The things you hear at work

One of the ladies at work was at lunch chatting about her new hobby. She was talking about getting some blackberry bushes removed from her property to make room for her new horses. Miniature horses that is, one mare is a Paintaloosa (half paint, half Appaloosa) apparently there is coloring about the muzzle that distinguishes it from a mere Paint. And she plans on purchasing a stud and some more mares. She wishes to train these short tempered little horses to pull a cart. As a youngster I would have fallen completely in love with these cantankerous equines, but as an adult? Puleeze..get one of those battery powered Japanese pets, at least they won't bite you.

BROKEN TRAIL

The time is 1897 and the territory is the west. Veteran cowboy Print Ritter (Robert Duval) is ready to trade his life on the range for a ranch of his own. All he has to do is run 500 horses from Oregon to Wyoming to earn the money. He recruits his estranged nephew Tom Harte (Thomas Haden Church) for the ride, and as the two set out the only trouble they expect is bad weather and strays.

But it’s not long before their path crosses with that of a low-life trafficker and the five innocent Chinese girls he’s delivering to certain ruin in a lawless mining town. In a sudden twist of fate and act of justice, the five girls become Print and Tom’s responsibility, turning their horse drive into a makeshift wagon train.

As the small band proceeds east, their path intersects with horse-thieves and gun-slingers, madams and mercenaries, native warriors and runaway whores. Each encounter threatens their drive and frequently their lives, but Print and Tom always put honor first -- even if it means firing a gun or adding a new passenger.

Though the trail they’ve chosen is the hard one, it’s the one that leads to second chances at life, love, and redemption for them all.

I watched this last night, as usual I didn't catch the first five minutes or so, but it was quite wonderful. Robert Duval and Thomas H.Church sure can ridem cowboys. They can shoot good, too. Very worthwhile film...very worthwhile.

Kool Pickles and Mexi Chicken

A week or so ago I made Kool pickles out of crunchy Kosher very green dills. I tried one today and they are crisp with a faint garlic dill, faint cherry, sweet taste. Very unusual. I kind of like them but I can seen serving them only as condiment item for delectation and comment such as "Hoo boy did yew git that recipe from your married first cousins?"



I also decided to make Mexi-Chicken. I have had the recipe for years and Mom fixed it when I was home in June and it was pretty tasty. I substituted a couple items. I cut up two chicken breasts and a small onion and browned them off in a skillet in some olive oil. I added a large can of Hearty Garlic Potato soup and one can of water, a can of chopped green chiles, a can of halved black olives, a couple huge hands full of grated cheese, salt, pepper and cut up one dozen uncooked corn tortillas. Mixed well, poured in casserole dish and baked in 350 oven for 30 minutes.

Also, yesterday we ran away to Bandon to check out a book store, Beach Loop Books, very nice used books, a bit of a drive but their selection is very nice.

Right next door was a eatery "El Jalapeno". I had a taco dish and pineapple tea, husband had chicken enchilada and strawberry drink. Very Mamacita and Papacita.

Celtic Blessing

There are all sorts of Celtic music web sites on the 'net. I stumbled across this one purely by accident http://www.celticmusicradio.net// They seem to like to play The Blues, Blue Grass and Country..it all depends upon which host is running the show at the moment. The hosts have growly Scottish accents so listen verra carefully ye ken?

Occasionally a nice couple come on and chatter away in Gaelic, perfectly charming, I catch about one English word thrown in about every 50 words or so. Give it a try.

THOUSAND MILE STEW

This is one dish that Dad named. I have never been quite sure where the name came from, Mom wasn't much for naming dishes. Her version consisted of sliced left over quite well beyond done pot roast,potatoes and onions. The beef came from a yearling calf purchased by Dad and stored in the local locker in town. The beef was cut into mostly hamburger, a few roasts, a few T-bones and that was pretty much it, well except for one time I came home to see a vast gray pebbled organ lying on a plate. I asked what it was and was informed it was beef tongue. Greachghhhhhhhhhhhhh! However, once said tongue had been boiled to death and peeled and ground up with dill pickles and onions and mixed with mayo it make a surprisingly tasty sandwich spread. But I digress..

Yesterday I purchased four strip streaks and marinated them in Soyvay (Teriyaki soy mixture very good! and lots of garlic!). I cooked two for lunch. Later on I was inspired to try my version of Thousand Mile Stew. I had purchased a bag of mini-Yukon gold potatoes and I decided to let them simmer in the left over beef juice in a frying pan on low. The juice thickened to a lovely dark brown effect and I gently crushed the potatoes allowing them to crack open slightly (A La Jacque Pepin) and to absorb the juice. To this I added a can of chicken broth and allowed further reduction. At the last 15 minutes or so I chopped an onion and dropped that in and let the simmering continuing. The potatoes were lovely and golden dripping in nicely thickened juice, slices of beef had tenderized and the onions had absorbed the faintly Teriyaki flavor of the juice and had turned a lovely deep brown purplish hue. Come and get it! Husband ate some and asked if this was a save for tomorrow dish or polish off dish. I said it was "polish off dish" So he polished. I didn't even get a picture. Oh well,

Fifth of July

I had Friday off as per usual until I got a phone call about 7:15 am, a bleary hello? "Dr. ___ needs something typed on a patient, is anyone coming in today?" Um, I don't know, give me about ten minutes. So got up, quickly put on some clothes (always a good thing in my case) and trotted off to work. I found the document they needed and transcribed that and noticed there were two more similarly high priority documents so got those finished as well. Just as I was nearly finished, my co-worker walked in. Gasp! I didn't know you were coming in on the holiday! "Yeah, we aren't traveling anywhere and I would rather work than use up PTO." Okay, I'm outta here.

Went home and made Kool Pickles. I have seen these mentioned on "Good Eats" twice, they look pretty and seem gross so I thought yeah, make 'em. Start with a largish jar of Kosher Dill pickles. Drain juice into a container. Pull out pickles and quarter the cukes. Add 1 pound by weight of sugar (2 1/3 cups) to the mixture as well as two packages of Cherry Kool-aid and mix well. Pour into glass jar containing the now quartered cukes and store in fridge for one week. It will take that long for the cukes to absorb the sugar and coloring and turn a rather pretty shade of red. Very poisonous looking actually. So I will post a picture of them once they have pickled appropriately.

I also decided to whip up a quick batch of potato salad. I got out about 12 red potatoes and boiled for 20 minutes in salted water. The last five minutes I dropped in 8 eggs and allowed them to hard boil. Drain, cool, chop into biggest bowl. Had some green stuffed olives marinating with a few small dill pickles so chopped them, chopped one onion mix well. Mixed about 1 cup mayo, 2 Good squirts yellow mustard, shake of red pepper flakes, couple shakes celery seed, 2 tablespoons chopped garlic, add some of the dill pickle juice, stir well, fold gently into the chopped ingredients, cram into a storage container for the fridge. Dang! It wouldn't all fit! Put balance of potato salad into bowl, get spoon, have lunch! Yummy!

We stayed home for the celebration and heard only muted fireworks off in the distance, didn't even hear the one guy who has a cannon or personal Howitzer fire the thing off last night. There are not many children living on this portion of the street to no locally irritating firecrackers. On a slightly different note, our little neighborhood is turning into quite the urban eye sore. The white triplex is empty and has a window broken out upstairs and the doors were open for a while until the police showed up and posted various warnings. Wish the out of town owners would at least get the lawns mowed. Then right around the corner,two more little houses are sitting empty either for rent or have notices tacked up. The economy I would guess however any one of those houses would be perfect for someone leaving a foreclosure I'm thinking.

BBC'S Top Gear

This is Jeremy, a very famous man in England. He is one of the three genial hosts of Top Gear seen on BBC America about 6 pm or so Oregon Time. First time I saw it, I thought, "Oh God, Car talk on Telly with British accents". Not so.

These three guys do various challenges, host a show with guests after making them drive a lap in a "high performance" car and post the lap times, sort of a car pissing contest. And it is all highly amusing.

For instance; a recent show consisted of the challenge of each of the hosts purchasing an automobile built in Great Britain in the 70's and testing them.
They had to purchase them for about 1000 pounds and meet at a certain point for the next part of the test. I won't describe the cars because I never heard of any of them Philistine that I am.

Test two consisted of them trying to locate where exactly these automobiles were manufactured in England. No luck there most of the plants have been sold and torn down.

Test three consisted of various driving tests; the best one was fill the car completely full of water, fit driver with snorkel and give a certain amount of money for the distance completed by each car. The large yellow car's rear door blew out and lost all the water.

Test four? Lost count...drive down a very bumpy test road at 40 mph, lose ten pounds for everything that fell off. Lots fell off.
I found all of the hosts charming and this was a very entertaining show. I am glad there is a web site so I can go watch older shows.

Er one caution however, the untutored American ear must listen very carefully, so much throw away humor and unrelenting humerous asides.