Stan's Stupendous Peppers & Tom's Terrific Tomatoes

Stan's hot peppers made for some tasty salsa this summer. And Tom brought me ripe tomatoes to make a batch of Aunt Ollie's Hungarian spaghetti sauce. I don't think the recipe is very Hungarian, except for the fact that Aunt Ollie was Hungarian. My plump, grandmotherly butcher highly recommended the salsiccia sausage to mix with ground beef for the meatballs.

Tom gave the pond a treatment today. The pond floats and kayaks are all put away in anticipation for some ice skating in a few months! Dan has been helping Tom repair the combine.
Aunt Ollie's Hungarian Spaghetti Sauce and Meatballs Recipe
Sauce
4 T olive oil
2 medium onions chopped
4 small garlic cloves chopped
1/2 bell pepper chopped
64 oz fresh tomatoes (cut off tops, squeeze out seeds, par boil to remove skins, chop until your hands hurt)
12 oz can tomato paste
some wine or water to thicken sauce to taste
2 t crushed sweet basil
1 t tyme
4 t sugar
3-4 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1/2 c fresh chopped parsley

Saute the onions, pepper, and garlic in oil for about 5 min on medium/low heat. Add fresh tomatoes and cover, bring to a boil and let simmer for 20 min covered. Meanwhile, add 5 spices together. Then add spices, paste, and add water or wine to obtain desired thickness. Simmer partially covered for a few hours.

Meatballs
2 lbs ground beef
1-2 lbs Italian sausage (salsiccia or hot, your choice) (remove skin)
2 eggs
1/2 t pepper
2 chopped cloves garlic
1/2 c fresh chopped parsley
heavy sprinkling parmesan cheese
2 slices bread (whatever you have on hand)

In large mixing bowl, mix everything together with your hands. Wet the bread slices and add them, too. Make sure all is thoroughly blended. If you have patience, let the mixture stand for 20 minutes.

Make meatballs (about 2" diameter) and place in oven pan lined with aluminium foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. When done, remove meatballs with a fork and spoon (scraping off any fat) before putting into sauce. Serve with noodles or freeze in meal-size containers.

Sub Primes...and Nebraska

Same corn field, same farmer, different dates.









Tom Terrific is jetting out to Mountain View, California tomorrow to see the kids for the weekend. He's especially interested in touring A's internship site, Google.

While watching the corn grow from the porch this evening, I asked Tom if he's comfortable leaving for the weekend. Well, he said, I'm a little worried about the market and sub primes. (Sub primes, I thought, what in the WORLD are sub primes???) Instead, I replied confidently to Tom, "Oh, yes, the sub primes...I've been worried sick about them!" Tom paused and finally said, "The market is as nervous as a hypochondriac without any symptoms."


I visited Marta in Nebraska. Nebraska is a great state. Agriculturally it's all about irrigation, hay, and grazing. Marta invited me to ride her brand new bike. I said, what will I do when I get to campus and have to leave it? Do you have a lock/chain I can use? She said, Oh no, we never chain our bikes in Nebraska. Marta's friend, who runs the local brewery, built her house out in the great plains of Nebraska. She is one happy camper with a new house and 5 acres.

My dad and mom would never believe it, but the wind doesn't seem to blow in July and August.








There still is nothing like a boy and his dog.

Hancock, NY - Dad's 80th Birthday

We had a ball celebrating my dad's 80th birthday. Both sides of the family were there, and we all stayed at the Hancock House Hotel.

The best lines of the party were as follows:

Funniest comment:

Aunt Harriet - "I will not give up control." (referring to her role as the matriarch of the Guild family. She's 81.)

Most thoughtful comment:

O'Brian - "Uncle George was like a father to me when I was a kid."

Most uncomfortable line:

Dan - "Mom, my prime rib looks strange."

Niagara Falls

Did you know that Canadians celebrate Canada Day, the creation of their federal government (1867), on July 1st? Neither did we, hence our surprise to the throngs of people at the falls that day. But crowds or not, Niagara Falls is a must see from both natural and cultural perspectives. Natural because of the sheer volume of water that pours over the falls. Cultural because of the diverse tourists. It's like social studies and science classes all in one.

On being a baseball mother...

Here's a swell photo (taken by my pal Ann) of Dan getting ready to make a play at first base.
I've never liked watching sports, and baseball was always the worst because it takes so long. Plus when the game is tied you never know when it will end. I'm usually just content for one of the teams to make the tie-breaking run.
Then it became apparent that baseball was going to be Dan's favorite sport. Ugh. To cope, I knew I had to do 2 things: not wear a wrist watch to his games and learn to keep a score book. Oh, and I also learned to eat sunflower seeds (discretely, of course).
On the up side, baseball has been great for my social life. As parents we all experience the boys' peaks and valleys together. At the risk of sounding like a sap, we are like a big family. Life is good.

Rooster Farm

Dan's baseball team travels to one community where the ball field is next to a cock farm. Amidst the umpires' calls of "safe" or "out," is constant the sound of "cock-a-doodle-do" by about 30 roosters.

They each live about 3 feet off the ground in a steel barrel and are tied to posts. Looks about fun as a calf being raised for veal. Of course, my mind goes straight to the gutter when wondering about the purpose of such enterprises (blood sports).

Can you imagine the guy who operates this farm? He probably prides himself on selling big, loud roosters. I'm sure farmers' wives are so glad when then their husband comes home with a new rooster. "Yup, he was the loudest one of the bunch, honey!"

Yellowish-colored Corn on the Hill

As a native New Yorker, I still find this grain farming gig somewhat puzzling.

Tom sat on the front porch the other day pondering his brother’s corn field. He said, “do you see the yellowish colored corn there on the hillside?” First of all, who has ever seen a hill in Illinois, much less in this section of his brother’s corn field? I did, however, finally see a slightly discolored bit of corn. He got out the farm notebook where he records when and what types of seeds he plants in each field.

This brings up another problem: seeds. In New York we call them corn seeds. Just like tomato seeds, green bean seeds, etc. In Illinois they are called seed corn. To further complicate matters, there are several kinds of seed corn in his brother’s field, and each type has a different number. His farm notebook indicated that the yellowish corn had been seed corn number 8920…funny, he remarked, he would have guessed that the yellow patch would have been 9107, not 8920!

Farmer out standing in his field