Faith, Folklore, and Friends

Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman, is one of my favorite cooks.  I have found that combining some of her recipes with Paula Deen's recipes can make some tasty food. On Sunday afternoon, I made the Pioneer Woman's  Seven Can Soup  .  It is super easy to make and so good. These are the cans of food I used:  Chili Beans (she used Pinto beans; I didn't have any in the house), black beans, corn, kidney beans, 2 cans tomatoes with peppers, and a can of Chili with no beans. Open the cans and dump them in a pot. How hard is that? Keep dumping. Stir it all together.  Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer at least fifteen minutes. Just before it is done, add about eight ounces of Velvetta cheese.  If you are a cheese snob and refuse to use Velvetta, you can use whatever you desire.  By the way, we paid $5.99 for two pounds of Velvetta; we bought 2 pounds of good cheddar for $4.99 at Sams. Velvetta is no longer cheap cheese, u...

One part of the Christmas From the Past celebration was an hour-long presentation called Stories From the Past.   This part was sponsored by the Smoky Mountain Historical Society, and several members talked about their memories.  This year, one of the panel members was Herbert Clabo.  Y'all remember Herb  from last year. Herb Clabo was born on April  3, 1911, and is looking forward to his 104th birthday.  He has two pieces of advice for living a long life: watch what goes down the red lane (what you eat) and stay away from doctors. He said he doesn't smoke, cuss, or chew, and accepted the Lord when he was fifteen, and all that helps, too. His memory was amazing, although he got a little confused with some of the questions (who doesn't?).  He told about killing a bear that had killed a calf they were raising for their winter beef.  He said they had to have something to eat, and he shot that bear right below the eye with a shotgun. He was...

The only squirrels we saw when we were children was on the eating table, fried or surrounded by dumplings.  The squirrels respected my daddy's shotgun enough to stay hidden in the woods.  Nowadays,  they are everywhere.  It is a constant battle with the bird feeders, one that I have lost up 'til now, but hope springs eternal.  I usually try not to get too steamed up about it, but they have made me fighting mad this time. We live in a subdivision, with a lot that is roughly .6 acre.  After room for the house, the driveway, and the front yard, we have very little space to garden.  We have to carefully decide what we are going to grow to make the most of our tiny space.  We don't have enough to share with squirrels.   Above, you can see they took a tomato and discarded it after a few bites; maybe they didn't like it quite so green.   This year, we decided to plant three small rows of corn, looking forward to a freezer s...