100% beef on a sesame bun

 

I'm lovin' it!

So here we were: sitting in a line of 20 cars at McDonald's, because the debit machine was broken.  Grumbling is at a mild roar.

Since my gr-daughters have helped me become more tech aware, I used my android to visit Google: What is in McDonald burgers? It tells me 100% beef, and shows a site where more info can be found.

Going to a non-McDonald site, we learned much in our ten minutes.

What is actually in their hamburgers?

  After you watch the first minute or so, skip to 6:37 where you will see more.

This is just in case the video itself gets blocked.

Beef by-products are meat and fat scraps, connective tissue, and bone bits.  These are the ingredients of the absolute cheapest dog food.  BUT, add some ammonia and voile’! There you have 100% beef.  And, by all definitions, it IS 100% beef with a secret pink sauce added. 

EEWWW

The bun consists of 28 ingredients. First three are flour, water, and barley flour. The rest are unpronounceable words, all science stuff. 

I then looked at Chicken McNuggets. This info is guaranteed to be nauseating.

Our turn came up and we drove off with diet Dr. Pepper.  Yes, it is chock full of chemicals.

Coffee and soda are our usual purchases.  Now I know why.

Vintage 1970s commercial

P.S. Nearly every web site visited, I encountered all sorts of blockades, and videos simply disappeared.  Some sites I had just visited had been removed or an error message appeared.

This is a repost back from 2012, after sitting in a line and reading the above. Diet coke, decaf coffee, ice cream cone, and that's it: I order these items and maybe a pie. 

Since this reveal was opened up a decade ago, the McD industry has done a lot of backpedaling. I am sure the factories no long have ammonia in the pantry.

Creased, folded, photo in hands of memories

Great-Grandma Annie Praul Shive Johnson
A creased and tattered photo--
Held, shown, and stored in a shoe box for decades.
Hard evidence of a life lived
and remembered

Around in a circle on Christmas morning at Grandma's house, that is snapshot where I still see my family, frozen in time.  Photos have a way of capturing the smiles and memories that cannot be stored on a chip, flash drive, disc, cell phone...

A photo brings back sounds of laughter, of dishware placed onto the stretched out table.  Then it would have said the table was a mile long and the browned turkey as big as the sun. Lots of children noises filled the room, children laughter and some tears.  Just a quickly as they started, they stopped when grace was said and dishes filled.

A photo inhales wafting mashed potatoes with gravy cascading down the mountain and onto stuffing.  Creamed, buttered, fragrant, never-ending--amazing food, enough to feed entire towns. 

Then pies.  Queens of homemade pies, that's what Grandma and Mom were. Name any filling and these queens could whirl to place perfect pies, steaming hot, crust golden brown on the table.
  

 Front row: Robert, Bill, and me (with my new doll)
Don, Mary, Dad and Mom Christmas 1959

A photo can be held, placed lovingly an album, where smiles and bright eyes will look at it, talk about that day.  Remember...Mom nearly spilled the gravy...apple pie was...

A photo is taken of people of people frozen in time. "Hold still. Bill, stop it..." Click and wind. Click and wind. Then the roll of film would be put in an envelope, sent off, and returned. Open the envelope. And Christmas is re-lived over and over.

Food and family without end

A photo will travel across decades to find its way into hands of one who calls back that day with all its senses.  One who will caress faces of those long gone, saying, "I know when this happened."

Grandma and Grandpa Cardiff at home

A photo kept safe for decades in a box emerges into my hands. I can still smell the pies and feel the love all around us.

Can one do this with a digital? Can one hold the photo and feel all that?

Bring on the Feast

Water tower

As we finished the last of a very successful pot roast, I thought of the Memorial Day Dinner in my hometown, Nebo, Illinois.  What a feast it was.  It was ham, more ham, fried chicken, more fried chicken.  Then there were every potato dish  known to be prepared in the Midwest.  Then the dessert table overflowed with homemade pies, homemade cakes, homemade cookies and more pies. Don't forget the jello extravagances.

My Brother's Community Memorial Day Dinner

It was a wonderful day.  I was a teenager then and kinda resented my roll of refilling the dessert table and serving pie/cake/cookies to known and familiar people.  Also, I brought desserts to the unknown visitors who yet had a similarity to townsmen around them.
Good memories. Great food.

Yes, please.

This brings to mind what we now consider a lifetime of food memories.

So, given the excellent pot roast, what do you consider memories of good food? this is mine:

mashed potatoes, white gravy,creamed peas, ham salad, homemade rolls (made by my grandmother), bread pudding w/raisins, warm tomatoes from our garden, pickled cucumbers, pecan pie, strawberry shortcake with homemade whipped cream...Okay, enough already.

Your memories?

Happy Tomorrow!

Did your Thanksgiving table ever look like this??

Thanksgiving is nearly over, Thanks Be to God!  Although it is just a stop-gap in the days between Halloween and Christmas, Thanksgiving should be a time of family.

Memories of a frantic kitchen with Moms, Grandmas, and teenage females are made alive by the scents of current day Thanksgiving meals.  Hours and hours from the day before until the table is laden with the delightful turkeys, stuffing/dressing, gravy, mashed/creamed potatoes….so much thought, love, and hard work went into presenting a massive meal.

Memories then were fond and delicious.  Now?  Instead of carefully preparing pies to show pie-making prowess, CostCo and WalMart provide the ready-made varieties.  Let’s be honest here:  their pies are cheaper, labor free (for the consumers), and in some cases, better than the pies cooling on the counters.

Lift a glass to toast the maker of the feast!  With modern providence, family can sit down in the family room and actually enjoy each other.  With aluminum pans, plastic utensils, and heavy duty paper plates, even the clean-up allows for time to laugh, play games, or karaoke with off key singers.

Happy Thanksgiving!