Old Pa

Saying EVOO without the giggle is good enough for me. Or, in the alternative, since I've been using the language longer, maybe she's copping my act. Steak & Baker; very simple meal of fresh seasonal foods Cold salad of homegrown chopped tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, homegrown sliced cucumber, homegrown green peppers, chopped white onion, and chopped homegrown Italian flat leaf parsley. Seasoned and dressed with seasalt and fresh cracked black pepper, EVOO, and vintage Modena balsamic vinegar. The served plate. Grilled marinated sirloin, loaded baked potato (butter/cracked black pepper/crumbled bacon/sourcream with homegrown chives and garlic powder), steamed green beans dressed with EVOO, seasoned with seasoning salt and fresh cracked black pepper, and finished with toasted sliced almonds. Glass of cab. Yum. Not shown: spaniels with tongues hanging down to knees. Detail of cook on steak: SWMBO's steak was finished to medium in microwave and then slathered in Heinz 57 as is her preference. She had a big glass of moo. The spaniels were not disappointed.

Touch of Fall with winds and highs in the 60sF. Leftover comfort food tonight with curried pinto and black bean soup with vegetables and ham over seasoned basmati rice with a garnish of homegrown chopped italian flatleaf parsley. The served plate: Glass of cab. Ahh!

Yea, beats me, too, unless it's to explain the chunks of bacon I have to separate out (and snarf ) before I can use the rest of the bag.

Sweatin' the Details: Pa's Garbage Pizza Assembly Prepped ingredients await assembly: Pre-baked wholewheat crust with dried italian herbs assembled with EVOO and minced garlic, chopped homegrown roma tomatoes and green pepper, diced white onion and sliced grilled chicken sausage. Sheep milk Feta, baby portabella sliced mushroums, crumbled bacon and more dried italian herbs are added. Fresh spinach. provolone and mozarella are added and it's into the oven. Baked and sliced. Glass of chardonnay. Yum.

A very simple fresh homegrown red tomato and green pepper salad as a side to leftover Tater Tot Hotdish: Rough chopped some vine-ripened homegrown tomatoes and green peppers. Drained the tomatoes, seasoned with seasalt and fresh cracked black pepper and drained again. Added the green peppers and maybe two tablespoons of fresh minced white onion. Tossed. Dressed with EVOO. Tossed. Dressed with vintage Modena balsamic vinegar. Tossed. Yum.

Anyway, right before MN State Fair time our local bicolor sweetcorn is just at its peak and I had to share this from tonights sweetcorn dinner with wholewheat pasta with roasted yellow and red cherry tomatoes in bacon sauce side:

Grilled chicken sausage with feta and spinach, American fries with homegrown flatleaf parsley, and roasted homegrown tomatoes with EVOO, Modena balsamic, fresh homegrown basil and thyme, and hard Italian cheeses. The skillet: The served plate with glass of pinot grigio: Not shown: drooling spaniels.

C'mon over, bud; we'll set a place.

It's meat candy.

Whole wheat pasta with homegrown yellow and red cherry tomatoes and bacon sauce and homegrown marinated cucumber salad. Homegrown vine ripened yellow and red cherry tomatoes roasted with EVOO, sea salt, fresh cracked black pepper, flaked red pepper and balsamic vinegar get cozy here with fresh homegrown basil, thyme and flatleaf Italian parsley. Here minced garlic sauteed in EVOO with fresh chopped white onion, fresh sliced mushrooms, homegrown green and red pepper, crumbled bacon, and pinon nuts relax in the pan. Adding the roasted tomatoes and their pan juices to the hot tub to get cozy and reduce after dropping the whole wheat pasta. Fresh homegrown burpless cucumber marinated with dill in the Svensk style. And with apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper in the decidedly non-Svensk style. Here the whole wheat spaghetti has been united with the roasted cherry tomato sauce and some good hard Italian flavor cheeses. The served plate. Roasted homegrown yellow and red cherry tomatoes with whole wheat pasta. Glass of cab. The candle is lit. The spaniels are drooling. SWMBO is impressed in spite of herself. Magnifico!

I've heard of "cream in your coffee?", but this is redundant.

That's because it was applied by the Red Star Brigade of the People's Cosmoline Division. After fifteen years my SKS still bleeds a little more cosmo after a rapid fire string.

And clean from the breech whenever possible.

Can't see how it would hurt, especially if you regularly ran a dry patch back through the barrel before you shot the gun again. Never hurts to look for barrel obstructions. Oil does attract dust and dirt and tends to thicken and get stickier with time, but nothing that should stop a "lead patch" moving down the barrel at the speed of sound. That said, I rarely use oil in the barrels of firearms using smokeless powder and noncorrosive primers. My barrel cleaning procedure is to work a solution of four parts Shooters Choice solvent and one part Kroil into the barrel with a stiff nylon brush sized to the bore. I put the solvent on the brush with a dropper bottle to avoid cross contaminating the rest of the solvent. Five strokes each way and then remove the brush and wipe it off. Wait a few minutes and then push a clean dry tight patch through. Repeat with the solvent mix on the brush if the clean patch comes up with powder or metal fouling. After the powder fouling is out (dark black), then increase the soak times between brushing and dry patching until the rest of the metal fouling is out (copper shows blue in the dry patch). Once there's no more fouling, I'm done. I think there is still enough solvent left in the metal after the last dry patch to have a preservative anti-rust effect. Heavy fouling and corrosion require a different bag of tricks, but that's my basic barrel cleaning procedure for whatever it's worth.

Tater Tot Hotdish, long a school cafeteria favorite, is basically browned ground beef seasoned with S&P topped with condensed cream of mushroom soup under tater tots and yellow cheddar, baked and browned. This can be improved. Here some nearly finished browned ground chuck and lamb seasoned with seasalt and fresh cracked black pepper, garlic, italian herbs, cumin, sweet Hungarian paprika and worchestershire sauce await draining. On deck are chopped homegrown tomatoes, homegrown green and red pepper, chopped white onion, chopped celery (including tops). and fresh sliced mushrooms. Whenever I get the celery/green pepper/onions together, I feel a little like the Big Guy and the other end of the Old Muddy. 'Ello, 'ello, what's this? A different kind of pepper? Sweet? Spicey? Yes. Chop it up; throw it in. Sauteed green and red peppers, onion, garlic, celery, and mushrooms now meet up with the fresh homegrown chopped beefsteak tomatoes to cook and reduce. The Lodge porcelain coated three quart caserole was essentially the only pot. The assembled hotdish (previously cooked meat and vegetables topped with one can of Campbell's Healthy Choice Cream of Mushroom Soup (A/K/A mushroom white sauce in-a-can) under thawed onion seasoned Tater Tots topped with shredded mozarella, cheddar, and monterey jack cheese). Seasoned asparagas toasted bread crumbs and toasted pinon nuts. The glass of Moo is for SWMBO. The served plate. Plenty of Heniz 57. Glass of cab. Yum, yum, yum!

Revisit the pizza thing; almost as much fun as the omlette deal. Homemade pizza with cracker whole wheat crust, EVOO, minced garlic, diced red onions, fresh mushrooms, fresh tomatoes and green peppers, herbed turkey breast, crumbled bacon, italian herbs, four stong hard italian cheeses, fresh spinach and mozarella. Pretty much all your basic food groups. Oh, yeah, glass of pinot grigio. B*tchin'.

You are too kind. BBQ baby back ribs with seasoned oven fries and seasoned steamed fresh green beans with EVOO/seasalt and fresh cracked black pepper/pinon nuts: Oh yeah, and a glass of Cab.

Jenny Maggie Rosie Lola In life and death, I am my girls' Old Pa.

Hopefully not against your "groan area".

Are they really an Ex if you've still gotta feed them?

The Pa's slowly getting famous whole wheat cracker crust pre-cooked four minutes at 400F, EVOO, minced marlic, grilled chicken sausage with spinach and feta, chopped white onions, sliced mushrooms, sudried tomatoes in olive oil, crumbled bacon, italian herbs, sheep milk feta, spinach, mozarella. Bon Appetit!

Skillet Dinner with seasoned dressed green beans with almonds. The Skillet: The beans: The plate: Once again, the candle was lit. The potatoes were seasoned with Pensey's Northwoods Fire. The sausage was chicken with spinach and feta. SWMBO said it was the best yet. Glass was full (momentarily) of pinot grigio. Not shown: Heinz 57. Also not shown: drooling spaniels.

In the back yard this morning: