TAG...You're It!

I was tagged by saucygirlskitchen.com in this game that is floating around through the blogger world.
If you get tagged, answer these 7 questions using previous posts from your blog and tag 6 of your blogger friends. 

Have fun and THANK YOU Saucy Girl!!

1. Most beautiful post... http://theperfectthyme.blogspot.com/2011/01/wonderful-cake-recipe.html

2. Most popular post...http://theperfectthyme.blogspot.com/2011/06/banana-split-cake.html

3. Most controversial...http://theperfectthyme.blogspot.com/2010/06/rant-for-week.html

4. Most helpful...http://theperfectthyme.blogspot.com/2011/08/best-advice-i-think-ive-ever-heard.html

5. Post that was surprisingly successful...http://theperfectthyme.blogspot.com/2011/06/banana-split-cake.html

6. Post that did not get the attention it deserved...http://theperfectthyme.blogspot.com/2011/03/chocolate-cupcakes-with-spiked-orage.html

7. Post I am most proud of...http://theperfectthyme.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-personal-thoughts-on-food.html

The 6 Blogger friends I'm passing this on to are...

1.  lifewithmel.com
2.  mamagrubbsgrub.blogspot.com
3.  bakeyourday.net
4.  simplefarefairlysimple.blogspot.com
5.  richfletchersgoodfoodrevolution.blogspot.com
6.  theculinarylens.com

The best advice I think I've ever heard...

All time favorite...been eating it since I was a kid food.

THE CHICKEN CAR!

My FAVORITE hometown food joint.

A double Krekel cheese burger with the works. 




http://krekels.weebly.com/

If you are ever in the area of one of Krekels 7 locations you MUST and I do mean MUST try a burger and some of their custard. 

I was fortunate to grow up with Krekels in our town.  WAY BACK when I was a kid Krekels only had 2 locations and they were only open for the summer. The whole town would be buzzing when they opened up for the summer.  I remember at least once a week my Dad taking us to the 'lake location' to get an ice cream cone.  Dad and I usually almost always got their fantastic chocolate custard cone and my mom would get lemon.  It was a great summer tradition.

When I was in my teens Krekels did something VERY cool.  They opened another location within walking distance of my  house and they kept it open all year long!  I was such a happy girl.  I had babysitting money, I was old enough to go their myself.  I was in heaven.

Then, I moved away and  that has always remained number one of my what I miss list from my hometown.
I haven't lived that close to a Krekels in almost 27 years but any time I'm visiting my Mom, Krekels is a MUST.  Everyone knows that.  There is no sense in even asking me, 'Where would you like to eat?'  I will always say Krekels.

When we ate there yesterday and I was ooohhhhhing and awwwing with my eyes rolling back in my head my husband commented that in all the years he's been eating there, no matter which location you choose, they are exactly as delish as the first time.    I thought of that when I checked out their website to link it here.  The picture of the burger on their site is almost identical to the picture I took yesterday. 
I think sometimes we all need to remember that 'If it ain't broke, don't change it.'


What is your all time favorite, been eating it since I was a kid food?  I really would love to know.

WooHoo!

I submitted this photo of my Blackbottom Cupcakes to Food Corner for her photo contest and out of 118 it came in #7.  Not too bad for my first contest. 

Be sure and check out her blog or facebook page for all the photo's.  There were a lot of really great pics that will make you drooooool.

http://www.foodsshrilanka.blogspot.com/ 

Kept hearing about Weiner all day on the news...

So this was dinner.  No seriously, we don't eat them but maybe once a year but I kept hearing the word/name all day and I got a craving.

It's been 2 whole years? (and a little info on my journey)

I just realized that two years ago today I started this blog with this post http://theperfectthyme.blogspot.com/2009/06/grams-food.html.  A small tribute to my Grandmother whom I love and dearly miss.

How did I come up with the name The Perfect Thyme?  Well, moving from Florida to Illinois in 2006 was a bigger adjustment than I ever thought it was going to be. I wanted my husband and I to pull up over 20 years of roots in South Florida and move back to our home state of Illinois to be closer to all of our family and because I was tired of living in the city, tired of the crowds, tired of the heat.  Yep it was all MY idea.  And I had NO idea that moving would alter me so very much.

The first year was wonderful.  Everything was new and exciting. Having four distinct seasons, eating delicious sweet corn, being around family, SNOW... was all great. Then almost 1 year to the day I thought to myself  'ok that was fun, now I'm ready to go home' only this WAS home now.  I didn't want to really move and my husband had found his niche in the community and had opened his TKD School.  I HAD to make the best of it.  There was no way I was going to bring up moving again.

After a couple of years of feeling a little lost and a lot disoriented  I decided that it was 'the perfect thyme' (thyme because of my love of herbs) to jump into this next phase of my journey.

So now it is two years later.  I've made friends.  I've gotten used to the seasons.  I know my way around town.  I've started to adjust.  Time marches on and changes are all a part of it right?

My day job is at the local hospital.  You take building a new hospital, today's economy and the American way and what do you get?  Downsizing.  Yep, in four to six weeks I will receive a letter as to the fate of my employment.  I'm a little stressed I can't lie but I'm old enough to see the positives too.  This is just one more small, small part of my entire life journey.  What will happen next??  What will I do??  I have no idea and I kind of like that.

All I can think is that it's The Perfect Thyme for some changes and this time I'm just gonna roll with it and ENJOY!!

My personal thoughts on food.

I believe that local organic food (produce, meat, dairy) is the best food you can eat.
I believe that food is one of the biggest factors in our health and well being.
I believe that processed food is full of chemicals and preservatives that are killing us.
I believe that you can prepare a meal at home with good quality ingredients for less money than you would spend at the fast food joint or in the freezer section of your local 'food' mart.

I understand that local organic food is not always easy to find.
I understand that for a number of years here in America the media hype has been preaching fast, easy, time saving and pre packaged.
I understand that life is busy and messy and stressful.

I hope that good quality, local and or organic food becomes the 'norm' and more easily accessible to all of us.
I hope that it becomes easier to learn about food, cooking and health.
I hope the media hype really picks up on the changes that are going on and starts to promote a more conscious and healthy way of living.

I personally am on the journey of changing how I live and do things. It's a journey in progress.

Radom thoughts on a cake stand.

A while back I went through the kitchen and got rid of what little plastic I still had. The Tupperware cake container was one of the things to go. I replaced it with an Anchor Cake/Punch stand. Triple duty and glass all in one.

Well about a year ago there was an 'incident'. All I know is I came home and it was on the kitchen floor broken. No one had been home since I had left except for the two furry felines that lived here. So we'll never know.

Well to get on with the point of this post...I replaced that cake stand yesterday. When I looked at the box I saw their slogan and thought it was pretty cool.

And just an fyi - I received nothing from the company for saying any of this. This is just an example of the random stuff that goes through my head during the course of the day. :-)

~happy sunday~

R.I.P. Bruce Lee...We're going to miss you!!

Today I had to say good bye to my dear sweet friend Bruce Lee. It was a hard decision to have to make but I feel we did the right thing.
It's going to be really sad to come home every night and not have him running down the stairs to greet me.
We're all going to miss you buddy!!!

2011 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Our Christmas was really nice. For the first time in many years we had a White Christmas. It was beautiful. We spent the day relaxing, hanging out and of course eating plenty of good foods.

We watched tons of Christmas movies this season. Still my all time favorite is A Christmas Story. Who could ever get tired of Ralphie? I tried to find or put in a Christmas movie every chance I had even if I was up cleaning or doing something else. Something about one of these holiday movies playing in the background soothes me...it's weird.

We decided we wanted to pass on the 'traditional' holiday meal that we have ALWAYS had and we had meatballs, stuffed shells, salad and a loaf of bread with garlic butter. It was delicious and a really nice switch from the usual.

I have a tradition that I started a few years ago. Every year sometime between Christmas and New Years I read Raphael, The Herald Angle. It's copyright is 1957. My great, great grandmother gave me the book when I was young. It is a wonderful short story that you can read in an hour or so. If you can find it, I highly recommend it.

We did really well on avoiding the commercialism of the holiday. I didn't purchase any new decorations. We didn't spend a lot eating out or on mind less shopping trips. My husband and I set a limit on each other and agreed we both wanted something that was useful and needed. For our friends and relatives we either gave gift cards or food gifts. Keeping it simple and focusing on the true meaning of the Holiday is very refreshing. I hope everyone was able to feel that and that we may all remember to try and keep that Holiday spirit throughout the entire year!

SNOW DAY!!

We live in Southern Illinois and really don't get snow all that often so it was a real treat to wake up on a Sunday morning to find everything covered with beautiful white snow!
If you have snow where you are...go out and have some fun it. I made this snow angel for a friend in Florida that has never seen snow.
Now I'm off to make some Christmas goodies.

End of Liberty Trailer

Cruise Night Taekwon Do Demo in Mt. Vernon

Six month check up on my 2010 goals.

Since we are 6 months into the new year I figured it was time to sit down, look at the goals that I set for myself this year and see how I'm doing.
All and all I am doing pretty well. There are a few things that I need to pick up the pace on and one or two that I have decided to modify. (re-what was I thinking)

My 2010 LIST:

-I will set aside more time to read.
Have been doing well with this. I just finished Janet Evanovich's Finger Lickin Fifteen and have Emeril's two newest cookbooks to start next. His Farm to Fork is awesome. I am also working my way through the Encyclopedia of Country Living from cover to cover.

-Make one new recipe each week and record that recipe and a photo and any notes in a notebook.
50% on this one. I have been making one new recipe a week-sometimes more but did not start the journal that I wanted to. I think this is still something I want to do though.

-Learn to make cheese.
Haven't made any yet but I have been reading about it. As a matter of fact, the Farm to Fork cookbook has two great cheese recipes with pretty easy to follow steps.

-Expand our home grown veggies and herbs.
In progress.

-Learn to can tomatoes, my salsa and spaghetti sauce for myself and Christmas gifts. For some reason canning tomato products scares me.
In progress.

-Make more strawberry jam and pickles for myself and for Christmas gifts.
In progress.

-Learn to knit scarves for myself and for Christmas gifts.
My first scarf is half way finished. I will need to bump this up a LOT if I plan to make a couple for gifts.

-Dust off my sewing machine and get re-acquainted with it, for myself and Christmas gifts.
Sadly, I haven''t made time for this yet.

-Have a 100% home made Christmas.
In progress. Not sure I will make it to 100% but I think I will come close.

-Pay off all remaining debt. We are SO close. WOOHOO!!
Have NOT made any new debt and are even closer to our goal of paying everything off.

-Take a 30 minute walk every morning before work to focus on my day and to get more exercise.
Have modified this to three days a week. Every morning was a bit much. I am off on Wed, Sat and Sun so these are the days that I do this.


-Find a place to buy local eggs and dairy.
One of my husbands Tae Kwon Do students always has an over abundance of eggs so I have found them but not dairy yet.

-Find a place to buy fish that is raised closer than Indonesia or Honduras.
The closest fish I have found locally is from Alaska. We are still in the process of eliminating all meat from our diets. We still eat grass fed local beef about once a month or so and we are still eating local poultry a few times a week. The fish we have had to cut way down on because I won't buy it from another country and now with the problems in the Gulf I am afraid our seafood days are close to an end.

-Find more people ( on line and in my community) that are trying to live a simple sustainable life also.
In progress.

-Continue to purge and organize our home.
Have realized this is going to constantly be a work in progress. We have a home that we LIVE in, not a show place.

-Take my camera with me everywhere I go.
Have been pretty good about this one.

-Enjoy the journey, smell the herbs and take in the sunsets
Success on this one!

Happy Saturday!

Since I stepped up on the soap box yesterday with my little 'rant', I figured I'd lighten it up a little today. I'm definitely not all doom and gloom but I really do hope people start to pay attention and take better care of our world.

This is my new red pot that I had been eyeing for awhile and hubby got it for me for my birthday. I used it this week for black beans and rice and I swear they tasted better.

A couple of tomato plants and rosemary on the front porch. The hen and chickens are from my grandmothers garden.

This hot banana pepper was delish. Part of it went into a jar of salsa and the rest was chopped up and cooked into stuffed burgers.

I'm looking forward to cooking with all the wonderful things that are growing. We've really had perfect weather so far this year. I hope it continues.
Already tomorrow I will be making a batch of pesto to use some of the basil that seems to be going crazy.

How are your garden's doing? Reaping any of what you sowed yet?

The Martins have moved in.

For the five years that we have lived here, from the first of May until the end of June we are visited by Martins.
I love to have them here because they eat their weight in mosquito's and they are cute little things but it takes a little getting used to having to duck being dive bombed every time you open the front or back door.

Thought for the Day

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.
It's not." Dr. Seuss~~The Lorax

MIA Update and the Holiday Season

Sorry I have been MIA for so long. About a week after I got over the flu/virus/cold...whatever that was that I had for two weeks in October...I ended up with pleurisy. I had never even heard of it. Trust me, I have a very high tolerance for pain and that stuff had me in tears more than once. It is gone now and I am all better luckily in time for the holidays.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving. My best friend of 25 years came from Birmingham to celebrate the holiday with us. We had a lot of fun and good food. It was a good opening for this years Holiday Season.

When she left that Sunday we kicked it into Christmas. I pulled out the Christmas music, the Christmas socks, the Christmas dishes and the decorations.

One of my favorite things to indulge myself in this time of year is Holiday movies. I love them and they actually are the only DVD's that I collect. I love to snuggle up on the couch with a cup of hot cocoa or a glass of wine and watch these movies.

My favorites (in no particular order)
A Christmas Story, The Family Stone, Love Actually, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Home Alone, The Perfect Holiday, Christmas Vacation, Scrooge, The Preachers Wife, This Christmas...just to name a few.

What is your favorite Christmas movie?

The Way I Grew Up...

I received an email today from a friend that hit home with me and I wanted to share.
Paul Harvey Writes:

"We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I'd like better.

I'd really like for you to know about hand me down clothes, homemade icecream and leftover meatloaf sandwiches. I really would.

I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated.

I hope you learn to make your own bed and mow the lawn and wash the car. And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen.

It will be good if at least one time you can see puppies born and your old dog put to sleep.

I hope you get a black eye fighting for something you believe in.

I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother/sister. And it's all right if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room, but when he/she wants to crawl under the covers with you because they are scared, I hope you let them.

When you want to see a movie and your little brother/sister wants to tag along, I hope you'll let him/her.

I hope you have to walk uphill to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely.

If you want a slingshot, I hope your Dad teaches you how to make on instead of buying one.

I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books.

When you learn to use computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head.

I hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush on a boy/girl, and when you talk back to your Mom that you learn what ivory soap tastes like.

May you skin your knee climbing a mountain, burn your hand on a stove and stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole.

I don't care if you try a beer once, but I hope you don't like it. And if a friend offers you a joint, I hope you realize he is not your friend.

I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with Grandma/Grandpa and go fishing with your Uncle.

May you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays.

I hope your Mom punishes you when you throw a baseball through your neighbour's window and that she hugs you and kisses you at Christmas time when you give her a plaster mold of your hand.

These things I wish for you-tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness.

To me, it's the only way to appreciate life."

INSPIRATION

"BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD."-GANDHI

I always try to keep that quote in mind.
I have to believe that every small change that I make is making a difference.

Compared to the 'norm' in society, my husband and I have always pretty much lived within our means. We are no where near perfect. There have been times when we were lured in by the latest technology or gadget or going ahead and purchasing something in the name of convenience instead of making do without or figuring out a cheaper way. We used to eat out a lot more than we do now. I got my groceries in plastic or paper not in my canvas bags. But all in all we've done well and are continuing to learn and grow.

I feel really good about all that we do for our health, for the earth, for the future. I grew up watching my grandparents live sustainable lives and I know it can be done. But when I really look at what we do and what more we could/should be doing I get a little frustrated.
I not only get frustrated with myself but with 'the others' who just don't seem to care what happens in the future or to the planet or to their own health for that matter.

I get frustrated because until the farmers are offered the big bucks to grow organic, food instead of the large corporate businesses that are producing genetically modified food full of chemicals it is hard for me to find the quality food that I want to provide to my family. I get frustrated because I can sit and watch television for one hour and see six different commercials for some type of pharmaceutical drug. I get frustrated when I tell someone at work that the salad they are about to order from that particular place has 2000 mg of sodium alone yet they don't seem surprised or upset and buy it anyway taking no control of their buying power.

I have to constantly remind myself that what I believe and what I am trying to do is worth it and that I am not alone. There are others out there trying to live a better life too.

I get inspiration by visiting the blogs of people with goals and aspirations similar to my own. i get inspiration by the books and television shows that are starting to appear that help teach me the things I need to know to continue. Most of all, I find inspiration from my family and friends that compliment me on my home grown tomatoes or herbs, or gush over my home cooking.

When I over heard my mother tell another family member that I was just like my Grandmother...that made it all worth it.

What inspires you to continue?