Lesson 1397 – First Annual Father’s Day Rib-Off

This weekend, of course, was Father’s Day weekend. We spent the first half celebrating with my brother and his wife over their son’s high school graduation (go Chris!). The celebration included lobster rolls, buckets of beer (I’m not kidding – buckets), a warm sunny day, and reclining seats on the ride home so I could sleep. (Note to self – next time eat a little more, drink a little less.)

And then that brought us to Sunday. In our neck of the woods we usually have a local rib fest on Father’s Day weekend. It’s a wonderful event, well run, and lots of fun. We’ve gone for many years, but when you take 8 people to a rib fest (you have to pay to get in) and then you have to pay about $25 for each half rack of ribs (and let’s not forget the drinks, sides, and ice cream that all goes with that) we found ourselves often taking out a small mortgage just to attend.

The ribs were good, the festival was entertaining, but my pocketbook cried every time we went.

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Lesson 1391 – Makalapa Spread

 

 

This weekend I spent some time going through my mother’s collection of cookbooks. She had quite a few of those church and garden club ones, you know the cookbooks that are sold as fundraisers of which you are obligated to buy?  I don’t mind getting those community cookbooks at all, in fact they often end up having the best “handed-down” recipes ever. So nothing (and I mean nothing) was going to be  moved to the discard pile until every single recipe in every single book was looked at.

And low and behold, I found this gem of a recipe from, of all people, my Aunt Diane.

In reading how and where it was served, I thought it would be perfect as a Memorial Day appetizer. Looks straight forward right? It is – provided you know where to find all the ingredients in the store. I had no idea where to find jalapeno relish (it’s near the hot pepper jellies which is near the mustard/olives condiments) and I honestly had to google Chili sauce because I had never used it before and didn’t even know what it looked like (FYI you can find it near the ketchup.) In any event, once I had the ingredients, it was spit spot and done.

Lesson 1387 – Yellow cake

At a yard sale this weekend I found a treasure trove of old handwritten recipes. Oh sure, there were many recipes cut out from magazines (Robert Conrad’s potato casserole anyone?) but it was the ones written on those 1950’s – 1970 recipe cards (you know the ones with the little flower decorations in the upper left corner) that got my attention.

I have a few of my mother’s handwritten cards and I consider them to be among my most treasured possessions.  (Soon, I’ll be making those chocolate, peanut butter, rice Krispy cookies that I talked about at my mom’s funeral.)

It’s a lost art. Who writes down recipes anymore? It’s more like, if someone requests a recipe we send them the link to where they can find it, time just seems to fly a little faster these days. And even if we had the time to write down a recipe, who has the time to make it other than for a special occasion? Pizza hut to the rescue.

Well I have time (in between everything else I have to do.)

Think about it. When I grew up food was how you showed your creativity. While my mother did work (after the kids had gotten older) most women didn’t, they stayed at home and took care of the flock. Preparing food was how they nourished their families, while the recipes nourished their creativity. When received from a friend, most recipe cards began with “from the kitchen of..” Sharing recipes was the social network of its time.

My kids, who are the sons and daughters of this storyteller definitely know the potential of a good story (or two) when they see it. Helping me sort through the recipes on Saturday night and placing them into two binders, every single one of my kids knew what was coming.

What will we start with first? They asked me.

Lesson 1141 – Pictures from around

This morning I was going through my photos and thought I’d share a few of my favorite pics.
I know that Stephen Hawking can be a little obtuse, but filed under Foreign Language? Really?

Sometimes, all it takes is a little effort to bring beauty into your life.

Lesson 1138 – What’s really important about Salem, Mass

On Saturday, Marc and I decided to spend the day in Salem, Mass, about an hour drive from our house. Although Salem has a deep history that includes colonial living and seafaring life, it is, of course, for the witches that it is best known.

And boy do these guys like to celebrate their witches. For the entire month of October, the town gets its freak on. For sure, you’ll see all things witches:

And you might even see a token nod to the town’s pirating history:

Lesson 1130 – Weapons of Mass Destruction – State Fair Peelers

Weapons of Mass Destruction

This summer Marc and I went to a few State Agricultural fairs. At one of the fairs, I saw a woman on a raised platform wearing a speaker’s microphone while she stood in front of a pile of near-naked vegetables.

“No way,” I said to Marc as I pulled him to a stop. “She’s demonstrating peelers. Let’s go watch.”

My first tip-off should have been that no one, absolutely no one else was around her.

My second tip-off should have been the Band-Aid on her finger.

“That’s not from the peeler, is it?” Asked Marc who laughed because the thought was so ridiculous – a demonstrator of peelers who cut herself – now wouldn’t that be silly.

Well let’s just say that sometimes reality can be a lot funnier than anything this writer could have come up with. Yup, she hadn’t been paying attention and she had sliced her finger on a peeler.

“Sometimes, you just have to make do with what you have,” she said as she waved her finger aside ready to start her presentation.

Marc and I both should have walked away but the sense of the absurd held us.

She demonstrated the peeler (keeping her injured digit gently raised and out of the cutting area.)

“It’s really very simple,” she droned, “if you hold it this way , it peels, if you hold it another way it dices. And if you use this tool,” she expertly pulled out another device that looked suspiciously similar, “you can grate your vegetables to make slaw with NO messy clean-up.”

Not only did it do all that, but these magical peelers also:

• Removed eyes from potatoes
• Could be used by right or left handers
• Were Swiss Engineered

And to top it all off, these peelers were high recommended for use by Arthritis and Rheumatism suffers. I didn’t have either of those conditions but who knows what coming down the road, right? Best to be prepared.

“Marc, we have to get this,” I said picturing the two cabbages that were sitting on our counter being easily grated into slaw.

Lesson 796 – This makes it easy

Many of you know that I live in New England and perhaps just as many know that I live in New Hampshire.

Some might even know that I live in Southern New Hampshire.

But I’m willing to bet that very few of you know that I live just down the street from this:

And I live across the street from this:

Lesson 589 – Any questions?

Okay, last time.

This is Addy’s head.

This is Charlie on Addy’s head.

Lesson 586 – Dogs and chickens

A friend of my sister (hi Karen) sent me email yesterday asking about dogs and chickens. This is what she wrote:

Our friends moved to Spain and we took care of their dog for six months. She’s a lab-golden retriever mix. She has been great and has convinced us that we want a dog of our own. We let our chickens roam in the yard when we are outside.  We don’t have the dog and the chickens in the yard at the same time because the dog is very interested in the chickens.  Too interested.

We would love to get a lab or lab mix. I’ve been told a lab can be trained to live harmoniously with chickens. What do you think?

We can have 12 chickens in Minneapolis. We are down to 3 and are planning to add some chicks soon. Do you think the dog should come before or after new chicks? At the same time?

Although we have experience with dogs and chickens (last fall we had 3 dogs, this summer we have 1 – insert frowny face) we have always had dogs that ended up being smaller than our grown chickens (maltese) so quite naturally as the chickens grow the dogs get put in their place.

However, I grew up with a lab and at one point we did have a lab in our current house. Labs are bird dogs, although they can get used to living around chickens, I’m afraid that chickens will always be a temptation (just as those fluffy ground squirrels were a temptation to our Greyhound.)

If you are just getting a dog, temperament will be important. Go for a mild mannered dog (I know, I know, easier said than done.) Initially limit the exposure to the chickens and make sure that all chickens have protection (someone watching.) I think whether you get a dog before or after the chickens is a personal choice, just make sure that if you get the dog before the chickens that he does not have an aggressive  hunter mentality. Let the breeder know that you are going to mix the dog with chickens, they might be able to help you pick out a dog that would fit nicely in that situation.

Lesson 585 – bridging the gap

I know. You were expecting a picture of Charlie in the house and while she still does come inside (to make sure she gets enough food, water, and one-on-one time), she does, for the most part, live in out in the coop now.

And here she is roosting on a top bar.

Take a look at that curled toe action.

Actually I think she’s waiting for me to rescue her. Almost every day I take her out of the coop for a bit and she walks the path to our backdoor and then into our house. I do this because other than grass, I have never seen her eat any of the chicken feed.