Honoring Our Veterans: Past and Present
To face the flaming cannon’s mouth nor ever question why,
Are lilacs by a little porch, the row of tulips red,
The peonies and pansies, too, the old petunia bed,
The grass plot where his children play, the roses on the wall:
‘Tis these that make a soldier great.
He’s fighting for them all.
‘Tis not the pomp and pride of kings that make a soldier brave;
‘Tis not allegiance to the flag that over him may wave;
For soldiers never fight so well on land or on the foam
As when behind the cause they see the little place called home.
Endanger but that humble street whereon his children run,
You make a soldier of the man who never bore a gun.
What is it through the battle smoke the valiant soldier sees?
The little garden far away, the budding apple trees,
The little patch of ground back there, the children at their play,
Perhaps a tiny mound behind the simple church of gray.
The golden thread of courage isn’t linked to castle dome
But to the spot, where’er it be — the humblest spot called home.
And now the lilacs bud again and all is lovely there
And homesick soldiers far away know spring is in the air;
The tulips come to bloom again, the grass once more is green,
And every man can see the spot where all his joys have been.
He sees his children smile at him, he hears the bugle call,
And only death can stop him now — he’s fighting for them all.
Operation: Horse Pasture Clean Up
THAT is gonna be a HUGE fire. |
Speckles, my Pit Bull, joining in on the fire action. |
After Dark. 🙂 |
7:30 a.m. Sunday morning and Speckles is back beside the fire. |
House Cleaning Day *ugh*
Yummy Grilled Pork Loin
This past Sunday, I was looking for something I could cook that wouldn’t take half the evening. I love to cook but sometimes I just want something quick and easy. This recipe for Grilled Pork Loin is just that, quick and easy.
First, let’s start with the marinade. I’ll go ahead and warn you now, I’m not good with measuring ingredients out. I normally just sorta throw stuff together. I’ll try, for the sake of others, to give an approximate amount of what I used.
Marinade:
1/2 cup of olive oil
1 Tbsp. garlic salt
1 Tbsp. garlic powder
1 Tbsp. onion powder
1 Tbsp. cajun seasoning
1/2 Tbsp. meat tenderizer
1 Tbsp. parsley
Put your pork loin in a gallon size freezer bag. (When I say pork loin, I’m not talking about the huge ones, I mean the small individually wrapped ones.) Add all the above listed ingredients to the bag and seal it. Try to make sure you’ve squeezed as much of the air out of the bag as you can and make SURE you seal it TIGHT. Otherwise you will have an oily mess. Roll the pork loin around in the bag. You can tell when everything has distributed itself somewhat evenly. Stick it in the fridge for about an hour. Longer is better but an hour works if you are pressed for time.
Light your grill about 15 minutes before your hour is up. If you use a charcoal grill, you may need to light it about 30 minutes before the hour is up, though. You’ll know best how long it takes for your own grill to heat up, so use your judgement for this part.
When the grill is ready, take bag and all out to your grilling area. I would strongly suggest using a pair of grilling tongs to get the loin out of the bag, otherwise you might end up with a mess. Put the pork loin on the grill and shut the lid. Once again, you’ll need to use your own judgement on cooking times, because all grills vary. It took about 30 – 45 minutes for mine to cook, but I use a gas grill. You’ll need to flip the loin a couple of times during your cooking times.
I don’t have any pictures of the loin I cooked because as soon as I cut it, it disappeared. I think I managed to snag two pieces out of the whole thing. *shrugs* Growing kids and all that. 🙂 If you decide to try this recipe leave me a comment and let me know how it turns out. I love comments. 🙂
Pork Steak Deliciousness
Don’t you just love my fine china? 😀 |
Southern Fried Chicken With A Twist
In the South, Fried Chicken isn’t just a food, it’s a way of life. Most every southerner you ask will tell you that it is one of the most common foods down here. Anyways, I was talking to a friend the other day, and we got to talkin’ about what I was gonna cook for dinner. I knew I wanted fried chicken, so I got to lookin’ online for a nice little recipe to make regular ol’ southern fried chicken. I ended up finding 3 recipes that all sounded good, so I posed the question to my friend, “What KIND of fried chicken? Regular, Cajun or Ranch?” His answer sorta surprised me, although I’m not all that sure why. “Why don’t you do all 3, together?” Hmmmm, yea I can do that. Especially seein’ as though folks in the south have a penchant for spicy foods and ranch dressing as well as anything fried. When someone tells you, people in the south fry everything, they ain’t lyin’. And what whether we fry it or not, we put ranch dressing on it. I’ll post a recipe for fried pickles once I find one I like enough to eat. LOL.
I like to experiment with recipes and different kinds of foods. I don’t have a lot of room in which to cook but that doesn’t stop me from likin’ to do it. So I got to haulin’ out all the ingredients and ended up not really going by the recipes I had in my hand, but improvisin’ my own concoction.
Pan Fried Cajun Ranch Chicken:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I rarely buy bone in chicken)
1 cup all purpose flour
1 Tbsp. cajun seasoning
1 Tbsp. ranch powder (Hidden Valley sells it in a shaker)
salt & pepper
paprika
cooking oil (I use Olive Oil)
Put about an 1 or 2 inches of oil in a skillet and let that be heating up while you get the chicken ready.
Combine the flour, cajun seasoning and ranch powder in a mixing bowl.
Sprinkle salt, pepper and paprika on both sides of each chicken breast, then dredge them in the flour mixture. Put the breasts in the oil (which by now should be hot).
Let each breast cook about 5 minutes on each side or until the juices run clear.
We had Candied Baby Carrots and Mashed Potatoes as side dishes. The carrots are super easy to do.
Candied Baby Carrots:
fresh baby carrots
2 large spoonfuls of butter (sorry I rarely measure butter)
1/4 cup brown sugar
salt & pepper
Boil your carrots in salted in salted water for about 20 -30 minutes. You don’t want them mushy. After you’ve boiled them strain out the water and let them sit off to the side.
Halloween Is In The Air
I have to admit, they look pretty darn good lit up. The innards didn’t go to waste either. We separated the seeds from the gunk as Mini Me likes to call it. The monsters took the “gunk” to our goats and I washed the seeds up and let them air dry then I broke out the food dehydrator. (I really, REALLY love my dehydrator by the way.) I spread the seeds out between 3 of the 4 racks and let them sit over night. When I got up this morning to put Mini Me on the bus I turned it on and let it run for about 2 hours. They turned out pretty good. I did read online though that you can “infuse” flavors into the seeds by soaking them in flavored water before you dehydrate them. Flavored water such as, garlic, ranch, cajun, salt, etc. The salt they mentioned was sea salt though not regular table salt. Since this was my first time dehydrating pumpkin seeds I just did them plain but I imagine next year I will try a different flavor. They make a nice snack for the monsters and for my mice.I hope y’all enjoyed the pictures, please feel free to leave comments as I enjoy readin’ ’em and I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween and a Blessed Samhain.