Smile!

 Today, according to my west coast brother, is the "Great American Grump Out."  This is a day set aside to focus on humor and positive behaviors.  It's a time to stop complaining, embrace joy, share laughter, tell jokes and spread smiles.  As it happens it was exactly that kind of day for me.  

I am positively happy that my brakes worked and I didn't collide with the big pickup truck that ran a red light right in front of me as I was driving down town. 

I was able to share a delicious lunch with a group of employees at my church.  Our committee sponsored an appreciation lunch for them, which they seemed to enjoy very much.  The laughter came when one of the men at the table was telling us how his 4 year old grandson has become a little confused and thinks that dead people are buried in landfills.  Then everyone at the table shared pictures of their really cute dogs, always smile inducing.

This evening my spouse, who is never grumpy, and I watched a program on NOVA which went to great lengths to simulate a five car and one semi collision to see if the dummy passengers survived.  It was a spectacular crash.  Detailed results will be explained next week. As I watched the program I was even more happy that I avoided the truck that ran the red light.  It would not have been a happy event. 

All in all a very successful non-grumpy day.

square roots

 My west coast brother pointed out to me that yesterday, Cinco de Mayo, was also Square Root Day, 5/5/25.  I'm sorry we missed it because by my calculations (please correct me if I'm wrong) the next Square Root Day will be June 6, 2036 - 6/6/36.  I like interesting dates.  My personal favorite date occurred 11 years ago.  My birthday is on December 13 and in 2014 I turned 70.  Since my birthday was on 12/13/14 and sequential number birthdays do not happen often, I held a big birthday party.  Friends and family came from as far away as Texas and Florida and we all had a wonderful time.  My next birthday will be 12/13/25.  12 + 13 = 25.  Hummm, I wonder if that's party worthy?  

May 5th

 Today is Cinco de Mayo, celebrating the Mexican army's 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla near what is now Puebla City in Mexico.  My spouse and I did not celebrate by going to our favorite Mexican restaurant - much too crowded and noisy.   We did however play several lively rounds of Mexican Train in honor of the day.  Much like the Battle of Puebla, ours was a heated contest.  

I also, not really in honor of the day, but coincidentally, spent a happy hour with the second grader whom I tutor, who happens to be Hispanic.  We did some practice reading from an assigned worksheet but also spent some fun time looking at maps.  One of the books he was given as part of the tutoring program is a big thick book of maps and information pages about all of the United States.  From looking at the large US map at the beginning of the book, he chose several states at random to learn more about.  Oregon, Indiana, Alabama (he was interested in Space Camp) and Kentucky were among his picks.  When we got to Kentucky I mentioned the Kentucky Derby which was run this past Saturday.  We looked up the name of the winning horse - Sovereignty, and the name of the winning jockey - Junior Alvarado.  When my student heard the name Alvarado he was shocked "That's my dad's last name!"  What a fun discovery.  I don't think I did a great job of teaching reading today but we had lots of fun as he broadened his horizons.  A great way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.

Chickens Little

My west coast brother informed me that today is "International Respect for Chickens Day" and he and his family celebrated by having chicken as the guest of honor at their church potluck.  I celebrated by having a chicken salad sandwich.  However I do have a great respect for chickens.  They were part of our family's income for some years. There was one chicken in particular that I had respect for.  She was one of the free range banty hens that roamed our yard and provided us with occasional eggs.  Chickens, in my experience, can't fly high, but they can get five or six feet off the ground, and that's all it took for this particular hen to get up to the crotch of the catalpa tree in our front yard.  She laid six eggs there and my mother decided that these eggs should be allowed to hatch.  We were all watching as the chicks hatched.  We were country kids and easily entertained.  Then we started wondering, how will the hen get the chicks down out of the tree?  Little chicks don't fly.  We got our answer when they were two days old, little fluffy yellow balls.  Mamma hen literally kicked them out of the tree.  They bounced as they hit the grass, then picked themselves up and started running around.  Yay!  Six more chickens for our little free range flock.  

friendly neighbors....

 I promise that this will be the last reference to 'the casserole.'  While grocery shopping for all the necessary ingredients, I was reminded of a grocery shopping experience that I remember quite fondly.  

The year was 1978, my first husband had just accepted a position with NCR in Columbus, Ohio and we had purchased a nice house in the country on three acres of land about five miles from the town of New Concord.  We soon discovered that New Concord was the birthplace of astronaut John Glen.  Going to school in that school system quickly sparked my son's interest in all things space.  He has worked in space related jobs for his entire career, but that's a story for a different time.  

Very soon after we moved in, I went to the nearest grocery store (it was in New Concord) to stock up on many, many necessary groceries.  If you've ever moved, you know what I mean.  I pushed my cart into one of the checkout lanes, watched as the contents of my overflowing cart, including ice cream, were rung up and bagged.  This was long before the era of self check-out, and also before the common use of credit cards to buy groceries.  When the total was announced, I confidently whipped out my check book and pen, ready to write a check, and discovered, to my intense embarrassment, that I had used the last check and forgotten to put a new pad of checks in the checkbook.  To those of you who are much younger than me, this won't make any sense at all, but I'm guessing that a few of you remember writing checks for store purchases.  

The clerk called for the manager, and I told him, as I had told the clerk, that if they would just hold the groceries for me, I would go home (about a ten minute drive) and come back with a check to pay for my groceries.  I was obviously flustered until the manager said "Oh, you're the family who just moved into the "Smith's" house, aren't you?  Don't worry, take your groceries home, put them away, then you can come back and pay us."  I did exactly what he said, came back after the ice cream and everything else was put away and paid my bill.

I promise you I never shopped anywhere else for groceries for the entire four years we lived there.  We soon discovered that this man was the rule, not the exception.  New Concord was the friendliest community I have ever lived in.  

the never-ending casserole

 Yesterday I blogged about, and shared the recipe for, my favorite spaghetti casserole.  It was delicious last night, it was delicious again tonight and I think my son and his wife will enjoy the big double portion I gave them.  My spouse and I still have enough for supper tomorrow night.  I don't remember this recipe making quite so much, but now that I think about it, I made this casserole most often when my children were teenagers and also brought teenagers home to visit.  Teenagers (at least my two) ate a lot.  They were never fat, they burned most of their calories in marching band, but they did eat a lot, especially my son.  His favorite daily after school snack was a box of cereal and a gallon of milk.  We were buying seven gallons of milk a week.  He was six feet five inches tall and skinny.  Thirty-five years later he is just as tall and almost just as thin, lucky guy.  But I digress.  My reason for writing this cautionary tale is to encourage you to plan on serving eight to ten people when you make this casserole, or have plenty of freezer space.  Of course you could just cut the recipe in half, but where's the fun in that?

sharing a recipe

 

This evening we had guests for supper and I decided to cook one of my favorite old casserole recipes for them.  My wonder spouse, who does know his way around a kitchen, was a great help and it turned out to be just as delicious as I remembered, so I decided to share the recipe.  Enjoy.  

Luci’s Spaghetti Casserole

1 pound spaghetti

2 pounds lean ground beef

2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms or two cans mushroom pieces, drained

1 ½ cups chopped onion

1 teaspoon thyme

½ teaspoon pepper

1 tablespoon garlic powder

3 cans cream of mushroom soup

4 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese

 

In a large deep sided skillet or Dutch oven brown ground beef, onions and mushrooms.

Stir in thyme, pepper and garlic powder

When thoroughly browned, stir in mushroom soup and two cups cheddar cheese, simmer about ten minutes.

Boil spaghetti in a separate pot for about ten minutes, then drain

 

Pre hea oven to 350 degrees.

Spread a thin layer of the meat mixture in the bottom of a 9”x13” Pyrex or similar baking dish.

Cover with drained spaghetti, then spread the remailing meat mixture evenly over the top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes

Spread the last two cups of cheese on top and return to oven for five minutes or until cheese is melted.  Serve and enjoy.