Thursday, December 25, 2014

What Is The Redneck Version Of "See You Later" In German?

Three miles north of the Austrian Border on the German side there is a beautiful city of Füssen

I met them in Germany 
in 1963. 
He was from North Carolina and 
she had been born in Austria and 
raised in Germany. 

I loved them to pieces. 
His name was Joe and hers Maria. 
He spoke pigeon German with a southern accent. 
He said cute things like, Kooken Due Spate for 
‘see you later‘, 
He could fix anything with gummy fudgey 
and he called me and Maria Schatzie. 

She had been a member of Hitler’s Youth when she was young 
and would not give her Hitler relics away 
to those American soldiers for bubble gum, nope. 
She buried hers.  

She knew she had been brainwashed and felt bad about it. 
While at youth camp they had gone hungry and 
her toes froze. 

I wish I could see them again right now. 
I would hug their necks and cry, 
I love them so much.

If you see them tell them I love them. 

Love,
Grammy T.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

A Story For Christmas

Matt. 25: 40 

Verily I say unto you,Inasmuch as ye have 
done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, 
ye have done it unto me.

Christmas At The Gas Station

The old man sat in his gas station on a cold Christmas Eve. He hadn't been anywhere in years since his wife had passed away. It was just another day to him. He didn't hate Christmas, just couldn't find a reason to celebrate. He was sitting there looking at the snow that had been falling for the last hour and wondering what it was all about when the door opened and a homeless man stepped through. 

Instead of throwing the man out, Old George as he was known by his customers, told the man to come and sit by the heater and warm up. "Thank you, but I don't mean to intrude," said the stranger. "I see you're busy, I'll just go." 

"Not without something hot in your belly." George said. 

He turned and opened a wide mouth Thermos and handed it to the stranger. "It ain't much, but it's hot and tasty. Stew ... Made it myself. When you're done, there's coffee and it's fresh." 

Just at that moment he heard the "ding" of the driveway bell. "Excuse me, be right back," George said. There in the driveway was an old '53 Chevy. Steam was rolling out of the front.. The driver was panicked. "Mister can you help me!" said the driver, with a deep Spanish accent. "My wife is with child and my car is broken." George opened the hood. It was bad. The block looked cracked from the cold, the car was dead. 

"You ain't going in this thing," George said as he turned away. 

"But Mister, please help ..." The door of the office closed behind George as he went inside. He went to the office wall and got the keys to his old truck, and went back outside. He walked around the building, opened the garage, started the truck and drove it around to where the couple was waiting. "Here, take my truck," he said. "She ain't the best thing you ever looked at, but she runs real good."

George helped put the woman in the truck and watched as it sped off into the night. He turned and walked back inside the office. "Glad I gave 'em the truck, their tires were shot too. That 'ol truck has brand new ." George thought he was talking to the stranger, but the man had gone. The Thermos was on the desk, empty, with a used coffee cup beside it. "Well, at least he got something in his belly," George thought. 

George went back outside to see if the old Chevy would start. It cranked slowly, but it started. He pulled it into the garage where the truck had been. He thought he would tinker with it for something to do. Christmas Eve meant no customers. He discovered the the block hadn't cracked, it was just the bottom hose on the radiator. "Well, shoot, I can fix this," he said to himself. So he put a new one on. 

"Those tires ain't gonna get 'em through the winter either." He took the snow treads off of his wife's old Lincoln. They were like new and he wasn't going to drive the car anyway. 

As he was working, he heard shots being fired. He ran outside and beside a police car an officer lay on the cold ground. Bleeding from the left shoulder, the officer moaned, "Please help me." 

George helped the officer inside as he remembered the training he had received in the Army as a medic. He knew the wound needed attention. "Pressure to stop the bleeding," he thought. The uniform company had been there that morning and had left clean shop towels. He used those and duct tape to bind the wound. "Hey, they say duct tape can fix anythin'," he said, trying to make the policeman feel at ease. 

"Something for pain," George thought. All he had was the pills he used for his back. "These ought to work." He put some water in a cup and gave the policeman the pills. "You hang in there, I'm going to get you an ambulance." 

The phone was dead. "Maybe I can get one of your buddies on that there talk box out in your car." He went out only to find that a bullet had gone into the dashboard destroying the two way radio. 

He went back in to find the policeman sitting up. "Thanks," said the officer. "You could have left me there. The guy that shot me is still in the area." 

George sat down beside him, "I would never leave an injured man in the Army and I ain't gonna leave you." George pulled back the bandage to check for bleeding. "Looks worse than what it is. Bullet passed right through 'ya. Good thing it missed the important stuff though. I think with time your gonna be right as rain." 

George got up and poured a cup of coffee. "How do you take it?" he asked. 

"None for me," said the officer.. 

"Oh, yer gonna drink this.  Best in the city. Too bad I ain't got no donuts." The officer laughed and winced at the same time. 

The front door of the office flew open. In burst a young man with a gun. "Give me all your cash! Do it now!" the young man yelled. His hand was shaking and George could tell that he had never done anything like this before. 

"That's the guy that shot me!" exclaimed the officer. 

"Son, why are you doing this?" asked George, "You need to put the cannon away. Somebody else might get hurt." 

The young man was confused. "Shut up old man, or I'll shoot you, too. Now give me the cash!" 

The cop was reaching for his gun. "Put that thing away," George said to the cop, "we got one too many in here now." 

He turned his attention to the young man. "Son, it's Christmas Eve. If you need money, well then, here. It ain't much but it's all I got. Now put that pea shooter away." 

George pulled $150 out of his pocket and handed it to the young man, reaching for the barrel of the gun at the same time. The young man released his grip on the gun, fell to his knees and began to cry. "I'm not very good at this am I? All I wanted was to buy something for my wife and son," he went on. "I've lost my job, my rent is due, my car got repossessed last week." 

George handed the gun to the cop. "Son, we all get in a bit of squeeze now and then. The road gets hard sometimes, but we make it through the best we can." 

He got the young man to his feet, and sat him down on a chair across from the cop. "Sometimes we do stupid things." George handed the young man a cup of coffee. "Bein' stupid is one of the things that makes us human. Comin' in here with a gun ain't the answer. Now sit there and get warm and we'll sort this thing out." 

The young man had stopped crying. He looked over to the cop. "Sorry I shot you. It just went off. I'm sorry officer." 

"Shut up and drink your coffee " the cop said. 

George could hear the sounds of sirens outside. A police car and an ambulance skidded to a halt. Two cops came through the door, guns drawn. "Chuck! You ok?" one of the cops asked the wounded officer. 

"Not bad for a guy who took a bullet. How did you find me?" 

"GPS locator in the car. Best thing since sliced bread. Who did this?" the other cop asked as he approached the young man. 

Chuck answered him, "I don't know. The guy ran off into the dark. Just dropped his gun and ran." 

George and the young man both looked puzzled at each other. 

"That guy work here?" the wounded cop continued. 

"Yep,"  George said, "just hired him this morning. Boy lost his job." 

The paramedics came in and loaded Chuck onto the stretcher. The young man leaned over the wounded cop and whispered, "Why?" 

Chuck just said, "Merry Christmas boy ... and you too, George, and thanks for everything." 

"Well, looks like you got one doozy of a break there. That ought to solve some of your problems." 

George went into the back room and came out with a box. He pulled out a ring box. "Here you go, something for the little woman. I don't think Martha would mind. She said it would come in handy some day." 

The young man looked inside to see the biggest diamond ring he ever saw. "I can't take this," said the young man. "It means something to you." 

"And now it means something to you," replied George. "I got my memories. That's all I need." 

George reached into the box again. An airplane, a car and a truck appeared next. They were toys that the oil company had left for him to sell. "Here's something for that little man of yours." 

The young man began to cry again as he handed back the $150 that the old man had handed him earlier. 

"And what are you supposed to buy Christmas dinner with? You keep that too," George said. "Now git home to your family." 

The young man turned with tears streaming down his face. "I'll be here in the morning for work, if that job offer is still good." 

"Nope. I'm closed Christmas day," George said. "See ya the day after." 

George turned around to find that the stranger had returned. "Where'd you come from? I thought you left?" 

"I have been here. I have always been here," said the stranger. "You say you don't celebrate Christmas. Why?" 

"Well, after my wife passed away, I just couldn't see what all the bother was. Puttin' up a tree and all seemed a waste of a good pine tree. Bakin' cookies like I used to with Martha just wasn't the same by myself and besides I was gettin' a little chubby." 

The stranger put his hand on George's shoulder. "But you do celebrate the holiday, George. You gave me food and drink and warmed me when I was cold and hungry. The woman with child will bear a son and he will become a great doctor. 

The policeman you helped will go on to save 19 people from being killed by terrorists. The young man who tried to rob you will make you a rich man and not take any for himself. "That is the spirit of the season and you keep it as good as any man." 

George was taken aback by all this stranger had said. "And how do you know all this?" asked the old man. 

"Trust me, George. I have the inside track on this sort of thing. And when your days are done you will be with Martha again." 

The stranger moved toward the door. "If you will excuse me, George, I have to go now. I have to go home where there is a big celebration planned." 

George watched as the old leather jacket and the torn pants that the stranger was wearing turned into a white robe. A golden light began to fill the room. 

"You see, George ... it's my birthday. Merry Christmas." 

George fell to his knees and replied, "Happy Birthday, Lord Jesus"

I got this story after Christmas but it is good for everyday. And I love this scriptureMatt. 25: 40 - Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.


Love,
Grammy T.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Gorgeous Chocolate Bundt Cake with Chocolate Glaze

Chocolate Bundt Cake with Chocolate Glaze

I did a post on Nami-Nami's Estonian Soda Bread Recipe. That blog post has been viewed by people from all around the world. I found her because I had some leftover sauerkraut that I wanted to use in a recipe. I found some soup. But today I found this gorgeous cake by David Lebovitz. His cookbook is found on Amazon and is called The Great Book of Chocolate.

In this recipe you can go to the Grams to Ounces page to calculate the ingredients. 

For the bundt cake:

100 grams sauerkraut
50 grams unsweetened cocoa powder
280 grams plain/all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
0.25 tsp salt
150 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
300 g caster sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
250 ml milk, cold

For the chocolate glaze:
100 grams dark chocolate (I used Fazer's 71% chocolate)
50 grams unsalted butter
1 tsp light syrup (Dansukker) or light corn syrup

Preheat the oven to 160°C. Butter a 3-litre Bundt or tube cake pan.

Rinse the sauerkraut in cold water, gently squeeze dry and chop finely.

Sift together the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add eggs, one by one, beating after each addition.

Stir in one-third of the dry ingredients, then half of the milk. Then stir in another third of the dry ingredients, then the remaining milk. Finally, mix in the remaining dry ingredients, vanilla extract and the chopped sauerkraut.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely then invert onto a serving plate.

To make the chocolate glaze, heat the chocolate, butter, and syrup together until melted and smooth. Let stand until room temperature, then spoon the glaze over the cooled cake, allowing it to run down the sides.

Beautiful way to use your leftovers.
Love,
Grammy T. 

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Cranberry Relish Bundt Cake

Great Picture but not what I want

Thanksgiving is over and we have a ton of cranberry relish.
Now what. 

Well, let's make a cake.


This is the winner;

Thanksgiving Cranberry Sauce Cake


ingredients

1 can (16 ounce size) cranberry sauce, reserve amount listed below for frosting
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup mayonnaise or salad dressing
1 orange, grated rind of
1/2 cup orange juice

Cranberry Frosting

3 tablespoons margarine
2 cups unsifted confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup reserved cranberry sauce

directions

Sift together dry ingredients. Add remaining cranberry sauce, nuts, mayonnaise and orange rind. Mix well. Stir in orange juice.

Grease a 9 x 3 1/2-inch tube pan. Line bottom with wax paper. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 1/4 hours.

For Cranberry Frosting: Beat all ingredients until smooth. Spread over cake. 
It is divine. 
Try it and see. 

Love, Grammy T.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

It's A Scrappy Mess


I looked out my window and what did I see 
a big snowy mess just a staring at me. 
(Sung to Popcorn Poppin')





Looking out my window I decided it was time to work on my Scrappy Mess.

The Scrappy Mess consists of a bunch of scraps from other 
quilts that I have made in the past. 
The blocks are 15 inches square and there is no 
rhyme or reason to getting them 
put together. 

Just sew. 


I think it will turn out really nice for a boy that needs a 
cozy blanket on his bed now that the weather 
has started to really set in. 


Love, 
 Grammy T.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

UFO's Finished


I've had some requests for patterns for the apron and the Hollyhocks quilt. So I am going to give you those now. 

The Hollyhocks quilt pattern is from Stitches and Sew Forth. Just call Becky for that and she will send it. She also has a mystery quilt every month that is a wonderful deal. That is how I got Hollyhocks. Her kits range from $29.00 to $39.00. That is for all fabric except the back and the pattern. You really can't go wrong.

The Solids Challenge quilt is Turning Ten by Tricia Cobbs. The pattern is on the right side of the blog. 

The Apron is Strawberry Licorice and the pattern is on the right of this blog in the sidelines. It's at Amazon.com. You can also see the Tutorial at Sew Much Good.

Thanks for liking my fun challenges.

Love, Grammy T.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Thanksgiving Decorations and Creepy Lice


When I was in beauty college 
one of the horrors that was brought
to our attention 
was lice, 
yukky lice. 

I'd never thought much about lice at all really. 
Well one day they shut our school down early because one of the girls had 
found lice crawling around in the shampoo bowl. 
EWWE! 

It makes me itch to tell you about it. 
Our instructors all bleached their hair that night to kill any unseen threat. 

About two weeks later I was shampooing a clients hair and I noticed 
tiny little flying insects and of course you know what I thought they were. 
I excused myself carefully and got one of the now very blonde instructors. 

She assured me that they were only fruit flies coming from the 
Thanksgiving decorations near the 
shampoo bowl. 

Whew!! 

That was such a relief. 
Such a relief. 

Love,
Grammy T.

Monday, November 3, 2014

A 10 year old boy, A BB gun, Little Mice and a Big Picture Window, OOPS!!

Tim's picture window
This is still a good story. 

I have this adorable big family and my grandchildren can do some outrageous things at times. In the year 2000 six of them were born. They are now 10 years old. Two of them, the boys, were born on the same day in California but in different towns and hospitals. Two of the girls are twins so of course they were born on the same day and the other two, the oldest of the group and the youngest of the group are girls and were born in the same hospital months apart. 

The boys really are unique. To show you just how adorable they can be, later in the day yesterday, one of the boys, we’ll call him Tucker for the heck of it, went mouse hunting with his bigger brothers and their BB Guns, yep BB Guns. The mice had found the chicken feed from the adorable coop the boys father had built at Easter time and were having a feast. No problem….the boys will rid the neighborhood of these pesky little critters one little mouse at a time by shooting them. Great thinking right? Well, as the story goes the big boys did the shooting, let’s just call those big boys Tanner and Tyler for the lack of good judgment, and our youngest, Tucker was being very good and didn't aim at the mice at all. Not At All.  Heck no, but he did accidentally pulled the trigger and shoot the window, the picture window. I have to tell you that I am so glad that I wasn’t around when their folks got home. 

Fortunately for these Cowboy Casanova’s their dad had some time to think about it before attacking the problem. What did I do when I found out? I cracked up totally and completely. I was still laughing at prayer time, which puzzled my husband a bit.


Remember Tim when you took my new queen sized mattress out to the backyard so that you and all of the other kids in the world could have a soft landing when you and they jumped from the roof. Yep, I still remember too. And remember your BB Gun escapades in Idaho? Well, me too honey. And as far as I am concerned, I love you to pieces and you will always be my little boy. And it isn’t the problems we have in this ol’ life that matters it is how we handle them.

Love,

Grammy T.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

How The Heck Are They Called "The GOOD Old Days?”

Kenna
When I was pregnant with Timmy, Little Grandma came to town. She lived in Idaho and traveled to see all of her children and their children. She had 125 grandchildren at the time. You see she had 14 children and twelve were living in 1967. The folks called and asked if she could come over and help me make a quilt for the baby. She brought the fabric, batting, frame and yarn.  We called her Little Grandma because she was truly little, 4 feet 10 ½ inches to be exact. She had snow white hair that she wore in a cute little bun on the top of her head. When she took her hair down at night it was very long, down to her waist. 

While we sat tying that little quilt she told me about making bread and keeping the yeast start on the top of the wood burning stove and how she would add flour and water from the potatoes to it. She always had yeast that way.

She told me about the olden days when she had baby’s. She told me how her tiny baby Rosetta had died because the midwife had told her not to give her any liquids for her fever. As we know now that was not good advice. The baby seemed much better at bedtime so she put the baby next to her in bed to keep her warm but in the morning she found that the baby had died.  She explained that they always slept with the baby to keep them from freezing from the cold in the night.

She told me that her twelve year old Leo had Rheumatic Fever and got so sick that the doctor told her to put his bed in the front room so that he could see all of his family before he died. He did die and that was so sad for them all.

I asked her “How could you stand loosing those babies, your heart must have broke.”

She said “You have to handle it,  you just have to handle it.”

I understand now but how in the heck are they called "The GOOD old Days?”

Love Grammy T.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Remember My Story




Remember my story about the 
in the middle of the night?

Well I just had to share this darling picture. 
If you love cows you will love this. 

Love, Grammy T.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

God Is a Hands on God and He Loves Us

Raggedy Ann's Wishing Pebble

God is a hands on God and he loves us, and He hears and answers our prayers. 

When I was little, Nana Pills had read me a bedtime story and then it was time for me to say my prayers. The story had been about Raggedy Ann and Andy getting some magic wishing pebbles from a tin soldier or something like that. 

So when I said my prayers I asked Heavenly Father for a dozen magic pebbles so all of my wishes would come true.  

Nana assured me that I wouldn't be getting those magic pebbles and it was selfish to pray for them.

More recently I have learned that to pray for a good wind for myself might mean a bad wind for my neighbor.

So praying for the best wind for all concerned and to have the Lord's will be done is the best.

Love,
Grammy T.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Google Plus Ate My Photo's - Pinterest to The Rescue

Nobody's Perfect not even Google+

My pictures got eaten by Google+ and now I am having to try to find them. It is very sad to loose years of blogging images in one fell swoop. 
The Flirty Blog shares these insights. And She is smart!

I am so glad that I posted almost all of my blogs to Pinterest because I am finding some of the hard to find pictures there. 

Whew!!

Pinterest to the Rescue

Flirty says:

If you haven't already joined Google+ but intend to do so you need to be aware that if you are using the image uploader provided by Blogger to add photos to your blog posts those photos are being stored in a Picasa web photo album associated to your blog.

I believe it's the second item in the screenshot image above that people are concerned about. It's the one that says:

"Your album's visibility settings aren't changed, but people they're shared with can now share them with others."

You read this and decide you don't want to let your friends on Google+ share your images with their friends.

This means if you:

  1. Remove images from your blog's Picasa album
  2. Delete the album completely
  3. Delete your Picasa account
  4. Assume the album you see in Google+ is a duplicate (it's the original) and delete it (ETA: I read online the Photos Community Manager Brian Rose said in a Google Group that Google will ". . .make it clearer that your Picasa photos themselves are displayed on Google+ and not copied" which should solve this problem.)
  5. Create a new Gmail account and move your blog to the new account then delete the original Gmail account (This is the only non-Google+ issue)
You will lose all of your blog images hosted in the associated Picasa photo album(s) meaning they will disappear from your blog. Forever. 

This is what we get now if we want to delete some of the pictures from Google+.

This is what is suggested that Google+ should do to sufficiently warn people of the risks. The Flirty Blog is really good right? 



So be very careful!

Love, 
 Grammy T.

Monday, October 27, 2014

Tweaked Chicken Tortilla Soup

My Tweaked Chicken Tortilla Soup 
And guess what? 

It was fast and delicious and I feel like a Rock Star 

because I used what I had on hand.

Trisha's Chicken Tortilla Soup


Chicken Tortilla Soup by Trisha Yearwood

Tweaked meaning I don't have all this but I want some.

And guess what it was delicious. 


So how did I do it?

Here is the original and my changes:

Ingredients
3 tablespoons butter - same
1 teaspoon minced garlic - dried garlic granules and garlic powder
1 medium onion, finely chopped - dried minced onion
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour - same
Three 14-ounce cans chicken broth - Knorr's chicken broth granules
4 cups half-and-half - one can evaporated milk
One 10.75-ounce can cream of chicken soup - same
1 cup prepared salsa, mild or spicy - 2 cups salsa
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, boiled, drained and shredded 
- 2 cans shredded chicken from my years supply
One 15-ounce can black beans, drained - 4 cans pinto beans
One 15-ounce can kidney beans, drained
One 15-ounce can whole kernel corn, drained - 2 can corn undrained
2 teaspoon ground cumin - same
One 1.27-ounce packet fajita seasoning - left out
One 16-ounce bag tortilla chips - same
8 ounces Monterey Jack, grated - no
8 ounces sharp Cheddar, grated - same
1/2 cup sour cream - no
I added -1 tsp. cayanne pepper 
1 Tbl. chili powder 
I didn't saute onions and garlic because I used dried. I just put them in all the wet mixture.

Directions
Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the garlic and the onion and saute until softened, 5 minutes. Add the flour and stir well, cooking for 1 minute more. Add the broth and the half-and-half. Stir in the cream of chicken soup, salsa, chicken, beans, corn, cumin and fajita seasoning. Continue to simmer over low heat for 15 minutes.

Crumble the tortilla chips into individual bowls and top with a ladle of soup. Sprinkle each serving with cheese and add a dollop of sour cream.

Recipe adapted from Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen by Trisha Yearwood (c) Clarkson Potter 2008

Love,
Grammy T.