Teresa Brooks

A while back I wrote about home remedies. There was such a good response from readers and I have since learned more, so I wanted to share these new ones with you, too. Please remember that all the remedies mentioned are hearsay and not intended to replace your doctor’s care. Use each remedy with caution and common sense. Drink cranberry juice for a natural way to stave off or clear up urinary tract infections. Eat prunes for a natural way to alleviate constipation. To lighten age spots, put buttermilk on a cotton ball and rub on the age spots. Rinse with water after leaving it on for about 20 minutes. The lactic acid...

Going to the Lane Theatre and the Dixie Drive-In with my friends, when I was a teenager, was so much fun, and one of my favorite past-times. I have many fond memories at both places. I’ve written about the theaters before, which are both closed and have been for years, but there’s a memory that popped into my head this morning that made me chuckle, and I decided to share it with you. I am not real proud of the fact, but when I was young, like most people that age, I was a fan of horror movies. This goes back to the year of 1982, when the popular slasher film Friday...

The best, and often described most important meal of the day is breakfast. As the name suggests, breakfast breaks the overnight fasting period and replenishes the supply of glucose in our body to boost the brain’s alertness and our body’s energy levels. In my opinion there’s nothing better for breakfast than soft, fluffy and buttery homemade biscuits. Whether you eat your biscuits with eggs, bacon, and gravy, or something sweet like honey or jelly, steaming hot buttery biscuits are a hit with most everyone. My mom can make the most delicious biscuits and biscuit pan bread, (one large biscuit). The insides of her biscuits are always fluffy and white and the...

Driving through Corbin last week, I noticed in the green grassy areas in the city, the beautiful, bright bursts of yellow that are everywhere! Each year, dandelions announce spring with their pure sunshiny color, and what do we do? We all rush to mow them down like they are not supposed to be there. I admit, lush, green yards are beautiful manicured, but so are those happy little yellow flowers that God sprinkles everywhere, like He’s decorating a cupcake. Actually, until the 1800s people would pull grass out of their yards to make room for dandelions and other useful and edible weeds like chamomile and chickweed. Driving along, I couldn’t...

We don’t realize how much we use or need something until it’s gone. Being without, whatever it is, sure makes us appreciate it all the more when we get it back, doesn’t it? Case in point, the water at our house was out for a day last week, and I am so thankful to East Knox Water District for working all day and way up into the night to get us back up and running. Although the water was working fine when I left for work Wednesday morning, later in the day I read a Facebook post from a neighbor who said they didn’t have water pressure and wanted to know...

Are you a spud eater? Spuds, potatoes, or as I like to call them, taters, are probably America’s most favorite vegetable. Potatoes, which are made up of 80% water and 20% solid, are one of the most versatile vegetables you will find in the garden. There are over 200 different varieties of potatoes, in the United States, but the most common are the Russet potatoes. One reason this common vegetable is so popular is because it can be prepared in so many different ways, such as mashed, French fried, baked, hash browns, creamy au gratin, scalloped, soup, chips, tater patties or cakes, in casseroles, etc. But one way you may not have...

Alcohol and drug addiction has risen 13 percent, and overdoses have spiked, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Substance abuse problems have roots going back thousands of years, but the traumatic isolation and extra stress created by the COVID lockdowns, and widespread unemployment seems to have brought about this recent increase. Addiction can happen to anyone, in any walk of life, and, sadly, we’ve all had friends or loved ones affected by this terrible disorder. In addition to alcohol and drug use, anxiety and depressive disorders have almost tripled, and more distressingly spousal abuse, child abuse, and even suicides, are on the rise. Add to all of the above, the...

While out running errands with my husband Saturday, we fell into a conversation about David’s grandparents. Hearing him talk about his grandparents warms my heart, as I really didn’t have much time at all with any of mine. My grandfather on Dad’s side passed before I was born, and my grandmother and grandfather on my mother’s side passed when I was about 5 or 6 yearsold. My grandmother on my dad’s side remarried, and then passed when I was 18. I wasn’t around her very much at all, so I don’t have all of the sweet grandparent memories, like David does. He told several endearing stories about his grandparents on his...

What pan do you use to bake your cornbread? Can you use that same pan to fry eggs, brown a steak, sauté onions, or bake a cake? Well, if you use cast-iron cookware, you probably do. Cast-iron cookware is the most durable and dependable cookware one can own, and at one time, it was the preferred cookware for most all cooks. The date of when cast-iron cookware was invented is controversial with some accounts going all the way back to 220 A.D. In the 18th and 19th century, cast iron’s use exploded. In fact, Scottish philosopher, Adam Smith, author of The Wealth of Nations, wrote “There’s nothing more cowboy than cast-iron...

Driving around, I see trash strewn from one end of town to the other. It’s sad and reminds me of movies of less developed countries or those depicting the future, close to or after an environmental collapse. Looking at the trash, I can’t help but be reminded of the commercial of Chief Iron Eyes Cody, the “crying Indian” in the Keep America Beautiful public service announcement (PSA) which aired the 1970s. If you’re unfamiliar, Cody was in his Native American Indian outfit, shown walking along a trash covered shoreline, and then standing where trash was thrown from the window of a passing car. The trash lands at his feet, and...