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Ramblings...

THE YELLOW SHIRT

Shared by Vicki, FL, Angelique, TX and Lillian, FL

The baggy yellow shirt had long sleeves, four extra-large pockets trimmed in black thread and snaps up the front. It was faded from years of wear, but still in decent shape. I found it in 1963 when I was home from college on Christmas break, rummaging through bags of clothes Mom intended to give away.

"You're not taking that old thing, are you?" Mom said when she saw me packing the yellow shirt. "I wore that when I was?  pregnant with your brother in 1954!"

"It's just the thing to wear over my clothes during art class, Mom. Thanks!"

I slipped it into my suitcase before she could object.

The yellow shirt became a part of my college wardrobe. I loved it. After graduation, I wore the shirt the day I moved into my new apartment and on Saturday mornings when I cleaned.

The next year, I married. When I became pregnant, I wore the yellow shirt during big-belly days. I missed Mom and the rest of my family, since we were in Colorado and they were in Illinois. But that shirt helped. I smiled, remembering that Mother had worn it when she was pregnant, 15 years earlier.

That Christmas, mindful of the warm feelings the shirt had given me, I patched one elbow, wrapped it in holiday paper and sent it to Mom. When Mom wrote to thank me for her "real" gifts, she said the yellow shirt was lovely. She never mentioned it again.

The next year, my husband, daughter and I stopped at Mom and Dad's to pick up some furniture. Days later, when we uncharted the kitchen table, I noticed something yellow taped to its bottom. The shirt!

And so the pattern was set.

On our next visit home, I secretly placed the shirt under Mom and Dad's mattress. I don't know how long it took for her to find it, but almost two years passed before I discovered it under the base of our living-room floor lamp. The yellow shirt was just what I needed now while refinishing furniture. The walnut stains added character.

In 1975 my husband and I divorced. With my three children, I prepared to move back to Illinois. As I packed, a deep depression overtook me. I wondered if I could make it on my own. I wondered if I would find a job.

I paged through the Bible, looking for comfort. In Ephesians, I read, "So use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy whenever he attacks, and when it is all over, you will be standing up."

I tried to picture myself wearing God's armor, but all I saw was the stained yellow shirt. Slowly, it dawned on me. Wasn't my mother's love a piece of God's armor? My courage was renewed.

Unpacking in our new home, I knew I had to get the shirt back to Mother. The next time I visited her, I tucked it in her bottom dresser drawer.

Meanwhile, I found a good job at a radio station. A year later I discovered the yellow shirt hidden in a rag bag in my cleaning closet. Something new had been added. Embroidered in bright green across the breast pocket were the words "I BELONG TO PAT."

Not to be outdone, I got out my own embroidery materials and added an apostrophe and seven more letters. Now the shirt proudly proclaimed, "I BELONG TO PAT'S MOTHER." But I didn't stop there. I zig-zagged all the frayed seams, then had a friend mail the shirt in a fancy box to Mom from Arlington, VA. We enclosed an official looking letter from "The Institute for the Destitute," announcing that she was the recipient of an award for good deeds. I would have given anything to see Mom's face when she opened the box. But, of course, she never mentioned it.

Two years later, in 1978, I remarried. The day of our wedding, Harold and I put our car in a friend's garage to avoid practical jokers. After the wedding, while my husband drove us to our honeymoon suite, I reached for a pillow in the car to rest my head. It felt lumpy. I unzipped the case and found, wrapped in wedding paper, the yellow shirt. Inside a pocket was a note:

"Read John 14:27-29. I love you both, Mother."

That night I paged through the Bible in a hotel room and found the verses:

"I am leaving you with a gift: peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn't fragile like the peace the world gives. So don't be troubled or afraid. Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really love me, you will be very happy for me, for now I can go to the Father, who is greater than I am. I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do, you will believe in me."

The shirt was Mother's final gift. She had known for three months that she had terminal Lou Gehrig's disease. Mother died the following year at age 57.

I was tempted to send the yellow shirt with her to her grave. But I'm glad I didn't, because it is a vivid reminder of the love-filled game she and I played for 16 years. Besides, my older daughter is in college now, majoring in art. And every art student needs a baggy yellow shirt with big pockets.

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Did You Know?...

Useless Food Facts - Part II

Shared by Angelique, TX

In South Africa, termites are often roasted and eaten by the handful, like pretzels or popcorn.

Table salt is the only commodity that hasn't risen dramatically in price in the last 150 years.

Burger King?® uses approximately 1/2 million pounds of bacon every month in its restaurants.

There are more than 200 kinds of chili peppers, none of which belong to the pepper family.

Ice cream was originally made without sugar and eggs.

The Chinese used to open shrimp by flaying the shells with bamboo poles. Until a few years ago, in factories where dried shrimp were being prepared, "shrimp dancers" were hired to tramp on the shells with special shoes.

Native Americans never actually ate turkey; killing such a timid bird was thought to indicate laziness.

For decades, there's been a hard-fought and usually close battle between Coke and Pepsi in the United States...with each claiming some regional pockets of leadership. But globally it's no contest - Coca-Cola sales far outstrip sales of Pepsi-Cola internationally.

The famous Chef Wolfgang Puck chose the Italian word "Spago" as the name for his popular chain of restaurants. In Italian - spago = "String" or "Twine" - slang for spaghetti. Grand Rapids, Michigan is the "SpaghettiOs Capital of the World" because per-capita consumption is highest in that city, per the Franco-American Company. Reportedly, there are more than 1,750 "O's" in a 15-ounce can of SpaghettiOs.

Pigturducken is a pig, stuffed with a turkey, which is stuffed with a chicken, deep fried in oil, which is usually put into something similar to a horse trough over propane burners.

Carbonated water, with nothing else in it, can dissolve limestone, talc, and many other low-Moh's hardness minerals.?  Coincidentally, carbonated water is the main ingredient in soda.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Americans eat more than 22 pounds of tomatoes every year. More than half this amount is eaten in the form of ketchup and tomato sauce.

In Bavaria, beer isn't considered an alcoholic drink but rather a staple food.

Beer is made by fermentation cause by bacteria feeding on yeast cells and then defecating. In other words, it's a nice tall glass of bacteria doo-doo.

Americans eat an average of 18 pounds of fresh apples each year. The most popular variety in the United States is the Red Delicious.

Spam stands for Shoulder Pork and Ham

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NEW MAIL:

Dear Maggie,

Thank you and all of the a2z family for the wonderful issue today. I am so thankful to learn of the blessing received by Angelique and her son. I also thank Angelique for her great ???Useless Food Facts??? and, yes, I DO remember black cows. Another Black Cow was a chocolate-covered caramel candy on a stick. It was called an ???all day sucker??? and it nearly made it all day! Thanks to Sandra H. for the great picnic foods and I am joining Barbara in planning to check it all out, only I will think about diet afterwards. This newsletter is the best medicine after a long, busy day and I thank each and every one of you.

Lillian, FL

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Next Monthly Theme...

Fresh Is Best!

What a great theme topic as we all know, fresh is best! So, what are we looking for in this month's theme? We would like recipes using fresh ingredients. No canned vegetables, fruit, etc. It would be ideal if all ingredients were fresh, although some seasonings and spices that are dried may be used. This is great for those of you who, like me, shy away from a lot of canned goods. A peek in my pantry will find very few canned or packaged goods, but almost never a packaged gravy, sauce, etc. Let's have some fun with this theme while the picking is great for fresh fruits and vegetables.

Here is the recipe submission set of rules:

A to Z Recipes continues with its popular Theme Issues. We will share theme recipes and post them on the first Sunday of each month. Send your recipes no later than the last Friday of each month to have them posted in the next monthly theme issue. You may send in TWO of your favorite theme recipes and in ONE email. If the number of recipes exceeds those needed in the issue, the publisher will post as many from every submitter as possible and save the remaining recipes for the following Sundays of that month. The rules for recipe submissions for the monthly theme issues are the same as ALL recipes submitted for posting.

The rules are as follows:

As a service to your fellow readers, please send only recipes that are in a form that others could easily copy and save for their own use. Recipes that would require a lot of editing or cleaning up or use non-standard measurements should not be submitted. Recipes without a name and location of sender may NOT be posted or posted without any credit given. There will be NO recipes posted that are from other recipe-zines. A to Z Recipes protects the privacy of its readers and does NOT publish email addresses. There will be no exceptions.

The deadline for August's theme issue is Friday, July 30th.

Theme recipes must have subject: "Fresh Is Best" and will be posted on Sunday, August 1st.

As usual, only recipes are to be sent to: A to Z Recipes Inbox

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Crazy Corner...

Great funnies all shared by Vicki, Sarasota, FL...

Funny? Yesss!

I've sure gotten old. I've had 2 By-pass surgeries. A hip replacement, new knees. Fought prostate cancer, and diabetes.

I'm half blind, can't hear anything quieter than a jet engine, take 40 different medications that make me dizzy, winded, and subject to blackouts.

Have bouts with dementia. Have poor circulation, hardly feel my hands and feet anymore. Can't remember if I'm 85 or 92. Have lost all my friends.

But..... Thank God, I still have my California driver's license!

And...

An elderly woman from Brooklyn decided to prepare her will and make her final requests. She told her rabbi she had two final requests.

First, she wanted to be cremated, and second, she wanted her ashes scattered over Bloomingdales.

"Bloomingdales!" the rabbi exclaimed. "Why Bloomingdales?"

"Then I'll be sure my daughters visit me twice a week."

And...

God, grant me the senility To forget the people I never liked anyway,

The good fortune To run into the ones I do,

And the eyesight to tell the difference.

Finally...

T- Shirt recently seen on a woman in Ft. Worth, Texas....

"Inside me, there's a thin Woman trying to get out - but I can usually shut the b*tch up with some chocolate."
? 

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TOASTED ALMOND CHEESECAKE PIE

~Submitted by Mary, TN

1 Ready Crust Shortbread Pie crust (6 ounce)
1-1/4 cups cold milk
?? tsp almond extract
2 pkg (4 serving size) cheesecake flavored instant pudding & pie filling
1 tub (8 ounce) frozen non-dairy whipped topping, thawed & divided
?? cup sliced almonds, toasted*, divided

Beat milk, almond extract, pudding mixes and ?? of the whipped topping in medium bowl with wire whisk 1 minute (mixture will be thick). Sprinkle ?? cup of the almonds onto bottom of crust. Spread pudding mixture over almonds in crust. Spread remaining whipped topping over pudding in crust. Garnish with remaining almonds. Enjoy immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.

*Note: When toasting almonds, spread evenly on a baking sheet. Place into a 375?? F degree oven for 1-1/2 to 2 minutes, or until well toasted.

CRUNCHY PEA SALAD

~Submitted by Margo, SW CO

Serves 8

MY TNT - VERY GOOD!

1 pkg (10 oz) frozen peas, thawed
1 can (8 oz) sliced water chestnuts, drained, chopped
1 c celery, thinly chopped
1/2 c sliced green onions
1/4 c mayonnaise
1/4 c sour cream
salt (if desired)
(Can add 1/2 c diced cheddar cheese, if desired)

In a bowl, combine peas, chestnuts, celery and onions (and cheese if desired).

In small bowl combine mayonnaise, sour cream and salt (if desired). Add to pea mixture and toss to coat.

Refrigerate to chill.

SOUTHWESTERN SEASONING MIX

~Submitted by Shirley, Bellingham, WA

1 c. chili powder
1 c. onion powder
1/2 c. ground cumin
1/2 c. ground coriander
1/2 c. dried oregano
1/2 c. dried basil
1/4 c. dried thyme
1/4 c. garlic powder

Combine all the ingredients in blender, divide into 4 portions and then store in an air tight containers.

This is good on meat, chili and can be mixed as a dip by combining 1 T. of mixture with 1 c. sour cream and a little salt and let stand 1 hour in fridge to mellow out flavors. I use it as a rub on chicken too.

Baby food jars make great containers for this.

STUFFED CRAB

~Submitted by Angelique, TX

Source: River Road Recipes II - A Second Helping

INGREDIENTS:

4 strips bacon
1 medium onion
3 ribs celery
3 slices bread
1-3/4 cups bread crumbs
1 cup water
1 pound crabmeat
3 green onions and tops
10 sprigs parsley
1 clove garlic
3 eggs, well beaten
1 Tablespoon salt
1 scant teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon red pepper or to taste
Bread crumbs for topping

TO PREPARE:

Grind the bacon, onion and celery. Brown in a large skillet. Add bread and bread crumbs moistened with water. Add crabmeat and cook over a low fire. Grind the green onions, parsley and garlic. Add to the beaten eggs. Add the salt and peppers. Pour this mixture into the crabmeat mixture and mix thoroughly. Spoon into crab shells or ramekins. Sprinkle lightly with bread crumbs and top with a dot of butter. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden brown. May be baked as a casserole.

SERVES: 8

TIA MARIA CHOCOLATE TREATS

~Submitted by Larry Holmes, Ontario, Canada

6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons Tia Maria*
1 tablespoon rum
2 tablespoons tepid milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup cocoa

Bring 3 cups water in saucepan to boil over medium heat. Place chocolate in stainless steel bowl and set over top. Reduce heat and melt.

Remove bowl and cool 2 minutes. Add egg yolks and mix well. Stir in Tia Maria, rum and milk. If mixture is too thick, place over saucepan for 2
minutes. Add butter, mix and cover. Refrigerate 12 hours.

Roll 1 tablespoon of mixture in cocoa. Repeat with remainder of mixture. Serve.

*Note from Publisher: A rum-based coffee liqueur produced in Jamaica.

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Heart Healthy...

BLACK BEAN QUESADILLAS

~Submitted by Jean, Syracuse, NY

Yield: 12 servings

INGREDIENTS

- 1 cup cooked dried black beans or canned, rinsed and drained black beans
- 1 cup mild, or hot, salsa, divided
- 1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions and tops
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
- 2-3 teaspoons minced jalapeno chili
- 12 whole wheat, or white flour, tortillas
- 3/4 cup (3 ounces) reduced-fat Monterey Jack cheese
- 3/4 cup (3 ounces) fat-free Cheddar cheese
- Butter-flavored vegetable cooking spray

DIRECTIONS

Mash beans slightly; mix in 1/4 cup salsa, green onions, cilantro, and chili. Divide mixture on 6 tortillas, spreading almost to edges. Sprinkle with cheese and top with remaining tortillas.

Spray medium skillet with cooking spray; heat over medium heat until hot. Cook 1 quesadilla on medium to medium-low heat until browned on the bottom, 2 to 3 minutes. Spray top of quesadilla with cooking spray; turn and cook until browned on other side. Repeat with remaining quesadillas.

Cut quesadillas into wedges; serve warm with remaining 3/4 cup salsa.

Nutritional Information Per Serving (1/12 of recipe):
Calories: 169, Fat: 3.9 g, Cholesterol: 5.1 mg,
Sodium: 427 mg, Protein: 9 g, Carbohydrate: 24.2 g
Diabetic Exchanges: 1-1/2 Bread/Starch, 1/2 Meat, 1/2 Fat

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For Two...

PECAN CHICKEN WITH CREAMY
HONEY-MUSTARD SAUCE

~Submitted by Jean, Syracuse, NY

Yield: 2 Servings

Ingredients:

CHICKEN:
2 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
2 tb Flour
1/2 c purchased honey mustard salad dressing
1/2 c finely chopped pecans
2 tb butter

SAUCE:
2 tb purchased honey mustard salad dressing
1/3 c sour cream
1 ts sliced green onions

Instructions:

Place 1 chicken breast half, boned side up, between 2 pieces of plastic wrap or waxed paper. Working from center, gently pound chicken with flat side of meat mallet or rolling pin until about 1/4 inch thick; remove wrap. Repeat with remaining chicken breast half.

Place flour, 1/3 cup dressing and pecans in 3 separate small flat dishes. Coat each chicken breast half with flour. Dip in dressing to coat well. Dip in pecans, coating both sides.

Melt butter in medium nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add chicken; cook 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until chicken is fork-tender and juices run clear. Remove chicken from skillet; place on serving platter. Cover to keep warm.

To drippings in skillet, add 2 tablespoons dressing and sour cream; cook and stir until mixture boils and thickens. Pour over chicken. Sprinkle with onions.

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Publisher's Choice...

THREE-CHEESE MANICOTTI

photo)

Ingredients:

??? 1/4 cup chopped onion
??? 1 clove garlic, minced
??? 1 tablespoon cooking oil
??? 1 14-1/2-ounce can tomatoes, cut up
??? 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
??? 1 teaspoon sugar
??? 1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
??? 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
??? 1 small bay leaf
??? 8 dried manicotti shells
??? 2 beaten eggs
??? 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (8 ounces)
??? 1-1/2 cups ricotta cheese or cream-style cottage cheese
??? 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
??? 1/2 cup snipped fresh parsley
??? 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
??? Dash pepper

Directions:

1. For sauce, in a 2-quart saucepan cook onion and garlic in hot oil until tender. Add undrained tomatoes, tomato sauce, sugar, the 1 teaspoon oregano, the thyme, and bay leaf. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 20 to 25 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat; discard bay leaf.

2. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions; drain. Rinse shells in cold water.

3. For filling, in a medium mixing bowl stir together eggs, half of the mozzarella cheese, the ricotta or cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese, parsley, the 1/2 teaspoon oregano, and dash pepper. Spoon filling into manicotti.

4. Pour half of the tomato mixture into a 2-quart rectangular baking dish. Arrange stuffed manicotti in the baking dish. Pour remaining sauce over shells. Sprinkle remaining mozzarella cheese atop.

5. Bake the stuffed manicotti, covered, in a 350 degree F oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until heated through. Makes 8 servings.

Make-Ahead Tip: Prepare as above, except do not bake. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. Bake as above.

Nutritional Information:
Nutritional facts per serving:
Calories: 284, total fat: 14g, saturated fat: 7g, cholesterol: 88mg, sodium: 586mg, carbohydrate: 21g, fiber: 1g, protein: 19g, vitamin A: 28%, vitamin C: 24%, calcium: 53%, iron: 19%

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