Pennsylvania Fruit Quest

Jim and I go on a weekly "Fruit Quest", that is, we take a drive to somewhere we have never been before, looking for local fruit and vegetable stands where we can buy direct from the local farmers. Since we got here, there has been a huge variety of fruits and veggies available to us. So far, we have been through strawberries, cherries, apricots, sweet peas, asparagus, and blueberries. I was sad when the cherries were all gone, but now there are the most delicious blackberries I have ever tasted.

This week, we drove up to Carlisle, Pennsylvania just because we have never been there before. We took a very scenic route to get there. It took about three hours round trip, through some beautiful countryside. This part of Pennsylvania has been experiencing a severe drought this summer, and the orchards are showing the effects of it. Many of the trees have lots of fruit on the ground where it has fallen due to not getting enough water. Leaves are turning brown and falling as well. Corn is not as tall as it should be this time of year, and flowers are hanging their heads down towards the ground, as if they are praying for rain. Even with the lack of rain, there is still an abundance of fruits and vegetables available, and we took advantage of that fact yesterday, stopping at at least three stands to purchase our produce for this week. We got some squash, eggplants, tomatoes, and onions at one stop where barefooted Amish women where tending the store under a tent at the side of the road. At another place we got nectarines, yellow plums, and blackberries. I have never seen so many blackberries for sale as I have this summer, and they are just now coming into season. I used some of them to make a blackberry vinaigrette salad dressing. It turned out YUM! Here is the recipe:
1 cup fresh ripe blackberries
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 of a red onion, chopped
3 or 4 sprigs of fresh basil
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients except olive oil in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, mashing the berries with the back of the spoon. Cook until the liquid is reduced by half. Strain out the solid ingredients and pour the liquid into a cruet. Add the olive oil and shake well. Store in the refrigerator. MMMMMMM.

Also, while we were in Carlisle, we stopped at a natural food store called The English Garden. While the proprietor was very helpful and nice, I was not impressed. When he asked what I was looking for, I told him I am gluten free. He took me to an aisle where he has all types of pasta, including regular wheat pastas, all stacked in the shelf together. He told me all of his pastas were gluten free, and they obviously were not. I thought about informing him of his error, but I just didn't want to get into a debate with him right then. I just hope that his gluten free customers are label readers.

Cooking For the Daughter-In-Law

We got up late on Tuesday morning. While we were having our coffee we were discussing whether or not to call Sarah, our daughter-in-law and ask if she wanted company, when the phone rang and it was her. She had been to her doctor appointment and wanted to tell me all about it. Our little Owen is due in about 58 days now. So, we decided to get in the truck and drive down.

On the way, we stopped at a farm market and picked up new potatoes, green beans, squash, peaches, and blackberries. Those blackberries were as big as my thumb!

When we arrived at their house, Michael was in the yard playing with his friends. As soon as he saw our truck, he raced across the yard to greet us. I heard him telling his friends "It's my grandparents!" That made me feel really good, like a real grandmother. And when Sarah saw the bags of groceries, she said to me, "As soon as I hung up the phone, I thought to myself, yeah, she's gonna cook dinner for me, yum!"

That night, I cooked dinner, except for the pork chops, which my son, Seth, did on the grill. We had green beans with new potatoes, fried yellow squash with onions, fresh creamed corn, and a peach-blackberry crisp based loosely on a recipe from Karina's Kitchen at the Gluten Free Goddess blog. Everything I cooked that night was gluten free, but I did not tell my family that it was because I did not want any bias in their opinion of the meal. They all raved about the food,most especially about the crisp, which they insisted on calling a pie. It was all good.

I used white rice flour to coat the squash before frying, which is the first time I have done that. The squash turned out very crispy and golden brown, and seemed to me to be better than when I used wheat flour for all those years of cooking it. I used rolled oats and rice flour for topping of the crisp. The only negative comment I had was that it was too chewy. Oh, well, if that is the only thing then it wasn't too bad.

We only got to stay for one night, then had to come home as we had not really planned on going down there. But we did make plans to go back in two weeks. So, that was our days off this week.

The Gluten Connection, Again

Back on July 18, I wrote a little bit about The Gluten Connection by Shari Lieberman. The subtitle of this book was what really grabbed my attention--How Gluten Sensitivity May Be Sabotaging Your Health and What You Can Do To Take Control Now. That is quite a mouthful. I had only read the first two chapters then, but I have now finished reading it, and want to say again, I think it should be required reading for anyone who thinks they may be gluten intolerant.

Not only did I see so much of myself in her descriptions of how gluten intolerance can present itself in various ways, but I also saw my brother, my sister, my two daughters, my two grandsons, and my father. And, I really think that a lot of my mother-in-law's many health problems could be gluten intolerance related. If only I could have had this knowledge 35 years ago when my children were young, before they had to suffer so many years because I thought I was feeding them good nutritious food! I think I am going to send each one of my family members a copy of this book, along with a card telling them how much I love them.

Chapter 12 of The Gluten Connection is about taking dietary supplements when you go gluten free. I had already started thinking maybe I should be taking some vitamins, but this book spelled out what you should be taking in the beginning when you eliminate gluten from your diet. I took my book with me to the store and showed it to the woman who works there. So, now I have started taking a food based multi-vitamin with minerals, fish oil capsules, and co-enzyme Q10. It has only been a few days since I started taking them, but I am starting to feel better.

Just as a side note, Jim also started taking the co-enzyme Q10 and he is saying that he has a lot more energy. He has been trying out different supplements for a few months now trying to get his energy level up. He has no thyroid, and even though he takes Synthroid every day, it is hard to keep him energized.

Amazon Grocery Gluten Free Section

Yes, this is a commercial, so if you get offended by commercials, please tune out now. :)


Since we live fulltime in a travel trailer, I have been worried that I would not be able to find my favorite gluten free items in the next town we end up in, so I have been doing some serious web surfing trying to find gluten free items at affordable prices. Well, today, I found the Amazon Grocery Gluten Free Section. They have a big selection of everything gluten free. Yes, you have to order multiple packages from them, but they do offer good prices and some things have free shipping.

One example I can give you is their xanthan gum. The local health food store here sells a 6 oz. package for $11.95. The Amazon Grocery sells 8 oz. packages for $8.16 with FREE shipping. I would be very likely to try to find someone to co-op with at those prices.

OK, end of commercial. Thank you for your time.

Brothers and Sisters

This is the latest portrait of my FabGrandchildren, Michael and Sarah. Michael lives in Maryland at Andrews Air Force Base with their father and step-mother. Sarah lives in Seattle, Washington with their mother and step-father. Sarah came to Maryland for two weeks, then Michael flew with her to Seattle for two weeks. While they were together in Seattle, their mother, my ex-daughter-in-law, took them to have their picture taken. I must say that I think that photographer has a good sense of humor!

Blueberry Cornbread

Being a girl from the south, I grew up eating cornbread. The cornbread I always made before I started eating gluten-free was made with this recipe:

1 cup self rising corn meal mix
1 cup self rising flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
enough buttermilk or 2% milk to make a thick, pourable batter.

Mix well and pour into an iron skillet that has been on an eye on top of the stove heating up the oil, so that when you pour in the batter it sizzles. Bake in a 420 degree oven until golden brown.

I loved that cake like corn bread, so much that at times I made it every night for dinner, and ate a piece with butter and white Karo syrup for desert.

Now that I can not eat the wheat flour, I have had to rethink the recipe. Tonight I decided to make some cornbread with some fresh blueberries in it because I had too many blueberries in the refrigerator.

Here is the new and improved, gluten-free corn bread:

1 cup yellow corn meal
1 cup white rice flour
1/8 cup powdered buttermilk
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tablespoon xanthan gum
1/8 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup 2% milk or water
1 cup fresh blueberries

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add egg and liquid, and stir until mixed well. Stir in blueberries. Pour into iron skillet that has been heating up on top of the stove with some olive oil in it, then bake in a 425 degree oven about 30 minutes, until browned on top. Serve with butter.

This version was pretty good. I think next time I will add a little salt to the batter, though, and see how that works.

The Land Of Little Grandchildren...

Sarah and Michael at the playground at Granite Hill Campground

A few days ago I promised more about my visit with the FabGrandchildren. I know you all have been chomping at the bit to hear all about it, and I apologize for the delay. I have been either working, sleeping, or goofing off since they left, so I haven’t had time to write.

One of the things I have been doing is playing games at Fandango. My diligence and persistence at these games paid off the day before yesterday because I won two tickets to the movie of my choice for having the all time high score on a word game called Suds (but that is another story).

Ok, where was I? Oh yes, the visit with FabGranddaughther, Sarah and the FabGrandson, Michael. They are the children of my son, Seth, who is in the Air Force. Sarah lives with her mother and stepfather in Seattle, Washington. Michael lives with his dad and stepmother in Washington, D.C.

Sarah flew from Seattle to Washington with a stopover in Cincinnati, Ohio. She said the flight attendants took very good care of her. She got to visit with the pilot in the cockpit before the plane took off. She said she made friends with two grownups who were sitting in the same row with her. This I believe because I do not think she has ever met a stranger!

After a day or two visiting with her dad and brother at their house at Andrews Air Force Base, they all came up to Gettysburg to spend a few days with us.

Michael roasting weiners at the campfire.

Seth brought his tent and other camping gear, but Sarah decided she wanted to sleep inside with me. We folded down the dining table to make it into a bed for her. She was delighted to have her very own “bable” to sleep on. We did all the regular camping things, like making s’mores, roasting marshmallows and wieners on a stick, fishing, and walking around the campground.

On our days off while they were here, we took them all to The Land of Little Horses.

Seth and at The Land of Little Horses

We have seen the signs for it since we got here in March, and every time I mentioned taking the grandchildren there, FabGrandpa harumphed and said, “That is so hokey! No way are they going to like doing something like that.” It costs $12 per person to get in the gate, another $2 for a pony ride, and another $1 for a cup of food to feed to the animals. What you get for your $12-$15 is wonderful! Even FabGrandpa had a good time. They have about 50 miniature horses, regular horses, a camel, llamas, an alpaca, some other exotic mammals, a full grown turkey, goats, peacocks, and I don’t know what all else. They have a show where the animals do tricks. Three horses danced, and another one could add, subtract, and multiply. A dog even played basketball. And Sarah got chosen from the audience to play basketball with him. If you ever go to Gettysburg, you really need to go there. What fun! Ever since we went there, every place we go is "The Land of Little..." whatevers.

We went to a farmers market and let the kids pick out their favorite berries. That night, Sarah helped me make strawberry shortcake for everyone. She put the little sponge cake things in the bowls, spooned on the berries, and tried to squirt the whipped cream out of the can but her little fingers just wouldn’t reach.

Another place we went was called The Round Barn. It is exactly what the name implies, a barn that is round. I have never seen a round barn before. It was a beautiful building in the heart of orchard country in southwestern Pennsylvania.

My daughter in law, Sarah, at the Round Barn

They had animals there too, which was a big hit with the kids. They got to pet a donkey, and saw a baby goat. Oh, and that bump is the mystery boy, Owen, the newest Fab Grandbaby, who will arrive sometime around the end of September.

They stayed with us for three nights and then had to go home. We had arranged to have four days off the next week, so we went down to Washington to spend that time at my son’s house. My daughter, Rebecca, was there, too. She came up from Norfolk for two days.

FabGrandpa, Michael, Sarah, and Aunt Rebecca at Seth's house.

That Monday, we had told the children we were going to take them to the National Zoo, but it was 97 dgrees outside, and they had already seen a ton of animals, so we decided to take the Metro into Washington D.C. and go to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. You know, the one with the dinosaur bones. Both kids loved that display. So did I. I have been to DC twice but had never been to that museum. They also loved the gem and mineral display. Michael collects crystals. There were some on display there that were bigger than he is. Oh, one of the things I did not realize is that all of the Smithsonian buildings and the National Zoo are free.

But out of all these things we did, the thing the kids enjoyed the most and talked about the most was riding on the Metro. It was like magic—both kids sitting perfectly still, silently looking out the window as the train rolled down the track. Every mother, and every FabGrandmother, should have a train!!

The last day I was at my son’s house, the Fabgranddaughter and I spent the afternoon making a scrapbook of all the things we did while she was here. I went to Wal-Mart and had them print out a lot of pictures, and bought some colored paper, sheet protectors, and a glue stick. I glued on tickets, brochures, and pictures, and she wrote about them on each page. It turned out to be a very nice memory book for her to treasure and remember her trip. As if she could forget ME!

p.s. I have a few more pictures I want to post, but my connection is very slow. I will add them tomorrow, I promise!

The Gluten Connection

We stopped at Barnes and Noble in Frederick, Maryland yesterday while waiting for movie time. I bought this book by Shari Lieberman. She is a clinical nutritionist in private practice for more than 20 years. Although I have only read the Foreword, the Introduction, and the first chapter, I think it should be required reading for anyone who is gluten intolerant or who has been diagnosed with Celiac Disease. I wish I had found it on Amazon first, because I paid full price at B&N, $16.95 plus tax. I see Amazon has it for $11.95. Sigh.

The Most Fab Compliment Ever...

The FabGranddaughter, Sarah, came to visit from Seattle, Washington. She flew in by her eight year old self, to visit with her Dad for two weeks. While she was at his house, they came up to Gettysburg to camp out with FabGrandma and FabGrandpa for three days. Later, we went down to spend four days at their house.

The last day we were there, I was sitting there with FabGranddaughter. She said to me, "My other grandmother is boring. All she did when she came to visit me was wear her headphones, listen to the radio, and snore." I asked her if I was boring, and she said "No, you are the best grandmother in the world." Now that is a compliment!

(more about our visit to come...)

Now I Know

I have been gluten free since about the middle of April. Since then, I have been very faithfully GF, something I was very proud of because I felt so much better. But, my grandchildren, Sarah and Michael, came to spend a few days with me. The last day they were here, I made them some french toast, and I ate two pieces of it with them. Just because it smelled so good, and because I just wanted to.

So, I have been wondering which of the many symptoms I had would come back fastest if I "cheated", if I ate something made from wheat flour. Now I know. My legs and feet hurt so bad I could hardly walk for two days. Not just a little sore, but an ache down in my bones that required several doses of pain releivers (over the counter). I don't think I will be doing that again any time soon. Oh, yeah, and my face broke out in pimples, too. Yuck.

Check It Out: A List Of Gluten Free Bloggers

Karina's Kitchen is a great blog written by multi-allergic (Is that a word?) and gluten intolerant Karina. She creates some of the most wonderful recipes I have seen, and I say "SEEN" because she also takes some very beautiful photos of the food she creates. I am jealous of her photography talent. I hope that someday when I grow up, I will be as good at photography as she is.

Anyway, if you want to see some pretty food, take a look over there. And check out all those other gluten-free bloggers, too.
Karina's Kitchen: Recipes from a [Gluten-Free] Goddess: Gluten-Free Bloggers

Crazy Dreams

I don’t usually write about my dreams because I rarely ever dream, or, if I do, I don’t remember them. But last night I went to bed with a terrible headache, so early after coming in from work that Jim was concerned about me. I didn’t even turn on the computer to read my e-mail. I was that sick. So, with apologies to the real people in my family who are in this story, sorry, it was just a dream.

In the dream I had last night, I was walking down the street I lived on when I was in the eighth grade, with my best friend from eighth grade. The road looked like it did then, and I looked like I did then, but my friend looked like she looks now. As a matter of fact, everything in the dream looked like it did then, except her. This is sort of what I looked like then:

We came to a place in the road where a rose bush had grown over the road, and we had to walk through it to get to where we were going. As we walked through it, the thorns on the rosebush snagged on my clothing. Donna, my friend, was helping me get untangled from the thorns. I reached for one of the canes of the rosebush, and got about 20 thorns stuck in my thumb. I said to her, “I need a tweezer to get these out.” 

So, we went to my mother’s house, which looked on the outside like it looked when I was in the eighth grade. Except, that when we walked up on the carport, instead of a regular door like my mother has, there was a sliding glass door there. The whole inside of the house was crammed with furniture, so much that my mother, who looked like she looked when I was in the eighth grade, had to move a little round wooden table so that Donna and I could slip in sideways to get into the house. 

Once inside the house, I asked my mother for a tweezer. She said there was one in the bathroom. So, I went into the bathroom. In the bathroom, I noticed that it was pouring down rain outside, and the ceiling of the bathroom was leaking, so much that there was a huge puddle of water on the floor. I also noticed that someone had re-tiled the bathroom with a beautiful tile pattern. I wondered to myself in the dream why someone would re-tile the floor but leave the roof to leak so much. I looked in the medicine cabinet for a tweezer, but there was not one there. 

I went back out to the living area, where I noticed that the ceiling was leaking heavily in there, too. I told my mother that there was no tweezer in the bathroom. She then said, “Well, if you had asked me I would have told you there was one on that little table by the door.” The one she moved so we could get in. I walked over there and got the tweezer and picked the thorns out of my thumb.

Then, I asked my mother why she had not had her roof repaired. She said, “I asked Seth to do it, and he said he would, but Dick got mad at me because I asked Seth to do it, so I told Seth not to do it, and Dick never came to do it after that.” (Seth is my son, who was not even thought of when I was in the eighth grade, and Dick is my older brother) And I said, “Well, Seth knows how to do it, and I will call him right now to come over and fix that roof.” End of dream.

So, if anyone has a clue what this all means, please let me know.

Note To Self: Never Let Someone With A Pierced Nose Cut Your Hair

One of the few drawbacks to the lifestyle we have is that I usually have to find a new hair stylist every other time I get my hair cut. My step-daughter, Becky, cut my hair from the time she was in high school, and she did it very well. She owns a shop in the Atlanta area now. She is in such demand that it is hard for me to get an appointment with her when I am in town. I like to brag that she used to cut the hair of one of the ladies who was on the Weather Channel. If she could see what my hair looks like now, she would have a fit. Just like I did.

What I usually do when I need a haircut is to look at other people’s hair when I am in the grocery store, in a restaurant, where ever, and when I see a particularly good hair cut, I ask the woman who does her hair. Now, every woman knows that if someone asks her that question, she must look really good, so I have always gotten a “Why thank you for asking, I get it done at…” But since we are in a rural area, when I have asked that question for the last couple of weeks, it is always someone who cuts hair in her home for her friends and family only. (I guess that should have told me something about the beauty shops around here.)

Just a couple of days ago, I saw the most perfect haircut ever. The woman must have been about 65 years old, with snow-white hair. But the haircut was so modern, so trendy, so, well, just so good of a haircut. She was eating lunch with a friend of hers at a restaurant in town. So, of course, I asked her where she got her hair done. And, she proceeds to tell me it was her friend’s son, who used to work for Paul Mitchell, but he is retired from doing hair and only cuts hair for a few friends and family members now. Crap. I should have taken her picture, but I didn’t think about it until later. Much later. Too much later.

And so, since I was looking rather shaggy, and was in a real need of a haircut, I got out the phone book at the campground office and looked in the yellow pages. The first place I called could see me right away. That should have been a warning, but no, I went ahead with it. The girl who greeted me at the front desk had a nose ring. One nostril was pierced and adorned with the tiniest little stud nose ring, but still, a pierced nose.

She took me back to her lair immediately and asked me how I wanted my hair cut. I told her I usually get it cut short, with bangs, over my ears, and straight across in the back. This is what I have told every hair stylist I have ever been to, and they have managed to cut my hair in a close semblance of how Becky used to cut my hair. So she starts to cut. And she cuts, and cuts some more. When she was done, this is how it looked:

It looks like she actually cut a hole in my hair here. This looks like the picture in the Hair Club For Men commercial.

I am not a person who likes to spend a lot of time on my hair. I usually wash, blow dry, and go. I have never used any styling products. Just shampoo and conditioner, never anything else. And I have not cried about the way my hair looked since the last time my mother put a Tony Home Perm in it when I was about 12 years old. But, when I went home this time, my hair was a disaster. Jim said I needed to get a hat. Thanks a lot, big guy, that really makes me feel better.

So, today when we went to Wal-Mart, I stopped in at the hair shop there. I told the girls working there that I had gotten this hair cut yesterday, and it looks really bad to me and what could they suggest. They told me I needed something to make it “stand up”, to give it some body. So, they sold me some Molding Glue. For hair. Mess It Up Styler. Ummm, it was already messed up.

They showed me how to use it, just a dab and run my fingers through it just so, and voila! It does look a little better, so I bought the stuff. $11.00 for a little jar of it. It should last a very long time, with as little hair as I have. So, this is what it looks like now:

Note to self: Never let someone with a pierced nose cut your hair.

Giving The Term "A Father's Day Bash" A Whole New Meaning...

We were expecting it to be busy, but somehow I did not expect it to be as busy as it was. Yes, we had lots of families camping together in celebration of Father’s Day. They came out in all the usual modes of camping, from tents to 40-foot motor homes. All of them wanted the same thing—a couple of days rest and relaxation at the campground, fishing, roasting marshmallows, enjoying a campfire, and enjoying the family.

So, on Friday night, as usual, we were covered up with people checking in. We had more than 160 check-ins for the day, about 120 of them between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. Everything went pretty good until the boyz showed up. This was a really haggard looking bunch of about 5 guys who wanted to rent a tent site. Now, I am not against groups of people camping in tents, but the management here has a rule that there must be at least one person per site who is 25 years old, and we have to card them to make sure they are.

Another rule that the management has is that there are no overnight “guests” on a tent site. The tent sites can have a maximum of 2 adults per site. If there are more than 2 adults, they have to rent another site. If you have a so-called guest, that person must pay the tent rate to stay, because there is one tent per site. I really do understand what the management is trying to accomplish by doing this, and that is to cut down on the number of teen beer parties on Friday and Saturday nights.

So, as the Night Shift Supervisor, I have the most pleasant task of informing the teeny boppers that they cannot stay at this campground when they arrive to get a tent site for the night. Now, try to imagine this guy, covered with tattoos, bandana on his head, baggy shorts drooping down over his butt crack, saying, “Well, my mama is camping here and I’ll just go get her to rent the site.” And I say, “Is she going to stay on that site with you all night?” And he says, “No, she is just going to rent it.” So I say, “No, you can’t do that. What you can do is pay for camping and put a tent on her campsite.” They didn’t want to do that, so they finally left. And I get on with the rest of my job.

The rest of Friday night went by in a flash, with no other out of the ordinary occurrences. On Saturday, I had about 30 more check-ins, and loads of people with loads of money buying stuff in the store. It was a constant stream of people, which made the day go by fast. We had a retail clerk at the candy counter until 6 p.m. After she went home, there were two of us left to handle the crowd.

My co-worker was 15 years old, not old enough to sell cigarettes in the state of Pennsylvania. So, no matter whatever else I was doing, I had to stop and ring up cigarettes for our customers. Not such a hard thing, except that as the Night Shift Supervisor, I have other duties I must complete before I go home for the night, such as counting the cash drawers from the snack bar and the mini golf shack; doing the sales reports from those two places; calling people who have made reservations and who have not paid their deposits after 7 days to request payment of the deposit; filing a large stack of paperwork that was given to me with a note that said “Do Not Delegate”; and about 10 other miscellaneous tasks. I felt like I was up to my neck in alligators that night.

About 3:30 p.m., a guy comes in and want to register as a guest of his friend. I asked him his friends last name, and he did not know it. I asked if he had his friends telephone number, and he did not know that either. So I asked if he knew what site his friend was camping on. He did not know. But, if I would let him in he could just drive around and find him. I asked if his friend was camping in a tent. He said yes. So, I told the guy he would have to pay for a tent site, he could not camp as a guest on a tent site. He did not want to do that, and again asked me to let him just drive around and find his friend. I told him again that we do not allow that. He left.

So about 5 minutes later, he came in again, and went to my co-workers register. He started saying the same things to her. Since I am the Night Shift Supervisor, I asked the customer I was assisting if he could wait just a moment, and stepped over to where Tammy was working. I told this man again that he would have to pay for a tent site to get into the campground. He said, well, can I just go in and pick out a site before I pay? I said, NO, YOU CAN NOT. We will register you and assign you a site, and if you don’t like it, you can move to any other tent site that is available, but you have to pay FIRST. He finally agreed to pay, and I returned to my customer. But, I heard him saying to my 15 year old co-worker “That woman is such a bitch!” I started to call one of them maintenance workers and have him escorted out of the park, but I didn’t. If that happens again, I will do that.

Then, at about 9:30 p.m., a man came into the store and told me there was a domestic dispute going on at that group tenting area. He said that a guy had his wife on the ground, punching her and kicking her, and that some other guys who were camping nearby came to her rescue, and a big free for all ensued. So, I called the campground owner on the radio and told him he had “an incident that needed attention”. He went down there, and called me on the radio, and told me to call 911. So, I had a radio to the boss in one hand, the telephone with the police in the other hand, trying to get the cops out here to apprehend the jerk, when a woman who wanted to buy cigarettes comes up and is indignant because she can not pay for her cigarettes!!! Give me a break, lady.

So, the police arrive and go up to where the altercation is “in progress”. My husband had to go up there too to lead the police to the scene. He said that when the police arrived, someone pointed and yelled, there he goes right now. He was in a truck trying to flee the area. The police cut him off, and he jumped out of the truck and started running. Jim said it was just like on COPS on TV.

In the meantime, the woman came into the store. She had a baby about 6 months old, another one about 18 months old, and a 3 year old. She and all her children were crying, I had about 25 customers in the store trying to get checked out, and one co-worker trying to get it all done, as I was still on the phone with the 911 operator. I asked the guy on the phone if she needed to go back up to the scene, and he said if she wanted to press charges, she need to go back up there.

So, I told her that, and she started screaming that she didn’t want to go up there because he was still there. I got off the phone then, and told the girl that she either had to go back up to the scene to press charges or she would have to go outside and sit on the bench out there, but she could not stay in the store. Yes, I really felt sorry for her, but I had other work to do. If she didn’t want to go through with pressing charges against the jerk, there was nothing I could do for her.

I finally got her out of the store, and sold all those dang cigarettes. Why is it that I feel bad that I couldn’t help her? I had nothing to offer her in the store. Should there have been something else I could have done? It took us longer than usual to get the store closed, cleaned, the money counted, lock up and go home. I was glad to get there. I still had Sunday to go.

On Sunday, I arrived to find out I was scheduled to work by myself from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m. I was so thrilled to learn that. What a good time I had. I still had the no deposits report, the check-ins for the coming week to check for accuracy, the confirmations batch to run, retail sales, the phones ringing off the hook, the little kids wanting to redeem their tickets from the arcade games for the little junky prizes, email reservation requests to handle, etc., etc., etc. And after the store closed at 8 p.m., I still had to sweep and mop the store, stock the bottled water in the cooler, straighten all the shelves, empty the trash cans, count all the cash drawers, do the cash report…It took me an hour to get it all done. When I got home I felt like I had run a marathon. Tell me again why I like this job?

On Monday night, Jim and I and our co-worker, Linda, had our own little Mexican fiesta. I made black bean and shrimp nachos. She made a delicious dessert that started out with gluten free tortillas. Spread with a cream cheese filling, top with fresh fruit. OMG!!! Yummy was the word for that. Oh, did I mention the margaritas? Yep, and I had three! I had forgotten how good a margarita could make you feel. I couldn't feel my legs for about an hour or so. Linda was the one who went to the liquor store for the tequila. I have always bought Jose Cuervo tequila, but never again. She got Herra-Durra brand, and I have to say, that was the BEST tequila I have ever had. It would be dangerous for me to have a bottle of it in the house. ¡Vivo la vida loca!

A New Yummy Gluten Free Pizza Recipe

I have been tryng out different pizza dough recipes for a couple weeks now, trying to find one Jim and I can both eat and like. Here is the one I tried today. It was really good, so good that Jim was bragging to the people we work with that I made a de-lish-ous homemade pizza for lunch. He said it is a keeper recipe.

For the crust:

1 packet rapid rise dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
2 tsp. Brown sugar
2/3 cup white rice flour
½ cup tapioca flour
2 tsp. Xanthan gum
½ tsp. Salt
½ tsp. Baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp cider vinegar

Add the yeast and brown sugar to the water, and stir to disolve the yeast. Set aside. Measure all the dry ingredients and put in a medium size bowl. Add olive oil, vinegar, and yeast water. Stir with a fork until a ball forms. The dough will be soft. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until about double in size. Stir down the dough. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Spray foil with olive oil. Spread dough with the back of spoon til very thin, making sure you close up any tears or holes in the dough.

For the topping:

1 jar of Classico Pesto sauce, or homemade pesto sauce
black olives
2 or 3 fresh tomatoes, sliced
pepperoni or cooked Italian sausage
1 cup shredded mozzeralla cheese

Spread the pesto on the pizza dough. Add Italian sausage or pepperoni on top of the pesto. Slice tomatoes very thin, and add on top of the meat. Slice the black olives on top of tomatoes. Sprinkle cheese over all. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Let the pizza rest for abut 5 minutes before slicing.

This was very good. The bottom of the crust was a nice golden brown, and the whole crust was crispy and chewy, just the way I like pizza dough. I am going to try this again next week , but use the dough to make some bread sticks. I will let you all know how it turns out.

Night Shift Supervisor

As summer gets closer, and school gets out around the country, more and more people are coming to Gettysburg, and to the campground. I am beginning to feel more like a resident of Gettysburg than a visitor. I can tell our guests where to find a good restaurant and give them directions how to get there. I can tell them how to get to the campground from the major highways, and I can tell them where they can go to see a movie. Jim thinks this is funny, because he thinks I am bad at giving directions, even though we have only gotten lost once in 15 years with me reading the maps.

If anyone out there wonders what it is really like to be a Night Shift Supervisor at a campground, here are a few things that went on at my job over the last week:

A little girl was bitten by a dog. She was with her parents at the shuffleboard court when the owner of the dog came up. All the adults chatted for a minute about the dog, which was a very nice dog. While the adults were chatting, the child was petting the dog. All of a sudden, the dog snapped at her, resulting in a gash on her face that required 12 stitches. Now the different part is that the father was calm, cool, collected. He did not yell and scream at the owner of the dog. He told me later that things happen, he just wished that it had not happened to his little girl. I thought that was amazing, how calm he could be about the whole thing. Most people would be talking about lawyers and suing and such. He just said, “I was standing right there and could not have prevented it myself.”

The second thing that happened was that an older man came in, registered, and drove his motorhome to the site. He came back all huffy and mad as a hornet because our rock on the site had damaged his motorhome. He was demanding to speak to the manger, and guess who was the senior management person on duty? Me, the Night Shift Supervisor. So, while I was thinking to myself that HE was the one driving the thing, I asked him what I could do for him. He said he wanted to be compensated for his loss. I told him that I could not do anything like that and that he would need to speak to the owner, who was not on the property at the moment. Finally got him calmed down and out of the office. Whew! It is at times like that that I do not like being a supervisor.

Next in was a lady (and I use that term loosely) who was shopping in the store with her four year old child. I watched and listened (I was FORCED to listen as she was screaming at the child the whole time) as they walked through the store. The kid was holding two candy bars and a sucker in one hand, and a Kool-Aid drink in a plastic bottle in the other hand. He had the unopened drink in his mouth, chewing on the top of it. The mother was saying, “You need to decide it you want the candy or the drink, hurry up, make a decision, we have to go, decide!” I was thinking to myself, a four year old doesn’t even know what “decide” means! So, I said to her, “You will have to buy the drink because he has had it in his mouth already.” She looked at ME like I was crazy, and said “I KNOW THAT!” and I am thinking, then why are you making this kid think he has a choice about it? She wound buying all that sweet sugary stuff for him. Well, she is the one who has to live with the kid.

A while later, four teenage boys came in to register. They had made a reservation for two campsites next to each other, for a total of 8 people. When I told them the total due they wanted to argue about the amount, because our published rates are $175 for a week. I explained that it is $175 plus 10% tax for two people, and $8 plus 10% tax for each additional person per site. So, for a week on each site, with 4 people per site, that came to $315.70 per site for the week. The boy who had made the reservation claimed he was not told about the extra charges for the additional people, and therefore he should not have to pay it. I asked him how he found out about the campground. He said he saw the webpage on the internet. I told him our rates are published on the internet, and they state the charges for extra people and tax. They were not very happy, and even came back later and wanted a refund of a couple hundred dollars, because they did not think “it was fair for them to be charged when they did not know about it”. What? NO, I did not refund any money to them.

The next day, the four girls arrived. While one of my co-workers was checking them in, I overheard a converstion the girls were having amongst themselves:

1^st girl “Why didn’t we just come up with the guys yesterday?”
2^nd girl “Because Joe did’nt want me to ride up here with him.”

Excuse me, he wants you to sleep with his little teenage self in a tent for six nights, but he does not want you to ride to the campground with him in the same car? And you went for it? Where is your pride, girl? Oh, yeah, that stuff is none of my business.

So, on Monday night, all the work campers met at Linda’s site and shared some gluten-free pasta salad, some cheese, and some wine. Lots of wine.

FabGrandpa's Socks

I don’t know what it is with men and their socks. Jim always seems to be needing more socks, more often than I do at least. He says they lose their “springyness” and when they do, he does not like to wear them anymore. This is long before they look worn out to me, but because I love him so, I get him some more socks whenever he starts talking about the lack of spring, WHATEVER that means.

While we were at the sock store, better known as Target, I also got some socks for our new little man, who we are calling “Owen” for the time being, until his parents name him something else. Those cute little socks were just irresistable, almost as cute as I imagine the baby himself to be.

Jim is very excited about this new baby. The child has no blood relation to Jim at all, but the prospect of being “Poppa” is appealing to him. He loves all three of “our” grandchildren as much as I do. I would say “maybe more”, but I don’t see how that is possible. He loves to spend time with Spencer, Michael, and Sarah, and absolutely loves his role of grandfather. He is the FabGrandpa, no matter what anyone else thinks.

This is one of my favorite pictures of all time, Poppa with Michael, 1997.

Poppa with Spencer in 2002.

With Sarah at the 4-D Theater at Stone Mountain Dec 23, 2005. He loves his grandsons, but this little lady has stolen his heart!

A Crabby Happy Birthday

THE BIRTHDAY GIRLS

THE BIRTHDAY DINNER

My birthday was last week. I turned 55. I used to think that anyone who was 55 was over the hill, old as dirt, on their last leg. Well, I have changed my opinion of that now that I am there. I am enjoying my life, more than at any other time I have lived it.

My friend, Lynn, also had a birthday last week. So, Jim and I, our friends Lynn and Charlie, their friends Sandy and Phil, and our new friend Linda all went out to a neat little restaurant in Fairfield, Pennsylvania for dinner in celebration of the event.

Dave and Jane’s Crab Shack is a pleasant little surprise. It is located at 2989 Tract Road in Fairfield. Fairfield is about 10 miles west of Gettysburg, and about 2 miles north of the Maryland state line. It is nowhere near an ocean, or any body of water for that matter. But, they have the best seafood I have eaten in a long time.

As their name implies, they serve steamed crabs by the dozens. Even on a Wednesday night, we had to have reservations to get in the door. I was surprised at just how many people were there because it is out in the country.

They have an ALL YOU CAN EAT menu, as well as regular entrees. The AYCE specials are Steamed Crabs (In Season) for $29.95, Alaskan Crab Clusters for $29.95, Steamed Shrimp for $28.95, and an AYCE Trio for $31.95. If I had been with other people who love to eat steamed crabs as much as I do, I would have opted for the AYCE steamed crabs, but I did not because I would have been the only one, and the rest of the gang would have to have waited for me to finish. (Believe me when I say I can eat some crabs!)

So, instead, I ordered the Seafood Lovers Platter. For $22.95, I had 1 dozen steamed clams, 1 lb. of crab clusters, a half pound of steamed shrimp, a cup of cream of crab soup, and a tossed salad. I thought they would never stop bringing out my food! And talk about delish! It was soooo yummy! I also ordered a basket of 3 steamed crabs. I wound up bringing part of my dinner home with me, and that was after sharing with others at the table.

Jim ordered a Combination Seafood Platter. His included broiled shrimp, a crab cake, a broiled fish filet, broiled scallops, and fried oysters. There was more than he could eat, too, and we brought some of his home. The price for that platter was $18.95.

We really enjoyed our dinner party at Dave and Jane’s Crab Shack. If you are ever in the Gettysburg area, I think it is a “must go” place. To get there, take US 15 south from Gettysburg to Maryland 140 in Emmetsburg, Maryland. Turn west on 140 and drive about all the way through Emmetsburg. On the other side of town, you will see a large billboard on the right, at Tract Road. Turn right onto Tract Road and drive about 2 miles or so. Dave and Jane’s will be on the left. Call ahead to make reservations and to make sure they are open. 717 642-5025. You will be very glad you did. OH, they also sell crabs by the dozen to go. And they have a landlubbers menu, including steaks, chicken, sandwiches, and pizza. Prices start at $3.00 for a burger.

Fab Home Made Soap

As I mentioned in my profile, I have been making my own soap for more than 10 years. Jim and I have not bought a bar of soap in all that time. We were down to our last bar, so last week I made two batches.

I use palm kernel oil, almond oil, grapeseed oil, castor oil, and olive oil in my soap. In one batch I used peppermint and lavender essential oils for the scent. In the other batch, I used rosemary, peppermint, and eucalyptus essential oils. The Rosemary blend one is Jim’s favorite, so I make it every time I make a batch of soap.

In the picture above, the greenish soap is the lavender mint; the other one is the rosemary-mint-eucalyptus. My sad piggy bank from Mexico is watching over the bars.

I have some pretty molds that I use sometimes, but this time I was in a hurry, so I just used the loaf mold that one of my friends made for me. I gave him a bath size bar of Ivory soap and told him to make me a loaf mold that would make the finished soap that size. It is made out of pine wood, and has a divider in it so that I can make two different scents at the same time if I want to. I line it with a plastic trash bag so I can lift the loaf out when it is ready to cut. The picture below is my of my wooden loaf mold.

Ebay Snatchers

I can't really express how I am feeling right now. Maybe the best way to put it is: ARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!! I received an email from Ebay, saying that someone had been using my account unauthorized. The email was addresed to my ebay username, with the wrong name attached to it.

I was not actually selling anything right now, and had no plans to sell anything in the near future, but I have had that ebay account for more than 8 years. I was MY account. MINE! How dare someone just waltz in and complicate my life just like that!

I did as instructed and went to the ebay website and tried to log in, and was refused entry to the site. I had to answer my "security questions", and failed the test, even though the questions were such things as "What is your telephone number?" and "What is your date of birth?" Now, I know I am a grandmotherly type of person, but I do not have senility to the point of not knowing my birthday or telephone number, neither of which has changed in years.

My question is, how did this ebay snatching floosy get into my account? How could such a thing happen? And if they can get into my lowly ebay account so easily, do I now have to worry about my online banking, my email account, my BLOG??? Please, don't let anyone take over my blog!! I can live with someone stealing my "mostly" plus ratings on ebay, but if they took over my blog, which is my "real" identity online, I would be devastated. My reputation could be ruined with just one post.

So, I spent most of the day changing my passwords everywhere I could think of to change them. I just hope I can remember them tomorrow.

Workcamping On The Holiday Weekend

My weekend started on Thursday, which is actually my "Monday", because I work in a campground. We had forty checkins on Thursday, which was a slow pace, but the phone rang off the hook with people calling to either verify their reservations or to ask if we had camping spaces available for the weekend. We have been completely booked for this weekend since February. Get your reservations in EARLY if you want to camp on Memorial Day Weekend next year. And when you do make reservations, write down your confirmation number, and the name of the campground where you made them. You would not believe how many people called to ask if we had a reservation for them because they "could not remember if they reserved here or at the other campground in town".

On Friday, my shift started at 2:00 p.m. At the end of the day we had checked in more than 250 campers. Most of the day we did not even try to answer the phone, which was STILL ringing off the hook. On the few times that we did have a second to answer the phone, the question of the day was for directions to the campground. Now, people, why do you wait until the very last minute to figure out how to get where you are going? Did you not look to see where it was before you made your reservation? Do you not know how to google a map? OH, and we still had people wanting to make reservations for the weekend. On Friday. I finally got to clock out and go home at midnight.

By Saturday, everyone who was coming to camp was here, but all their friends started coming in to "visit". So they walk up to the counter and say they need a car pass so they can go in to visit. When they are told there will be a day visitor's fee, they are universally shocked by it. Then they don't know how to spell their friends last name, or better yet, don't even know it, but if I would give them a car pass they can go in and find them. You would be surprized how many people think I am supposed to just let them in to use the campground faciltiies without a charge because they are not staying overnight.

Then we have the loverly children who are camping with us. Little children who can't count money come in to the store, alone, with a fifty dollar bill to buy some candy. They can barely be seen over the counter, they are so small. I wonder sometimes if the parents even know they have that money. Then there was the brother and sister, who looked like they were about eleven and twelve years old. She was waiting in line to pay for something at the front desk. He was standing right beside her, yelling at her at the tops of his lungs, "Come on, Mom says we have to go, NOW!" The whole time he is yelling at her, he is hitting her, on the arm, on the back, on the head. I finally told him he could not fight in the store. He just looked at me like I was from the moon.

Oh, yeah, then there was the little band of teeny bopper girls, who prissed in and proceeded to tell me how "asinine" it was to have the dance indoors instead of outside by the pool, where more people could "just listen to the concert". What? Concert? It was a DJ playing oldies music. I should have asked them if they could spell asinine.

The last one was a little girl about four year old and her brother who looked about five years old. She was laying on the floor by the toys, whining and kicking her feet. He was standing over her, with a toy in his hands, saying, "I can have this, but I don't have enough money for you to get anything." They had strewn toys all over the floor. I went over and started picking them up and putting them back on the shelf, and said to her, "Honey, you can't lay on the floor in here. If you are tired, you have to go back to your camper." She stopped her little fit and sat up, looked at me like I was the crazy one. Then she got up and went outside. Oh, I just LOVE working at the campground.

Gluten Free Bruschetta

Isn’t it strange what we start to crave when we know we can’t have it? The latest thing I have been about to die for is Bruchetta. You know, the classic Italian dish that starts out with Italian bread, toasted and buttered, then spread with a combination of chopped tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese, and basil? So, that was my cooking project for today. I took the pizza dough recipe from Meesh’s blog, cooked it without any pizza toppings on it. Then I put on my bruschetta salad, and Oh My God! Was it ever good.

Here is the recipe for the topping:

6 small ripe tomatoes, chopped
12 small “balls” of fresh mozzarella cheese, cut up
several sprigs of fresh basil, chopped
¼ to ½ cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, cover, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight, if you can control yourself. Spread over cooked pizza crust that has been cut into bread sticks.

YUM! This stuff makes a complete meal for me when I have a tossed green salad with it.

The Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival

The Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival was held this weekend at the campground where I work. The music didn’t start until Thursday, but the diehard fans started arriving last weekend. They lined up at 3:00 p.m. last Sunday to put their chairs out in front of the stage, and the motorhomes, fifth wheels, travel trailer, pop-ups, tents, and whatever else they could find to camp in kept rolling in to the park until late on Friday night. I am the one in the window in the picture above.

There were lots of bluegrass acts, with music from 11:00 a.m til well after 11:00 p.m on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. on Sunday. As I am not really a bluegrass fan, I had not heard of any of the bands before this weekend. But, I heard two tonight while I was working in the “Festival Money Booth” that I thought were really good. The first one was Cherryholmes, a family band that has won Entertainer of the Year. The second was was called Seldom Scene.

While I don’t see myself becoming a bluegrass fan on the same level as those folks who turned out for our festival, I would probably buy a CD recorded by these two bands. The Cherryholmes family was very talented. Their act included singing, dancing, and yodeling as well as picking those instruments. The guys from Seldom Scene were good performers as well, and made it worth watching as well as listening to.

I’ll be glad when the last act has performed, and the show is over, as I am tired and ready for a day off, but it has been fun working here while it is going on. The next one is August 23-26, 2007. I will be here for that one, too. So, if you decide to come to it, look me up. I’ll be here then, too.

For those of you who are like me, gluten intolerant, don’t expect much in the way of food that you can eat. Like most other festivals, there are several food vendors and a snack bar on the property. A couple of things I found that I was able to eat were stuffed cabbage rolls from The Polish Guy, some french fries from Bricker’s Frys (without the vinegar), and a BLT salad from the snack bar. The BLT salad is not on the menu, but a BLT sandwich is. I asked them to put the guts from a BLT sandwich in a bowl for me, and they were happy to help me in that way. It was quite good as a salad. Oh, and those golumpkis were delish!

Making Meals Ahead, This Week's Menu

Last weeks experiment with cooking several meals at a time was a huge success. So much so that I did it again this morning.

Today’s menu was ham, baked sweet potatoes, boiled eggs, gluten free spaghetti, rice, and green beans. I cut the ham in half, and cooked half of it. I sliced half of that, and put it in a zip lock bag for sandwiches. I used the rest of the cooked ham for a homemade ham salad. The uncooked half of the ham will be used for cooking some beans tomorrow, for a macaroni and cheese with ham dish that I make (gluten free elbows of course) and for sandwiches and omelettes later in the week. I will probably use the sweet potatoes to make a casserole tomorrow. Here is my recipe for Ham Salad:

3 cups ground cooked ham
2 boiled eggs
1/3 cup sweet pickel relish
2 tablespoons mustard
1 onion, chopped
½ cup mayonaise

Mix all ingredients well. Serve wth crackers, chips, or celery sticks, or as sandwiches.

It takes a lot of work for a couple of hours one morning a week, but it sure does make my life easier during the week. Althought it takes us all week to eat a ham, and it means that we eat it every day that week, we do love ham. It is also very versatile, and easy to cook, and easy to make a gluten free diet work with it. But, next week we’ll have chicken.