Category: Commentary

My Memorial Day weekend was truly a memorable one! In fact it wasn’t only a weekend; it began with my trip to Devine last week. The trip itself was uneventful, as traffic wasn’t bad, it didn’t rain on me and I made really great time. When I arrived at my daughter’s home, I assembled the snack I was planning to serve and had a nice visit with my son-in-law. My daughter made a wonderful dessert for me to serve to my Bunco ladies. It was a red/white and blue jelled dessert that served up beautifully and everyone seemed to really enjoy, as there were lots of compliments!
My two oldest great-granddaughters are with my daughter as their school was already out, and they and I ‘hung out’ together all day on Thursday! We went to the local doughnut shop for a sweet breakfast, then to the beauty shop for my appointment, and then, of course, we had to go to Wal-Mart and shop around. When we got back out to the house, we did several things together, including making the sausage kolaches that I had promised to bring to my youngest granddaughter whose home I would be going to, for her son’s first birthday party! That evening, I went to my son’s home and we got ready to leave early on Friday morning for the 9½-hour trip to the Texas panhandle where she and her family live. It was a tiring but awesome trip, with lots of scenery for me to enjoy. The rolling hills and plains were really pretty as they’ve had enough rain, so that everything was green, rather than burnt brown as some places are, and there are still enough wild flowers blooming, especially the one called “Mexican Hat” and the beautiful Indian Paintbrush. The colors in that plant always fascinate me, with its deep orange, gold and almost brown petals and center.
We had a nice visit, the baby was still up and I got to play with him. He is such a sweet little boy and came to me immediately, even though I hadn’t seen him since Thanksgiving. Since his other grandparents, great-grandmother and uncle were all coming in also, I was taken to the guesthouse of some friends. It’s a great place that I had all to myself, very quiet, with a wonderful bed, that by that time I needed!
Saturday morning, my granddaughter picked me up, her husband’s parents had gotten in later the evening before, and after breakfast we divided up into two cars and made the trip to Oklahoma City, where my granddaughter and my son met the plane that was bringing my daughter-in-law, her mother and son in from their trip to graduation exercises in Georgia. We all met up for a quick lunch and then headed to the Oklahoma City Zoo. We had a great time, the baby wasn’t fussy and he seemed to enjoy the animals. It was a long and wonderful day that I enjoyed immensely.
Sunday was time for church and then the birthday party. That little guy certainly enjoyed his cake! Actually, it was the second celebration of his birthday, as he had previously had one with some of his friends and his ‘Church family’ that was closer to his actual birthday.
Now, it is Sunday evening and while the rest of the family went to services, I stayed at home to get this done!
Last week, I told you about Memorial Day and how it started and gave you the beautiful poem about the poppies. This week, here is the story about the poppies
The following is the story of the “Buddy Poppy” as it was printed in an article in “Ladies Auxiliary VFW Magazine in October 2015.
“It takes just three little parts and a few practiced twists and turns of the hand to create a perfect “Buddy”® Poppy. But this mighty little flower improves the lives of many veterans and their families”
In a modest building near Fort Dodge in dodge City, Kansas, a small but dedicated group of volunteers works hard, each with their own personal assembly line, building “Buddy”® Poppies at an impressive pace. Hundreds of loose bright red petals, bright green stems and paper labels quickly turn into tiny bouquets. There have been millions of poppies shipped from this building since 2003. Orders are filled from all over the United States, even as far away as Alaska.
The “Buddy”® Poppy makes a lot of difference for lots of veterans. The flowers are typically assembled by veterans in need or disabled veterans. On a Post and Auxiliary level, income is used to aid members. On state and national levels money from the poppies provides much-needed services for disabled veterans and their widows and orphans. Funds raised also go toward supporting the VFW National Home for Children and Veterans’ rehabilitation services.
There have been millions of poppies shipped from this building since 2003. Orders are filled from all over the United States, even as far away as Alaska.
Sausage Potato Breakfast Casserole
1 30 oz bag frozen shredded hash browns
1 lb breakfast sausage
1 4 oz can green chiles
1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1 8 oz container heavy cream
1 can cream of celery soup
Salt, pepper and a little cayenne pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease a 2 qt casserole dish. In a deep skillet, brown sausage and crumble with a potato masher. Add the can of green chiles and the cream cheese until all melted and then add the soup and heavy cream.  (If mixture is still thick, thin slightly with milk.) Heat all on medium heat, stirring continually until all is well blended and to keep from sticking to the bottom of the skillet. Once well blended, remove from heat and set aside. Break up frozen hash browns and layer on bottom of baking dish. Pour the sausage mixture over hash browns & bake until all bubbling and potatoes are heated through. Top with grated cheese while warm.

Last week, I told you about our 100th year celebration of our local hospital and said that I was excited to be going to the culmination of that week’s celebration, which would be a dressy party. It was a wonderful party with many of the Hospital Foundation donors, members of the Hospital Board, our doctors, the hospital staff, and last but by no means least about twenty or more of our auxiliary members.
When you walked into our local Community Center, the first thing you saw was an antique crib or isolette with a small doll dressed as a baby would have been, with a little jacket and diaper. As you checked in a found your table, the true decorations from the past 100 years were shown. There was an entire wall dedicated to photos of past doctors and nurses, newspaper articles about the hospital, that have been preserved, and the list goes on! Some of the older ladies in attendance were telling us about some of the Nuns who were nurses back in those days and how strict everything was, and how hard everyone worked.
There were also photos of Auxiliary members at various times, and a shadow box with pins and bars from the ladies, denoting the amount of hours donated to the Hospital by these members, It is a total of over 70,000 hours. I am not sure of the number of years that is included here. It is really a beautiful display and as I understand, it will be on display at our local museum until September.
The evening began with a cocktail reception, with drinks and any type of fruit, cheese, and cold cuts you can imagine for snacking, and lots of socializing, as everyone seemed to enjoy seeing old friends and former co-workers.
This was followed by welcome from our Hospital CEO, and an invocation by the Mr. Leck, Chair of the Hospital Board of Trustees.
Then came a marvelous dinner with a salad and a choice of entrée, that was steak medallions or salmon, followed by a choice of grilled vegetables, and was prepared and served by a restaurant from a nearby town, and the food and service was all awesome!
The meal was followed by a program of Personal and Oral History Interviews, including patients, our local Doctors, department heads, members of the Hospital board, a member of the Auxiliary. There are really too many to mention here, but it was a wonderful evening that culminated with the the unveling of a painting, called “A Century of Memories”. It will be on display at the hospital on our history wall at the hospital. The Hospital is shown in each of its re-buildings and growth through the past century.
Monday, May 30 is Memorial Day. What does it mean to you? Do you celebrate it, or is it just a neat day to have off work for a long weekend? Do you fly the flag? It is mainly a day of remembrance, of all the veterans of all the wars and is one of the holidays that are celebrated on the last Monday of the month that it is in. We will have a program at the Fire Station, with a part of the high school band playing for us, and also a really nice program. There are usually speakers, and wreaths are placed as memorials from many organizations.
Memorial Day was formerly called Decoration Day and was celebrated on May 30th. General John A. Logan, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic originated this day to honor the war dead.
It is a legal holiday in almost all the fifty states. In some places, the observance consists of civic parades and the placing of flowers on veteran’s graves. In San Antonio, there is usually a special service at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. This very impressive ceremony, with taps and a 21-gun salute, always reduces even the strongest to tears as they realize that these men who are buried here gave there all for their country.
There are services in foreign cemeteries honoring the graves of American servicemen who are buried on foreign soil. There are water services for those who died at sea, and there are ceremonies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. It has been the custom to fly the flag at half-mast until noon in the United States.
The verse that follows is one of the best known and is written about the Buddy Poppy. Everyone is familiar with this little red flower that is offered for a donation either at Memorial Day or in time for Veteran’s Day in November. John McCrae (1872-1918) is the author of this famous poem. He is remembered for what is probably the single best-known and popular poem from WWI. He was a Canadian physician and fought on the Western Front in 1914, but was then transferred to the medical corps and assigned to a hospital in France. He died of pneumonia while on active duty in 1918. His volume of poetry, “In Flanders Fields and Other Poems, was published in 1919. It is said that John McCrae was standing in the cemetery and saw the beautiful red poppies growing over the area, that he was so impressed and moved that he wrote the poem.
In Flanders Fields
By John McCrae (1872-1918)
In Flanders fields the
Poppies blow
Between the cross, row on row
That mark our place;
And in the sky
The larks, still bravely
Singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the
Guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw
Sunset glow
Loved and were loved,
And now we lie
In Flanders fields. Take
Up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing
Hands we throw
The torch’ be yours to
Hold it high.
If ye break faith with us
Who die
We shall not sleep,
Though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

This week has been busy, which is nothing unusual, and it will continue into this coming week. Due to the fact that we have many of our auxiliary members who, due to Covid are not ready to be out in public, we are shorthanded in our gift shop. Working in the shop is almost always interesting; especially on the days the visiting doctors are on hand. You get to meet people, try to help them find something to purchase or they just look around. At any rate, there is something going on.
In addition to keeping the gift shop open all the needed shifts, we are also selling tickets for our annual spring drawing and celebrating 100 years of having a hospital in our small town.
There is a special display at the local museum honoring the hospital and our auxiliary, with a display of a shadow box containing the pins and bars showing how many hours the ladies have worked over a period of time. At last count, there were over 70K hours. There are mannequins dressed in uniforms of different types that have been worn over time. I did not get to attend the opening Thursday evening, due to a previous commitment, but from what I understand, it was awesome! I remember that when my Mother first joined in the 80s, they wore white uniforms of the same type that nurses wore, including white caps and looked extremely professional. Those days are long gone, and now our uniform is much more casual.
Friday morning, we had a dedication ceremony of the oak tree that the auxiliary purchased and had planted at the hospital in memory of this 100th anniversary occasion, with a reception following and members serving the cookies, punch and coffee! Everyone seemed to enjoy getting to visit and work with one another and it was great seeing the different departments working together.
Tonight, Saturday, there will be a very large, very dressy dinner as part of the celebration that I will be able to attend, it sounds awesome and I am excited to get to go.
This week, we’re going to learn a little bit about a vegetable called “Jicama” or ‘yam bean’. Several years ago, at bunco, our hostess served Jicama on the beautiful vegetable tray that she brought. I had heard of it before, but hadn’t really tasted it. In taste, it reminds me of the water chestnuts that are used in Oriental cooking, which means crunchy and a little starchy tasting. In fact, the first place that I ever read about it was in my Sunset Mexican Cook Book with a publishing date of 1970! They also compare it to the water chestnut as well as to a potato. In fact they state “It tastes so much like fresh water chestnuts that Chinese cooks often use it as a substitute”. I would see it in the grocery store and wonder “what in the world is that”, but I never tried it.
Jicama, which is pronounced “hee-cama”, grows on vines, with underground tubers, just as potatoes do, and is native to the warm climates of Central America, as well as the Caribbean, the Andes Mountain region and Southern Asia. It is a member of the bean family. As well as its formal name of Jicama, it is called “Mexican water chestnut”, and also “Mexican yam bean”, with a genus name of Pachyrhizus erosus. The skin is nothing like the edible skin of a yam, but is considered an organic toxin, as are the vines and leaves. In fact, the name “rotenone” is the same as a chemical used to bring fish to the surface so a stock tank or pond can be cleaned out.
Jicama are sold in most grocery stores in the produce section and they are round, and shaped similar to a turnip, with a texture similar to either an apple or a turnip. There are several varieties, but the most common in our stores is the one mentioned above.
To use, wash the tuber just as you would a potato, cut off each end to make a flat surface and then peel. In the articles I found, one sounds as if you need a sturdy paring knife to peel it and the other sounds as if you can use your regular potato peeler.
It is a very versatile vegetable, as it can be used in stir-fries, salads, slaw, soup and with other vegetables or fruits, as well as meats and seafood. A favorite Mexican recipe is to have it cut into slices and served with chili powder, salt and lime juice. In fact, that recipe is in the Sunset Cook Book and will be further down in the column.
It is low in calories and an aid to weight loss programs, is an excellent source of fiber and vitamin C, and a powerful antioxidant. It also has a healthy amount of potassium and vitamins like folates, riboflavin, and thiamin among others. Also it has the minerals of magnesium, iron, copper, and manganese, so these weird looking vegetables seem to be pretty healthy. (What I noticed on the vegetable tray, they did not darken as a potato or apple would, and stayed nice and crisp).
As far as I can tell, most people cut the jicama into sticks as you would a potato to make French fries, sprinkle it with salt and nibble away. However, our hostess served it with dip and it was great. (I wonder how it would taste if it was dipped into salsa?). For more information, “Google” the word Jicama, and enjoy the articles.
The article that I have been working from also has the following recipe for a salad using jicama, and just recently, when I received my Food Network Magazine, The Tex/Mex Issue, there was a salad recipe in the magazine!
Jicama Salad
1¼ pounds jicama
4 radishes
1 sliced scallion
2 tablespoons each, chopped cilantro and mint
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons agave syrup
½ teaspoon salt and a pinch of cayenne pepper
Peel Jicama and cut into thin matchsticks; cut the radishes into matchsticks, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, agave syrup, salt and cayenne in a large bowl, add the jicama, radishes, scallion, cilantro and mint. Toss together, season with additional salt if necessary.
Jicama Appetizer
1 tablespoon salt
¼ teaspoon chili powder
1 to 2 pounds jicama, peeled
1 lime, cut into wedges
Blend salt and chili powder and place in a small bowl. Slice the jicama into ¼ to ½-inch thick slices and arrange on a serving tray with the bowl of seasoned salt and lime wedges. To eat, rub lime over jicama, and then dip in the salt. Serves 6 to 8. (The photo with the recipe shows that the jicama has been cut into quarters or so and then sliced).