Branson

This year, we came to Branson, Missouri for vacation. We got this really cheap deal on a hotel, if we agreed to go tour the Big Cedar Lodge, owned by Bass Pro, and listen to their spill on their timeshare. More on that in a minute.

The drive up here was beautiful, lots of amazing views and mountains. The kids get so excited when they see mountains. My ears struggled a little with the last part of the drive, but nothing too bad. Then we took the exit to get to our hotel and were slammed head first into Tourist Trap, USA. Everywhere you turn, there are huge signs advertising shows, big parks with go-cart tracks and putt-putt golf, novelty shops, old-time photo shops, tourist traps, tourist traps, tourist traps. You almost forget that you are in the middle of these gorgeous mountains. I have to say, I did know about all the shows available, but I was not prepared for the Las Vegas-style setup of things. And can I just say, I could see the uncertainty creeping into Richard's face as we sought out our hotel among all of the chaos. So, we finally arrive to our hotel and get checked in around 4pm. We decide we want to go eat dinner and randomly pick a place out of the coupon book the timeshare people had given us upon check in. We went to this place called Fall Creek...famous for throwing hot rolls at you from across the dining room. Doesn't that sound charming and appealing and you want to drive there right now to eat? Well, dont. The food was really overpriced for the quality. Not to mention, they have guys that take your picture and put it in a cute frame and then come back to sell your likeness back to you. Or the guy that comes and asks your children if they would like for him to draw a picture of them made up as their favorite super-hero or pop-star and then look at you and say, "that will be $10 per child". It was hard for me to be nice after the 3rd stop he made by our table to see if we had "made up our minds" when I had made it very clear what my mind was thinking the first time around. So, we left that meal unsatisfied and set back about $85.

We took the kids from there to this little putt-putt place, spent $40 and got to do 2 things before our credits were all used. So, then we decided to bring them back to the room and go to the hotel pool. I cringe at the thought of all the kids that were in that pool. We let them play for about 45 minutes, which was as long as I could stand, and then made them come back and take showers and go to bed.

So, first day down and I was disappointed. We didn't really know what to do for the next day that wasn't going to totally blow our budget for the vacation. We had also made reservations for the next night at the Dixie Stampede, which is owned by Dolly Parton (who Brian keeps calling Paula Deen which just makes me laugh). That was almost $200 for the 4 of us to go, but did include a meal we were told. So we did some asking around and finally decided to go visit the Talking Rock Caverns. We got up early yesterday and had breakfast in the hotel, which was pretty good, and then headed out to the Caverns. We had to wait for our tour time and decided to take a short hike around the property they had marked off. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had known about the history of the caverns before we went on the hike. Anyway, we returned in time to go down in the caverns, and what an amazing sight that was! The kids thought it was the coolest thing and listened to every word that the guide said. The whole tour took about an hour. We left there and grabbed a quick bite at the Sonic that was on the main road and headed back through the Tourist Strip to go to our tour at Big Cedar.

Can I just say, pulling into that resort was like entering another land. It was beautiful! Gorgeous views, the facilities were clean and beautiful. No flashing signs anywhere advertising shows or tattoo parlors. We were there for about 4 hours and had fallen in love with the place, and all the others they showed us in the presentation. I don't think either of us were expecting to feel the way we did about the timeshare idea. I had always just sort of attached the idea of timeshare with old people that stayed at condos on the beach. This was something totally different and the flexibility and affordability of the program was really impressive. Anyway, we know are owners of a timeshare. We are looking forward to getting to use it, we've all ready planned to come stay for our anniversary in November. So, we left the peace and serenity there and had to come back to the Tourist Trap part of Branson. It was mildly depressing and I'm not convinced they don't put you up here to show you what your "options" are. It worked.

We had just enough time to get cleaned up and head to our show at the Dixie Stampede. I will say that we thoroughly enjoyed the show, after getting through the 3 sets of pictures they make you take (which they present to you in the dark of the show and ask you to pay $20 each. I was not friendly with that guy either). The kids loved it and participated to the fullest. They divide up into seating sections, one for the "North" and one for the "South". We had requested the South, but were seated in the North. Apparantly, lots of people request the South. But, you know, the North did win, so I guess it wasn't too bad being over there. One thing we had heard about and prepared ourselves for was the lack of utensils in the place. You eat the food with your hands. Now, everything is finger-friendly food for the most part, except you have to drink your soup. Which was probably my favorite part of the meal. Brian devoured every part of his except the soup. He has texture issues and won't eat anything that isn't solid and has a crust or skin on it. Unless it's pasta with butter. Then he'll eat his weight in it.

Anyway, today we are headed to Silver Dollar City and I'm hoping it will be fun. I'm going to whack anyone that tries to take our pictures. Or kick them in their shin. They will get the point.

To be continued....

Ruth Terral Squyres Chili Sauce (or Tomato Relish, whatever name you prefer)

Chili Sauce...Tomato Relish...a little taste of heaven...whatever you like to call it, it's just plain good. Granny (AKA Ruth Terral Squyres) used to make this tomato relish and we would use it over purple hull peas or butter beans, my favorite is on peas with some cornbread.

First a little disclaimer...I am positive there is more than one way to do canning. I did this the way my Mama told me to do it, like any good daughter should. The whole event entailed more than one phone call to her or to my Aunt Fannie (AKA the best cook in the family) to ask for advice. I've never tried to do any canning or preserves until today, and was quite intimidated by the idea, but all in all, I have to say, it wasn't too bad. I'm really quite proud of myself and the product. We'll see if anyone else is!

Ok, on to the recipe. You need the following ingredients for one batch, although, I doubled the recipe and came out with 19 1pt jars. Which is a nice amount for keeping some for yourself and rationing out the rest to needy, begging family members. Ok, back to the ingredients..you need:

1/4 bushel ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped. ( this is about 10 medium-large tomatoes, if you aren't sure, ask the person you are buying them from. Do not use Hot House tomatoes!!!)
2 cups white vinegar
1 cup water
1 cup sugar (or more if you like it sweeter, you can adjust as you go)
4-6 vidalia onions, chopped finely
2-3 large green bell peppers, chopped finely
3 hot chili peppers, chopped finely (you can seed them for less heat)
salt and pepper to taste

And this is how I did it:

Rinse the tomatoes off....

Chop them up!

Chop the bell peppers...my cute hubby was helping with this task...

Put all these chopped veggies into a large heavy duty stockpot, I used my Mama's 12 quart Magnalite stockpot. Again, I had doubled this recipe, so if you are doing one recipe, you won't need quite as large a pot, just make sure it's heavy duty. You don't want to scorch the bottom.

Chop the onions. I have to admit, I'm a weenie and used a food processor for this part. It was much faster and my sinuses thanked me afterwards.

Add 1 cup white vinegar. ( I did 2, since I was making double recipe)

Add 1 cup sugar (again, I did 2 since I was doubling the recipe). This is something that will be to your taste, as well. Some people like thier relish sweeter than others. I prefer mine sweet with a little heat. I ended up adding about another cup of sugar as it cooked.

Add salt to taste....

My general rule of thumb when a recipe says "to taste" is to sprinkle over the entire surface of the pot, stir well, wait about 10 minutes and taste and then add as needed, following the same procedure each time.

Do the same with the pepper....

Wash and then finely chop about 3 chiles and add to the pot. I'll show you what I did with the rest in a little bit.

Let cook 3-4 hours over a medium-low heat, stirring frequently (like every 5-10 minutes), making sure to stir all the way at the bottom of the pot.

You will sterilize your jars while this is all cooking. I did mine in the dishwasher on the hot wash and heat dry setting. Works perfectly. Let them heat dry in the dishwasher and then take them out and get them set up on the counter ready for service. Make sure the rims and lids are all clean and dry when you get ready to seal. You will want to have a canning funnel, or a funnel that has a larger opening, but not larger than the mouth of your jars. I couldn't find one at the stores, so I just cut the bottom out of a regular plastic funnel that I had on hand all ready, and it worked fine. Once your relish is cooked and ready for jarring, start dishing it up into the jars. I used my Pyrex 1 cup measuring cup to do this. And, FYI, you will want a second pair of hands to help you out with this step. One person to do the pouring into jars, another to wipe the mouth of the jar and place the lids on. Pour the relish into each jar to the curve of the mouth, and make sure the rim is clean. Place the flat lid on, and then the screw lid, but don't screw it on tight yet. You will wait until the jar has sealed and the lid has "popped" before sealing the screw-on lid completely. This could take an hour or so. Be patient.

Once completed, I had 19 1 pint jars of relish.

See? Isn't it the prettiest thing you've ever seen? Granny would be so proud of me.

Now, get you some labels and write the name and date of the product on it and stick to the jar once it has cooled completely. Save plenty for yourself and then share with the people you love, or share with the people you hate so they will hate you for knowing how to make this wonderful stuff. 

Now...for those leftover chiles...

Take an empty bottle, we used an empty 750ml Tequila bottle that somehow appeared at our house. Make sure it is clean and dry. Take those chiles and trim off the stems. You want enough to fill the bottle up to the stem.  Next, boil about 2 1/2 cups of white vinegar. Once boiling, use a funnel and pour the boiling vinegar into the bottle. Put the lid on, but don't seal completely until cooled. You will have a beautiful bottle of pepper sauce that will look like this:

Pepper sauce is great over anything...fried fish, french fries, turnip greens, peas...anything. When you start running low, you can just boil more vingar and add it to the bottle. The peppers will continue to infuse the vinegar for a LONG time. I've known people to use the same peppers for more than a year.

Now, let me spend some time talking about my Granny. Granny came to live with us shortly after my grandfather died. I can't remember Granny not living with us. A very large portion of my childhood, I shared a bedroom with Granny. She was beautiful and knew all of my secrets. I learned lots of life's lessons from her and will forever treasure and be thankful for having the blessing of her in my life. I'm not sure my mother knows how thankful we are that she came to live with us, but I think she has an inkling. Granny could tell a simple story that seemed like a fairy tale. She would laugh and throw her head back and put her hand on her chest, she laughed with everything she had. I remember Granny as being a lady, prim and proper, and respectful.

I remember when Granny got sick with cancer, I think many of us were in denial that it was happening, even though we were a part of her daily care and were witnessing her health decline. Somedays it just doesn't seem real that she is gone. She died in February 1997, about a year and a half before I married Richard. He knew her briefly, and most of that time she was sick. Each time he came to the house was like the first time she had met him. I remember laying on her bed one day, about 3 weeks before she died, and telling her that I knew I was going to marry him. She just smiled and patted my head.

I think of all of her great-grandchildren that she has yet to meet, that would have kept her in stitches. When I look at Rachel and Brian and think of Granny, I remember all the times I laid on the bed with her listening to stories, laughing and crying, and thinking of how she would have loved my kids. All of the great-grand kids. I'm thankful to know that the 2 babies I have in heaven are in her presence. 

I see my children with my mother and with Richard's mother, and see so much of that same relationship between them and realize that they have something just as special. What a blessing!!!

Even more so, I am so thankful to know that one day, I will see my beautiful, healthy grandparents in heaven, and what a day of rejoicing that will be!!!  

Fear

Frozen in terror. Panic-stricken. Scared stiff. All of those things applied to me when I woke up this morning at 2am to see a man standing next to my bed (and MY man was laying in bed next to me). He had his back to me and as my heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest and kung fu chop him, I couldn't bring myself to speak or to move.
Finally the man made a noise...

....that sounded an awful lot like my 6 year old daughter Rachel.

I thought I was going to pass out. Rachel was standing on the side of my bed, on the bedrails. Which happened to make her much taller than she really is. She was also holding her bundle of blankets that are a must-have for her to sleep. Which made her appear much bulkier than she really is.

I had those few moments of uncertainty that were full of terror, where I was convinced I was about to be bludgeoned to death in my bed by some man that was staring at the lamp on my nightstand, and then realized it was just my daughter needing to be comforted by her own bad dream. Relief flooded over me, then that feeling of loving being a mom and being needed by my baby when she wanted comforting.

Lying there afterwards, trying to get my heart back to a normal rate of beating, I thought about how often in life I see a situation that at first seems of certain disaster and spend those moments of panic and fear of how I'm going to handle the problem...rather than my instinct being to turn to God and rely on His protection and grace and provision. My daugther's first instinct in her time of fear was to run to me, her protector and provider, because she knew I would be there to do that for her. My first instinct was to figure out how in the world I was going to grab the baseball bat by my nightstand with this man standing right next to it at the same time.

My prayer is that I will continue to grow in my faith, and hand over my fears to God. He has gotten me through so many different problems and fears in my lifetime, and I still try to keep control of things myself. I can say that is human nature, but we are called to give these things over to God, which tells me that if we are of Him, if we have Jesus and the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we are capable of living up to that calling.

Psalm 4:8 "I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."

Isaiah 41:10 "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

Amen.

I though pheremones are supposed to make you feel good???

So...I'm back on the wagon. The exercise wagon, that is. I started again this morning with Jillian Michael's 30-Day Shred. I've decided I hate Jillian Michaels. Jillian Michaels is not my friend. She made me do things I did not want to do and I am feeling it afterwards. I think it's a safe bet that I'm going to have trouble moving tomorrow. But, I'm pretty sure I'll get up and do it all again anyway.

Melissa's Shrimp and Crab Fettucinni

Melissa’s Shrimp and Crab Fettuccini




1 pkg fettuccini

1 stick unsalted butter

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 small pkg mushrooms, chopped

½ large red onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 ½ cups pinot grigio, or other white wine

2 cups heavy whipping cream

3 Tbsp Old Bay

1 lb raw shrimp, peeled

8 oz back fin crab meat

½ cup Grated Gruyere Cheese

½ cup Grated Fontina Cheese

½ cup Grated Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese



Cook Fettuccini according to package directions, drain and set aside. Melt butter in large Dutch oven. Sautee bell pepper, mushrooms, onion and garlic until tender, about 5-7 minutes. Slowly add wine, whipping cream and Old Bay, stirring constantly. Let simmer for about 4-5 minutes, stirring often. Add shrimp and crab meat, stirring well to combine. Let simmer until the shrimp are pink and done. Add cheeses and stir well. Let simmer 5-7 minutes until cheese is melted, stirring occasionally. Mix in fettuccini. Serve with garlic bread and green salad and a big glass of Pinot Grigio (or whatever wine you cooked with). YUM.

Summertime....

Yay for vacation!!! We just returned from a mini-vacation with some of our very good friends. My sweet friend Becky and I have known each other since 1984 and have been friends ever since. Her husband and my husband went to high school together and were college roommates, and when Richard and I started dating, she and Courtney soon followed suit. We've all been together ever since, they just celebrated their 12th anniversary in April and Richard and I will have our 12th in November. Anywho....we travelled to Lake Cheaha State Park in Alabama's Talladega National Forest. It was breathtakingly beautiful there. God's hands were seriously at work when he created this place.  Here's a few pics from the weekend....

Me and my sweet husband...

Me, Sweet Hubs, and Precious Kids...

Father and Son moment...

can't help but love him...

me and my sweet friend...Queens of the Mountain!

this was a little nerve-wracking for me!

So, the weekend was full of fun stuff and of course, lots of yummy food. The men kept us fed with grilled burgers, steaks and chicken each night throughout the weekend and Becky and I took turns cooking breakfast. The first morning, Becky made a fabulous breakfast casserole full of tasty ingredients and the next morning I made pancakes, courtesy of the Pioneer Woman's recipe, always tasty! We did 3 different hiking trails, each a different level of difficulty and with equally amazing views of the area. The kids spent the evenings catching lightening bugs and playing tag. It was really nice to see them let go of the idea of TV and video games for a weekend and really embrace the options. They all got along the entire weekend, which made it even better!

The last afternoon there, we decided to take them out to the lake (which was really just a big pond) to go swimming. It was a nice area with a beach and a marked off swimming area where the water never got higher than waist deep. They had an additional area for swimming that was deeper and there was a floating pier that the braver big kids were jumping off into the water doing all kinds of somersaults that made me nervous. Becky and I were happy our kids didn't go over there. We were just getting ready to start heading back to the cabins when we noticed alot of commotion going on over in that deeper area and there were atleast 15-20 men that kept diving under as if they were looking for something. Quickly we realized they were searching for a person and after about 10 minutes of diving, they found the man and got him up onto one of the paddle boats they had out there. Those 15-20 men swam and pushed that boat over to the pier where a couple of people took turns performing CPR on this man. Tragically, they were unable to revive him. I think I can speak for myself, Richard, Becky and Courtney when I say, this was the last thing we expected to witness over the weekend and certainly was the last thing we wanted our kids to see. When we were finally able to leave the park area (the entrance/exit was blocked with park ranger and emergency worker vehicles), we were heavy-hearted and a little in shock of what we had just seen. We've yet to find out all the facts, but what we gathered from the other bystanders was that they believe the man had a heart attack while swimming. He was 54 years old. The rest of our evening was bittersweet, as we tried to enjoy our last night together as our thoughts kept returning to what we had seen.

All in all, for many reasons, this will be a vacation that we will never forget. We returned home counting our blessings and thankful for the time we'd been given to spend with each other. When we got home, we had to take our son straight to check in for his first time ever at church camp. (Sobs from me...) I can't believe my little man is old enough to be at an overnight camp for a whole week! I can't wait to hear about all of his experiences and friends that he makes this week. I have to admit, I had a hard time leaving my baby there after what we'd seen happen this weekend, but I have no doubt God's protection is around him and each of the campers there.

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July, and took time to be thankful for our independence and for the salvation that we are free to enjoy!