HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Thanksgiving sneaked up on me this year. I began a new project, a cozy mystery series and my goal is to write it in 30 writing days. 
 Notice I didn't say thirty days. I took two days off for Grandparents day and to see the kids. I've gone to meetings, played, written blogs, and read.  Yesterday I wrote day 21, I have 32 thousand words. To keep my promise to myself I'd have to write 28 thousand words in 10 days.

It isn't going to happen so let's talk about Thanksgiving. What's your favorite menu for this particular holiday. Mine is turkey-mashed potatoes and gravy- dressing/stuffing-sweet potato casserole with marshmallows- green bean casserole with onion rings on top- and cranberries. Pumpkin pie with whipped cream and pecan pie rounds it out for me.

I know some facts about Thanksgiving you might find interesting. You probably don't know them because most people aren't research nuts like I am.

Over 260 million turkeys are raised each year for Thanksgiving dinners.
It takes around 800 million pounds of cranberries to feed us.
And over 3.2 billion pounds sweet potatoes.

It isn't tryptophan that makes us so sleepy after dinner, WE GET SLEEPY
BECAUSE WE ATE TO MUCH.

They didn't serve only turkey at the first Thanksgiving, they had deer, geese, ducks, and wild turkey.

President Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a National Holiday in 1863.
The Detroit Lions have played in every game on the holiday since 1934. They did stop during WWII.
Don't forget the Macy's Parade or Black Friday.
By the way, our Canadian friends have a celebration like Thanksgiving the second Monday in October.

No matter how you spend your Thanksgiving Holiday, I hope it is the best one you have ever had. 
Be grateful for what you have, not what is missing in your life.
 Send a blessing to others who have less than you or who are worse off than you. There is always someone who thinks your life is charmed compared to yours.  Say a prayer for a gentler, kinder world. 
Love to all, Happy Thanksgiving.

ARKANSAS BLACK APPLES with great apple crisp recipe

1. THE ARKANSAS BLACK

A seven-acre orchard with about 240 trees doesn't make me an expert, but I know a little something about fruit.

Coyotes, turtles, birds, deer, and raccoons love it, and they will all eat the  Arkansas Black if there is nothing else around.

Seems you don't pick Blacks until it frosts. The longer you have them around the blacker and sweeter they become.
Last night I picked a bushel off of one tree, and it's not your typical apple tree. They are gnarly, skinny, and as atypical as can be. There is only one out there I would consider an apple tree

The main reason so many folks have never tasted them is that they are not marketed in your local grocery store, where the number one apple is a Red Delicious. It is red, sweet, and delicious. Clever name, huh?
My favorite apples are Gala or

Fuji. If you've never tasted different apples, branch out. Open a bag and put one of each kind in and see which you like best. It probably won't be Red Delicious.

An Arkansas Black Apple is a cross between a Winesap and a Pipkin, or so they think. Someone in Bentonville, Arkansas grafted trees together and came up with the apple. No one heard of an Arkansas Black before 1840 which takes Johnny Appleseed out of the picture. He was born in 1774 and would have been seventy-five by then.

Everything has a bright side. The bright side of blacks is that we will be eating the last of them in late February or early March.
My method of storage is rather simple. I don't wash them. I wrap each one in a square of newspaper and stack them in a cooler. 
The coolers (sometimes it takes several) ae stored in the barn. 
When we run out of apples in the house, I take a basket out and refill it.
As they age, they get a waxy feel to them. I wash them off because I don't know what might have touched them while they were on the trees.
We don't use pesticides or commercial fertilizers here. Poisons destroy the good nutrition apples provide.
Now that I am familiar with the apple I realize they are used in advertisements regularly. Before they sit in storage they are dark red with an almost lime green top.
I've added a great recipe I think all of you apple lovers will like. This recipe can be made with any variety of apple.
Apple Crisp Recipe

10 cups apples, peeled and sliced

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon lemon zest  (optional)

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup golden raisins (optional)

Topping Mixture:

1 1/2 sticks butter

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups light brown sugar

1 1/2 cups oats

2 tablespoons lemon zest

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

Vegetable oil or cooking spray

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2.  Butter a 9 by 14 by 2-inch oval baking dish.
Peel, core, and cut the apples into large wedges. Combine the apples with the
3. sugar, and spices. Pour into the dish.
4. To make the topping, combine the flour, sugars, salt, oatmeal, and cold butter in the bowl of an electric mixer
5.  Mix on low speed until the mixture is crumbly and the butter is the size of peas. Scatter evenly over the apples.
6. Place the crisp on a sheet pan and bake for 1 hour until the top is brown and the apples are bubbly. Serve warm.

ALL LEMONS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL

 ALL LEMONS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL

It's Meyer Lemon season. The season runs from November to March. The lemons you see in the grocery store are called Real lemons. A Meyer lemon is the marriage of a Real lemon and a Mandarin orange. They are smaller, rounder, and more orange in color.

You probably won't want to eat them plain. They are still a lemon, but they don't have the pucker power of a 

Real lemon.

To take advantage of their diversity, squeeze the juice in salad dressing, make lemonade or add some punch to a cocktail or tomato juice.

Here are a couple of  places to get wonderful Meyer Lemon recipes. 

Foodie Crush

100 Things to do with Meyer Lemons- LA Times

DO YOU HAVE A GREEN THUMB?

These lemons are extremely easy to grow. 

Keep the biggest seeds out of the lemons and put them in a small pots with potting soil. Set them in a sunny window. Keep them moist. If you grow more than one, you could give them to your friends. A lemon tree is not actually a tree, it is more the size of a Peace Lilly or a Schafferla.

When your newly planted tree reaches about 6 inches tall re-pot it.

 Our tree is in a ten inch pot.

Put it outside after the last frost and bring it in before the first frost.

Our tree bares 8 to 10 pieces of fruit at a time.

It is my goal on this segment of my blog to teach you to broaden your eating horizons and how to grow most of the food I write about.

Please leave a comment below. 

I'd love to hear what foods you are most interested in. 

We won't be able to grow all the foods .

Food and Fads.

I try to stay up on the current health food ideas. This one has been around for a long time. It is the benefits of cinnamon. Everywhere I look, there is another article on your health and cinnamon.

The new one is cinnamon and honey. Have one tablespoon of honey with one teaspoon of cinnamon three times a day and all of your health problems with disappear within three weeks. Do you believe it? The first thing I did was look up the health claims of honey. Wow! There are hundreds, maybe even thousands. Here are the top ten: Boosts your energy...Reduces muscle fatigue...Regulates blood sugar...Treats coughs...Heals wounds and cuts...Beats insomnia...Good for your skin...reduces your weight and Improves digestion.

Is that great or what? I say it is. There aren't really any bad side affect of this sweet bee nectar so long as you are above two years of age, but remember, sugar is sugar so don't get carried away. Now let's talk about cinnamon. All cinnamon is not created equal. The verdict is still out on the affect cinnamon has on your health but over all, the follow things are widely thought to be true. It is rich in antioxidants, a natural anti-inflammatory, helps regulate blood sugar. But don't stop reading yet.

 There is more than one kind of cinnamon and if you are going to follow the health gurus such as Dr. Oz and drink a tea or eat cinnamon and honey three times a day ( one tablespoon of honey and one teaspoon of cinnamon) There is Ceylon and Cassia. All of the cinnamon you buy at the grocery store is Cassia. DO NOT USE IT FOR THIS HEALTH REGIMENT it contains high levels of coumarin which can cause liver damage within three weeks. If the bottle or jar doesn't say CEYLON don't bother to buy it.

 Still, does it work? I haven't a clue. I saw it on Dr. Oz and those of you who know me know I can't let anything go until I research it. I drink cinnamon and honey tea a couple times a day, but the problem with anything like this is that nothing beats a good diet with plenty of fruits and veggies and cool clear water. Did I mention how irritated I get at the health food store about the things they sell and people buy because the figure if it is a health food store, the stuff is healthy. NOT. I eat lunch most Sunday's at a health food store. When I am done, I get a chocolate bar. Is it healthy? NO. Neither is the Pops Kettle Corn or about two thousand other things I see every week, including organic Cassia cinnamon.

Do they have a lot of healthy organic food? Absolutely, but remember, no one is looking out for you health but you. See you next time. I can't imagine what will come to mind to talk about by then. Oh yes, one more thing. Another writer told me to try fried cucumbers and I did. Delicious. I used corn meal, a little sugar and an egg and some milk. Milk and an egg in one bowl and then put the slices in the corn meal and fry them in a little olive oil. Something different and tasty. Have a great week.

Life on The Farm, Part Two

  Our farm is almost 100 acres. To some it is large, to others, small. When I walk around the perimeter, it is large. When someone wants to hunt on it,it is too small. We have a road in front, a road on one side with houses and animals in every field.
We have a "do no harm" policy here. There are no sprays or insecticides on the fruit or veggies. The animals eat natural food and we mow and burn rather than spray the weeds.


The down side is it is nearly impossible to keep up with it and still have any kind of life. We had to make our mark in the sand and declare sustainable or pristine. Unless one works 24-7, it will not be weed free and mowed all at the same time.


Our apples and pears are some of the sweetest you have ever tasted. Because we have to fight every bug and bird for two hundred miles, they are small and have blemishes. When I was selling them at the Farmer's Market several years ago I used the slogan "Beauty is only skin deep, healthy goes clear to the core."


It worked. I sold everything worth eating.. We make cider, applesauce, applebutter and dried apples with the rest.


The only sad parts of the farm are the cows and sheep. We don't want to eat meat from the grocery store. I don't want antibiotics, hormones or extra fat in my meat. I am a true believer that you are what you eat eats.


Cows are cute. They are not the smartest creatures on earth but they become like pets. The sad part is we can't keep them all. The boys get sold as either bulls for another farm or they go to market for meat.We sell them off the farm and deliver them to the butcher for our customer also. It is decidedly more humane than a feed lot. Farm fresh meat tastes like nothing you eat in a restaurant.








The sheep are even harder to part with. We lamb in the spring unless a ram gets feisty and goes to visit the girls without permission. It happened last week and we may be having lambs in January. Oh joy. I love lamb and again, I don't eat meat away from the farm. You will never see me order chicken or lamb or a burger out. I have become an expert on Caesar salad. I am going to a dinner Friday night and there are no choices other than meat or seafood. I will choose the shrimp and try not to think about it.


There is not a feeling in the world like walking out on a brisk morning and watching the horses run. They love the cool weather. The sound of horses hooves pounding on the cold hard ground is refreshing.


My second favorite sound is cows and horses chewing hay or grass. Sometimes it is the only sound I hear in the early morning.


I can be in the worst mood ever and turn it around by taking a walk around the farm. I love that the tip of every tree branch reaches to the sky. I love it that the squirrels run and play when I am within three feet of them because they are used to me.
 Every sunset is spectacular and every sunrise promises a fresh start to a new day and infinite possibilities. Do yourself a favor and spend part of each day in nature, if you do nothing more than to sit quietly on your back porch.


I sometimes play a game where I close my eyes and listen. What do I hear close to me? Then I expand my awareness and listen for things far away. Try it. You will be surprised how relaxed you are in only a minute or two.


People ask why I live so far out and make the drive to Springfield when I want to go somewhere like  church or see a movie. It is because there is no substitute for my nature fix every day.


Life is Good and it just keeps getting better.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

  One doesn't usually think of Bentenville, Arkansas as a cultural hub. Well, in some ways they should. Bentonville has several things to see that make the trip worth while.One is Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. It is a great place. If you can think of an American artist, he or she has work displayed on the walls or  in one of the beautiful galleries. I saw paintings by James Henry Beard, Andrew Wyeth, Edward Hopper, Jamie Wyeth, Andy Warhol, Fredrick Remington and Georgia O'Keefe and perhaps another hundred I haven't mentioned.


The grounds are impeccable. Crystal Bridges sits on top of Crystal Springs , thus the beautiful bridges and outdoor areas. It sits on 120 acres with several walking paths, a place for outdoor concerts and public venues.


There is no admission fee. Walmart pays for everyone to see the exhibits. But it is still a money maker. The gift shop is an eclectic collection of hats, shirts, purses, jewelry , books and miscellaneous sundry that will keep you occupied for hours.


There is a restaurant called Eleven. It is in a long corridor with massive windows on each side and a wonderful view of the grounds from almost anywhere. How was the food? There in lies the only problem I see with the entire place. You must stand in line to order and your food is brought to the table. No problem there. My discontent was with the food itself. I most likely would not have fussed about the price had the cuisine been palatable. My friend and I ordered shrimp and grits. I had just seen it made on the food channel and it was gorgeous. Not so with what we were served. They said the grits were from War Eagle Mill. My friends, they were not grits. It was chicken scratch and I know that because I have been throwing it to my chickens for years. It was cracked corn, and it wasn't cooked properly. This gruel was too thin to chew and too thick to swallow. It came with shrimp, four of them, with tails on. Not a problem if the grits are thick enough so the shrimp don't fall into the bowl and make for some pretty sloppy eating.


My other friend (yes, I have more than one) ordered chicken and waffles. Again, it wasn't anything to write home about. It was two small slices of waffle with a small piece of fried chicken between them. One reason she ordered it was because it boasted jalapeno maple syrup. No one could taste the jalapeno and there wasn't enough of it to taste anyway.


Okay, do you feel like you have just watched an episode of Chopped?
Well, I was sorely disappointed by the food.
Would I go back? Absolutely. I would even spend the night somewhere so I could further explore the museum and Bentonville's Town Square and the 21C hotel and art museum.
What I would NOT do is eat at Eleven again.

My Typical Day as a Writer

I love to write.  I love when a character  takes over my mind.  I sit for hours with my fingers tapping out the words he says through me. I know if he would order scotch or beer at the local pub, his favorite meal and his taste in women. It's a great life.  It is however, a sedentary job.

It is easy to get up at seven, get a cup of coffee, and write non stop until noon.  When I try to stand, my legs are stiff, I am still in my jammies, and I have hairy teeth.  So, I turned over a new leaf.   After my morning writing session, I head for the gym.  I walk forty minutes and left weights.  It accomplished several things.  My mind is sharper, I get my Food Channel fix, while I am on the treadmill, and I am forced to shower and get dressed to go out in public.

On my way to the gym, I find myself smiling.  Actually, grinning at the things I pass.  About a mile down my lane I am forced to stop for a flock of guinea fowl who know the road has the best gravel.  They like the hubcaps on my car and attack them regularly.  Once I get through them, I meet my neighbor's chickens.  They run when the see me coming.  Problem is, they run in every direction.  If I want eggs for breakfast, I must stop and let them settle so I can go on.   All of this and I am not yet on a main road.

Everyday I go two miles out in the country and pick up a neighbor whose car and son are away at college.

On my way, I stop for a coon hound who lays right smack in the center of the road.  I don't care what time of day or how hot or cold the pavement, the dog is there.  On my left a little further down the  cows are calving.  I count the progress every day.  This week they have three new ones.

It is pretty calm to the gym and then I face the same obstacles on my way home.

Today, when I got here, I became the proud caretaker of twin lambs.  They are so cute and their pictures are below.  These happen to be girls I named Curry and Cumin.  If they are boys I name them lamb chop.It is their destiny.

Once we are done lambing, we will start calving.  This is all done because we don't want to eat grocery store meat.  Well, I had better get back to the great American novel. It isn't going to write itself.

Food and Eating

I love bread.  Oh, I could name hundreds of things I love, but bread would be first on the list, next would be pasta.  This presents a problem for me.  

Trying to eat healthy everyday is a chore in its own right without day dreaming about hot steamy bread with real butter and home made jam.  If I add tomato basil pasta with creamy white sauce, it gets even worse.  I could just skip eating this stuff and rub it straight on my waist line.  It would save time, cause it will end up there anyway. Then there is the french vanilla creme I put in my coffee every morning.  Hum.  Maybe I don't eat that healthy after all.

Sitting back and watching my friends eat candy and potato chips gives me a momentary feeling of superiority. I can pass up those things and sit straight in my chair and pretend I am a pillar of virtue .
When I get home, I run straight to the bread drawer, pull out the toaster, make two slices, slather them with butter and strawberry jam and I am happy.

What's the point of all of this?  I know you're asking that question about now.  Well, it is a bread recipe that makes bread less of a guilt trip.

In my quest to eat healthier, I read more labels.   Did you know the average 'healthy' bread has between 36 and 54 ingredients, including corn syrup and 11 or 12 things I can't pronounce and 4 I can't begin to sound out.
So, here goes.

Get yourself some non GMO flour, not bleached.  You can even get it at Walmart.  There is Wheat Montana and other places have Red Star.  There are lots out there.

Take 6 1/2 cups of flour
3 cups of lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons of yeast
1  1/2 tablespoons of course salt.
That's it.  Simple,yes?
Okay, put the flour in a bowl (big bowl)
on top put the yeast and salt
on top put the water.
stir.  once it is stirred, put some plastic wrap over it and sit it in a warm spot for at least 2 hours, but it can sit 5 or more hours.
preheat your oven to 450 degrees
put some flour on your hands and break the dough into 3 balls.  Put it on parchment paper on a cookie sheet (2 cookie sheets)
Let it set 10 minutes.
score it.
Put it on the next to the top shelf.  Put a pan of water below it, on the next shelf, ( about 3 cups)
bake for 1/2 hour.   
Done.  Let it set and eat, eat , eat.

Great and Easy Holiday Desert

Great and Easy Holiday Desert

I would like to give credit where credit is due yet I cannot remember who gave me the idea for this great desert.  Did I mention it was easy?

Okay.  Here comes the ingredient list.  Ready?  

One spice cake mix

One can of pumpkin.  15 oz. (Did you ever wonder why it is 15 oz and not 12 or 16?  Honestly, things like that bother me.)

Okay. You have the entire ingredient list.  Now, even with my failing eyesight and bad memory, I do not need to write this down before I go to the grocery store.  To need three things from the grocery store has been known to cause me to have nightmares.  I begin wandering down the isles trying to jog my memory as to what the third thing might be. Once I realized I had been looking so long, the security person had been alerted and was following me. This  does not happen to me when I make this recipe. 

Now, pour the dry cake mix into a bowl, add the 15 oz can of pumpkin and bake according to the directions on the cake mix box.  Okay, you are done.  It is delicious.

Today at the gym.  Yes, I do go to the gym. I like having my car seen there.  Makes me look athletic.  Oh well, about what I heard at the gym.  One of the ladies told me she uses the same spice cake and pumpkin and adds cinnamon chips and makes cookie out of it.

Now. I don't have any advice about it.  I am wondering about the consistency of the batter for cookies. 

If you want to try it, I suggest you watch the first batch carefully until you know how long it takes to bake them.   

I plan on blogging daily, but if I don't with the Holidays and traveling, I will take this time to say Happy Thanksgiving.

Safe travels and be nice to one another.  We are all we've got.