Space Ghost Coast to Coast – Piledriver
November 2nd, 2009
More Family Traditions
April 27th, 2009
Ok I know Easter was a few weeks back but I haven’t been motivated to get this out for some reason, and now I am.
My family is filled with traditions, especially for the Holidays. I brought you Bread for Thanksgiving, Sauce for my Son’s birthday and now we have Easter, which is another big Feast, but before the actual holiday we have the whole family over for what we call “Poor Man’s Oysters” I think most would just call them Salmon Balls, but this my Dad came up with the name we use. Traditionally we have these on the Friday before Easter, if your Catholic, which my family is you know that’s called Good Friday.
We take canned salmon, crackers, egg’s & onion, mix them all together and form them into balls. like so……
Then my Brother fires up the Deep Frier while other foods for the dinner are prepared and some Drinking and Socializing happens………
Once the oil is hot we line the “oysters” in a frying basket like so and drop them in…….
They cook in no time and then we have the finished product which usually doesn’t make it to the table without many hands grabbing at the platter…………
And now I have shared another Family Tradition or Ritual with the world, the next blog will also have an Easter Theme, it’s more for my youngest kids and should be here soon.
Happy Birthday Little Brother…..
March 17th, 2009
The man in this picture is my younger brother, Patrick M. Langlois. He was born on March 17, 1969 and Died on May 7, 1995. He was not only my brother, he was my best friend. I can still remember that Sunday morning when my Mom came to my bedroom door and told me he had been killed. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with and still do try to cope with it every day of my life.
I’m writing this blog for him, because this Saint Patrick’s Day would have been his 40th Birthday. If he were still here it would be quite the celebration. This boy really knew how to grab life by the ball’s and live it. I think he did because he had come so close to death so many times that he knew the secret that a lot of people forget. When you wake up in the morning, you’ve been given another chance to see what the world has in store for you, a Gift per say. Live it to the fullest because in a blink of an eye it could be gone.
When Patrick was about 3 or 4 years old he was diagnosed with a kidney disorder called Nephrosis, forgive my spelling if that’s not right. Forcing him into the hospital many times and having to learn to be on all types of med’s. What a way for a child to have to live huh. These med’s had terrible side effects on him, one in fact causing him to balloon up and look much heavier than he was, another stunted his growth. Imagine starting school and having that against you, he was teased endlessly but never let it get him down! Patrick always had a great smartass come back for anything thrown at him and always had a Smile on his face.
As he got older he was always Mister Popular, people followed him around because of his great personality. One thing I remember from when he was in High School, was how he became one of the Football Teams favorite members and he didn’t even play! He was the freaking towel boy but they would mention his name when they were introducing the team member as they came out for every game, now how often does that happen?
It was his lust for life that made him so popular, no matter what happened, this kid he always came out of his corner swinging and smiling. Even when he almost died thanks to some crazy thing that happen with his intestines and landed him up in the hospital for months. He was King of the hospital floor he was on, all the nurses, doctors and patients knew him, it makes me laugh when I think back on it.
His life was cut drastically short because of a drunk driving accident involving himself and two of my cousins. They had gone up North for the opening weekend of Trout Fishing. Now I will let you all in on a little family secret, be it Deer Camp or a Fishing Trip these three were not going up North for the Sport, they were going for a weekend of Heavy Partying. They did it every year since they were teenagers, so I knew the score when I dropped Patrick off to work that Friday morning before his death. I can still see him sticking his head back into the car and saying “Thanks for the ride, I’ll be home Sunday night if you wanna watch a movie together and hang out” He shut the door to my car, waved and walked up to the doors of work. That was the last time I ever say him. I sat at his house until late on Sunday waiting for him, but he never showed. Figuring they decided to stay one more night, I locked up his house and went home. A few hours later I got the news……..
My cousins and him had been drinking all day & night closing out one of the local bar’s in a town near the camp site. The least drunk of the three which was the older of my cousins drove the car with Patrick in the front passenger seat and my other cousin passed out in the back seat. It’s still unclear what exactly happened to cause my cousin to swerve the way he did, but he lost control of the car running into a road sign. Normally there would have just been a lot of damage to the car but no critical injuries, the road sign would have gone down and stayed there. But in this case, the sign sprang back up crashing through the passenger side window striking my brother and killing him instantly. As sad as I am that he was killed, I take comfort in the fact that he was A) So drunk he didn’t know what had happened and B) The blow killed him quickly and I like to think Painlessly. The week that followed his death is basically a blur to me, including the Visitation at the Funeral Home and his actual Funeral. The one thing that does stick out and I really need to mention is the amount of people that attended his Funeral. There were so many people that they spilled out of the church down the step’s and onto the sidewalk. It amazes me how many lives this one Man touched in his short lived life.
I still celebrate the life of my Brother and Friend every Saint Patrick’s Day, I will be at his grave, with 2 bottles of his favorite beer “Coors Lite” and sometimes a bottle of our favorite cheap wine “Boone’s Farm” pouring him a drink with a “Howdy Neighbor” (our little saying as we pass the bottle) and a big smile mixed with tears.
I miss him still so much……Happy Birthday Baby Brother, this ones for you.
Life is Hard…..
February 24th, 2009
So here I am again, I’ve been asked by several people when I was gonna post a new blog, so I guess I should write something huh.
But see here in lies the problem, I never know what to write about. I mean what would be interesting to the people who visit this half done site? I could talk about the difficulties I’ve been having lately, well difficulties I think many people are having. The economy is horrible right now with predictions of it getting far worst before it gets any better. We have a new President, who I know isn’t a miracle worker, but he still gives me Hope that things are going to get somewhat better. But as for the here and now, things are in a frightening state. I feel the worst for my kids, they cant understand why we had to move out of our house or why they cant have certain things or why we cant go and do the things we use to do a few years back.
I am finding life with my first child, although hard at times was also so much easier. I mean first of all I didn’t have his father involved at all, so if I wanted to move I could move. I could raise him the way I wanted and expose him to so much culture. It was a wonderful time when it was just him and I. I’m finding life is a lot harder when you have children with a father who on occasion wants to be here for them. Because in these hard times, I’ve been asked to move out of State by several family members, because there is work where they are, but it would be a constant Court Battle with my Ex Husband. He doesn’t care that life would be easier for our children and myself, it’s not even like he sees the kids a lot, 8 hours a week with next to no over nights. It’s a very frustrating thing. But it is another thing that makes me long for the, shall I say the good old days.
I am dreaming of the day things will be like they were before I had all the troubles that come with an ex husband or more so with having children with an ex husband. My spirit hasn’t been broken to the point where I think things will never get better, but it is very battered & bruised. The first step is getting my feet back on the ground, regaining that independence, then I know thing’s will fall into place. When that day happens I will be such a better Mother to my children and a better person all around. I’ll be able to show my two younger children the mom their older brother had, the mom who didn’t worry & cry so much, the mom who knew everything would be alright, just because I had faith that it would be.
I’ve had this post sitting here for weeks now, trying to figure out how to end it. But after rereading it today I think I will just end it where I did. I’m sure there’s more I could add, but we’ll just save that for another post I think.
Making An All Day Spaghetti Sauce for Francie-Boy
January 9th, 2009
As many of you know from reading my stream on Twitter and Face Book on Jan. 4th 2009 I was making a Special Spaghetti Sauce for my 23 year old’s Birthday. This has been a tradition for probably 16 years now. I use to just take Francis out to eat on his birthday, but with being a single mom with a very fixed income we had to stop doing that. So I decided I would just make him his favorite dinner for his Birthday, that would make it a little more special since we weren’t going out to eat. He has chosen this dish every year, without fail for the last 16yrs. So this year, since I do have my own website I figured I would photo blog it for you all, to see how I do it, I really hope you enjoy.
Here we are at Ground Zero, these are the products that begin our Venture into the Land of Yumminess…..
We start by taking Garlic and frying it up in a little oil. I only had jarred Garlic for this batch, but I usually use Fresh
While your frying the Garlic you’ll want to start cutting up some Green Pepper, Onion and Tomatoes like so
Then add these to the Garlic as shown here
I usually cook these for about 10 minutes before adding my Hamburger
Brown your burger until it is slightly pink in spots then add a package of Sweet Italian Sausage like this
Once you get all the meat browned add more Green Pepper, Onion and Tomatoes…..
Cook these together for about 4-5 minutes……..
Now it’s time to add my Liquids, as you can see I do use Jarred Spaghetti Sauce, mainly because of the seasonings they provide, along with cans of Tomato Sauce, Tomato Juice, Beef Broth, Tomato Paste and Stewed Tomatoes along with some Italian Seasonings
I don’t add all of these item’s at once, usually at this point I add the Spaghetti Sauce, half of the Tomato Juice, one big can of Tomato Sauce and the Italian Seasonings. Your going to notice we don’t have much room left in the pan we started with. We will start the Simmering Process in this pan though.
I let my sauce simmer for about an hour and a half on a very low heat. Stirring it about every 15 minutes to prevent sticking, it should have a darker color now and be ready to transfer into a larger pan.
I know your looking at this and thinking why add more, it is a lot, but this is a bit too thick and the longer it cooks the better the flavor. But if it stays this thick it will stick like no other. Burnt Sauce is not a Happy Sauce so on we push from this size…….
To this….
Big pan I know but it is will be filled almost to the top very soon. Now we will add the rest of our Tomato Juice, the Stewed Tomatoes and a smaller can of Tomato Sauce, along with some Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder and Onion Salt. Let it simmer again for another hour stirring every 15 minutes like before.
Now I add my fresh Mushrooms a little more Garlic and a small amount of Onion. Your sauce is going to look like this at this point………
Your also going to want to add the Tomato Paste along with Meatballs, Italian Sausages, Chicken Breast or any type of Meat you would like to serve with your Meal at this point of the cooking process.
About a half hour before we are ready to serve the sauce I would start the water for our Pasta. We chose Angel Hair Pasta for this meal since it’s the Birthday Boys Favorite.
And now our finished product……..
Your going to notice the sauce has a rich brown redish color and thick but not too thick texture, this sauce turned out quite lovely in my opinion
And now we Eat…..
So now the conclusion of my blog, I am not sure how you end a blog like this except to say The meal was enjoyed by all who consumed it, even my friend Joe who is Italian told me it was very good, what better compliment is there!
