The yard is full of October flowers, the garden is still flowing with jalapeno peppers and we have enjoyed a great variety of family time oppportunities in the past week.
We took Sister on a quick trip to South Carolina to visit Quinn, Wil, MK and Robert in their pretty antebellum house surrounded by spanish moss and oaks. It was our first trip to their home, our first time to see 2 month old Robert and our first time to see MK enjoying her role as big sister. It is such a joy to watch young families grow and develop. And it's a joy and an inspiration to see the miracle of traditions and history and people and personalities blend together to form their own unique story.
It was a fun trip to the low country and we had the unexpected pleasure of a spur of the moment King Party of Four with Lynn and Kevin and the cute, four legged addition to their family, Bo.
We returned to Shelby in time for Lynn, Julia, Maggie, Jay, Ennis and Marge to come over for suppper to celebrate Sister's birthday. We had Lattimore corn and crowder peas, cornbread, slaw, and sliced tomatoes with basil. Sister brought her awesome chocolate chip cookies, Lynn added a hearty potato casserole and Marge brought butternut squash. For the first time I can ever remember, David and I tag teamed manning the charcoal grill and the Zesty Italian Chicken turned out perfect despite the leaping flames.
It was fun to watch Maggie interact with Mr. Cat and even more fun to watch her preoccupation with balls. We have a LOT of balls in our house - all sizes, shapes and textures and Maggie had a handle on all of them. Maggie proved that, like her collegiate sports playing parents and her many sports oriented cousins, she is going to be a player.
Speaking of collegiate players, Jay's basketball team has begun practice for real and we are gearing up for another kind of family fun with the Runnin' Bulldogs.
Dad, Jay and I took a short drive to Spartanburg one day and as always the conversations were varied and very interesting - covering politics, health and what to wear to weddings and funerals. Dad offered Jay 40 cows and a bull if Jay would change his last name to Hunt. Those two are like peas in a pod.
Back in the garden, there are so many beautiful things growing that it was fun to make several flower arrangements for Sister's birthday supper. Typically in October there are plenty of perennials that I can count on in the yard. This fall has been full of the hillside pinks, knock out roses, a few zinnias here and there and the tall yellow and blue ones that I can never remember the name of. Rosemary, basil and mint are still growing so they go into the arrangments too.
There are a lot of sweet smelling white flowers growing - on tea holly, the lime tree and the gardenias. The gardenias have been the prettiest ever this year.
And there was a surprise in the yard when several pretty blue hydrangeas appeared. I told Lynn that I think they bloomed just because she was in town. Lynn and I both love hydrangea.
So I put together arrangements of all kinds of things that typically aren't put together - like basil and gardenia; rosemary and zinnias; magnolia, hydrangea and knock out roses. It's fun to mix the unexpected and see how it blends together into something unique.
Speaking of the unexpected, fun blending and families, Beth and I went to Ovens Auditorium on Sunday afternoon to watch a very unique, blended family indeed. The Addams Family. It is a musical comedy with big showstopper songs and dances and some very unique sets and special effects.
Like the song says, they're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky. You really oughta see-um, they really are a scree-um.
Songs like "When you're an Addams, you do what the Addams do", "One Normal Night" (what's normal?), "Let's Live Before We Die" and then the after dinner game celebrate the full range of family dynamics. Beth and I were laughing left and right.
The show was fun and politically incorrect and thought provoking. It's full of life and death, tears and troubles, love and laughter - and how parents, children, and extended families blend it all together. When you're a family, you do what families do.
Jalapeno Poppers
With all the Jalapenos in the garden, I googled some jalapeno popper recipes and found many variations. This one is from someone named Cindy at allrecipes.com.
Slice fresh jalapenos in half and seed (I did leave some seeds just to kick it up)
Fry 1 lb Jenkins Sausage and add a block of cream cheese till blended.
Cut Bacon in half and fry until half done (or you can microwave if you want)
Use the same amount of bacon as jalapenos. I had eight in the garden so I had 16 jalapeno halves and 16 bacon halves.
Stuff sausage and cream cheese into jalapeno halves and wrap with bacon. I didn't need toothpicks to secure but just wrapped them tight and placed each on a baking sheet.
Bake at 375 degrees for a least 20 minutes or until they are as brown as you want them.
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