My Revue on Alabama's Album Mountain Music!

This morning I decided to write about this album. This is the one I really like from Alabama. The music on here is so awesome and the band can really pick the music and play it. This is my favorite country rock band.

This is the band's third album and it went to number one on the charts. Some of these songs on the album have gone number one also. One of the songs that went number one is the title song Mountain Music. This album went five time platinum.

The band has been together since 1969. But since they went to RCA in 1980 that is when there music started going good. I remember when this album came out in 1982. I had just graduated high school and I heard the title song and I just loved it. Yes I went out to buy this album and I just kept playing it. I am going to let you know what I think of each of the songs.

Mountain Music- This song is awesome and it tells you how to listen to the music. Listen from your heart and they play the music from there heart.

Close Enough To Perfect- It basically tells you how he thinks of his wife. The music on here is so good and yes this one is a ballad but it is a great ballad.

Words At Twenty Paces- This song I really didn't listen to I don't know why. But I just listen to it again and I think it really is good. The music is really good on here.

Changes Comin' On- This is another ballad but it is a good one. It is about changes coming in the world.

Green River- This one I really never listened to.

Take Me Down- This song listen to the music in this one and it makes you want to dance. This is an awesome song on the album too. This is another one I really like.

You Turn Me On- This is another ballad and it is really slow. But it is a really good song and I really like this one.

Never Be One- This one I really never did like on this album.

Lovin' You Is Killin' Me- The music for this song is really good. This one I really do like. It is up beat and makes me want to tap my foot to the music.

Gonna Have A Party- Listen to the music in this one. You want to dance to this music and when you listen to this you are gonna want to have a party. The beat to this music is awesome.

This is a must album if you are an Alabama fan. This album you can not go wrong having in your collection. I hope you like my revue of the band. I would like to hear your comments. I am going to leave you with my favorite song!♥

Beets, a nutritional vegetable and great memories

Beets are a new vegetable for us this year. Well, we have planted beets before, but we really did not have enough to do anything with. But -- this year we have had enough fresh beets to cook for a couple of meals. I am not sure I have found the best recipe for cooking them. I just stewed them in a little water and added salt, pepper and a little butter.

I know we will grow them next year but I will be on the lookout for new ways to prepare them. I think pickled beets might be a great idea, and I would like to find new side dish recipes. Because of the deep color, I am sure beets are nutritional gold -- a healthy thing to add to my diet.

Years back, I spent a couple of years in the Red River Valley of the North, one of the most fertile farming areas in the world. The first year we were there during harvest time, the roads were swarming with huge dump trucks filled with sugar beets.

There was a sugar beet factory very close to where we lived and the dump trucks carried so many loads of sugar beets that the roads were littered with beets falling from the trucks on the way to the factory.

The piles of beets outside the factory looked like small mountain ranges. As I went to work each day I passed the factory and watched as front end loaders constantly transferred the diminishing piles of beets to the factory for processing. It is an experience I will never forget.

The beets were very large and mostly white -- and white on the inside.

I know my beets aren't the same variety, but I think of those sugar beets every time I grow or eat beets of any color. If you know of a great beet recipe, I would love to try it.

GO WOLVES!!!!

 

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My Revue on Little House on the Prairie!

Yes I have finished the next book. As I am going to the next book they seem to be getting shorter to read. It just be me too. I have been reading about six or seven chapters a night too. It is I just can't put the book down.

So in this one it starts out that Pa comes back and asked Laura if she wanted to work in town. Ma don't like that idea at all. Because there are to many strangers coming to town. Laura would be helping a lady sewing shirts for the men. Laura liked the idea because she could help Ma and Pa get enough money to send Mary to the blind college. So Laura did take the job but she would not start the job until that have moved back to there homestead.

They moved back the next day and Pa had a job in town helping the men build a church. So Pa and Laura walked back and forth together. The lady she was working for had a sewing machine that she worked on and Laura was sewing by hand. Laura was making twenty five cents a day  and she had dinner with them. Laura sat by the window and did her sewing and she glanced up and looked out the window watching the people walking by.

When they would go home Pa and Laura still had there chores to do. Pa also had to get everything planted like the corn, wheat, oats and Ma's garden had to be done. Laura's job only lasted for two months. The only day off she had was on Sunday. Because back then that was the Lord's day so you could not work on that day.

There was a mouse in the house and the mouse had chewed some of Pa's hair off one night. So they had to get a cat to keep the mice out of the house. One day Pa went to town to talk with the men and he came home with a kitten. The kitten could fit in Pa's pocket that is how small it was. The girls were so happy when they seen the kitten.

Then later in the summer there was a lot of blackbirds in the fields eating the oats and the corn. Pa took his shot gun out there to try to kill them but there was to many. Laura was afraid that there would not be enough money then to send Mary to college.

Then in the fall Ma and Pa took Mary to Iowa to the college. She had to take a test to see if she could go to the college. Laura had to watch Carrie and Grace while Ma and Pa were gone. Mary passed her test and stayed at the college. While Ma and Pa were gone Laura and Carrie did the fall cleaning for Ma.

Pa did the haying and took all the hay into town. He said they would spend the winter there again just in case it would get real bad and he never did fix the house for winter yet. Then all Laura could think about was having to go to school to get her teaching certificate so she could get a teaching job to help pay for Mary's school.

Then they moved back to town and Almanzo's sister Eliza Jane was the teacher at the school. Nellie was telling the teacher that Laura thought she could get away with everything because her Pa was on the school board. So the teacher was really mean to Laura and Carrie. Eliza only taught until Christmas break then a new teacher came his name was Mr. Owen. He was really nice to all the kids and didn't put up with anything.

At the church on Fridays they had the literaries. This was were all the town people came for like debates, plays, spelling bee and all different things. The first night when Laura put her coat on someone touched her shoulder and said hello. It was Almanzo Wilder and he asked if he could walk her home and she said yes. Then after this day he walked her home every Friday.

Then Mr. Owen the school teacher decided to have a exhibition this was with all the children in school. Laura had to remember everything about the presidents for this. The whole town showed up for this and there was not enough room in the school they had to use the church. Also the school superintendent was there that night. Laura thought she would forget everything when she seen all the people there. When she was putting on here coat Almanzo came and helped her with her coat. While walking home he said he was making a sleigh to go riding in the snow and asked Laura if she would like to go for a ride in it. She said yes so when it is finished he is going to take her.

The next day Mr. Boast came to the door with another man. This is an old friend of Mr. Boast and he asked Laura if she would like to teach a school it is fifteen miles south of town. Laura said she is not sixteen yet and Mr. Boast said you never tell anyone your age. It is only for two months and it pays twenty dollars a month and a place to stay. They said the Superintendent is in town to give Laura the teaching test. Laura said yes and the men left to get the Superintendent before he left. The man came to the house and gave Laura the test she passed it with flying colors. She got her teaching certificate.

I know this is pretty long but this book just had a lot of information that I wanted to put on here. You have to read this book it is so good and it tells you a lot of what happens to them. This is just some of it not all of it. If you like Little House like me you will love the all the books.

A pictorial garden tour

On Saturday we went to the garden to work for awhile and during that time I took a few photos. These were with my cellphone -- not the perfect camera for photos like these, but I think you can tell that the garden is coming along nicely, even with the lower resolution camera. I do seem to be having some issues with the blog spot photo entry software so I hope you can see the photos as I intended.

I am quite pleased with our garden so far this summer. We are beginning to get a few squash, cucumbers and even an almost ripe tomato. If the weather would just cool down a few degrees and we would get more rain, things would be perfect. Things really do look lush and green.

Our green beans are now running over the top of the poles and we are beginning to see blooms. Very pretty, I think.

We have recently fertilized and have been dusting with diotomaceous earth to prevent beetles from getting a stronghold.

The cucumbers are growing like crazy. They are responding to the really hot weather and I hope we get some rain soon because I hate to get thin cukes that balloon on one end because they suddenly get rain. I have already made a gallon of sour pickles and have had enough for salads and snacking.

The hot peppers have grown even more than I thought they would. We planted some cow horn peppers for my husband and I think they will grow quite tall. I don't have any experience with them -- until now.

We have a nice row of okra coming up, at left and the bok choy still looks pretty good. We do have another row of okra that is just planted but they haven't peeked through yet. The hot weather is really great for these okra plants. They love it. I don't think I have ever seen a plant that thrives so in hot weather. The only negative about okra is that deer really, really love it. Good thing they hate our electric fence. I am hoping for a good stand of okra in the next several weeks -- maybe even enough okra to harvest a bit.

It is a hard to see but the plants at the back are my spaghetti squash. I really love them. They are just putting on the second leaves at this point but should really shoot up and catch up with the other plants.

I think our corn and squash is really looking good. They would benefit from more rain but we will hopefully water them enough while waiting for rainfall.

The yellow squash plants are not as dark as the zucchini. I think zucchini is a really attractive plant and so far so good on the squash. We are looking for bugs all the time and things look good right now.

This is one of the different squashes we planted. I don't remember exactly which one it is. I know we will know soon. I love the coloring of the leaves. I think it is a kind of zucchini.

This should be our acorn squash. Acorns are one of my favorites, especially in the winter.

We planted a cherry tomato bed and it looks very good. We have red, black and purple.

I do like our tomatoes and peppers. We have a new staking system this year.

My husband found some six foot hardwood stakes with holes drilled in them on clearance at Tractor Supply. We tied wire at the top and bottom of the stakes that we put on the end of each bed and another stake in the center. We tied the strings to the bottom wire and then wound the string around the tomato trip and tied the other end of the string around the wire at the top.

The indeterminate tomatoes were staked this way. The determinate varieties are mostly caged.

Greenhouses stake their tomatoes largely this way and so far I really like it. You must pinch off the suckers so that there are not too many branches. Seems sturdy enough and I am hoping it works well to keep the tomatoes off the ground.

And the last thing would be our cantaloupes and watermelons. The cantaloupes are very small plants and the watermelon have just been planted so I can only show you dirt where they are.

Pretty good. I am just praying for rain.

Recipe Redo: Lasagna -- Cheesy, Gluten-free Lasagna

Here's a recipe that is dairy-free and gluten-free AND believe it or not, really delicious. This is not a vegan recipe because we used ground turkey to satisfy a 5-year old who eats spinach plain, but prefers not to see flecks of vegetables in his other food. I will be working on a vegan version and will blog about it at a later time.

The cheesy sauce contains nutritional yeast which has a cheesy flavor. That is what makes even the pickiest eaters in my family like this dish. This recipe contains a cup of cashews which can be bad for those with tree nut allergies. The cashews add most of the fat in this dish. There isn't as much saturated fat as regular lasagna, but it is not a low-fat dish.

"Cheesy" Lasagna 
(gluten-free and dairy-free)

2 pounds ground turkey
1  26-ounce jar of spaghetti sauce (wheat-free)
1 recipe of Cheesy Sauce (recipe follows)
1 10-ounce package of soaked brown rice lasagna noodles (we prefer Tinkyada, but use DeBoles when we can't find Tinkyada noodles)
1/2 cup water
1 cup Daiya mozzarella-style shredded soy cheese

Make one recipe of "Cheesy Sauce." This sauce can be made up to several days beforehand and stored in the refrigerator until ready for use.

Don't cook the rice noodles beforehand. Instead, lay the noodles in a dish and cover with boiling water for ten to fifteen minutes. While the noodles are soaking, brown the turkey in a non-stick pan. Add spaghetti sauce and cook for about eight minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Noodles should be partially softened and the lasagna is ready to be assembled. In a 9 x 13 pan, pour 1/3 of the turkey mixture and top with noodles and then 1/2 of the Cheesy Sauce. Repeat layers until all is used up. Finish with mozzarella-style shredded soy cheese. Pour 1/2 cup of water around the edges of the assembled lasagna.

Cover with foil and back at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 15 more minutes. Top and sides will be slightly browned.

Cool for 10 minutes and cut into squares. This also warms well in the microwave.

Cheesy Sauce 
(dairy-free)

2 cups water
1 cup cashews
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (large flake, non-gmo)
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1-1/2 teaspoon salt

Put all ingredients into a high-powdered blender jar and blend on high for 2 minutes. Pour mixture into a 2-quart saucepan and cook on medium until mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat and cool before storing in refrigerator. Keeps for several days. This is a good cheese sauce substitute.

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