Faith, Folklore, and Friends

Yesterday was cold, raw, and cloudy; the perfect day for chicken noodle soup.  Some of you asked how I made it, so here goes:   Boil four large chicken thighs until tender and shred them.  Use enough seasoned water to have at least eight cups of broth. There is no rule saying you have to use thighs, it was just what I had.  Any chicken will do. Add about a cup of celery and carrots, chopped fine.  They don't have to be this fine, but chopping veggies is a stress reliever for me, so I just keep chopping.  I used purple onion here because I had some left over from another dish.  I usually use yellow onions, but I'm all about using what's in the frig.  There was about 1/2 cup of the onion; you can use more or less.  As you can see, this recipe can be adjusted very easily. Half a stick of butter.  Butter, only!  Don't be using that other stuff. Melt it the bottom of a heavy pot on medium heat. ...

One day several years ago, I had my head down in a basket of old books at Loaves and Fishes when I heard someone call my name.  It was my friend, Janet, there to look for books, too.  I met Janet when we both did the Alabama Master's Gardening Program in 1999. We visited for a while, and Janet told me about this wonderful book store she had found in Chattanooga named McKay Books.  I couldn't wait until the next time we would be in Chattanooga to check it out. If you read this blog regularly, you know that we love the Smoky Mountains and go there every time we can.  Now, we have to stop at McKay's when we go through Chattanooga; it is just part of the trip.  When we finish reading a book, unless it is a keeper, it goes into the "McKay's" bag and we take them to trade for other books. For some strange reason, it takes a little longer for me to look for books that it does for Hub.  Last time we were there, he went upstairs and shot these ...

  Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. ~Matthew 5:4

If you are rambling just over the Alabama line to Loretta, Tennessee, you might want to stop and get some lunch at the Coca-Cola Palace. Meat and three, cornbread, and drink for $7.00.  Yes, mac and cheese is a vegetable here.     Nothing fancy, but a beautiful old building I think you will enjoy.

Ruling Days is the traditional idea that the twelve days of Christmas are predictors for the twelve months coming up in the new year.  According to Google, this time is also called Kingdomtide, although I have never heard it called that around here. The first day of Christmas here was sunny but cold, which will probably be what we get in January.  Today has started the same way, too cold for me, but it could very well be what our February will be like.  It has been more than half a century, but I can clearly remember my Grandma Gean standing in front of her big wall calendar, the one that Rexall Drug Store gave her for free, and recording the weather conditions for each day during the twelve days of Christmas.  I can remember her referring back to it: "Well, June is supposed to be extra rainy, according to the Ruling Days." I wish Grandma was here to scoff at our weather satellites and the latest digital radar.  Her ruling days predictions wor...

Today's blog is a Christmas story written by Renea Winchester .  Renea graciously shared this story as her Christmas gift to us.  Enjoy, and please check out Renea's website and books.        A Hardscrabble Christmas Stories from a Georgia Sharecropper As told by: Billy Albertson Written by: Renea Winchester In the late 1930s, strip malls didn’t exist in rural America. There were no Secret Santa’s, no Elf on a Shelf, no white elephant gift exchanges; but Christmas came nonetheless. Born to Egbert Tabor Albertson and Ola Belle Etris Albertson on March 31, 1932, Billy Albertson knew about hard work and hard times. Christmas trees weren’t purchased from a commercial grower. Finding a tree was a family affair. “Momma and Poppa and us kids lit out in search of a tree. After everyone decided on the right one, Poppa chopped it down with an axe and we drug it home. Didn’t cut one till the week before Christmas, lest the pine needles dried out and fell ...

 It was a cold, cold day when we started over the mountains week before last, but the sun was bright, a sharp contrast to the three previous days of dark and rain.  Our plan was to drive to Cataloochee, a mountain community that is now an elk reserve.  Just past the Oconaluftee  Visitor  Center, we saw sixteen female elk in a meadow right beside the road. They didn't seem to fear us, but just kept calmly grazing, although there were several of us who had stopped to admire them.  Later, we drove through Cherokee and Maggie Valley on winding roads to get to Cataloochee.  It took us about an hour from Cherokee, and some of the roads were one lane with two-way traffic, which means if you meet someone, one of you has to back up until there is room to pass. Fortunately, it was a cold day in December and there was very little traffic.  I wondered if it would be worth it when we got there. ...