Fun Festival Coming Up!

We have been busy e-mailing, checking Facebook, and phoning back and forth and I think we are definitely on the track for a great feast and a fun filled family festival! (How's that for alliteration?)

We have commitments for all of the Frogmore Stew ingredients and that leaves lots of other things for the rest of the fam to supply. We'll need butter, a couple of lemons, snack type things, like cookies, chips, etc. dips, six packs of soda, and other casseroles to appease the 'stew non eaters'. We have one person bringing bread and could use another bread contributer,one person is bringing slaw, we have fruit salads and a birthday cake but could use another dessert or two. Maybe a casserole or so of your choice if you'd like, pasta, macaroni and cheese, or baked beans, whatever! You bring it we'll eat it!

As I mentioned before there will be a 'slip and slide' thingy but the blow-up bouncy thingy is not going to be there. (That's just as well, did you see the little film clip of one of those things blowing away, with kids in it?) Bring play items and swim suits.

I have been watching the weather predictions and it looks as if it is going to be in the 90's with perhaps a few showers to cool us off. There will be tarps and tent type structures and the patio/porch to keep us dry. (We Derby goers have spent whole days under those tents in the rain! No problem>)

I am really looking forward to seeing every one! If you have any questions call either Andrea or me. Ciao

Interim Post

I will be posting more about the Fam. Fest. when I have more information to give to you. In the interim, I will be complaining, pontificating, whining, commenting and opining.

The weather is somewhat cooler today than it has been for the past week. It was actually pleasant outside this morning when I retrieved my paper from the porch. It felt better out there than it did in the house. The AC has run, non stop for days and days. I shudder to think what my bill will be. I think my ceiling fans need to be reversed, they were set for winter and I cannot climb up there to reverse them. Next person that comes to visit will be asked to do the task for me.

I have planted my tomato plant and I go out to check on it two or three times a day. I discovered this morning that I can check on it from my bedroom window that overlooks the deck. So far so good. I also bought two Impatient plants and they also have survived. Maybe the ravenous squirrel has found a better feeding place. Great!

I have a new cell phone. It is not at all exciting. It lives up to its name, "Cell Phone". I can call people up on it and they can call me up on it and we can chat and hang up. They must identify themselves when they call, no pictures to remind me to whom I am speaking and if I call them they must imagine me in their mind's eye because there is no picture of me when they answer. If they are familiar WITH me, they already know what I look like and if they are familiar TO me, I know what they look like. If neither of us know the other it is just as well that we remain anomymous.The greatest feature of my new cell phone is that when you pick the phone up to answer it, your finger is no longer on the "shut off" button and the volume of the 'ringer' stays where you put it and does not shut down so that you cannot hear it ring. I cannot text, access the inter-net, read my e-mails, take pictures, play music or view films. It is truely a utility phone! I love it!!!

I can carry my phone around in a little holster! Sounds ominous but it is non threatening, it also has a little charger that you slip the phone into when you sleep and it charges it up. How clever is that? I have been instructed to carry it with me at all times so that if I fall down and can't get up, I'll have my phone right there with my 911 button and my ICE button with my immergency contact numbers and all. Problem is ,what if I knock myself out when I go crashing down? What if I am scantily clad and there is nowhere to clip the holster. EX. night gown, unders, towel (as in I just finished my shower and have a towel on) It all seems so simple doesn't it?

Some of the exotic features that the phones and internet connections have in this day and time can be life altering. As for me I got along without all those features on my phone before and I guess I can get along without them now. I just deleted about two paragraphs of my objections to some of the features availaable but I will let it go. (So to speak).

I do get a lot of pleasure out of the pictures that are now available to me on my PC. Some on Face Book and some by e-mail. Shannon sent pictures this morning of their vacation at a Lake in Indiana. The pictures were beautiful. The two boys and Lenny and Shannon all looked so contented and rested. Gregg and Brian share a lot of their pictures with me. I have some from the Indy 500, which Gregg, Brian, Brett and Linda attended, some from the TOL which I got to attend and the Derby which was well attended this year by most all of the family. I go back and look at all of the pictures, over and over. I do all of this on my PC but no phon-y pictures!

I have mixed feelings about FB. I'm almost afraid to post comments on there for fear that my wit will be misinterpreted and I will come across as being harsh, sarcastic, mean, whatever. I must admit, I am sarcastically witty at times and those that know me well can deal with it but not always. I sometimes think that too much information is posted at times but that's OK. When some people say their life is an open book they are possibly referring to FACEbook. I get it! On the other hand I am so amused by some of the posts and the responses to them that I hasten to check each day to see what's new. Face people keep it up! I enjoy reading all of the posts. Modern technology is indeed miraculous.

Call me so I can take my phone out of its little holster and guess who you are!!! Cioa

Fitzgerald Fun "Get your groove on" What to bring!

The 18th will be here before we know it! I will list all of the food items and mention other things. Andrea has advised the kids to bring swim suits because we will have two 'slip and slides', we will also have the Pinata and the lake is still there for the fishermen,fisherwomen, fisherpeople! and the wide open spaces are still there, if you have an outdoor play item,that you can bring, do it! Tee ball stand and ball with plastic bat, portable basketball hoop,blankets to sit on, bring it on!! Robert Hall, Julie Heil and Brian will be celebrating their birthdays so there will be cake.

As to the food items needed for the Frogmore Stew and other possibilities:

10 lbs of red potatoes (new)
3 dozen ears of corn
4 lbs. of kielbasa
Shrimp ( one person will purchase all of the shrimp so it will be the same size)
Seafood seasoning (Ex. Old Bay Seasoning)
16 ounces of sour cream (for potatoes or shrimp or whatever)
Cocktail sauce
catsup
3 or 4 lbs. of butter (for potatoes, corn and shrimp) some to melt to dip shrimp if you want)
You can arrange to share some of these items with another family member, a couple of you bring potatoes, two or three bring kielbasa, two or three bring corn etc. You can call me or Andrea to let us know that you have the potatoes covered, corn etc.

Breads
Desserts
fruit
snacks ( chips,doritos etc.)
Dip
Side dishes
If you do not like shrimp you might want to bring another type of casserole.Pasta of some kind, Mac and cheese, whatever you like.

Jeanine has decided to bring FrogEye salad, in keeping with the theme and some other fruit also. An ice cold water melon might be a good thing to have on hand.

You are welcome to bring whatever you want and rest assured it will get eaten!

Any more suggestions or questions you have give one of us a call or post on FB. We'll need lots of paper towels or napkins to mop up with.

Ciao,ciao

Fun Festival FYI

Time: 12 Noon
Place: Andrea and Travis's

We started planning our annual event some time ago and talked about various menus for this year and finally came up with Frogmore Stew. We sorta took a straw vote and had enough positive feed back that we decided to go with it.

Some of you are familiar with it but I know there are others that have never heard of it so I will give you a little of its history with a promise that there will be more to come.

It is a well known dish served in the Carolinas. It contains red(new) potatoes, corn on the cob, Polish (Kielbasa)sausage and shrimp. It is cooked in a large pot. The first ingredient is water, then the whole, unpeeled potatoes, next ears of corn broken in half or thirds, depending on their size, then the sausage cut into two or three inch cuts and for the last few minutes the large shrimp with shells on. Appropriat seasonings are added also. The whole process takes about 30 minutes.

We have a designated shrimp purchaser but the rest of us will provide all the other foods necessary to complete our feast. We will have the stew as the main dish but will need slaw, desserts, sour cream,for the potatoes, lots of butter, for corn and potatoes, cocktail sauce, melted butter and some kind of bread. Of course ,we'll need potatoes, corn, and sausages.
As soon as we have a number for the participants we can give suggested amounts to bring for the potatoes etc.

For those of you that do not like the stew you may want to bring a dish or item that you are sure your family will eat, (and maybe we can share!) We are going to order a couple of pizzas and maybe some corn dogs or hot dogs for the kids that might not like the main dish.

Jeanine is very excited about the Forgmore Stew, despite the fact that she had not heard of it before, (what's not to like) and said we can count on her for the Frog Eye Salad, in keeping with the theme. She will also bring some fruit for those that do not like Frog Eye Salad. See, how accommodating we are? Frog Eye Salad would come under the dessert heading.

If you will let us know that you are coming, for sure, we'll compose a list of amounts of ingredients needed. We've always had plenty to go around and I'm sure we will this year, too.

Last year we had about 56 people in attendance and I'm hoping for at least that many for this year. I've extended the invitation to the Cincinnati relatives also.

More to follow. Ciao

Beastly Battles

Have you noticed the tomatoes in recent years? They are not the tomatoes of yesteryear. It used to be that you could walk through the tomato garden, on a hot summer day, and pluck a tomato off the vine, rub it on your shirt to get the enviromental dust off, and take a bite of it and enjoy. The juice would trickle down your chin and the acidic taste would nip your tongue and you could experience pure gastronomical pleasure.

Tomatoes are an integral part of my diet. My dad raised tomatoes in his garden but still when September came, he went out and purchased bushels of tomatoes for my mother to can. She canned about one hundred cans of whole tomatoes and fifty or more bottles of catsup. The tomatoes out of the backyard garden graced our table at every meal. In the fall before the frost could hit them, we picked the green tomatoes and fried them or wrapped them in news paper,stored them in a closet and let them ripen.

In recent years I've had to depend on "store bought" tomatoes and they leave a lot to be desired. First of all, I like to peel my tomatoes, dipping them in a pot of boiling water for a nano second and slipping the skin off to get to the solid red 'meat' of the tomato, that is essential to me.Have you tried to peel a 'store bought' tomato? Today's tomatoes are hard, tough, pale,and almost tasteless. I took a class at Bellarmine a year or so ago and one of the guest speakers was from one of the tomato processing plants in this region. We saw films of the tomatoes being processed. The open simi trucks filled with tomatoes are unloaded at the plant by machinery that picks the tomatoes up and drops them down a shute to fill containers that move on a conveyor belt into the plant. The presenter told us that the tomatoes have been geneticly altered to have tough skins so that they can be handled in mass. They are also uniform in size to accommodate the machinery that will be removing the skins and whatever else they do to get them ready. (This particular plant made the tomato sauce for Domino's Pizza.)The same kind of tomatoes are what the stores,and fruit markets offer for sale to us. Paul's has what they call Heirloom tomatoes that closely resemble "real" tomatoes but the price, when they have them, is prohibitive.

I decided that I would grow a few plants, in containers, on my deck so that I could have my own supply this summer. I bought two plants and planted the smaller of the two, a few weeks ago. I thought it might be wise to wait until the rains, winds and low temperatures were gone before I planted the larger one.I kept it inside to wait for warmer, sunnier days.

I planted the small tomato one evening and the next morning went out to check on it only to discover that a squirrel had dug it up, threw dirt all over the table, and ate the roots and all the leaves except for the top most leaves! Not good! The plant in the kitchen, meanwhhile, is doing well. Now that warm days and cool nights have arrived it is really time to think about placing it outside but...I'll digress here and tell you about my avocado seed that I have kept in water, in a glass, in the kitchen window waiting to plant it outside,too. I planted it yesterday and I'm sure you've already guessed that it also met the same fate as the tomato plant. Although, it was not completely devoured.

I bought potting soil and I have a container that I think would be ideal for my tomato plant but twice bitten once shy, as the saying goes, I am planning a trip to Home Depot to buy some hardware cloth or mesh screening or something to see if I can foil the evil squirrel! I already went to K-Mart but had no luck there. I did buy one of those cages for the tomato vine to grow on in the event that I succeed at matching wits with the little beast!

I'm trying to remain optomistic. Y'all come for tomato pie in August! OK? Ciao