Bologna Salad--You have got to be kidding...

Today I had a bunch of chores to do and found myself out at the farm around lunch time. I decided to get a sandwich at our favorite lunch place in Harrodsburg, KY. It is a bulk food store with a nice deli and a lovely gazebo outdoors to sit at while you eat your sandwich..

But, before I go any further, there is something you should know about me. I have a strong aversion to bologna--ring, pickled, cheap, expensive--it does not matter. I hate the smell, the texture and the taste. In fact, if I came to your house and all you had was bologna and I was nearly starving I would probably tell you I was allergic to bologna and could I just have a plain crust of bread. No kidding. I HATE it.

I arrived at the Kountry Kupboard and went straight for the deli counter. There were lots of workmen type people waiting in line and they were obviously getting food for their whole crew because they had several sandwiches in their hands as they made their way to the check out counter.

I filled out the little pad, checking whole wheat, lettuce, mayo and tomato, smoked turkey and baby Swiss cheese. As I was waiting for my sandwich to be made I spotted some samples. As I looked closely I saw that it was crackers with a sandwich spread. I read the label [thank goodness!] and it said "Bologna Salad." UGH!! You have got to be kidding. I looked closer. Yep--that is what it was. Chopped up or ground bologna mixed with mayo, pickle relish and who knows what.

I was dumbfounded and stupefied and almost had to run outside for fresh air. Bologna Salad. Who ever thought of this and why? What manner of man would each such? I cannot imagine.

At any rate my sandwich came and as you can imagine, I could only eat half of it [see photo below]. Too bad Bob was at home working. Why anyone would chose Bologna Salad over this magnificent creation, is beyond me.

Take care, and may all your salads be lettuce, spinach, chicken, ham or some other wonderful thing-anything but bologna.

Take care,
Jill

Midway...

Today Bob and I and our good friends Linda and Todd went to Midway KY for a fall craft festival. Midway, is the town midway between Lexington and Frankfort by rail. In the early days, when rail was the way to travel, it was the stopping off point between the two towns. Here you can see the tracks leading to Lexington. The train tracks run right down the center of town, so that there are stores and shops on each side of the train tracks. Very unique and quaint.

Not only is it right in the middle of the Bluegrass, but it is also right in the middle of horse country. To get there we drive through some of the pretties scenery in the Bluegrass area. The horse farms are magnificent, with fountains in the ponds, dry rock fences, barns that are nicer than many churches, and acres and acres of mowed bluegrass with black 4 plank fences. Queen Elizabeth keeps horses at one of the farms, but I am not sure which one.

Here we are with Todd and Linda. Bob got his favorite treat, cotton candy and Todd was thrilled to get a quart of good Kentucky sorghum--they were making sorghum right at the fair. It looks kind of nasty when they are making it, but when you put it on hot biscuits, or in granola, it is amazing!

Bob was so happy with his cotton candy. He is funny because he really doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, but his eyes lit up when he saw that the Midway Woman's Club was making it fresh. A nice lady in that booth took the photo of all of us together.

We ate at Darlin' Jeans Apple Cobbler Cafe which has the best Hot Browns in Kentucky. They are fantastic and we all had one. Next time I will take a photo of one and explain how to make it.

We didn't get any of the cobblers at Darlin' Jeans because we were just too full, but when we got home, after I had a nap, I made this homemade peach pie in a cast iron pie pan.

It is pretty easy because I made the crust a few weeks ago and froze little crust rounds and just rolled them out today. I froze peach pie filling a couple of weeks ago when I had some amazing peaches, so I just nuked it for a minute or two, put it in the crust and had a hot fresh pie in about an hour.

I will include the recipes below.
Here is the recipe for the crust

Peach Pie Filling:

PEACH PIE

3 ½C peaches sliced, drain juice

¾ C sugar

¼ C flour

½ tsp tapioca

2t lemon juice

¼ t cinnamon

dash nutmeg

Mix together and let set while you prepare a 2 crust pastry. Put in bottom crust, put in filling, dot with butter, put on top crust. Bake 400° for 45 minutes, longer if frozen. I usually make about 4x this amount the freeze enough for one pie in a quart sized freezer bag. When I make, I make pie crust, dump in the filling and then usually sprinkle about 2-3 tsp of flour over top of the filling and mix in a little bit with a fork, dot with butter and then put on top crust. I sprinkle sugar or cinnamon and sugar on top and bake at 425 for about 40-50 minutes, till brown and bubbly.

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This is the report from Midway Kentucky..

Where the cotton candy is blue

The sorghum is fresh

And all the couples are above average.

Take care,

Jill

Oh, no! A Sea Monster has my foot!

 Kari sent sea creature booties that she crocheted for for the babies. Here Elinor is getting used to having critters on her feet. She really didn't know what to think.

Take care,
Jill

Kari Goes to Mississippi...

My only daughter [I have four sons] Kari, went to Mississippi and joined Americorps in August. It is a 10 month volunteer commitment [for those who finish there is a $5000 stipend to put toward college tuition] to do service in America. Kind of like a domestic Peace Corps.

In the past 6 weeks, she has been to an Americorps type boot camp, complete with physical training, Red Cross first aid and CPR training, chain saw certification, 15 passenger van instruction, lectures, getting her uniform, sleeping bag and so forth. She was placed in a team of 11, and after the four weeks of training, she is now working [for 6 weeks] with Habitat for Humanity in Alabama.

Here she is in Alabama helping put up the trusses.

She says she feels like an action hero using the semi-automatic nail gun. Ahh--more power

But in the evening she is the Kari of old...crocheting baby booties for her two nieces and doing a bit of reading--using a portable Kindle rather than old fashioned [and bulky] books. The Americorians do all their own shopping and cooking, so they are kept very busy.

They do 4-6 different projects during their term of service. Kari's region is in the southern portion of the US, coming as far north as the Bluegrass State.

I sure do miss her though.

Take care of yourself Kari,

Mom [Bluegrass Mom Jill]

Bluegrass Grandma's Perspective...

Elinor came to visit today and I think she should be the poster baby for the Bluegrass. I think you will see what I mean in the following pictures. This is the front of her onesie complete with a fringed mane. It says in words around the neck and arms something about "neigh-neigh here and a neigh-neigh there."

Now if that isn't cute enough, look at the back. Complete with a little tale! And doesn't she look jaunty with her little yellow and white striped leggings? With the World Equestrian Games being held outside of Europe for the first time ever only about 30 minutes from us, Elinor is quite in style. Everything these days seems to be horses, horses, horses.

It is tiring being a little foal, though. She was really cruising down here.  She does love her Piglet.

The Bluegrass Baby was all tuckered out. This is when I got a chance to eat lunch.

Take care,
Bluegrass Grandma Jill 

Fun with Grandma...

Today both my granddaughters were here for a few hours. What a joy. They were somewhat interested in each other, but they were both probably more interested in our dog.

 I thought I was the baby around here.

We can almost fly!

Allison gazes at happy Elinor in wonder. Will I ever get to be as big as  her?

What! I'm supposed to be the mature one?

A good time was had by all, except Scrappy who had to be put outside quite often because she kept wanting to lick the babies' faces.

Take care,
Grandma Jill

Ahh, Sweet--the Septic Goes In!

The prospect of Bob's state-of-the-art outhouse becoming obsolete is one step closer with the installation of the septic. I am so excited at the prospect of real flush toilets. Does it get much better than that?

The septic field only has two trenches--each 120 feet long! That is a long field. It doesn't look like much, but here it is for your viewing pleasure. I think the orange flags show where the two trenches start and finish.

This will be the front yard of the cottage. Additionally, a trench was dug to put the electric underground to the cottage.

And, we decided since they had he digging equipment out there we would have them run a trench down to the cabin [about 225 feet down the hill] so we could take water and electric down there.  You can see it was tough going--glad we didn't have to dig it by hand.



See all those rocks next to the trench? I plan on going out tomorrow when it cools off [a cool front is supposed to be moving in] and collecting as many as I can to use for flower beds around the cottage.

 Bob was pacing it off to see how much electric wire he would need . He figured about 250 feet. Once the cabin has electricity, then we can install A/C and heat so it will make a great camping cabin. We are not going to put water/plumbing in the cabin, but rather have a frost proof hydrant right next to it so it will be convenient to camp in the cabin, or water flowers and so forth down there. 

We can hardly wait for it to be done.
Take care,
Jill

Cancer and God and All That Jazz...

Today I was reminded of my friend Ellen who died over a decade ago from eyelet cell cancer in her liver. She fought it off bravely, won many battles--but cancer won the war.

The last time I saw Ellen she looked like a Holocaust victim, so thin and not like herself at all. It was shocking. Really. But she was Ellen just the same and we enjoyed our last visit only months before she finally could not fight anymore.

But what I am thinking about today is how when we as Christians ask for prayer for our friends or relatives people usually say, "Are they saved?" or some sort of reference like that. If we have had a loved one die, they ask it too.

The implication is, "Are they burning forever in hell or dancing with the angels in heaven." And it hurts if they are not dancing with the angels. I mean, then the person will say something like, "Well, maybe they accepted Christ at the end." And somehow that makes it all right. But, maybe they didn't. Maybe they were the sweetest aunt you ever had and they did all sorts of good works and were loving and kind and baked you cookies when you were small, but they just didn't buy Christ as Saviour. Or, maybe they are a devout Jew--God's chosen people, or maybe they are of a different faith and love God but don't know about Jesus, or maybe...

But it doesn't matter. Lost is lost. God is holy and all that jazz.

I don't buy it. I used to. I was a pastor's wife for crying out loud. We both bought it. We taught it. We staked eternity on it. But we were wrong.

After carefully reading scripture, not just one or two verses or one or two chapters or books--but after reading the whole of scripture we see that Christ is the Saviour of all, especially of believers [not exclusively]. If you read I Corinthians 15 with an open mind, you can see that truth-- the truth that at the end of the ages, all will be saved.

ALL. "For even as in Adam, all are dying, thus also, in Christ shall all be made alive [resurrected for the eons]." ALL. All are subject to death because of Adam, whether we accept him or not. The same is true of Christ. There is a lot more, but this is a blog post, not a theology book, but if you are interested in more on this topic you can go to GraceEvangel.org.

Also, to the question of if my loved ones are burning or dancing, I would say right now, neither. They are resting in the unseen place--like King David of old.

I Corinthians 15 also says that first Christ is resurrected, then those who are Christ's in His presence [when he returns which has not happened yet], then the rest at the consummation. [So far Christ is resurrected, but the rest are waiting for Him to return when they will be resurrected. ] At this point when all enemies are under his feet [including the last enemy death] he turns it all over to God who is then the All in All. All are subjected to Him. All are saved. And God's purpose for the Eons is accomplished.

This is the Good News! This is the amazing Good News that needs to be shared. All will be saved. God will be All in All and none will be lost. All will be subjected. No more worries about Old Aunt Sarah who never seemed to accept Christ or about a teen who died before really making a commitment or about people from other religions, cultures and times who did not know about Christ.

Eventually, at the end of it all, all will know and trust in Christ. All will be reconciled.

Good News! Good news indeed.

Take care,
Jill

PS--As a note, if you think I am theologically deceived and worry about Ellen. No worries. She loved God and Jesus with all her heart, soul and mind and she loved her neighbor as herself. According to traditional theology she is dancing with the angels...and all that jazz.