Anew Thyme

From the Wooden Spoon Kitchen…

I love when I find a simple recipe packed with flavor.

Baked Dijon Salmon
4 servings

Ingredients
1/4 cup butter, melted
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans (I’ll use almonds)
4 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
4 (4 ounce) fillets salmon salt and pepper to taste
1 lemon, for garnish

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
In a small bowl, stir together butter, mustard, and honey. Set aside. In another bowl, mix together bread crumbs, pecans, and parsley.
Brush each salmon fillet lightly with honey mustard mixture, and sprinkle the tops of the fillets with the bread crumb mixture.
Bake salmon 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until it flakes easily with a fork. Season with salt and pepper, and garnish with a wedge of lemon.

Black History is American History
Week 29 of 52

First Black woman ever to win gold at Winter Olympics

Vonetta Flowers (October 29, 1973) is an American sprinter and bobsledder.
At the 2002 Winter Olympics, Flowers became the first African American and the first Black athlete from any country to win a gold medal at a Winter Olympics.

She was a star sprinter and long jumper at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
She originally tried to make the Summer Olympics. But After several unsuccessful attempts, Flowers turned to bobsledding. She found success as a brakewoman almost immediately. At the 2002 Winter Olympics, she, along with driver Jill Bakken, won the gold medal in the two-woman event, becoming the first African American woman to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics.

She also won the bronze medal in the two-woman event at the 2004 FIBT World Championships in Königssee. She retired from competition after the 2006 Winter Olympics, where she finished sixth.
She was elected to the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

Going down to Florida in a few days. I’ll raise a cone of rum raisin ice cream in your honor Momma❤️
I think Mom was in her mid 30’s in this picture.

Pearl V Richards
Day 427 🕯️

Black History is American History
Week 28 of 52

UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD'S FIRST BLACK WOMAN TRAIN ENGINEER
Edwina Justus (July 11, 1943) is a African-American trailblazer engineer who is best known for being Union Pacific's first black female train engineer.

At a young age, Edwina's role as a change-maker began when she became the first African-American girl to attend Brown Park School, and she was the only person of color in the entire school.

In search of better opportunities, Edwina applied for a job at Union Pacific. After her application was denied, she enrolled at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

When she applied at Union Pacific for the second time, her application was a success. Justus began her career at U.P. in 1973 as a clerk at one of its Omaha facilities. Edwina Justus was one of five black women who worked in the Omaha office.

In 1976 she applied for an engineer opening in North Platte, Neb. She got the job and became UP’s first black female engineer at the age of 34. North Platte was a big operation. Union Pacific is the largest railroad in the United States. “When I received the offer in North Platte, Nebraska, my dad encouraged me to take it.”

However, the work environment wasn't supportive. Edwina endured racial slurs and the belief that she couldn't do good work as a woman. But she was not deterred. She used her wit and performance to excel in her career.

Justus worked 22 years before retiring in 1998. She hauled items such as livestock, automobiles and airplane wings to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Denver, Colorado, never taking for granted the beauty of a sunset or quiet night.

“Railroading isn’t easy, but I didn’t let anyone bully me and I always stood up for myself,” Justus said.

In 2018, Justus was honored in a Durham Museum exhibit. The exhibit shares the diverse experiences of 12 Nebraska women through time.

From the Wooden Spoon Kitchen…….

I love chicken, add a quick salad and it’s definitely worth trying this recipe in my kitchen.

Thai Chicken with Carrot-Ginger Salad
Total Time:40 min Prep:15 min Cook:25 min
Yield:4 servings

Ingredients
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3 garlic cloves; 2 chopped, 1 crushed
4 teaspoons Thai green curry paste (available in the international aisle)
4 teaspoons finely chopped peeled ginger
Grated zest and juice of 3 limes
4 skin-on, bone-in chicken breasts (I will of course substitute thighs) (2 to 2 1/2 pounds)
Kosher salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound carrots
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Directions
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Place a rack in a roasting pan.

Mix the butter, chopped garlic, curry paste, 3 teaspoons ginger, the zest of 2 limes and the juice of 1 lime in a bowl.

Season the chicken with salt. Loosen the skin and rub the curry butter underneath. Place skin-side up on the rack and pour about 1/2 cup water into the pan. Roast until the chicken is cooked through and the skin is crisp, 20 to 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the crushed garlic with the remaining 1 teaspoon ginger, the zest of 1 lime and juice of 2 limes. Whisk in the vegetable oil.

Shave the carrots into ribbons with a vegetable peeler and toss with the dressing. Add the cilantro and 1/2 teaspoon salt and toss. Serve the chicken with the carrot-ginger salad.

I feel this

================================================

I release my parents from the feeling that they have failed with me.

I release my children from the need to make me proud, so that they can write their own ways, according to their hearts.

I release my partner from the obligation to make me feel complete. I lack nothing in myself.

I learn with all the beings that surround me through all time.

I thank my grandparents and ancestors who met so that today I breathe life. And I release them from the faults of the past and from the wishes they did not fulfill, aware that they did the best they could to resolve their situations, within the consciousness they had at that moment.

I honor them, I love them, and I recognize their innocence.

I bare my soul before their eyes and that is why they know that I do not hide or owe anything, more than being faithful to myself and my own existence, walking with the wisdom of the heart.

I am aware that I am fulfilling my life project, free of visible and invisible family loyalties that may disturb my peace and my happiness, which are my greatest responsibilities.

I renounce the role of savior, of being the one who unites or who fulfills the expectations of others.

And learning through LOVE, I bless my essence and my way of expressing, although there may be someone who cannot understand me.

I understand myself, because only I lived and experienced my story; because I know myself, I know who I am, what I feel, what I do and why I do it.

I respect and approve.

I honor the Divinity in me and in you.

We are free.

✍️ A Traditional Náhuatl Prayer
🎨 Haelyn Y

Black History is American History
Week 27 of 52

This image of the Tennessee State University Tigerbelles track team at the Penn Relays with members [L-R] Willie B. White, Martha Hudson, Wilma Rudolph, and two unidentified women. Wilma Rudolph was one of the most accomplished track and field stars in history.

At the Olympic games in Rome, Italy in 1960, Rudolph won three gold medals while breaking world records in the 100, 200, and the relay. She was voted into the Black Athletes Hall of Fame in 1973 and the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1974.

This photo from the 1950s was taken by famous Philadelphia photographer John W. Mosley at the Penn Relays. The first Penn Relay Race took place on April 21, 1895.

4 years ago…

Black History is American History
Week 26 of 52

On Nov. 21, 1934, Ella Fitzgerald, the “Queen of Jazz,” made her debut at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. She had planned to go on stage and dance for Amateur Night, but when the Edwards Sisters danced before her, she decided to sing instead. That break led to others, and she became a sensation after a song she co-wrote, “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” became a major hit in 1938.

Fitzgerald battled racism and was ordered by Pan-Am to leave their flight to Australia. Despite missing two concerts there, she went on to set a new box office record in Australia. She helped break racial barriers by refusing to perform before segregated audiences. The NAACP awarded her the Equal Justice Award and the American Black Achievement Award.

She became the first Black woman to win a Grammy. In her music, she innovated with s**t singing, sang be-bop, jazz and even gospel hymns. She performed with her own orchestra, the Benny Goodman Orchestra, Duke Ellington and Count Basie, and her Song Book series became a huge critical and commercial success. She performed in Hollywood films, and her most memorial take on television came when her voice shattered a glass. When the tape was played back, her voice broke another glass, and the ad asked, “Is it live, or is it Memorex?”

By the time she died in 1996, she had won 13 Grammy Awards, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement, the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Mattel has now designed a doll in her image, part of the Barbie Inspiring Women Series, which “pays tribute to incredible heroines of their time.

I shared this 10 years ago. I wonder what her life is like now?

Out of the mouth of babes...
From Humans of New York "Do you know what you want to be when you grow up?"
"A person."

My window 6 years ago...

Black History is American History
Week 25 of 52

Juneteenth traces its origins back to Galveston, Texas where on June 19, 1865, Major Gen. Gordon Granger of the Union Army backed by 2,000+ federal troops announced the news that the Civil War had ended and slaves were now free.

The announcement came two-and-a-half years after President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of Jan. 1, 1863 that had ended slavery in the U.S.

While most of the United States slaves were already given their freedom Texas slaves were basically the last to gain "freedom" thus making june 19th or Juneteenth a celebration.

Just days before the 2021 celebration, on June 16, President Joe Biden signed a bill passed by Congress that made the date a federal holiday. Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia

There's a story behind how I found out how quickly I could roast a chicken...My Mom had come up to visit for a couple of weeks. One of the days we went to visit my brother and spent too much time up there. On our way back home Mom suggested we should stop to pickup dinner because there wasn't enough time to roast the whole chicken that we had pulled out in the morning.

I'm not sure now why I decided that I could do it (perhaps it was her "Mom tone" that she knew better.) I looked at her, grinned and told her I could roast that chicken in an hour! Challenge accepted...except I really wasn't sure how I was going to do it.

So, I preheated the oven to 450 degrees, seasoned the chicken, used the covered pan pictured and hoped for the best. Either we were going to eat late or go get take out. Either way we win, right?

I checked/basted it a few times and just a bit over one hour, we had a lovely browned roasted chicken.

Pearl V Richards
Day 397 🕯

Black History is American History
Week 24 of 52

Fort Myers’ best-known early Black business leader may have been Dr. Ella Piper. In 1916, she opened the city’s first beauty parlor. She was a foot doctor, owner of the Big 4 Soft Drink Company and a landowner.
Dr. Ella Piper was known as a philanthropist. She was instrumental in helping young people in obtaining scholarships to attend Tuskegee College, using her personal money to help some of these students Dr. Ella Piper was well known throughout the community and often aided elderly persons, particularly the underprivileged and handicapped. It was this interest, along with the interest of children that led her to leave her property to the City of Fort Myers for the benefit of “young children and senior citizens”.
Although it has been 65 years since her 1954 death at the age of 70, her name lives on in the Dr. Piper Center for Social Services Inc.

5 years ago…

Black History is American History
Week 23 of 52

35 YEARS after the release of Tracy Chapman's song 'Fast Car', tonight it won both single of the year and song of the year at the CMA Awards.

The story behind the song is an interesting one. Back in 1986, Chapman sat on the couch with her dog at her side and wrote the song, trying to capture the struggle of the everyday blue collar people she knew growing up in Cleveland, Ohio.

With each new lyric and turn of melody, the pup's ears perked up, telling Tracy she might be on to something.

She frequently played her music in a small coffee house near Tuft's University just outside of Boston.

One night, a student from Tufts was at the coffee house and heard Tracy Chapman play and was blown away by her talent. Keep in mind, she was not a star then, had no record deal, she was just another performer getting up before strangers and playing her songs.

That Tufts University student who heard her play was Brian Koppelman. Brian approached her after she left the stage and said, "I don't normally do this, but I think my father could help you."

Brian's father was Charles Koppelman, the co-owner of one of the largest music publishing houses in the world.

Two year's later, Tracy Chapman's debut album would be released and the song her puppy really seemed to love, was soon loved by everyone.

And tonight, 35 years after its release, 'Fast Car' is song & single of the year and reaching all new audiences.

Black History is American History
Week 22 of 52

Clotel: The President's Daughter was the first novel published by an African American, in 1853. It was written by abolitionist and lecturer William Wells Brown.

Portrait of a young girl as she sits in a homemade go-kart on a Harlem sidewalk, New York, New York, 1947.

From the Wooden Spoon Kitchen...
The first few times I had this it was cooked on a grill. It's also the way I've fixed this dish for many years. However, I found that I was yearning for this dish throughout the year and started cooking it in the oven. I prefer to bake rather than using the broiler.

Chicken Tandoori
6 servings

INGREDIENTS:
6 chicken thighs, skinned (or whatever ones you prefer)

Marinade:
1 cup plain greek yogurt
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 T minced fresh ginger
1 T paprika
1 1/2 t ground cumin
1 t ground coriander
1 t honey
1/2 t ground coriander (optional)
1/2 t black pepper
1 lemon, thinly sliced

INSTRUCTIONS
Marinate Chicken: Stir together all marinade ingredients in large bowl until well-mixed. Add chicken thighs to bowl one at a time, using tongs to stir them around until smeared with marinade before adding another. Cover and refrigerate for 6 to 24 hours.

Prepare: Position oven rack in center of oven. Turn on broiler, set to high. If broiler is not available, plan to bake instead by preheating oven to 450 F. Prepare baking sheet lined with foil or parchment paper. Transfer marinade-covered chicken thighs to baking sheet.

Cook Chicken: Place baking sheet in oven, cooking until chicken appears mostly dry on top with a few blackened tips, 15 to 20 minutes. Take out baking sheet, flip chicken thighs, and return to oven. Cook until chicken appears dry and is cooked through, about 10 minutes, monitoring frequently to avoid burning. Serve

Black History is American History
Week 21 of 52

𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗔 𝗝𝗨𝗟𝗜𝗔 𝗛𝗔𝗬𝗪𝗢𝗢𝗗 𝗖𝗢𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗥 (1858-1964)
Anna Julia Haywood Cooper was a writer, teacher, and activist who championed education for African Americans and women. Born into bôndage in 1858 in Raleigh, North Carolina, she was the daughter of an enslaved woman, Hannah Stanley, and her owner, George Washington Haywood.
In 1867, two years after the end of the Civil Wàr, Anna began her formal education at Saint Augustine’s Normal School and Collegiate Institute, a coeducational facility built for former slàves. There she received the equivalent of a high school education.
Anna Haywood married George A.G. Cooper, a teacher of theology at Saint Augustine’s, in 1877. When her husband died in 1879, Cooper decided to pursue a college degree. She attended Oberlin College in Ohio on a tuition scholarship, earning a BA in 1884 and a Masters in Mathematics in 1887. After graduation Cooper worked at Wilberforce University and Saint Augustine’s before moving to Washington, D.C. to teach at Washington Colored High School. She met another teacher, Mary Church (Terrell), who, along with Cooper, boarded at the home of Alexander Crummell, a prominent clergyman, intellectual, and proponent of African American emigration to Liberia.
Cooper published her first book, A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South, in 1892. In addition to calling for equal education for women, A Voice from the South advanced Cooper’s assertion that educated African American women were necessary for uplifting the entire black race. The book of essays gained national attention, and Cooper began lecturing across the country on topics such as education, civil rights, and the status of black women. In 1902, Cooper began a controversial stint as principal of M Street High School (formerly Washington Colored High). The white Washington, D.C. school board disagreed with her educational approach for black students, which focused on college preparation, and she resigned in 1906.
In addition to working to advance African American educational opportunities, Cooper also established and co-founded several organizations to promote black civil rights causes. She helped found the Colored Women’s League in 1892, and she joined the executive committee of the first Pan-African Conference in 1900. Since the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) did not accept African American members, she created “colored” branches to provide support for young black migrants moving from the South into Washington, D.C.
Cooper resumed graduate study in 1911 at Columbia University in New York City, New York. After the death of her brother in 1915, however, she postponed pursuing her doctorate in order to raise his five grandchildren. She returned to school in 1924 when she enrolled at the University of Paris in France. In 1925, at the age of 67, Cooper became the fourth African American woman to obtain a Doctorate of Philosophy.
In 1930, Cooper retired from teaching to assume the presidency of Frelinghuysen University, a school for black adults. She served as the school’s registrar after it was reorganized into the Frelinghuysen Group of Schools for Colored People. Cooper remained in that position until the school closed in the 1950s.
Anna Julia Cooper dièd in 1964 in Washington, D.C. at the age of 105.