Book Review| Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates

 

This is the fourth book I finished this year. I found it to be very interesting. This book focuses on a time in early American history when Thomas Jefferson was president (1801-1809). 

  

Pirates from the Barbary nations had been capturing American merchant ships as well as other nations merchant vessels. The Barbary nations required hefty tribute payments for "protection." Jefferson wanted to put a stop to this with military force. He had to wait 2 years for congress to approve the war. I found that surprising. This was back when presidents actually had to wait for congress to approve warfare. 

  One of the justifications for this act of war was that the Basha of Tripoli, Yusef, had unjustly taken the throne from his brother, Hamet, and America needed to set things right. I found that surprising, too. I did not know that we have always been the world police. We were not successful at reinstating Hamet. We likely could have kept our promises to Hamet and put him back on the throne, but once we had won enough military victories to put Yusuf in a mood to negotiate we left off the pursuit to replace Yusef with Hamet. America managed to reunite Hamet with his wife and children and gave them $200 dollars a month while they lived in exile until Hamet died in 1811. The main motive for America really was to stop the piracy.

  This book was very interesting to me. It details the relevant pieces of information. The authors don't go so deep into the events of the time period that the story gets bogged down. They keep things moving and skip over chunks of time in which the pirate situation stagnates. They did include some riveting battle scenes and enough about the key players that you understand who they were and what they were like. I enjoyed Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates. If you like to learn about American history I recommend this book.

Tightwad Tuna Casserole

From the famous Tightwad Gazette, this is the tuna casserole that my mom made while I was growing up. I have found a few ways to make it even more tightwad-y.

Instead of using a canned cream soup I make a mock cream soup using the tuna juice from the drained tuna.

A note on using tuna juice for cream soup:

If I am using tuna canned in water, I will make a roux with butter and flour to thicken the soup. 

If I am using tuna canned in oil, I will thicken the soup with a flour and milk slurry. 

  For the topping the original recipe calls for soft bread crumbs and butter. I found these herbed stuffing mixtures on sale after the holidays for 69¢ a bag. I crumble this dry mix over the top for the topping. I don't feel the need to add butter. They have enough flavor and crunch without the butter.

  I learned from my mom to add frozen peas. My mom has never thought a meal is complete with out a vegetable. That is a good lesson. 

I always add the peas after the casserole is cooked to each plate. Some people like the peas mixed in and some like them to the side. Okay, the truth is that most the people in my family don't like peas period, so I serve them on the side and mix them in to my serving because that is the way I like them.

My Tuna Casserole Recipe 

7 oz. Pasta 

1/2 c. Milk or Broth

1/2 c. Mayonnaise 

1 c. 4oz. Melty Cheese, chunked 

1 10oz. Can Condensed Cream Soup -OR-

(Mock Cream Soup: 2 T. butter browned, add 2 T. flour cook for a minute add tuna juice and enough broth or milk to equal 2/3 c. of liquid. Season with 1/2 tsp. onion powder, salt, pepper, and 1tsp. each of lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce.)

1/2 tsp. Dill weed

6-8oz. canned Tuna, drained

Topping

Prepare pasta, follow package directions; drain set aside.

 Make mock cream soup, add milk or broth, mayonnaise, cheese, dill and tuna. Heat and stir until cheese is melted.

 Mix sauce into the cooked pasta. Pour into a 1 1/2 quart casserole dish. Sprinkle topping over and bake at 350° F. for 30 minutes. 6 servings.

Amy Dacyczyn uses this recipe to give a lesson on Tightwad cooking. The lesson can be found on pgs. 209+210 of The Tightwad Gazette copyright 1992. The original recipe is designed to be a time saving recipe. Amy altered it to make it more frugal, in so doing the results cost more time. I have found this to be true in many, many cases. You either pay with money or time. It's a trade off.

Amy's prices are lower than you can find today, of course. I find it interesting to see what prices used to be for pantry staples. I, also, find it fun to see how close I can get to the old prices.  

For cheese now days I like to buy it for $3/lb. It is hard to find it for that price where I live, but it is possible. In this recipe, though, I always use the melty processed cheese. I don't buy it often. Usually, it goes on sale around Superbowl Sunday and I buy a few blocks.

Back in Amy's day powered milk was cheaper than regular milk so she uses it for everything. I don't think powdered milk is cheaper than regular milk nowadays, thankfully, because I don't like the powdered stuff.

Amy always uses margarine. I won't buy margarine. If our finances are too tight for butter I will use chicken fat that I save in a jar in the fridge.

Original Recipe:

Mix and Match Seafood Casserole 

4-5 oz. Pasta

1/2 c. Dry White Wine or Milk

1/2 c. Mayonnaise  or Salad dressing 

1 c. Shredded American Cheese 

1 10 3/4 oz. can Condensed Cream of Celery, Shrimp, or Mushroom Soup 

1/2 tsp. Dill Weed

6-8 oz. Canned Seafood (tuna, salmon, crab, or shrimp), drained

Topping (below)

Preheat oven to 350° F. Prepare the pasta, following the directions on the package; drain and set aside. Mix white wine with mayonnaise. Add cheese, soup, and dill. Gently combine the noodles and the seafood with the most ingredients. Pour the mixture into a1 2/2 quart casserole dish. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the cover, top with Topping, and bake for an additional 5 minutes. Serve hot. 

Topping: Stir 2 TBS. melted butter into 1 cup of soft bread crumbs. You can also try 1 cup of crushed corn chips, cow meeting noodles, or french-fry onions, or 1/2 cup sliced almonds.

How Amy Dacyczyn changed it: 

Pasta: We use any pasta purchased on sale. We get it for 33¢/lb. I increase it by 2 oz. because the recipe makes too much sauce. 

Milk or Wine: Wine is more expense, but I like the flavor .

Mayonnaise or Salad dressing: Buy store brand for 99¢ per quart. You can make your own mayonnaise but the savings is marginal, and depends on the price of eggs. 

Cheese: Use any mild cheese purchases on sale. We always buy it for less than $2/lb. Shredded is usually more expensive, but not always. 

Condensed Cream Soup: costs 69¢ to $1.11 depending on type. Instead I make a mock cream of celery soup that costs 15¢. Melt 2 TBS. of margarine in sauce pan. Saute 2 TBS. chopped celery. Blend in 2 TBS. flour. Add 1/3 cup dry milk powder and 2/3 cup vegetable broth. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook until smooth. 

Seafood: Tuna is the obvious choice. We stock up when it goes on sale for 44¢ per can.

Topping: Make your own bread crumbs. Save all your crusts, cereal, and cracker crumbs. Store in a bag in the freezer. Process in a blender or food processor. 

And that concludes our lesson on tightwad-ary for today. Go forth and save money while you feed your family!

Fields of Purple

 

There are a few types of purple flowers that show up in early spring and cover the fields with their vivid hue. I can sometimes confuse two of these ground covers: Henbit and Purple Dead Nettle.

  The flowers in the pictures here are Henbit.

Purple Dead Nettle is another purple plant that will cover fields at this time of year. The top foliage is actually where a majority of the purple display comes from. The flowers are also purple but they don't stand out quite as much. 

I don't have any pictures of Purple Dead Nettle that I personally took. I found the picture below on Pixabay.

I found a very helpful web page on Identify that Plant .com that has good pictures and explanations on how to identify these purple plants. Please check it out if these topics interest you! They have a lot of good pictures and even talk about a third plant that can be mistaken for these two: Creeping Charlie. 

Book Review: Crucial Conversations

    

    Crucial Conversations is a book about having improved dialogue when emotions run high. These conversations happen among neighbors and coworkers, with bosses and spouses, and in many of life's situations. The authors lay out good reasons why you would want to engage in dialogue and keep lines of communication flowing. They go over common pitfalls and explain some techniques that can help you keep your focus on the objective so that you don't fall into these pitfalls. 

The section that I felt most impactful for me at this time is about sucker's choices and the stories we tell ourselves.

A sucker's choice is when we tell ourselves there is no possibilty of agreement so we have two bad choices: just clam up or say abrasive things that aren't going to help dialogue. Because this book laid out so clearly this common behavior I quickly identified my weaknesses. I know I choose to clam up when I don't think there is any other way to be honest. Here is a quote from the book:

"Sometimes we choose personal safety over dialogue. Rather than add to the pool of knowledge and make waves along the way we go to silence. We are so uncomfortable ​with the immediate conflict that we accept the certainty of bad results to avoid the possibility of uncomfortable conversation. We choose, at least in our minds, peace over conflict."

  Thankfully, the authors have some helpful skills to practice implementing so that you catch yourself and stop making sucker's choices. They also make a convincing case on why this behavior is not in anyone's best interest. Clamming up and not sharing your meaning does not equal peace. Focusing on the shared goal and being more creative is the key. You must find a way to engage and also be understanding.

  The other part of the book that I found so helpful at this time is the section about the stories we tell ourselves. We come up with stories about why someone did or said something. This story is not a fact and the sooner we realize that the better we can try to understand the other person. Ask the other person and be curious instead of assigning assumed motives. It is also very useful to get the other person's story and hear what meaning they are assigning to your actions. Not to say that their story is the fact of the matter but so that you can see where they are coming from and understand why they are treating you like... (fill in the blank,.. the villain, the oppressor, the fool, etc..)

   None of these skills will help if you have no interest in keeping an open dialogue with another party. Engaging in dialogue and seeing the value in having dialogue is the whole point of this book. I feel that there is a lot of good information in this book and that I have only scratched the surface. There are chapters on decision making, and how to make sure that all parties feel safe to share their opinions, and so on and so forth. As I get better at using these initial skills I will need to revisit this book and try to add to my skill set. 

Breakfast Pizza

 

This breakfast pizza is inspired by Casey's (the gas station) breakfast pizza. Their breakfast pizza is so good! I have thought about it a lot and I think what makes their breakfast pizza so good is the cheese sauce.

To make the cheese sauce I cut up about 8oz. of processed cheese (like Velveeta), and add about 1/4 cup of milk or broth, if I'm out of milk.

I stir this over med/low heat until everything is smooth and melted.

I would be willing to try jarred cheese spread like nacho cheese, but I rarely buy those products. I rarely buy processed cheese to begin with so I don't make recipes like this very often.

I use My Family's Favorite Pizza Crust Recipe. 

(Here's an abbreviate recap: 3 cups water, 1 1/2 T. salt, 1 1/2T. yeast,  6 1/2 cups flour. Stir barely, rise 2-5 hours. Refrigerate for upto 2 weeks.)

Spread the cheese sauce on the dough and top with things like; 

•cooked scrambled eggs, 

•breakfast sausage crumbles, 

•bacon pieces, 

•jalapenos, 

•bell peppers 

•and shredded cheese

Bake at 400° F. for 20 minutes.

Flower Update as of 3/28/25

 

   So many things are happening in nature this time of year. These flowers all popped open over night. I see these flowers on my walk in the morning. I'm not sure what type of shrub this is, but it's flowers sure are pretty. 

  I found my Bleeding Hearts! I was so happy to see them. I have been looking for them for a couple weeks. This morning I was looking again and gave up. I figured they must have been too trampled during the summer and frozen solid in the ice over winter. As I straightened up and turned to leave, my eyes landed right where they are coming up! I had been looking in the wrong place all along.

The Lilac buds are forming. I am looking forward to their sweet, sweet perfume.

The Daffodils are going to town! Pretty blossoms and more infant buds coming up still.

Matthew 5:44-45

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, 

bless them that curse you, 

do good to them that hate you, 

and pray for them which despitefully 

use you, and persecute you; 

That ye may be the children of your Father 

which is in heaven: 

for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil 

and on the good, and sendeth rain 

on the just and on the unjust. 

March Stitches

 

I finished the dress! This is 100% hand stitched. It is the first time that I have made a dress all by hand. It feels good to see what I can achieve.

This month I stitched the skirt pieces together, gathered and attached the floral contrast bit, hemmed the skirt, finished the seams and put in gathering stitches at the top edge of the skirt. I got to this point by the 18th of March.

Next I attached the bodice to the skirt with a backstitch and a running stitch for reinforcement. Then I finished the seam with a blanket stitch.

I sewed the zipper in the center back. 

I sewed the collar and facing on to the neckline. I understitched the collar to help everything lay smoothly.

  And that is it. The dress is done. All the seams are neatly finished. There is nothing left to do. It turned out great!

I, also, had to make a repair in my compression hose this month. I took a few minutes to stitch this hole closed.

"A stitch in time saves nine."

That's is a good quip. I hope you have had a good March and that your projects keep marching on to the finish line!

To Everything A Season

 Do you need some sunshine today? We have had a cloudy day in the sky but these little packages of sunshine made up for the lack of real sunshine.

The red tips of the peonies are starting to unfurl! They look so promising. 

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

 To every thing there is a season, 

and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; 

a time to plant, 

and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; 

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; 

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, 

and a time to gather stones together; 

a time to embrace, 

and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose; 

a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

 A time to rend, and a time to sew; 

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; 

a time of war, and a time of peace.