Recipe: Creamed Spinach

Fresh from the garden!

CREAMED SPINACH  
Serves 4 

3 lbs fresh spinach 
1 ½ C water 
4 Tbsp butter 
½ C flour 
1 ½ C half and half 
Dash nutmeg 
Salt, black pepper to taste 

Cook washed spinach in salted boiling water for 45 minutes or until cooked down. Drain, squeezing as much liquid out as possible, then chop spinach fine. Heat butter in skillet and stir in flour until smooth, cooking about 10 minutes (stirring constantly) to a light brown roux. Stir in cream, nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and simmer a few minutes. Pour into blender and blend 15 seconds.

Recipe: Potatoes and Green Beans (veganizable)

A old standby!

POTATOES AND GREEN BEANS  
Serves 6 

4 medium potatoes, pared, sliced, cooked in a small amount of boiling salted water until tender, excess water evaporated, still hot 

1 lb green beans, broken or cut into 1 inch pieces, cooked uncovered until nearly tender in just enough rapidly boiling water to cover 

1 Tbsp butter (or substitute)

Salt, pepper 

1 Tbsp minced parsley 

Combine potatoes, butter, salt and pepper to taste, and parsley with beans in cooking liquid, blend together lightly, and continue simmering until all remaining water is evaporated and beans are tender.

Recipe: Blue Bonnet Café Chicken Enchilladas

(Can't quite get the colors right. It's lovely, though, in real life.)

BLUE BONNET CAFÉ CHICKEN ENCHILADAS  
Serves 8-10 

FILLING 
1 ½ lb chicken, cooked, boned, and chopped 
4 oz diced green chilies (can use canned) 
1 C shredded Jack cheese (or use Pepper Jack for a spicier filling) 
1 C shredded yellow cheese 
1 bunch green onions, white and pale green parts only, sliced thin 

Combine all ingredients, mixing well. 

SAUCE 
 ½ stick butter 
¼ C flour 
29 oz chicken stock (preferably homemade—see recipes in Basics section) 
4 oz diced green chilies (can use canned) 
16 oz carton sour cream 

Melt butter, whisk in flour, and cook briefly, stirring. Add chicken broth and cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, until mixture begins to thicken. Stir in green chiles and sour cream, and heat until mixture is thoroughly heated through. 

TO ASSEMBLE 
12-18 tortillas 
Oil (for softening tortillas) 
Shredded cheese 
Chopped green onion 

Preheat oven to 375°. Heat each tortilla individually in hot oil for 2-3 seconds on both sides, drain excess oil back into frying pan, and place tortilla on plate covered with sauce. Spread about 1 Tbsp sauce over top of tortilla. Place a generous amount of Filling on prepared tortilla, roll up, and place in 9x12 inch baking dish. Repeat until all Filling is used. Spread remaining sauce over enchiladas, and top with shredded cheese and chopped green onion. Cook 20-30 minutes or until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbly.

Just another word

If I ever get back to the Alabama coast I am going to complete my vendetta against that shark that stole my record-breaking fish.

--A. Leland

Owing to their consanguinity, what began as a family squabble ended in a vendetta.

--Marica

The liberty vendetta against cowardly tyrants was quick-- and decisive.

--Mr. Big Food.

It's Not Entirely Up to You, Dude.

It takes energy to stay organized.

Rocky & I were doing some book redecorating today. Things had gotten a bit out of hand, organizationally speaking. I needed to make sure the books I need most frequently were conveniently located. In so doing, I came across one that came in very handy this evening:

The Constitution of the United States: Its Sources and Its Application. Thomas James Norton. The World Publishing Company, Cleveland and New York. 1943.

To refresh my memory of Article I Section 7(2) of the Constitution of the United States of America, I checked that crappy old book, and just to be sure, a history text. And what do you know? 

The word "veto" does not appear in the Constitution!

Nevertheless... . A bill returned without the President's signature can be "reconsidered." Imagine that! A bill to repeal a law is still a bill and without a signature can be reconsidered. If said reconsideration results in the bill passing, again-- this time by a two-thirds majority of both houses-- ... well then, Dude, the bill is a law and the old law is repealed. So again, it's not entirely up to you, Dude.

This Constitution stuff is not that complicated. In a text I just checked, The Constitution is eight pages long, in about 10pt font, and includes the Amendments.  

Think about that! The entire organizational structure of the Federal government-- legislative, judicial & executive-- was laid out in fewer than eight pages. Of course, that was back in the crappy olden days before the World Wide Web. And all those Framers had to do was to get 13 states to ratify the thing. 

Fall and Winter Soup Recipes: Let The Games Begin!

This evening we enjoyed the second entrant in our 2nd Fall & Winter Soup Contest,

French Meatless Vegetable Soup.

Before I launch into a description of this soup-- necessary observations as it is a contest and all, and after two or three excellent soups, the particular excellencies of each fade-- I thought we might take a short stroll down soup lane. The first Fall& Winter Soup Contest began 11/8/2011 with Beer Cheese Broccoli Soup. Not every soup we had that Fall & Winter was a contestant. Soups we have every year were-- and are again-- disqualified (why can't I find the recipe for Across the Garden Soup?) as are favorite gumbos. (We make the rules up as we go along.)

Blogger's search function is being uncooperative, but based on keyword "soup," I've cobbled together this list of the nine soups that vied for winner, each with at least one link. (I've included dates because sometimes the recipes and the descriptions were in different posts. If you're interested in either, you should be able to find it if my links are messed up.)

In chronological order... [entrant #, date, name]

2011
1. 11/3: Beer Cheese Broccoli Soup (Includes recipe)
2. 11/18-19: Slow Cooker Potato Cheese Soup with Wieners (Winner for me until #7); Recipe
3. 12/7-8: Corn and Sausage Chowder; Recipe
4. 12/31: Chili Soup (includes recipe)

2012

5. 1/9: Tomato Rice Soup with Pesto (includes recipe; also has good links if I've messed them up above))
6. 1/23: Split Pea and Smoked Turkey Soup (includes recipe; second place for me until #2 was bumped by #7)
7. 1/30-31: Sausage Sauerkraut Soup in Slow Cooker (displaces #2 as winner); Recipe
8. 2/7: Sportsman's Lodge Lentil Soup (CONTEST WINNER); Recipe
9. 3/2: Rutabaga Soup Ha. Looks like I never posted the recipe for this one. I mention it, but cannot find it.

Thanks for bearing with me while I sorted that all out. 

And now to French Meatless Vegetable Soup.

There is an increasing number of malingerers.

That would have been a good one.

It came as no surprise to any of the soldiers to find that the malingerer in their ranks was of French nationality.

--A. Leland

The malingerers are no longer at the gates; they've been ruling us for some time.

--Mr. Big Food

The Libertarian Revolution doesn't need any chary malingerers.

--Marica

By giving no reason for her absence, she avoided being called a malingerer.

--Miss M

Pass it on.

Via Reason, the Superbowl ad the NFL rejected because, you know, defending your country and your home are controversial subjects. 

Pass it on.

"It's Over, Isn't It?"

"Well, ... yeah."

"I thought so, given the fact that paper towels replaced real napkins for Sunday Supper. But Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is a glorious celebration! I learned a lot. And I must say, I did like all of the attention."

"ruffff."

"It is wonderful, isn't it?"

"Oh! My! To think of how far we've come! To think of how the New World was established... and to think of the freedoms we have! Am I correct in saying that there were... atheists... here this weekend? But we fed them and played with them and gave them affection, despite their a-religous views! This is the epitome of Freedom!"

"I'm not sure they were died in the wool aesthetists. Let's be charitable and call them agnostics."

"Oh. Whatever.

"ruff?"

"Oh. Go back to sleep, My Dear Friend. All you ever want to do is jump on people and be happy. Some of us want to be thinkers. Your cute antics only get in the way."

"RRRRUUUFFF!"

"Now, Missy. We'll have none of that. Rocky is free to express himself as he sees fit. That's the whole point of Thanksgiving."

"R.U.F.F."

"Sorry we woke you up, boy!"

"Ruff."

"I have to hand it to you, Rocky, you did a good job of defending the joint this weekend."

"Ruff."

"I thought I was particularly well behaved, given the circumstances."

"Yes, you were, Missy (except for the rib drippin's incident). But Rocky held down his job."

"ruff."

"Job? When do I get one? I want a job."

A Spark!

There is not a scintilla of evidence supporting [Miss M's] "so-called" correct pronunciation of "wool."

--A. Leland

Whatever.

She didn't even have a scintilla of remorse for scarfing down the last scraps of the leftover ribs.

--Miss M

Oh. I get it. Miss M read her sentence and I was like, "What? Missy didn't get any ribs last night." Now I get it.

It wasn't the ribs she was scarfing down. It was the rib juice/marinade at the bottom of the foil-lined pan in which last night's ribs baked. 

By way of explanation, Missy has a bad habit of waiting in the kitchen's shadows for the kitchen to become vacant. That's when she puts her paws up on the counters. Usually, when I approach the kitchen, she scurries like a little rat and through habit gets in her box. Today, I walked in on her licking the foil. It wasn't until I was right next to her that she realized she'd been caught red-tongued with her nose in the pan. 

That's the story to which Miss M's sentence refers. 

You'd think she'd learn-- Missy, that is. Maybe she has. She must be doing some doggy utility cost-benefit analysis. "Get in my box? That's the punishment? I love my box! Here's my calculation: I snag a few morsels, 'get in my box' and relish the taste. I especially like it when you draw the blinds over my box... it's so warm and dark and... . You have no idea how good my box smells to me! "

Dang. Maybe I should get a stick.

"Flue" and "flume" differ only by a scintilla.

--Mr. Big Food

Inside, family joke. 

Despite years of personal, political, and religious oppression, a scintilla of human dignity remained in the Pilgrims-- a spark that could only be kindled in the New World.

--Marica

Thanksgiving Redemption

You may recall, I have a book about Thanksgiving:

Thanksgiving: Its Origin, Celebration and Significance as Related in Prose and Verse. Robert Haven Schauffler, ed. Dodd, Mead and Company, New York. 1953. [published originally in 1907]

Yesterday afternoon, after I propped open the front door to let some warm fresh air in, I finally got around to skimming the remaining pages and am pleased to announce, that after a rough start, this crappy old book does contain some interesting passages.

Here's the first I bookmarked:

  And the classic

Me, The Truck, and I

went on a little walk today.

Miss M came along. We got separated in the woods and met back up at the truck.

Productive deer stand.

I found some ground pine

up at the Summit.

We collected a few things and I made a mushroom terrarium, of a certain sort, when we got home.

Try This

From an article at PJMedia about yesterday's retail sales:

Some municipalities may ban Thanksgiving shopping next year. But that will only disadvantage businesses in their area. The only problem is that now, we have to come up with a clever name for the shopping day before Black Friday.

How about Thanksgiving?

"Our fans have done a good job" WHAT???

Hey Nick S--

I like you just fine. I've liked your teams. But Alabama fans do not "work" for you. You have your directions mixed up. I grant that there are "fans" out there who don't have brains, I am not one. You blew this all by yourself. As a fan, you work for me. And you are fired.

Seriously. What a monumental screw up. And now listen to ESPN spin. "You had a bunch of lineman trying to run him down." Right. Lineman. Sure, they may have thought you were looking to fake. But let's look at this as we did as we watched the game. Go into overtime. Yes. That would have upset our dinner plans. But you would have won. But no. You opt to try a FIFTY-SEVEN yard field goal. Kicked by a red-shirt freshman. Are you insane? Have you lost your marbles?

And what universe am I living in where I am hearing, "But Florida State's still gotta beat Duke." DUKE?? Duke! Duke football. As I type "D-U-K-E F-O-O-T-B-A-L-L" my fingers freeze up. And the only thing I can think of is how pissed off Coach K and those lacrosse fellows must be.  Duke is about B'ball, not football, and false accusations, vis-a-vis the lacrosse fellows. 

I said to Mr. Big Food just an hour or so ago, "If you'd have told me, fifteen years ago, that Duke beat Carolina in football, I'd have said you were crazy." Of course, in 1998, I didn't fully appreciate how crazy thing were going to be in 2013.

And Missouri just beat Texas A&M. Another dose of fresh hell.

~~
Tomorrow, me & the truck & I are going on a pilgrimage to the woods. I will take Missy. We will gather things for a delightful holiday potpourri, and some kindlin' wood. 

And just for good measure, I will take my cowboy rifle.  

What To Do With Leftover Mashed Potatoes?

Make French Potato Fritters!

Very good! A nice send off for Mike & Greg who both are now in their respective cities where they will do City Mouse things. (Mike loves that story.) 

Life is Big, isn't it? Oh. Speaking of Big... . Remember American Grouch? The guy whose blog I read who lives in Minnesota, takes fabulous outdoor photos, and won a place in the wolf-hunting lottery? He's off to hunt wolves. Check out his post from yesterday, the day he left for his five-day deep cold woods adventure.

Feed the Birds

Let's make suet!

If you've never made suet for the birds, you're missing out on a fun winter activity.

You can find suet recipes on the World Wide Web, or you can wing it. These are the items I gathered up this morning. Note: I opted to not use the baking mix-- I thought there might be too much miscellaneous stuff in it. Everything else is nearly a one ingredient item.

The base of suet is any fat that is solid at room temperature. I used lard but have used vegetable shortening. The consistency is gotten by adding grains, oats, etc. I added a little bit of peanut butter and brown sugar for color-- not that the birds care-- and extra energy. Everything else is a bird treat: raisins, apricots, prunes, pine nuts, sunflower kernels, and a small bit of chopped up apple. 

Melt fat. Add peanut butter and brown sugar. Stir in oats, corn meal, grits, bran cereal, a few stale crumbled stale corn flakes, and whathaveyou. I go for a consistency of... a thick muffin batter. Then add treats. 

I made a cake by pouring the cooled mixture into the used pine nut container. The rest is cooling in the pot on the patio. When it's solid, I'll smear it on some sticks I've placed in a sunny spot in the garden near the back door. 

I'm hoping to see cardinals, chickadees, tufted tit mice, house sparrow and wrens and we'll see what else. In years past my suet sticks have attracted woodpeckers.

Bright Friday!

Put a feather in her cap!

Thanks to my lovely mother, the dinner table is always set with panache.

--Miss M

She ended the dramatic reading with such panache that I'll remember it forever.

--Marica

One of my colleagues frequently digresses to teach with great panache. 

--Mike

Some folks are short on panache and long on practicality.

--A. Lelend

This misguided panache will not stand!

--Mr. Big Food

Despite the second-hand smoke and dog hair, the bunkhouse has a lot of panache.

--Dr. Greg Johnson

Do tell.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I didn't even look at that crappy old Thanksgiving today. And I took very few pictures.

Around 11:30 Miss M called our attention to the tree with the buzzards.

There were a lot of them.

You may recall Nick got a deer last evening.

Meanwhile, there's some cooking and baking going on. The two pies were delicious. We did those early. They sat on the counter all day. Harvest artwork. One of the pies was pumpkin with homegrown pumpkin. At the end of the evening, while we were enjoying our pie in front of the television and the fire, the consensus was that homegrown pumpkin is better than canned.

And Mr. Big Food had gotten the turkey on the smoker with apple wood. Later, after about two hours of smoking, he'll bring it inside, let it cool, put it in a turkey cooking bag with some apple cider and put it in the oven for several hours.

Miss M went on a nature walk and took my camera.

The Lake. There's still some expensive tackle out there.

Ducks on the Lake.

There's supposed to be a blue heron in there somewhere, I think.

Here it is in flight.

This Thanksgiving was small. There were only six of us and four of us live here. But we did a good job of putting on the dog.

A. Leland volunteered his Winter Tea and so got put in charge of appetizers-- stuff we could drink and nibble on in the afternoon before dinner.

He did a fine job!

WE INTERRUPT THIS POST. ROCKY IS ALERT AND MUMBLING. NOW HE'S BARKING.

And so we go survey the house. Vicious Pit Bull. He's doing his job, earning his keep.

Anyway...  clockwise beginning with the orange crackpot holding A. Leland's famed Winter Tea-- a concoction of rum, triple sec, apple cinnamon tea, and a boatload of fruit; some little redhot wieners in a silver chafing dish; let's call it an ante-pesto tray-- peppers, pickles, tomatoes sprinkled with dried basil from last Spring; crackers, some vegan; a meat & cheese tray.

Here it is from another angle. It was by design that we put this table over by the fireplace. Stay out of the kitchen. It's Thanksgiving. We're cooking.

What I forgot to take a picture of was the coffee table laid out with the appetizer glass ware. So I have these crappy old rectangular glass plates. Picked most of them up at a flea market on Hwy 60 in WV. They have little punch typey cups that fit in a carved out space at one end. There's a similarly square-shaped carved out space beneath cup space. The entire plate is beaded all the way around. Except for the space I just described. It has a divot where a bead should be.

What is the purpose of this space?

If you guessed "ashtray," you guessed right!

And, as a bonus, the little punch typey cups were perfect for the Winter Tea.

Mike brought a delightful sweet potato dish. Mike has a nice way of bringing exotic food down to earth.

Greg brought us a very nice end to our day.

We feasted on turkey, mashed potatoes (not my best), gravy, stuffing (vegan), cranberries (which stained by Christmas serving bowl),  green beans, and I am proud to announce, a fresh green salad with butter crunch and red leaf lettuce and broccoli raab. Picked  today.

The table wasn't my best. I liked last night's table better.

But the food was good. I especially liked the pie.

Tomorrow, as is our Tradition, we will have Turkey Gumbo.

I hear tell there may be a shrimp or two thrown into the pot.

Happy Thanksgiving, all y'all.

I Have a Book About Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving: Its Origin, Celebration and Significance as Related in Prose and Verse. Robert Haven Schauffler, ed. Dodd, Mead and Company, New York. 1953.

I'm on page 23-- after a lengthy 12 1/2 page Introduction-- and I'm disappointed. But I'll keep reading and see what I can find to share. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, I've been thinking about what it might have been like to be the sort of person who felt so strongly about something that you were willing to do what the first colonizers did. 

Meanwhile, ...

Do not click to read more if you do not want to see a picture of a dead animal.

Let me be perfectly clear

I will make it a point to talk about guns.

What with neither Mr. Big Food nor Miss M having to go to Starkvegas today, and our having finished up all of our shopping for tomorrow's feast, our Thanksgiving weekend has begun. So let me take a few minutes to get some things on & off the table right now so we can all enjoy the remainder of our weekend.

1) We will be talking about guns this weekend. We may even shoot some guns.

2) As I was explaining to Missy yesterday, Thanksgiving is an American holiday-- more than just a harvest feast we also remember the Pilgrims, Puritans and other souls who left the warm and comfy Old World to come to the New, where they had a greater measure of freedom. Unless your ideological bent is toward individual freedom and liberty and away from being told what to do, think, eat, etc., you can say whatever the heck you want but be prepared to meet with devastating resistance from those of us who value individual freedom, etc. 

3) You loose points if you use the term "Black Friday." In all of the English language, this is a phrase I abhor the most. Shopping for Christmas gifts for loved ones should-- yes, should-- be a warm, pleasurable experience. It is not a contact sport. Calling the day after Thanksgiving "Black Friday" is crass and I don't like it. 

4) The salad fork is the shorter of the two. 

Good. Now, let's enjoy the weekend!