The Good the Bad and the Ugly

 Good morning, everyone. This is another one of those times when I sit down without a clear point of what I'm going to write about. So come along for the ride if you'd like.

The property backed up to a river.

It's a cold morning, and late fall has finally arrived. Yesterday, Ward and I explored an old family property in Virginia and drove through snow both on the way there and on the way home. Luckily, the snow was mixed with rain, so nothing was sticking to the road. However, areas nearby had half a foot, with more to come. 

Briers everywhere!

Speaking of the property, Ward's grandmother bought it over 30 years ago, and it has been untouched since then. This meant there were greenbrier and other thorny vines everywhere among the trees. The vines took every opportunity to reach out, grab us, and hang on. Despite that, we had a good day together, and I enjoyed being out in the woods even though we had thorns to contend with. 

The only thing left were the apples.

On the way home, we stopped by an orchard to get some apples and cider. It's a little late in the season, so I was pleased that we were able to find them. There was a building filled with crates of apples, and buying was entirely based on the honor system. Prices were posted, and after you made your selection, you wrote it in a notebook and put your money under a weight on the counter. They said they've been doing it that way for years without any problems. 

It was nice to be out in the country where these things happen. Also, we had to walk down a road a bit to get to the property, and two different passing cars stopped and offered help. Once again, this was much appreciated, even though we didn't need any assistance.

Last weekend, I don't know what we were thinking, but Ward and I went shopping on Sunday afternoon. We hit several stores, all of which were crowded to the point that it was hard to find parking. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought it was two days before Christmas. 

Something I noticed during our shopping was a plethora of poorly groomed clerks. Several looked like they needed a shower, and one's hands looked like he'd been digging in the dirt. At first, I was annoyed, but after thinking a bit, it may have been that these people don't have easy access to showers, etc., or they have no money and are trying to save water. I just don't know their backstory. They were not serving my food, so I decided not to be annoyed.

Martha Stewart prison pizza

Recently, while I was working, Wally and Ward went on a pub crawl. They brought me home pizza from their last stop. The pizza was named Martha Stewart's Prison Pizza. I'm not sure what made it a prison pizza because I'm pretty sure they don't serve pizza like this in prison, but it was very Martha-Stewart-like, with cheese flowers piped on top. It was delicious.

I have a plan for Thanksgiving, but it's time to kick it into gear. I guess I haven't learned and will be shopping on the weekend for things that can bought ahead of time and making some of the dishes that can made ahead of time.

That's about it. I'm done meandering for now.

Until next time...

Meanderings

 In my head, I've written several blog posts since I last visited with you. And they have been very insightful as well as humorous. Too bad, my thoughts are so rapid-fire that as soon as I have one, another comes along to push the first one out of the way. So, let's see where my mind meanders today. :)

There are many more where these came from.

We have been picking up dropped apples around the broken tree limb, and although the apples are still sour, they are sweeter than the ones we tried a couple of weeks ago. They are taking a while to process because they are full of rotten places and wormholes, but I have managed to get some into the freezer for pies. While working on the apples, I thought about when I was a kid and we made lots of applesauce. We didn't have an apple tree, but my father collected bushels of dropped apples from various friends. Every day after school, we would have to make a canner load (7 quarts) of applesauce. This continued until the supply was depleted and often lasted for a few weeks. My father was always scavenging for food - I think a throwback to his childhood when he earned extra money that way. We always had a good supply of blackberries, hickory nuts, and apples from his efforts. And he was a big gardener. But that's a story for another time.

I was too lazy to take the pizza out of the oven for a picture. 

Last night, we had one of our easy, frugal, but tasty dinners. We got a cheese pizza from Aldi's (16" one for only $5.99). We added shredded rotisserie chicken from Costco (4 lb cooked weight/$4.99), peppers from Uncle Billy's garden (sweet for me and jalapeno for Ward), and tomatoes from our garden. We have pizza this way occasionally, and the toppings vary with whatever we have on hand. It easily provides a couple of meals. It could have been cheaper if we had made it entirely from scratch, but it was still a very good deal. And all we had to do was push the Easy Button. And if it's easy, we're more likely to eat at home instead of eating out. And eating at home is almost always cheaper than eating out. 

Surprise iris bloom

I had a fun surprise in the yard recently. I turned around in the driveway one day and saw an iris blooming. I got these irises from an aunt, and they have not bloomed in the two years I've had them. I know it takes a season or two for one to bloom after transplanting, so I was not worried that they hadn't. Disappointed but not worried. It was a surprise to see one blooming in September when they usually bloom in April. I'm unsure what it all means, but I enjoy the bright pop of color.

Next week, we are going to the Blue Ridge with Wally and Theo. Where we're staying is not close to any town, so we can't count on popping out to Walmart to pick up something we've forgotten. And there will be no internet, which we usually use to figure out the details of where we're going and what we're doing for the next day. I think it's time to get serious with our planning. In the meantime, work and other things are keeping us busy. 

Hope everyone gets a fun surprise this week, like my iris.

Until next time...

M is for McDonald's Pizza

McDonald's is known for fast service and predictability. That's why people eat there even if they're not big fans of the food. You always know what you're going to get. However from time to time they waver from this predictability and try new menu items. Sometimes those work or sometimes they don't. For example, breakfast burritos are going strong but the Hula Burger isn't.

Source

One of the new items they tried was pizza in the late 1980s. However, it was gone by the early 1990s. It didn't seem to fit the fast food model since it took 10 minutes to prepare and it literally didn't fit through some of the drive through windows. The plan was that it would be a dinner item and families would come into the restaurant to eat, but they didn't. Thus it was discontinued.

That is all except two places--one in Ohio and one in West Virginia. Both stores were owned by the same owner and year after year he kept making pizzas. And people kept eating them. One of those McDonald's was in my home town. I had already moved away by the time they started serving pizza, but ate it many times while visiting my parents. In fact that was one of the things we'd do, get a pizza from McDonald's when we visited. There were other places to buy pizza in town, but Micky D's was my parents' favorite. They had their little ritual. They'd order a pizza with everything and my mother would pick off the meat and give it to my father and he would pick off the veggies and give them to her. The McDonald's pizza was not bad and certainly a bargain at $6 for a large.

These two locations served these pizzas for years with no fuss until they got word of it in Canada where the McPizza was first tested. Three young men made a trip to WV to try the pizza and the idea went viral. Traveling to have McDonald's pizza became the thing to do. And when the corporate office got wind of the whole thing, and they said the pizza had to be discontinued. That was how they could control the predictability that was one of their trademarks.

Last summer the last pizzas were served and my mother got one of them. Her friend got her one and brought it to her in the nursing home for lunch. Sadly, this time my father wasn't around to exchange toppings with her, but she enjoyed it all the same.

Time marches on and things change. That's the way it was for the Micky D's pizza and as trivial as it seems, the pizza is missed.

Note: There is a McDonald's in Orlando that started serving pizza in 2016. The store is 18,000 square feet and is one of the largest McDonald's in the world. There are many other items on the menu besides pizza that are not on a regular McDonald's menu.