Month: September 2011

Labor Day

This is a holiday with one shaky past. Pullman_strikers_outside_Arcade_Building

In 1894 the country was in a recession. The owner of the Pullman Palace Car Co. decided to up his bottom line by cutting wages without cutting hours or  cutting prices he charged workers for rent and goods.

The 3000 workers in Pullman, Illinois said enough was enough and started a wildcat strike. That pulled in the American Railway Union. They began a nation-wide boycott; union members refused to run trains with Pullman cars. There were 250,000 railroad workers in 7 states, in days, half of them quit rather than handle Pullman cars.

The workers’ solidarity forced factory shutdowns and lockouts well beyond Pullman.

Management hired replacement workers and conflicts escalated. President Cleveland  ordered federal officials to intervene citing strikers for anti-trust violations. When it was over, 13 workers were dead, 57 wounded and damages totaled over 8 million in today’s dollars.

So what did Congress do? Hugely concerned of a backlash, they scurried around and in 6 days came up with Labor Day, a national holiday to honor workers.  “Communities will host street parades to show the strength and esprit de corps of labor followed by a festival for workers and their families.”

Hmmm, is it just me? Or do you think Debt Ceiling Day will be next?

Source: Wikipedia including image of striking workers, 1894

Labor Day Sunday

Labor Day Sunday is when you knock yourself out cooking so that you can rest and relax on Labor Day Monday. So here’s a thought. Try my mother’s potato salad, it’s best if you make it the day before you plan to eat it, anyway.

potato-recipesI know, I know — you like the potato salad your mother makes, just like you like the custard pumpkin pie she makes for Thanksgiving rather than the more solid version, which is far superior. Or the meatloaf. Or the spaghetti sauce.

As I was starting to say, this is the world’s best potato salad in case that’s important.

My Mother’s Potato Salad
(Serves 6 so double it if you need more.)

6 potatoes, 1 medium onion chopped, 3 TB oil, 3 TB vinegar, ½ tsp salt, 1 tsp celery seed, mayonnaise, (Start with a cup and add as you like.) 4 hard-cooked eggs, 4 sweet pickles

Cook potatoes. Mix oil, vinegar, salt and celery seed with chopped onion. Drain potatoes and when cool enough to touch, peel and cut in points. (It is hard to explain cut in points but if you are cubing, slicing or mashing — you are probably not cutting in points.)

Pour oil/vinegar/onion mixture over potatoes and marinate overnight in the refrigerator. Chop eggs except for one. Cut up pickle. Add both to potatoes. Mix in mayonnaise. Slice reserved egg and put on top, sprinkle with paprika.

Check in next year for a recipe for strawberry shortcake from my mother in law. I know, I know — you like the strawberry short-cake your mother makes…

Sighted

Here is something that you may well recognize. It comes in all kinds of colors, shapes, sizes and price ranges. It is the Impulse Buy. Joyce and Wes 007

This is a salt and pepper shaker in case you can’t make out the function of the egg-shaped orbs sticking out of this little guy’s pockets.

Somehow I thought it would be fun to take this on a picnic, a casual affair where I’d eat hard-boiled eggs and thick ham sandwiches on sourdough bread on a red and white checked tablecloth.

Not gonna happen.

Baconbaconbaconbacon

Pudding with bacon spoons

OMG. What do I see?

Why it’s not Maple Chocolate Pudding with Bacon Spear Spoons in sweet little shot glasses, is it?

Why yes, it is.

I figured on 1 pound of bacon and I’m guessing that the recipe makes ten 1 oz servings – if you don’t lick the spoon too much. So this would tip in at 365 calories with 237 of them being fat.

The cook claims the bacon spoons go fast, so she always makes a few more to have on the side.  Of course she does.

Rune the day

Wait ’til M.S. gets a load of these. She’ll be marching all over her place, directing her minions to plug in the generators for a holiday party nestled in the meadow.

Rune GuneriussenRune Guneriussen

guneriussen 002Picture 007

The photographer is 34-year-old Rune Guneriussen, a native of Norway. I can imagine  while he was growing up, he drove his parents nuts by dragging everything he owned outside to see how it looks in the backyard. Along the way he honed an imaginative way of looking at nature through the most ordinary of lenses. Extraordinary.