Fill 'er Up, Hon?

Smells Like Home

2005-11-16T17:11:00.000-06:00

I see that grin on your face, so I'm not even askin'! Plate of beef stew comin' right up!

Funny - Cookie puts that over a low heat, say 200 degrees, about ten in the morning. By noon, people are ordering sides of rings, and dessert, and don't even know yet why they feel so hungry. By three, the whole place is filled with the smell of beef stew, and we always sell out before seven.

Oh, we never get lumpy or greasy. Cookie don't use flour or cornstarch, so no lumps either. Takes four pounds of cheap beef - say, London broil, and chops it up. Biggest rip-off in tbe market are those little cubes of stew beef! Then, throws in a few chopped carrots, four or five good sized potatoes cut into chunks, three onions sliced into rings, and then - two cans of cheap tomato soup! You know, store brand. Adds a cup of cooking sherry, and sets on low heat. After about five hours, he dumps in two boxes of frozen peas, and another cup of the sherry. Makes a great gravy, and never dries out or gets gummy.

I love the days when we have stew. The whole place smells so good, people just go home happy, and leave bigger tips.

Here's your supper, and some cornbread too. Eat up - there's cherry cobbler left if you want it.

LANGUAGE!

2005-11-15T00:34:00.000-06:00

Well, Chop Suey or Chedddarwurst? Which?

Oh, I'm just fussy. I get so tired of bad language. Not so much from you - spend 10 hours driving, getting cut off, not able to move your legs properly - some bad language I can understand, even if I DO NOT appreciate it!

No, there's a new little girl in Choir. About 24, pretty, good strong alto, which we've needed for a bit - and EVERY OTHER WORD out of her little mouth is F - this, or S- that; in CHOIR! I know her people, and that is NOT how she was raised. But it seems like between the TV and the schools, a young girl just doesn't know how to speak like a lady anymore. And practice is tonight, and either I'm going to burst or Rosemarie is, and she'll probably just up and quit. And it's so not needed. And then we'll have to go back to depending on Hayley Finn, who thinks she's Sophie Tucker, but sounds a lot more like Jimmy Durante, as far as I'M concerned.

Makes me fussy, because I don't know how to tell this bright little thing that she just sounds cheap and trashy instead of hip.

Yeah, look up there! Cookie says I can put up posters if I like Above The Counter, and this one is for Pond Perspectives - all about frogs, and water, with pictures and jokes and quizzes. I picked it because it's so pretty - I like the greens and blues.

Here's some more coffee, and I'll get some cornbread to go with that Chop Suey.

S.O.S. Day...

2005-11-14T11:30:00.000-06:00

Coffee on me this morning - my Patriots beat the Dolphins! Put that fool Starks that wanted to swing players around like he was playin' do-si-do instead of tacklin' on IR (with knee, shoulder and HEART) and put in Hobbs that can hit a player in the gut the way God intended! So defense is getting better...

Chipped beef?

Oh, that's ALWAYS on the Monday menu, 'cause Cookie wants somthin' simple.

At home? Nothing easier, really.

Get a jar of that salted beef - I don't like that stuff in the pouches, I want to SEE. Besides, they make good juice glasses if you wash them out. Pop off the top, and shred the salted beef with your hands. Label says to rinse off the salt, but that'd where the flavor is!

Then, put four pats of GOOD butter in a hot skillet, and saute a chopped onion in it. I don't like the frozen bag kind, and they don't make you cry THAT much. After the onion gets clear, put in four tablespoons of flour - Cookie calls it "Roo", but it's just a paste. Add two cups of milk - REAL milk, or why bother? - and wisk around until it's a sauce.

Then, dump in your shredded salt beef, and TA-DA! You've got your own pot of S.O.S.!

I like it on biscuits, but Cookie uses toast. Whole thing takes 20 minutes, and you got two or three days of eating there.

OK, I'll bring you that meatloaf instead. Hope we still SEE you on Mondays, - don't forget, we have lemon meringue that day, and I'm NOT tellin' how to make that. That's MY secret, not Cookie's!

Back Again?

2005-11-13T14:28:00.000-06:00

Two over easy with bacon?

Hey, we got strawberry-rhubarb - want me to hide a slice for later?

See in your paper that them Dems are worried about that bird flu - think it's because they're chickens?

I'll have that pie waiting after your deliveries, maybe around ten...