T Stands for Godzilla Chicken

 

This was the chicken breast I was preparing for Sunday dinner. Look at the size of the thing! This is one chicken breast. One! Weighing in at a whopping 25 ozs.  That's enough meat to feed 4 people. This isn't even a whole chicken! Can you imagine what this creature must have looked like walking around? What are they feeding chickens these days? 

There's my ice tea and lemon I was sipping while preparing the meal, and my tea kettle at the back of the stove. I dumped some bottled Italian salad dressing on the chicken. A quick and favorite recipe given to me by a friend at my bridal shower a million years ago.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Happy Mail

 

Happy mail from Nan to brighten the boring Saturday mail of flyers and store circulars.  Nan wrote my name in the style of the Mystery Message letters. And look the stamp didn't get cancelled and no one dragged an ugly Sharpie marker through the stamp.

On the back of the envelope, a pretty butterfly stamp to seal the envelope close and on the back a light orange mark from the cancellator.

Inside an intricately folded note

The back

Opened up to find another

Folded note

Hello, Friend

May good things unfold for you

And not to forget the blue envelope with pretty blue Washi tape

Another note

Thee point of a 

maze is to find it's 

center. The point of a labyrinth is

to find your

center. As you

start to walk

out on the way

the way

appears

Begin

Breathe

Be

Nan, thank you so much for this delightful surprise. It was so fun to keep opening up the folds to find another surprise. 

How Does Your Garden Grow?

 

Little, yellow mums for the rail boxes. When I can make the time to transplant them.

A large, red mum to replace the sorry looking petunias

A little harvest of grape tomatoes and a funny looking cucumber

Sad looking garden in the fog

A foggy start to the weekend.

How does your garden grow?

Saturday Morning at the Library

by Diana Gabaldon

When I was 5 years old, I was forced to take dancing lessons while the Brother was forced to take accordion lessons. I hated dancing class. The Knights of Columbus Hall where the classes were given had no heat or it wasn't turned on. I hated wearing the pink beginner tights. I liked clacking around in the tap shoes, but Ma wouldn't let me practice inside the house on the wood floors. I spent most of my time in class being miserable and crying. Eventually, I was taken out of class.

While the Brother still had to endure accordion lessons, Dad took me to the library. He would leave me upstairs in the children's library where I could look at the books and choose to take some books home with my own library card. As I got older, I would go downstairs to the adult library and wander among the stacks enjoying the scent of the books before going to find Dad in the reference area consulting the law books and catching up on his work.

So for the next several weeks, a list of my favorite books, some I have read as a child, others as an adult and some  I have read more than once.

This week, the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. Currently, there are 8 books in the series with the 9th book expected to be released November 2021

The genre of the books are hard to describe but fall in the category of historical fiction romance science fiction. Visit author Diana Gabaldon's website for her explanation of the novels.

Outlander

Dragonfly in Amber

Voyager

Drums of Autumn

The Fiery Cross

A Breath of Snow and Ashes

An Echo in the Bone

Written in My Own Heart's Blood

Go Tell the Bees that I Am Gone

and there looks like there will be a 10th novel, too.

If you haven't read these books, you can find them at your public library or favorite bookstore. If you're not into reading, you can watch the series on Starz

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Sunday was such a nice day, I spent the entire day in the sun room.

2. Grateful to Kristen insurance company online chat rep. who helped sort out the car insurance so I could make the payment as the policy was due the next day, but I didn't receive a bill. 

3. An ordered item arrived early

4. The errors logging into the BPL were caused by their system going down. Logged in later and no problems.

5. Stopped for fried clams and a raspberry lime rickey from Harry's.

How was your week?

Throwback Thursday - Searching for Scrimas

 

Pasquale's son, Generoso (Joe)

My friend, Teague, first got me hooked on genealogy in 2011.  Researching one's family tree is a lot like doing a large picture  puzzle. Usually when you work on a puzzle, you have a picture from the box of what it will look like. That part is missing when piecing together a family tree.

One of the first puzzles I encountered was looking for a Pasquale (Patsey) Scrima. Somehow related to my mother's side of the family. I didn't know whether he was related to her mother or her father as I knew very little about my mother's side of the family. I came across a passenger list with my grandfather listed and the person he would be staying with in the US was listed as his brother-in-law, Pasquale Scrima.

I had recent confirmation from my cousin that the Scrimas were cousins related to us. Not just close friends that Italians absorb into a family, but he didn't know how they were related.

A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled on town records for residents of Ariano di Puglia in Italy where both my mother's parents were from. Poking around looking for my great-grandparents, I found my grandmother and her siblings. Then siblings of my great-grandmother. Then a spouse for one of her sisters, Generosa Scrima and then their oldest child, Pasquale later known as Patsey.

Patsey is my first cousin twice removed and related through my grandmother's maternal side of the family. 

So the earlier clue that I had about my grandfather staying with his brother-in-law, Patsey was wrong. Patsey and Grandma were first cousins. I can see how talking to immigration authorities a white lie might have been told or information misunderstood. Since one had to have a sponsor, it would be better if blood ties were close. Easier to say you were staying with the husband of your sister rather than a cousin of your future bride, or a friend.

I've also found Patsey's children including his eldest son, Joe pictured above. The photo looks like it was taken during during WWII. Maybe during Joe's basic training.

My next step was to search through the Boston Globe to find obituaries and to find out where Patsey and Generoso are buried. for a future cemetery sighting. Except for some reason my electronic library card at the Boston Public Library isn't being recognized to search the newspaper. I'll have to wait until the library opens to see about accessing the library.

Whatcha Doin?

Vincent has been overseeing my work on a Celebration of Life invitation. Today, he will supervise as I letter and illuminate the guest of honor's name.

Whatcha doin?