Sharing a recipe

I spent a lot of time moving around the "Pacific Rim" . I started in California then went to Midway Island with 2 babies and had another while I was there. All girls and they have given me 5 beautiful grand children. Two of those grand children have given me 5 adorable Great Grandchildren.

Second duty station was Guam in the Marianas area. That was a great 2 year tour where I worked as a waitress in one of the establishments in downtown Agana. It was here that I discovered a great tasting sweet and sour sauce. I had asked the cook one night while I was on a break from serving drinks and food for his recipe. He laughed and told me he made it in great big tubs and all he could tell me was what he put in it.  So I made several horrible pots of it but I finally figured it out. I'll share it at the end of this blog.

During my time on Midway Island I was introduced to Lumpias . I must admit that being American some of the ingredients that were used by the Filipino wives weren't palatable for me. So being the resourceful Navy wife, I substituted and made one that my husband and my children really loved and they have kept it going through the two generations of women in my family. The 4 generation isn't old enough to appreciate the fine art of cooking. The oldest is just turned 11 so it might take a little time. But we are going to have a lesson for the lovely Olivia who will be 11 in December.

Japan was an Island for learning Teriyaki Chicken, and won tons. I have noticed that almost every country has a dish that is some sort of meat & ?? in a wrapper and either boiled or fried.

I've learned to cook Pot Stickers and got a sauce recipe from a lady Chef walking around and she wrote it on the back of a sales slip and I've made it several times for pot lucks at Charlie's house.

I haven't learned Pirogi's from scratch but you can find them in the freezer section so I can still have them. Pirogi are something my good friend Peaches introduced me to. Her parents are from Poland and her mom made the best ones and her beet soup was special also. She says she has a recipe to share with me so maybe I'll be trying my hand at that in future.

My sister learned a lot of Mexican dishes when she married her husband Reynaldo! She has come to my house and made tortillas from scratch and left them behind when she left from her visit. She didn't  make any enchiladas but I've got a really neat machine that imprints pics and lines for cutting. I just fill them with cheese, and bacon pieces. Great Grand kids love them, probably because of the neat pictures toasted into them.

As I promised here are the two recipes that my family loves so much. And I'd love to hear about any sort of wrapped food item you want to share with me. Like I can't figure out if there is something like a burrito in France.

Sorry about the noodle at the bottom. When I made this scrapbook page it was for my friend in CA and put my phone number there as a joke. I've also noticed that I forgot to tell you to mix the onion, garlic, salt & pepper to taste as you are cooking the meat. I'm sure you would have figured that out but just in case. It does make for a good sized batch and they do freeze well sealed in small batches.

The added spoon is my attempt to cover my address which I had put there for my friend's info since I have recently moved and I wasn't sure I had given it to him. This young man used to baby sit my girls when he was in HS. They loved him, probably because I think he let them get away with stuff that I wouldn't have. 

The kit I used to make these with was 'Rustic Table' by Raspberry Road Designs. I thought since I didn't have any real cooking pictures to do that a large recipe card would do. 

HUGS Grandma Sarge

My Chakra's are confused

I clicked on one of those quick spots when I was really cruising on the internet (didn't do it on purpose) and ended up filling out a questionnaire but no personal information so I'm safe except for the email address.  Well I answered their questions and today they sent me a report on my Chakra. Some are closed meaning I'm insecure and some are great meaning I'm in charge of my own destiny.  How can I be both in the same body? One of those things that I should never answer and I didn't do it on purpose.

Last night for dinner I made 'Pot stickers' and rice. They were pork pot stickers and they were good but not of the quality that I'm used to serving. They fried up sort of hard but they still tasted OK so I guess it wasn't a complete failure.  This weekend I think I'm going to make some 'Lumpias' and fried rice. If you've ever been around any Military bases and made friends with any of the wives you've probably been introduced to  Lumpias. They are originally a Filipino dish. It's a very thin wrapper about 10" and in the Philippines they fill them with pork, cabbage and onions or whatever the lady has available. My American family likes them with cooked hamburger and cooked shredded potatoes. After bundling them up in the wrappers you fry them in about 2 inches of oil. Very filling.

We will be making a big batch of my sweet and sour recipe.  I used to be a waitress in a restaurant on Guam and I asked the cook how he made the sweet & sour sauce. He couldn't give me exact amounts, he just gave me a list of ingredients. It took me a lot of mistakes until I came up with an edible version of the restaurants. Now I've passed it along to my daughter and grand daughter. And I'm sure we'll indoctrinate the 4th generation this weekend.

Fall is slowly coming around and I've quit watering the yard. I've been keeping the rose bushes watered until it's really cold outside and then they can settle down for the winter. Every one tells me it's going to be a worse one than last year. I remarked some where that we had one morning of light snow and it was gone by dinner. And that was all we had. Granted we had a lot of bitter cold windy days but we survived. I miss the snow. I guess it was too cold to snow last year. We shall see. Some of the East coast of the US has already seen some snow and now they're playing with hurricanes. I wouldn't trade this weather for any of theirs and I grew up in Northern Pennsylvania where we had 2 or 3 feet of snow from October thru February and sometimes into March. But I was only a teen at that time and they have no triggers against cold and snow. We loved making snow forts and snow people and having snow ball wars!

Bridgit and I are coming along on our new house (it's actually from the 50's) and it's still standing. We got a new washing machine from a lady who was moving to Florida and couldn't take it with her. She didn't have a dryer or someone else got her dryer (don't really know) and we can live with just a washer. I went outside on Monday and stretched a wire from one of the back porch/patio pillars to the next and then to the next. Now we just wash clothes and hang them outside. Sort of reminiscent of my youth except in the early 50's the washer had hand cranked rollers to wring out the clothes. That was always my job. Even tried to run my fingers thru it once or twice.

And now for some new scrap book pages.

The young ladies are ready for school. The kit is from Kyra at Russian Dutch Heart designs.

Little Amyah is cute no matter what. Kit is from Miriam's Scraps.

One of my favorite couples, Eddie & Marie. Still using the same kit from Miriam's Scraps

Here's Marie in another one of Kyra's kits. This one is Frederque.

Sandy has a horse so she's the favorite Auntie now! She shares the barn chores with Olivia. And another kit by Kyra.

Olivia really got into braiding Indy's mane. I used a kit from Studio Manu

And another picture of aunt Sandy and Olivia with the Star being Independence aka Indy. This kit is called 'A Crisp Autumn Day' and came from Tooty Pups designs. 

 I'm going to sign up for a course on Winston Chruchill next week and I'm really looking forward to the readings that will go with it.

Meanwhile here's some Hugs from Sarge