What is the weirdest thing...?

[Alex]

I need some humor here folks. I'm sure most of us have done some weird thing as a result of watching the Waltons or being a Waltons fan. Of course when I say weird I mean something that is perfectly normal to us but would seem strange to non Walton fans.

So my question is: What is the weirdest thing you've done as a Walton fan? Like, have you attended a business meeting in a pair of dungarees? Are your pets called Reckless, Blue and Chance? Do you play the Waltons board game with your family every New Year's Eve?

OK, I'll be the first to answer: after watching The Prize (Season 2) in which the Baldwin Sisters get the first prize in a country fair with their recipe-based jam, I made my own recipe jam by mixing some strawberry jam with whiskey and it tastes delicious! If you can't get any Moonshine, any old Scotch or Bourbon will do. The secret is not to pour too much whiskey so it still tastes like jam. If you're under 21 DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

Now I've got two jars of strawberry jam in my fridge. One of them is labelled with the word 'recipe'.

[Marilyn]

I'm a farm girl and have done everything the Waltons did, except drink the recipe. However....last night I had some chicken stew on the stove and without giving it a second thought, pulled a bottle of Gallo Pinot Grigio white wine from the frig and poured a good bit into the stew. I also now add red wine to my beef stews! I also love to taste a little wine while I'm cooking. (hiccup) That now qualifies my stews as 'recipes', right? ;D

[dfnmeows44]

This is a form of cooking chicken in wine which is quite good and done in European conuntries . The
custom has been brought over to the USA and is done in both restaurants and in home cooking,They
call it coc au vin.

[Marilyn]

BTW...use REAL wine in your cooking and not cooking wine from the grocery store. The cooking wine is full of salt, sulfites and other junk to preserve it. Just use pure wine. It sure adds body and flavor to a beef stew and the alcohol is burned off by the heat as the food cooks, so it's okay for anyone that has a problem with drinking.

[Alex]

You're a good girl, ssMarrilyn! I'm more of a sinner than you are... ;D Not that I find anything too sinful in drinking a little bit. I certainly don't approve of getting drunk for the sake of it, and I don't drink if I'm driving, but I like a drink from time to time.

As for the rest of you... come on guys! I can't believe this post has been read more than 90 times and no one else can come with anything to say. Doesn't your local grocer get mad at you because you call him Mr. Godsey all the time? I THOUGHT there was a sense of humor in this forum...

[Deleted]

Possibly the daftest, had been wathcing Thw Watons DVD and when asked about someone I replied 'best ask Jason' unfortuately the person I wanted them to ask was called Chris!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Deleted]

Right now I am watching Gods Little Acre because the book was mentioned in the episode where Uncle Cody gets married.

[davidm]

Jan 7, 2011 18:12:07 GMT -5 Marilyn said:

BTW...use REAL wine in your cooking and not cooking wine from the grocery store. The cooking wine is full of salt, sulfites and other junk to preserve it. Just use pure wine. It sure adds body and flavor to a beef stew and the alcohol is burned off by the heat as the food cooks, so it's okay for anyone that has a problem with drinking.

Why not just do it right from the start--get yourself some of the real Recipe to add to your cooking!

[davidm]

This isn't something I planned, it just happened. To set up, John Boy loves to read, and he read often to his younger siblings, keep this in mind as I tell you what happened. I moved from a big cities (Wash. DC and Baltimore, MD areas) to very rural western Kentucky, and there are many Amish and Old Order (almost Amish) Mennonites. I became friends with some of the Mennonites and since their church is only a little over a mile away, and the closet church to me, I accepted their invitation to attend their church. Very different from what I'm used to. They have been very kind to me. Well, one Sunday afternoon, after the church service was over I went out to the lobby and sat in a comfortable chair. This little boy with a book in his hand just walked up to me, climbed up into my lap and asked if I would read the book to him. It was a Walt Disney book, Johnny Appleseed. It's about the same dimension as a sheet of printer paper, but about 1/4" thick. There is paragraph every other page, with large and colorful pictures covering all the pages. Every time I finished the paragraph and turned the page the little boy would flip the page back and forth, and he would do this every time I went on the the next page. I figured he was intrigued by the bright, colorful pictures. When I finished the book and let him flip the last page back and forth he closed the book, looked up at me with his bright inquisitive eyes and said, "You know what David! You do pretty good! You don't skip pages!" He gave me a big hug, climbed down and went on his way. (Since then, every time he sees me he gives me a big hug and tells me he loves me. He has purely touched my heart.) Well, I told his daddy what happened and told him that his son knows he skips pages and the lad feels cheated. He admitted it and laughed, but promised that he wouldn't skip pages anymore. One of the members there who is a huge Waltons fan (he grew up just like they did, only as Amish [later converted to Old Order Mennonite] instead of Baptist) said, "You looked just like John Boy reading to little Jim Bob." Since I grew up in a very abusive family where love was foreign to me, all the positive reactions to this simple act of reading a very short story to a little boy made me feel "So this is what a family of love is suppose to be."

On a more funny note; because I can't drink sodas, when I'm invited to a lunch or dinner with the church I bring my own drink. I took a maple syrup bottle and soaked it to get the remains of the maple syrup out and the label off the bottle. It didn't down on me that it looked a lot like a whiskey bottle. I pour some iced green tea sweetened with stevia in the bottle. When I took it out and set it on the table I suddenly realized that folks were looking at me. The eldest son of the Waltons' fan said to me, "Okay David, what are you drinking? I know it's not whiskey!" I heard someone say, "It's a whiskey bottle!" I started to laugh and said, "No, it's not whiskey, per say. This is the real Recipe I'm a drinkin'!" Everyone started laughing. Then I told them what it really was. Why did I use this bottle to begin with? Having cancer I was told not to drink out of plastic bottles as certain chemicals in the plastic leach into the liquid and is dangerous to anyone, especially to anyone who has cancer. At that time that was the only glass bottle I had.

[lorijean]

I love your story about reading to the little boy! You've created something special for him to remember from his childhood. I hope you continue reading to him now and then.

I wonder if the Amish in your neck of the woods are like the Amish in my neck of the woods (Lancaster County, PA)

[Marilyn]

Jan 17, 2011 16:45:47 GMT -5 davidm said:

Jan 7, 2011 18:12:07 GMT -5 Marilyn said:

BTW...use REAL wine in your cooking and not cooking wine from the grocery store. The cooking wine is full of salt, sulfites and other junk to preserve it. Just use pure wine. It sure adds body and flavor to a beef stew and the alcohol is burned off by the heat as the food cooks, so it's okay for anyone that has a problem with drinking.

Why not just do it right from the start--get yourself some of the real Recipe to add to your cooking!

I prefer wine. ;D

[sza317]

This is not reaaly weird, just full of coincidences. Last fall, I was watching one of the Thanksgiving episodes. John Boy comes into the kitchen to get a hair cut, and everyone is busy. Olivia, Erin & Elizabeth are grinding sausage, Grandma & Mary Ellen are making a black walnut cake and green tomato relish & the comment is made that they still have lard to render.

Just that morning, I had picked up some black walnuts from my mother-in-law's tree and my Daddy had brought me some fresh sausage. After seeing this episode, I went out to my raised bed to gather the last of the green tomatoes & proceeded to can some green tomato relish myself. Boy, did i feel like part of the Walton family! Thankfully, I didn't have to render lard...YUK!

[Marilyn]

I mixed up a batch of homemade breakfast sausage last night, made patties and put them in the frig so the flavors have time to meld together. Fried a bunch up today with eggs...ooo la laaaa.. I 'll never buy store-bought sausage again. Mine has no nitrates!

[Alex]

Jan 17, 2011 17:24:22 GMT -5 davidm said:

Since I grew up in a very abusive family where love was foreign to me, all the positive reactions to this simple act of reading a very short story to a little boy made me feel "So this is what a family of love is suppose to be."

That's a very nice story, David. Sometimes I've read that people who grow up in a hostile environment turn out to be hostile themselves. You're the positive proof that this just isn't true. I grew up in a loving, close knit family so I can't really say how I would be now if it hadn't been like that. But the way you acted with that kid says a lot about you.

[davidm]

Jan 17, 2011 18:53:28 GMT -5 Marilyn said:

Jan 17, 2011 16:45:47 GMT -5 davidm said:

Why not just do it right from the start--get yourself some of the real Recipe to add to your cooking!

I prefer wine. ;D

Then wine it shall be! I bet you're a good cook. I'm not. Twice I fixed a new friend who helps me out a lot something to eat. Both times he hated it. His wife is more tactful about telling me it tastes like poo. I told them "See, I tried to tell you this. That's why I never fix anything for the potlucks."