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Category Archives: Recipes & Food

Gardening Time Again

The gardening and hardiness chart of America has changed because of warming climates. Many of the more northern Lower 48 United States can plant earlier this garden seas during Spring , Summer, and part of the Fall of 2012.

Some of these suggestions for the garden are fun and different for a new year of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

Whatever Happened to Manners and Thought?

How to Act at The Public Library

Although they are public facilities, public libraries are workplaces for staff,  volunteers, researchers, and tutors. Personal and professional etiquette is important for good customer service to patrons and to have a place conducive to work. Even though you as a patron are not usually purchasing something at the library, you are a customer. Read some of the horror stories at local libraries above at the link – cars driving through buildings, fistfights, all sorts of things.

Children in Restaurants – How to Have A Friendly Meal

Have you ever been knocked down by toddlers running through the aisles and under tables in a nice restaurant? have you ever sat down in a chair smeared with condiments? While many good parents train their children on how to behave in a restaurant, some other parents do not, and still others do not watch their kids at all in these establishments – when they are ready to leave, they don;t even know where their toddlers are. Some really simple ideas would help us all to have a friendly meal, if they were followed.

Christmas Fun – Deliciously Different

A lot of these recipes can be prepared for an ocean of special occasions and they sparkle up any holiday season with something fresh and different. You can be sure that every 10 years, homemaking magazines come up with only slightly different versions of the same recipes of the past decade, hoping to attract new cooks. However, the rest of us get tired of “same same same.” You will not get tired of these dishes!

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Did you know that Christmas was once illegal in both the UK and the Thirteen Colonies? — The Irish and others used a code to celebrate anyway and we use it today.

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Have you lost loved ones close to Christmas, making it a sad time of year? You can turn all that arond with some moving tributes to help you remember them:

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Do you like Christmas Films? These are not the ones you’ve seen already 100 times, but they are funny, poignant, and memorable.

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How about Christmas Travel? -

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French Tarragon Bean Casserole – A Better Thanksgiving

This is by far a tastier dish than the canned-soup-bean-canned-fried-onion bowl that some have seen overcooked for many years. Using real mushrooms, fresh green beans, and lite sour cream or Greek yogurt, this is a casserole  that takes just a little while longer to prepare than the usual fare. In fact, the longest step in the recipe is cooking for 10 minutes inside the oven.

Try this recipe and find out what tarragon has to do with a Dragon and the play Waiting for Godot!

A Fresh New Classic – The Little Dragon Alternative

And don’t miss this fascinating and delicious dessert:

Christmas and Holiday Sugar Dusted Tomato Spice Cake – Extra Moist and Delicious!

Brownies are good for any holiday and a lot of everyday affairs:

Best Unique Brownie Recipes for the Holidays – Add Fruit!

Weekly Writing Contest

Many people today are considering online writing as a means to an income while they look for work. They have been downsized, displaced, left by a spouse or partner that produced the family income, have been hit by medical misfortune, and suffered any of dozens of problems that stopped their income. They are struggling with substantial effort to make a living. Others are new high school and college graduates that enjoy writing and also seek online writing as a source of supplemental income while they look for work.

We have a weekly writers’ recognition program that  publishes the articles of writers on our site for three months are less. We nominate 18 of them each week and 9 win extra Internet traffic through a variety of means.

Please visit the round-up of this week’s writers and review the Nominees’ work and please vote. Anyone can vote, no registration required. You’ll be helping someone earn an income! And thanks very much.

Mid-Ohio Festivals for July

Top 10 Best Mid-Ohio Festivals around July 4th

The State of Ohio celebrates festivals in nearly every one of its cities and towns, especially during the 4th of July Week.  Amish Country in mid-Ohio is no different. The counties of Richland and Holmes about an hour north of Franklin County and Columbus OH celebrate festivals every day of the week of July 4th and onward through the end of July.

Loudonville is particularly schedule with daily festivals, with some lasting 3 days or a week.  Classic Cars, Native American Pow Wow, Antiques,  Fireworks, Amish Food, and many other features of the area draw visitors every year.  We even have a Balloon Festival or two, alpaca farms, Chautauqua and a Halloween Haunt Night for adults in this area. It’s a great place for a family vacation or wedding trip with many sites for beautiful pictures among our State Parks and forests.

The Food Pyramid is Gone

The Food Pyramid is now a Pie Chart – or The Plate. 

MyPlate is new. And different. 

The Plate requires to be filled 50% with fruits and vegetables every day.  If US families, singles, and youth can change from consuming NO fruits and vegetables to eating SOME fruits and vegetables several times a week, then the change can lead to better health.  This is all provided that the people can afford the fruits and vegetables. During the months of January through May 2011, my local store brand canned green beans rose in price from 58 cents to 75 cents a can. Not expensive?  In 2010, they were 49 cents.

Fresh vegetables are expensive, but each week, the local Kroger and Marc’s puts two rotating vegetable selections on sale at lower prices. They also mark down vegetables several times a week at the end of the day and this helps people.

Changes can certainly help the groups of kids that are habitually overfed by parents, but can we afford fruits and vegetables?  Some can grow their own, but not everyone is able to do so.

Work and Life

A few topics to be considered at the end of Spring:

  • Downtown Revitalization The Columbus Commons - How fast growing cities are redeveloping urban areas with green spaces, new businesses and new jobs, while entertaining families. It’s genius!
  •  Spring and Summer Non-Alcoholic Punch Drinks - Some of these even contain fruit teas and one uses a coffee-ice cream punch. These are different, great for the whole family, but can be kicked up with alcohol for adults if desired. Very versatile. It’s been in the 90s F in Ohio during the last week of May, despite the deluge of rain storms. These beverages are not expensive to make, and just in time to break the heat spell.
  •  How the Retail Marketing Calendar Swallowed Patriotic Holidays - Patriotic holidays were ripe for co-opting for retail sales promotions way back in 1840, when one woman made up a Thanksgiving Story that people ate without chewing -they inhaled it like a drug. In the 21st C, all our patriotic holidays are but stepping stones to Christmas Shopping, but plenty of Americans still honour our armed services people.      
  • Series Capstone: Aboriginal Peoples In Canada - Many more bands of First Nations peoples are receiving recognition since the suceess of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. Big changes are occuring in recording the histories of these peoples.

How to Stop Spending So Much Money

Don’t Buy the Most Expensive Thing Every Time – The Value of Products and Services

It is time to stop spending every penny we make and to stop rushing through grocery stores and other retail establishments, picking up the most expensive items. Credit cards with 29% or 32% interest are also not a good way to purchase food, household goods, and other small items. However, much of the population seems to be doing it. 

Who is going to feed us if we send all our money at the movies one night? That is a lot of money now with $8.00 – $12.00 tickets and the high price of concessions.  Having a date can take a whole day’s pay.  A family of four can spend over $100 in one evening. But will they have food for dinner tomorrow?

Food and in many parts of the country are empty and have difficulty acquiring new stock. Further, you probably know at least a person or two that is always asking friends and family for money – and the money’s running out.  Some Baby Boomers and others in that situation are finding out now what happens when the last relative dies and leaves no estate behind to inherit. 

Consider pets – is it fair to own animals that one cannot feed and provide with healthcare? The following article explains how to find some low-cost or free services for pets, along with how to stop spending too much money everywhere else.

    

Ice Cream Sundaes – Long Before 1700

Ever hear of a leather ice cream cone? Keep reading :)

The wintertime farms in eastern Ohio, families made ice cream from the snow, adding sugar, or honey when they kept bees, vanilla, and some milk or fresh farm cream. This tradition went back before the American Civil War and probably farther.

For a big treat, they dribbled honey over fresh vanilla ice cream. For me, the ice cream sundae was invented the first time someone made ice cream from snow and put something on top: honey, home-canned friut, dried fruit, molasses, maple syrup, homemade mincemeat yes, and probably some other condiments.

We cannot place a date on that, but I know it was done at least as far back as 1840 in my fathers family, when the men were working on the National Road, Route 40.

When did the commerical ice cream sundae and cones first appear?

Ice Cream Sundaes and Cones - Fact or Fiction?.

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