Burns Mailing & Printing will be closed Thursday and Friday of this week so that our employees can enjoy some time off with their families. Some are traveling as far as Florida. We wish all of you who are traveling a safe journey and Happy Thanksgiving to all of our customers, friends and families.
God has truly blessed us this year!
Last weekend, my daughter, Joy Burns Day and I made 41 half pints of strawberry preserves. This is had become a tradition for us to make preserves every summer. We make strawberry, plum, peach and I make apple butter. It all started when one of my former employees, Nancy, brought me a jar of peach preserves and my daughter tasted it on a biscuit and declared that it was the best thing she had ever eaten out of a jar. We bought peaches for Nancy as an incentive to come over and teach us her method of making peach preserves. We have been making various preserves now for about 10 years. Ken, my late husband, enjoyed it as well and so he bought us the big copper pot in the picture. Copper cooks so much faster than stainless steel. We each have our own chore in the process. I prepare the fruit and chop it in a food processor. Joy does the cooking. Kate, my 10 year old granddaughter labels the jars. This years batch turned out beautiful. Joy said “the preserves are so red that it looks like we added food color”.
I don’t know which I enjoy the most, eating the preserves or the family time together making them. Come to think of it, I love both.
I, like so many others, had lots of good food to enjoy during the holidays. This is probably why my jeans were a little difficult to zip this morning. I pride myself on being a pretty good cook and taught my daughter, Joy, some things about cooking such as how to make biscuits etc, but Joy has gone way beyond what I taught her and thus the word exceptional. She not only looks at recipes but she also is studying the chemistry of how salt, fat and different ingredients work in cooking. She fixed a delicious beef tenderloin with a device called Sous Vide. She seasoned the tenderloin and put it into a zip lock bag and submerged it in a pot of water. The sous vide is attached to the pot and it cooks the beef inside the bag. The beauty of this, according to Joy, is that it never overcooks the meat, even if it is left for longer than recommended, it will not overcook the meat. The results were outstanding. I had some left over tenderloin on a sandwich for lunch today, and it was perfect. I am going to check out getting sous a vide, the brand name of her sous vide is Joule. I can learn a lot from my daughter.
In 1988, I had the opportunity to visit Pearl Harbor. Visiting the Pearl Harbor Memorial was the most memorable time that I spent in Hawaii. Before we went into the memorial, we watched a movie about the attack and about some of the things we would be seeing. It was an almost reverent atmosphere and the U.S. Navy was there and they made sure that respect was given to the memory of those who died in the attack. There was still an oil slick from the sunken ships on the water. December 7, 1941 was the day that the U.S. became involved in World War II. That was two years before I was born. My Dad, Odes Robinette , worked at Oak Ridge during the war and he did not know that they were making the atomic bomb that ended the war. He and my Father-In-Law, H.R. Burns, who also worked at Oak Ridge, both heard it on the radio, just like every one else. Hope that we never have to go through another war like that.
Thank you to all our men and women who have served and are now serving for your service to our country. We are truly the free because of the brave.
Joyce Robinette Haynes, Phyllis Robinette Burns & Jetty Robinette Middleton
This is a picture taken at my birthday in July. My sister Joyce baked me a caramel cake for my birthday and this weekend Joyce will have a significant birthday and I am baking her a cake. Does any one remember eating Zingers when you were growing up. I loved them. They were filled with cream and has raspberries and coconut. Before Eva’s to Go closed you could get a Zinger cake that was made with the same tastes as a Zinger. A couple of years ago I developed a recipe that was much like the one served at Eva’s and it turned out great.l Some of our crowd of birthday celebrators have gluten issues so I am making a gluten free Zinger cake as well. Don’t know exactly how that will work out but I have my fingers crossed. If you would like a copy of my Zinger cake recipe, email me at phyllis@burnsmp.com.
Zinger cakes are great but so are sisters. Happy Birthday Joyce!
Harry & Bess
(This seems unreal.)
Harry Truman was a different kind of President. He probably made as many, or more important decisions regarding our nation’s history as any of the other 42 Presidents preceding him. However, a measure of his greatness may rest on what he did after he left the White House.
The only asset he had when he died was the house he lived in, which was in Independence Missouri. His wife had inherited the house from her mother and father and other than their years in the White House, they lived their entire lives there.
When he retired from office in 1952 his income was a U.S. Army pension reported to have been $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an ‘allowance’ and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year.
After President Eisenhower was inaugurated, Harry and Bess drove home to Missouri by themselves. There was no Secret Service following them.
When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, “You don’t want me. You want the office of the President, and that doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it’s not for sale.”
Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, “I don’t consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise.”
As president he paid for all of his own travel expenses and food.
Modern politicians have found a new level of success in cashing in on the Presidency, resulting in untold wealth. Today, many in Congress also have found a way to become quite wealthy while enjoying the fruits of their offices. Political offices are now for sale.
Good old Harry Truman was correct when he observed, “My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there’s hardly any difference!
I say dig him up and clone him!
Burns Mailing & Printing has been a sponsor of The National Philanthropy Day for many years. Kai Brown, Amy Perry and Angela Kites represented Burns Mailing & Printing, Inc. at the 2016 National Philanthropy Day event. The Great Smoky Mountain Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals holds this event each year to honor those involved in philanthropy. Each non-profit can nominate a person who has made a difference in their organization and then a panel from out of state reviews and makes the recommendation for the different categories.
Burns Mailing & Printing Inc. serves many non-profit organizations in the area and out of the area with graphic design, digital printing, offset printing, list acquisition, and direct mail services. Phyllis Burns, President of Burns Mailing & Printing, Inc., has been a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals since 2000.
Our thanks to the many non-profits in the area who make a difference in our community every day.
After you have lost a loved one, Christmas can sometimes be tough because you expect or wish that things could be the same as they were before you lost your loved one. I am adult enough to know that it can’t be like it was, and that I have to adjust to a new normal. I am so grateful to my family for making the new normal as happy for me as they can. However, sometimes you can’t help but be a little blue. I have experienced that feeling this Christmas and then it just hit me, this is not about me. It is not about the presents, the tree and all the good food. This is about the most glorious gift that human kind has ever been given. This is the celebration of the birth of Jesus. As my family and I celebrate on Christmas, may that thought always be in my mind, that He is the reason for the season.
It is that time of year when Volunteer Ministry Center has their Holiday Store.
For the 20th year, The Volunteer Ministry Center will host the Annual Holiday
Store program. It is a remarkable effort to enable those without Christmas shopping
money to “earn” gifts for their loved ones by using their time and muscle to complete
community service work which pays in points, redeemable at the Holiday Store.
Community service opportunities are completed at various sites.
Every year, Volunteer Ministry Center relies upon the community to “stock” the store with all newmerchandise suitable for gift giving. Many young parents shop the store, delighted
to have the opportunity to select a Barbie doll or a train set for their child. And while
toys are certainly the most requested items, many shoppers are also interested in
procuring gifts for adults they love as well.
The Holiday Store is always in need of donations of new items for stock. Items which
are in particular demand are Barbie dolls, new sports balls and equipment and other
toys. Adult items include fragrance sets, small kitchen appliances and tool sets. Any
new item appropriate for gift giving will be gladly accepted at the VMC office at 511 North Broadway.
Holiday Store