Showing posts with label Ghost Hunters Diary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ghost Hunters Diary. Show all posts

Friday, February 15, 2013

Ghost Hunting Diary - Volume I - T. M. Simmons, Author


 
 
Cucumber-Tomato Side Salad
(I learned to make this years and years ago from one of my aunts. I've seen and tasted various other versions at gatherings or on buffets, but none are prepared like this simple one I make or taste like it. It always goes over very well at our own family gatherings. In fact, when we plan a get-together, one of the first questions I get asked from one son and a few others is: Are you going to make your cucumber-tomato dish?  T. M. Simmons)
 
Ingredients:
Two nice, red, ripe tomatoes
Three-four nice, firm cucumbers
One large yellow onion
One cup cider-apple vinegar
One tablespoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
½ cup sugar (or sweetener to taste)

In an adequate-size bowl or jar, mix vinegar, salt, pepper and sugar and stir briskly. Taste it to see if it is too tart or sweet for your taste, and adjust, if necessary. We like it pretty tart. Set aside.

In a large flat bowl or plastic storage dish, with lid, slice the tomatoes into thin slices.
Peel and slice the cucumbers into slices about 1/8" thick.
Peel and slice the onion into thin slices. Separate the individual layers of onion and add to tomatoes and cucumbers.
Toss the tomatoes, cucumbers and onions together.
Pour the vinegar mixture over the vegetables and cover with lid.
Place in refrigerator at least two hours before you want to serve them.
Approximately every half-hour, stir the contents to make sure the vinegar gets distributed over everything.

Enjoy!

 
Ghost Hunting Diary – Volume I – Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat; Think With Your Taste Buds; A Book and A Dish

 

The Green Room is haunted by a Confederate soldier, but for some reason, he only appears in the summer.  He had been wounded in the Civil War and found his way to The Myrtles, where he died from his wounds.  There are tales of people seeing six red-coated British soldiers carrying a coffin out by the pond.  A lady in white walks around the grounds, and both guests and townspeople have reported seeing her.  The most famous story about The Myrtles, though, is the story of Cloe, the black slave.  Clark Woodruff owned the plantation in the early 1800’s.  By 1982, he and his wife had three children, two girls and a boy.  There was a portrait of Woodruff in the game room, and stories say that people have actually seen tears flowing down it.  In those days the southern plantations were worked by slaves, and at times, the masters took mistresses from the workers.  One of Woodruff’s mistresses was Cloe.  Proud and protective of her status, since it kept her in the house and out of the fields picking cotton and other crops, Cloe intended to maintain her position.  Thus, she tended to eavesdrop in order to store up any information that might assist her.  When caught Woodruff ordered Cloe’s ear cut off and banished her from his bed.

 

Author T. M. Simmons doesn’t just write paranormal stories; she lives them too.  The ghosts above are just some that she and her Aunt Belle encountered while visiting The Myrtles in St. Francisville, Louisiana, just outside of Baton Rouge.  In her Ghost Hunting Diary Volume I, she gives us a look at what is involved in ‘cleansing’ a room and sometimes even a whole house.  But I think the story that got to me the most was when she and other members of the North Texas Paranormal Research Society visited Goshen Cemetery, just out from Eustance, Texas on of all times of the year, Halloween. 

 

There have been times in my own life that I’ve felt there were ‘others’ among us but have always brushed this feeling off to excuses such as ‘I’m alone,’ ‘Its Dark,’ or ‘That was just the wind.’  After reading Ghost Hunting Diary Volume I, I’ve just about decided that there is a lot more to these encounters than we realize.  I have a feeling that by the time I get to her 4th Ghost Hunting Diary, I’ll be a true believer.

 
Design by Wordpress Theme | Bloggerized by Free Blogger Templates | coupon codes