King of the Row Crop and We Are Our Father's Daughters!

Our dad was King of the Row Crop. That man could grow anything! When I was just a baby we lived in Arizona where he farmed cotton and hay. Once we moved here to Kern County he farmed lettuce, bell pepper, potatoes, and tomatoes and those are just the things I knew about, I’m sure there were tons of other produce that he farmed that I didn't know about.

One year he had a crop of romaine lettuce that was legendary! All you saw as far as the eye could see was rows upon rows of beautiful, huge, green Romaine Lettuce! I'm not even kidding, just look at the picture! That's my dad and his romaine lettuce!

I remember going out there with my mom and siblings and our children to see them. He had been bragging and begging us to come out to the ranch. Mom took her video camera and we have some beautiful footage of my dad walking in his fields and talking to his workers. It’s something I will never forget. Just as I cherish this picture that I took that day. Dad loved farming!

None of us...his children...were born with as green a thumb as his. But we do try! Recently my sister and I remembered a flower that my mom used to grow when we lived in the Imperial Valley. In Spanish we knew it as Rayo de Sol, translated to Ray of Sunshine. The lady that lived next door to us there, Vicenta, cut a small clipping off of her existing plant and gave it to my mom. She planted it and it just grew like gangbusters!!! The official name of the plant is Portulaca, but it's called by many names.

What I loved at the time and remember now about the flower is that it bloomed best and most beautifully during the dog days of summer! The hotter it was the happier this flower was and the bigger it smiled. My sister Lisa and I recently went on a hunt for Portulaca and had to go to several different nursery's before finally finding it and buying a flat which we split in half. And then we got to planting!

The first picture are my flowers, the second are Lisa's flowers. Not bad right?

ALICIA'S RAYO DE SOL/PORTULACA

LISA'S RAYO DE SOL/PORTULACA

The one flat gave us enough plants to fill two big planters like the ones pictured here and then a smaller one. I think we did a pretty good job following in our father's footsteps or green thump print!

My dad fed the world with what he planted and grew and harvested...so we are starting small here, but I think we're doing pretty good for rookies!

Have you ever heard of these flowers? What's your favorite flower? Do you have a green thumb?

 

Mini Baby Bell Peppers and What I did with Them and how to get out of a Funk after a Stressful Day!

There are so many memories that we leave behind to those that love us. My dad left a lot of them. Even when he was just going through his normal day he would say something random and not realize that it would stick in my mind forever. For example...I can never look at baby corn without thinking of my dad.

My dad loved salads! He actually loved all vegetables and fruits. I remember one time when we ate at a place that had a salad bar and he found these little baby corns and he filled his plate with them. Then when he got back to the table he showed them to me and tried to make me eat one by telling me, "Mira, los mataron chiquitos" translated he said, "Look, they killed them little". Well that made me want to eat them even less, but every time I see baby corn I remember my dad and it makes me smile. Remember, we are all making memories for others every day, so make them good ones!

My wonderful baby sister Lisa made a good memory for me today. Today was a super stressful day at work! I wasn't in the best of moods. I just wanted to come home and lock myself in my room and watch TV and probably eat something not very healthy for me. But hanging on my fence was this little bag.

Little baby bell peppers! Los mataron chiquitos! I had been wanting to buy these little peppers since forever, but a bag of them is about $4.79 and I wasn't sure I would like them or what I would do with them, but Lisa found them at our local grocery store for 99 cents! At least she told me they were 99 cents, but I wouldn't put it past her to pay $5 for them just to make me happy!

So what to do, what to do with them???

I remembered that I had some Pork Carnitas left over from a weekend breakfast. I had just shredded them and put them in a plastic container this morning. I also remembered I had some browned ground turkey make with taco seasoning. And then I remembered I had some cream cheese and that sounded really good so I went Cahrazy!

First I cleaned those little bad boys, which was easy because they weren't very big and didn't have a lot of seeds. Then I cut them in half. I warmed up the Carnitas and mixed them with some salsa that was left from the weekend and some shredded cheese and stuffed about six of them and topped them with some sliced black olives. I filled another six with the ground turkey, topped them with cheese and more olives and then the rest I filled with cream cheese and topped them with bacon bits and freshly ground black pepper.

Then I baked them at 350 for about 10 to 12 minutes.


Check these out! These are the ones made with Carnitas! They were so delicious! I was going to top them with Sour Cream but it wasn't necessary, they were perfect as they were!

Then I sampled one of the ground turkey peppers. I have to be honest and say I liked the turkey ones better, but then I love my ground turkey with taco seasoning!

Once the cream cheese ones were done I put a few of each on a plate, grabbed my glass of wine and sat down to munch away on my delicious...and LOW CARB...yummies!

My stressful day melted away with the help of memories of my daddy, loving thoughtfulness shown to me by my baby sister Lisa, beautiful bright colors of the baby peppers who died chiquitos just to please me and a lovely glass of wine. Plus some Pandora Music on my computer and lots of singing at the top of my lungs to the dismay of my kids and the doggies...but oh well! It got me out of my funk!


 

Bittersweet Memories of my First Time Away from my Family

This post was inspired by the book Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, a novel that exposes the Gothic underbelly of an American Dynasty, and an outsider's hunger to belong. Join From Left to Write on May 20 as we discuss Bittersweet. As a member I received a copy of the book for review purposes.

In 1975 I was chosen by the American Legion to attend Girls State. Girls State is a leadership program designed by the American Legion to increase awareness and knowledge of governmental processes while learning about the duties, privileges, rights and responsibilities of citizenship. As a Girls State delegate I was chosen to go to Sacramento after writing an essay and going through multiple interviews by members of the American Legion. It was a huge honor for me and a great experience.

It was also my first time ever away from home, away from my parents, the first time ever of not sleeping in my own bed with my sister by my side. It was awesome!!! Bet you thought I was going to say it was scary right? Or that I got homesick? No Way! It was one of the best experiences of my life.

My parents sent me off on a Greyhound bus with several others girls from local schools. It was a long bus ride from Brawley, CA to Sacramento, CA and the bus stopped in every single little town along the way, but I was  mesmerized! I had never been any further North than Anaheim! I loved seeing all the small towns and big cities.

Once we got there we had to handle all our own suitcases and deal with finding out what dorm room we had been assigned to and who our roommates were going to be. I wish I had thought to have a blog back in high school and that I had written about this experience because I have forgotten most of it. But what I do remember is the camaraderie and the feelings of being a part of something with the other girls. We would gather after dinner to hear a speaker and we would sing songs and stand, arm in arm, swaying and laughing and crying.

When we all had to leave each other it was heart breaking! We had all grown so close and we swore to always keep in touch. Well that didn't happen, unfortunately. But it was a great experience and it was great for someone as shy as I used to be to go through the process, the interviews and then being away from home and family and with complete strangers. But I did it and I grew and I am a better person for having had the experience. I'm glad my parents gave me wings and let me fly!

What was your first time away from home? College, military, marriage?

 

Another Tales of the Bathroom and Multiple Uses for Foil

Foil Paper…it’s a multi-use wonder.

There are so many things that you can do with it. Such as:

• Soften brown sugar. 
• Keep food warm. 
• Make a funnel. 
• Protect pie crust. 
• Oven Cleaner 
• Scrubber 
• Reheating 
• Scare birds in the garden 
• Cleaning your iron 
• Sharpen Scissors
• Polish Chrome 
• Clean the grill 
• Light reflector for photography 
• Protect your brain waves from eavesdroppers and mind control…ok, that one is just a myth, but you never know right? 

I can remember my mom making burritos and wrapping them in foil to keep them warm during the summers when we would work in the tomato and cotton fields. Those were the best burritos we ever tasted!

So why my fascination with foil paper today? Well prepare yourselves for another round of strange things I find in the women's bathroom at work!!

I've done a few posts before about the strange things I find in the shared women's bathroom here in the building where I work. Once it was a Plastic Fork...right on the toilet paper dispenser. Another time I found a Peanut Husk ...right on the sanitary napkins dispenser. Well it's happened again, just look at this picture and tell me what you think!

It's a balled up piece of foil, sitting on the floor in the women's bathroom, in one of the stalls, right underneath the toilet.  Now remember the list of uses for foil above? Do any of those uses have anything to do with the bathroom? What could you possibly take into the bathroom that would require you to cover it in foil first? What could you possibly want to keep that fresh? Or that warm?

Or I guess you could use it as a scrubber? Maybe for someone toilet paper just isn't doing the job?

I shudder to think!

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Does This Taste Funny to You? Why would you recommend something disturbing to someone else?

You know how sometimes someone will smell something and tell you “This smells awful!” and then they shove it under your nose for you to smell it?

Or they say, “does this taste funny to you?” and then try to make you taste something that may or may not be rotten or just bad tasting?

Why do we do that? Why do we want to gross out someone else?

I feel that way a little bit in writing this post about a book I just finished for my online book club, From Left to Write. The book is Ruby by Cynthia Bond.

I feel like I’m telling you to look while you drive by a train wreck. What you see will scare you and shake you up and possibly haunt you for the rest of your life, but yet I tell you to look; to slow down and take a good look.

Let me first say... I LOVED THE BOOK! It was a bit slow going in the beginning, I wasn't sure I wanted to continue but then all of a sudden the author reached her hand out of the book, grabbed me by the neck and dragged me into the story of Ruby and Ephram and never let me go.

Once the book was finished I felt drained and torn between being happy the book ended and wanting it to go on. At times while reading it I had to put it down because the story was weighing heavy on my heart and my mind, and I just didn't think I could handle reading any more. But I was always drawn back because I had to see how things would end with Ruby and Ephram!

Now my dilemma is...do I recommend the book to my mom and my sister? I usually will recommend a book once I know that I liked it, but I'm hesitating on this one. I did like it, but is it for them? Am I asking them to taste something that's bad for them or to stop and gawk at a train wreck?

My mom and my sister are the type of people that only want to see the good and the pretty and the nice in life. They know the ugly is out there, but they want to avoid it at all cost!

Take television for example. They like to watch those channels that show TV programs like I Like Lucy, The Brady Bunch, The Andy Griffith Show, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie. All those sweet programs from my childhood where nothing worse happens than that Jan Brady has to wear glasses while Marcia, Marcia, Marcia gets all the boys!

My sister has told me several times that she prefers to watch those shows because life is hard enough. She likes to lose herself in pleasant programs where everything gets resolved in 30 minutes or less and no one ever kills someone or yells at them. She points out programs like The Real Housewives and Bridezilla as shows that are what is wrong with the world these days, there is no respect for each other, you just say what you feel without worrying you are going to hurt someone. It's all about the money and the ratings and the fame; morality and kindness doesn't come into play.

I have to say I agree with her somewhat, but I just can't stomach watching sappy TV shows from my past because I know life isn't always pretty and tied up with a big red bow. Couples do fight and divorce. Siblings aren't always nice to each other and in real life cops do get shot, they don't just wander the street with one bullet in their pocket, like Barney Fife!

So this book...do I recommend it to my mom and sister? It saddened me. It hurt my heart for the characters and mainly because I realize that the trauma that Ruby suffered happens in real life. It happens every day to little girls, to teenage girls, to grown women!

I don't know. I'm going to have to think about this. Whether or not I will recommend it to the two people in my life with kind, gentle hearts.

Do you ever not recommend a book because it's too sad or too powerful or too whatever?

This post was inspired by the novel Ruby by Cynthia Bond. A gripping novel, Ruby offers an unflinching portrait of man's dark acts and the promise of the redemptive power of over.  Join From Left to Write on May 8 when we discuss Ruby. As a member, I received a copy of the book for review purposes.


 

Smelling like yesterday, grooming and and you're mother doesn't work here! My Pet Peeve!

I try to live and let live, but sometimes I see things that just irk me! I usually just let it go because again..I live and let live. But at times I sure would like to smack some people upside the head for being irritating!

I've posted before about all the weird things that go on in the women’s restroom in the building where I work. I can’t believe that these women think their mother works here so it’s ok to just throw paper and towels and junk on the floor expecting someone to clean up after them. C’mon! We’re grown women!!!

Then there are the women that like to chat on the phone… in the stall… while they are doing their business! Do they really not care that the person on the other side of the line can hear them urinating…or worse? And do they really not care that the other person can hear complete strangers urinating …or worse?? Not to mention how inconsiderate they are to only allow me to hear one side of the conversation!

But I think my biggest pet peeve are the women that use their employer’s time to groom at work.

Now we all check our hair and our teeth and at times apply another coat of lipstick. I’m talking about the women that on a daily basis bring a miniature suitcase to work and then go into the bathroom and pluck their eyebrows, curl their hair, apply deodorant, apply makeup, brush their teeth and believe it or not…clip and polish their toenails. This is in the public women’s bathroom! During working hours! Do these women just roll out of bed, smelling like yesterday, putting on whatever clothes they find on the floor and take off to work and clock in then proceed to the ladies restroom to groom themselves and prepare themselves for the day?

I would love an extra hour of sleep, but I can’t see coming to work sans makeup and without showering and brushing my hair and then using the time my employer is paying me for to prepare myself to be presentable to get to work! Don't they realize that on top of being lazy they are stealing? Stealing the time their employer is paying them to work?

I realize that a lot of people think that is archaic...to worry about using work hours to groom or do personal stuff, but I was brought up old school and I've always tried to live by my favorite motto, "Integrity is what you do when no one is watching". Well ladies...there are quite a few of you that work in this building that definitely lack integrity!

So that's it for my rant, what's your pet peeve?


 

I Am My Mother and Proud of it!

I've seen the quote above posted on facebook several time by different women and I realize it's true and I'm proud of it. My mom has the wisdom of the ages and if I can be like her in any small way it's ok with me!

It's funny how much we become what our mothers are/were. I was reading a blog post from Arlee at Wrote by Rote, he's doing a great A thru Z Challenge using Music. His letter today was "V" and he chose the song Volare by Dean Martin. I'm listening to the youtube video he posted while I write this and I remember Dean from his movies with Jerry Lewis...what a voice!

Arlee tells of his mother's love of music and how he remembers her stacking a pile of albums on their hi-fi and doing her housework to the sound of music. What a wonderful memory for him. He then asks:

What songs do you associate most with your childhood? Did you have a stay-at-home mom and did she listen to music in the daytime? How old were you when you first began to appreciate music?

My comment to his post has actually turn into a post. I find that happens ALOT and that is why I love reading other bloggers, because they inspire me.

I commented, "Your mom loved music and played it often. My mom wasn't a big fan of music. I rarely remember it being played in our home so I never became a fan of music and even now only listen to it on the radio in the car. I don't have an iPod, I don't download music, I don't buy CD's. But mom loved books and I grew up with a love of reading. Mom loved games so I have every game imaginable. Mom loved puzzles, so I in turn love puzzles, even though now I do them online."

To this day I read all the time. Everyone in my family is a great fan of reading in the bathroom and believe it or not there have been times I've been in other people's bathrooms where there is no reading material and I've read the back of cans of Comet and Ajax, shampoo bottles, Mr Clean and Formula 409! I know my brothers and sister would probably 'fess up to the same thing! Mom taught us that! Well not reading Ajax bottles, but she gave us our love of reading.

Mom loved games, we played Yahtzee, Scrabble, Monopoly, Cards, Pick Up Sticks, Jenga, Cootie, Sorry and so many more! Mom always won, always! Now we look back and think maybe she was a bit of a cheater? We can't prove it, but we still suspect it. Dad would sleep in his recliner and every once in a while when we got too loud and woke him up he would look at us like we were nuts and go right back to sleep, knowing his little family was safe and sound and having fun!

Two things were always on our dining room table growing up. One one side was my mom's sewing machine. She was and is a Master Seamstress! She would make matching dresses for me, my sister and one for her! She would make doll clothes. She even sewed the Cheerleader Outfits for me and my fellow Cheerleaders in high school one year. We looked like dolls in our very unique Blue and Gold Cheerleader outfits!

The thing on the other side of the dining room table growing up was a big piece of plywood with a jigsaw puzzle on it. Mom always had a puzzle going. She would buy most of them at yard sales. We loved to spend quiet time in the evening just sitting there eating a little snack and working on the puzzle with mom. My favorite time was when we would start a new puzzle and she would divide up the pieces in the top and bottom of the box and then give one to me to pick out the edge pieces as we always built the frame first, then divided up the remaining pieces by color.

I shocked a friend recently when I told him that I wasn't a big fan of music and that growing up we never listened to music. He was stunned and said, "I can't imagine a house with no music. Music is the life of a house!" I told him, "Well I can't imagine a house without books, that was what brought life and other worlds and culture and opened up the world to us!" And that is what my mother taught me.

What's your favorite memory as a child with your mother? or your Father? Was music a big part of your world growing up? Or were you more bookish like me? I'd love to know!


      

All Dad's Should Write a Book about their Kids!

I recently read a book for my online book club, From Left to Write, written by a dad, Jim Gaffigan.

Jim is a wonderful comedian and I've listened to him many times on my drive to work while tuned in to The Bob and Tom Show. He is hilarious! He does this bit about bacon bits being “the fairy dust of the food community”! He mentions how you offer someone a salad and they are ho-hum about it, but sprinkle some bacon bits on it and BOOM! Instant deliciousness! Cracks me up every time because it is so true!

Here's a youtube video I found where he does some of his bacon jokes!



Jim’s book, Dad is Fat reminded me that a year ago during this time was when my dad took the fall that fractured his pelvis. That was in April of last year and he never quite recovered, passing away on July 31st.

I miss him so much! It would have been so wonderful to read a book written by my dad about the crazy antics his kids pulled. We used to love to listen to his stories about us when we were little kids. How he felt the first time he saw us when we were born.

I remember dad telling me that when my mom was pregnant with me he wanted a boy! Of course! I was the first born and he wanted a boy, makes sense. He told my mom as they were wheeling her into the delivery room to make sure that it was a boy because he didn't want a girl. Guess what? It was a girl…it was me! So of course when he told me this story I always said, “And what happened dad, when you heard it was a girl?” He always said, “I saw you and I fell in love with you in that very second and I never regretted that you were not a boy! Your leg was only as big as my finger!” (And he would point his index finger to show me how big my leg was!) I loved this story and never tired of him telling it.

My dad, my mom and me

And he had stories like that for each of us, me, my sister and my two brothers. It would have been so great if he had put them into a book, like Jim Gaffigan did. But regardless, we will never forget those stories!



This post was inspired by the novel Dad is Fat by comedian Jim Gaffigan who riffs on his adventures in co-parenting 5 kids in a two bedroom Manhattan apartment. Join From Left to Write on April 22 when we discuss Dad is Fat. As a member, I received a copy of the book for review purposes.



 

The Haunted Room in Calipat that reminded me of a Ship and Barbies and GI Joe

In the mid 1970's we lived on a ranch on the outskirts of a small town named Calipatria aka Calipat. When we first moved to this ranch we lived in a house that had a haunted room. The reason I know it was haunted was because my parents said it was haunted. My mom had feelings of unrest when she stepped into that room.

I really wanted my mom and dad to let me have that room as my bedroom, but they wouldn't. They just told me no because it was haunted and my mom didn't feel right letting me sleep there.

My sister and I would play in that room all the time. It was filled with boxes full of stuff that my mom had no room for and we would go in there often to play with our Barbies.

Only I didn't have a Barbie. For some reason my mom bought me the doll from the character Samantha on the TV show Bewitched.

Remember Samantha? She would wiggle her nose to make magic happen?

I loved Samantha and I'm sure that the doll my mom bought me was probably worth a pretty penny then and would be worth even more now...if I still had it.

I wish I did because I loved that doll and when my daughter April was little I used to lament that I hadn't saved it so my little girl could play with it!

This is the doll. Mine had the red sparkly dress just like this one. It was made out of some type of velvet material as was the hat and she had the beautiful red shoes. How I wish I still had this doll! I loved brushing her long blond hair, especially since mine was dark brown! My doll also had a little broom so she could fly...like a proper witch!

I don't remember exactly what doll my sister had, whether it was a regular Barbie or another TV character, I only remember mine. When we played we used to use washcloths as evening gowns. We would fold down one corner and wrap it around the dolls and secure it in the back by stabbing a straight pin into the dolls back. My poor Samantha's back must have been full of little holes!

My mom has always loved sewing so there were tons of straight pins around our house and we learned early on not to stab ourselves, as houses weren't baby proofed then, we just knew better!

We didn't have a Ken doll, but for some reason we had a GI Joe and we would have GI Joe take turns dating our Barbies. Sometimes they were sisters and sometimes they were just friends, but they never seemed to mind sharing GI Joe. GI Joe didn't mind much either!

I don't remember what we clothed GI Joe in, but I sure remember those black boots. Sometimes Samantha would wear them. 

A friend, whose mother became best friends with my mother, because we all lived on the same ranch and they lived just a few houses down from us; recently posted a photo of a house that he wants to fix up and flip. He shared the photo to see if anyone could give him ideas on how to make the room better. When I saw that photo it instantly brought me back memories of my childhood.

This is exactly what the walls in that room were like. For some reason when I was in that room I felt like I was on board a ship on the ocean. Maybe the spirit in that room that my mom felt had at one time been at sea? Or maybe the walls had been part of a ship and someone had moved them to the John Elmore Ranch in Calipatria to make one room in the house special? If there was something in that room, it wasn't bad, because I loved that room and always felt safe there.

When my friend posted this picture, it brought back memories of the smell of the walls of that room, the wood smell. The smell of the boxes filled with stuff that my mom stored there.  

I was filled with the memory of playing with my sister, of being the bossy big sister and telling my very obedient and loving little sister what our Barbies would be wearing that day and where they would be going and who GI Joe would go with. 

It's funny how something as simple as a picture of a room with knotty pine walls can stir up so many memories that have been buried for so many years and right now it feels like just yesterday that my sister and I played Barbies with GI Joe in a haunted room! If this were my house, I would not change a thing in this room!

Thanks mom and dad for such a wonderful childhood!

What was your favorite toy or doll? Have you ever experienced a haunted room or had weird feelings in a room like my mom probably did? 

 

I'll never eat canned green beans again and The Kiss of Death!

Do you eat canned green beans?

I have to admit that I've eaten canned green beans my whole life.

I didn't know any better.

I remember once going to Panda Express and having an order of their Chicken Green Beans and the green beans were what caught my fancy. They were so good and crispy.

Recently my co-worker has at times brought some green beans she makes to work and I've loved them. Today I finally had to ask her how she makes them and she was very gracious and told me exactly how.

So I made them and they were divine! As God is my witness I will never eat canned green beans again!

It's so amazingly easy that I just don't understand why I've never just cooked my own green beans before! Just buy fresh green beans, trim the ends and wash them off well. Then take about two tablespoons of bacon grease and warm it up in the pan, add the green beans, a bit of salt and pepper (next time I'm going to add fresh grated garlic). Saute them in the pan for 3 to 4 minutes over medium heat, then cover them and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes, then turn off the heat and let them sit covered in the pan for 15 to 20 minutes.

That's it!

Here's what you end up with. Don't you love the color?

Made for a delicious low-carb dinner when I set them right next to some rotisserie chicken. Yum!

So I am trying...trying so hard to stick to a low-carb WOE (way of eating). And really it's very simple and easy and I'm never hungry...but then my mom brings home the KISS OF DEATH!

Fudge Marshmallow Cookies!!! My absolute favorite kind of cookie ever! I didn't even know they still made these! I can remember eating these as a kid and I loved the marshmallowy center and the crisp cookie underneath all wrapped with chocolate! But I will not succomb...be gone ye evil cookie! (Made mom take them to her room!)

What's your favorite way of cooking green beans? Now that I'm hooked on them I'd like to see what ya'll are doing with them!