August Ramblings

Hello!  I am done with the summer semester, and now have three weeks off to catch up with the rest of my life!  Things got a little busier than I originally planned, largely due the the 6 week, 4 credit college algebra class I ended up taking.  The class I wanted to take, Intro to Small Business, was canceled, so I got to do algebra instead.  I wasn’t sure I was going to make it, but I did pass.  Which means that I have fulfilled all of my math requirements and any further study can be strictly for pleasure and application! 

I also got the required computer class out of the way, and it did teach me something very important- I prefer Mac to Microsoft.  So now I have a new Mac computer.  Well, it’s a little more (or a lot more) complicated than that, but the fact remains that I am having a blast learning the ins and outs of my new computer and its really cool features.  Like the one that lets me have a conversation with my computer.  True, it primarily consists of knock-knock jokes, but hey, it’s still lots of fun.  

I was also reminded this past week of one of the reasons I decided to dive into this blog in the first place (or tiptoe in, as the case may be.)  I’ve been flipping through the back issues of “Taste of Home Magazine.”  It’s unbelievable how far they have gone-- in the wrong direction.  In addition to adding advertising, it seems like they shortened-- or completely cut out-- some of the best features in the magazine. 

For instance, they used to have column with some of the funny things kids would say about food.  I remember wanting to send it in when my little brothers would call sardines “sour-beans.”  And when one brother was 6 or 7 and he was cracking nuts under our walnut tree in the yard.  I asked him what he was doing and he said “I’m cracking walnuts, and inside are pecans!”  

I think the best thing about TOH was the fact that it was so much like an old fashioned community.  It gave the feeling of sitting in the kitchen with aunts, sisters, and grandmas all telling stories and cooking together.  True, you rarely knew the women (and occasionally men) who were writing and cooking, but you knew people like them, or at least wanted to.  And you knew that the recipes were recipes that weren’t just liked by the more sophisticated palates, but by families.  The new magazine seems to have lost that feel.  Maybe it’s just because it has lost it’s nostalgic feeling, with fancy new layouts.  Maybe it’s the adds every other page trying to get you to try a recipe because it has some brand or other in it instead of because someone’s family thinks it’s the best ever.  Who knows.  I just know I miss the old Taste of Home.  Someday I hope someone can recreate it.  Maybe the magazine itself will-- when they do, I’ll subscribe and buy a few gift subscriptions.  Or maybe I’ll just have to do it myself.  In the mean time, I do plan on putting some of my family’s favorite recipes up here.  Right after I paint my bathroom...