Pinehaven Scalloped Corn

  Mom used to make a great scalloped corn casserole and the simple recipe I've used is probably pretty close to it

Pinehaven Scalloped Corn

2 cans creamed corn
2 eggs
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 cup crushed saltine crackers
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika

 Putting it together is easy. Melt the butter in a ceramic bowl and add the creamed corn. Add the  eggs, onions, flour, paprika and pepper and stir the mixture thoroughly. Then add one half of the crushed crackers to the mix.

 Grease an 8x8" glass casserole dish and pour the  mixture in.

 Add the other half of the crushed crackers atop.

 Bake at 350° for 40 minutes. I then add a couple of minutes of the broiler on high to brown the top and give it a little extra crunch.

Additional note: Tom is salt-sensitive and I should have used unsalted crackers. The finished dish can  then be individually salted to taste. A little Panko atop is another idea I'd like to try. And yet one more idea is to use one can of creamed corn and the second of regular canned corn for extra texture,

Baking Amish White Bread

  This is a bread I make regularly. The  recipe is easy and the bread always  turns out. To see the last two times and the recipe click here and here.

 The dough is quite easy to work. I generally add a little less flour than the recipe calls for (just about 1/4 cup less) and figure I'll use that much on the pastry cloth as I knead the dough. That works out. The dough needs to be dry enough to work without it sticking to my fingers and this recipe fits the bill.

 I let it rise the first time for an hour and a half. That's a little longer than necessary because I found  the dough more than doubled in bulk.

 I always let the dough rise in the oven. I turn the oven on briefly to just slightly warm it and that's a perfect place for the dough to rest. It's protected from me bumping into it and there are no drafts,

 After the first rise I kneaded the dough briefly and then cut it in half and placed each piece in a greased loaf pan. I didn't take much care with  the top and that shows in the finished product. But I like homemade breads to look less than perfect ... and mine generally do. I gave the dough 45 minutes for the second rise (again, a little longer than necessary).

 The goal is to have the loaves extend above the pans at least an inch (before baking). These might approach two inches (especially the loaf on the right). I find it's hard to divide the dough evenly so I usually end up with one loaf slightly larger than the other.

Imperial Moth Returns

  Every summer we have Imperial Moth caterpillars in the maple tree which is above our concrete back porch. There is nothing pretty about the caterpillar stage:

When stepping out the back door Tom noticed this one crawling near the back door. They obviously loose their grip and fall from the maple onto the porch.

 This is the same caterpillar at full length. I picked him up from the porch floor and laid him in the sunlight atop our wooden picnic table.

 How do I know when they are in the tree?  I have never spotted one among the leaves and yet I surely know when they are there. Here's the clue:

 They drop very distinctive ball of manure. Below is a close-up of one of the balls of manure. It is textured with lines ...

 So whenever I'm tiptoeing among these tiny balls I know the "worms" are up there munching away.

 Click here for a fact sheet from NC State.
I've written about the months twice before, on  09-26-13 and on 07-24-18.

 The end  result of all of this is shown below:

Credit: University of Florida

NBC Blooms Yet Again

  What? Four times, at least. Maybe five. Just this year. And here we go  again.

 The buds started again with September.  This photo was taken on 09/05.

 And by 09/09 it was set to open.

Which it did as soon as the sun set.

 There were clusters of flowers hidden among the leaves.

On 09/10 this bud had swollen to the point of opening as soon as it got dark.

 And here is that same bud a few hours later.

 Surely this is the most gorgeous flower I have. The intricacy and detail amazes me every time I see it.

 With shorter days and colder weather ahead, surely it is finished for this year?

The General

  Just over 59 years ago at age 14 I stood in Miamisburg's Library Park waiting for a train. It wasn't one of the modern locomotives but one built in 1855 and one which gained Civil War fame.

 So on Tuesday, July 30 I waited there and at 9:03 AM I lifted my cheap camera and took a picture as it puffed slowly by.

 Color film wasn't inexpensive in those days (nor processing) and I certainly didn't have any. At the time I thought the picture was pretty good for a young teen. Now I see it as nothing special. And yet, just the other day, I was wondering  what had happened to that picture, Late yesterday I picked up one of my grandfather's Tom Swift books and there it was in an envelope inside the back cover. And inside the  front cover was a rose from my Aunt Belle's funeral (she died the year before).

 Dayton's morning newspaper, the Journal Herald, had a story about the train and I cut it our and placed it in the envelope with the photo. Here it is (click to enlarge):

 Today The  General is in the Southern Museum of Civil War and Museum.

 More information on the locomotive can be found here.

Tom Swift's Photo Telephone

  When my grandfather (1898-1970) died I was given a number of his books. He was apparently an avid Tom Swift fan and owned several of the books by Victor Appleton (a pseudonym). I've read them all several times but today, looking for something "new" to read, I picked up  Tom Swift and His Photo Telephone (1914)  again.

 I think of my grandfather, then just 16, and how marvelous a photo phone would have sounded!

"Tom, I don't believe it can be done!" said Tom's father.

"To transmit pictures over a telephone wire, so that persons cannot only see to whom they are talking, as well as hear them - well, to be frank with you Tom, I should be sorry to see you waste your time trying to invent such a thing."

It was a futuristic idea, to be sure, and the author noted the problems of sending pictures by wire. 

 "The idea of talking over a wire  and, at the same time, having light waves, as well as electrical waves passing on  the same conductor!" was too much to even imagine. But, of course, we know both are part of the  same electromagnetic spectrum.

Of course Tom manages the feat ...

 I can imagine my grandfather staring at that picture in awe. Since he died in 1970 he would have only vaguely heard of the AT&T "Picturephone" whose service was inaugurated in 1964. It was first shown at the New York World's Fair that same year. They predicted a million in  service by 1980.

 Of course the Picturephone failed. It had just 250 lines of resolution at 30 frames per second. But mostly the problem was that to make a Picturephone call, you had to call someone who also had one. And at $160 per month, it was understandably not very popular.

 Today we have hi-resolution video calls on our cell phones (Look, Ma, no wires!) and services such as Zoom to expand the capability even further. We can now easily see the caller. And the cost is negligible.

 Even Tom's father eventually came around to the idea of the usefulness of the invention. "Well, Tom, maybe you're right. Go ahead."

 Lucky for us, someone did,