Bad Week for the Old Guy

Started off the week with a sprained ankle, guess maybe guys my age should quit playing basketball, even if I do still have considerable game. OK, actually I did it stepping off a two inch step in Jackson Hole last weekend. By Tuesday I added a nose running, sneezing, itching eyes, cold. Thursday the flu set in. Today I am about as miserable as anyone can be.

I will attempt to remedy my maladies by watching dozens of football games in the next 48 hours, I believe it will work. And I have all the channels to give it a tremendous effort.

Wish me luck, I know it will be tough, but I have pillows properly arranged on the couch, assorted drinks, heating pads, throws, lap top, kindle reader and other goodies to get me through my time of need. And, of course, my wife is tending to me quite well. She went down to one of the local stop and rob’s and picked up a 7UP for me. When I finish it, I believe that will make, exactly one 7UP in the past several decades. Hey, tastes pretty good.

Oh-Well, I Will Try Again

Always save- just lost a very nice post on smoked chicken. Will try to re-write, I know better too. Power went out, lost router, I shut down my laptop to restart and lost the unsaved word document, I know better.

Veggies, Jelly and Football

Love this time of year, fresh veggies from the garden and some fresh fruits also. We already made jelly, with more to come, and are really enjoying fresh roasted vegetables on the grill, with some good meat on the side. I will be posting one of my favorite summer time grilling recipes, right here, next week—stay tuned.

Can you, football on television in August, this is great.

Old Time Cowboy Food

Many cowboys ate four identical meals every day, especially cowboys of the American southwest.

The first requirement for such meals was frijoles, a Mexican dish in which pink or black kidney beans were first soaked in water and then boiled, mashed together with oil and onion to form a lumpy puree and finally seasoned generously with salt and fried in bacon fat. Much like today’s canned refried beans, but a little more flavorful.  Three to six fried eggs was then placed on top of the beans. The meat most commonly served with such meals was mutton and, if the cowboy was lucky enough to have a large plate the meat would be placed alongside the beans and eggs. Cowboys much preferred beef but settled for mutton although some were served pork if it was available.

If cowboys had small plates everything was piled on top of other things, if they had a large plate food items could be placed beside each other. Seems like this would get a little old to me but when cowboys went to town they often ordered the same thing and maybe a single shot of red-eye.

Out on the range cowboys often ate canned peaches and canned tomatoes to supplement whatever they could hunt or to help make the ever present jerky taste, at least, palatable.

Burn That Hot Dog - or Not

 

Ever heard someone say, “come on over we’ll burn some dogs on the grill and crack open a few beers”?

Well maybe not. But I do like my hotdogs on the grill, very well done, OK, burned. I like the crunch and I like them after they split and some of the juice escapes. Made me think about other foods I like burned-not many.

The top of a Pizza is nice burned as is the top of Lasagna and baked Mac and cheese. When we were kids we loved starting marshmallows on fire, blowing out the flame then eating the black charred mess. Grand kids love them still.

Don’t have anything else today-too hot, but I wanted to touch base with my readers. Can you think of any foods you like burned?

Ice Cream Bread

The web, mostly Facebook, has been full of this recipe the past week or two, thought I would give it a try.

-Here’s Your 2 ingredients- 

*2 cups vanilla ice cream, softened, I let it set out until I could work it easily.

* 1-1/2 cups self rising flour (or 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus 2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt, which makes self rising flour, or pretty darn close)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.  Use an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 loaf pan and spray  ‘ er up with baking spray.

2. In a big ol’ bowl, stir ice cream until smooth; mix in flour, not too much, just a little stir. Ladle into the sprayed up pan.  Bake 45minutes, check with the old toothpick trick, stick it in the middle and when it comes out clean-wala- cake is done, could take a minute or two or three more.

3. Cool a little while, I don’t know how long, just some, dump cake out, might take a bit of knife work around the edges. Eat is right away, it is really good warm.

4. You can add in fruit or even vegetables, if you are nuts, or add nuts, might take a might longer to bake depending on how much you put in.

My observations, this is a very palatable cake, moist with good flavor, not one of my all time favorites, but pretty good, fun and easy. Good one to make with the grand kids. Now if someone could just come up with a delicious, two ingredient apple pie.

The Old Cook is Down But Not Out - Not Yet

I am starting to feel better, finally, after a month of the worst sinus problems in all my 65 years. Couldn’t breathe, couldn’t hear (my wife says it was even worse than my normal selective hearing), tough time sleeping and got little or no work done. Hope to be back blogging in a few days, the nice weather here in eastern Wyoming is helping. See you in a week or so.

Neil

Oh- I did make some donuts today - think I must be feeling better!