Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today is my Dad’s 82nd birthday. I can’t tell you how very glad I am that he is still here to celebrate with us – Paul lost his Dad last year, so I certainly cherish the fact that my Daddy is still around.

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Remember the Alamo!

March 5-6th were very important days in Texas history, as those were the days which led up to the fall of the Alamo,  a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution which would mark the beginning of the end of Mexican rule.

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Tuesday Tunes – “When The Saints Go Marching In”

Photo by Lee Deforke Jr..

Today is Mardi Gras – also known as “Fat Tuesday” – so what better song to celebrate the fun than the song that has become synonymous with New Orleans and Dixieland Jazz than”When the Saints Go Marching In”?

We’ll start off with the “original” – the one and only Louis Armstrong:

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Adventures in Remodeling – “Dis”-mantling, Part II

Mantle 10 - 800x600

The original mantle, minus additional side panels (which broke off when taking fireplace apart)

Welcome back!

When we left off last weekend, Paul had just finished joining an additional strip of wood to the back of the upper mantle piece:

Glue 10

Using “biscuits” to join the old mantle shelf to newly-made piece

Because of changes to the position of the right column and the addition of the strip of wood to “even up” the upper mantle piece, we had to add a little more wood on either side of the original upper piece to make it wide enough to match the correct dimensions for the final piece:

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Sunday Funnies: Happy Texas Independence Day!

Survivor_texas.
My dad sent me this a while back; since today is Texas Independence Day, I wanted to share them with you:

Due to the popularity of the “Survivor” TV show, Texas is planning to do one entitled: “Survivor – Texas-Style!”

The lucky contestants will all start in Dallas, drive to Waco, Austin, San Antonio, then over to Houston and down to Brownsville.
They will then proceed up to Del Rio, El Paso, Odessa, Midland, Lubbock, and Amarillo.
From there they will go on to Abilene and Fort Worth.
Finally. back to Dallas.

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Foodie Friday – Shrimp Gumbo (with Bonus Recipe for Hush Puppies)

Gumbo 1.
Growing up in the South, a girl isn’t considered a good cook unless she knows how to make a proper roux for a good pot of gumbo.  It never ceases to amaze me how something as simple as flour and oil can cook for a few hours and become something as delicious as the base for this most wonderful of dishes.

I got this recipe years and years ago at my local grocery store – it was on one of those cards that they put up in a display at the seafood case.  It is very, very simple, and once the roux is done, you can just go in and stir the pot occasionally until you can’t wait another minute.

Since no one in our family is really fond of crab or oysters, I have always left them out.  As with any recipe, feel free to adjust to your family’s tastes!

The longer this cooks, the more the flavors marry together, so be patient 😛
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Tuesday Tunes – “Duetto Buffo di Due Gatti”

In honor of Gioachino Rossini’s birthday (it’s actually February 29th), I wanted to share this adorable performance of a piece that has been attributed to him, affectionately known as “The Cat Duet”.

While this piece is normally performed by two women (I had more fun singing this, way back when), these two little boys*** would steal any show!
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*** They’re not so “little” any more; this performance by “Les petits chanteurs a la croix de bois” (PCCB – also known as “The Little Singers Of Paris”) is from their concert done in Seoul, Korea, Nov 30, 1996.

The boys doing the singing are Hyacinthe de Moulins (the blonde boy) and Régis Mengus (the dark-haired boy).  Régis is now an opera singer in France, and Hyacinthe got married in May, 2013.

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Sunday Funnies: A Hilarious Harry Potter Spoof

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In 2003, the BBC’s “French and Saunders” did this laugh-out-loud spoof on the second Harry Potter film for the UK’s version of Comic Relief:

2003’s UK fundraiser performed a spoof story entitled “Harry Potter and the Secret Chamberpot of Azerbaijan” that featured Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Miranda Richardson, Jeremy Irons, Alison Steadman and Ronnie Corbett, with the sketch being preceded by a message from JK Rowling. French and Richardson would later star in several of the real Harry Potter films. With so much star power, this spoof didn’t see a whole lot of attention outside of the UK, but that’s not to say it’s not worth searching out.

Here is “Harry Potter and the Secret Chamberpot of Azerbaijan“:
(My apologies – the best-quality videos were broken up into 4 parts, and all of them have the Comic Relief “whine and beg” line running through them at some point)
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Adventures in Remodeling – “Dis”-mantling, Part I

Mantle 13 - 310x232 Mantle 6 - 310x232

All of the wood in this house has been original and untouched, so all of the finishes are shellac/varnish rather than modern-day polyurethane.  That means that we have been able to strip the old finish off with denatured alcohol and steel wool, rather than having to use paint remover.  The nice thing about that is that the “character” and natural aging stain of the wood is preserved, so a really lovely color remains on the wood surface.

We couldn’t help ourselves….

When Paul started to refinish the old mantle, he noticed that it was kind of wobbly, so we decided to (carefully) take it apart and try to clean each piece individually:
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Foodie Friday – Chicken Enchiladas with Sour Cream Sauce

chicken enchiladas.

We’ll finish up this month with one of my personal favorites – Chicken Enchiladas with Sour Cream Sauce.  I found the original recipe for this in a newspaper’s “Food” section many, many years ago, but this one is adapted from The Pioneer Woman’s most excellent recipe.

Most recipes for “white” chicken enchiladas that I have seen over the years include jalapeno peppers, chili peppers, and/or cilantro; since nobody in our family likes things that spicy, I adapted the recipe to suit our tastes.  Feel free to add in any “heat” that your family might like!

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