Etta James

Etta was best known for her hit "At Last", but she was a prolific blues singer that recorded lots of great songs. Click on the Youtube link below to hear one of my favorites. 

           http://youtu.be/u9sq3ME0JHQ

If you are a real blues fan like me, you might like Freddie Kings rendition of the same song. 

"Freddie King (September 3, 1934 – December 28, 1976), thought to have been born as Frederick Christian, originally recording as Freddy King, and nicknamed "The Texas Cannonball", was an influential American blues guitarist and singer. He is often mentioned as one of "the Three Kings" of electric blues guitar, along with Albert King and B.B. King, as well as being the youngest of the three."

      http://youtu.be/EkwHi3ZUfNs

Some Old Cars that You will Remember

These images were taken from Pinterest. They should bring back memories of the fifties and sixties. 

I'm sure some of you have owned cars like these at some time and wish that you had not sold them.  All we have now are memories. Sometimes the memories are better than the real thing. 

1960 Chevy

Metropolitan, not sure of the year. You didn't see many of these. 

1960 Chevrolet convertible. 

1955 Ford four door sedan. 

1950 Ford. 

1962 Pontiac. 

1960 Corvair. Ralph Nader said it was unsafe at any speed. 

1960 Chevy 2 door hardtop was a beauty. 

1959 Plymouth convertible. Bought one used for $250 in 1963 and drove it to college. 

Loved the fins. 

1963 Austin Healey 3000 Mk II. I had one of these too. Bought it used from my landlady in 1969 or 70. 

Her daughters had driven it to college. A real cool looking car, but a piece of British junk. 

1953 dodge pickup. This one has been repainted. The green is correct but the bed is suppose to be black. How do I know?  I have owned one since the mid seventies(40 years). Probably the ugliest truck ever made but can't  bring myself to part with it. It just sits there taking up space and getting older. A lot like me. 

Apple Jacks

This is a followup on the "ugly apple tree" posting. 

Becky finally got busy and made some apple jacks with some of the ugly apples. I must admit that they were pretty good. We try to eat healthy so she fried them in canola oil. I'm sure that lard would have been better. None the less, I was able to choke down two of them after dinner. 

Now if I only had some Wickles Pickles. 

My Grandson, the Fisherman

My grandson, Eamon Murphy, is quiet the fisherman. He could probably sit all day without getting a bite and not complain. I took him fishing this weekend and he was the only one to catch a fish.

This was a very nice bream.  The fish was caught in one of the lagoons at the Haystacks on a red wiggler. 

Shrimp and Grits

Not to hard to make but unbelievably delicious. Start with Carteret County shrimp, deheaded and deveined. That was the hard part. I like to use about a pound and a half of the cleaned shrimp. Sautée the shrimp with onions, green bell pepper and lemon juice. The creamy grits are made with vegetable stock, butter and cream. It is so gooood!  

Come and get it. 

Wickles Pickles

Sondra Chance saw the post on "Berti's Pickles" and sent me an email about a brand of pickle that she likes. The name is Wickles and they are made in Dadeville, Alabama. 

I finally found them at a Lowes Foods in MHC. They also make pepper rings and relish which you can find at Walmart, but I was looking for the pickles. 

They are sweet pickles with chili peppers and therefore have a little bite. Just right. If you like pickles, I recommend you try these. 

Thank you Sondra, I'll be buying more Wickles Pickles. 

How to Post a Comment on the Blog

If you see a posting on the Bulldog blog and would like to post a comment, it is very simple. 

First, select the posting on which you would like to make a comment. The posting titles are always shown in blue. In this case the title is "Always Something Happening at the Beach."

Next click on the title or touch if you are using an iPad and you will see the title turn to black as shown below. 

Scroll to the bottom and you will see an empty block in which you can post your comment. 

You can also see comments by others.  When you finish the comment, you must select your "Comment as:" choice from the drop down. If you are not a member of the Bulldog site, you must select anonymous.

If you are a member of the site, you would select the google box. Make sure that you are logged in to the site. 

I encourage you to join the site. I also encourage you to comment on the posts. This is how I can determine what you want to see. 

Someone please submit a comment so that I can see if my instructions are any good.  You can always send me an email at Mangumf@aol.com

Always Something Happening at the Beach

Friday night was a free concert by the Band of Oz in Morehead City. This band is from Garner and has been around a long time. The crowd was large but there was plenty of room to watch or dance. It reminded me of the Atlantic Beach Pavilion in the good old days.(Maybe these are the good old days) The concert was sponsored by several merchants and by Budweiser.  

I encourage our classmates to enjoy the summer and get out do something fun. If you don't like beach music, play golf, go fishing, go to a nice restaurant, but don't sit at home and do nothing. Invite some friends or classmate(s).  You will enjoy it even more. 

There are many restaurants downtown to suit any appetite. We went to Beach Bumz after the concert. 

Saturday morning is our traditional trip for breakfast by boat. We usually go to the Boardwalk Cafe in Beaufort. 

This is the trip up Gallant's Channel to Beaufort.  This is not my boat. 

This is not my boat. 

 The Boardwalk Cafe from Taylor's Creek  

The Boardwalk from Front St.

Boardwalk Cafe where you can dock your boat for free and as Herbert says "free is good."

Breakfast for two runs about $15. 

This is NOT my boat. 

Ugly Apples

About ten years ago I bought an apple tree to plant here on the farm. It was suppose to be a Golden Delicious. If it is a Golden Delicious, I am badly mistaken. They are the ugliest apples I have ever seen, so I call it the Ugly Apple tree. 

This year I have an abundance of Ugly Apples. They taste pretty good and you can also bake them. Rather than letting them go to waste, I am giving them away and also trying to find different ways to use them. Today I going to try to air dry them in the oven.  Maybe some apple jacks later. 

I found this apple peeler/corer in the pantry and decided to give a try for the first time. I have seen these contraptions before but have never used one.  Let me say now that they really do work well. You can peel and core an apple in less than 20 seconds. When the apple is peeled it is also spliced and ready for cooking, drying, etc. 

That is all there is to it. I was surprised how easy it was. 

I put the apple rings on parchment paper and put them in the convection oven at the lowest setting, 175 degrees.   It took about six hours to dry the apples. I'll let you know how the applejacks turn out. 

Volunteer Flowers

Barbara sent me a picture of her volunteer "4 o'clocks" that are very pretty. 

I also have some volunteer zinnias I my front yard that have done very well with all the rain we have had. 

If you are a flower lover, send me some of your pictures and I will post them for our classmates. 

Mangumf@aol.com