Thursday? Ok I'll give You Three!

"Only amateurs say that they write for their own amusement. Writing is not an amusing occupation. It is a combination of ditch-digging, mountain-climbing, treadmill and childbirth. But amusing? Never."
~Edna Ferber

"Photography to the amateur is recreation, to the professional it is work, and hard work too, no matter how pleasurable it my be."
~Edward Weston

"Do not quit. You see, the most constant state of an artist is uncertainty. You must face confusion, self-questioning, dilemma. Only amateurs are confident ... be prepared to live with the fear of failure all your art life."
~W. O. Mitchell

1:)~ Today is the Birthday of the Worlds Greatest Athlete~ Jim Thorpe!

Fast Facts

Full Name: James Francis Thorpe
Nickname(s): Wa-tho-huck, Bright Path, Jim

Date of Birth: May 28, 1887
Place of Birth: Prague, Oklahoma
Date of Death: March 28, 1953

Occupation: Football Player, Track and Field Athlete, Baseball Player
School: Haskell Indian School (Lawrence, Kansas) Carlisle Indian School (Carlisle, Pennsylvania)
Athletic Position: Halfback
Athletic Teams/Organizations: Cleveland Indians, Oorang Indiana, Rock Island Independents, New York Giants, Canton Bulldogs and Chicago Cardinals

• He won the gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon during the 1912 Olympic Games.

• Believe it or not, Thorpe once hit 3 home runs into 3 different states in the same game. During a semi-pro baseball game in a ballpark on the Texas-Oklahoma-Arkansas border, he hit his first homer over the left field wall with the ball landing in Oklahoma, his second homer over the right field wall into Arkansas and his third homer of the game was an inside-the-park home run in center field, which was in Texas! (Even I have a hard time believing that story~ But we all know that everything on the Internet is true! right?)

*Thorpe's Olympic wins were jeopardized in 1913 when it became known that he played two semi-professional seasons of baseball. The Olympics Committee had strict rules about Olympians receiving money for participating in professional athletics. Thorpe, who stated he played for the love of the game and not the money, was put under the microscope. It was decided that his baseball experience made him a professional athlete. His name was removed from the record books and his gold medals were taken away. Thorpe's medals were finally restored to him posthumously in 1982. In addition, and most important to his family, his name was put back into the record books.

2:)~ A Haiku

Facing Yourself

staring eye to eye
from with in the looking glass
your reflection damns.

Written By: Patricia Sawyer
5-7-2009


3:)~ 5 Minute Recipe~

Omelet Roll-ups

Egg - 1
Milk - 1 tablespoon
Oil - 1/2 tablespoon
Salt and pepper - a pinch
Grated cheese - 1 tablespoon
1 tortilla

• Mix egg, milk, salt and pepper. Heat a pan with the oil to medium-high. Then pour in the egg, and cook for about a minute.
• Place over the tortilla, and sprinkle on cheese

Wow how fast was that? Tasty too. Just what I needed for my late night supper. I could have added a slice of ham or some store bought bacon bits without adding any time or even chopped some things to add to the omelet with adding only a minute more.


Well there ya Go! Three for Thursday! I really did try the omelet roll ups and it was good. Of course I did have a egg fresh from my own chickens and I'm sure that anything I cooked with them would be tasty! Next time I will add some ham or a bit of Bacon bits too though. I also used a slice of pepper jack cheese because I love my food spicy! You could add whatever you like!
I hope you enjoyed your three for Thursday! I hope you have a wonderful Day!
Patsy

Pig in the Blanket Day!

"When fate hands you a lemon, make lemonade."
- Dale Carnegie, 1888 - 1955

"There is something wrong when you wait in line thirty minutes to get a hamburger that was cooked for ninety seconds an hour ago."
- Lewis Grizzard, 1946 - 1994

"I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate."
- Julia Child, 1912 - 2004

"Please understand the reason why Chinese vegetables taste so good. It is simple. The Chinese do not cook them, they just threaten them!"
- Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet Cooks with Wine, 1986

Today is pig in the blanket day. A day you can really sink your teeth into. First of all let me say that I don't know who decides what day is what or who names all the days. Some are silly to me. Some are very interesting even though it might be a day no one ever thought of celebrating before. I get an e-mail every morning telling me what day it is. After all I would hate for Bologna sandwich day to have passed me by with-out me knowing it now wouldn't I? I keep thinking that one of these early mornings I'll come in here and sit down to an e-mail that says "Hey Stupid~ Today is just another day.. Get a life and quit thinking every day is important!" So far that hasn't happened. So far, for the last few years, every day has been something or other day. So far each day has had either an important historical or maybe just a sentimental reason to be important.

When I opened my early morning " Today IS" e-mail this morning I was surprised and excited to see that today is Pig in the blanket day. I love to search and google and even image search every day to fully check out each days meaning. For any of you who are about to do that now.. let me give you fair warning... anything that comes up about a real pig.. delete that, don't even go look! It's scary! A pig in the blanket has very little to do with a real pig and it's only connection to a blanket is that Blanket means cover or covering. A pig in the blanket is a hot dog or sausage wrapped or covered in something and cooked.

First you should choose your pig. Some p[people do like sausages for their pigs. I personally prefer wieners. I like the cheap kind myself because I am going to need lots of them. Especially if one of the kids finds out I'm making them. I also want my pigs plump. You never hear of anyone butchering a skinny hog. So first thing on the ingredient list is fat cheap hot dogs and lots of them.

Next comes the blanket. The choices for covering your hot dogs is quiet a long list. Some people use those corn bread twists things that come in a can like biscuits. That's too much like a corn dog to me. If I want a corn dog I want it to come from the fair and be just out the grease hot when I get it... No corn meal in my blanket please. I ate what was called a pig in a blanket recently. It was a hot dog wrapped in a can biscuit then baked till the biscuit was done. They were served with chili and ketchup and mustard. They weren't bad.. The biscuit was to me a little over done, but all in all they were not too bad. Just like a hot dog in fact. I think if I wanted a hot dog; I'd just cook hot dogs.

I love pig in the blankets. My Husband loves them and my kids and Grandson love them too. I have loved them for years and tears and years. My Mama cooked the very first ones I ever ate a long long time ago when I was just a child. The recipe is simple. The ingredients are simple. The combination results in a great quick supper.

The shopping lists is short, fat cheap hot dogs . I usually get three of the eight packs. They reheat well so Dave can take any leftovers of these to work. Next on the list is bacon. Yes Bacon! My blanket is pig. get enough bacon so that each wiener can have it's own slice. Again I choose the low price bacon. The last ingredient is cheese. You can use the sliced cheese in a pinch or if you like it then you can use it without a pinch! I like block cheese for these. I usually even spring for Craft sharp cheddar for these. Sometimes I will do half of them with cheddar and half with Pepper jack. They are great either way. You will also need some plain wooden toothpicks.

To begin with you will want to split each hot dog down the middle but cut carefully so that you don't cut all the way through the skin on one side. You will need a sharp knife for this. This split is where we will be putting the cheese in just a minute. I have known people to put Ketchup and mustard here but I don't. I always use cheese. Once I have split all of my hot dogs, I usually do all the other steps to each pig in the blanket one at the time till I am done.

Now I put a tiny thin strip of my cheese into the split and then wrap each wiener in it's slice of bacon. I usually slice the cheese ahead and tuck it into the wiener tucking the first end of the bacon under the end of the strip of cheese. Next I wind the wiener in it's bacon blanket and when I get to the other end I stick a toothpick through the bacon and into the hot dog. I will say that the wrapping them in bacon takes the longest. I always marvel at the fact that mama used to make enough of these for ten of us. Even more when they had foster children there. I guess she must have liked us a lot to stand and make that many pig in the blankets. We all loved them we were all good eaters!

Once all your pigs are split, stuffed, wrapped, it's time to cook them. Lay them all on a flat baking pan. you will want some sides on the pan because bacon gives off grease. We don't want any oven fires on pig in the blanket day. I cook mine in the oven; on about 400 degrees. There are done when the bacon is done and the cheese is melted. I usually have a salad with my pigs or maybe if Mason is here I'll make macaroni and cheese as well.

All this talk about pigs in a blanket has made me hungry. I will be having some pig in the blankets with ketchup and a vegetable salad. I will think about Mama's Cooking while I eat too many of them. I will enjoy every bite I take.

Does some food take you back to your childhood. Does it take you back to a time when life was still simple? Back to a time when you still colored outside of the lines? Enjoy your food. Try new things. Maybe you will try a pig in the blanket. Maybe you will remember a food that you loved as a child and try it again. Have a memory supper. Have a great day!
Patsy