Barometers and rainy days

The weather in maryland has been crazy lately to say the least. Grandpa's barometer, now hanging on my wall, has been jumping alll over the place. Each day, after opening the curtains to let the sunlight in I adjust the knob from where it was the day before to where it is today so I can see the change day to day. It occurred to me the other day just how much Pa taught me about reading the weather. I can read a barometer and know what the changes mean, I can understand what my joints are telling me, read the clouds and sun, the tides and know what to expect of the coming weather changes. He taught me to know if the storm is coming or going, if I need to be ready for rain the next day, or if its likely to be sunny. I can watch for water spouts on the ocean and know when I need to get off the river because that light drizzle is going to turn into a nasty storm.

Grunts and Grits and other food

Watching Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives episode about grouper sandwiches. Pa loved grouper sandwiches, blackened. There is nothing like group sandwiches except maybe Abuela's ham croquettes. But grouper sandwiches led me to think about Grits & Grunts, possibly Pa's all time favorite and something that both Grandma and I would cringe when thinking about it. According to Grandma, grunts have lots of bones and arent much to eat but then again she never much liked fish. From what I know about Grits & Grunts, you make a batch of grits and put chunks of grunts it in. I'll leave that one alone though.

Back to those ham croquettes. Abuela used to make THE BEST ham croquettes ever. That is probably one of my earliest memories of our family in Tampa. We would go visit abuela and abuelo and eat ham croquettes, man were they good. We recently found a new Cuban restaurant nearby in Towson, MD. The owner is from Cuba, having come to the US as a child. I just had to order the croquettes and was immediately transported back to visiting abuela and abuelo and eating warm, little bit crunchy, and ohh so tasty ham croquettes. I could almost hear the voices and feel their love in these ham croquettes in a tiny joint in maryland and it was goooood.