Friday, January 20, 2012

The Grand Pop to the rescue role has been changed today.

Had a visit with the old sawbones the other day and the news was something I knew was coming, I had been hoping would take long to reach that day. But as life moves on like everyone else I needed to ask for help from my family. That is not a hard thing to do for me as I have been blessed with a wonderful kind thoughtful and loving family.

When I got home I had a talk with my wife and told her what the doc said. I don’t move enough and that if I didn’t want my joints freezing up on me that I had to get off my back side more. Well I’ll tell you walking and bending over and doing things like that are a royal pain anymore, after a life of bad car accidents and 33 years of hard physical labor working in the aluminum foundry industry. Breathing in all those fumes like asbestos fibers I tend to run out of breath very fast.

And having been a heavy smoker for 40 years it all takes its toll. I have no one to blame these things on as it was my own foolishness that did all the dumb things.
So my wife suggested that I talk to the grandkids and ask them if they would help Grand Pop out and let me walk them home from school everyday instead of now and then.

This is not a long walk maybe a half a mile there and back but my doc told me that would be a big improvement over what I was doing. So I talked to the kids and they got a big smile on there face and said oh yes grand pop we would love to help you get in better shape. They have never had to walk home everyday before and they always hated doing it when they did so this is a big thing to them. I am very proud of them for showing me how they love me and wanted to help. They even suggested I walk them to school.

Well I’ll think about that but it will have to wait until we do the walk home for awhile so I can adjust to it and train myself to get up at the crack of dawn!

So the rolls have change some what but old Grand Pop will always be there for them anytime they new a rescue!
That’s all folks!
Over and out Grand Pop Hall

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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Olde Tyme Pretzels for the Hanover Pretzel Company






One of my favorite meals that is very healthy and tasty is a zucchini casserole. It has always been and I have always used bread crumbs to cover the top but one night we ran out of bread crumbs and my wife was coming home from work and I needed to get the casserole in the oven.

We always have Snyder’s Pretzels on hand for healthy snacks for our grand kids and for us as well. Even my sweet ruby dog loves them! Anyways, like I said no bread crumbs available so I saw the pretzels and started thinking hum we all love pretzels and they are crunchy and go well with cheeses. I took some out and put them in a plastic baggy and took a spoon and lightly smashed them into, not a powder but into little bits about the size of cracker crumbs.

I took my shredded zucchini and my cream of mushroom soup mixed it all up as I always do and put the cheese all over the top and then spread the Snyder’s Pretzels all over the top and popped the casserole into the oven at 350 degrees for 35 minutes and it smelled really good!

My wife walked in as I set everything out on the table and she didn’t even notice I had used our Snyder’s Pretzels to cover the top. But when she took a bite she got a big smile on her face and said "Mike you have out done yourself with is dish it so good and tastes great what did you do different?" Lol I told her to take another bite and guess. She did and right away she said pretzels? And with that we both laughed and we use pretzels in many of our casseroles now.

Here is another tasty tip: mixed crushed pretzels into any stuffing, can be with turkey or chicken or even in stuffed bell peppers. There are so many ways to incorporate healthy Snyder’s Pretzels into any dish that you make but I still think my favorite way to eat them is watch a football game with a cold drink and a hand full of Snyder’s Pretzels. We all also love making up a batch of nacho cheese dip and having nacho pretzels.

All in all I know that Snyder’s Pretzels are a healthy snack food and no one can resist.
That savory flavor and that crunch, while other chips are full of flavor they all have unhealthy fats and many calories that can clog up your arteries and lead to heart problems and restrict blood circulation. I for one can not go without a good wholesome snack food as I am diabetic and have to watch everything I eat so I rely on Snyder’s Pretzels to curb that craving for that one special treat I can have that is tasty and one of the few things I really enjoy.


Disclosure: I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Snyder’s of Hanover blogging program, for 6,000 My SocialMoms Rewards Points. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Walking to the park and getting into a yelling match with another old grand pop!

That is what this day brought me. You know how protective we are of your youngins we all are right?
Well this morning the grand daughters wanted to get out of the house they refer to as the boring place! lol I do too most of the time! That is why I am probably more excited to get out of the boring place than they are. Now don’t let my wife here me say that she would look at me and say (really you old fool your lucky I let you live here at all) and quit writing stories with me mentioned in them!

She gets mad as a wet old hen if I mention her or use a photo of her in any way! Why I don’t know the way I see it she is one of those gals who just get better with age she is a rare beauty even if she were 30, she would be no prettier that she is at 58.

Oh I digress any what back to the shoutin match you see along the way we always look for fruit trees or bushes with really nice flowers. We make note of them then we go on about our business to the park. We play and have fun for a while then start the walk home remembering where we saw the trees and bushes we picked out. We wanted to pick some flowers or fruit and so we did.

Problem is I know now that people are sometimes just as protective of the flowers and fruit tree’s as I am of my grandkids. That’s where it got started we picked a small bunch of flowers and decided we had enough of those. There were these big beautiful oranges hanging over the fence of this one house. So thinking the owner wouldn’t mind seeing how they were hanging over the fence I lifted my grand daughters up to pick a couple.

When all of the sudden this grouchy old voice yelled out! stay away from my dam orange tree you thieves! Well being protective you can guess what I said and this old dude comes out from around the house yelling at the top of his lungs what did you call me you sob!
And I said you’re a SOB AND YOU BETTER WATCH YOUR MOUTH! Scary huh!
We went on yelling and calling each other names when my youngest grand daughter started crying and that stopped the whole yelling match. Turns out the old goat didn’t see it was two youngins involved, he right away stopped and walked up and said he was so sorry for scaring the girls and he went to the house and got a bag and held them up so they could pick some more and told us anytime we want some to just ring the bell and he would give us some.
So it just go’s to show that one should ask before picking that’s my lesson for this day.
Over and out my friends
Grand Pop’s Hall