Friday Funny... Purple Underwear

I am not always canning... I do other stuff too! Sometimes I sit in our little kitchen at work and eat lunch with the other ladies I work with... and sometimes the conversations go in unexpected directions...

So...

I thought I'd share an occasional "Friday Funny."

You may find it amusing... I know I did...

A woman I work with was talking about the color purple... which led to her telling us about an elderly lady she goes to church with who wears purple all the time... Purple dresses, purple skirts and blouses, down to purple shoes and purple handbags... she's never seen her in any other color...

She wondered aloud, "I wonder if she even wears purple underwear?"

Someone said... "Why don't you ask her"

Someone else said... "or lift up her skirt and look real quick..."

Someone else added... "or trip her and make her fall and then you can look..."

Yet another person mused... "or wear mirrors on top of your shoes..."

Then someone said... "you have ALL these options... there's no reason NOT to find out!"

By this time we were laughing hysterically, tears rolling down our cheeks...

Important things... discussed over turkey sandwiches and tuna salads...

Canning Mayonnaise

I've been asked the question "Can you can mayonnaise" many times... I've asked that question many times myself...

The answer, in a word, is "No!"

Where I come from, there's only one commercial brand of mayo worthy of use... and the best lunch you can ask for on a summer day is a 'mater sammich using a tomato fresh out of the garden with salt, pepper, and Duke's Mayonnaise! When my sister lived "up north" in New Jersey for several years, my mom bought Duke's by the gallon and any time they went up to visit, she took my sister a few gallons... we're THAT dedicated!

But, back to canning mayonnaise... "Why can't you can it?"

First, we need to talk about exactly what mayonnaise is... (trust me, I've researched this... I was DETERMINED there HAD to be a way to can mayonnaise!)

"Mayonnaise is an emulsion of vegetable oil in lemon juice stabilized by the molecule lecithin, found in egg yolks. Mayonnaise does not taste all that oily even though most of it is oil. This is because every molecule of oil is surrounded by a microscopic amount of lemon juice. Thus, it is important to remember that mayonnaise is not a small amount of lemon juice blended into oil, but is instead, a large amount of oil blended into a tiny amount of lemon juice.

The key to making mayonnaise is to avoid having the components of the emulsion separate back into the components. In cooking, this is called breaking. No matter how much you mix the oil and lemon juice together, it will always separate (break) into a gooey mess unless you include the egg yolk as a stabilizer. The lecithin in the egg yolk acts like detergent in dissolving both the oil and the lemon juice components. This is what keeps mayonnaise fluffy."

But... but... but...

How do commercial mayonnaise-makers can their mayonnaise?

They don't... 

Commercial Mayo isn't "canned," it is put in a jar and capped. Even the health seals are not from canning but an added assurance against tampering.

But... but... but...

Can't mayonnaise that's been left out of refrigeration cause food poisoning?

Ummm... No!

Commercial mayonnaise and mayonnaise dressings are prepared using pasteurized eggs that are free of Salmonella and other types of bacteria. Ingredients in the product such as vinegar and lemon juice provide a high acid environment, which slows or prohibits entirely the growth of these types of bacteria. Salt, another ingredient in commercial mayonnaise also acts to quell the growth of bacteria. Many of the foods used with mayonnaise such as tuna, ham, chicken, and potatoes are more prone to bacterial contamination than mayonnaise itself.

Commercial mayonnaise is actually shelf stable. Commercially made mayo has an additional ingredient which "binds" the mayo even if it is left out on the counter for quite a while; that component is known as EDTA. It is present in most if not all commercial mayos.

Just what is EDTA? It stands for ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (for more information on EDTA, check here... http://www.eatingrealfood.com/articles/edta-a-preservative-in-your-mayonnaise/

So...

If you make your own mayonnaise, what will happen if you try canning it?

Well, I'll tell you...

The emulsifying job that the egg does in binding the oil and lemon juice (or vinegar) together will be compromised... the egg will cook and the oil and lemon juice (or vinegar) will separate and you'll have an ugly, globby mess!

Separated (attempted water bath canning) mayonnaise
From http://www.rural-revolution.com/2010/04/canning-mayonnaise.html

My suggestion is this... make your own mayonnaise a small batch at a time... keep the ingredients (separately) on hand and whip up a bowl full once a week or so... it'll keep for a week or two in the fridge... and it doesn't contain EDTA or any other preservatives. This has worked great for me since I've been on this Candida Diet and most commercial mayonnaises contain sugar and/or soy oil (both big no-no's on the diet)... I can make my own and leave out the sugar... use olive oil and it tastes SO yummy I could eat it with a spoon! And I'm not a big mayo lover unless it's mixed in something or on a tomato sandwich!

My friend over at Joybilee Farms posted a great "fail-proof" mayonnaise recipe that is simple and yummy...

MAYONNAISE FROM SCRATCH

(Makes 1 cup, 250ml)

Time: 5 minutes with a stand mixer

Let’s start with a bowl, and a mixer or a whisk and one large farm fresh egg.

1 egg yolk, reserve the egg white for another recipe

1 tbsp. lemon juice or cider vinegar

¼ cup olive oil plus ½ cup olive oil (total ¾ c.)

½ tsp. Dijon mustard

¼ tsp. Himalayan salt

Mayonnaise is an emulsified mixture of oil and water.  You need the acid of the lemon juice or vinegar mixed with the egg yolk to act as the emulsifier.  Don’t try to use a whole egg with this recipe.  You’ll have a mess on your hands.  You just want the yolk.

Use the best quality of virgin olive oil that you can find.  You don’t need much and good quality olive oil has many health benefits.  Use farm fresh, organic, free range eggs.  The eggs remain raw in mayonnaise, so your best bet is to raise your own, or to get your eggs from a local farmer that you know well.   Factory farmed store eggs are likely to have salmonella contamination.

Take the egg yolk and the lemon juice and beat them together well.  Then while beating with the whisk by hand or mixing with your mixer, drizzle in the first ¼ cup of olive oil, 1 tbsp at a time into the egg-lemon juice mixture.  The mixture will begin to thicken.  Add the oil very slowly while you whisk, making sure that you whisk the oil in completely before adding additional oil.

Your mixture will begin to come together and lighten in colour.  Add the mustard and salt and continue beating.  Once the mixture begins to thicken, slowly drizzle the final ½ cup of oil into the centre of the mixture, beating to incorporated all the oil as you pour.  Stop the beaters and scrape the side of the bowl if necessary to incorporate all the oil, before drizzling more in.

If you are using farm fresh eggs, your mayonnaise will be a golden yellow colour.  It will be very thick and ready to use as soon as it thickens.  Refrigeration will thicken it further.  It will stay fresh for a week if kept refrigerated.  Recipe may be doubled, but don’t make more than you can eat in a week.

Ask Granny... Can you stack home canned foods?

Q. Can you stack home canned foods for storage?

A. Yes, but you need to do it safely...

Photo from ehow.com

Jars should never be stacked just one on top of the other, this can cause seal breakage.

They can be stacked as long as there is something like cardboard or thin plywood between the stacks. Like this...

Photo from Wikipedia

... or 

Photo from foodinjars.com

Simply put the jars back into the jar boxes after filling them and it's safe to stack the jars... but I wouldn't stack them too high, not over 2 or 3.

or...

Found this handy dandy tote at http://www.mypatriotsupply.com/Quart_Size_Jarbox_p/z_jarboxqt.htm

They do sell jar storage boxes like the one picture above for extra safety. In my opinion, they're a little pricey, but if you live in an earthquake zone, it might be worth the investment.

Canning Kale and Other Greens

We've had kale growing all winter in our garden. I've made kale chips, eaten steamed kale, fed kale to the chickens regularly... and it just keeps growing...

Now that spring has arrived, we needed to make room in our garden for our summer crops, so I chopped down all the kale and ended up with a wheelbarrow full and overflowing... so I decided to can some of it... whatever didn't get canned could go to the chickens... they love the stuff... it's like chicken candy to them!

The following method of canning works for kale and any other greens (spinach, turnip greens, mustard greens, collards, etc.)

I chopped the kale into  bite-sized pieces and removed all the tough stems and yellow pieces. Then I rinsed it several times to remove any dirt and sand and bugs... sand seems to cling to greens so it takes several rinses!

Then I filled my two biggest stockpots to the brim with kale and covered it with water to blanch... over medium heat I brought it to a boil until the greens were wilted down nicely... you don't want to raw pack greens, they cook down too much, you'd end up with  two bites of greens and a whole lot of water!

Meanwhile I boiled my pint jars and lids and kept them hot until I was ready for them.

Once the kale had wilted down, I began filling my jars with the greens using a slotted spoon.

I added liquid from the cooking pot whenever necessary to cover the greens, leaving a one inch headspace. I removed any air bubbles and adjusted the liquid as needed. I added a half teaspoon of canning salt to each pint (this is optional).

I wiped the jar rims with a damp cloth and tightened on my hot lids and rings to fingertip tightness.

I processed my jars of kale in my pressure canner at 10-11 pounds pressure for 70 minutes (quarts would be 90 minutes). After processing, I turned off the heat and let the canner cool down naturally (don't rush it or you might get broken jars!) Once the pressure in the canner reached zero, I took off the lid and removed the jars using my jar lifter and set them on a folded dish towel on the counter to cool... and to listen for the PING! of each successfully sealed jar!

I ended up canning 16 pints of kale... still had quite a mountain of greens left in my wheelbarrow... the chickens enjoyed some as a treat... and the rest went into the compost bin... I still have one more row of kale to harvest... I think I'll dehydrate the rest... Love me some kale chips as a snack!

Lightning Bugs in a Jar

I found the above photo in "wallpapers" and downloaded it on my smartphone... I love looking at it and all the fond memories it brings back of childhood and summer.

We've just begun seeing a few lightning bugs (for you folks who prefer... fireflies) in our yard... and they always say "Summer" to me... warm evenings and staying out on the porch until after dark.

My brothers and I, like many children, were eager to capture the tiny lights... in jars... and did so every chance we got... catching lightning bugs in the dark, our bare feet cool in the summer grass... I can close my eyes and still feel and smell and see those summer evenings.

Mama and Daddy would sit out on the porch on summer evenings, talking about their day and enjoying a glass of sweet tea before it was time for the chaos of bathing dirty children and getting everyone ready for bed... we, of course, ran around in the yard as long as we possibly could, playing hide-n-seek in the dark and catching lightning bugs.

We'd run past Mama and Daddy into the house... Mama would call out, "What are ya'll doing?"

"Gotta get a jar!!! We're catching lightning bugs!"

"Make sure you get a mayonnaise jar! Don't use my good jars!"

We would fish out a jar, find an old mayonnaise lid, grab a knife and punch holes in the top so the bugs could breathe... and off we'd go, stalking the flickering insects til they landed in the cool damp grass and we could catch 'em... fun times!

Looking back on this simple summer fun, I've thought about those children that we were... and what we just automatically knew... about canning jars...

We knew the difference between a mayonnaise jar and Mama's "good" jars... the Mason Jars... we knew those jars were important to "putting up food" for winter...

Mama knew we could be trusted to "find" a jar... use a sharp tool (knife) to poke holes in the lid... she didn't rush in to find our "equipment" for us... my Mama was no "helicopter Mom"... she raised us to do some things ourselves... as I see so many "hovering mothers" these days, ever afraid their little darlings will get hurt and doing so much for them that they don't learn to do for themselves... I am thankful for my Mama and her sensible approach to our upbringing!

Hunting lightning bugs wouldn't have been as much fun if Mama had done all the work for us!

Here's to summer evenings and lightning bugs in jars! And Mamas who let kids be kids! I miss you Mama!

Rye 'n' Injun Bread... Farmer Boy

The chapter on cutting ice from the big pond in Laura Ingalls Wilders' Farmer Boy always amazed this Southern girl... especially when I read the book the first time as a child...  How they stacked the ice in the ice house, packing in on all sides with sawdust so it would keep even through the hottest summer... and they had ice for ice cream and lemonade any time they needed it.

When Almanzo and his Father and brother Royal came home the evening after finishing up with the ice.. to have their Saturday night bath... Mother was putting Sunday dinner in the oven for the next day... She made chicken pie, baked beans, and Rye 'n' Injun Bread...

Here's the recipe for Rye 'n' Injun Bread from the Little House Cookbook... I gotta try this... SOON!!!! After my Saturday night bath! ;)

1 1/2 c. corn meal
1 1/2 c. rye flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 stp salt
2 eggs
3/4 c. molasses
1 c. buttermilk

In a large bowl, mix flours, baking soda and salt. In a seperate bowl, mix eggs, molasses and buttermilk. Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until well mixed. Do not beat. Grease a 9x13" pan. Put mixture in pan. Fill another 9x13" pan with water and put on bottom rack of oven. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Bake at 200 degrees for 3-4 hours. Cut into 16 pieces. Serve hot or cold. Great with butter and/or honey. Makes 16 servings. 

Helping Hands and Simple Fun... Another "Little House" Lesson

When I was growing up, my grandmothers, my Mama, and my aunts all gathered together to can... "many hands make light work." And it almost felt like a party, except for the hard work, but even stringing and breaking bushels of green beans or peeling peaches until the juice ran down and dripped off your elbows, became fun with all the talk and laughter around the table or sitting in the shade of my Nanny's apple tree. These times of hard work have become some of my most treasured memories.

Having family or neighbors to help with the "big work" was even more important in the "Little House" days...

From Little House in the Big Woods...

Uncle Henry came to help Pa butcher the hog. He brought Aunt Polly's sharpened knife.  They made a bonfire and heated a big kettle of  water over it.  The pig pen was nearby.  Laura plugged her ears with her fingers because she didn't want to hear the pig squeal as it was being killed. "After that, Butchering Time was great fun."

Uncle Henry and Pa were "jolly".  There was spare ribs for dinner. Pa promised the girls they could play with the bladder, which he blew up like a balloon. They played games like volley ball and kick ball with the blown-up bladder. He also gave the girls the pig's tail, which was roasted, sizzled, fried and sprinkled with salt. They ate all the meat off the bones, knowing there wouldn't be another pig's tail until next year.

The hog was scalded in hot water.  They laid it on a board.  Then it was scraped with knives until all the coarse bristles came off the skin.  Then the hog was hung in a tree.  The insides were taken out, and it was left hanging to cool.  Then it was taken down, and cut up.

From this hog came: hams, shoulders, side meat, spare-ribs, belly, heart, liver, tongue, and headcheese.  The dishpan that was full of bits and pieces would be made into sausage. The meat was laid on a board and sprinkled with salt. The hams and shoulders were pickled in brine, then smoked.

Pa said, "You can't beat hickory-cured ham."

Uncle Henry went back home after dinner.  Pa went into the Big Woods to do more work.  Laura and  Mary helped Ma with carrying wood and watching the fire. Ma put lard in big iron pots on the cookstove.  Ma skimmed out brown "cracklings"....she would use them to flavor "johnny-cake" later.

Ma made headcheese. She scraped and cleaned the head carefully.  She boiled it until all the meat  fell off the bones.  Then the meat was chopped into fine pieces and seasoned with pepper, salt and spices.  It was mixed with pot-liquor and cut into slices after it cooled.

The little pieces of lean and fat that  came off the larger pieces were made into sausage.  Sausage balls were put in a pan out in the shed to freeze.  These were good to eat all winter.

When Butchering Time was over there were:  sausages, headcheese, big jars of lard, a keg of white saltpork out in the shed, smoked ham and shoulders in the attic.

Getting Ready for Winter... more lessons from "Little House" books

Preparing for winter was important in the "Little House" days... with the days of big supermarkets, truck deliveries every day, and greenhouse foods, we've moved away from the necessity of "putting up" for the winter... I think it's time we got back to those days... what a peaceful, comfortable, secure feeling it gives me when I know that if a winter storm or a hurricane hits, I've got plenty for us to eat without having to brave the elements to grab that last loaf of bread or gallon of milk everyone seems to rush out to get. I like to call it "food insurance!"

Mary and Laura play with their dolls among the pumpkins and other
food stored in the attic in the "Little House in the Big Woods"

From Little House in the Big Woods

One morning Pa went away before daylight with the horses and wagon, and that night he came home with a wagonload of fish. The big wagon box was piled full, and some of the fish were as big as Laura. Pa had gone to Lake Pepin and caught them all with a net.

Ma a cut large slices of flaky white fish, without one bone, for Laura and Mary. They all feasted on the good, fresh fish. All they did not eat fresh was salted down in barrels for the winter.

Pa owned a pig. It ran wild in the Big Woods, living on acorns and nuts and roots. Now he caught it and put it in a pen made of logs, to fatten. He would butcher it as soon as the weather was cold enough to keep the pork frozen.

Laura woke up and heard the pig squealing. Pa jumped out of bed, snatched his gun from the wall, and ran outdoors. Then Laura heard the gun go off, once, twice.

When Pa came back, he told what had happened. He had seen a big black bear standing beside the pigpen. The bear was reaching into the pen to grab the pig, and the pig was running and squealing. Pa saw this in the starlight and he fired quickly. But the light was dim and in his haste he missed the bear. The bear ran away into the woods, not hurt at all.

Laura was sorry Pa did not get the bear. She liked bear meat so much. Pa was sorry, too, but he said: "Anyway, I saved the bacon.”

The garden behind the little house had been growing all summer. It was so near the house that the deer did not jump the fence and eat the vegetables in the daytime, and at night Jack kept them away. Sometimes in the morning there were little hoof-prints among the carrots and the cabbages. But Jack's tracks were there, too, and the deer had jumped right out again.

Now the potatoes and carrots, the beets and turnips and cabbages were gathered and stored in the cellar, for freezing nights had come.

Onions were made into long ropes, braided together by their tops, and then were hung in the attic beside wreaths of red peppers strung on threads. The pumpkins and the squashes were piled in orange and yellow and green heaps in the attic's corners.

The barrels of salted fish were in the pantry, and yellow cheeses were stacked on the pantry shelves...

...The attic was a lovely place to play. The large, round, colored pumpkins made beautiful chairs and tables. The red peppers and the onions dangled overhead. The hams and the venison hung in their paper wrappings, and all the bunches of dried herbs, the spicy herbs for cooking and the bitter herbs for medicine, gave the place a dusty spicy smell.

Often the wind howled outside with a cold and lonesome sound. But in the attic Laura and Mary played house with the squashes and the pumpkins, and everything was snug and cosy.

Learning from the Little House Books... Smoking Venison

I first met Laura Ingalls when I was in the third grade... I began devouring the "Little House" books one by one... I read them again when I was a bit older, then again aloud to my own children and again to my grandson.

My youngest daughter, Hannah, with memories of "Little House" still treasured in her heart, bought me a beautifully bound copy of Laura's first five novels for Christmas this year... I've begun reading them again, with new eyes... and the realization that they are so much more than a sweet children's story... or historical fiction... there is much to be learned about homemaking and food preservation and self reliance in those beloved pages...

 From chapter 1 of Little House in the Big Woods...

"The house was a comfortable house. Upstairs there was a large attic, pleasant to play in when the rain drummed on the roof. Downstairs was the small bedroom, and the big room. The bedroom had a window that closed with a wooden shutter. The big room had two windows with glass in the panes, and it had two doors, a front door and a back door.
"All around the house was a crooked rail fence, to keep the bears and the deer away.
"In the yard in front of the house were two beautiful big oak trees. Every morning as soon as she was awake Laura ran to look out of the windows, and one morning she saw in each of the big trees a dead deer hanging from a branch.
"Pa had shot the deer the day before and Laura had been asleep when he brought them home at night and hung them high in the trees so the wolves could not get the meat.
"That day Pa and Ma and Laura and Mary had fresh venison for dinner. It was so good that Laura wished they could eat it all. But most of the meat must be salted and smoked and packed away to be eaten in the winter.
"For winter was coming. The days were shorter, and frost crawled up the window panes at night. Soon the snow would come. Then the log house would be almost buried in snowdrifts, and the lake and streams would freeze. In the biter cold weather Pa could not be sure of finding any wild game to shoot for meat..."

"So as much food as possible must be stored away in the little house before winter came.
"Pa skinned the deer carefully and salted and stretched the hides, for he would make soft leather of them. Then he cut up the meat, and sprinkled salt over the pieces as he laid them on a board.
"Standing on end in the yard was a tall length cut from the trunk of a big hollow tree. Pa had driven nails inside as far as he could reach from each end. Then he stood it up, put a little roof over the top, and cut a little door on one side near the bottom. One the piece that he cut out he fastened leather hinges; then he fitted it into place, and that was the little door, with the bark still on.
"After the deer meat had been salted several days, Pa cut a hole near the end of each piece and put a string through it. Laura watched him do this, and then she watched him hang the meat on the nails in the hollow log.
"He reached up through the little door and hung meat on the nails as far up as he could reach. Then he put a ladder against the log, climbed up to the top, moved the roof to one side, and reached down inside to hand meat on those nails.
"Then Pa put the roof back again, climbed down the ladder, and said to Laura:
'Run over to the chopping block and fetch me some of those green hickory chips -- new, clean, white ones.'
"So Laura ran to the block where Pa chopped wood, and filled her apron with the fresh, sweet-smelling chips.
"Just inside the little door in the hollow log Pa built a fire of tiny bits of bark and moss, and he laid some of the chips on it very carefully.
"Instead of burning quickly, the green chips smoldered and filled the hollow log with thick, choking smoke. Pa shut the door, and a little smoke squeezed through the crack around it and a little smoke came out through the roof, but most of it was shut in with the meat.
'There's nothing better than good hickory smoke,' Pa said. 'That will make good venison that will keep anywhere, in any weather.'
"Then he took his gun, and slinging his ax on his shoulder he went away to the clearing to cut down some more trees.
"Laura and Ma watched the fire for several days. When smoke stopped coming through the cracks, Laura would bring more hickory chips and Ma would put them on the fire under the meat. All the time there was a little smell of smoke in the yard, and when the door was opened a thick, smoky, meaty smell came out.
"At last Pa said the venison had smoked long enough. Then they let the fire go our, and Pa took all the strips and pieces of meat out of the hollow tree. Ma wrapped each piece neatly in paper and hung them in the attic where they would keep safe and dry."

Birthday Surprise

Sunrise over beautiful Smith Lake

It started with cryptic comments from my Mr. G... 33 days until March 15... wait, my birthday's the 12th, what's the 15th?... then, "how many weeks ahead of time do you need to ask off from work?" "Well, take Friday, March 15 off"... and "get your car cleaned out and washed before Friday."

Then a couple days before, I received this clue...

"Sojourn, visit a temporary stay (e.g., as a guest), Sojourner a temporary resident.

As sojourners we shall embark on a journey westward across glen and dale to a place where by moonlight the land shimmers and ripples. To a place of your Surname where with watchful eyes like those before us were ever vigilant and their beacon was a symbol of comfort...on a Friday two days from now."

We began our "sojourn" early that Friday morning, first taking Smokey to board at a local kennel (which NEVER happens!)... I had been told to pack a bag for a couple of nights but still had no idea of our destination.

(Secretly I had thought we would be heading to the coast, to visit a lighthouse, Mr. G knows my fascination with lighthouses)

We left the South Carolina Midlands where we live and headed northwest (What??? not EAST???) to the Upstate of SC... "across glen and dale!" We hit the backroads near Greenville... across the mountains and curvy roads of North Georgia... into far Western North Carolina... into East Tennessee and on to Chattanooga... then turned south back into North Georgia (by this time my confusion continued to grow! But it was a fun trip, we listened to music, laughed and talked, enjoyed the scenery and each other's company, pointing out places of interest along the way... I decided to just sit back and enjoy the trip, what else could I do?) Mr. G, at one point, said, "you'll be traveling through 5 states today." So upon entering Tennessee, I remarked, "what's next, Arkansas?" He laughed, but gave away no clue.

From Georgia, we entered the fifth state, Alabama... North Alabama (nowhere near the coast)... and began to meander along curvy country roads in "farm country"... cows, chickens, farms and fields... after several hours of travel, Mr. G said we were about 5 minutes from our destination and I was to use my scarf as a blindfold for the remainder of the trip... so, with my blindfold on, I felt the car at last come to a stop... and I heard the voices of a man and woman... laughing "she's blindfolded!"

Mr. G came around and got me out of the car, assisting the blindfolded me down a few steps and across some gravel...

A little back story is in order at this point... When I was a little girl, one thing we did for entertainment was my parents loading up the station wagon and taking my brothers and me to the drive-in movies on the weekends... the first time I ever saw the Disney movie "Pete's Dragon" I decided then and there that when I grew up I was going to live in a lighthouse like the family in the movie did... my love and fascination of all things lighthouse grew from there, the history, the romance, the beauty... as I grew up, I realized I would never actually LIVE in a lighthouse but I love to visit them and Mr. G and I had had a conversation a few months ago about our "bucket lists" (things we want to do before we die)... I mentioned my childhood dream... and said, "I want to live in a lighthouse... or at least spend the night in one... or at the very least visit a different one every year."

Mr. G said to me while I was still blindfolded and standing on a gravel path, "I know it has been your dream since you were a little girl to live in a lighthouse... take off your blindfold..."

This is what I saw as soon as I removed the scarf from my eyes...

Yep... I squealed and clapped my hands! I was 8 years old again!

I was then told I was going to be living in a lighthouse for 2 nights! I squealed again!

Our surprise birthday destination? AnchorLight Bed and Breakfast on Smith Lake (my maiden name is Smith, hence the cryptic clue "place of your Surname")

Maggie and Jon "Tug" Owens, owners and keepers of the lighthouse were the most wonderful hosts ever... we enjoyed breakfast each morning in the lighthouse lamp room prepared by Maggie...

And a delightful tour of the lake on "Tug's" tugboat "Maggie"...

All the special touches Maggie had provided in our lighthouse room made our stay so special...

Ceiling art in the lamp room

What an unbelievable weekend surprise from my precious Mr. G!!!!! A lifelong dream come true for this Granny!