I love parties and family get-togethers. My family uses any excuse to party -from birthdays, holidays, to family game nights. With six married children, fourteen grandchildren (4 of them with spouses) and one great grandchild, it’s always a large party. I'm hoping someone is planning a Halloween party. Haven't heard anything yet, but we often hold spur of the moment parties too. Here are a couple of good recipes from our past get-togethers followed by a story.
Some of us prefer pretzels to chips. Here’s a great dip to go along from my granddaughter's recipe collection.
SARAH'S PRETZEL DIP
5 cloves of garlic minced
1 cup give or take of Hellman’s mayonnaise
1 cup give or take of light or regular sour cream (or Greek yogurt)
Palm full of herbs de Provence
Pepper to taste
Mix ingredients together and refrigerate.
Adjust ingredients to your liking.
Serve with pretzels.
POTATO SALAD FOR A CROWD
5# potatoes cooked and diced
1 medium bunch celery
1# onions chopped
1 doz. eggs hard cooked and chopped
1 small bottle French dressing
Dressing:
1 qt. miracle whip 1/2 pt. sour cream
3/4 c. milk scant 1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. vinegar salt and pepper to taste
sprinkle of paprika
Boil potatoes with "skins" on. Let cool and then remove skins and dice into nice size pieces.
Marinate potatoes in French dressing for several hours or overnight, using enough dressing to lightly coat potatoes (probably not the whole bottle)
Add remaining ingredients and the eggs last. Mix VERY CAREFULLY OR TOSS GENTLY with the dressing recipe. Sprinkle the top with paprika.
Cheese ball
This is an easy cheese ball and so delicious. The combination of cream cheese and cheddar cheese along with the seasonings makes this a party favorite. My daughter makes this one.
· 6 (3-ounces each) packages cream cheese, or 18 ounces, room temperature
· 8 ounces shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
· 2 teaspoons grated onion
· 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
· 2 teaspoons finely minced garlic
· Finely chopped pecans or peanuts
In a mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, Cheddar cheese, onion, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic. Beat with an electric mixer until well blended. Refrigerate until firm then shape into a ball. Roll cheese ball in chopped pecans or peanuts until well coated. Wrap in plastic and let ripen in refrigerator for at least 24 hours. Take out of refrigerator at least 2 hours before serving. Serve cheese ball with crackers.
Because of the time of year, I added this one for Pumpkin Soup. One of my personal favorites. It's great for these chilly Fall days.
Pumpkin Soup
by Roseanne Dowell
I served this on Thanksgiving often. It’s not sweet like
pumpkin pie. Pumpkin is actually a squash. I’ve done it from real pumpkin as
well as the can. Both are excellent.
3-4 cups mashed, cooked pumpkin – or 1 large can
1 T minced garlic
1 large mild (sweet) onion chopped
3 T melted butter or margarine
½ t. salt
Dash pepper
1 pint half and half (I use fat free)
4 T chopped parsley
Sauté the onion and celery in butter until tender Add the rest of
the ingredients, except half and half. Cover and simmer 10 minutes, stirring
occasionally. Put in blender – one cup at a time and blend until smooth. Return
to pan, add the half and half and heat through. Serve warm. Makes 6- 8 small
servings.
Here's a soup my mother used to make. Another one to warm you up on a chilly Fall day.
Corn Chowder
1 small onion chopped
1 stalk celery with
leaves chopped
3 T butter
2 c. milk
1 can cream of
mushroom soup
1 cup cubed potato
cooked with potato water
1 can cream corn
1 can whole kernel
corn
Salt and pepper to taste
Brown a onion in
butter with celery
Add milk, potato,
potato water, and corn. Bring to boil, add salt and pepper and serve.
And now that everyone is well fed, a story.
JUDGMENT DAYAnd now that everyone is well fed, a story.
The crowds hustle
by, everyone in a big hurry to get home after a long day of work. I almost
laughed at the rude people bumping into each other, as if they had the right of
way. No one cared about the person next to them. Everyone had their
own agenda, thought only of themselves. Horns honked and cars weaved in
and out of traffic, trying to get ahead of the others, their progress stopped at the next traffic light.
Storm clouds threatened to open any minute. The wind had picked up, and
lightening streaked across the sky, casting an eerie glow on those rushing
about. I stepped out of the doorway and hurried down the street, sidestepping
those willing to stampede over me.
"The
time has come!" A voice bellowed
through the crackling sounds of thunder.
I recognized the voice, had heard it
many times.
Suddenly
the sun shone brightly and then transformed itself from yellow to red, the
color of blood. The sky darkened even more. Thunder rumbled and lightning
flashed. People scattered, running for safety. The sky turned pitch black
and opened up, spewing forth pellets of hail, ashes, and bits of bone.
Everyone scurried about like lost rabbits. A great
upheaval shook the earth. The ground cracked, separated, and erupted, opening
graves in the nearby cemetery. Bodies, dead for centuries, spilled from their
tombs and rushed forth into the crowds.
Someone
reached a hand out and snatched the heart from a young man’s chest. Another plucked
out the eyes of an old woman. Body parts floated everywhere. Hearts, lungs,
kidneys, and livers flew about as if they had wings. A young man reached for a
heart, but it didn’t fit into his empty chest cavity. Tossing it aside, he
reached for another, and yet another, throwing them aside, in a desperate
search for his own.
Clumps of ash swirled around with bits of bone
and materialized into a body. I slunk back out of the way and watched it run
off down the street, screeching. People scrambled to get out of the way of
deteriorating bodies that poked and prodded, removing body parts from others. I
guessed they were reclaiming their own missing parts, which they had donated to
others after their death. Everyone rushed about in panic and frenzy.
A form appeared in front of me. A young lady, wafts
of long blond hair clung to her skull and bits of a pink dress still hung from
her shoulders. An evil grin appeared in her bony skull when she turned to face
a man. He stood immobile, fear pasted on his face. He dropped to his knees in
recognition. "Please," he begged, "Please, no."
She approached him, arms out stretched. He tried to crawl
away, but she was too quick. Showing no mercy, she grabbed him around the neck
and squeezed the life out of him. Guttural sounds came from her mouth. She
raised him effortlessly above her head, bowed as if to offer him up, and carried
him to a bridge. Spinning around two, maybe three times, she flung him over,
then turned away and hurried off.
I ran to see where he landed and looked down into a fiery
inferno. Tongues of flames licked its hungry mouth, swallowing the man into the
bowels of the earth. He had killed the young girl, and she sent him on to his
just due.
Other featureless
creatures rose out of their earthly internment and pursued their killers. Like
the girl, they murdered in the fashion they had died. One kicked his predator to death. Another
stabbed repeatedly in a murderous rage. Yet another carried his victim to the
top of a building and flung him down like a rag doll. Their victim’s pleas for
mercy, ignored. One - a headless creature converged on an elderly man. It threw
him to the ground and, with an axe that appeared from nowhere, chopped off the
old man’s head. It rolled away and stopped in front of me.
A new head grew from the headless creature's neck to
complete the body of a young boy. All these creatures lifted their victims’
bodies over their heads and carried them to the bridge. They repeated the
ritual, like the girl had, each bowed in front of me, then spinning around
several times they threw the victims into the fiery pit below. The massacre and
brutal assault of thousands continued. The stench of burning bodies saturated the air.
More and more
forms appeared from the clumps of ashes and bones, reclaiming the shape of
their earthly beings. People raced wildly about, screaming as bony hands ripped
their innards from their bodies. The skeletal creatures removed kidneys,
livers, and hearts, and repossessed them.
Across the way, a serene scene with masses of people
manifested itself. . They floated on a bed of clouds,
surrounded by a brilliant light that illuminated the blackened sky. They
were the good ones, the believers. The young blond girl, her body no longer a
skeleton, took her place among them, a pure and innocent look on her face.
Other creatures followed, after they had achieved
their revenge allotted to them by their God, and took on angelic forms.
The musical sound of a flute and a harp filled the air. Many of the mortals
that had, moments ago, been rushing about looking to replace missing parts were
now renewed. Their bodies united with
their souls.
Perfect
images rose above me with virtuous, peaceful faces. Laughter and love abounded
among them. They began humming with expressions of pure joy as they rose higher
and higher to their final reward above. A floral scent of roses mixed with
other unidentifiable sweet aromas.
I turned back and watched while bedlam still raged
on the other side. Thunder continued to rumble, mixed with terrifying screams
of the bewildered lost souls. Cadavers chased humans, pushing and stampeding
over them as they searched for their body parts. The evil forces reached out,
trying to grip the victims of time past. The innocents rushed past me, eager to
join with the host of angels.
It was time.
I went back
to them and beckoned to my lost sheep. Flames emitted from my hands and smoke
swirled around my mouth as I reached out to claim the evil ones I called my
own. I denounced them as they fell to their knees, begging for mercy from a God
that they had long ago forsaken.
A flood of water gushed over the earth, sweeping
their bodies into a wild rush of current. Arms and legs tangled, thwarting the
onslaught of water, as they swam for their very lives. Just as quickly, the
blackness and water disappeared, replaced by a sudden flash of orange. It burst
forth into the eternal flames of hell.
We were home.
Look for my books, Stranger on the Shore, Double the Trouble, Another Day, May I Have this Dance, and Connection of the Minds in the MuseIt Up Bookstore.
To find out more about me check out my website www.roseannedowell.com or my blog http://roseannedowellauthor.blogspot.com
Look for my books, Stranger on the Shore, Double the Trouble, Another Day, May I Have this Dance, and Connection of the Minds in the MuseIt Up Bookstore.
To find out more about me check out my website www.roseannedowell.com or my blog http://roseannedowellauthor.blogspot.com
14 comments:
Thanks for the recipes. Good to have tasty snacks for the end of the world.
Yummm---Your recipees sound delightful, especially the one for pumpkin soup. Getting to be that kind of weather here. Finally. I might have to try this in the next few days.
Yes, great recipes and a great excerpt too, Roseanne - really gripping.
It's the end of the world...and we're eatin'! Hmmm...mmmmm....!
Love the story and now I feel very hungry! :)
Well this year Ro, I will be having that Thanksgiving soup and thinking of my darling and dear friend while I make it. Sounds wonderful.
Now Judgement Day was gripping. Lost my appetite there a little but it is a wake-up call. Your descriptive writing is a dream for any author to yearn for...I love the way you write.
As grim as this story goes, I fear it will be much worse. Most won't want to hear or think about it but death is a reality. I know which side I long to be on.
Love you Ro and thanks for all that you are.
Thank you for all your comments. I hope you all let me know how you liked the recipes after you tried them.@Karen, yeah, I'm afraid it's going to be a whole lot worse. Thanks for your praise and encouragement. That's not something I usually write.
I printed all the recipes. And the story was an absolute masterpiece. (If this shows up twice, it's blogger, not me!)
Thanks for sharing the recipes and the story. The imagery was quite vivid. You're a talented writer.
I'm glad you gave us the sustinance with your recipes before we faced our destiny in your visually gripping story. :)
Holy craps Roseanne - I had no idea you wrote horror stories. WOW...I was expecting a sweet love story (LOL)...I'm still breathless over the whole deal, plus hell's heat is suffocating (grins).
Nice recipes...and one heck of a story. You never cease to amaze me.
Thanks, Kay Dee. I don't write horror stories. This came to me after a lunch date with my sister and brother and we discussed donating body parts. My brother asked what happens at the end of the world because our soul is supposed to join our body. It just came about and I had to write it. It's the only horror story I ever wrote.
Holy cow! Why is a nice, sweet grandma who shares her tasty recipes writing a story like this?! Knocked me off my chair, Woman...Great images.
Vampires is not at all like in the movies or books. Sure, I understand. You are young you have the whole world open to you. You can be anything that you choose if you apply yourself and try hard to work toward that goal. But being a Vampire is not what it seems like. It’s a life full of good, and amazing things. We are as human as you are.. It’s not what you are that counts, But how you choose to be. Do you want a life full of interesting things? Do you want to have power and influence over others? To be charming and desirable? To have wealth, health, and longevity, I can help you solve any problem you are having
(1) If you want your ex back.
(2) If you want to stop having bad dreams.
(3) You want to be promoted in your office.
(4) You want women/men to run after you.
(5) If you want a child.
(6) You want to be rich.
(7) You want to tie your husband/wife to be yours forever.
(8) If you need financial assistance.
(9) If you want to stop your divorce.
(10 If you want to divorce your husband.
(11) If you want your wishes to be granted.
contact the Vampires Lord on his Email: Richvampirekindom@gmail.com
Post a Comment