Nuts and berries and cheese

A fine start to a very fine meal

Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive from your bounty. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Christmas is coming. It's time to bake some vanočka!

Merry Christmas (in Czech)!

Unbeknownst to me before I met Mr. Big Food many years ago, Texas has a large population of folks of Czech decent. Count Mr. Big Food's Mom among them. Both her grandmother and grandfather were born in Czechoslovakia. The Czech's have a rich food heritage. Needless to say, this heritage has found its way into Mr. Big Food's Big Food Manual and Survivalist Flourishing Guide which contains (among many other things) recipes for  "Tex-Czech and Tex-Central European foods, handed down from Gran, Tait, and other “old timers” from the Dallas SPJST." 

Because it's Christmas time, Mr. Big Food's Mom and her son will soon be making a vanočka! 

Prepared for vanočka

 I'll post the recipe soon so you, too, can enjoy some Czech vanočka!

UPDATED to correct multiple errors brought to my attention by Mr. Big Food's Dad!

The country mice visit the city

We have arrived in The Big Sovereign State of Texas.

I was on the patio enjoying coffee and the sounds of a gentle rain when I heard something I'd not heard in a coon's age: sirens.

This, and a lively discussion with suek in the comments on a previous post, reminded me of a little story. I briefly retell the story-- with commentary-- here.

Citation information at the original post

Yummy Baked Potato Skins

Something fun! On occasion-- say, when there's a game or movie we want to watch-- Mr. Big Food will whip up some "bar food" instead of an honest-to-goodness supper. Why not? 'Tis the season.

YUMMY BAKED POTATO SKINS

Makes 8

4 large baking potatoes, baked

3 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 Tbsp shredded Parmesan cheese

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp paprika

1/8 tsp pepper

8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbed

2 C (8 oz) shredded yellow cheese

½ C sour cream

4 green onions, sliced

Cut baked potatoes in half lengthwise and scoop out pulp (save for another use), leaving ¼ inch shells. Place shells on a greased baking sheet. Combine oil, Parmesan cheese, salt, garlic powder, paprika and pepper and brush all over potato skins. Bake at 475° for about 8 minutes. Turn shells over and bake for another 8 minutes or so. Turn right side up. Sprinkle bacon and cheddar evenly inside of skins, and bake 2 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Top baked skins with sour cream and green onions.

The Soverign State of Texas

is where we are headed. I don't think I've mentioned before that Mr. Big Food is a Texan. My in-laws anointed me an Honorary Texan. These tidbits explain our appreciation of Big Stuff.

Blogging will be sporadic, as we are driving.* The trip is not too long, just over nine hours driving time; I'm sure we'll have some radio and reading.** But the problem is, once I hit the Texas border, I'm inclined to think we're almost there. I think this every time. Nothing could be further from the truth. 

Texas is BIG.

Take me back to (old) Texas

I highly recommend driving across The United States of America, in whole or in parts. Either way, be sure to pass through The Big Sovereign State of Texas. Do this before it's too late.

~~ 

And for all you new gun owners and new holders of concealed carry permits who travel, bookmark the Concealed Carry Permit Reciprocity Maps at USACARRY dot com. 

DISCLAIMER:  Know the law of the state you are in. In which you are. 

* (flying) & **(reading) below the fold

Recipe: Texas White Sheet Cake

This is a cake Mr. Big Food makes fairly frequently because it's good!

TEXAS WHITE SHEET CAKE

Makes 1 15x9 inch cake

CAKE

1 C butter

1 C water

2 C flour

2 C sugar

2 eggs, beaten

½ C sour cream

1 tsp almond extract

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 375^o. In a large saucepan, bring butter and water to a boil. Remove from heat, stir in flour, sugar, eggs, sour cream, almond extract, salt, and baking soda until smooth. Pour into a greased 15x10 inch baking pan and bake 20-22 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool for 20 minutes.

FROSTING

1 stick butter

¼ C milk

4 ½ C powdered sugar (about 1 lb)

½ tsp almond extract

1 C chopped pecans

Combine butter and milk in saucepan, bring to a boil, remove from heat, add powdered sugar and extract, and mix well. Stir in chopped pecans. Pour and spread over warm cake.

Guns & Dogs & Humans

From Hot Air:

Listen to this advertisement and you’ll reasonably assume that what’s for sale is something forlorn, lonely, cute and cuddly … a stray puppy, perhaps.

“They’ve been mistreated and misunderstood for generations,” the ad begins. “Abusive owners have done severe damage and given these beautiful creatures a bad reputation.”

That’s how it’s supposed to sound. The owner of PRK Arms in Fresno, Calif., brainstormed this brilliant way to sell guns — and, so far, it’s worked.

[snip]

“You can make a difference by giving a gun a loving home,” the ad says. “These guns want nothing more than to adore and protect you. So, please, have a heart. … PRK Arms has the kinds of guns that need a loving home more than anything else — like AK-47s, Glocks and the biggest selection of AR-15s in Fresno.” [my emphasis]

Video here.

From The Complete Dog Book: The History and Standard Breeds Admitted to AKC Registration, and the Training, Feeding, Care and Handling of Pure Bred Dogs; Copyright 1961 by the American Kennel Club:

Staffordshire Terrier

In mentioning the gameness of the Staffordshire, it is not the intention to tag him as a fighting machine, or to praise this characteristic. These points are discussed because they are necessary in giving the correct origin and history of the breed. The good qualities of the dogs are many, and it would be difficult for anyone to overstress them. ... As to character, they exceed being dead game; nevertheless they should not be held in ill repute merely because man has been taking advantage of this rare courage to use them in the pit as gambling tools. These dogs are docile, and with a little training are even tractable around other dogs. They are intelligent, excellent guardians, and they protect their masters' property with an air of authority that counts; they easily discriminate between strangers who mean well and those who do not. (p. 234) [my emphasis]

An obedient young pit bull

Daughter C got Rocky when he was five or six months old. He was healthy and hadn't been abused. But he had been tied to a tree-- all day every day. There were many problems with that living arrangement, not the least of which was Rocky's vulnerability to humans with bad intentions. Just last year three pit bulls were seized and a man was arrested on felony dog fighting charges in the town where Rocky was tied to a tree.

A docile young pit bull

To paraphrase: You can make a difference by giving a gun dog a loving home. These guns dogs want nothing more than to adore and protect you. So, please, have a heart.  

Bronwen Dickey has a nice article in the latest issue of Garden and Gun about pit bulls.

~~

Some stats on pit bull fighting in Mississippi below the fold. 

Busy busy

Real world stuff intrudes on blogging time. Be back shortly.

Children and faith

New Little Prayers Pop-up Book, reprinted in 1984, copyright Deans International Publishing

I stumbled upon an interesting story in my search for information on the nursery rhyme, "Christmas is coming." It's from the Preface to the chapter on Faith in The Book of Virtues (1993), edited by William Bennett. A few of Bill's words to set up the story:

A human being without faith, without reverence for anything, is a human being morally adrift. The world's major religions provide time-tested anchors for drifters; they furnish ties to a larger reality for people on the loose. Faith can contribute important elements to the social stability and moral development of individuals and groups.

"... time tested anchors for drifters."

The story:

To parents who are themselves insecure in their faith and, like the nineteenth-century English radical John Thelwall, think it "unfair to influence a child's mind by inculcating any opinions before it should have come to years of discretion, and be able to choose for itself," there is an enlightening anecdote in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Table Talk for July 27, 1830. "I showed [John Thelwall] my garden, and told him it was my botanical garden. 'How so?' said he, 'it is covered with weeds.' -- 'Oh,' I replied, 'that is only because it has not yet come to its age of discretion and choice. The weeds, you see, have taken the liberty to grow, and I thought it unfair in me to prejudice the soil towards roses and strawberries.' " (p. 742)

Christmas is coming!

Christmas is coming,

The geese are getting fat.

Please put a penny in the old man's hat.

If you haven't got a penny, a half a penny will do.

If you haven't got a half a penny, then God Bless you.

The best I've been able to find regarding the origin of this nursery rhyme is this:

The music to Christmas is Coming was composed by Edith Nesbit Bland in the late nineteenth century. The author of the lyrics is unknown but the popularity of this traditional Christmas song is handed down from generation to generation in the form of a nursery rhyme. The words of Christmas is coming reflects the Christmas festival of celebration of being a time of plenty but that charity should be given to the less fortunate according to the giver's means!

Christmas is coming. My family and I will be enjoying more than our "fair" share of fine food and drink in the next few weeks. We are blessed. I'll be stopping in at the Piglet* today to pick up some things for others who are less fortunate. I'll drop them off at the county extension office.

~~

We call our local Piggly Wiggly the "Piglet." Some of the fellows who take our groceries out to the truck will say say good bye by saying, "Have a blessed day." Christine at the Dollar General says the same.

Birch and Green Holly

That last post on the scuffle in Cincinnati basketball reminded me of this. 

I've been waiting for just the right time to post that.

"None of them guys on their team is like me. We got disrespected."

No doubt. We are all special, and deserve respect, don't you know?

Birch & green holly comes from

My habit is to put citation information in the caption. This one is tough. The book has no standard back page-- all it says is, "Printed in Great Britain."

Throughout, the photos are "Copyright 1897." So it's another crappy old book I'm thinking was first published 114 years ago. Some of the information about the publisher is on the right-hand page, above.

Of note, the inside cover has a stamp that says,

DUNKIRK

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

LIBRARY

Class No. ____ Accession No. [and in handwriting] 5245

So this book must have belonged to Dad. 

~~
Back to my point:

Birch and green holly, boys,

Birch and green holly.

If you get beaten boys, 

'Twill be your own folly.

NCAA B'ball Blogging

Just a little something different on this Sunday morning.

Apparently, the Cross-Town Shoot Out did not end well. 

Five thoughts from No. 8 Xavier's 76-53 win over crosstown rival Cincinnati:

1. The game didn't end, literally. Nor have the repercussions.

An ugly brawl erupted with 9.4 seconds left in the game. Benches cleared, fists flew. Xavier's senior All-America guard Tu Holloway readily admitted afterward that he was taunting Cincinnati players and coaches in front of Cincinnati's bench, as the clock wound down. What ensued was a basketball brawl as ugly as any in memory. At one point, Xavier center Kenny Frease emerged from the pile on all fours, blood dripping from a gash below his left cheek, courtesy of a punch thrown by Cincinnati forward Yancy Gates.

The referees stopped the game at that point. There will be suspensions, though nothing had been announced as of 6 p.m. Saturday. Expect Holloway, Gates, Cincinnati center Cheikh Mbodj and possibly Xavier freshman forward Dez Wells to be suspended, possibly for multiple games.

Mbodj is seen in video stepping on Frease after he was down; Wells shoved a UC player early in the fight.

2. Holloway defended his actions, and those of his teammates, for their parts in the fight.

[snip]

"This is my city,'' Holloway explained. "I'm cut from a different cloth. None of them guys on their team is like me. We got disrespected. Maybe it looked bad to you (media), but this is what I'm used to. This is where I'm from. This wasn't bad.''

More Paul Daugherty here. [Miss M. took a class from Doc once.]

To repeat: 

"None of them guys on their team is like me. We got disrespected."

That was painful to type.

According to that infallible source, Wikipedia, Xavier University was ranked #42 of 100 "Best Values in Private Colleges" by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. You'd think Mr. Holloway, a student at Xavier, ... . What the hell? Who am I kidding?

Recipe: Potato Casserole II

The casserole we had with last night's steak supper took about 10 minutes to prepare-- if even that. It is "Potato Casserole II" because it was the second potato casserole recipe that Mr. Big Food entered into his Big Food Manual. It differs from Potato Casseroles I and III in at least three fundamental ways. (There is a Big Food system of nomenclature.)

Mr. Big Food made just one-half the recipe. It could just as well be doubled for a larger crowd.

Quick, easy, and delicious.

~~

POTATO CASSEROLE II

serves at least 8

2 lb. bag frozen hashbrowns, thawed

10 3/4 oz. can condensed cream of chicken soup

1 onion chopped

2 C or 8 oz. shredded yellow chesee of your favorite variety

2 C sour cream

Preheat oven to 350. Combine all ingredients, mix well, spoon into a lightly greased 13 x 9" casserole. Bake 45 minutes.

Perhaps the worst food photo ever of the best steak supper ever

"Fixing" it didn't help.

Fortunately, the quality of the photograph was inversely related to the quality of the meal: Perhaps the best Friday evening steak supper ever.

Mr. Big Food whipped up Potato Casserole II while I started a fire. (Casserole recipe to follow.) I poured us a Gentleman Jack and he read aloud from The Creative Cooking Course (links after the fold). We learned that brandy is the most noble spirit of them all. And...

To speak of brandy, we have to speak of the most exquisite example of spirits of this type... Cognac. Cognac is unequivocally and universally accepted as the greatest of brandies!

Mr. Big Food grilled the steak to perfection and paired it with a very nice BV Cabernet Savignone. In due time, we enjoyed a V.S.O.P. cognac.

There is no doubt that the drinking of a fine old brandy is one of the most pleasurable ways to climax a meal. 

Indeed.

You should serve your brandy in medium-sized, narrow necked glasses called balloons or tulips. Both (especially the balloon) are shaped to deliberately "show off" the fragrance of the brandy.

Warming the brandy before drinking releases the bouquet, but the manner of warming is important to attain full pleasure. Although you may see it done in some restaurants, it is an injustice to warm your brandy over a flame. This will shock the bouquet into rapid dispersal, shortening your enjoyment. Instead, cradle the glass in both hands, "nursing" it and warming it with the warmth of your hands. Within a few minutes, you will no longer feel the glass because it and the brandy will have reached the temperature of your hands. Now you are ready to bury your nose in the matchless aroma, savor the fragrance and then sip.

[V.S.O.P. is Very Special Old Pale, aged for 18-25 years.] 

~~

It was a very luxurious grown-up supper which we were able to enjoy in no small part because we try to mind our pennies.

Keep reading for a bit more about the old cookbook, The Creative Cooking Course.

Honey Graham Bread

My favorite part of bread baking:

"Punch down!"

This is a delicious, slightly sweet bread. It's not nearly as dense as some grain breads, but it's not fluffy either (a good quality). Mr. Big Food thinks it will make excellent French toast, and I agree.

Lovely to knead, too. Very cooperative.  Graham flour from Bob's Red Mill.

If you want to fill your home with the scent of home-baked bread, this is the one. It bakes for 45 minutes, but the kitchen starts fill up with honey graham in about 10 minutes.

Recipe below the fold.

5 in 1000

H/t Instapundit who links to Dailymarkets.com

Add caption; I would if I could think of one.

According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, hunting with firearms is one of the safest recreational activities in America (here’s the press release and here’s the fact sheet with sources provided).

Here's the link to the whole short piece (where the links in the quote are hot). 

You know me, I have some questions about what counts as an "injury,"* but assuming what counts is consistent across activity, ... well the numbers speak for themselves, now don't they?

* I didn't follow the links. Are there differences in sample sizes? How were these data collected? Et cetera. That the data are presented "According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation" make me want to be particularly careful about the methodology of data collection and analyses, even though I like the result.

This, my friends, is what we should aim to teach our children. How easy would it be to take the numbers in this chart and make fun of those helmeted bicyclists who suffer injury at a three times a higher rate than gun tottin' hunters? Very easy. I won't do that. Because I haven't looked at the numbers.

Leftover Corn and Sausage Chowder

Lunch

After a good night's sleep, Mr. Big Food announced he agreed with me and cast his vote in the Fall/Winter Soup Contest for Slow Cooker Potato Cheese Soup with Wieners. It was a difficult decision. Corn and Sausage Chowder is a very very good Fall/Winter Soup (recipe at the link).

~~

Posts on soup contest entrant #1, Beer Cheese Broccoli Soup here, and here

Posts on soup contest entrant #2, Slow Cooker Potato Cheese Soup with Wieners here, and here.

Stretching the Food Dollar

Meta Givens recommends "memorizing this brief chapter."

From The Modern Family Cookbook (1958).

I think The Shopper's Creed speaks for itself. Give it another read.

The Creed begins a four page chapter devoted to helping "you to become a better manager," because in 1942 (when the book was first published) running a home was a job that a woman was expected to take pride in doing well. There are six tips for stretching the food dollar. 

"Make it yourself!" cautions that 

It is poor economy to buy cooked meats, cakes, cookies, jellies, preserves, pickles and the like.

Not only are you paying for the food, but also for someone else's time and labor.

"Shop around" notes that

By buying each food where it is least expensive and best for the price, you will save pennies every day-- and if you take care of the pennies, the dollars will last much longer.

Thrift.

"Cash-and-carry"-- Well, the days of credit-and delivery grocery stores are long gone. But I'll have you know the fellows at the Piglet still take our groceries to the truck for us! The folks at Supercenter don't do that!

Keep reading for more good advise.

Soup Contest: Cast Your Vote (or don't complain)

CORN AND SAUSAGE CHOWDER 

1 lb. of your favorite local, smoked, fully cooked, sausage-- sliced

3 C frozen hash brown potatoes, thawed

1 carrot peeled & sliced thin

1 stalk celery sliced thin (ours was fresh from the garden)

2 cans golden corn soup OR 2 cans creamed style corn

2 1/2 C chicken stock, preferably homemade

Combine sausage, hash browns, carrot, and celery in slow cooker. Combine soup, or corn, and chicken stock in a bowl; Pour over contents of slow cooker. Cover and cook 8-10 hours on low, or 4-5 hours on high.

~~

Photographs tomorrow. 

This is the third entrant in our Fall/Winter Soup Contest. We served it with some baked rolls, and ate it in front of a nice hot fire while we watched a new episode of Modern Family, and Rocky grow right before our eyes.

I liked it a lot. We had the creamed style corn version because neither the Piglet nor the Hog had golden corn soup. It wasn't as thick as I was expecting, but it did have a nice rich texture. I think it will be a soup, like Across the Garden Soup, that will age well-- that is, I think tomorrow's lunch might be better than tonight's supper. I'm not saying that supper wasn't excellent, but I cannot in good conscience cast a "best" vote for Corn and Sausage Chowder. My money's still on the potato wiener soup. 

Mr. Big Food has not yet voted. (This is a disturbing trend in Mr. Big Food's thought. Not casting a ballot means you cannot rightfully complain about the outcome of the election contest.) I expect he'll sleep on it and let me know tomorrow.

~~

Posts on soup contest entrant #1, Beer Cheese Broccoli Soup here, and here

Posts on soup contest entrant #2, Slow Cooker Potato Cheese Soup with Wieners here, and here.

The Food Shopper's Creed

From Meta Given's The Modern Family Cookbook, copyright 1942, 1953, 1958, published by J. G. Ferguson Publishing Company, Chicago

So you don't need to click to enlarge...

The Food Shopper's Creed

The health of my family is in my care, therefore--

I will base my market list on meals planned according to the "DIET PATTERN" p. 4

I will choose foods of quality and in quantities that will provide the nutritive elements planned for.

Stretching the food dollar is part of my responsibility, therefore--

I will take advantage of what the seasonal markets offer in variety, quality, and price, to the end that I may exchange my dollar for maximum values.

My family's enjoyment of food is my responsibility, therefore--

I will use the possibilities of the market to provide variety, excellent quality and novelty within the limits of my food budget.

Purchasing food is an important link in the business of feeding my family, therefore--

I will make every effort to weight possibilities offered by various markets, by various foods, and the forms in which they are offered from season to season, to the end that I may take pride in a job well done.