Old Pa

Good for you. Clear and to the point. Too bad they couldn't have included more of your substance, including the specific model you were referring to. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, since I'm not a regular reader of that particular rag.

Got out the old snow shovel . . .

This morning, Kate woke up to chew:

Thanks guys! I had an insight on Thursday that my next one was available and called my breeder. Turns out he had had his first litter of his dogs (all my spaniel girls are from his dogs' breedings) in three years and there were two girls ready to go. The recession has been hard on discretionary income activities like bird dog trialing. But here's another spaniel girls discovering the comforts of the Pa's lap.:

Kate - born 4/21/11, field stock english springer spaniel. Small, smart, fast and relentless.

This is a curious, and I believe uniquely American concoction: the baked stuffed potato. A baked potato, cut up, with S&P, butter/margarine, and, in this case, crumbled bacon, steamed broccoli, crumbled feta cheese, sour (non-fat) cream, and Tabasco Chipotle hot sauce. It is seasoned "zippy", which is flavorful and the skin on my skull sweats. Glass of cab. I'm down 5 1/2# in April.

A little piece of grilled lamb with oregano, garlic and mint sauce and some steamed vegetables with a glass of cab. And my replacement dishes, silverware and placemats.

WHENEVER! The sauteed mushrooms and veggies sounds particularly succulent.

WOW!

And I made hot toasty garlic bread.

Cooking is the preparation of food for consumption. Sometimes it involves the application of heat. If you think my salad or mikeymad's raw fish did not involve selction and preparation, perhaps you have another think coming.

Thanks. Are you housebroken? Do you shovel a lot of snow? Those are what's important this year.

Spicey white turkey chili with whole cream finished with fresh chopped cilantro and sour cream. Homemade corn bread. Glass of cab. Before that was sherried beef stew.

Last week's major cooking project was twelve quarts of spicey Moroccan lentil soup with mint and sumac. Cooked half the lentils in vegetable broth with S&P, ginger, saffron, cayenne, flaked pepper, hot mustard, tumeric, nutmeg, cinnamon and other stuff in my pressure cooker and then pureed it with the immersion blender. Started the other half with a whole seed cumin tadke in EVOO, then minced garlic, cooked crumbled bacon, chopped onions, carrots, celery (with beautiful folliage), green pepper, drained diced tomatoes and tomato paste. Deglazed the pan with chicken stock before adding the pureed cooked lentils and the soaked raw lentils and more chicken stock. My big advance this cooking season has been to do the long simmer on soups and sauces dutch oven style in a 300F oven. The soup, with sour cream and fresh cilantro garnish and fresh Ukranian rye bread on the side was really good. Did I mention the obligatory glass of cab? Today, I'm working on a rolled pork roast. Heading up to prepare the marinade/glaze and get it all rubbed in. Then brown and braise in my big oval french oven to juicy fall-apart succulentness. To be served with oven roasted root vegetables (russet potatoes, parsnips, carrots, turnips) in EVOO and rosemary. Maybe some steamed, dressed pea pods. And another glass of you-know-what. Beer braised rolled pork roast with herbed/spiced mustard marinade with savory cranberry chutney, oven roasted root vegetables with rosemary and a glass of cab.

Yesterday I realized my passport was expiring at the end of March, so I picked up the renewal application and instructions ($110 now, up from $40 last time). Remembered that on my last renewal, they required the names, birthplaces and birthdates of my parents. I had those in memory, but I called up my mom to confirm her birth year. We had a nice conversation, the last I would ever have with her. She died suddenly three days later. Yesterday I went through my old passport and realized I hadn't been out of the country during the last ten years. I love to travel, and during the previous ten years we has been to Canada several times, to Mexico several times and to Great Britain twice. But with SWMBO, it had gotten to be just taking our fight on the road, so I had stopped participating. This divorce has been a long time coming.

The 2011 Subaru Outback 3.6R LTD was, last June, a replacement for my 2002 Outback VDR H-6, which was getting a little long in the tooth. After replacing the 15mm rear anti-sway bar with a 19mm STI unit (they are interchangeable) in the new Outback, oversteer was largely corrected. The 2010 Evo SE will be my summer car. The SE model was the best fit for my needs, the availability of new 2010s was fast disappearing, and there were some attractive rebates and pricing available in January. The dealer is storing it inside for me until April. And, with the divorce, I have additional garage space available.