Etsy Blog Carnival: Brothers Then and Now

This month's Blog Carnival on Etsy, All Things Handmade requires that all Etsy bloggers submit an article on one of two subjects. The subject I chose to blog on was a childhood memory.

Many of my memories revolve around my brothers, Mac and John. Here they are back in the 1950's and a current picture is on the right.

This is one of the few photos where Mac, on the left in both photos, was pictured with a hint of a smile on his face.

A clear memory was when John buried some coins and a scarce dollar bill (maybe more?) in an empty mayonnaise jar. For years, and even into his adulthood, he tried to dig up those coins, but could never find them again. He even used a metal detector as recently as in the past decade, but alas, no jar ever was re-discovered. As far as I know, he is still on that treasure hunt. Is there a parallel biblical story here about hiding his talents?

If anything, it reinforced the teaching of using one's talents for the good of others. Both brothers are now generous men in many Godly ways, and I am proud to be their sister.

Food, Glorious Food

A couple of my husband's blogging buddies from Grand Junction, CO were dinner guests last evening. They are John Linko and Mike Saccone. Each friend daily writes a thoughtful piece on our community and its place in the world at their respective websites.

We had a delicious supper mainly prepared by DH Gene Kinsey, often wrong but seldom uncertain. Gene cooked a beef brisket that slowly baked in the oven all afternoon.

We also served a version of Emeril LaGasse's Mexican-Cole-Slaw. (Gene and I had lunch at a local Mexican food restaurant recently and both remarked on the delicious Cabbage Salsa. Our waitress gave us the main ingredients, and a Google search for this salsa/cole slaw was on.)

Gene added LOTS of fresh cilantro (maybe a cup) to the basic recipe, and boiled rice vinegar and sugar for a smooth dressing, with additional cumin, onion and diced jalepenos.



Gene also made tasty spuds in the form of Twice Baked Potatoes and garden chives.

My paltry offering to the dinner fare was the dessert, Creeping Crust Peach Cobbler, with a little added brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg on top. Peaches are plentiful in our happy valley this time of year, so the time was right to use up some local fruit produce.

Let's do that again!

Starry, Starry Night - Don McClean

This YouTube is mesmerizing. I must have watched and listened to McClean singing "Starry, Starry Night" several dozen times already. It is powerful in itself, but also could be an entertaining background vocal for surfing the net. It was originally made into a PowerPoint presentation, although not as accessible via email as the YouTube version above. Full screen and speakers tuned up, you can imagine the visual and auditory effects would be spectacular. This video, though, ain't bad!

In 2005, my National Scrabble Association tournament player friends and I made a trip to the British Isles. One of the stops on the cruise was to visit the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The above pictures are from the Van Gogh Flckr pool.

I've always been fascinated by Vincent Van Gogh; poor ear, poor dear.