out the window and alerted his father, who ran, with arms outstretched, to catch the boy after he bounced off the awning of Le Vincennes.

“My son saw a little boy on a balcony. He had gone right outside the railing … I said to myself I mustn’t miss him,” local doctor Philippe Bensignor, told reporters.

The boy appeared to have no injuries and was brought to a nearby hospital Monday for further observation.

“The little boy was fine. He cried a little bit but calmed down straightaway,” Bensignor added.

The owner of the cafe said that he left the awning open that afternoon by chance, and that he usually rolled it up.

Lucky or not, there will be consequences to these kids’ parents’ recklessness.

French police detained the parents of the boy for questioning.

“The parents were absent, and it’s a bit difficult questioning (the children) given their age,” a police spokesman said.

Jesus, love the little children!

The issue of the parent's supervision of their children aside....This story gave me chills when I read it!!

Tasty Tuesdays! Coq au Vin

Things have been extremely busy in my neck of the woods lately.  Adding new items to the shopping cart, adding our very own J & L Health private label to some of them and working on getting the double blind medical study results published for Intestinal Calm for Celiacs, along with the article in the medical journal has made for a busy Jason.  Let's not forget trail riding because I've never forgotten how to play hard.....

I am working feverishly, not always to be confused with efficiently, on redesigning the theme of the blog.  After a good conversation with a friend of mine a few weeks ago, I knew more than ever I wanted to make some changes and mix it up a little. 

I love to do so many things in life that to me are second nature, but as she pointed out can be fascinating to so many others.  As you all know, I LOVE to cook in my dutch ovens, and as many more don't know, ride horses, hunt, fish, have a garden, and countless other things.  So in the coming days, the blog will take on a new look and feel.  There will be always be a Tasty Tuesday and I think I will add a day for strictly Dutch Oven cooking as well.  Another day, perhaps Wednesdays or Fridays will be a look back into many of the things that I did growing up that I hope you will enjoy and share with your friends and other bloggers.

This weeks post is one that left me scratching me head and I will be the first to admit, when I saw the recipe for Coq au Vin I thought..."What in the world is that?" It was first more of a fact finding journey than knowing what I was about to eat. When I found out it was braised chicken I knew I would love it!  Michael Fusco makes this dish outstanding and I will be trying out my own version verrrry soon!!

The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb bacon slices
• 20 pearl onions, peeled, or 1 large yellow onion, sliced
• 3 lbs chicken thighs and legs, excess fat trimmed, skin ON
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups red wine (pinot noir, burgundy, or zinfandel)
• 2 bay leaves
• Several fresh thyme sprigs
• Several fresh parsley sprigs
• 1/2 lb button mushrooms, trimmed and roughly chopped
• 2 Tbsp butter
• Chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Blanch the bacon to remove some of its saltiness.  Drop the bacon into a saucepan of cold water, covered bya  couple of inches.  Bring to a boil, simmer for 5 minutes, drain.  Rinse in cold water, pat dry with paper towels.  Cut bacon into 1"x1/4" peices.

Brown bacon on medium high heat in a dutch oven big enough to hold the chicken, about 10 minutes.  Remove the cooked bacon, set aside keeping the bacon fat in the pan.  Working in batches if necessary, add onions and chicken, skin side down.  Brown the chicken well, on all sides, about 10 minutes.  Halfway through the browning, add the garlic adn sprinkle the chicken with salt & pepper.  Adding salt while cooking, instead of at the very end, will bring out the flavor of the chicken.

Spoon off any excess fat.  Add the chicken stock, wine, and herbs.  Add back the bacon.  Lower heat to a simmer.  Cover and cook for 20 minutes, or until chicken is tender and cooked through.  Remove the chicken and onions to a separate platter.  Remove the bay leaves, herb sprigs, garlic and discard.

Add mushrooms to the remaining liquid and turn the heat to high.  Boil quickly and reduce the liquid by 3/4 until it becomes thick and saucy.  Lower the heat, stir in the butter.  Return the chicken and onions to the pan to reheat and coat with sauce.  Adjust seasoning.  Garnish with parsley and serve.

This dish is a bit of work but WELL worth the effort!  Excellent flavor, a great winter time meal and did I mention excellent flavor??  Enjoy!!

This post is part of the following blog carnivals.....Go check out these great sites!!

Monday Mania
Mouthwatering Monday
Hearth 'n Soul
Slightly Indulgent Tuedays
Tuesday Twister
Real Food Wednesday
Gluten-Free Wednesday
Pennywise Platter Thursday
Recipe Swap Thursday