Jamboree Mulligan

Today is Millie Stratton’s 102^nd birthday. In her honor, we had Jamboree Mulligan for lunch.

This recipe came from the Boy Scouts. Larry attended the 1957 BSA Jamboree in Valley Forge. All the troops made Jamboree Mulligan. Millie’s husband, Jack, was one of his leaders, so I always think of them when I make it.

Larry’s other leader was Don Nafius. Don was an excellent cook. He tried to teach Larry how to make this dish to pass his cooking badge—three times. Don finally passed him, despite his third failure, if he promised never to cook again. Larry agreed.

It took him years, but he now cooks a bit. His specialty is breakfast. Our Japanese kids always expect him to make breakfast when they visit. They were very surprised that he cooked at all since Japanese fathers generally don’t.

I remember Millie’s daughter saying she could easily become a vegetarian except for Jamboree Mulligan.

It is definitely a 1950s dish. Here’s the original recipe. I think I got it from Millie.

1 lb. ground beef (I substituted ground turkey.)

1 onion, chopped (Larry can’t eat onions anymore, so I used some dried onion.)

1 can condensed tomato soup

1 cup uncooked egg noodles

Brown onion and ground meat while bringing water to a boil in a separate pan. When it's boiling, add noodles and boil for ten minutes. Add soup and cooked noodles to the meat/onion mixture. Heat through.

That’s it.

Still tastes about the same as I remember.

So, we lifted our forks and toasted Millie on her special birthday.

One more story from the 1957 Boy Scout Jamboree:

In 1957, a new influenza virus emerged in Asia, triggering a pandemic—Asian Flu. One of the troops brought it to the Jamboree and infected most of the boys and leaders in attendance. Larry was so sick they left him behind in a hospital for a couple of days while the rest of his troop moved on. Then, he caught up with them when he improved.

Of course, all the kids and leaders spread throughout the country, infecting their families and friends.

So, today the circumstances seemed entirely appropriate for bringing back the Jamboree memories.

I just finished the first pass at editing Millie’s memoir. Getting excited about seeing it finished. She has spent a lot of time since 2012 writing it—in lots of bits and pieces. The challenge was going through all of them, reviewing them for duplication (and there was lots of it), putting the stories into some sort of order, and then editing it. It contains lots of family history as well as the history of Alhambra, California during her lifetime.

So, happy birthday, Millie!

WITH A LOT OF HELP FROM A FRIEND

My guest this week is my favorite mystery writer and good friend Marilyn Meredith. She has a brand-new book in the Deputy Tempe Crabtree series called End of the Trail. She’ll tell you all about it.

My latest Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, End of the Trail, is now available on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle. The friend who made it possible was none other than my host for today, Lorna Collins, who did the editing and publishing. A big thank you to her and her hubby, Larry, who designed the cover.

When I started writing this book, I had lots of ideas of how it should unfold. However, when the coronavirus struck, it became harder and harder for me to write. I had plenty of time but lacked motivation. Not because I was worried about getting the sickness, but because the venues where I had planned to promote this book and others started to cancel their events.

The best part of any writing conference, or other such gathering, is seeing old friends and making new ones. The first event canceled was writing conference put on by Writers of Kern. Bakersfield is an easy drive, they had some great speakers lined up, and I paid for a table to have my books on display. It was scheduled for March.

The second event to go was a conference put on by the Central Coast chapter of Sisters in Crime. Because I’d already made hotel reservations, they offered me the opportunity to be their guest speaker at their regular meeting which they planned to hold the same day. When their meeting place, a library, closed, that was the end of that.

I’ve already received notice a book fair I’ve attended regularly scheduled in October will not be happening this year.

I’m still hoping other upcoming events written in on my calendar will go ahead as planned.

So, I guess disappointment was my biggest hurdle to finishing End of the Trail. Encouragement came from Lorna as I sent her the manuscript, which certainly helped.

Now that it’s published and available in paperback and for Kindle, I will find other ways to promote it.

Here’s a short blurb:

Deputy Tempe Crabtree joins the search for a missing hiker which results in a murder investigation, a near death experience, an unexpected rescue, and an unhappy ghost.

An important P.S.: Lorna Collins, the ghost hunter, makes an appearance in The End of the Trail.

Marilyn Meredith is the author of over forty published books. She lives in a mountain community, much like Bear Creek, the one where Deputy Tempe Crabtree is the resident deputy. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys being with her family.

A Long Time Coming

Sometimes books seem to write themselves quickly. At other times, they may take years. This is the story of one of those.

In 2009, our Aspen Grove Romance Anthology, Seasons of Love, was published. Four authors participated in this one, including Luanna Rugh. (She contributed to all six of the anthologies.)

She began to write a terrific story with one of my favorite openings. However, it became apparent this one had a much longer story to tell than the novella format of the anthologies. So, she set it aside to expand into a full-length novel at a later time.

She wrote “Summer’s Challenge,” a different story, which is included in the anthology. (Seasons of Love is currently being produced as an audiobook. It is available on Amazon in print and ebook forms.)

Also, in 2009, the memoir she wrote with her husband, Promises Kept: How One Couple's Love Survived Vietnam, was published to much acclaim. (It went on to win several awards and continues to sell well among veterans of the Vietnam War.)

Luanna continued to write the anthologies with us while her original story for Seasons of Love languished.

In 2016, while writing a series of short stories she intended to turn into a collection, she began writing a charming story about a puppy who brings two strangers together. This, too, grew beyond the original short story, but she kept on with it until the book was completed. Her first solo work, Love From the Sea was published in 2016. (The dog on the cover is the Rughs’ dog, Gina. She died not long after her big photo shoot, and they are delighted to have her as their cover model.)

Other projects occupied Luanna, but in about 2018, she decided to finish her aborted story, set in Aspen Grove, Colorado, our fictitious town in which the anthologies are set. She brought chapters for review by our critique group, and everyone agreed it was a good story.

However, she had a hard time writing the emotionally difficult middle of the book, so it went back on the shelf.

Finally, I told her she had to finish it. The story was too good not to do so!

I nagged and prodded until the manuscript was finally completed. This week, her book, Up in Flames, was published.

This one features a scarlet macaw, a dog, and a little boy. There’s also a grouchy fire captain. It is a charming story, just as it was when she started it eleven years ago. Here’s a taste:

“Nine—one—one. What is the nature of your emergency?”

“Our bird’s stuck in a tall tree.”

“Young man, this number is for human emergencies only.”

“It is. Honest, lady. My mom was trying to get our macaw down. Now her foot is caught and she’s stuck in the tree, too. I didn’t know what else to do.”

Find out for yourself!

About the Author of Up in Flames:

Luanna Rugh met the love of her life, Len Rugh, while working at a local restaurant in Southern California. A year and a half after their marriage, Len was drafted and sent to Vietnam, where he was critically wounded. Together they wrote their award-winning memoir, Promises Kept: How One Couple’s Love Survived Vietnam, a project which took over twenty years to complete.

She co-authored the Aspen Grove romance anthologies: Snowflake Secrets, Seasons of Love, Directions of Love, An Aspen Grove Christmas, The Art of Love, and …And a Silver Sixpence in Her Shoe.

Her solo works are Love From the Sea, where a dog plays a major role, and Up in Flames, set in Aspen Grove, where another dog and a scarlet macaw are lead characters.

She hopes you enjoy reading them as much as she loved writing them.