4th Celebration

Mom has a potluck at her house every year on the 4th. Last year we roasted when she had it at the lunch hour, so this year she moved it to 5:30pm. The weather was perfect - not too hot, not too chilly. About 20 people were there. Lot's of good food! Besides the pulled pork and the beans that we brought, there was an enchilada casserole, tater tot casserole, deviled eggs, strawberry jello salad, green salad, potato salad, chips and drinks. I might have missed something as there was lots of food to be had. Everyone seemed to have a nice time visiting and enjoying the food.

Beth's Beans

Years ago we went to a ward potluck and Beth Plaster had brought this recipe. She shared the recipe with us and we have been making it ever since. We changed the name to Beth's Beans. We also made this for the potluck. Any excuse to make this! Super easy & yummy.

BETH'S BEANS
In a crock-pot add the following ingredients and let cook until bubbly and peppers/onions softened. Can go all day - tastes better the longer it cooks.
1-2 pounds browned hamburger (drained)
Diced green peppers
Diced onions
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 Tbs. prepared mustard
2 big cans Pork & Beans
1 can Texas BBQ beans

Pulled Pork

I bought 10 pounds of pork roast and spent most of Friday making pulled pork for the potluck at mom's.

PULLED PORK
1 Pork roast
Rub:
2 1/2 Tbs Chili Powder
1 1/2 Tbs Cumin
2 Tbs "Smoky" Paprika
2 tsp. Garlic Powder
2 tsp. Cayenne powder
1 Tbs Brown Sugar
1 Tbs Coarse Salt
1 Tbs Pepper
2 tsp. Liquid Smoke
Put Rub ingredients into a small bowl and combine. Rub it all over - top, bottom, sides - of the roast. Place in pan, cover & refrigerate for 2 hours (or more, I did overnight). Take pork out and let come to room temperature. Meanwhile preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large skillet, add olive oil and then sear pork on all sides until brown. Put pork in roasting pan and cover tightly with foil. Put in oven and cook for 1 hour. Lower heat to 325 degrees and cook an additional 3 hours. Take out of oven. Shred with two dinner forks. Serve on buns and make sure you have some BBQ sauce available.

Happy Independence Day!

The following is from the Library of Congress website. For Independence Day, wouldn't you expect me to talk about a song?

On September 14, 1814, while detained aboard a British ship during the bombardment of Ft. McHenry, Francis Scott Key witnessed at dawn the failure of the British attempt to take Baltimore. Based on this experience, he wrote a poem that poses the question "Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave?"

On July 26, 1889, the Secretary of the Navy designated "The Star Spangled Banner" as the official tune to be played at the raising of the flag. And during Woodrow Wilson's presidency, it was chosen by the White House to be played wherever a national anthem was appropriate. Still the song was variously criticized as too violent in tone, too difficult to sing, and, by prohibitionists, as basically a drinking song. But on its side "The Star Spangled Banner" had a strong supporter in John Philip Sousa who, in 1931, opined that besides Key's "soul-stirring" words, "it is the spirit of the music that inspires." That same year, on March 3, President Herbert C. Hoover signed the Act establishing Key's poem and Smith's music as the official anthem of the United States.

The new law, however, did not specify an official text or musical arrangement, but left room for creative arrangements and interpretations of "The Star Spangled Banner." The standard instrumental version was unofficially established as the arrangement used by the U.S. service bands. However, other versions include: Igor Stravinsky's 1941 version for orchestra and male chorus, Duke Ellington's 1948 Cornell University arrangement, Jimi Hendrix's 1969 electric guitar version, José Feliciano's 1968 rendition, and the 1991 version by the St. Louis Symphony under Leonard Slatkin.

There - your trivia lesson for today!

Wall-E

Another great movie by Pixar Studios! We had a great time going to see this movie. We were amazed at how little speaking there actually was. Fun time! I would recommend this movie for anyone.

The Zit Song

I stopped by to see Audrey and John at the Lacey house and the first thing I heard was, "Mom, I heard The Zit Song today!" I, of course, have no idea what she is talking about. So she repeats it - and then John translates.

Evidently the song is "If This Is It" by Huey Lewis (released 1983) but sounds to John like "Is this a zit?" Go ahead, find a copy and listen to it!!

Well, that got me going on a hunt when I got home. I distinctly remember thinking a song had a verse "at the glass of water time", but for the life of me, I cannot hum the melody or remember much. I know when I hear it on the radio, I still think those are the words and I don't know what the real words are. So I hunt and hunt, but instead of finding my answer, I learned there is actually a word for this phenomenon: Mondegreen.

Mondegreen was coined by Sylvia Wright in 1954. When younger, she had heard the folk song words as "They had slain the Earl of Moray / And Lady Mondegreen". She didn't realize her mistake for years but found out later it was really "They had slain the Earl of Moray / And laid him on the green." She was kind of sad that this heroine she had made up in her mind was not real at all.

There is a whole following of Mondegreens. There was actually an article in The Washington Post on June 12th by Paul Farhi "Another somebody sang somebody's song wrong". Thought that was a catchy title. He says something that is so true. Back (in the day), the only way to figure out the lyrics was to buy the album. Remember albums? "But really, why would anyone want to do that? Why would anyone bother to tamper with one's golden, screwed-up, misheard lyrics?"

There are books on the subject; Gavin Edwards wrote three! He tells of his first mondegreen as a six year old learning "Row, Row Your Boat". He was certain the line after "merrily merrily merrily" was "Life's a butter dream".

Jon Carroll, a columnists says "Remember that touching moment in "I'm in the Mood for Love" when the singer reveals his favorite nickname for his beloved? I'm in the mood for love, Simply because you're near me, Funny Butt, when you're near me.."

Some other examples:

"The ants are my friends/They're blowin' in the wind" ("The answer my friend/Is blowing' in the wind"-Bob Dylan)

"Sweet dreams are made of cheese" ("Sweet dreams are made of this"-Eurythmics)

"There's a bathroom on the right" ("There's a bad moon on the rise - Creedence Clearwater Revival)


What about you? Do you have any??

My kiddo

Sorry, there will be no pictures on this entry... you will just have to believe it actually happened! Let me tell you the facts: First, it is in the 90's again today. Second, Audrey had already been helping John at the Lacey project since about noon. Third, no A/C at the Lacey house.

The usual schedule for Audrey is Driver's Ed in the morning, John picks her up at noon and takes her to Lacey, and I pick up a hot, hungry & tired teenager after I get off work. Today I swing by after work to see how things are going. John and Audrey were both showing me projects that they had gotten done or that they were working on. Awhile later I say "Audrey, are you ready to go?" Audrey looks at me and says "I thought you just wanted to stop and see what we did" and then looks at John and says "Can I stay and work? I want to paint and caulk some more." At this point I tell John to get ready to catch me as I'm about to faint (from the shock)!! I'm laughing, John is laughing and Audrey looks at us seriously and asks us what is so funny. Then she says again how she really enjoys painting and getting work done, even if it means she'll be working until 9pm tonight.

Kind of cool, huh? She is quite a neat kiddo!!