Hi Ben,

Thanks for the reminiscing about your folks' careers. I like the part where when told your mother was told she couldn't, she did it anyway.

She had to go to summer school (about 250 miles away) for part of it;
as oldest daughter I got the brunt of cooking, cleaning, etc. Did me
well when I left home to get married, neither of my sisters could hardly
boil water when they left home. I tell Steve that I got most (not quite
all) of my cooking mistakes out before we got married.

I befriended the guy in charge of in-house printing where i worked.
He had old-fashioned equipment in the basement. He used to run the
local paper, and told stories about battling with aging equipment
there too. He was quite a character.

Sounds like fun. I remember going to the News (Catskill Mountain News)
office when I was younger, seeing them print the paper. They had to feed
the sheets of paper in one at a time, then pull out and change the
plates to do the other side. Then it was put thru a cutter and folder
machine.

I forget which branch of the military he was in, but he went to BC>

Germany in WWII. He told me they had set up schools in Austria where

they were BC> training people to step into German government

positions after taking BC> possession of the USA. He said they had it
all planned out as though BC> it were a done deal.

Probably Army but working for OSS (precurser to CIA) or a similar
agency. Sounds interesting; I wonder how much of it he could have made
public in a book. It would be interesting reading.

One story he told me was organizing a fund raiser. He advertised it
as a topless car wash, but left out that it would be done by the Boy Scouts. There was a big turnout, including many of the local preachers
who showed up to protest.

Sounds worse than it ended up being. Quite the "hook" to get a turn out
tho.

Basically, yes. I pulled out the baby crock pot, put the meat, a cut up onion, a can of tomatoes, and a couple of small cans worth (subdivided large can) of diced chili peppers in it, let it cook on low all day. For supper, I cooked some spiral pasta and we served the "chili" over that. Steve spiced him up a bit with chipotle powder but it was good as is for a cold day.

That sounds delicious to me. It has been cold here too. Yesterday i
made a crockpot of split pea soup. It was edible but not as awesome
as usual. I blame the expired carton of broth. It'll likely be better next time.

I did a chicken casserole and caesar salad last night. Tonight will
probably left overs, clean out the fridge a bit. We're slowly thawing
out but the weather folks are saying we could get hit with another storm
on Saturday.

---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net FIDO 1:396/45.28


... History repeats itself because nobody listens ...

--- PPoint 3.01
* Origin: Sew! That's My Point (1:396/45.28)

Re: Publishing, Crockpots
By: Ruth Haffly to Ben Collver on Tue Jan 27 2026 12:38 pm

She had to go to summer school (about 250 miles away) for part of it; as oldest daughter I got the brunt of cooking, cleaning, etc. Did me well
when I left home to get married, neither of my sisters could hardly boil water when they left home. I tell Steve that I got most (not quite all) of my cooking mistakes out before we got married.

That sounds hardcore in my book. I also helped out around the house, but to
a lesser extent. I still had many cooking mistakes to make after moving out. It's interesting how varied the experience is for different siblings in the same family. Just out of curiosity, were you the eldest?

Probably Army but working for OSS (precurser to CIA) or a similar agency. Sounds interesting; I wonder how much of it he could have made public in a book. It would be interesting reading.

Now that you mention it, i think he was in the Army. I am not sure what role he was in there... He also told me stories about working in the ship yards
in Portland, OR, building ships for the war effort. It sounded like he came from a poor family, but his parents were more loving than normal. He said
they always gave their children choices, explaining what the consequences
would be of each choice, and they always gave them a space of their own
where they could go if they did not want to be disturbed.

He was working while in his 80's. At that time he told me his health
insurance cost $900 per month. He said that even if they paid him nothing
it would still be worth going to work in order to have health insurance at
his age.

He had been married a bunch of times, and was divorced a few times and
a widower a few times. When i knew him he lived quite alone, though i
helped him set up video conferencing with his daughter who lived in
another state.

The indoor kittie is sick. She has a fever, dilated pupils, and is
moving around very slowly. She hadn't eaten for several days and finally
ate a little this morning. I hope that means she's on the mend.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06

Title: Irish Sausage
Categories: Sausages, Irish
Yield: 1 Batch

5 lb Pork butt; coarse ground
3 ts Thyme
5 c Bread crumbs
3 ts Basil
4 Eggs; lightly beaten
3 ts Rosemary
8 cl Garlic; pressed
3 ts Marjoram
1 tb Salt
3 ts Black pepper
2 c Water

Combine all ingredients, mix well, and stuff into sheep casings. Fry
in butter or oil.

Posted by: Ed P <esp@snet.n>

Recipe FROM: <news:10i7lgt$2eau2$1@dont-email.me>,
<news:rec.food.cooking/1579104>

MMMMM
--- SBBSecho 3.23-Win32
* Origin: The Fool's Quarter, fqbbs.synchro.net (1:105/500)

Hi Ben,

She had to go to summer school (about 250 miles away) for part of it; as oldest daughter I got the brunt of cooking, cleaning, etc. Did me well
when I left home to get married, neither of my sisters could hardly boil water when they left home. I tell Steve that I got most (not quite all) of my cooking mistakes out before we got married.

That sounds hardcore in my book. I also helped out around the house,
but to a lesser extent. I still had many cooking mistakes to make
after moving out. It's interesting how varied the experience is for different siblings in the same family. Just out of curiosity, were
you the eldest?

In my growing up, the guys weren't expected to do any of the cooking.
I'm the second oldest of 5, first girl. I had (now deceased) an older brother,others still living are younger sister, younger brother and
youngest sister. All of them did their share of criticising my cooking
but didn't do much to help; younger sister did do some baking but as a
small part of a few meals. Dad wasn't a creative eater which helped
then, but after getting married, then Steve joining the Army really
expanded my cooking horizons. Of all my siblings, I have had the most adventuresome life and it is reflected in my cooking/eating.

Probably Army but working for OSS (precurser to CIA) or a similar

agency. RH> Sounds interesting; I wonder how much of it he could have
made public in a RH> book. It would be interesting reading.

Now that you mention it, i think he was in the Army. I am not sure
what role he was in there... He also told me stories about working in
the ship yards in Portland, OR, building ships for the war effort. It sounded like he came from a poor family, but his parents were more
loving than normal. He said they always gave their children choices, explaining what the consequences would be of each choice, and they
always gave them a space of their own where they could go if they did
not want to be disturbed.

Sounds like his parents were definatly taking a different path to child rearing--makes me wonder (my sociology/psychology studies coming
out--G--) what their childhood was like. They were too old to be of the
hippie generation where that sort of child raising was more common.

He was working while in his 80's. At that time he told me his

health BC> insurance cost $900 per month. He said that even if they
paid him BC> nothing it would still be worth going to work in order to
have health BC> insurance at his age.

It does sound like he had his priorities straight. We've always had good
health insurance--at both places where Steve worked prior to joining the
Army and then the military care. We're both on Medicare and Tricare for
Life now, the latter is a benefit of 26 years of military service.

He had been married a bunch of times, and was divorced a few times and
a widower a few times. When i knew him he lived quite alone, though i helped him set up video conferencing with his daughter who lived in another state.

Steve set my parents up with Skype for a couple of years. They enjoyed
talking with their granddaughters that way. Mom and Dad both passed away
before Zoom but we've used it to talk to our girls and their families.

The indoor kittie is sick. She has a fever, dilated pupils, and is
moving around very slowly. She hadn't eaten for several days and
finally ate a little this morning. I hope that means she's on the
mend.

Poor kitty, hope she gets better quickly. We can't have any dogs or cats
but sometimes take care of our neighbor's cocker spaniel. His vet
reccommended that he have 2 or 3 spoonsful of green beans (canned) with
his kibble--never heard of that before. Our cocker spaniel would eat
most anything but I don't remember him eating green beans. His favorite
human food was popcorn. (G)

---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net FIDO 1:396/45.28


... Our necessities are few but our wants are endless...

--- PPoint 3.01
* Origin: Sew! That's My Point (1:396/45.28)