Alien Tea Shoppe

I've inherited tackle box tool boxes.  I actually don't know what they are.  I believe they were tool boxes to begin with (I mean, being sold as such), as the original one says something about tools in the name, but they were only used as tackle boxes.  I'm not surprised as my paternal grandmother used some tatting shuttle for trot lines, because she was crafty that way.   The first is navy blue & was used by my paternal grandparents for their fishing, at least in the early days, as I'm sure they upgraded at some point.  Dad took that home with him the last time we were up there.  Now, I have dismantled it & salvaged any fishin' gear that we might use & chucked the rest.  It is now my tool box.   Came across dad's first tackle box in the garage recently.  I have dismantled that, washed it out (just like the other) & now it is my art box.  Didn't salvage much from it, but a few lures, because they are from the 60...

Like just about everyone out there, I have a Facebook account.  One thing I use my account for is to peruse a group dedicated to the history of my town.  It's fascinating.  Tonight, I wondered if there was a page like that for the town where my parents grew up.  I found one and was not disappointed. I'm looking through the groups photo albums and after ten pages I see something familiar.  Very familiar in fact because it is my family's home; the one where my mother and aunt grew up and I spent most of my childhood there visiting my grandmother.  Actually it wasn't even the house, just the greenhouse.  I exclaimed, out loud, "Holy crap it's me!", which is just easier to say than "Holy crap that is the greenhouse in the yard of the house where my mother grew up!"  It became even stranger because some commenter's were talking about my family. 228 East Kingston Str, Laurel, Mississippi This house was originally white, though the very top...

These recipes are from both sides, and are things that my family does very well.  They've been made in my house since I can remember (some, even before I was born.)  All are absolutely delicious! Fried Catfish Everyone in the south deep fries fish that is battered in cornmeal.  It's good.  It is very rare, however, to have fried fish that is still phenomenal when it is cold.  My grandfather and father perfected this.  We're all lake fishing people, but no one really fishes anymore, so the grand fish fry's with bass, crappie, brim, or white perch are no longer a thing.  What is also no longer a thing is cleaning and gutting our own fish or worrying with bones.  I actually miss that, but now we buy boneless catfish fillets at the grocery store.  So there's two things my dad will fry up; a fillet where he has scored x's into the top layer of meat on one side, and 2" cubes of meat, because he always made fish nuggets for my sister and I, an...

Today an internet friend of mine wanted favourite holiday recipes from her followers, and it got me thinking about my absolute favourite family recipes.  The one's that have always been a tradition to one's that have become new traditions.  There are not a lot, but there are too many to fit into one post neatly, so I'll be doing a three-parter.  This first blog post will be my favourite recipes that have something to do with Thanksgiving.     Thanksgiving, as well as Christmas, were split holidays for us.  My mom's family lived 30 minutes north of us and my dad's family lived 3 hours west of us, and we'd do both holidays with both sides of the family.  And very different traditions came from both sides. I always had a half day of school on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  I had three jobs in food preparation.  Cranberry sauce, congealed salad, and succotash, because they are all things a kid can't mess up.  All three recipes w...

stock photo They go by many general names; Persian Rugs, Oriental Carpets, Tapis de Orient, S ajada, Prayer Rugs, Saff.  This of course doesn't even cover the various types of rugs and their names; Caucasian are rugs from the Caucasus region,  Anatolian are rugs from Turkey,  Ghali are large rectangular rugs from Persia, Makatlik are long narrow rugs, Turbehlik is a grave carpet, or that Turkoman are rugs from Turkistan.  Or styles such as Tabriz, Sarouk, Shiraz, Kelim, Bukhara. One thing they all are, however are handmade works of art in a utilitarian form.  Oriental rugs come found Iran (once known as Persia), Turkey, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Daghestan, Turkmenistan, Nepal, China, India, Romania; also from Albania, Hungary, Egypt, Greece, and Morocco, though to a lesser extent.  What they never are, are machine made.  It may have an oriental design, but if it's machine made, then it is not real. Works of art in ...