burnt ends - ever eaten any ?

Chopper, my older son, saw something interesting while watching one of those TV shows where they travel around the country and try out  restaurants.

They were highlighting a barbecue restaurant in Kansas City, where they serve, what apparently, is a specialty item there..."burnt ends".

It sounds like something you would just push aside on your plate, doesn't it?  It turns out that it's the tip ends of beef brisket, which become crispy and burned as the brisket is smoked.  (like pork rib tips?)
You can click HERE to read about them.


Knowing how Lonnie loves barbecue, Chopper asked him if he had ever tried burnt ends. Negative...Lonnie hadn't heard of them either...but his curiosity was piqued.

So, Chopper found a restaurant in Louisville that has them and brought some over for us all to try.

The restaurant is"  Momma's Mustard, Pickles and BBQ "....so named because they make their own pickles and mustard (sold by the jar there,too).

The burnt ends were nice big tasty chunks of brisket,  although not exactly what we were seeing when we looked at pictures online. They didn't have any charred areas on them at all.  Maybe we would have to actually go to Kansas City to get the real deal.

It was a really good meal, though. The servings are huge and the sides have a good homemade taste...and their pickles and mustard are good!
Lonnie wants to go there to try their BBQ pork one day soon.

Thanks for the nice meal, Chopper!

what I've been sewing

I've been working on blocks from  a pattern called "Bertie's Year".  It's  part applique, which I'm not very practiced at...and I  am moving really slow with it.

Each block comes as a kit, with all the flannel fabrics needed to make that block. The applique pieces are pre-cut and ready to iron on the background.  You hand stitch around them and add some embroidery, which I'm not very practiced at either.

The chain stitch (in red) on the block below is new to me. Now that I've  got the hang of it, it's almost done!

The patchwork around the edges is machine sewn.

"Bertie" is the little bird, and she will be on each of the twelve blocks that represent a month of the year.

So far I have finished April and May and when I finish that chain stitching on this one, that will be June completed too.

Sorry, not good lighting...took these photos at night.

Nine more to go. It's going to be a while before they are all done!

16 or 17 baby turkeys

A mother hen wild turkey and her mate brought their huge family up to the bird feeder earlier this week.

We have caught a couple of glimpses of them before but just passing through.We haven't seen them this close!

I took a bunch of pictures and my camera software automatically made this little gif (or short film loop).

It's neat because you can see the tom turkey in action, spreading his tail and puffing up to show that squirrel who's in charge!

That will make you dizzy if you watch for very long, so here are some still photos.

This is when they first came up. Mama turkey at the feeder with part of the babies and Papa turkey heading off to the left to herd the other babies over.  The three squirrels didn't know what to do, one ran up the bird feeder pole and the other two took off in different directions!

Here is the whole family. Papa turkey is getting a little annoyed by that squirrel.  Mama and babies are huddled up for safety.

Mama and babies go back to eating, seeing that Papa turkey has everything under control. Squirrel tries to act like he is tough but it's only a bluff.

Squirrels have retreated, family is safe...Papa turkey struts his stuff!

It was hard to count the babies but I truly think there were at least 16.  I don't see how they can manage and protect that many.  It must be an extra intelligent hen and a very brave tom.  

I'm glad I got to see that little skirmish!

pasta salad

Somehow we ended up with two open bottles of Italian salad dressing so I thought a pasta salad would be a good way to go ahead and use one of them up.

I always add tomatoes to pasta salad but we've only had a few cherry tomatoes to ripen in our garden so far...and not any of the Better Boys yet.
But I remembered that I have never used up the tomatoes that we dehydrated last year. I keep them in the bottom of the freezer section. and I just forget they are down there.

They were good in the salad, chewy and sweet!

Pasta Salad
16 oz. rainbow spiral pasta
8 to 10 oz. Wishbone Italian Dressing
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

about 1/4 to 1/2 cup each of your favorite veggies,
I used onions, green peppers, black olives, green olives, roasted red peppers and our dehydrated tomatoes.
Any veggies are good as long as you get a mix of different tastes and textures..chewy, crunchy, sweet, salty, sour, nutty...and so forth.

I like to dice the veggies pretty small. so the dressing will make them cling to the pasta.

Cook the pasta in salted water (no oil), just until done, but still a bit chewy. Cool completely then toss with veggies.  Add dressing and stir gently.

Stir in parmesan and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Stir before serving and add more dressing (or olive oil and vinegar) if it isn't moist enough.

 We had it for Sunday dinner, along with grilled cheese burgers, assorted grilled sausages with sauteed green peppers and onions, coleslaw, black beans, and cantaloupe chunks. ( There were buns too but they just weren't on the table yet when I took the photo.)

It looks like a lot of meat doesn't it?  These are favorites of my sons I always send a "to go" box home with them.

Chocolate Chip Hazelnut cookies for dessert.

trouble in darlaville

A few months ago, I posted about how we were able to fix our TV by ordering a new "lamp" for it....and that part is still working fine.   But since then these small white dots have been appearing on the screen and multiplying at a fast rate.  There are also black dots, too...that only show up on a light background.  So no matter what you are watching, you will see dots!

I guess that proves that when an older TV starts to go out, it's fruitless to start spending money on repairs.

So we bought a new TV...from Amazon. Free delivery and the driver even unboxed it and made sure it was working.

The manual for the new TV said we would get the very best picture by connecting it to the cable box with an HDMI cable.  I looked at our cable box and it didn't even have an HDMI port.

So, after a call to the cable company, I headed to their office in our town to exchange the box at no charge.

 But, when I got to their office, it was "closed until further notice".  Hmmm. It really looked abandoned. Too bad their phone reps weren't told about this!

So, another call to the cable company and a drive to the next nearest location...about 13 miles away.

I opened the door to see this...

That's what a 40 minute wait looks like!  But everyone was patient and resigned to the wait. The customer service folks were nice and even gave me an HDMI cable along with  the box.

Next, was a stop at Lowes, to get more cable cord, because we decided to rearrange the furniture and move the TV stand.  

Three hours after I left I arrived back home with all these goodies...then more time on the phone with the cable company so they could "activate the box"..

We still need to reroute the cable wiring...holes must be drilled...the cord must be fished through a dark scary crawlspace then threaded up from the basement beside the heat vent.    

There goes at least another three hours!   A fun day ahead..wish us luck!

what I've been reading

This is one of the books I picked up from the library "discard" shelf.  The pages have gotten wet at some point  (I hope it was water), so I thought it would be good for reading by the pool. It wouldn't matter if I drip a little more water on it.

"While Innocents Slept", by Adrian Havill.   It's a true crime story about Garrett Wilson, a man who was convicted of murdering his infant son to collect life insurance money, and is also suspected in the death of his baby daughter, also heavily insured, during a previous marriage. He hasn't been tried for that  crime yet.

These murders took place in the 1980's.  At that time many unexplained deaths of infants and toddlers were blamed on "SIDS" or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, so no detective work or crime scene investigations were carried out. That's what happened in these cases. Autopsies were done but the babies had been healthy and normal. Difficult for the examiner to determine why they stopped breathing so the official cause of death was marked "SIDS".

Strangely enough, although both baby's mothers suspected Wilson of murdering his own offspring, neither of them voiced their suspicions to the authorities. In fact, wife number two stayed married to him for 6 more years.

It wasn't until 10 years after the death of her son that wife number two finally went to the authorities. This was after she learned that Wilson had remarried and had a baby daughter, and she feared that  Wilson might murder his new child.

She had a difficult time getting anyone to take her seriously since she had waited so long, but she was persistent and Wilson was tried and convicted to life in prison without parole.

There are more details in the book to round out the story about  Garrett Wilson's life...his parents, his musical talent, his sales ability, his theft from employers, his knack for charming women and keeping a string of girlfriends...at one point, going away to marry one woman just as another woman was sending out their wedding invitations.  Quite the prize, apparently.

One thing that seems strange to me, is that wife number two claimed not to know about $150,000 in insurance policies on the life of her baby son.  Yet she didn't ask any questions as they spent the money on a new home, vacations, and jewelry.  Surely she must have wondered where the money came from.

This is a pretty good true crime book, but you can just about read the whole sordid story online, so I wouldn't really recommend reading the book.

Especially this particular copy with the wrinkled, mystery-stained pages!

sewing class for kids

A few members of my quilting group, Mt Washington Quilting Bees, organized a free sewing class for kids.

Our group has never done this before so it was a learning experience for us, as well.  Starting out small and simple, it was decided to have a 2 part sewing class...the first one being machine sewing.
Not really trying to teach everything about sewing machines in just a 3 hour class - but more to give the kids a sewing experience and a chance to finish a project.

There were 9 signed up for the class...all girls!

The first project was a pillowcase... lot's of simple straight line stitching. Here are a few of  the finished ones...

My friend, Sandy, had a nice lunch ready for the kids, so we took a break. Then, the afternoon project was sewing a padded coaster (like for drinks).

The young lady I was assisting had brought her own machine. Her grandmother had given it to her but she hadn't sewn on it yet. She had been a little uneasy about using it on her own.

Well she took right to it like a duck takes to water!

She is 11 years old. She told me she really enjoys making all kinds of  things and watches videos online to learn about different kinds of sewing and crafts.

In the photo above, she is working on her coaster, which she planned to give as a gift to her older sister who will be moving away to college next month.  How sweet!

Now, in 2 weeks we will have the second class, which will focus more on hand sewing.  It's really fun working with these girls!