The dogwoods are blooming beautifully here. Love dogwoods and how inspirational they are.
Have you hear the Easter legend of the dogwood?
When Christ was on earth, the dogwood grew
To a towering size with a lovely hue.
It branches were strong and interwoven
And for Christ’s cross its timbers were chosen.
Being distressed at the use of the wood
Christ made a promise which still holds good.
Not ever again shall the dogwood grow
To be large enough for such a tree, and so,
Slender and twisted it shall always be,
With cross shaped blossoms for all to see.
Petals shall have bloodstains marked in brown,
And in all the blossom centers a thorny crown.
All who see it shall think of me,
Nailed to a cross from a dogwood tree.
Protected and cherished the tree shall be
A reflection to all of my agony.
I am so enjoying Spring. Everything is such a pretty green. The flowers and trees are blooming and now we have the Robin’s nest on the porch. The sweet robing laid her 4th egg today. Now we’ll wait for 14 to 16 days until the babies hatch. So many blessings!
Of course, this is holy week which is a good time to remember all of our blessings. Especially, the blessing of salvation through Jesus Christ. And then there is Passover to celebrate the end of Israel’s Egyptian captivity. So much celebration in one week that is topped off by Easter!
Passover starts on Tuesday, April 19th. However, the celebration starts at sundown on Monday, April 18th. That is tonight! I’m not that familiar with the Passover meal (Seder). However, I am fascinated by the ritual of the Seder and the food involved. One of the tastiest elements looks like the Charoset.
Hope everyone has a wonderful Passover and Holy Week!
Today’s Lagniappe: Passover Charoset
3 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and finely diced
1 – 1/2 cups walnut halves, toasted and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup sweet red wine
1 – 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
In large bowl, stir together all ingredients. Store, covered, at room temperature until ready to serve.
I’m back! Have missed everyone soooo much. Been busy then sick then busy again. Busy is very good – except when it means I neglect all my wonderful blog friends.
Next Monday is the sweetheart day of Valentine’s. Mr. Southern Gentleman and I will be celebrating this weekend. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate – a ton of snow in Arkansas today. It was pretty but I’m just not really cut out for dealing with all this snow!
Anyway, here is a Valentine Tablescape for you for Tablescape Thursday. Follow the link at the end of the post and see all the wonderful tables with Susan and friends.
Valentine Key
A cozy table in front of the fireplace.
A little candlelight.
Our wedding china with cut out hearts.
Romantic layers.
Ready to dine with the love of my heart!
Wishing you all a Happy Valentine’s Day! Check out all the fabulous tablescapes today at
with Between Naps on the Porch
Today’s Lagniappe: Savory Coeur a la Creme
A fabulous recipe by Ina Garten that is perfect for Valentine’s Day!
12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup heavy cream
1 lemon, zested
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 bottle chutney (recommended: Cross and Blackwell Major Grey’s)
Crackers, for serving
Place the cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and whip until it is firm like whipped cream. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the cream, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Beat on high speed until the mixture is very thick.
Line a 6-inch coeur a la creme mold or 6-inch sieve with a few layers of cheesecloth, allowing the excess to drape over the sides. Pour the cream mixture into the cheesecloth and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Fold the excess cheesecloth over the top of the cream. Place the mold on a plate or suspend the sieve over a small bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.
When ready to serve, unmold the creme upside down onto a plate and pour the chutney over the top, allowing it to drip down the sides. Serve chilled with crackers.
It has the traditional Mardi Gras colors of purple, green and gold. Just a grapevine wreath draped with purple ribbon and adorned with a big gold bow and a fun Mardi Gras mask. Couldn’t be easier!
Metamorphosis Monday with Between Naps on the Porch
Today’s Lagniappe: Cajun Catfish
From Betty Crocker something a little spicy and fun for catfish. Do you think Betty Crocker was Cajun? LOL!
2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1/2 cup stone-ground cornmeal
2 tablespoons Cajun Creole seasoning
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
1 egg
2 pounds catfish nuggets, skin removed
Salt
1/4 cup lemon juice
1. In heavy 3-quart saucepan, heat oil over medium-high heat to 375°F.
2. In shallow dish, stir together flour, cornmeal, Creole seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder and red pepper. In another shallow dish, beat egg with fork until foamy.
3. Sprinkle catfish nuggets with salt and lemon juice. Dip each nugget into beaten egg, then roll in flour mixture to coat. Drop 4 to 6 nuggets at a time into hot oil. Cook 2 minutes; turn and cook 1 minute longer or until deep golden brown. Remove from oil; drain on paper towels.
You know I always use the word “Southern” in my post titles, but not today. Just didn’t seem right. Today is Independence Day in the United States. God Bless the USA!
Oh, and before we get to the post, I want to add another link:
Pink Saturday with Beverly at How Sweet the Sound
As I sat down to do this post, I noticed that my Saturday post was not correct I posted a draft instead of the completed post that did not include Beverly’s link – So sorry! I have corrected the Saturday post and am also adding her link here as well. Beverly, please forgive me – I wouldn’t want anyone to miss your wonderful Pink Saturday party!!
Okay, so now on to the post – a Sunday Favorite that does double duty as an entry for Spiritual Sunday. Last year I posted the Declaration of Independence. I am doing the same this year. If you have never read it, please read it now! Also, I am re-posting the YouTube video we made from the grand finale of our local fireworks show. Set to the National Anthem, it is a great show! Enjoy!
From July 4th 2009:
Wishing all of you a happy and safe 4th of July. Please take a moment to read the Declaration of Independence.
Of all of the text of this document one of my favorite lines is, “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”
The courage of our founding fathers is evident in those words. They risked death to declare our independence. When Benjamin Franklin was asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got – a Republic or a Monarchy?” He replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”* It’s up to us to keep it!
Here is the text of the Declaration of Independence:
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
* ATTRIBUTION: The response is attributed to BENJAMIN FRANKLIN—at the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, when queried as he left Independence Hall on the final day of deliberation—in the notes of Dr. James McHenry, one of Maryland’s delegates to the Convention.
And then the fireworks from June 29, 2010:
And from May 4th 2009:
Today’s Lagniappe: Mama’s Southern Fried Chicken
Mama tells me that to get it really crispy you need to fry it in shortening or lard.
shortening or lard
1 chicken, about 2 to 2 1/2 pounds, cut up
2 cups flour
salt
pepper
seasoning salt
Salt the chicken. Heat the shortening or lard in a large skillet. Combine the flour with seasoning salt and pepper. Roll each piece of chicken in flour and place in the hot fat (about 370° F). Put the largest pieces in first, in the hottest part of the skillet. Arrange the chicken pieces in the fat, making sure not to overcrowd. Fry the chicken until outside is golden brown and crisp, about 15 to 20 minutes, turning once to brown both sides. Reduce heat and fry until cooked through golden brown, about 15 minutes longer. Turn once. Drain chicken on brown paper or paper towels
The fat should be deep enough to cover the pieces when it boils up, but make sure you use a deep skillet, preferably one made for frying chicken, and watch carefully.
It is that time of year. Hear all of the snap, crackle and pops? We just had our fabulous Red, White and Blue Festival here. Here are some pics from the event (thank you to Christy Keirn for some of the great pics – we forgot to put a card in our camera. Video of fireworks were taken from our phone!).
Monkeys on doggies!
Are they adorable or what?
Cuteness with a sunset!
A young Southern Belle on a pony.
My friend Kim's little ones - Jack and Trevie looking adorable!
And then . . . there were the fireworks!
Some fun for Outdoor Wednesday!
Outdoor Wednesday with A Southern Daydreamer
Today’s Lagniappe: Cucumber Tip Thanks to Wehoney on the Southern Living board for this great tip!
Cut a small piece off the end of the cucumber, and then rub it on the cut end, cut sides together, until a foam appears…rinse it off, with the cut end facing downward, repeat on the other end…this is suppose to take the gas out of the cucumbers.
This past weekend, our community celebrated it’s 11th annual Red, White and Blue Festival. One of the fun events leading up to the festival was a decorating contest. People were encouraged to decorate their homes, businesses, cars, etc. in red, white and blue and submit photos to our local newspaper where readers could vote for their favorites. The contest was called “Paint the Town – Red, White and Blue.” Here are some of the fun results:
A local nursing home got in on the fun - by the way, they won the people's choice award.
A local bank.
I love the bunting and flags on this home.
Another local business.
One of the festival's founders, Pat Ballard outside his home that is decorated in great red, white and blues.
The contest was a great way for everyone to get in the mood for the festival which is always held the last weekend in June. I’ll be sharing some other great photos this week. Can’t wait to show you the monkeys riding the dogs!
How are you transforming your place with red, white and blue this week? Bet you can get some great ideas at:
Metamorphosis Monday with Between Naps on the Porch
Today’s Lagniappe: Red White and Blue Pastry Cups
Something easy peasy and delicious!
Pepperidge Farms puff pastry shells, baked according to directions on box
Blueberries and sliced strawberries tossed with a little sugar or Splenda
Cool Whip
Place the blueberries and strawberries in the baked pastry shells and top with cool whip. Can it get any easier than that?
This upcoming weekend our local Red, White and Blue Festival is taking place. This is always such a fun time. Lots of activities for kids and adults alike. The festival starts with a parade and then over 2 nights there is a lot of great music, food and then it ends with a spectacular (and [...]
It is time for Monday, June 14th is flag day! I thought this would be the perfect time to change out our old flag for a new one. It is now out and flying proudly! I love how the flag looks against the backdrop of a blue sky with white fluffy clouds. Wondering what to [...]
Memorial Day is the national holiday where we honor all of the members of the military that have fallen. Thank you to all military members, past and present for all you do to protect us and our freedom! One of the most moving parts of honoring fallen military is the playing of taps and the [...]
Thanks for stopping by this Sunday. My favorite post for this week is appropriate for the Memorial Day weekend. It is about my father-in-law, Dr. Joe B. Wharton, Jr., who was a wonderful man who loved the Lord. This is the quote, my husband, Joe B. Wharton III is reminded of when he tells about [...]
It’s Tablescape Thursday with Susan from Between Naps on the Porch. Click on the pic to see more great tablescapes this week. We are are remembering visiting my friend Linda at The Cottage. Sadly, The Cottage is no more, but we had a lot of fun setting up a tablescape for Memorial Day there. Linda [...]
Next week we will be celebrating Memorial Day – a day set aside to remember the brave service men and women who have given their lives for their country. This week I am honoring those who gave all – God bless them and their families! Today’s Lagniappe: Flag Cookies If you use royal icing, these [...]
Happy Mother’s Day! “Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee,” Exodus 20:12. This is the 5th of the 10 Commandments. It has been said that the fifth commandment is pivotal, for it is between the commandments teaching us to love [...]
Whether you are Southern or not – Happy Mother’s Day. Check out my post of my mother’s sayings that was up earlier this week and also my mother’s lemon meringue pie recipes. Just Scroll through to see them. Enjoy and, again Happy Mother’s Day
I posted a draft instead of the completed post that did not include Beverly’s link – So sorry! I have corrected the Saturday post and am also adding her link here as well. Beverly, please forgive me – I wouldn’t want anyone to miss your wonderful Pink Saturday party!!
