Fried Cabbage

Think you don't like cabbage? I didn't like it much when I was growing up, and I don't like it now in most restaurants. It always seems to be soggy and tasteless if I order it when I eat out somewhere. But, I like cabbage when I cook it at home.  This dish is flavorful, inexpensive, and gluten free (though not calorie free).

Fried Cabbage

3-4 slices of bacon OR 3-4 tablespoons bacon grease OR 3-4 tablespoons butter or margarine

1 medium head of cabbage, chopped

salt to taste

4 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 medium onion, peeled and chopped.

2 cups water

Fry the bacon until crisp, set aside. Pour the bacon grease out of the pan, then measure 3-4 tablespoons of it back into it.  Add the chopped cabbage, potatoes and onion.  Toss them all around in the pan several times until they are coated with the bacon grease. Add the water, bring to a boil, then cover the pan with a lid. Turn the heat down to medium low and simmer until all the water has evaporated, about 30 minutes.

 

I watch it closely near the end of cooking to make sure it doesn't stick and burn. If you have fried some bacon, crumble it on top before serving.

This may not be the most healthy cabbage you have ever eaten, but it sure will be good!

Christmas Is Over

 

Sunset on Christmas day.

We had a pleasant, relaxing day. Although we don't give gifts to each other, we do give them to other people--our children and grandchildren. I made all those bags--the girls loved them! The last one was delivered today.  I received an adapter cable for my cellphone, so I can use my Wilson antenna. The cell service way out here is not that good. I only get one bar, and I have been having to put the phone on speakerphone and lay it on the counter and not move it to be able to use it. Having the adapter cable makes it so that I can use the phone anywhere in the trailer. Yay! Someone sent FabGrandpa a new video game, and someone else sent us some gift  cards. 

I cooked a roasted chicken and some potatoes, nothing else, but we were happy with just that. We had the leftover chicken today as chicken a la king with noodles. I was surprised at how good it turned out. To make a gluten free white sauce for a la king, I use corn starch instead of flour.

Gluten Free Chicken A La King

3 tablespoons butter or margarine

salt to taste

1/4 cup corn starch

1 can evaporated milk

1 can water

1/2 of a roasted chicken, deboned and diced

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add salt and corn starch, stirring to prevent burning and sticking. Add the can of water, cook and stir until very thick. Add the evaporated milk, continuing to stir.  Cook on low heat until creamy, smooth, and to desired thickness. Add chicken and cook a couple minutes more. Serve over rice,  gluten free noodles, or toasted gluten free bread.

Remember Whensday

 

This is Emily, Spencer's Mommy,  on Christmas Day, 1983. Who do you think he looks like? 

 

And, because I couldn't decide which photo to use, you get two! Poor old Santa! Me and Becca in 1990, trying our best to be good. 

For more Remember Whensday photos, click here.

SnowPeeps

I had to go to town today. While I was out, I found this: 

 

And guess what? 

 

Gluten free!  Yay!

I've Been Sewing My Brains Out

Since I've been buying so much fabric lately, I figured I better get busy sewing some of it up.  After a trip to the Hobby Lobby in Tuscaloosa, the quilt shop that I found, some online fabric shopping, and then the trip to Joann last weekend I finally have enough fabric to complete several projects. (Did you think I was going to say I had enough fabric? A girl can NEVER have enough fabric.) 

 

A dress for my granddaughter

 

and a blue dotty skirt, too.

 

and another ruffled skirt with horses. (She loves horses.)

 

A zippered bag for my daughter, Becca

 

and a tote bag to match.

 

Pink and green tote for Emily

 

with a matching zippered bag.

 

Becky gets yellow and black

 

and here is her zippered one, I love this one. 

 

Patchwork in aqua, turquois, and purple for my friend Gaelyn.

 

and one for the little girl who lives down the lane. Ha ha ha, not really, but for Emily's niece.

 

And of course she gets a matching zippered bag, too.

  

Brown, pink, green, stripey dots for my daughter-in-law, Sarah.

 

A Christmas apron for my mother

 

Another tote bag for my sister. I have one more little bag to make, and I will be done with gifts. Then I can sew for fun. Yay!

Another Benefit of Volunteering

The Forest Service Resource Manager came by this morning with gifts for us: some real nice Gortex, fleece lined jackets from LL Bean. They have a patch on them that says "Forest Service Volunteer", and are sooooo nice and warm! And they are ours to keep! Gotta love it!.

A Trip To My Hometown

We haven't been "home" in about 18 months, so we were overdue to visit there. Last weekend, we loaded up the truck with computers, suitcase, and sandwiches, and hit the road for the 200 mile trip. 

Our first stop was at the mall, because Fabgrandpa needed a new winter jacket. He melted his old one in a commercial dryer when we were volunteering at Unicoi State Park back in 2007. He didn't need one last winter because we were in a pretty warm place, but, as we have discovered, Alabama is COLD! Oh, and let's just say that planning a quick trip to the mall two weeks before Christmas is BIG mistake.

After we got out of the mall, we drove over to Becky's hair salon to get prettied up. She is the best "hair-doer" I have ever known. We always get our hair done by her when we come to town. (Of course, she IS my daughter, and NO I am not biased in my opinion. he he he).  FabGrandpa went first.

 

Then it was my turn. Becky cut off about two inches, trimmed my bangs, and then styled my hair. I always feel like a pampered princess when I go there. 

Here we are, all dolled up, and FabGrandpa in his new mall jacket.

This is something I DON'T miss on a daily basis: lots of traffic. It was raining, too. And don't think that all this is from Christmas shopping--no, it is like this all the time in Douglasville. 

 

Remember last year when I lost that diamond?  When Becky came to visit us at the Grand Canyon, she took my rings home with her, and had them repaired, complete with a new diamond. The jeweler cleaned and shined them up, so that they look better than ever! She gave them to me when we were at the shop, and I cried like a baby. She is too good to me!

 

From the beauty shop, we drove over to visit my mother. That's her Christmas tree there, and if you look, on the shelves behind the tree is a huge collection of Santas.  We had a nice visit, then left to meet Becky and her true love for dinner.

 

That's the happy bride to be with her guy, Rafe. He is a very nice guy. We'll be proud to call him our son-in-law. The wedding won't be until February, 2011. That's still quite a ways off, but hey, I still haven't bought my mother of the bride dress. I'm still looking. 

 

We finally made to the motel, a Holiday Inn Express. The room was very nice for the money. It even had a big screen TV. But FabGrandpa spent most of his time in the room playing Left 4 Dead. He said there wasn't much on TV to watch, anyway.

 

The next morning, I got up and went back to my Mom's for breakfast. My sister came over, too, still in her pajamas. We spent a couple of hours talking girl talk while FabGrandpa slept in at the motel.  

After having breakfast with them, I went to Cracker Barrell to meet my daughter, Emily and niece, Nikki for another breakfast.  I had not ever met Nikki before, well, except for when she was a tiny baby. My sister "found" her on Myspace a couple of years ago. I have not been in town when she was since then, so we arranged to meet last weekend. It was nice to meet her. She is a gorgeous girl, and smart too, just like my daughters. She spent 6 years in the Air Force and is now in school to be a medical technician. I didn't get a picture, though, I was so busy talking I just forgot!

After the second breakfast (yeah, no wonder I am so fat! But, honestly, I only ate a little bit at both of them), Emily and I went fabric shopping. I spent a LOT of money, but I had specific projects in mind, and still didn't get everything I needed. Yes, yet another fabric trip is in the planning. 

Emily and I decided we did not want to do any other shopping after the fabric store, so we went to her house and just hung out. My grandson, Spencer, thanked me again for his quilt. He is so cute, don't you think?

I made this bag for Emily and gave it to her while I was at her house. She loved it!

 

 It is big enough for her teacher self to tote books and papers and pencils and stuff. I made a matching zippered pouch to go with, which of course I have no picture of.

 

There's Spencer again, trying to figure out how to take my picture.

 

And Emily's Christmas tree, in her living room with her new floors. I love it! She has redone the entire house since I was there the last time. I

 

We left Emily's house and met up with FabGrandpa and Becky at Longhorn Steakhouse, one of our favorite places to eat. I had a salad, no croutons, no dressing, a ribeye medium rare, and a baked sweet potato. No gluten anywhere, and it was delish! There's FabGrandpa with Emily.

 

 And me with Becky
 

And me with my dinner date, Spencer. Spencer's Dad was there too, but he does not want me to show his face, so I won't.  We had such a busy weekend, but it was fun, and we'll do it again, soon.

My Two Seconds Of Fame

Yeah, that's me there in the shades, because, you know, I'm, like, FAMOUS!  Patricia Biesen, who writes Chicago Eats Allergy Free for Chicago Now, mentioned FabGrandma in a blog post on November 27, called "Play with Food: One Fab Grandma, FAAN's New Look and more"

Then, on December 12, she was a guest on a Bill Leff's radio talk show on WGN in Chicago, and mentioned my blog by name on the air!!!  Yes, my hat still fits. Barely.

Remember Whensday: The Christmas Food Box

My post today has no photograph to jog my memory. Way back years ago when I was a divorced mother of three young children, trying very hard on a very tight budget to make ends meet, I was the recipient of a food box from a community organization at Christmas. I was happy to get it, but one of the things I have always remembered from that experience was how many cans of hominy were in it.

I did appreciate getting the food, but I remember thinking "I wonder how many people really eat that stuff?" and wondering why, if you don't eat something yourself, would you put it in the donation box for others.  Do people think that just because we are unable to provide for ourselves for a minute that our taste buds or nutritional needs are going to change? Back then, it was just a matter of tastes. If I were the recipient of a food box now, though, it would be a matter of whether or not I would be able to eat the foods that I received.

I am not alone in this line of thinking. Dee Valdez, who was diagnosed with Celiac Disease 17 years ago, remembers talking to a mother with a sick 7 year old who had Celiac. The mother said she had to choose between feeding her whole family or just feeding her sick daughter the very expensive gluten free food she could find. That distraught mother said, referring to her Celiac daughter, "She's just going to have to live with diarrhea."

"There is a great need to develop a systematic approach to establishing Gluten Free Food Banks across the nation." says Valdez.  She is making that happen in Loveland, Colorado, where there was a dedication and ribbon cutting for the new gluten free section of the existing House of Neighborly Service Food Bank (HNS) on Tuesday, December 15, 2009. This location will serve as the test site for the new program Valdez is designing to be implemented in communities across the country. What a wonderful thing for the 1 in 133 of us who can not eat gluten!

I was also happy to read that Pamela's Products, a dedicated gluten-free company, is a supporter of this effort, and is donating their Baking & Pancake Mix and their cookies to HNS. I discovered Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix early on in my gluten free life--it is now one of the staples of life in the Fab household.

While the costs of gluten free products has come down, and there is a much wider selection of them, they are still more expensive than regular normal foods. For example, you can pick up a loaf of regular white wheat bread for under $2.00 at any grocery store. The last gluten free bread I bought cost me about $7.50 for a 12 ounce loaf. Fabgrandpa and I can afford it, but with so many people losing their jobs, many people who must eat a gluten free diet are finding their budgets stretched to the limits, and facing the choice of whether to eat foods that are toxic to them. Ever since I started eating gluten free, whenever I donate items to a food drive, I always donate gluten free--pasta, bread mix, baking mix, cookies, cereal.  Because, what is the point of giving something I wouldn't eat myself?

For other Remember Whensday posts, click here.

A Simple Pleasure!

We left the trailer behind this weekend to go visit the family in our hometown. It was a 200 mile drive, mostly through the countryside in Alabama. Back in the days when I still ate a gluten filled diet, when we traveled I would make a picnic lunch so we could eat in the truck. Egg sandwiches, with potato chips, and maybe some fruit. But since we stopped eating gluten, we haven't had that simple pleasure. But guess what? since I have all that Udi's bread in the freezer, I surprised FabGrandpa with egg sandwiches:

Now that might not look like such a treat to anyone else, but to us, it was wonderful! It just seems like such an intimate thing, for me to make a sandwich for my sweetheart on a trip out of town.

More Thoughts On Christmas...

I wrote yesterday that we don't buy gifts for each other, but I wanted to expand on that thought.  I am his third wife, he, my fourth husband. We didn't meet until I was 39 and he was 42. We had both been down some pretty rocky roads, and had more than our share of sorrow and pain. That we have made it 18 years together is a wonderful gift in and of itself. That he can make me happy, and I him, another.

The gifts I want and need the most are not tangible.  One hour with my mother without criticism. A visit with my brother without sarcasm. Acceptance for who I am, forgiveness for what I am not and can never be. A gathering of family at any time without pettiness and jealousy, without bigotry, without prejudice. So to all who pray and wish for world peace, try starting with your own small world. Give a truce with that Wii; a hug and a held tongue with that chocolate Santa; a smile and a genuine heart with that Christmas ham. Make a step towards making Christmas mean something more than "it costs less at XXX-XXXX."

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like...

Christmas. Ah, that time of year when we all go out and buy things we can't afford for people we don't see the rest of the year.  And when we are bombarded by crass commercials on TV and radio.  Now before you all start thinking that I am anti-Christmas, let me tell you that I certainly am not. I am for the true meaning and reason for this season. What I am "anti" is about how commercial it has gotten, to the point where stores are putting up Christmas decorations before Labor Day.  How did we ever get to that place? 

I guess I am just so fed up with it this year because a popular store's ad campaign actually says "Christmas costs less at XXX-XXXX." Does anyone besides me find that offensive? Does anyone else think that is so far off from the idea of Christmas as to make you want to vomit? 

I don't decorate my house, because I don't feel the need to do so.  I used to do it when my children were younger, and even after they grew up I did it while I still had a house. Now that I live in my RV, I just don't, because I have no desire to do so. And that doesn't make me a scrooge, it just makes me a person who doesn't want to.  

FabGrandpa and I don't buy gifts for each other, either, because we don't feel like we need to. We have everything we want, and if we do want something, we go buy it. But that is NOT limited to just Christmas. We don't buy birthday or valentines, or Easter gifts for each other, either. We never have. And that doesn't mean we don't love each other. It just means we don't buy gifts. 

And while I am on the subject of gifts, let just say that when you buy a gift for someone that is what you can afford, then find out later that the gift was ridiculed when you were not around, how would that make you feel about giving that particular person another gift? And if you made something, and found out the person you made it for didn't appreciate the gift because it was "home-made", how would that make you feel? Either way, the gift was from the heart, and was rejected. 

What ever happened to "it's the thought that counts?" As in, "I thought of you and wanted to give you something, but this is all I could afford to do, so you should feel honored that I didn't buy that chicken for my dinner next week and got you this small gift instead."  So, instead of thinking "that's a crappy, cheap gift" you should be thinking, "gee, she was willing to do without dinner to do this for me."  

Luckily for me, we are past that poverty stage of life, but I have never forgotten how it feels to be that poor. One of the reasons I DON'T spend a lot of money at Christmas time is so that the people I love who ARE still in their lean years won't feel so bad when they can not reciprocate. What I truly want for Christmas is for my family to love each other and enjoy each other's company, without the pressure of feeling like they have to do without dinner for the next week. It's not about the gifts and glitter, it's about the hugs and kisses.

If people around the world treated everyone with love and kindness year-round, with a "Christmas" kind of attitude, I wouldn't mind having Christmas all  year.  And if the gifts I gave were accepted in the spirit in which they were given, I would give them year round. But it seems to me like we only get "Christmas" for one day out of each year, and that makes me sad. I want people to love each other and be happy and loving every day.

Remember Whensday

Something I saw this week made me think about this furniture. I bought it in (I think) 1978, as a Valentine gift for myself.  The set came with a sofa, two chairs, a coffee table, two end tables, and two lamps. All made out of heavy pine boards, and all had matching brown plaid cushions. It was not very pretty, and not really very comfortable, but it was cheap and sturdy. I think I paid about $300 for the whole shebang!

I figured that with three kids, who were about 6, 4, and 3 years old, that it would be indestructible.  I was right. That furniture went through a lot of spend the night parties, a lot of "Friday night everyone sleep in the living room so we can wake up and watch cartoons in the morning" and lots of teenager pizza parties. 

This photo was taken in 1984, the day I moved into the last house I owned. We had that furniture until 1993, when I finally bought a new set.  We took the pieces apart, and had a bonfire in the back yard.

For more Remember Whensday posts, click here

How To Tell You Are In The Country:

When the menu includes neckbones, rutabagas, and fried okra.

Scenic Sunday

Fog on Payne Lake in the Talledega National Forest, Alabama, United States. 

For more Scenic Sunday posts, click here.

Pet Peeve Of The Week

 

I have had this wire shelf  for almost 10 years. We bought it in August of 2000, when we moved into our first RV. It is just the right size to hold a box of quart sized zip lock bags, a box of gallon sized zip lock bags, a roll of plastic wrap, and a roll of aluminum foil. Well, at least it was until the last time I bought a box of the quart sized bags.

I usually leave the empty box in the shelf as a space holder so the rest of boxes don't fall over, until I can get a new box of whatever I am out of. So, when I brought home the last new box of quart sized bags, it wouldn't fit. The manufacturer had changed the size of the box. I had to take the new bags out and put them in the old box that I just happened to have kept, because it is my habit to do so. 

I am so pissed that they did that. Why do manufacturers think they have to keep changing things?

So, what is your pet peeve this week?

I'm Turning Into A Bag Lady

My fabric shopping trip last week included some heavy-weight interacing so I could make some tote bags for my daughters.  That stuff is expensive! But, I got enough to make four bags. I have two of them finished already:

Greens, blues, and browns for Becca.

 

 Pinks, greens, and beige for Emily.

 

The pattern I used makes three sizes. These are the medium sized ones. That large bag would hold a Volkswagen, I think.

 

And I have yellow and black sitting there waiting to be sewn, for Becky. I don't have fabric yet for Sarah's, but will have it next week. OOooo, I get to go fabric shopping again!