Dear Friends:

    My wife JoAnn and I were thinking about the good old delicious French Market donuts we use to enjoy on our trips to the city long ago. I found the recipe. Print this one when your hungry for tasty homemade donuts callet " Beignet."

Beignet Recipe

(French Market Donuts)

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l envelope active dry yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs beaten

1 cup evaporated milk

7 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup shortening

oil for deep frying

powered sugar.

  In a large bowl, sprinkle yeast over the warm water; stir to dissolve and let stand for 5 minutes. Add sugar, salt, beaten eggs and evaporated milk. Whisk or use electric mixer to blend thoroughly. Add four cups of the flour; beat until smooth.

   Add shortening, gradually blend in remaining flour. Cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 4 hours or overnight. Roll out on floured board to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into 2  1/2 to 3 inch squares. Deep fry at 360 degrees for 2 to 3 minutes until lightly browned on both sides. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle generously with powdered sugar. Serve hot with coffee.

    Makes 4 to 5 dozen. Dough can be cut and frozen seperated on wax paper.

  God Bless

Dear Friends:

A little recipe I discovered in a Georgia Cookbook. 

Baked Ham:

1 (10 - pound ) ham                      Salt and pepper

Rub ham with salt and peper. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees until almost done, basting every 45 minutes with Honey Glaze. Bake ham uncovered for the last 40 minutes of cooking time.

HONEY GLAZE:

1/4 cup cornstarch               1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup water                            1 teaspoon dry mustard

1 quart pineapple juice          6 to 8 slices pineapple

1 quart honey

Dissolve cornstarch in water. Bring juice, honey, sugar, and mustard to a gentle boil. Pour cornstarch into boiling mixture and stir until thickened.

    To garnish, lay sliced pineapple on ham. Pour Honey Glaze over garnished ham and heat in 300 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes. Yields 20 to 25 servings.

God Bless.

Dear Fellow Ebayers:

   It may have been fifty years ago. Mom called the doctor and he had arrived. The doctor opened his black leather medical instrument kind of carrier with nicely fitted handles and opened it. Inside their was a stethoscope. He asked me to remove my shirt. I was hoping he would not tell me to take off my drawers because the last time he came he examined my private parts.

   I may have been six or seven. My brother was lying down with a blanket over him. He was not feeling well. His cheeks around his jaws like mine were beginning to swell. The doctor checked my heart. The cold black chrome knob was cold. The doctor listened to the sound of my heart beat. I asked him if I could listen to my heart also. I did and it had a muffled sound. I thought my heart was in good shape.

   He checked my brother's heart. It was O.K. too and then he told mom we had the mumps. I guess that meant missing school which was fine with me. School, and teachers, and books and homework were all pains in the ass. On the other hand my brother liked school. He was allways reading books. At age fourteen he had a wall full of books. He read them all. He was a brain, a book worm, intelligent, articulate, knowing of everything in the World Book Encyclopedias and was inspired to desire the Britanicas. When he got them , they cost mom and dad a lot of money on an installment plan that may have lasted a millinium.

   My brother and I were resting side by side on the living room couch that opened up into a bed. There was nothing at all comfortable about the crack in the center of the sofa where the cushions divided. My brother and I were not exactly tickled over the idea of lying down side by side with each other. He allways complained that I moved around to much so that effected his relaxation. My brother was a wart on the ass of humanity. He was allways being a bully so we were allways wrestling, and the fights allways ended with him beating the crap out of me.

   Even the sexy girl next door neighbor would wrestle with us once in a while. I think she liked wrestling with my older brother more than with me. I acted very mean and tough one day and figured I could stomp her ass but good. Then she also beat the crap out of me while she wore her sexy blue denim shorts.

   She was one heck of a beautifull young girl and quite gifted with all the natural joys that could have ever been bestowed upon a young lady. She stopped comming to visit us when she met some guy and got married. Unfortunately she got killed with that guy in an automobile accident. My brother and I and mom and dad, we all went to the funeral. The hirl was dressed in a beautifull white dress and had her hands placed together over her stomach.

   She was silent. She was still. She was all dressed up to go nowhere but the cemetery. The young man she married became the family outcast for drinking and driving and causing her death. I never even knew him and detested him for killing the young girl even though it was unintentional.

   It all broke my heart, but that was not new. The old days were jam packed with heart breaking events created by ignorance. At my young age, death in those days however was a common event. Life just seemed kind of rough and especially hard on God's creatures.

   Today times are a little better. Life had it's calous cold hearted moments in the old days. Today people are not afraid to express their feelings. Sure there will allways be crine and stupidity, but at least humanity has it's promising moments more so today. Then maybe that also has something to do with enviornments. Who knows? God Bless 

Dear Friends:

   It was a different time, back in the eighties. I worked as a guard Lieutenant in an oil refinery. My job was a security related position. Men I worked with were primarily military veterans or police veterans. O Mally my best friend was a former NOPD Police Officer. He was one of many supervisors working directly for the oil refinery. He had earned the Medal of Valor. He was kind of a guy I looked up too and admired. He killed an armed robber at a convenience store. The robber was going to kill a cashier. When O Mally arrived there was a shootout. The robber fired at O Mally repeatedly. O Mally returned fire and killed the robber. It was not an easy situation. O Mally told me that he kept falling on the floor because of shattered items that made the floor slippery thus making it difficult for him to effectively take out the robber.

   I earned my rank primarily because of merits. In a short time I was promoted to Lieutenant by the Head of the Refinery and by men at the top of the ladder. I was awarded a commendation because of being alert and discovering a fuel leak. One of the massive fuel tanks in an area called North Property had a busted valve. I discovered it with a refinery worker.

  There was a strike. It was a long one. My duties were to protect the facility against possible sabotage. I was on patrol driving a pick up truck with emergency flasher lights on the top of it's cab. Sort of looked like a half ass jazzed up police car , but was a nice red and white GMC heavy duty truck with power steering. It was a dream to drive, and driving and making constant patrol checks was one of many duties.

   It was not an easy job. The strike had it's violent moments. The picketers could be awfully rude with anyone crossing the lines trying to get to work.

   Women guards were especially treated like dirt sometimes by the picketers. Name calling was a common thing. Some of my duties involved walking with the ladies accross the lines to make sure they got to their posts without problems.

   The commendations and the raises in rank came in handy since I drove a long way to work each day. Gasoline was expensive. Even back then there was a gas crisis. The gas was sucking up my meager pay check.

  By realizing, running, leaking gasoline in ditches during a thunderstorm at night was what lead me to investigate. The water in the ditches was flowing too fast. I stepped out into the pouring rain storm with a yellow rain coat on. I had a keen nose for the slightest odors.

  Then I placed my hand in the water in a ditch and brought the fluid up to my nose. It did not have a scent at first, so something made me try again. Thats when I noticed a tinge of the odor of gas. I guess the gasoline had mixed with the water in the ditch therefore reducing it's scent I figured.

  I stepped into my office, my pickup truck and called security supervisors. I was told to stand by for assistance with a journeyman ,I guess you could call him. He had a red truck also. He was a refinery oil worker. He checked out the ditch with me. He said it was gasoline. I said, "Lets check out the tanks for any busted valves." Sure enough there was one. Gasoline was spewing out of a valve big time. It was gushing out. All the ditches were filled with gasoline. North Property is accross a major highway. I told the worker to go get help quick. I called security heads. They came, all of them while contacting crewmen, firefighters, Haliburton, Oil sucker trucks. the police were contacted locally.

   The major highway was blocked off. No one was allowed to travel on part of the highway for a while, not until the fuel was removed. Security advised me to carefull back up my truck out of the danger zone.I was asked if my motor was running. I said, no sir. He said start it up and to slowly back out of the area. I did so.

   I do not know how many days following that incident. I was made a sergeant. Anyway I was happy to be one. It only took me a month to become one , and a short time after to become a Lieutenant. I had my eye on a Captain's position.

   The Head of the refinery and a photograper were in a room with other officials. I wore a dress suit and a tie while the head man shook my hand and smiled for a few camera shots from a Kodak instant camera. They gave me a picture and a promotion.

   From that point on more of the brass began to take notice of me. I got a nickname around the refinery. The workers all over the refinery called me "the Wolf." Where the hell they got that only God knows. I was allways eager to be right in the middle of troubling situations. I was assigned to cover North Property. The major fuel tanks, big massive gigantic monsters were my pals. I traveled alone, making rounds, night after night, miles after miles, putting many miles a day on the truck. Because of the strike I pumped my own gas from a special area on the property. There were posts with guards, mainly women. I would stop and talk and joke around with the ladies to make sure they did not fall assleep at their posts at night.

   The eighteen wheeler was an exciting incident. It just so happened that a frightened truck driver abandoned his truck on the highway. A guard said the driver had ran away from his truck. I was on patrol making rounds. A gate guard notified me by radio. He said that an eighteen wheeler was on fire. By the sound of his voice it did not sound good. I hit the accelerator. I was in the refinery snaking my way within the curves at high speed, very fast. When I arrived at the location I saw the burning wheels of an eighteen wheeler. The damm truck was abandoned only yards away from the refinery fuel loading zones.

   The loading zones are filled with fuel. God only knows what kind of fuels. It was the most volitile area at the refinery. If the racks would blow up, then so would a chain reaction possibly occurr. Maybe the storage tanks could blow up. If the refinery would blow up, then a major part of the city would be in trouble. God only knows how many people could be killed.

  The radio was hot. Contractors and workers began to haul themselves out of the refinery by the scores. I grabbed a bucket while calling the fire team. The refinery safety workers and fire fighters were on their way. I was filling up buckets of water and running to the propane truck and throwing water on the burning wheels. It was a propane truck, a tanker truck. The wheels locked up on it and were in flames. I kept throwing water on the tires right between the tank and the top of the burning wheels. I figured I had better try to cool off the tank as much as I could. I felt like it was not doing much good. Every minute was crucial.

  I remember Becky. Becky was our baby girl then. I thought I would be killed and other people would die too. I had to try. I prayed to God for the truck not to explode. I was not afraid to die. I just thought about Becky and JoAnn. I guess I love God because God was so generous. Suddenly a large picture of Becky appeared in my mind. I could see her face so clearly. She was smiling, sort of happy. I could see her two front baby teeth. I said, " Daddy loves you sugar."

   I figured the worst that would happen was that I would be vaporized. The explosion would probably kill me like an atomic bomb. I would not feel it.

  I kept filling the buckets with water and praying and running with the buckets and tossing the water on the flames. A few minutes seemed like horrid hours. The fire team arrived. I was by the truck. A lot of men quickly spread out. They positioned themselves at equal intervals all the way to the truck. Obviously they were professionals. They quickly put out a hose long enough for it to reach the truck. Then they blasted the truck with a powerfull massive force of water. They put the fire out.

   I was kind of tired. My adrenalin must have reached it's peak. The captain stepped out of his Bronco and had a big smile. He was a friend, a dear friend. He was a Marine Corp Helicopter Pilot that served in Vietnam. He said, " Lee Lee Lee! What kind of God Darn trouble have you gotten yourself into now?" He sort of raised his hands up to the sky quickly and said, "Kaboom." He laughed again. He allways had a real funny fatalistic kind of humor about him. Other Captains arrived and so did Security heads.

   Nothing much was said about the incident after that. I managed to get a few contractors arrested for stealing as time went on. Those guys were paid well, something like thirty dollars and hour. They did not need to steal, those good for nothings. I searched those guys and their vehicles. They were arrested and I had to go to court.

    I hated having to have to go to court rooms. That crap allways happened on my days off. Thats the price of justice, inconvenience. God Bless

Dear Friends:

Good morning. JoAnn and Becky are still sleeping. I got up to see who was on the answering machine. It was JoAnn's cousin. I think his situation is IRS related. I want wake up JoAnn. She can sleep as long as she wants too. Yesterday she spent a long day at the doctor's office. Her doctor however said that her leg has heeled up O.K. according to xrays. Months back she fell and injured a leg and wore a brace for a long time. Now it is healed.

Today I will tend to bussiness and drive to the bank to pay bills. Will take along the crutches because the left side of my foot hurts when I apply presure to it by walking. The crutches will help a lot.

I also plan to kill some wasps today somehow. Could not do it yesterday. Had to stay in the house with Becky because JoAnn was at the doctor's office. We never leave Becky by herself. One of us is with her at all times.

Maybe I will somehow open the garage sale. I do it mainly for the exercise. There is allways some kind of chore to do around home.

God Bless your day.

Dear Friends:

   Our home is not far from a major highway. Moms old car has been parked in the yard for eleven years. People who sell scrap iron have asked me if I would like to have the old car taken away. Some have offered me a hundred dollars for it.

   I guess I should wash it but there is a wasp nest somewhere on it. Wasps and I do not get along. I fear absolutely nothing on the face of this earth except wasps.

   If I worked for the CIA and happened to be captured by enemy agents and was being tortured to death for witholding government top secret classified information I would never spill the beans even if my fingers or other protruding body parts were removed.

However, wasps would make me spill the beans. Wasps or hornets hurt like hell. One day a few years ago I was prunning granny's old rose bush that has been in our yard for one hundred and twenty five years. In the process of doing that, seven wasps stung the living heck out of me. I thought I would go into a coma and drop dead but somehow I survived.

Wasps are extremely evil creatures. For some reason they never died when Noah built his Ark. A lot of other stuff died but not wasps.

Well eventually I purchased four cans of wasp spray insecticide so I drenched the rose bush with deadly wasp exterminating spray. All the wasps were killed but now I see them somewhere around the old car again.

I need to cut the grass. It is two feet high around the rose bush and the old car. Sometimes I feel tempted to have the old car hauled away, but sentimentality has compelled me to keep the old car.

What I am thinking about doing is to wage all out war on the wasps. If I do I will have to stock up on plenty of wasp spray, put a spark plug in an ole push lawn mower, and then dust off the electric hedge trimmer because the rose bush has grown very large.

I saw a large snake, perhaps a small anaconda or a large water moccasin dart under the rose bush. I told JoAnn about the snake. She told me to kill the poisonous stinker. I shall do my best to either kill the snake or relocate it back to hell for which it came. Personally I have no desire to meet Satan or the rest of any fallen angels.

If I clean up the area and it seems I must, I will probably wash the old car and try to do something with it. I have thought about driving it but I do not know if the engine would run again. It probably would not. The last time I tried to start a locked up engine required my mechanic father-in-laws assistance. He pulled my locked up MGB with a chain and had to drag the car down the highway with me in it for two a quarter of a mile, finally the engine started somehow.

Those were the good old days when chains were used to pull cars and feet were used for brakes, and when green bananas were stuck in radiators to keep them from leaking.

Well JoAnn has to visit the Orthopedic doctor today for the sake of an old injury when she fell down a year ago. Today I might see about preparing the arsenal of weaponry to solve the grass, the car, and the rose bush problem , or just simply call my brother-in-law to shove it all out of the way with his small bull dozer. I guess I will figure some things out. God Bless

Dear Friends:

  There have been many comments in regard to the feedback system that has been changed, the changes have not been well accepted, however there may be some hope.

    Rarely do I sell much art, simply because there may not particularly be a lot of folks linning up to buy art since there is so much beautifull art offered all over Ebay.

   However I have recently acquired a few sales, and it might be because I have lowered my prices a little.

    I think that because only sellers can now only give positive feedback, maybe buyers can enjoy the experience of shopping more with less concern of receiving possible negatives.

    I think there is a ray of hope in the system. I think it may in time become more fun for customers to buy stuff. Shopping as we all know is supposed to be a fun experience. My wife and I owned a gift shop that we ran for thirty years. There was of course no kind of feedback system involved in it and we did O.K.

    Good prices matter and not too much shipping and handling helps buyers want to spend money sometimes. Think of things you like to have and consider selling those kind of things too.

    If I could sell my fried chicken and potatoe salad I make on the internet I could probably earn lots of money, but of course that would not be possible.

   Just thought I would share my thoughts on the feedback system. I never gave anyone a negative anyway so it does not make much of a difference to me. I have had moments of no payments on bidded items. Still I never gave anyone a negative. I never liked the idea of giving negatives anyway. The darn things stick with folks forever. I do not think anyone deserves to have them in my view. Not everyone will agree of course, but thats the way I am.

God Bless

Dear Friends:

    On occassions I often delete many of my posts after I get tired of seeing them for a while. Today I wrote four posts all of which involved the Presidential election.

    While writing them I never realized how sick I am of this Presidential Election. I am sick of the transparent politics. I am sick of wars. I am sick of the middle east. I am sick of how many millions of dollars it takes for anyone to get elected President. I am sick of stupid comments, name calling comments, frustrated comments, a racist driven election, a dominant party driven election, all of the fake smiles and doctored posters of candidates, all of the wrong reasons for putting party favorites into office.

    I am sick of lying polls, lying media coverage, and it is no wonder why a lot of American citizens are simply burnt out by the time an election is over.

     I truly believe that there are many good people that deserve to be Presidents. I hope in the future that our world, not just our country will realize that if women were leaders , the probability of wars in our world might be reduced.

     I majored in History in a University. What I came to realize in life was that history was recorded by the wars this world has had. Since the beginning of time men have died primarily by the sword and not by natural deaths. We were forced to use the Atomic Bomb to ironically save lives when our country fought the Japanese. We lost Pearl Harbor . We lost hundreds of thousands of brothers that fought between the North and the South in a civil war. The French, the English, the Germans, the Japanese, the Arabs, the middle east, the Africans have all been in awfull wars.

    I really do feel that it is time for our world to change. Sons , daughters, children, grandchildren, wives, mothers, fathers everywhere have suffered great loses because of wars.

   Maybe it is time for the mothers of the world to run this world since the men in History since the beginning of time cannot do it right.

    Indeed I may just sound like a ridiculous fool in my pethetic little posts that hardly no one reads, but maybe just once in life I might just be right. In the future I sincerely hope our whole world could elect ladys for leaders.

    Indeed women like men are capable of wars and violence also, but there just not as awfull at it as men, because men seem to have been genetically designed to do battle, like too many darned roosters in the farm yards.  For what it all it has been worth, thanks for the good comments and the logical ones. God Bless everyone.

Dear Friends:

    It has been a while since my brother visited. He was surprised to see that I needed two walking canes to stand up.

   My brother lost the keys to his new motorcycle. Everyone looked everywhere for them. I told him that God might be trying to tell him something.

   I drove to the motorcycle shop where my brother pulled his car keys from his pocket. With my canes supporting me I looked in the gravel at the parking lot.

   Getting tired from standing I wondered if the keys would shine. A moment later I saw a shinny nickle in the gravel, so as I was about to stop looking, the nickle encouraged me to look a little longer. 

   Shortly after, I found the keys. It had been a vigorous search by everyone. I told my brother that God wanted him to slow down, to take time to think about matters.                                                                

     After finding the keys I told my brother that I had a feeling that God may have been trying to tell him something.

    I talked to my brother. I told him to enjoy his motorcycle, and to use it wisely and safely. Don't worry about trying to save money on gasoline. Use the car to go back and forth to work. Use the bike for other purposes.

    Money is not more important than your life. God slowed you down for a reason. Maybe he wanted us to have this little talk.

     I told him it was the last brotherly advice I might ever give him. Sometimes I feel very tired, so tired that I just do not feel like walking much anymore. However I cannot afford to give in to what my body wants because I still have things to do for JoAnn and Becky. God Bless.