Not tacos...

Sausage and Rice
1 pkg. Conecuh Sausage
1 box Zatarrain’s Long Grain & Wild Rice Kernel Corn
Garlic Bread

• Slice Conecuh sausages and brown in skillet on medium heat
  
• Zatarrain’s Long Grain and Wild Rice (cook according to package directions)
  
• Combine rice and sausage. Serve with corn and cheese bread.
  

0. Alfredo Sausage
   1 pkg. Conecuh Sausage 1 pkg. bowtie pasta
   I jar Alfredo Sauce Garlic Bread
   Salad or Roasted Broccoli
   
• Boil water for bowtie pasta. Cook pasta according to package directions.
  
• Slice and brown Conecuh sausage.
  
• Drain grease from sausage and return to skillet. Add 1 jar Alfredo sauce and
  set heat to low.
  
• Remove pasta from water and add to alfredo/sausage mixture.
  
• Serve with roasted broccoli and garlic bread.
  

0. 
   
   
   I feel that we could be the spokespeople for Conecuh sausage...
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Roasted broccoli
   Broccoli
   Extra Virgin Olive Oil 
   
1. Parmesan Cheese 
2. Salt & Pepper
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  
• Chop broccoli into bite sized pieces. Wash, drain, and pat dry.
  
• Add broccoli to baking sheet.
  
• Coat broccoli with olive oil. Add Parmesean, salt, pepper. Mix well.
  o I usually just mix everything together right on the baking sheet.
  
• Bake 12-15 minutes or until broccoli is crispy.
  
• Remove broccoli from oven and squeeze the juice of 1⁄4-1/2 lemon over
  broccoli . Mix well and serve. 
  

Bacon Chicken Ranch Pasta

• 2 cups cooked chicken (I use the breasts of a rotisserie chicken)
  
• 1 – 16 oz. package of penne pasta
  
• 1 jar Alfredo sauce
  
• 1 package real bacon bits
  
• 1⁄2 cup Ranch dressing
  
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
  Boil pasta according to package directions. In a large bowl, combine chicken, alfredo sauce, ranch dressing. Add cooked noodle to chicken mixture. Pour noodle/chicken mixture into a casserole dish (9x13 or smaller). Top with bacon bits and 2 cups mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 degrees until cheese is melted.
  

0. Hamburger Steaks with Rice and Gravy
   
• Make patties, roll in flour, salt, & pepper.
  
• In a skillet on medium heat, add 2-3 Tablespoons of vegetable oil. When oil is
  hot, add hamburger patties.
  
• Allow patties to cook on both sides until brown. DO NOT PRESS!
  
• Remove patties from skillet.
  
• Add 2-3 T flour and 1⁄2 teaspoon of salt. 
  
• Mix the flour and oil until a “paste” (roux) forms. Continue to mix your roux
  until it becomes a caramel color. Do not forget your roux, it will burn!
  
• Add 2-3 cups milk, stir until mixture becomes thick for gravy.
  
• Serve hamburger patties and gravy over white rice.
  

Pork Wontons
1 lb ground pork (not sausage)
1 package won-ton/egg roll wrappers (These are found in the produce section at Hopper’s)
1 package chopped cabbage
1 package chopped carrots
Green Onions
Dry minced garlic
Salt & Pepper
Ground ginger
Soy sauce

• In a large skillet, cook ground pork over medium heat.
  
• When pork is no longer pink, add cabbage & carrots. Stir to
  combine. Cook until cabbage wilts.
  
• Add 2 chopped green onions and a few shakes of ground ginger
  and minced garlic. Cook 2-3 more minutes, set aside.
  
• Spray baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.
  
• Place 2-3 Tablespoons of pork mixture in egg roll/won-ton
  wrapper. Wrap and place on baking sheet.
  
• Repeat until all wrappers/pork mixture has been used.
  
• Spray tops of wontons with cooking spray to ensure browning.
  
• Cook at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until crispy.
  
• Serve with rice and sauce.
  o Sauce
  § Combine 1⁄2 cup soy sauce, 1 chopped green
  onion and 1 Teaspoon of ground ginger in a
  microwave safe bowl.
  § Microwave 1 minute. Mix and serve.
  

Art in Rural America

I recently had a conversation with a teacher from an affluent, urban school that ended with this statement, “Your kids don’t have art in their school?  That breaks my heart”. And I felt reprimanded, like I was doing my children a disservice. Should we pack up our things and move to an area where our kids could experience art?  Are they missing out? And then I took a breath and began to think.

Living in rural America, options are often limited in our small, rural schools.  We may not have art, or photography, or any number of elective classes of large, urban area schools. However, our children experience art, just on a grander scale.

Our children have watched their daddy take a piece of broken ground, mend it, and over time begin to tend it.  They’ve seen a tiny seed placed in the ground and watched it grow into a corn field that spreads to the horizon.  They’ve watched the dark clouds move across the sky and bring highly anticipated rains that fall from the sky onto dry, parched ground. They know the importance of the rain, the sun, and time.  

Our son is learning the art of welding from his grandfather.  My father, who has spent a lifetime honing his craft, is patiently passing that knowledge on to my son.  I’ve watched them stand together, side by side in the their welding helmets, sweating, practicing over and over that straight bead weld.  Knowing that one day, Jack will use this skill to repair equipment to keep the farm running. To keep his daddy in the field, or his brother or sisters.  Not an art to pass the time or for sheer enjoyment, but an art borne of necessity.

They’ve watched their grandmothers and great-grandmothers create masterpieces in their kitchens.  They’ve heard stories and been taught recipes passed down through generations. Our daughter has learned to make the same pound cake recipe her great-great grandmother made years ago that fed her family during the Depression years.  She knows the satisfaction of opening an oven and seeing that rising, golden cake. She’s waited patiently until she could turn it out on a platter and hear the perfect moment when the knife first breaks that delicate, buttery top.

In the cold winter months, our children load up in the truck with their daddy to check heifers.  They know the slow steady sway of a momma cow that is close to bringing a calf into the world. They’ve finished a late night supper only to load back up in the pick-up and check that momma one last time before bed.  They know the signs of distress. They’ve helped their daddy walk up that momma cow under a starry sky. They wait patiently, shivering in the winter air, blowing frosty breaths. They’ve watched as he artfully helps that momma cow bring her first calf into the world.  Helped that calf to breathe its first breaths on this earth. They’ll watch that calf nurse, and grow, and thrive in the dark green grasses of spring.

They’ve stood in the garden, under a plum tree in late spring or a muscadine vine in late summer.  They stand with sticky hands, sticky faces, and full bellies as the orchestra of pond frogs and crickets proclaim the start of the most sacred time of day.  When the temperature shifts, the day is suddenly cooler, and the sky begins to welcome the evening. By graduation, they will have seen thousands of sunrises and sunsets from the seat of a pickup truck, a tractor, or the seat of an ATV.  They will see the work of the master craftsman in the sky at the beginning and end of each day. Colors and scenes that can seldom be replicated on canvas.

 

So no, my friend, our children do not have art in school.  Our children’s life is art and the process lasts a lifetime.  

And so now, my response would be, “Your child doesn’t get to experience life in rural America? That breaks my heart”.