Monday, May 31, 2010

Remembering with gratitude

On Memorial Day we take the family out to see family gravesites. This year we also asked our children to locate at least two graves of veterans. This wasn't difficult, as it is a tradition here (and I imagine many other places) to put flags on the graves of veterans. In the past few years we have made it a tradition to place a plant or flowers on the grave of a veteran near one of our family member's gravesites. We never met him, but we are grateful for his service nevertheless.

And if you are serving or have served in the military, or are the family of someone who has, we are grateful for your service as well.

Thank you.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

From the emergency notebook....

This is about the fourth or fifth or umpteenth time I have started this post--when I first started, some part of the program was automatically putting the English into another script. Never know what will happen when technology meets up with little fingers, (I don't know for sure what happened, but that's my guess, and I'm sticking with it) so I hope the final product turns out normal when I publish it. Ah, technology.

Anyway, I have been thinking about the garden, and have also been thinking it's just too early to send those seeds out on their own. So in place of a gardening post, I thought that I would include a couple of recipes that I have commented on on my other blog, but haven't mentioned here. One is for cornbread, found on Friday's Food Fancy, which is just a really good resource for all sorts of food storage recipes. Another is this recipe for tortillas, over at The Happy Housewife. I have gotten better and better at making these, but alas, they are still not really round.... :) They taste good, as does the cornbread--I highly recommend both recipes, and they are the way I like my recipes--really, really, easy.

As for the title, I really do have these recipes and others in what I call my emergency notebook, because I never know when the power will go out, and I want to have those recipes and lists of substitutions and etc. in one place in my hot and sweaty little hand in times of emergency. If you don't have an emergency notebook, please consider starting one. And for those who have not seen other recipes I have already listed, you may want to look here for bean recipes and here for another list of bread recipes--- just in case you would rather not jump all over this blog trying to collect them one by one. :) Gotta love having recipes where you can use those food storage staples or at least do simple things from scratch--hope you like them like we like them around here!

Monday, May 3, 2010

Unusual emergencies

A couple of unusual emergencies have occurred in our country recently:

--I first heard about the water pipe break in Boston yesterday, and found this article on it today. From what I understand, the break has had far-reaching consequences, and while water is available, it must be boiled. I found it interesting that one person quoted remarked that it is "inconvenient"--I'm just glad that they have water to work with, even though it must be boiled. Perhaps more disturbing are some of the comments in the comment section (though I read only the first few) about fights over the bottled water in the stores...

--The oil spill disaster is affecting the Louisiana fishing industry, which you can read about here. In the linked article, mention is made of the fact that the fishermen are now unable to go out and harvest, when they have spent a great deal of money to get ready for the fishing season, which usually begins about this time. This means less (or perhaps, unfortunately, no) revenue for them, and less available food for any/everyone who relies on the seafood they usually provide. In this less recent article, there is a man quoted who indicates that this disaster will have an impact on the sea life in the area that could last many years.

My thoughts and prayers are with the fishermen and their families, and to those (some of whom are the same fishermen) who have to work in dangerous conditions to clean up the effects of the oil spill. I hope that those affected have enough provisions set aside to weather this emergency, and I hope that everyone in the affected area in Boston has the means to either boil their water or purchase clean water. And I hope everyone everywhere prepares for emergencies, unusual or no....