Posts
Rough Ocean
Gulf Shores, AL
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Venison Tenderloin Bites
These Venison Tenderloin bites were DELICIOUS...and would be even better with pepper bacon. Go here for the link to the recipe, and if you have a lot of venison or wild game, ALLRECIPES.COM is a great resource for tried and reviewed recipes for that category, surprisingly!
I so much like reading what those who've tried the recipes have to say about the recipes, it doesn't get much better than that!
The only thing I might change is I would marinate the venison overnight, then I would marinate in the barbecue sauce all day and then would take their recommendation to grill it on the charcoal grill, that would be heavenly!
As it was, I grilled it on the gas grill but added some wet hickory wood chips to smoke it up a little bit in there and it was pretty darn good that way! It left everyone wanting more so I can't wait to make this again. I think venison steak would work for this recipe as well. The bacon does an excellent job of moisturizing the meat.
Venison, for those of you who don't know, is a dry meat because it's so low in fat content. Finding a way to cook it without it being tough (or gamey) is the challenge. But when you find a recipe that really works, you love to share it with other venison eaters!
Enjoy your Saturday!
XOXO
Joni
Friday, November 6, 2009
It's Story Time! A Pet for Peter
A Pet for Peter
another of my collection of Junior Elf Books by Rand-McNally
(LOVE 'EM!)
Circa 1950
(Check the price....15 cents!)
Just can't get enough of these vintage children's story books. They're so much fun to look at: the clothing, the hairstyles, the cars, even the homes. There are politically incorrect pictures, too. Like the one of the farmer with a pipe in his mouth....horrors!
(Can I tell you that when my Uncle Don smoked a pipe, I thought his tobacco smelled WONDERFUL and he had the best tobacco-toned voice ever, I could listen to it all day long!)
I thought today was a perfect day to share this story with you, so enjoy!
another of my collection of Junior Elf Books by Rand-McNally
(LOVE 'EM!)
Circa 1950
(Check the price....15 cents!)
Just can't get enough of these vintage children's story books. They're so much fun to look at: the clothing, the hairstyles, the cars, even the homes. There are politically incorrect pictures, too. Like the one of the farmer with a pipe in his mouth....horrors!
(Can I tell you that when my Uncle Don smoked a pipe, I thought his tobacco smelled WONDERFUL and he had the best tobacco-toned voice ever, I could listen to it all day long!)
I thought today was a perfect day to share this story with you, so enjoy!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Thirfty Thursday: Jackpot!
Edwin M. Knowles China Co.
Made in U.S.A.
428
It was a good day at Salvation Army...you know how I am about bowls!
I am just lovin' this yellowed and crazed crackly bowl, it just makes me smile!
It was $6 to begin with, but anything dated more than two weeks old in their "collectibles showcase" is 20% off, so I paid $4.80. I didn't know that about the dates and the discount, so now I will be a wiser shopper.
I found a couple more things, but I can't show you because they're going to be gifts! I'll show you after they've been given to the recipients. I just KNOW that they're going to love my finds!
(Now, if I just remember where I put them when it's time to do the wrapping!)
Tomorrow? Another Vintage Children's Book for
STORY TIME!
XOXO
Joni
Made in U.S.A.
428
It was a good day at Salvation Army...you know how I am about bowls!
I am just lovin' this yellowed and crazed crackly bowl, it just makes me smile!
It was $6 to begin with, but anything dated more than two weeks old in their "collectibles showcase" is 20% off, so I paid $4.80. I didn't know that about the dates and the discount, so now I will be a wiser shopper.
I found a couple more things, but I can't show you because they're going to be gifts! I'll show you after they've been given to the recipients. I just KNOW that they're going to love my finds!
(Now, if I just remember where I put them when it's time to do the wrapping!)
Tomorrow? Another Vintage Children's Book for
STORY TIME!
XOXO
Joni
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
The Holocaust Memorial Center
| “ | Our starting point is not the individual: We do not subscribe to the view that one should feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, or clothe the naked … Our objectives are different: We must have a healthy people in order to prevail in the world. | ” |
| —Joseph Goebbels, 1938 | ||
That same day we visited IKEA, (my son, my sister and her daughter and I) visited the Holocaust Museum.
It was a moving experience. No admission is charged. It is a very quiet place, and rightfully so.
NO cameras are allowed, all cell phones were to be turned off. That fits with the solemn and respectful occasion that visiting this museum is.
The building was made to look industrial and that is to make one recall the buildings (specially built and put up fast by the Jews!) in which they gassed the millions.
The REASON FOR GAS, we learned, is that shooting and killing massive amounts of humans proved to be a dirty, messy, "demeaning" and stressful job for those in the SS that were required to do it.
So, a faster, cleaner method of killing the unwanted people had to be devised. It's appalling how fast this method came to be, and how quickly those buildings were put up!
(I cannot imagine the meetings that took place discussing the best method to do away with this "messy" mass killing.)
There are railroad tracks out front that remind us of the trainloads of Jews that were driven to their miserable existence (and most likely their deaths from hard labor and slavery) packed in those boxcars like sardines, treated worse than animals. Inside the museum was a replica of a train car they would have traveled in. We saw photos of long, terrible marches that took place in the dead of winter where many of those didn't make it to their horrible destination, they died on the way.
It's not an pleasant trip, but very educational, and sobering. I'm not sure if our schools even teach about the holocaust in any great depth any more, but they should, absolutely.
(Those words chilled me to the bone.)
You want to hope it doesn't, but it shows the nature of man to want to BLAME someone or some race for their "troubles", and it proves what can happen when too much power is invested in one man and his radical, wrong ideas. It shows how far off track we can get when we follow along in a MOVEMENT and stray from our long-held beliefs and fail to keep our eye on the compass of TRUTH.
You can do a self-guided tour, or you can wait until a docent can guide you through, one time of the day. Then, toward the end of each day a holocaust survivor comes in to talk to groups that have finished their tour.
Now, sadly, we did not get there at the proper time for the docent, nor that day did a survivor show up. BUT...I would highly recommend using both the docent and making sure a survivor would be on hand to answer questions.
It was a moving experience, especially for our kids. I don't think they ever realized HOW MANY people went to die in such huge numbers. Some of the photos were hard to look at, the cruelty too much to comprehend.
Most touching was the wall on our way out that listed each and every site (in MANY countries!) where the Jews were killed and how many in each camp and how many in each country. It was unreal. At this monument was an eternal flame.
The kids also could stand and listen to recorded firsthand stories of children (now quite elderly) that were separated from their parents and their whole families to be rescued by families in England.
There was a wall of responsibility from which we learned how news organizations and respected institutions were held up to scrutiny for their refusal to acknowledge that this was happening and tell the story of the torture, experiments and mass slaughter taking place all over Europe. There was a place to read about the deliberate blind eye turned to the reality of this happening by those around the world, including the press, world and religious leaders, and yes, even the United States turned their backs on this for a long, long time.
A very sobering experience this was, but one that is especially meaningful. Our kids learned about the harvesting of fillings from the teeth, the scientific experiments performed live on these victims, their dissections after their deaths, and the way the people were starved and worked to death, and then stacked like cord wood when they were starved, sick or too weak to live any longer. It's raw, emotional and it was REAL.
It is an experience that shows what can happen when APATHY takes over a country. It is a place that reminds us that INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS are always the first to go in a direction that takes us where we DO NOT WANT TO BE AND SHOULD NOT GO.
First they were labeled, then limited to the ghetto, they had curfew, told what jobs they could and could not do, who they could and could not interact with. From there it moved on to the unthinkable, and it was ALL VERY FAST in about the space of fifteen years or less from inception to liberation.
If you have a Holocaust Museum near you, visit it, take your children, I think you will be glad you did. Our kids experience while there was very emotional for them, but at almost 13 and almost 14, I think they were ready for the reality of what happened.
It was a moving experience. No admission is charged. It is a very quiet place, and rightfully so.
NO cameras are allowed, all cell phones were to be turned off. That fits with the solemn and respectful occasion that visiting this museum is.
The building was made to look industrial and that is to make one recall the buildings (specially built and put up fast by the Jews!) in which they gassed the millions.
The REASON FOR GAS, we learned, is that shooting and killing massive amounts of humans proved to be a dirty, messy, "demeaning" and stressful job for those in the SS that were required to do it.
So, a faster, cleaner method of killing the unwanted people had to be devised. It's appalling how fast this method came to be, and how quickly those buildings were put up!
(I cannot imagine the meetings that took place discussing the best method to do away with this "messy" mass killing.)
There are railroad tracks out front that remind us of the trainloads of Jews that were driven to their miserable existence (and most likely their deaths from hard labor and slavery) packed in those boxcars like sardines, treated worse than animals. Inside the museum was a replica of a train car they would have traveled in. We saw photos of long, terrible marches that took place in the dead of winter where many of those didn't make it to their horrible destination, they died on the way.
It's not an pleasant trip, but very educational, and sobering. I'm not sure if our schools even teach about the holocaust in any great depth any more, but they should, absolutely.
And as one of the sweet elderly ladies we visited with in the museum gift shop said to our children,
'IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN."
'IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN."
(Those words chilled me to the bone.)
You want to hope it doesn't, but it shows the nature of man to want to BLAME someone or some race for their "troubles", and it proves what can happen when too much power is invested in one man and his radical, wrong ideas. It shows how far off track we can get when we follow along in a MOVEMENT and stray from our long-held beliefs and fail to keep our eye on the compass of TRUTH.
You can do a self-guided tour, or you can wait until a docent can guide you through, one time of the day. Then, toward the end of each day a holocaust survivor comes in to talk to groups that have finished their tour.
Now, sadly, we did not get there at the proper time for the docent, nor that day did a survivor show up. BUT...I would highly recommend using both the docent and making sure a survivor would be on hand to answer questions.
It was a moving experience, especially for our kids. I don't think they ever realized HOW MANY people went to die in such huge numbers. Some of the photos were hard to look at, the cruelty too much to comprehend.
Most touching was the wall on our way out that listed each and every site (in MANY countries!) where the Jews were killed and how many in each camp and how many in each country. It was unreal. At this monument was an eternal flame.
The kids also could stand and listen to recorded firsthand stories of children (now quite elderly) that were separated from their parents and their whole families to be rescued by families in England.
There was a wall of responsibility from which we learned how news organizations and respected institutions were held up to scrutiny for their refusal to acknowledge that this was happening and tell the story of the torture, experiments and mass slaughter taking place all over Europe. There was a place to read about the deliberate blind eye turned to the reality of this happening by those around the world, including the press, world and religious leaders, and yes, even the United States turned their backs on this for a long, long time.
A very sobering experience this was, but one that is especially meaningful. Our kids learned about the harvesting of fillings from the teeth, the scientific experiments performed live on these victims, their dissections after their deaths, and the way the people were starved and worked to death, and then stacked like cord wood when they were starved, sick or too weak to live any longer. It's raw, emotional and it was REAL.
It is an experience that shows what can happen when APATHY takes over a country. It is a place that reminds us that INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS are always the first to go in a direction that takes us where we DO NOT WANT TO BE AND SHOULD NOT GO.
First they were labeled, then limited to the ghetto, they had curfew, told what jobs they could and could not do, who they could and could not interact with. From there it moved on to the unthinkable, and it was ALL VERY FAST in about the space of fifteen years or less from inception to liberation.
If you have a Holocaust Museum near you, visit it, take your children, I think you will be glad you did. Our kids experience while there was very emotional for them, but at almost 13 and almost 14, I think they were ready for the reality of what happened.
“ We heard a loud voice repeating the same words in English and in German: "Hello, hello. You are free. We are British soldiers and have come to liberate you." These words still resound in my ears. ”
—Hadassah Rosensaft, inmate of Bergen-Belsen
—Hadassah Rosensaft, inmate of Bergen-Belsen
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Pine Hollow Lodge: Bright & Beachy Dining & Sitting Room!
Here's another installment on the Pine Hollow Lodge series. I know it's been a long time coming! In the lodge, there are several rooms that are cottage-look. Mary decided a long time ago she didn't want a whole house full of the lodge look.
I think you are just going to love my sister's bright and beachy dining room and sitting area. Mary has a talent for the whimsical and themed room. This is one of the original rooms in the old part of the lodge. It used to have knotty pine paneling on the lower half of the walls, and it actually still does, it's just that she painted it after many years, when she got really weary of the natural wood look. It accomplished what she wanted and it lightened up the whole room. I think it helps her furnishings to pop as well.
One of my favorite pieces here, shown below is the buffet, painted white with a few beachy accents on top. I also love her slip covered couch, and she made those pillows in bright colors for accent we found the fabric at Ben Franklin one day when we were shopping together.
Below and in the photo up top you can see a table she had specially made, and it seems as long as a bowling lane, made of a really nice 2" hunk of gorgeous oak. It will seat ten comfortably and is handy when her married kids head home for the holidays.
The dining room furniture (and the legs for the table) are from a castoff dining set someone else didn't want. She had it painted, used the legs for the oak top and then used chairs from her old dining set to completely fill in around the table. They work well because the wood from the tabletop ties them in.
I think you are just going to love my sister's bright and beachy dining room and sitting area. Mary has a talent for the whimsical and themed room. This is one of the original rooms in the old part of the lodge. It used to have knotty pine paneling on the lower half of the walls, and it actually still does, it's just that she painted it after many years, when she got really weary of the natural wood look. It accomplished what she wanted and it lightened up the whole room. I think it helps her furnishings to pop as well.
One of my favorite pieces here, shown below is the buffet, painted white with a few beachy accents on top. I also love her slip covered couch, and she made those pillows in bright colors for accent we found the fabric at Ben Franklin one day when we were shopping together.
Below and in the photo up top you can see a table she had specially made, and it seems as long as a bowling lane, made of a really nice 2" hunk of gorgeous oak. It will seat ten comfortably and is handy when her married kids head home for the holidays.
The dining room furniture (and the legs for the table) are from a castoff dining set someone else didn't want. She had it painted, used the legs for the oak top and then used chairs from her old dining set to completely fill in around the table. They work well because the wood from the tabletop ties them in.
I particularly love how she mixes cobalt blue, red, white, and a robin's egg blue, and a sprinkles in a smidgen of periwinkle. They look wonderful together and you notice the pop of color in the china cabinet and the beautiful cobalt blue pulls and knobs.
Behind the screen doors are the mechanical areas: her home has no basement, so these doors look so good and replaced bifold closet doors. Mary made the curtains in the doors and also crafted the twig chair on the left during a class she took nearby! On the chair are one of her bags she embellished with yo-yo's she enjoys stitching.
And here in this little corner is a themed display, she's a collector extraordinaire and throughout the house are many themed collections!
In one corner is an old leaded glass window that pops against the blue walls, below sits an oak table and some ice-cream parlor style chairs.
Mary is especially talented at her whimsical displays...and this is one of many that is gorgeous.
She added her touch to the lifeguard lamp: red rickrack! And a Pottery Barn retro fan buzzes coolly and quietly to lull you into reading a relaxing novel.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Venison Tenderloin Bites
These Venison Tenderloin bites were DELICIOUS...and would be even better with pepper bacon. Go here for the link to the recipe, and if you have a lot of venison or wild game, ALLRECIPES.COM is a great resource for tried and reviewed recipes for that category, surprisingly!
I so much like reading what those who've tried the recipes have to say about the recipes, it doesn't get much better than that!
The only thing I might change is I would marinate the venison overnight, then I would marinate in the barbecue sauce all day and then would take their recommendation to grill it on the charcoal grill, that would be heavenly!
As it was, I grilled it on the gas grill but added some wet hickory wood chips to smoke it up a little bit in there and it was pretty darn good that way! It left everyone wanting more so I can't wait to make this again. I think venison steak would work for this recipe as well. The bacon does an excellent job of moisturizing the meat.
Venison, for those of you who don't know, is a dry meat because it's so low in fat content. Finding a way to cook it without it being tough (or gamey) is the challenge. But when you find a recipe that really works, you love to share it with other venison eaters!
Enjoy your Saturday!
XOXO
Joni
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