Southern Fried Okra

My husband will tell you he never knew how truly good fried okra tasted until he had it in the South. You may have tasted that breaded fried okra out of a freezer bag or in one of those big ole buffets, but until you fix it (the right way) at home you can't say you've eat fried okra.

There's a long list of ingredients so get out a pen a paper, this is gonna take a while.

1) fresh okra

2) white corn meal

3) salt

4) cooking oil

Okay, y'all, now,here's what you have to do.

Slice up your okra into about 1/4 inch thick pieces, discarding the stem.

Place it in a colander and rinse with water.

Salt first then pour your cornmeal over the okra.

(I just toss it around in the colander over the sink until it's lightly dusted)

Place one layer in a skillet with about an inch and a half or two inches of hot oil.

DO NOT stir it.

As it begins to brown, just turn it over and let it brown on the other side.

When you take it up, drain any excess oil. You may want to salt again.

Now start eating!

THE SWAN CITY

I've always know Hattiesburg as The Hub City with it's central location to Mobile, The Gulf Coast, New Orleans, Jackson, and Meridian. But about a year and a half ago Hattiesburg, MS became know as The Swan City when the Area Development Partnership decide to unveil the Festival of Swans. The ADP selected the swan because of its elegance and beauty. We're talking about a small college town in South Mississippi, I don't know what they were thinking. In my opinion, I think they should have hung a bunch of hub caps up in the pine trees and kept the whole Hub City theme alive. Anyway, the swans are really beautiful, (blah blah blah) so I spent part two days running around town with friends snapping shots of some of the swans. I believe we got a total of 25 out of the possible 48 swans.

There is also a book titled The Festival of Swans. Click here if you'd like to see more on the swans.

Made in the U.S.A.

I want you to go around your house and look at the tags on your furniture, home decor, children's toys and clothes. Where are they made? I took a trip around my house after reading this article. I found that the majority of things in our house come from China. It made me want to cry.

I used to work at a home decor store. As I unpacked boxes, I found two very disheartening things in common:

1)everything was made poorly and

2)everything was made in another country. Of course 95% was made in China. Remember them? I also found that the amount of packaging with Styrofoam and plastic is in an abundance. I won't go into the fact that I saw WALL-E yesterday and I believe we are going to bury ourselves in packaging. I'll save that for another post.

Back to China, they poisoned our small children with their poor craftsmanship of toys. Surely you haven't forgotten the recalls, but the good ole USA companies are still outsourcing. Not only to China, but to India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam to name a few. And it's worst than that, watch this YouTube clip.

If you're not upset by the state of our economy and watching friends and family members get laid off doesn't bother you, then you might want to look at what your putting into you very own body. I realize you have seen the benefits of genetically engineered foods, but that's not the whole story. Anne over at Twice Bloomed Wisteria has told us all about how the genetically modified corn effects the bees and your honey. You might want to read this article and decide if you want to eat the food others are growing. Also, there's a book that discusses the way we eat called Why Our Food Choices Matter by Peter Singer, Jim Mason.

Jayedee over at Life in the Lost World turned me onto the 100 Foot Diet Challenge. It is really very interesting. It doesn't take that much room to grow a few veggies and fruits for your family, Hell, I'm doing it and I haven't got a clue, but you've seen how much were getting from an 8 by 30 foot piece of land. This is only our second year to have a garden and we're feeding more than our family with what we're growing. This year my goal is to learn to can!

I know that this is pretty scary stuff, but I don't think I can sit back and ignore what's going on around me. If the outsourcing of jobs does effect you and if our food is being shipped in, out of season, from half way around the world doesn't bother you and if we buy it with out asking questions we are contributing to the problem.

If you can't grow anything please buy local and try to buy made in the U.S.A. Also, you should check out this Wall Street Journal article on 50 Things being Blamed on Rising Oil Prices.

Valley of Fire

We took a day to drive just northeast of Vegas to Nevada's Valley of Fire State Park. It is located in the Mojave Desert. The rocks appear to be on fire.

This is Arch Rock. Here is where a native American Fugitive, Mouse, hid away in the 1890's. Mouse's Tank is a natural basin in the rock where water collects after rainfalls, sometimes remaining for months.

While walking we passed a number of prehistoric Indian petroglyphs.

The 1966 movie The Professionals was filmed here at the White Domes.

Truly an amazing place.

Red Rock Canyon

One of the nicest places we went we was a short 13 mile loop just west Vegas.

Called Red Rock Canyon .

The area showcases a set of large red sandstone peaks and walls called the Keystone Thrust.

There are several side roads and parking areas allow access to many of the trails located in the canyon.

I highly recommend going if your ever in Vegas.

Melts in Your Mouth Not in Your Hands

On the Fabulous Vegas strip is the bestest place in the world!

The M&M store.

The kids found the Kyle's car to be very sweet.

Four floors of M&M's and M&M merchandise. I think I died and went to heaven.

We walked out with a nice dent in our pocketbook.

But, don't ask me for any M&M's I'm fresh out.

The Fabulous Vegas Strip

When we landed in Vegas we did the very touristy drive down the strip.

Here we are outside of the New York hotel.

This is the Excalibur.

Of course you wouldn't want to miss the fountain show at the Bellagio.

This inside the Bellagio.

Cool bike, I think this was inside the Treasure Island Hotel.

where we saw Cirque Du Soleil's Mystere.

This is at the Monti Crisco.

And finally, we stayed at The Paris.

Adventures to come....

the vampire in me

I have to admit that I find what I'm about to say to be a bit embarrassing. Apparently, I don't mind tell you about my embarrassing obsessions, but I do want to preference this by telling you another story that may explain the reason for my current obsession.
You see, a number of years ago a friend of mine told me about this vampire movie. Honestly, I wasn't much of a vampire person, but I was a very big Brad Pitt/Tom Cruise fan (at the time) so I became mildly interested in what she was telling me. When I found out that the author, Anne Rice, was from just down the road in little ole NOLA I became more interested and decided to read the book, Interview with a Vampire before going to the movie.
I fell in live with the vampire Lestat and Anne Rice's style of writing. The movie, I did not like. I started reading all of Anne Rice's vampire chronicles after that. The Vampire Lestat, Queen of the Damn, Tale of the Body Thief, The Mummy (a personal favorite) The Vampire Armand, but by the time I got into Blood and Gold I had quite my job as a certified alcohol and drug abuse counselor for dually diagnosed patients at a local psychiatric hospital in lue of staying at home with my two precious children. Needless to say, I started reading Goodnight Moon, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. That doesn't count the numerous self help books I've read through. I did eventually graduate up to Little House on the Prairie and Hank the Cowdog, but otherwise I haven't read much in the way of adult literature.
That brings us to my embarrassing current obsession. I'd like to shift the blame to my history of only reading children's literature or maybe even to Ann over at Sharp Spiels who first suggested that this series was a good read, but I'm afraid I may have to accept all the responsibility for my lack of quality adult literature. Okay, so here goes, I like Stephenie Meyer's vampire books. There, I said it, I'm not sure if I'm relieved or embarrassed. You see, what happened was that I decided, before we left for Vegas, to get something to read for entertainment instead of all those children's behavioral books. The only book that I could think of when we were at the library was the one Ann had mentioned in her blog so I decide to check out Twilight. I finished it and decide to get New Moon and Eclipse while we were still on vacation. Of course these book are intended for younger audience, but yes, I defiantly enjoyed them. I have since discovered that I'm not the only old woman who likes them. There is actually a site for Twilight Moms. If you're human (or not) and 13 years old (or older) I recommend reading the Twilight series. Book four, Breaking Dawn will be out August 2 and Twilight the movie is due out on December12.




Go here to see the first official trailer.

Oh Dam

We just spent the last seven days in Las Vegas which would lead one to believe that I have a lot of things to blog about except that as you know what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

Just kidding...

I do have a lot to say, I also have a ton of pictures to sort through and share so I will spread this out over several post so that I have time to get other things done, like laundry...

We went to the Hoover Dam one day.

As you may, or may not know, a by-pass is being built to "decrease the potential for accidents, and to decrease the bottleneck to the interstate." As we approached the dam, I got a view of this little 234 million dollar construction project. I can safely say that I will never, and I mean never use the by-pass no matter how "safe" it's supposed to be.

Do you know how high that is? When finished, the 1,905-foot span bridge will be 890 feet over the river!
Go here to see a picture of what it's going to look like when it's completed.

Here is a statue of a high-scalers who's job was to climb down canyon walls on ropes and remove loose and weakened rocks along the canyon walls where the dam walls would join together.

There are two liberty statues that have developed a green patina. The toes, however, are very shiny and looking new. We were told that the toes are polished as a result of people rubbing the them for good luck and good fortune.

Here are a couple of pictures on the Lake Mead side of the dam. Notice the white line on the lower part of the rocks, that is the water mark, a sign of the water level changes in the reservoir, which is due to the drought.

I took this picture over the edge of the dam. I couldn't actually look at it because I was getting dizzy so I just pointed and shot.

Here is the Arizona Nevada state line. I'm sure I've stood in two states at once but this just seemed much cooler than that.

I will try and sort through more pictures soon. Look forward to seeing Red Rock Canyon and The Valley of Fire very soon.

A Spirited Child

We were so excited to be bring home this sweet little baby boy. He was perfect, ten toes, ten fingers; everything about him was just what we’d always hoped for. As a baby he had one ear infection after another which resulted in tubes and eventually speech therapy. It wasn’t that he was sick a lot or that he was a problem baby, he was just different than our daughter, besides I wasn’t supposed to compare him to his sister much less anyone else. A wise late night TV host once said, “It’s an exhibition not a competition” so I try to keep that in mind everyday.
There were so many days that I feel defeated. When he was two I’d jokingly call my husband and ask him to bring home a priest for the exorcism. We have tried a number of different discipline techniques all of which seemed to fail. He’s winning.
If it’s not one issue it’s another. Right now he has a very short temper, I’m never sure what going to cause his frustration, but the outcome will be bad. He will yell, slam doors, spitting and refuse to follow directions. He’s even disappeared before; I found him hiding under a table at church when he got upset over something small. He’s gotten into arguments with his friends, not listened to adults, like his grandparents, it’s all so overwhelming. Then he turns on the charm. He can be the sweetest most loving, affectionate child you’d ever hope to meet, who is this Dr, Jekyll Mr. Hyde living in my house?

Other small issues that stand out are his fear of thunder, his sensitivity to pain (he seems to overreact to getting a scratch), a past episode of grunt-like ticks, and problems in learning to read. He loves video games, but it is impossible to get him to get off. When he does get off, his face is flush and he’s behavior is out of control. Every other day is “…the worst day of my life” because things don’t go exactly his way. He eats constantly; He can eat as much a grown man at dinner and come back thirty minutes later ready for something else. He’s not shy one bit, once he climbed up on a stage and participated in a magic show even though he wasn’t call on stage.
We need help. I love this child with all my heart and soul. What can we do to save him from himself?

Last Night's Storm

Hello all, As you may have heard our little town was hit by a tornado last night. It touched down about 1 1/2 miles (as the crow flies) from our house. That tornado also hit a trailer park and two neighborhoods in our area. Friends from church, including our pastor, and homeschool friends have had damage to their homes. The other storms that passed through last night and the ones going through today are bringing a lot a rain that we just don't need. Part of our neighborhood is under water and one road, 1/4 mile from our house, is under water (see picture below). My favorite husband drove into work, a trip that usually takes 20 minutes, took 1 12 hours this morning. He reported back to me that an area north of here is flooded and that part of the highway is closed in Little Rock. I haven't been out, and don't intend to go at this point, but when we do venture out I will try and post pictures.

Added at 5:30 pm

Good Morning

Look what we woke up to this morning!

and our poor trees were just starting to bud.

The kids were only slightly impressed.

We're off to make molasses-snow candy. Check out my kitchen blog later for the recipe.