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Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Emily ~ Rosemary/Lemon Martini & Greek Pizza ~ Scrapple Day

Good 30º morning.
Up early and have a chicken in the crockpot cooking for Maggie. Also experimenting with some artichokes in there with the chicken. We'll see...  Thawing out some crab Patty brought from the coast. Will figure out something to do exciting with that.

Remember I went to the ER the end of September for a strained back? Got the final bills. Total was $813. Between Medicare and my Blue Cross they paid it all. Yipppeeeeee....

Yesterday I went into Grants Pass. Stopped at Brian's office just in time to see Jen and Sami. They were off running errands. Brian's agent, Emily, is leaving and moving to Florida. Boo hoo boo hoo. We said our goodbyes and I got a cute picture of her with Brian, which .... I promised not to post!
(See, Em, I keep my promises)

 
I met Sandra, Brian's new agent. Her son had put up one of the scarecrows at Ft. Vannoy School that I had taken pictures of... she said her son's was the headless horseman ... I think this is the one:
Anyway, after that I headed to the Mediterranean for a pre-arranged meet with friends for martinis and tapas. Thanks D,D,J,B for a great afternoon!! D and J had wine. D,B, and I had martinis. They liked the habañero
and I had a rosemary/lemon marty. 
 I also had a Greek Pizza....
( Artichokes, Sweet Bell Pepper, Mushrooms, Sundried Tomatoes, Mozzarella and Goat Cheese) Awesome!

 My friend, Joan, was there also ... with her husband Gary, celebrating his birthday with family. Joan works for our vet's office. Gary has a neat hot rod he drives in local events. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GARY!!!
(Gary's truck in Rooster Crow parade)

Came home, made a fire,
 snuggled in my chair (cat on lap) and enjoyed a cozy evening.
Oh, and devoured the rest of the pizza, to the chagrin of Mr. Harley!

A message from Bank of America...

Thanks Ron Weisberger for this. FUNNY!!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And, also from Ron:
"I spent last week in and around our nation's Capitol. Too much to see and do in one week. Spent some time at the Capitol building and viewed our representatives in action. You may or may not know that a vote came up for the re-affirmation of our Nation's Motto....."In God we trust". I don't know what occurred for it to need to be re-affirmed, but the result was I believe 335 yeas to 9 nays. Sad to say that of the nine nays, two were from California-- Pete Stark, from the 13th Congressional district and who is on the ways and means committee, and Mike Honda from the 15th Congressional district and who is on the appropriations budget committee.

.....and here is the Washington Post's take: (interesting read)

I did some digging and found the following voted against the re-affirmation:
 
Lawmakers voting against “In God We Trust” include Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich), Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA), Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), and Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA).
Read more:
http://nation.foxnews.com/congress/2011/11/01/see-which-congressmen-voted-against-god-we-trust#ixzz1d8DBA5xc
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Historically this date....
1620 – Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower sight land at Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

1913 – The Great Lakes Storm of 1913, the most destructive natural disaster ever to hit the lakes, destroys 19 ships and kills more than 250 people.

1960 – Robert McNamara is named president of Ford Motor Co., the first non-Ford to serve in that post. A month later, he quit to join the newly-elected John F. Kennedy administration.
...interesting guy... a Republican, a Presbyterian, and went to UofCal Berkeley!
 

And births this date include....
1914 – Hedy Lamarr, Austrian actress and inventor (d. 2000)
...wow, 6 husbands, 6 divorces.
 
1936 – Mary Travers, American singer and songwriter (Peter, Paul and Mary) (d. 2009)
 

Poor thing, she had leukemia.
 
1972 – Eric Dane, American actor
............boy, has Grey's Anatomy gotten BORRRRING!


All I know. Nuff said. Ciao.
xo Sue-Mom-Bobo
November 9th
National Scrapple Day

Taste of Home recipe:

1/2 pound bulk pork sausage
4 cups water
1 cup grits
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
Dash cayenne pepper
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
Additional butter
Maple syrup
In a large skillet, cook sausage over medium heat until no longer pink; drain and set aside. In a large saucepan, bring water to a boil. Gradually add the grits, salt, pepper and cayenne, stirring constantly until thickened. Stir in butter and cheese until melted. Stir in sausage.

Press into a greased 9-in. x 5-in. loaf pan. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until cool.

Remove scrapple from pan; cut into 1/2-in. slices. In a skillet, cook scrapple in butter until browned on both sides, adding more butter as needed. Serve warm with syrup. Yield: 8-10 servings

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Soap Box Time ~ Silly Turkeys ~ Turkey/Gravy/Potatoes

Good 31º morning. Foggy out there, but light! Yeah!

 
Boy, there is nothing buy whining from the masses about the time change. Come on people. Every six months the time changes and every six months you guys whine and whine...
put on your big girl panties and deal with it.
 
Yesterday Maggie and I ran errands.... Post Office to pick up a package and mail one. The wait was over 30 minutes in line! One gal working, 12-15 people in line, and one of them was getting a passport. For crying out loud! There was a gal in the back who brought change out for a dumbo woman who was mailing a $14 package and gave the clerk a $100 bill! Why couldn't she have helped the women with the passport?????ONE clerk on a Monday! Stupid. Inefficient.

Then to pharmacy, the market, and the vets for Magg's pills. Back home, yes, and almost time for wine!
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you haven't seen this... it's a hoot:
 
IN RESPONSE TO THE E-MAIL CONCERNING MY DOG... Please be advised I am sick and tired of receiving questions about my dog who mauled six illegal aliens wearing Obama tee shirts, four Democrats wearing Pelosi tee shirts, two rappers, nine teenagers with pants hanging down past their cracks, eight customer service desk people speaking in broken English, three flag burners, and a Pakistani taxi driver.
FOR THE LAST TIME...

THE DOG IS NOT FOR SALE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok, interesting.... Dr. Conrad Murray fed into Michael Jackson's drug mess and was convicted of "involuntary manslaughter". What a lot of money Californians paid for this courtroom show. Not only that, the people who stood outside the courthouse, with nothing else to do, and wait and wait for the verdict. No jobs? No TV? No radio? No life?

Pathetic. Then there is Lohan.... don't even get me started.
 

OMG, what a fun video. Produced by the Yupiq Eskimo Village in Quinhagak, Alaska. You will be singing along, trust me!
Thanks Rod Johnston (LASD/USMC) for this!!
 
A beautiful day yesterday..................
The turkeys were probably relieved they were not the ones in the smoker on Sunday, so they hung around all day, napping on the fence and on the ground.... funny guys!!! They always make me laugh.



 
Retraction.... yesterday I said it was Lydia and Gerry's anniversary. I was a day too soon. Happy Anniversary today, kids!!!

And.......... today is my Sisterfriend Brenda's hubby, Robert's, birthday. OMG Robert, trying to catch up to me???? LOL. Happy Birthday kiddo!

 
Historically this date...
1889 – Montana is admitted as the 41st U.S. state.

1895 – While experimenting with electricity, Wilhelm Röntgen discovers the X-ray.

1960 – John F. Kennedy defeats Richard Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections of the twentieth century to become the 35th president of the United States.

1966 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law an antitrust exemption allowing the National Football League to merge with the upstart American Football League.

1973 – The right ear of John Paul Getty III is delivered to a newspaper together with a ransom note, convincing his father to pay 2.9 million USD.

And births this date include....
1927 – Patti Page, American singer

Still doing concerts at 83 years old!!!

1931 – Morley Safer, American journalist


1950 – Mary Hart, American television personality


Dinner last night used the smoked turkey... I cut up a couple of Yukon Gold potatoes and cooked them in some water seasoned with basil sea salt and garlic. I reconstituted some mushrooms in wine and garlic. Potatoes done then added in the mushrooms, some grape tomatoes, red bell pepper, and sauteéd them a bit. Then added in the Trader Joe's turkey gravy and some cut up bite sized turkey pieces.....




I had cooked some haricots vert (french cut green beans) in the mushroom liquid...
Perfect! Maggie and Harley both loved licking the gravy left in my dish!

 
All I know. Nuff said. Happy Tuesday. Habañero Martini Day! Ciao.
xo Sue-Mom-Bobo
November 8th
National Harvey Wallbanger Day
1 oz Vodka
1/2 oz Galliano
Pour vodka and orange juice into a collins glass over ice cubes and stir. Float Galliano on top and serve.

AND... it's National Cappuccino Day
Cappuccino
1/3 espresso topped with 1/3 hot milk and 1/3 frothed milk.
Single: made with 1 shot of espresso and about 4 oz. milk.
Double: made with 2 shots of espresso and about 8 oz. milk.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Smoked Turkey Breast ~ Dang Football! ~ Inquisitive Owl ~

Good 38º almost getting light at 6:30 am morning!
YEAH! I love it light earlier! The dark is depressing.

Here are three photos from yesterday... the snow didn't last long, it was just a pleasant surprise and interlude for a day..

First picture 2pm, then 4pm, then 5pm....



Sooooooooooo..... not happy camper about the games on TV yesterday. Sad about my Pats (lost to Giants. I HATE the Giants!!!), and even my daughter Kristen called me to say, "Mom, I heard you yelling all the way down here!"....... Sigh....................... Kristen's Jets beat the Bills, Brian's Colts lost to the Falcons :o( , and Alex's Dolphins beat the beejebers out of the Chiefs! Wow, the Ravens beat the Steelers, Packers beat the Chargers, the 'Lambs' lost to the Cardinals (giggle), and the Raiders lost to the Broncos (Yeah!). Ok, enough football.
 
Mr. Squirrel made a visit for some corn...
... and Maggie napped...

Yesterday I smoked a turkey breast. First I put it in a large zip bag and added about 4 cups of water mixed with 1 cup of salt and let it sit in the fridge over night.
 

 
Then I dried it off, drizzled on some olive oil and spices: Garlic/Lemon, Pepper/Orange, Fisherman's Wharf (which I get at the Jacksonville Mercantile and it includes:salt, black pepper, parsley, garlic, white onion, lemon peel, green peppercorns, and green onion. Good on fish or poultry. Check their site: www.urbanaccents.com ) and Bob's Seasoning salt (I like the celery taste) and paprika.

250º and 1 hr per pound... so this smoked for 4 hrs 45 min.
With Bill's expertise, this came out great! Very moist and perfect.

Then I cooked some bow tie pasta, cut up some asparagus, added a few turns of olive oil to a hot pan, added canned sliced mushrooms (liquid and all) and the asparagus. When the liquid was gone the asparagus was cooked and then I stir fried them in the oil that was left. Added the pasta ....




and voilá      
   dinner!

 
Historically this date....
1908 – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are reportedly killed in San Vicente, Bolivia.

1910 – The first air freight shipment (from Dayton, Ohio, to Columbus, Ohio) is undertaken by the Wright Brothers and department store owner Max Moorehouse.

1940 – In Tacoma, Washington, the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapses in a windstorm, a mere four months after the bridge's completion.

1944 – Franklin D. Roosevelt elected for a record fourth term as President of the United States of America.

1983 – 1983 United States Senate bombing: a bomb explodes inside the United States Capitol. No people are harmed, but an estimated $250,000 in damage is caused.

"On January 20, 2001, the day he left office, President Bill Clinton commuted Evans's sentence." What an ASSHOLE!
(sorry... but he is!)

2000 – Hillary Rodham Clinton is elected to the United States Senate, becoming the first former First Lady to win public office in the United States, although actually she still was the First Lady. (GAG GAG AND MORE GAG)

2000 – Controversial US presidential election that is later resolved in the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court Case.
(Thank GOD Gore didn't come out on top!)
 

And births this date include....
1918 – Billy Graham, American evangelist

 
1952 – David Petraeus, American military commander
.... run him for President! He won't act like an arrogant turd or bow to the enemy!

1959 – Keith Lockhart, American orchestral conductor
..... Boston Pops, a big favorite of mine!
And down in the depths of Diamond Bar California, is my friend Lydia who is celebrating her marriage to Gerry today. HAPPY 36TH ANNIVERSARY kids!!! xo
 
I LOVE owls. You will get a giggle out of this video....

 
All I know. Nuff said. Happy Monday! Ciao.
xo Sue-Mom-Bobo
November 7th
National Bittersweet Chocolate w/ Almonds Day