Baldassare Forestiere Part Two

I survived the onslaught of fair goers, but just barely.  Wait until you hear.  In the meantime, back to Baldassare's underground house.  He was a very religious man, so things were always built in threes as in the Holy Trinity.  Here's two of the niches representing the seven sacraments in the entrance courtyard.  As you can see, the first floor wasn't all that deep.  Trellises were built across the openings to provide a little shade from the hot California sun.

Right next door to his winter bedroom, is the summer bedroom.  Funny they both looked exactly the same to me.  This one did have luggage storage and a large window that looked out to the bathroom courtyard.  To the top right of the image you can even see a mural Baldassare painted of his citrus trees.  Looks pretty comfortable!

As you move in and around the areas, you'll find a tiny chapel and an aquarium built between the first and second floor.  It has a plexiglass bottom and so no matter what floor you are on, you can either look up or down to see the fish.

I couldn't quite figure out his construction techniques.  He cut the arches out for each doorway, then added bricks, followed by a hardpan concrete mixture being pushed up into the bricks with something that looked like metal straps, leaving indentations in the mud work.  Hard to explain .... you would have to see it for yourself.

The longer he was there, the more he wanted to build a hotel/entertainment center.  The home got deeper and the courtyards bigger with even more fruit trees to feed his guests.  There were several types of oranges, grapefruit and even grapes.  

These trees are all HUGE, not to mention over 100 years old and STILL producing fruit.  I'm actually down at the second floor level here, looking through the tunnel under the underground driveway.

Baldassare decided his guests should arrive in their Model T's through this entrance tunnel.  You can see all manner of structural supports, including leaf springs, rebar, old barbed wire fence and even bed springs.  He was the original recycler.

We went down and around, ending up inside the tunnel that he cut out with a Fresno plow and two mules.  Here's a good look at the hardpan he was dealing with.  Eventually you are able to cut through the concrete like material to soil below.

Towards the end of the tunnel, you come to a large door which brings you right into the hotel ballroom.  In 1946 poor Baldassare passed away before it could be completed, leaving everything to his family.  I can't remember how many siblings he had ... maybe five.  There was a little bit of a scuffle as they tried to split up the inheritance.  No one wanted the underground home.

In the end, it was all sold off except for what you see today.  The only reason it's here is because Baldassare's brother Giuseppe "Joe" used his part of the money to buy the property you see.  The balance was sold off to developers who destroyed everything else to build their own hotels and commercial properties.

Joe finished off the ballroom in concrete block, then painted it rather oddly to make it look even more like blocks.  At this level a small portion of the roof is above the level of the soil.  The windows are all amazingly beautiful and original.

Here's Joe in his younger days.  Nothing here would exist at all if it weren't for him.  As a kid I remember driving past Forestiere gardens and seeing him standing on the corner waving to everyone that went by.  No wait ... I'm not really THAT old, so I must not have seen him after all.

Around the outside edges you can see just how all this construction was done.  Here's a corner section  dug out just waiting for the hardpan arches.

He certainly was a hardworking man.  A man who took his crushed dreams and made them into lemonade.  A very good looking guy in my eyes, he never married nor had any children.  It's amazing what a little imagination can do.  If you are ever driving through Fresno California, be sure and stop in to say hello.  If I remember right, seniors get in for $15 and it's worth every penny.

I survived the County Fair, but barely.  I hurt all over and am headed for the couch where I plan on spending every single minute of this day with a large bottle of aspirin.  No loud noises and no ball game please ... Mom needs some sleep.

Holding Part Two .....

It took Baldassare many moons to build that underground house, and it's going to take me one more day to relay the story.  My apologies to Baldassare since I first misspelled his name.  Oops!!!!

I received an emergency call yesterday from the Elks Lodge that their new endeavor at the Merced County Fair was extremely short of help.   I jumped on the speeding train.  Arriving at 2:00, I found seven people and a line of order tickets twelve feet long.  I kid you not, they were busy!!

The Sheriff was cooking burgers as fast as he could, but they just needed more hands and less chairs.  Less chairs because they kept sitting down instead of working!  I jumped in with both feet that are now killing me.  Within the hour, everyone bailed, leaving four of us to run the entire kitchen from 3:00 to 10:30 pm on a SATURDAY night.

I called out the orders, added the fixings and screamed numbers at the top of my lungs to people who could only hear the band next door and pumped out dozens of cups of drinks.  450 orders later I was pretty beat up.  Good news, I STILL have all my fingers.

I hated to leave them in a pinch, but I had puppies locked up all day and had to leave at 9:30.  This morning I'm heading back to cook burritos for the masses, followed by Burgers Elk Style.  I'll explain all that later .... the Sheriff's Department is holding my parking spot!!!

Baldasare Forestiere

That is probably a name you have never heard of, yet here in the Central Valley of California, he is pretty well known for his digging skills.

Baldasare grew up in Sicily and became quite skilled at grafting fruit trees.  Always working for someone else, he longed for a piece of property of his own where he could make a living growing fruits and vegetables.

He saved up all his money and was finally able to immigrate to the United States in the early 1900's.  He had found some property for sale for a mere $1 an acre, actually a pretty good price back then.  He purchased 80 acres and set about to become a farmer.

Unfortunately when he began to till the soil, he discovered his entire 80 acres was covered with a thick layer of hardpan, an extremely dense layer of clay that doesn't allow water or roots to penetrate it.  We had entire fields full of hardpan at the ranch, making growing things impossible.

Baldasare was crushed.  His dream lost.  He had to find work elsewhere, but what was he going to do with 80 acres of hardpan?  He made lemonade.  Not having a house to live in during the hot summer months, he began to dig below ground where it was cooler.  Maybe he could use these chunks of hardpan like bricks and so Forestiere Gardens came to life.

This is the entrance, down several steps to a beautiful arch-enclosed patio.  He left openings at the top to allow light and sunshine into the house, like windows.

Baldasare hacked the chunks of hardpan into brick-like pieces and built living quarters with arches everywhere.  This is the original kitchen.  As you can see, the walls are rather rough.  The black thing hanging down is the chimney for his cook stove.  He later moved the stove to the NEW kitchen.

Down about 10 feet and finally through the hardpan, he discovered he could plant trees which would grow up through the holes he made in the ceiling.  Citrus seemed to be his favorite and he put his grafting skills to good use.  Most all of the trees growing here are over 100 years old and yes, that is an orange at the top of the tree.

Not wanting to feel closed in, he built archway after archway so he could see great distances while inside.  At the very far end of these hallways is the well he dug.  While building all this, he incorporated elaborate ways of disposing of rainfall that came through the holes in the roof.

Here it is June and these orange trees are still full of edible fruit.  I'm guessing it was about ten degrees cooler inside.  Every tree was planted in a planter about three feet tall.  Ledges were built around the holes at the top so as water came in, it cascaded over those ledges which directed it straight into the planter.  Automatic waterers.

As you walk around the hallways admiring the rock work, you will find yourself right back where you started.  It's all built in the round, so to speak.

As time went on, Baldasare decided to make a hotel/spa/resort and began making courtyards and bigger rooms.  As you can see, harvesting the trees was pretty easy.  He just climbed the stairs, walked outside and gathered the fruit from the top of the trees.

To say hardpan is hard as a rock is an understatement.  Here you can see the scratch marks he made with hammer and chisels to sculpt the ceilings.  His first rooms were pretty rough looking but as his skills improved, he began to make fabulous arches and plastered all the walls.

The window you see is to his bedroom, looking out on this courtyard, which is also the bathroom.  The interesting part is the iron rail bridge which crosses over his fish pond.  He would catch fish in the river and keep them alive in this pond until he was ready for a fish dinner.

Across the large courtyard, the bathtub allowed a little bit of privacy.  He painted a big metal container black, set it up top in the sun and kept it full of water.   Just open the faucet and he had hot water for a bath!  

He finally moved his kitchen to the new section, this being his original wood cook stove.  The table pushes back in to the wall to allow access to the wood box just below.  Shelves were made by making notches in the walls and fitting in 2 x 6's.  To the left are beautiful French doors looking out to a big patio.  Yup ... he actually had doors and windows in most rooms.

This was Baldasares winter bedroom, completely carved out of hardpan.  One of the problems he had was not knowing if anyone was up top, either a visitor or a culprit.  In his bedroom (and all about the inside) he had spy holes to see who was there.  This room has a hole going to the fireplace in the room next door (completely invisible) that allowed him to see who was at the French doors in the kitchen.

Baldasare also installed a large bell.  When family and friends came to visit, they would ring the bell so he would know to come to the entrance courtyard.  

I'll break this up into two blogs since there are still so many cool things to show you.  Baldasare harvested the fruit from his trees and sold it locally to make money to build his new endeavor, an underground hotel.  Believe it or not, this facility covered almost the entire 80 acres.  It is now down to only ten and I will explain why tomorrow.

I'm happy to say I came home with all ten fingers yesterday, leaving no extra protein in the hamburgers.  I think today is nap day!!

Short and Sweet!

My plan was to show you the underground house just a small piece down the road, but things get in the way.  What I call the mucky mucks were visiting our Elks Lodge last night, meaning we got the best dinner EVER, with real tablecloths and napkins!  They cut up prime rib and barbecued it instead of the slow roast in the oven.  It was delicious!!!

That's when a problem arose ... they have committed themselves to cooking for a big crowd at the Merced County Fair today.  Everyone seems to be on vacation, or knows just how much work it is and have declined.  So Nancy has to go help cut up tomatoes, onions and lettuce while the other poor souls cook dozens and dozens of hamburgers.  Luckily I didn't get THAT job!!

Thing is, I have to be there at 7:00, a short hour away, so I'm just giving you a quick shot at the quilt I just finished.  It came from Astoria Oregon where I broke my steadfast rule .. always buy the backing material at the same time, because it has taken me three years to find one that matched.  Perseverance ..... it takes perseverance.

So I'm off ...... and taking along my bag of bandaids and tape because you know how I am with sharp objects!! 

Post Cards From The Early 1900's

I survived my trip to the big town of Fresno yesterday, but that story will have to wait until I process the pictures.  In the meantime, here are those holiday cards and post cards I told you about that Florence saved.  There are well over a hundred.

She was a saver that girl.  I don't have ANY cards hanging around.  I think we were long lost cousins of some sort.  Very long ago I was told a story about their family being related to my Grandfather who grew up on the Isle of Man, as did they.

They must have been fairly well off as they traveled a lot through Liverpool and around England with a couple trips to the U.S. as well.  Eventually they moved to Bakersfield California.  All of this was back in the very early 1900's when the only way of communicating was by post cards and letters.  Remember those?

Florence's mother Adelaide was a saver too.  Most of these cards were sent to her or ones she purchased while on vacation.  When Florence passed on and left everything to my father, I was rather surprised.  I never heard him talk about them, nor did they ever visit that I know of.

Luckily, I was able to salvage them from the trash can when we cleaned out Florence's house in Petaluma.  Here are four of probably 50 cards, mostly for Florence's wedding.  Even the cards from her wedding gifts are here.  I don't think they were married very long since there were just a couple of anniversary cards.

The post cards that her mother Adelaide saved are amazing.  Here's one from Bishop California, a tiny little town on the East side of the Sierras.  

Way back then families would go to studios and have their picture taken, then made into post cards to send to relatives.  Many just say how are you.  Many more say "just wanted to make sure you got home okay".  If you were visiting someone, formality stated you announce your arrival, also by post card.  Then there were weird ones like this!!  Click on the image to see it bigger.

As you can see, this one was mailed from Blackpool (England I assume) in 1909.  

Talk about racey ... there are several images like this that show a little leg ... definitely a no-no back then, but I suppose they ARE at the beach.

Meet Miss Daisy Jerome.  Seems to me this one is a little racey too.  I've no idea who Daisy is!!

This card says Miss Maud Allan as Salome.  Woohoo!!!  Of course there are also many cards with landscape images, mostly of the Isle of Man and England.  This one of Salome has a note on the back.

Dear Maud.   Just a line as promised.  Hope the voyage was O.K. and that you were a good girl.  Mind you meet me on Tuesday as usual as I shall be wondering how you are.  Yours sincerely, Maggie.  It was mailed in 1908.

This is one of those photographs made into a post card.  This is Adelaide's sister Katie who would be visiting right after Christmas.  It's funny she writes on the back "please don't turn over in case I speak".  I think there were maybe eight or nine siblings in this family, all born in the 1880's.

Everywhere they went on vacation, Adelaide bought packages of post cards to send to friends and to remember her visit.  Camera's were not readily available.  I have many from San Francisco, the Redwood Highway, Medford Oregon, clear on up to Vancouver.  There's some from Oakland, Susanville, Fort Brag and the Riverside Auto Camp.  Just too many to name.

The B C Electric Railway Observation car from 1927 was conducted by Teddy Lyons and one visitor came to see Adelaide on the Mauritania.  Fascinating stuff.  When you think about it, most all of these cards are over 110 years old.

So if anyone has any ideas what I might do with all this history, let me know.  I would surely like to see it saved and not end up in another trash can.

In the meantime, aren't you glad you are not traveling to Yosemite National Park and in need of fuel?    Yup ... $6.07 a gallon for diesel.  That would be $303 to fill up my truck ... $500 for my rig.  Down in the valley it's not much better at $3.90.  You can tell summer travel is on the horizon by the price of fuel.

It's going to be a quiet day on the couch.  My poor Cooper has apparently hurt his back again ... a little too rambunctious with the ball game I suspect.  He will be sad because I'm throwing them all away!!  

Tomorrow ... the original underground house in California.

Magic Kingdom Surprise ... SURPRISE!!

You didn't think I would forget being with the Knights of the Round Table at the Magic Kingdom of Bingo, did you?  After a lovely morning coffee serenaded by Jack the bird, who can only sing two notes by the way, I did a little sewing, but spent most of the day gearing up for the onslaught.

The first Tuesday of every month is crazy crowded and busy because it's PAY DAY in the world of Welfare and Retirement.  SURPRISE!  The Castle Lawyer called me in the morning to say she was going to be gone.  WAIT!!!  It's our busiest night!!  So sorry Charlie, and she was gone with a click.

The afternoon passed in a flash.  It was time to head off to the land of peasants and knights.  It was a two coke confab as we discussed baseball and how the heck Red Feather Apache Frank has survived this long.

I think it's the Corona.  I finally got him to stand still for a picture.  I'm pretty sure I could take him.  Maybe some day I'll live to be 98 years old.  His birthday is in February, which is when he went on the Honor Flight to Washington DC.  This night he brought with him the flag and commendation he received which he donated to the Elks.  We are honored.  I don't think I have ever met a happier man who can sit all night long and tell you jokes.  What a memory!!

All set up with the infernal machine and the now beloved mini-me, I opened the doors fifteen minutes early.  I figured there to be a long line and I would be alone for the first forty five minutes.  A helper had been hijacked and was heading my way.  Lucky for me I'm ambidextrous.  I can count with one hand and work the cash register with the other.  The peasants were happy!!

That is until one of our newly captured recruits began to call the games.  He's an airline pilot that flies jumbo jets ... the big buses that cruise through the skies.  Unfortunately, the peasants can be brutal.  In a couple of games, you don't call the N numbers because the only N number required is free.

You should have heard the uproar!!  He might have felt right at home since it sounded like a jet engine, but alas, he chose to forego the festivities and chow down on our famous hot dogs instead.  I'm not sure he will return.  That happens quite often.  It's a tough crowd, these Bingo players.  I'm still here because I'm too stubborn to give in.  

For the most part, the rest of the evening went well.  There were chariots cruising about with their masters breathing fire, lost little red tickets (used for a pull tab drawing) and a fountain of cash flowing like water.  I spent the last hour contemplating my new shoes.

Luckily I balanced to the penny, a real conquest when I'm that busy and by myself.  The Pull Tab Room had problems in that respect.  That's not my part of the Castle, but I stayed to help sort out the beans.  When you only have an abacus and ten fingers, it can be trying, not to mention the foreign spreadsheet that made no sense.  

At long last, using both my fingers AND toes, we decided it wasn't $600 off after all, but it took two hours to figure that out.  That's FOUR HOURS past my bedtime!!  I came home and crashed.

My plan was to hit the new quilt store in the big town of Fresburg today, but I'm not sure I can stay awake for the drive over an hour away.

SURPRISE!!!  I checked my phone this morning to find the Castle Lawyer won't be there next week either.  Oh the joy!!!!!

Beeeeeee The Pillow!!!

As you have probably already seen, I changed out the blog picture.  What a pain that was!  It took me forever to figure out just WHERE I could do that.  It was easy to decide on an image, but hard to get it the right size with the name in the right spot.

You can thank reader Patritia Richards for no longer getting a chill when you open my blog.

It's fitting, since I've got a death grip on my camera and I'm in the desert.  Many may recognize the old car located in the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.  I always loved the glacier image, but I have to admit it did make me rather cold every time I looked at it.

Being single and the one with the camera, I have very few pictures of me.  Maybe I'll drag out that phone camera tripod thingy and try for a couple of selfies.

Really, I should have pictures of the puppies on the blog since that's pretty much my life.  They have me well trained and I wait on them hand and foot.  How could you not with a face like this?

I didn't set up this image ... Cooper didn't want Miss Jessie playing with his toy, so he took it to bed with him.  I have recently become very adept at the new game ..... beeeee the pillow!  Just sit there Mom and DON'T MOVE!

That is unless he wants to play the ball game.  I was sewing binding on one more quilt I picked up, when I was rudely interrupted.  He stood like that for almost five minutes while I stifled a big laugh.  You guessed it ... I played the ball game.

You don't move when you become the pillow.  Any movement brings growls the likes of which will instantly freeze you in the correct pillow position for the rest of the night.

From then on, there better be something really good on television, because I'm not allowed to move even a fraction of an inch.  Beeeeeee the pillow!!!!

Finally, with my butt in pain and my legs numb, I quietly whispered ... Oh LOOK!  A BALL!!  He jumped to the floor with great expectation.  That was my chance to become NOT the pillow as I headed out to the local shoe store for a new pair of sandals.  

What should appear right next door to the shoe store?  A Yogolicious add-your-own-toppings establishment that called my name when I was still clear across the parking lot.  I never do this but on this day the pillow wanted something cool and tasty.

Have you been in one of these places?  I was expecting maybe two kinds of frozen yogurt.  I think there were maybe fifteen?  In thirty seconds, I had caramel corn, peach and strawberry with a little watermelon thrown in just for luck.  I'll know better next time because that left no room for the candy toppings!!

I loaded up with peanut butter chips, peanut butter cups, heath bar crumbles and marshmallows.  Top that with some caramel sauce and the pillow was happy.  By the way, you pay by the ounce.  $5.52 later, the pillow was ready to become even softer due to all the candy ... but wait ... the yogurt is fat free, right??

I sat at a table and began to dig in when I realized they were playing religious rock music.  That's different!  It's what we played in Kids Church when I was helping teach, but in a Yogurt shop?  That's when the strange guy came in.  Hmmmmm, I'm always keeping an eye out for the "strange" people.  He carried a bag and went immediately to the restroom.  That was my key to exit the building.

Just as I arrived home, I spotted this fire very near my house.  I dialed 911 immediately.  Come to find out it was a structure fire about half a mile away.  The structure turned out to be an old shed, along with a fence and an acre of dry grass.  Luckily they got it out quickly before it spread to the subdivision next door or the dry grass in my back yard.

With all the excitement over, I went back to practicing my zen exercises.  

BEEEEEEEEE THE PILLOW!!!!!

It's A Love-Hate Relationship

I talked about the table, then didn't show you any pictures.  Here she is in all her 85 year old glory.  Certainly anything made like this nowadays would not last that long, especially since she lived in the garage all that time.

The top is covered with hatchet and knife marks along with square nails that were used to keep her together.  When she got loose, we just added another nail.  Too bad that doesn't work for MY loose parts.

Summer has arrived in Central California with 103 degree temperatures in my back yard yesterday.  The low was 71 .... and this morning, it's HOT.  I tried not to use the air conditioner, which resulted in a horrible night's sleep.  I even turned the ceiling fan on, but then I listened to it creak all night.  I won't do that again.  

I have a love-hate relationship with my AC ... yes I love it, but I hate paying the price.  Those who deal with PG&E in California will understand.  The news reported that just before declaring bankruptcy the higher ups all got bonuses.  They are now making up for lost time.

I also have a love-hate relationship with Costco.  In the old days when I cooked for more than one, I loved going there for the good prices.  You could stock up on stuff and not have to shop for days.  Since they raised the membership fee to over $50 a year, I have to go at least twice now to get my money's worth.  I'm an accountant, what can I say.

Don't you just love the food samples?  You can cruise the aisles and snack all along the way.  If you want lunch, that $2.00 hot dog is the bomb.  Mostly I was looking for ease of prep meals.  The salmon and halibut are at the Doctor's request, the chicken meatballs because they are low fat and the burnt ends with BBQ sauce ... well they just looked amazing!!  

I also have become addicted to pine nut hummus.  At the old ranch now under the waters of Lake Isabella, once a year we would trek to the higher mountains for pine nut collection, just like the Indians before us did.  We ate lots of them before they were in vogue.  

With gunny sack feed bags, we would gather the pine cones that dropped to the ground before meeting back under a big tree.  That's when the fun began ... trying to dig those tiny nuts from the pitch encrusted cones.  Needless to say, we all ended up with pine pitch from one end to the other.  

It was another love-hate relationship.  We LOVED the nuts, but HATED getting them out.  Once roasted over a fire, the shells would crack easily and we would get to eat the yummy treats.  

So when I spotted pine nut hummus being doled out in aisle six, I was first in line.  I really didn't need that quart sized container, but I bought it anyway.  I'm hoping it freezes well.

Costco is also the place to buy copy machine ink, correction tape and copy paper.  The HATE part of the relationship comes when you try to get things OUT of the packaging.  I mean really, who is going to try and steal correction tape?

I worked on this package for a full ten minutes.  Yes I DID use scissors to cut into the plastic coating, but I STILL couldn't get them out.

In a last ditch effort, I took a steak knife and cut around every single one.  LOVE the correction tape, HATE getting it out of the package and figuring out who I should give them to for Christmas.  I doubt I will ever use up eight.

I almost had a heart attack at the checkout stand.  The total came to $389.  Believe it or not, $175 was the ink for my $99 copy machine.  It would have been $260 elsewhere.  LOVE that part.  I'm guessing the machine won't even last long enough to use it up, but I'm well prepared, just in case.  

Once home, I broke everything down into smaller packages.  I should have remembered to check out the vacuum packaging machine.  At least I have 25 meals ready to go, even if it did cost me a small fortune.  Now to figure out what I'm going to do with all that hummus.

Dinner Vegetarian

I've always been a meat and potatoes girl.  It was out of necessity.  When you live and work on a cattle ranch, things happen.  Cattle die.  Every day we would wander around the fields looking for sick cows or calves to doctor.  When you pay a lot of money for them up front, you want to be sure they live long enough to recoup your investment.

The other reason ... if you caught them quick enough and the Vet autopsy didn't discover anything detrimental to our health, it was immediately butchered and stashed in the freezer for dinner.  Sound terrible?  It was ... at least I thought so ... but you ate what was on the table.  We didn't have money to buy much food in the store.

Once a year we would gather up all the cows and calves for branding.  Otherwise, your neighbor might accidentally take your expensive calf to HIS house.  Just like people, cows have funny personalities and sometimes go crazy when separated from their calves.  One tried to jump over an eight foot tall fence.  She succeeded in jumping into our freezer.

There was always meat on our table.  I preferred the macaroni and cheese my Mom made and I looked forward to Sunday dinners when we had fried chicken.  That is another story ... we raised the chickens.  Chickens die.  I'm sure you can gather the rest of THAT tale.

I thought about all this yesterday morning as I had coffee with my bird buddy.  I've named him Jack.  Jack is outside singing every single morning.  He's moved from the rooftop to the weather vane.

Back to the story .... I think my cooking skills came from my mother.  About every third time she cooked, we had broiled steak.  I've no idea why we didn't barbecue, other than we didn't own one.  Like me, she was prone to distraction, resulting in blackened steak for dinner.  It would probably be a "thing" nowadays.

Unfortunately, meat and potatoes don't bode well for a diet.  I've actually become a dinner vegetarian.  Yes, that IS ham in the pan.  I cheated.  I've been trying to have small lunches with meat and vegetables but when it comes to dinner, it's SO much easier to just have salad and vegetables.  Steamed or nuked, I LOVE vegetables.  When I saw this recipe for fried rice without the rice, I thought I would try it.  It's WAY outside my comfort zone.

These are cauliflower crumbles.  They were never available in any store where I grew up.  When I saw it had been switched out for the rice in this recipe, I was intrigued.  Could it be possible?  So I chopped up some ham, carrots, celery and onions, frying it up according to the recipe.

Like regular fried rice, there was soy sauce and scrambled eggs too.  I dumped in the crumbles and stirred it up.  In two minutes it was done.  How interesting .... it actually LOOKS like fried rice ... and it's so HEALTHY, except for the ham part.  

Time for the taste test.  It's no where NEAR as good as mac and cheese, but it IS better than burned steak.  In fact, it was pretty tasty.  I'm not sure this is something for the men, since most men are meat eaters.  Surprisingly, it didn't taste like cauliflower at all.  It tasted like fried rice.  Even the leftovers the next day were good.  After that toss it in the cemetery.  

I much prefer fried chicken and mashed potatoes.  I tell myself I should just eat anything I want, after all I'm old as the hills and should indulge myself.  My too tight jeans speak a different language.  I'm going back to being a dinner vegetarian.

I think about what I eat every single morning as I listen to Jack, drinking my coffee outside at the table we used to cut and wrap those cows on.   Strange I should hang on to that table but it's one of the few remnants of a bygone era ... life on the ranch.

Speaking of Dog Food ......

Back in the dark ages on the ranch, if Mom cooked something no one liked, it went to the dogs ... literally.  That didn't happen often, because you know there are starving children in the world who would just LOVE to eat that!!  After it and I sat at the table for three hours (I kid you not), she would finally relent and scrape it off into the dog bowls out on the porch.  They chowed down.   Maybe that's what I need instead of a cemetery!!  A dog with a cast iron stomach!!

I've been trying desperately to stay on the Nutrisystem diet, just cooking the food myself.  Since I like the ease of prep so much (2-3 minutes in the microwave), I've been searching for pre-packaged meals I can just heat up.

This pork chili verde looked pretty good as it lounged in the meat section at Save Mart.  It wasn't really precooked, but the bag-o-sauce made it really simple to whip up dinner.

I opened the bag and got a big whiff of cut up pork.  Whew!!  It smelled a little vinegary, so I double checked the pull date.  In spite of my misgivings, I threw it in the pot and proceeded to fry it up in batches.  It smelled much better and tasted fine.

I dumped in the sauce with just a tad of cornstarch slurry and let it simmer for about 20 minutes.  No use taking any chances on raw pork.  It looked and smelled delicious.  I put some in a bowl, then covered it in grated cheese and avocado.  YUM .... I'm hungry!

I took my first big bite.  My mouth was instantly on fire!!  In two seconds my lips were numb from the pain and my throat was burning like I swallowed a knife blade afire.  I almost dropped the bowl as I ran for the kitchen, looking for something to quench the flames.  I like pepper hot food, but this was downright ridiculous.  Someone somewhere was laughing at me!

All I could find was a slice of bread that I almost ate whole.  That's when I felt the chili hit bottom and burn a hole in my stomach.  Good grief .. I've got at least four more servings, not counting the bowl full still in the living room.  

I grabbed a fork and tried to spear each piece of meat, getting every drop of sauce OFF.  It was still too hot, but I ate it just so I didn't have to throw it out.  By the end, my lips AND mouth were numb with pain.  The burning lasted long into the night!!

This easy-to-prepare dinner will be a big NO on my shopping list next time.  I wouldn't even throw this one to the dogs.  It's actually still in the fridge as I try to get up enough nerve to eat the leftovers, which is 95% of the original recipe.

Meantime, in between the Quilter's Block Challenge, I've been trying to finish this quilt and get it off my wall.  I told myself I would never again make a queen sized quilt.  They are just too big and wieldy.  It makes you wonder what the heck I was thinking when I bought this one, because it's a QUEEN!!  Way too big and wieldy!!

Next up ... pork fried rice for dinner tonight.  Another new exciting recipe I found.  At least this one doesn't have any hot peppers in it!!  Just in case, I bought a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk to go with the LARGE size bottle of Tums!!

Your Dog Food Report Card

I spoke too soon.  Miss Jessie Belle just got worse yesterday, so I made an emergency call and got her in to see her favorite Doctor.  He says she's the best little girl ever, as she bats her eyelashes at him.  I told her he says that to all the girls.  She really doesn't have bandages on her, this image is a few months old.  She's rather camera shy, this girl.

I just kept thinking it was the food.  Nowadays it seems you can't trust any of them.  Dog food is forever being recalled for it's detrimental effects.  In the old days, our cattle dogs got kitchen scraps and whatever the cheapest dog food was. We never seemed to have a problem, even when they ate dead skunks and roadkill.  We never let our dogs lick our faces.

Like us old folks however, their diet needs to be watched more closely when they get older AND when they are smaller.  After discussing everything in her life, he came to the conclusion it's probably stress related.  That's right, I not only stress out myself, apparently I stress out my dog!!  Not really.

What DOES stress her enormously are gun shots and fireworks which have been going off the last month or so.  Don't ask me why, I guess the neighborhood behind me likes big bangs, plus it's hunting season.  At any rate, that has set off a chain reaction in her stomach.  You fix that with meds and special food.  Unfortunately, very expensive low fat food!!

That's when the Vet brought out this report card.  He decided to grade dog food so people would know if they were giving their puppies good stuff or not.  He broke everything down by almost every single ingredient.  As an accountant, I can appreciate how much work THAT was.  He put it all on a spreadsheet, including the cost of each brand.

He found that the better the ingredients in the dog food, the higher the cost.  No surprise I suppose.  Here is his latest scaled down version report card as of January 2018.  Prices may vary depending on what part of the country you are in.  Miss Jessie of course, is now living in the upper crust with Royal Canin (THE most expensive) dog food.  She's the Queen and deserves the best.

It's from Europe ... England ... and the one that will soothe her stomach.  Those British have got dog food down to a science.  I wasn't too far off with B rated Iams and her dry food from the A list.  Grades however, don't account for taste, and she refused to eat it.  We have now moved on to Science Diet.  My dog food bill is going to rival MY grocery bill.

So basically, the cheaper the food, the lower the quality, the lower the grade.  If your food isn't listed, look on the bag for the fine print to see who actually made it.

With some pills, something from a tube and new food, Jessie seems to be better already.  She ate her bowl clean this morning, a good sign.  So far, it doesn't appear to have anything to do with her cancer.  YAY for no more cleanups in the kitchen aisle.

In the meantime, I seem to be having a little trouble with the quilt block challenge.  Trying to take my own advice, I've scrolled through hundreds of posts to find the solution.  Yay ... found it!!  I have to take it all apart and start over.  I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow!!  Right now, I'm going to go snuggle up with Miss Jessie.  And Cooper of course.

I've also got two new recipes to tell you about.  Won't THAT be fun!!