Picking and Cooking Wild Greens From Our Yard

How I gathered, prepared, and cooked Shepherd's Purse and Henbit to have as mixed greens for New Year's!   Shepherd's Purse is a member of the Mustard family, and Henbit is a member of the Mint family.  I was interested to learn from Wikipedia that Shepherd's Purse is a regular part of cuisines in Japan, Korea, and parts of China.  Both are winter annuals that are readily available this year on New Year's Eve in Texas, as they will tolerate freezing temperatures for a while.  I think they are VERY tasty!

Black-eyed Peas with Sausage

This is an old favorite that I often made for supper year round when the kids were home. It is an easy dish to make after work. May God bless you and yours, and all of us, and may God Bless America again in 2015.

Our New Vintage Camper: A 1976 Fleetwood Prowler

End of the Year Grocery Bargains To Look For After The Holidays

December and January are the best time of year to buy some things... check out the bargains I found, that are probably available in your stores too!

Home Remedies...It's Cold And Flu Season.

These are the home remedies I used while I was sick last week. They really work!



Thank you for watching. If you enjoy it, please click the "Thumbs up" button on You Tube, and please subscribe to my channel. No politics, just cooking, canning, stocking up, preparedness, foraging, nature lore, and How To! :-)  Maybe a little reenacting, cottage industry, and letterpress thrown in. :-)



Thanks so much and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all. May 2015 be a wonderful year full of happy adventures for all of us!

Why Waste Lump Charcoal?

Once in a while I put the ashes on the garden, but there is too much to do that with all of it, since our primary heat is from the wood stove. However, I never realized what good stuff I was throwing away! Here's how to save genuine hardwood charcoal from your fireplace ashes, that burns better, longer, hotter than glued-together briquettes! :-)



If you enjoy the video, please "Like" and subscribe on You Tube! There is a wonderful community over there and I am having a blast making new friends. Come visit! :-)

Homemade Candy for Gifting: Martha Washington Candy Recipe!

YES there IS still time to make these for Christmas! They are unbelievable simple to make, and I share a little melting trick to make the chocolate coating easy to handle. The video also shows how I packaged them for giving.  Paul described these little gems as "Mounds on Steroids" LOL! Enjoy! And MERRY CHRISTMAS! :-)

Chicken Spaghetti Recipe - Great for Covered Dish Meals!

Every town has their own "signature" Chicken Spaghetti recipe.  Here's the one from ours! :-) I made it with turkey this time, a good way to finish off the turkey from the holiday meal. This casserole can be put together in advance then heat in the oven shortly before serving.  Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Pie Recipe - Low on Sugar, Wonderful Flavor

Homestyle Mexican Chile (Hot Salsa) Made Using A Metate

This is how my first mother in law ("Mom") made the fresh salsa she served at every meal. I used my metate because that is how she made it, but you can use a blender, food processor, or your own mortar and pestle. If you are enjoying these videos, I hope you will subscribe to my You Tube channel! Thank you :-)

Christmas Recipe Challenge & Our Chex Mix Recipe

Hopefully, over the week the comments thread on this video will fill up with tasty family favorites! Do you have a You Tube channel? Make a video  and come share in the comments on You Tube!  Watch til the end to find out how to take part. Maybe your name will be drawn for the "Christmas with Martha Stewart Living" book give away! :-)

Green Beef Enchiladas Recipe

There is a restaurant in Big Spring, Texas called "The Spanish Inn". Their Green Enchiladas are my all-time favorite, and they are unique in the restaurant world (at least I have never found another place that comes close). This is my attempt to create a "clone" of their delicious sauce. It is not a "salsa verde", and there are no tomatillos in it.



This version is excellent (we think), but if you have eaten at The Spanish Inn and have some insight on improving it, please share! We live too far away to be able to go there to eat regularly so have to make our own! LOL!

Homemade Menudo: Mexican Tripe and Hominy Soup Recipe

This is so warming and delicious on cold days. Traditionally eaten for breakfast, we usually have it for supper.  The first cold snap each year, Paul will usually say "how about making a pot of menudo?" :-)

Mexican Food: How To Make Homestyle Refried Beans, Spanish Rice and Chicken In Red Sauce

Good, simple home cooking. Mexican food is always welcome on our table! This is one of those dishes that works to feed a large family, or can be scaled down for two. Enjoy, and I hope you will subscribe on You Tube! :-)

Evacuation Bug Out Tips VR to The Peaceful Prepper

Even if you are not a "prepper", you need a disaster evacuation plan. Here are some tips from our personal experience, and a link to a great video resource to help your plans succeed. 

Green Tomato Mincemeat Pie Filling

This is a great way to use some of the green tomatoes left in the garden. I chose to use the small cherry tomatoes for this, cut into quarters, to take advantage of them for texture.  I used some of this to make a Mincemeat Cake (recipe here) to take to a gathering this week and it turned out great!

How To Make An Easy Backyard Wildlife Habitat

This video is one I made in our yard, showing the different elements of wildlife habitat available within it.  I don't agree with everything the National Wildlife Federation does (sadly, they have really bought in to the Global Warming aka "Climate Change" propaganda - so crazy, since of all people the NWF should know that CO2 is not a pollutant but the air plants breathe!), but I have always appreciated their work to encourage micro habitats. I have seen the difference this can make in local wildlife populations and health - it really works when individuals create habitats in their own little areas.

So I went through their certification process for our yard. Believe it or not, this was made easier by the fact that I did no yard work other than mow this year! These items are within reach of almost anyone, and nearly everything they recommend can be done without spending any money.

The certification comes with a subscription to their magazine, but it costs nothing to follow the steps of their program and know you are doing good for God's littler creatures that share our beautiful world. :-)

When a friend gives you Basil... make Pesto for the freezer!

My latest video gets you ready for one of the easiest, quickest, after-work home cooked meals there is: Pesto with  pecans! :-)  Enjoy!

West Texas Baked Steak - An Easy and Thrifty Homecooked Meal

This is an old standby at our house. Low fat, super easy to make after work! Enjoy, and thank you for subscribing over on You Tube - it is appreciated :-)

Smothered Steak Recipe - How To Use Leftover Chicken Fried Steak

How To Make Gumbo For a Big Crowd - and a Garlic Peeling Tip!

Foraging Wild Foods In Our Yard

Putting Up Pear Preserves

Ebola's Airborne Potential, US Army Studies, CIDRAP Advisories, and .... Snopes Gets Breitbart Wrong

Infowars reports that a U.S. ARMY 1995 study concludes " Demonstration of fatal aerosol transmission of this virus in monkeys reinforces the importance of taking appropriate precautions to prevent its potential aerosol transmission to humans."    The US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Frederick, Maryland, proved in 1995 that the Ebola goes airborne when the temperature drops below that normal for West Africa. That is a FACT. The study is titled: "Lethal experimental infections of rhesus monkeys by aerosolized Ebola virus."  Here's the US gov direct link to the study, originally published in the International Journal of Experimental Pathology http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1997182/   

Here's the direct link to the Info Wars article quoting extensively from the original study: http://www.infowars.com/u-s-army-ebola-goes-airborne-once-temperature-drops/ 

Of course, it's probably a matter of time before people start asking what "Snopes" says, but it is true regardless. If you search "Ebola is Airborne" on Snopes, you will get labels of "False" about other articles - but even those, as of this writing,  are factual, truthful articles that  I think should not be labeled false. 

I don't know why, but Snopes is still mislabeling as "False" the absolutely correct Breitbart Oct 14, 2014 statement "The highly respected Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota just advised the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) that “there is scientific and epidemiologic evidence that Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via infectious aerosol particles,” including exhaled breath. "   when in fact, that is a direct quote from the the CIDRAP article Breitbart references, which is titled on CIDRAPs own site : "COMMENTARY: Health workers need optimal respiratory protection for Ebola",  The full specific quote on CIDRAP says: "We believe there is scientific and epidemiologic evidence that Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via infectious aerosol particles both near and at a distance from infected patients, which means that healthcare workers should be wearing respirators, not facemasks.1 ""

So how could that possibly be "False"?????? 

Snopes cites a CIDRAP disclaimer to claim falsehood, but CIDRAP and Snopes both use the same recursive semantic tricks to obscure the issue: chasing a red herring about timeliness of the article, and answering questions that were never asked.  Snopes tries to give the impression that reporting a medical fact is somehow outdated within a month:  " Breitbart's use of the term "just advised" gave the impression that the CIDRAP commentary was recent to mid-October 2014, when in fact it was published prior to the first diagnosis of Ebola in the U.S. in late September 2014." 

The article was published less than a month earlier on Sept 17th 2014 - extremely current as medical research and advisories go, despite the Snopes and CIDRAP pretense that less than 30 days is outdated. (If anything, this is even more damning evidence that the CDC had evidence and good advice that it did not put to use to protect the people of America from this disease. )

Further, CIDRAP ends its own "disclaimer" by saying : "This commentary in question specifically addressed transmission risk within a healthcare setting and does not address community transmission." In other words, the article in question is accurate and an appropriate advisory, just as Breitbart reported.  

The Breitbart articles are clear and factual:  
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/10/14/CIDRAP-Confirms-Ebola-Transmittable-by-Air

and here: 
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/10/15/CIDRAP-Director-Airborne-Ebola-Single-Greatest-Concern-of-My-Career

The original CIDRAP article is here:

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2014/09/commentary-health-workers-need-optimal-respiratory-protection-ebola

Here's the  link to this Snopes article: http://www.snopes.com/medical/disease/cidrap.asp  

And the link to CIDRAP's "Response": 
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/response-statements-falsely-attributed-cidrap-regarding-ebola-transmission

Read them all,and decide for yourself. 

It's a shame that Snopes seem to have let politics get in the way of the facts. They had built a solid reputation. I hope they don't squander that, because we need trustworthy sites that can show genuine myths for the falsehoods they are.  Unfortunately, much like Wikipedia, where any article with any political value is tainted with progressive leanings and talking points instead of a pure neutral POV, so it seems that we now have to be skeptical even when reading the anti-rumor sites to be sure they aren't starting one of their own.... 

Introducing... Pecan Corner on You Tube! Canning, Cooking, Southern Food and Budget Abundance

As Paul has gotten better, he is now feeling like doing more even though he is still mostly house-bound. He has watched a lot of You Tube during this past year, and we've been discovering the amazing channels ordinary people have.   Now we are one of those!  :-)

Pecan Corner on You Tube won't have any political content (that is for the blog! :-) ), just my natural life-long "how to" preparedness. I have always kept a well-stocked larder, and we practice a concept I call "budget abundance" that allows us to still enjoy a high quality standard of living without debt and within a tiny budget. This is especially important during difficult economic times,

Videos so far include how to make prickly pear cactus jelly, canning apple pie filling, seasoning your own breakfast sausage, and inexpensive old fashioned home-cooked meals that can feed a family healthful food for very little. There are also recipes of products I make for my little Cottage Food home business - things to sell at farmer's markets and roadside stands. As we go along, I'm sure my other hobbies will find their way into it as well: letterpress printing, gardening, foraging wild foods, and our new-found fun: Living History and historical reenacting!

I hope you will subscribe, there will only be one a day so it won't overwhelm your inbox. They say You Tube now rates channels by subscribers as well as views, and I have monetized the channel so perhaps one day it will contribute a bit to the household. If nothing else, it is something fun we can do together, to make new friends and enjoy trading knowledge with others.

Here is a sample! Thanks for checking it out! :-)

UPDATED Best Article About Texas Ebola Outbreak as of 10/1/14: 5 Dallas Students Possibly Exposed to Ebola - kcentv.com - KCEN HD

As we had surmised, this gentleman is not an American, but is a Liberian national, who was in the US for 8 full days before the hospital decided to quarantine him:

"Mai Wureh says her brother, Thomas Eric Duncan, went to a Dallas emergency room on Friday and they sent him home with antibiotics. She says he said hospital officials asked for his Social Security number and he said that he didn't have one because he was visiting from Liberia."

As of end-of-day on Oct 1st, no one official has bothered to contact the manager or other tenants of the apartment complex where he has been staying, according to KCEN:

"The patient who was diagnosed with the Ebola virus was staying at a northeast Dallas apartment complex, according to a Dallas police spokesman.

Lt. Joel Lavender confirmed the patient was transported from the Ivy Apartments to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas on September 28.

Residents and the manager at the complex said no one from the CDC or health department have contacted them."

The Dallas Liberian community are very concerned, and say they do not trust the CDC, who have since only quarantined a single person out of all the people - including children who attended 5 different Dallas schools - that Mr Duncan has had contact with since his arrival in the States on Sept 20th:

"Stanley Gaye, president of the Liberian Community Association of Dallas-Fort Worth, said the 10,000-strong Liberian population in North Texas is skeptical of the CDC's assurances because Ebola has ravaged their country.
"We've been telling people to try to stay away from social gatherings," Gaye said at a community meeting Tuesday evening. Large get-togethers are a prominent part of Liberian culture."

By the way, KCENTV and WFAA are good local sources for information about this. The national news outlets are still heavily censoring information and details. Read the rest of the article here:

Miles: 5 Dallas Students Possibly Exposed to Ebola - kcentv.com - KCEN HD - Waco, Temple, and Killeen


UPDATED:  It gets worse, in the sense of our Federal government failing to do due diligence to protect Americans:  Mr Duncan was deliberately trying to escape Liberia. His  landlord's brother died of Ebola a week before Duncan quit his job as a taxi driver in Liberia and came to the US to "visit relatives" on Sept 20. He became ill on Sept 24th. He went to the ER on Sept 26th. He was then at his family's apartment for two more days before being taken by ambulance back to the hospital on Sept 28th. From an NBC News article:

"Four days before he flew to Dallas to visit family members, cargo driver Thomas Eric Duncan helped his landlords take their 19-year-old daughter, Marthalene Williams, to a clinic that was so crowded with Ebola patients that it turned her away, The New York Times reported. The family, which had tried and failed to get an ambulance, took the convulsing woman back home, where she died hours later. "He was holding her by the legs," a neighbor told the newspaper.

"Williams' brother, who was also in the taxi, started getting symptoms a week ago and quickly died, the family told the Times. Three other women from the same area also got sick at the same time. By then, Duncan was already gone from Liberia.

"After quitting his job on Sept. 4, Duncan left Monrovia on a Sept. 19 flight and arrived in the U.S. the next day. He started showing symptoms Sept. 24 and went to a Dallas hospital for treatment Sept. 26. He was sent home, only to be brought back by ambulance on Sept. 28 and diagnosed with the deadly virus."

So far, none of the people exposed to Ebola by Mr Duncan have been quarantined. The 5 schoolchildren were sent home from school but are not under quarantine.  The hospital has "dedicated a whole ward" to Mr Duncan's quarantine, but has not bothered to quarantine any of the people he exposed:

 "Dr. Zachary Thompson, director of the county health department, told NBC News late Wednesday that he wouldn't be "shocked" if a second case of Ebola were to emerge among those being monitored. But "there has not been any indication that any of the contacts that we have been tracking show any signs or symptoms," he said.

"Officials said five students at two elementary schools, a middle school and a high school had had contact with the patient over the weekend. They are being "monitored" at home but are not quarantined."

I guess they are waiting for those people to become ill and expose even more people.  I wonder if they have bothered notifying people at the apartment complex yet?

That is not a "Deadly or Dangerous Weapon", it is an Ordinary Pocket Knife

Well I just have to blurt this out in defense of cutlery and apple peelers everywhere:

Hey Reuters: This man was not "carrying a deadly weapon" - he had a pocketknife in his pocket. The blade was only 3 1/2", about usual size for a Veteran to be carrying. About 1" longer than the first knife a child would have been given for their own at age 6 in any sane society. About 1" longer than the pocketknife in my purse that my grandfather gave me as a little girl. Every man in the State of Texas probably carries a knife like this.

No Omar Gonzales should not have run onto the White House grounds, but it sounds like he has been suffering as a homeless American Veteran, one of many who need help that doesn't rely on psychotropic drugs but instead on real therapy, personal love, and a genuine sense of purpose.  From a better report by Betsy Blaney and Josh Lederman :

" An Iraq war veteran accused of scaling a fence and making it into the White House before the Secret Service stopped him posed no threat to anyone and needs counseling instead of prosecution, members of his family said Sunday.

"Omar Gonzalez, 42, was arrested Friday and is expected in federal court Monday to face charges of unlawfully entering a restricted building or grounds while carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon — a small folding knife in this case.

"Jerry Murphy, whose mother was married to Gonzalez for several years, said Gonzalez suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and that he needs treatment. He said Gonzalez has been driving around the country and living out of his truck for the past couple of years, and that he always carries his knife.

"I know he's got heavy artillery, you know?" Murphy added. "He's got all kinds of weapons and he was trained to use them. I believe if he wanted to make a scene or cause problems, he very well could have. But it's clear that he didn't." "

In fact, the reports also make clear that his intent was not harm, but a misguided need to warn.

Most veterans return to normal life and make the transition, but Mr Gonzales is a War Hero who needs help not prison, and I hope the people prosecuting this event will have the compassion necessary to set him on the right track.

The Odd and Wild "Texas Persimmons" Are Ripening Now

The Wild Texas Persimmons are ripe! These turn black when ripe, and unlike orange persimmons, they don't need a frost. The trees are small and look almost like an under-story live oak, except their bark and trunks remind me of crepe myrtles.  They would be a good landscape tree - but they are male and female so you need several trees for them to be fruitful. Here is an excellent page to help identify and learn more about them:  BackyardNature.net's Texas Persimmons Page

Our friend Herb gave me a bunch and I turned some of them into Persimmon Jam. The final product is very tasty, reminiscent of molasses - dark and thick and rich and full flavored. They are don't have much acid in them, so the rest of the pulp I canned in my pressure canner.  Our friends tell us it makes fantastic persimmon bread. They made a wonderful pie, using a recipe that is similar to a pumpkin pie, nicely spiced with evaporated milk. I'll post the recipe here when I get it.

These fruit are quite challenging to process, because they are so soft, and each contains multiple large seeds. Putting them through a collander or a jelly strainer leaves far too much waste. I tried several different methods of separating the pulp and finally settled on using a strong mesh bag with very small holes. The ones with diamond shaped netting are too large and allow seeds to escape into the pot, but the bags that grapefruit, oranges, lemons and other citrus come in, with small square shaped holes, seem to be perfect for it. I just scoop the whole fruit into the bag and squeeze it with my hands until all the juice and pulp is out. This method also cleans the seeds well  - they are surrounded by a tough membrane that is as edible as the rest of the pulp but otherwise difficult to remove.

The color is very off-putting for me. It looks and feels like working in crude oil or blackstrap molasses and gets everywhere.  On the plus side, while the unripe ones make an indelible stain, the ripe ones seem to stain at about the same level as plum peelings. One woman, Deb McClintock, has been using the green ones as yarn dye (and wow does she have some gorgeous colors), and also the green ones were used to make ink. But they seem to reach a point on the tree that they will go ahead and ripen even if picked - which is not the case with the wild orange ones in my experience.

 Overall, the reliable test of ripening speaks strongly for these fruits. The American Persimmon that I grew up with in Oklahoma is difficult to rely on because of the need to be certain every single fruit is ripe before using them. These black ones can be confidently used when they are fully black and soft - no astringency at all at that stage.

I was also excited to get these because I want to save the seeds. I have a little display of native wild flower seeds that I sell at our Farmers Market and other events, and I wanted to add this great Texas Native to them. Also, reenactors may know that persimmon seeds were used as buttons during the difficult times during and after the civil war when real pearl or metal buttons were unavailable. They are very hard and naturally smooth, as well as uniform in size, which makes for good buttons.

There are not many trees that offer such a wide range of potential products in such a small package!

Shame on Etsy for Colonialism: Shouting Down Genuine Minority Voices & Abusing Honest Businesses in Favor of Trendy Political Fads

The business platform Etsy has decided to go down the ugly road of identity politics, banning The Washington Redskins name and logo from stores on the site.  By doing so, they are, intentionally or not, joining an attempt to destroy the livelihood of the players and owners of this team, and of the businesses who have invested in merchandise using this name and logo.

Worse, they don't even realize they are behaving in the worst possible practice of Colonialism: dictating "we know what is best for you" to all of their store owners and all of the customers who come to Etsy - and to all members of American Indian Tribes who have not found fault with the team's name or logo. No legal means of attacks on this name or logo have been successful, and The Washington Redskins name and logo remain fully and completely compliant with all applicable American laws.

When it emerged, Redskins' owner and management "traveled to 26 tribal reservations and met with 400 tribal leaders..." They also "took a survey of tribes across 100 reservations..."  What they found is that the large majority of genuine Native Americans actually support the team and its name. Unlike the protesters, the Washington Redskins have actual statistics and genuine data to support their assertion.

In a quick search, I found more unique reports of members of American Indian tribes who don't have an issue with the name - or even appreciate it - than the (often repetitive) reports of those whose own personal names are becoming well known because of their decision to create and push controversy over the word.  Supporters like Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians Chairwoman Mary L. Resvaloso who said  "There are Native Americans everywhere that 100% support the name," "I believe God has turned this around for something good." She told [Snyder] that "it was far more important for us to focus on the challenges of education in Native American communities."  

Supporters like these, quoted by Paul Woody in the Times-Dispatch:

“It doesn’t bother me,” said Robert Green, 66 and chief of the Patawomeck Tribe in Virginia. “About 98 percent of my tribe is Redskins fans, and it doesn’t offend them, either.”
Kevin Brown, 58 and chief of the Pamunkey Tribe of Virginia, said, “I’m a Redskins fan, and I don’t think there’s any intention for (the nickname) to be derogatory. The majority of the people in my tribe don’t have a problem with it. There are a few who do, and we respect their feelings.
“I like the uniforms. I like the symbol (logo).”
G. Anne Richardson, chief of Virginia’s Rappahannock Tribe, had to stifle a laugh when asked her feelings on the Redskins’ nickname.
“I don’t have an issue with it,” she said. “There are so many more issues that are important for the tribe than to waste time on what a team is called. We’re worried about real things, and I don’t consider that a real thing.
“We’re more worried about our kids being educated, our people housed, elder care and the survival of our culture. We’ve been in that survival mode for 400 years. We’re not worried about how some ball team is named.”

A few months later, a special report by MMQB found that no more than "a dozen members of Congress want the name changed, as do some civil rights groups and vocal members of the national media.", and the reporter herself, obviously sympathetic to those wanting the name change, had to admit after speaking with members of 18 tribes "By no means is there a consensus" among Native Americans themselves.  There are 532 members of Congress, and only 12 of them think this is an issue.  At least a dozen tribes she contacted didn't care enough about it to bother even responding to her inquiry.

The reality is that if this is a genuine issue, and not a made-for-PR art project, it is the prerogative of the tribes and people themselves to take their own actions and speak for themselves - with their own voices.
People like Stephen Dodson,  a "full-blooded American Inuit chief originally from the Aleutian Tribes of Alaska, and said he was tired of being spoken for as a Native American" and went on to say:

“People are speaking for Native Americans that aren’t Native American. Being a full-blooded Indian with my whole family behind me, we had a big problem with all the things that were coming out [of the discussion],” he said. “I think they were basically saying that we were offended, our people were offended, and they were misrepresenting the Native American nation.
“We don’t have a problem with [the name] at all; in fact we’re honored. We’re quite honored.”
As the eldest member of his blood line, Dodson represents more than 700 remaining tribe members and talked to Redskins Nation about the positive power of the Redskins’ name.
“It’s actually a term of endearment that we would refer to each other as,” he explained. “When we were on the reservation, we would call each other, ‘Hey, what’s up redskin?’ We would nickname it just ‘skins.’”
“‘Redskin’ isn’t something given to us by the white man or the blue eyes, it was something in the Native American community that was taken from us. [It’s] used also as a term of respect, because that’s how we were. We respected each other with that term.”

Every individual has preferences for how they prefer to be identified. I am from Oklahoma, and I can attest that every American Indian I have ever known called themselves an Indian.  The fact that many academics prefer "Native American" doesn't mean a thing without surveying the actual tribal members themselves. It is very likely that most people understand the word "native" to mean "a person born here", and agree with the late Russell Means who insisted "The one thing I've always maintained is that I'm an American Indian. I'm not politically correct. Everyone who's born in the Western Hemisphere is a Native American. We are all Native Americans."

Those elitists who are jumping on this manufactured bandwagon, who are not themselves American Indians, are guilty of the worst kind of patronizing colonialism, behaving as though the tribes or their members "need help" from these elitists, as though the members of these tribes can't speak for themselves as individuals and as a corporate body.  By usurping this natural God-given authority, elitists like those running Etsy are setting themselves as arbiters of right and wrong while pretending not to hear the genuine voices telling them to butt out and mind their own business.

Etsy used a long, convoluted blog post to announce the censorship, trying to justify their outrageous, unjust interference with the lawful, legitimate, and time-proven business of the Redskins Football Team and all of the Etsy sellers who sold Redskins licensed memorabilia, by pretending that they are able to speak for "the minority group itself", when in fact, they are not only following the latest elitist trend that ignores the genuine in favor of the romanticized fashion of the moment, but using it as justification for dictating unpredictable rules without warning to honest people who thought the company practiced legitimate governance:

Like the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, we at Etsy find the opinion of the minority group itself to carry most weight in determining whether the mascot is disparaging. In no uncertain terms, Native American groups have consistently advocated and litigated that the term “redskin(s)” is disparaging and damaging to Native Americans. Therefore, it will no longer be permitted in our marketplace.
We understand that fans wish to support their favorite football team, and we do not believe that fans who are attached to the mascot have any racist feeling or intent. We also understand that some fans view the name and mascot as an homage to Native Americans, and we do not doubt their noble intent, but the fact remains that Native Americans themselves find the term unacceptable.
Sellers are welcome to continue selling items that contain the team colors and location, but items containing the name or the logo will no longer be allowed. This change takes effect today. Our Marketplace Integrity Team is contacting members by email whose listings are affected by this updated policy. If you have questions about a specific item in your shop or that you might want to list on Etsy, please contact us using the Help Center.

Etsy does not provide an easy way to contact them, but as a blogger, you can use their Press email address:
press@etsy.com

Remember David Haines.... But Especially, Remember Fabrizio Quattrocchi: "I'll Show You How An Italian Dies!"

Today, the muslims that call themselves ISIS have killed another hostage. As we mourn David Haines, murdered by islam, we are wise to recall that this is the habit of our enemy. 

10 years ago in 2004, muslims in Iraq were killing off hostages one by one. The name Fabrizio Quattrocchi should be taught in our schools, and honored on our calendar. April 15th is no longer just Tax Day, but it is also the day Fabrizio Quattrocchi showed us how to stand up to evil. 

From the article at The Daily Mail: 

" As the last seconds of his life ticked away, Fabrizio Quattrocchi defiantly removed the hood placed over his head by his killers and shouted: 'Now you'll see how an Italian dies.'
"They were his last words. The militiamen then shot the 36-year-old ex-soldier in the neck at point-blank range. Mr Quattrocchi was one of four Italians forced to stand alongside a shallow grave dug by their captors, who then selected him at random for death. "

At the Blog Just One Minute, a quote from NRO:

April 26, 2004, 8:31 a.m.

Moments of Truth

Fabrizio Quattrocchi lived fully — to his last moment.

By James S. Robbins

Thucydides wrote about war in order to study man's character. Conflict brings out both the very best in human nature, and the very worst. The two often emerge simultaneously.
Witness Fabrizio Quattrocchi, 36, a baker from Italy who went to Iraq to work as a security guard for a contracting firm. He and three other Italians were taken hostage by al-Katibat al-Khadra, the Green Battalion, who demanded that Italy release some of the Muslim extremists they are holding, and that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi apologize for statements he made that allegedly insulted Islam. They showed the hostages on video, and threatened to kill them if their demands were not met. To demonstrate they were serious, they took Quattrocchi to a field, and had him dig a large hole. They then put a hood over his head and forced him to kneel by the grave, preparing to murder him. But Fabrizio did not cooperate. He stood and tried to pull off the hood, shouting, "Now I'll show you how an Italian dies!" The terrorists shot him in the back of the neck. Al Jazeera, which obtained the videotape of the killing, chose not to air it, saying it was "too gruesome." Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said, Fabrizio "died a hero."

Read more:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-255463/Now-youll-Italian-dies.html

Here's another article about it: http://nypost.com/2004/04/16/hero-hostages-last-moments-ill-show-you-how-an-italian-dies-he-tells-thugs/

Tell your children. Tell your grandchildren. Tell them about the great bread baker from Italy, who went to fight evil, and who refused to bow to their despicable false god. And because of that, the good Fabrizio Quattrocchi lives in Heaven forever, the guardian angel of brave children everywhere. 

News from the Front: APIII% Team on the American Border, Assisting Law Enforcement

Post by Matthew Leber.




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This is Matthew Leber, Public Relations Officer for the American Patriots III% in the video, interviewing the US Border Patrol officer.  Mr Leber is a retired Special Forces veteran, a friend of our son Ethan, and on the up-and-up. The APIII% team is working directly with official border agencies and law enforcement to assist them in any way they need. They are a law abiding, responsible organization with an effective purpose. These guys are still protecting us, on their own time now, and they need our support.

There is a good profile of the American Patriot the 3% organization on the SHTF Journal. Founder Scot Seddon had this to say about their current mission protecting America's southern border:

SHTF Journal: "What do you see as your mission at the border and do you think you can complete it with the resources you have?"

Scot: "Our mission at the border is outreaching to border agencies and work together with them. Being we cannot detain people at the border so we use comms to call in grid coordinates to assist the border Patrol. Funding has been made possible through the APIII Paypal account. The mission cannot be completed without the financial help of our APIII Patriots. Without that, the mission goes belly up as we do not have any fed funding. We do need more resources."

Scot:  "APIII is not a Militia. We are in the security business with combat veterans that work hand in hand with border patrol. We have close affiliations with Arizona Border Recon as well in the effort to secure the border. Everything is done legally, and with the consent of local LEO agencies. "

Be sure to go over and read the whole interview.

May God bless and keep them and all those they work with. 

How To Make Fried Green Tomatoes, Served With Cream Gravy

We had fried green tomatoes and fried chicken livers for supper the other evening. Oh and cream gravy. I make livers fairly often but had never made fried green tomatoes (my family made chow chow out of the green ones). Paul told me how to do it and they turned out great, I am a fan!!!! 

Green Tomatoes are available early in the season when the vines have put on fruit but it hasn't ripened, sometimes throughout the summer, but especially in the Fall. Tomato plants and fruit will not survive a frost, so as temperatures drop, we have to remove the still-green fruit from the vines. These can be stored to ripen slowly over the winter (I have written before about how to do that), but that is also a perfect time to fry them up and enjoy them like this. 

Start with Green Tomatoes. They are very tart, but you can also use "Not Quite Ripe" - turning but still very firm - tomatoes for a sweeter taste. The cream gravy counters the acidic taste very nicely too. It you have had them in past, and they were too sour for you. try them with gravy and see if it doesn't make all the difference! :-)

 Slice them thickly, about 1/3 of an inch thick.

Dip tomato slices in flour, then into an egg wash (one egg beaten with 1/4 cup milk), then into bread crumbs. Let sit in a single layer on a cookie sheet  for a few minutes so the coatings will stick, then fry slowly until nice and brown. 

I used bacon grease to fry them in. About 1/4 inch deep grease in a skillet, get it hot and add the tomato slices in a single layer. Turn the stove down so that they sizzle but not very quickly, you want to fry these slowly. When brown on one side, turn them over and brown the other side. 

Drain on brown paper or even a wire rack, or paper towels. Serve warm. We especially like them smothered with cream gravy. Yummmmmm!!!!

Does everyone know how to make cream gravy or would it help if I added instructions?

"No Comment" From Me If a Site Uses Discus or Facebook For Blog Comments

Do you like having comments from genuine human people who actually read your blog often?

I'm no longer even going to try to comment on any blog that uses Discus or Facebook to manage their commenting function. My comments on  one site do not need to be viewed by the other participants at some other, unrelated website I might visit a year from now. And my Facebook friends are already overwhelmed with alerts from my posts, they don't need all this too.

And frankly, me and the NSA are the only people who need to have a Collected Works of my comments around the interwebs. 

So I'll still read, and maybe even share, posts on such blogs. But that is why you don't hear a peep from me.

And thank you to those folks that use a commenting software that lets me be myself without pooling my information with every other site I visit.

The Smartest Question of the Day

Abortionist Nancy Pelosi compared lawbreaking illegal aliens to the Children of Israel fleeing Egypt, and now California Governor Brown  urges "the religious call to welcome the stranger".   On Facebook, APIII%er Andrew Wark  asks the smartest question of the day:

 "So where are all the democrats screaming their make believe "law" of 'separation of church and state'?  The silence is deafening."

SUCCESS!!!! Beautiful Heirloom Tomatoes

I set a goal last Winter, in the cold, here at home looking after my husband in his slow and steady recovery from a life-saving surgery, to learn How to Grow Tomatoes. I have made several posts about it, and will add links here but for now you can search the blog to find them.  Learned how to choose varieties, selected them and raised the plants from seed under fluorescent lights on the kitchen bar, set them out and mourned when they froze to death, set out the "leftovers" and watched them impatiently as they reached a stage of growth and then seemed to go dormant in this funny cool Spring.

 And then, God sent the rain. Glorious abundant rain. It started with a nice shower, then a couple of weeks later, eight inches of water poured from the sky onto my garden and everything took off! Things sprounted that I had forgotten I had even planted.  The tomatoes GREW!

Watched again as they bloomed and filled with greem fruit - fruit that sat on the plants as though waiting for an invitation to dress for dinner.  I wondered if they would ever ripen. They just grew larger and continued to bloom and make even more fruit.

And finally last week, they started in. First a fruit here, and another there. Now, I am gathering a gallon a day. That is half a peck - a kind soul on the tomato mania group let me know that a peck equals 2 gallons.
We are having a blast tasting these beautiful fruits. I've never tasted many of these heirlooms, so have been imagining their flavors all Winter.  They do not disappoint. The black and purple ones are rich and sweet and complex. The pink ones are perfect and balanced. The red tomatoes are acidic and tomato-ey. They are all wonderful.

I sell some at our County's Farmer's Market each Saturday morning, and have a little table set up outside the house for excess during the week.  Most importantly, I am canning the excess, so we will have our own tomatoes for the winter. More on that in another post. For now, I am just enjoying the harvest!

How To Make Whipped Cream Without An Electric Mixer, Using Only a Whisk

A little secret about milk is that the higher the fat content, the longer it will keep in the fridge. So "Heavy Whipping Cream", which has so much fat you could make butter out of it, can be bought a week or two ahead of time to be used for making whipping cream at a moment's notice.

My grandmother, Mema, made whipped cream from scratch - we never had cool whip or dream whip. It tastes divine and once you have developed a taste for it, the other products taste artificial and waxy. She used an electric mixer and I usually do too, but for a small amount to serve one or two people, it is just as fast to whip it by hand.

Here is how you do it:

Buy only heavy whipping cream or whipping cream. You can't use coffee cream or half and half. You can't use "fat free" cream. Highest fat content is essential.  Keep it very cold, but don't freeze it - alas nearly every brand today has additives that cause it to separate when frozen.

You can freeze the BOWL though, and using a chilled bowl will make it whip faster.

Pour about 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of heavy cream into your chilled bowl and beat with a whisk (any kind of whisk will work as long as it is clean - don't use a bamboo one unless it is new, because they are hard to clean completely and may retain oils and flavors of other foods they were previously used with).

Beat for about 1 minute, then add one Tablespoon of granulated cane sugar.  You don't need much sugar usually because the cream itself is naturally sweet. So take it easy, you can add more later if it isn't sweet enough. Also add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract (vanilla also heightens the sweetness of foods, reducing the amount of sugar needed). Continue beating for another two minutes or so until the cream is stiff enough for your liking. Taste and see if it is sweet enough.

Pile it on top of cake or pie or ice cream and serve!

Refrigerate any leftovers immediately. :-)

Progressive Blacklists Get Uglier: Dinesh D'Sousa's "America" (#5 Best Seller on Amazon) Removed From Costco Shelves

At least McCarthy was loyal to the United States of America. The Progressive Blacklisting of anything decent and normal and American is getting too ugly to tolerate.
On Monday, Dinesh's book "American: Imagine The World Without Her", the companion text to his latest hit movie, was #51 on Amazon overall. Today it is #5, thanks to patriotic Americans' reacting to Costco's disgusting attempt to control what the public reads.

When you finish reading, please go to your favorite blog and use their affiliate links to buy your copy through Amazon. I am not an affliliate, but that is no reason not to share the wealth with the other conservative bloggers who keep us informed and thinking for ourselves.

Here is Dinesh's statement on the matter (click here to go to the Facebook post):

Dinesh D'Souza   July 08, 2014 at 5:28 PM
"Yesterday I was stunned to learn that Costco had pulled my latest book, America: Imagine The World Without Her, from all of its stores. This was despite the fact that the book had sold very well at the chain and that my movie of the same name was releasing on over 1,000 screens the very next day. Today, I am disappointed to learn that this news has been confirmed by Costco . This action confirms the suspicions of all freedom-loving Americans and is a direct attack on my livelihood which I take very seriously. In a free society, Costco is free to ban my book, but their customers are also free to shop at other stores which don't censor books. In the book and the movie, I talk about the shaming of Americans and a culture of intimidation and censorship that has been spearheaded by the President himself. It's one thing for Costco executives to pal around with President Obama and donate almost exclusively to Democrats. But to turn their company into a tool for suppressing dissent against the government is another matter. I urge all Americans to watch our film in their nearest theater and buy the book from an establishment that honors freedom of speech. Once they do that, they will understand why the President and his allies are so afraid of this message and determined to keep it from reaching the American people."

I do not EVER want to hear any liberal try to talk about some 50 year old events of any kind again.  Not ever. Not ANY. What matters is what is happening today. They are aggressively blacklisting Christians, people who support ACTUAL EXISTING LAW, people who support sexual constancy as a virtue, people who support honesty in all things,  people who don't give a damn what YOU do but are willing to say when asked that they support the only kind of marriage any society in the history of the world has ever recognized, people who support legitimate elections, people who oppose concentration camps and support defended borders, people who expect citizenship to mean something that it has ALWAYS meant.

In general any person who loves, lives and speaks out in favor of legitimate American Culture is embattled by hateful people who are not thinking at all, but taking marching orders like zombies.

The zombie apocalypse is here, and the brain eaters call themselves "Progressives".


UPDATE 7/9/14:  Newsmax reports that Costco has retreated following the loud outcry and promises to restock the books. The company's official reasoning shows how recursive Progressives are - everything runs in a closed circle with these people:  Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti  "said that the company's national goal is to market books that are on The New York Times' bestseller list, but that "America" has not been on the list. A company statement on the Costco Facebook page stated."

BUT of course (and Costco's people know this), The NYT has refused to place Dinesh's book on their list at all, despite strong debut sales:  the Washington Examiner reported previously that America has been "banished" from the famous list, despite far outselling one by Hillary Clinton:

"The New York Times bestseller list hasn't waited a millisecond to put Hillary Clinton's book atop its influential chart after just a week of sales, but has totally ignored another top-10 hardcover from noted conservative and critic of President Obama, Dinesh D'Souza.

"His new book, on sale for three weeks, isn’t just absent from the top 10 lists already set for the next two Sundays, but totally missing from the list of the nation’s top 25 nonfiction hardcovers despite having sales higher than 13 on the latest Times chart.

"According to sales reports provided to Secrets, D'Souza's new book America: Imagine a World Without Her, sold 4,915 in the first week and 5,592 in the second week. Had it been included on the upcoming June 22 Times hardcover nonfiction list, it would have ranked No. 8, and then No. 11 on the June 29 list that puts Clinton's sales at 85,721. The lists are widely circulated in the publishing industry before they go public.

"The Times is somewhat mysterious in how it calculates its list, but it includes several books selling well under 3,000 copies in a week. A spokeswoman said, “We let the rankings speak for themselves and are confident they are accurate.”

"America is expected to explode when the accompanying movie debuts next month. In America, D’Sousa slams Obama’s agenda and targets Clinton too — maybe one reason the Times hasn’t recognized it."

Click through to read the rest of the article by Examiner's "Washington Secrets" Columnist Paul Bedard.

Remember this every time some Progressive tries to convince you of anything. All of their arguments are self-referential and meaningless. As one would expect from zombies.

UPDATE 7/17/14:  The New York Times had to relent finally, too, or risk losing what shreds of authority the gray old thing has left, and allowed "America - Imagine A World Without Her" on the NYT Best Seller List. Result?  America will debut at #2. From Dinesh's site:

" Dinesh D’Souza’s publisher at Regnery recently sent this note about his latest book:
“I am happy to report that for the week of July 27, America will appear on the New York Times best seller list at second place for hardcover books as well as eBooks!”
This comes following the New York Times past omissions of the book from the best seller list, despite its rise to #1 on Amazon’s best seller list." 

Congratulations, Dinesh - and all red blooded Americans of all heritage. The zombies are still outside the gates, but chalk one up for reality this week!

O Tomato! Beautiful Heirloom Varieties I Am Gathering Now!

Tomatoes here are finally ripening and I am gathering about a peck or more each day.   I lost track of what tomatoes I have where since replanting them after the freeze, so as they ripen I am looking back at my lists to figure out what they are. We are having a lot of fun tasting these different varieties that we have never had before.

Chocolate Cherry - Just today I picked the first 4 of these, have not  tasted them yet. Weirdly, all of my cherry tomatoes are running kind of behind the full sized fruit. Maybe they will keep coming all summer though. 

Brandywine or Cherokee Purple? - I have a couple of plants with nice big 8 ounce pinkish tomatoes that have green shoulders, and the green is as sweet as the pink. Great flavor, nice and sweet. 

Rutgers are doing well too for me, making big red orange fruits. I think they would be great for fried green tomatoes because they are so meaty. 

Japanese Black Trifele (anyone know how to pronounce that?) is Paul's favorite so far. Wow, what flavor. I have gotten 6 tomatoes from the plant so far, and the new fruit is a long way from ripe. This is them, below - they have a nice mahogany brown color when fully ripe, and delicious complex flavor. 

Porter are awfully pretty and uniform. They look like pink eggs, weigh about 2 ounces, and have a good flavor. I am saving seed from them to plant again too.  Look how attractive they are in the two photos below!  They are producing to beat the band. 

Henderson Pink Ponderosa is doing great for me and I like them. They are a nice size, uniform and attractive. 

When you don't spray for bugs, the bugs do share the produce. This photo below shows different problems my tomatoes have - not many fruit have these issues, but a few.

The big Brandywine or Cherokee Purple (I have never see either - help is welcome) with green shoulders is one the grasshoppers have been snacking on. See how they kind of "mowed" along it?  That portion can be cut off and we can still eat the tomato but no one would want to pay for it.

To the left of it, in the top center, is a Pink Ponderosa that some kind of caterpillar or grub has drilled into - just as they have done to the Homestead tomato on the far left and the little cherry tomato.  These have to be thrown away because the damage inside is far greater than the damage outside. I don't even bother trying to "save" these fruits.

The white papery patch on the big Rutgers is sunscald. Although I let my plants sprawl, some are still exposed to constant sun, and it has been in the 90s all week. I don't see this on every variety, but perhaps these large fruits are more sensitive for some reason.

Yeeecccch. Enough of ugly tomatoes. Here is a prettier picture to end with, These gorgeous Costoluto Genovese are ripening...

I am mixing the varieties all together when canning, just using whatever is ripe to fill quart jars. That way I can put up two or three quarts at a time instead of trying to hold them. I am doing a water bath using my stock pot with a small rack, instead of my canner. Since I have a smooth top range, this works well for me.  

Remember to follow the instructions at the National Center for Home Food Preservation in ALL of your canning methods to be sure you are preserving safely. PickYourOwn.org also has a lot of great recipes and instructions.  Both are linked  from my sidebar, over to the right.  I don't get anything for recommending these - it is important that we learn how to look after ourselves in safe ways so that we feel completely confident in our own knowledge and ability.