Once upon a time...well it was waaaay back when I was still in high school so it must be a fairy tale, right? One of my friends gave me a jar of Cabbage Relish her mom had made. I didn't even know what to do with it. She told me to eat it on hot dogs, hamburgers, etc. I had my doubts, but it was good! It keeps in the refrigerator, no canning involved. Since cabbage, onions and green peppers are available year round you can make it anytime so you don't have to make a bunch and have it take up your refrigerator space. I just finished making a batch. I haven't made it for quite a while so I'm feeling impatient for it to be ready...it has to set in the refrigerator for a couple days for the flavor to permeate it. Saturday I'll be having hot dogs with Cabbage Relish on them!

Here's the recipe:

Cabbage Relish

2 quarts shredded cabbage (I used 2 pounds)
2 green peppers, chopped fine
1 medium onion, chopped

Boil the following ingredients one minute:
2 cups vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar)
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons tumeric
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 1/2 teaspoons mustard seed
1 teaspoon salt

Pour boiling ingredients over cabbage, green peppers and onion; let cool. Store in refrigerator for at least 30 hours before using to set ingredients. May be kept in refrigerator in a jar for one year.

NOTE: I use enough cabbage so that after the hot vinegar mixture has wilted it down I still have enough to fill two quart jars.

My Twitter question was: "Question for the weather enthusiasts. Is a powerful hurricane just as exciting to you if it does NOT threaten land?"

Tornado chasing, you actually see the physical happenings. With a hurricane at sea, you watch the the stats and maps but if it stays far from land you don't physically see much of it. I was curious how that affected the interests of the people who follow those kinds of things.

Here are the replies:

twnstar2: Even more so for me. A chance to admire the beauty & power with minimal threat to safety, life and property.

csweather: Oh yeah, for sure! In fact makes me just as excited if it never hits land

Zucchini Squares

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup raisins
2 teaspoons maple flavoring
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup nuts
2 cups diced zucchini squash, raw, peeled

Combine the ingredients, fold in the zucchini last. Spread on greased jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until done. Drizzle with powdered sugar frosting.

Runzas are a type of "sandwich" that seems to be pretty much limited to Nebraska. Runza casserole uses basically the same ingredients in casserole form. Much easier than making Runzas.

Runza Casserole

1 pound hamburger
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/2 head cabbage, shredded
salt & pepper to taste
6 slices swiss cheese (may use sliced or shredded mozzarella or cheddar)
1 tube refrigerated crescent roll dough

Brown hamburger and onion with salt and pepper, (drain if using greasy hamburger), stir in cabbage and more salt and pepper, cover and allow to steam until cabbage is wilted down and crisp tender.

Line bottom of greased 8x8-inch pan or baking dish with 1/2 of crescent roll dough, pinching edges together to seal. Cover with hamburger/cabbage mixture. Cover with cheese. Top with remaining crescent roll dough.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until dough is golden brown.

Friday, July 31st, some of the Bluffton area Twitter users gathered at Bummie's for a Tweet-up. Bummie's famous Spanish Dogs and Onion Rings were enjoyed by most. The big question, is one of these people the REAL @mswiftpi, world famous private investigator? Present, L to R, 1st photo: @pamela984 (aka @UnitedWayWells), @libraritarian59, @coffeepink. 2nd photo: @ScLoHo, @jerrybattiste (from @newsbanner), @dylanmcintosh. Not pictured @Mar_sha (that's me).

"You're a free woman." That's what my surgeon told me yesterday. I said, "Finally!" It was a much longer road than I expected. Surgery on November 21st was supposed to mean 5 days hospitalized, unless there were complications. I had my surgery, plus two additional surgeries, and spent over a month hospitalized. Must have been complications! After I was out of the hospital a place in the incision line decided to open up, 10cm deep, and an artery decided to bleed resulting in stitches to the artery and an overnight stay in the hospital. Then two more places decided to open, minor compared to the first one. A change in surgeons came about because I could never believe what the original surgeon would tell me. Packings twice a day. The deep opening got switched to a vacuum dressing which only had to be changed three times a week. Rashes resulted in finding ways to do packings without tape and occasionally temporarily discontinuing the vaccum dressing. Insurance mandated I be homebound as long as I had home health care. Finally I was healed enough the vacuum dressing had to be discontinued. At that point home health care could be discontinued because I could do regular packings myself. I went to Alabama for my grandson's birth still doing a packing twice a day. Finally it is healed and I got released from the surgeon, after eight months. Now on with life. I wonder what God has in mind for me next? I'm still here so he still has something for me to do.

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

I have a new part time volunteer job and I'm really enjoying it. I'm helping out in the office at the United Way of Wells County. Today was my second time there. I'm really enjoying it. For the most part I had no idea what the United Way was all about so it's a real educational experience for me.

Last week my first educational experience there was learning to transfer phone calls without hanging up on the caller. My apologies to that first caller. Fortunately she called back. Most of that first afternoon was free time so I started reading through the 211 guide. I am amazed at the help resources available for people in the area...and saddened that we have the need for them.

Today I learned to check inside my clothes before leaving home. I didn't learn it until I was at the United Way though. I was standing in by the copy machine and put my hand on my hip. What was that lump? Uh...okay, what was that sock doing in my slacks? LOL

The other big thing I learned today was how to enter children into the Imagination Library database and send out the welcome letters to their families. The Imagination Library is a really neat program. It is free to all children from birth to age five. They receive an age appropriate book every month. United Way of Wells County is the Wells County affiliate. If you live in other areas you can find your local affiliate on the Imagination Library website at http://www.dollysimaginationlibrary.com. If you have a child age birth to five years of age I urge you to sign them up for the Imagination Library program!

EDIT: With the help of parrotletparrot and the site http://shadypines.com/descgr.htm we've decided that Opie is probably Forpus passerinus viridissimus.

I LOVE Mike Bettes from The Weather Channel. During the Vortex 2 tornado project he live streamed video every day at noon and I watched him as often as I could. Of course I'm a nut anyway for watching the different storm chasers. Usually I'm asleep and don't see him and Stephanie (their Twitter ID is abramsandbettes) when they're on in the morning. This morning I was (still) up and caught their tweet to send in your weather pictures or videos. It was foggy so I thought I'd take a picture of the fog over our pond. Surprise surprise, when I went to take the picture there was some guy out there fishing! I don't know who he is, maybe the neighbors' son, but he was just on national TV! I videoed it on the TV.






Small version of the original picture.

This guy's got it right!

LETTER FROM THE BOSS:

As the Ceo of this organization, I have resigned myself to the fact that Barrack Obama is our President and that our taxes and government fees will increase in a BIG way... To compensate for these increases, our prices would have to increase by about 10%. But since we cannot increase our prices right now due to the dismal state of the economy, we will have to lay off sixty of our employees instead. This has really been bothering me, since I believe we are family here and I didn't know how to choose who would have to go. So, this is what I did. I walked through our parking lots and found sixty 'Obama' bumper stickers on our employees' cars and have decided these folks will be the ones to let go. I can't think of a more fair way to approach this problem. They voted for change, I gave it to them. I will see the rest of you at the annual company picnic.