05.28.06

Fishing at Dad’s

Posted in addictions, amusements, friends and family at 10:45 am by spryken

Over the Memorial Day weekend, I took Matt and Cory with me to Mom and Dad’s. Dad warned us to bring the fishing gear. He was going to take us to a friend’s pond. We all caught fish, but this is the prize. Matt pulled a 2 1/4 pound Large Mouth Bass out. He was using a small Bream that one of the other kids had caught for bait.
Matt's Fish
Of course the real story of the day is “The one that got away”. My brother, Gary, had given up. He had been skunked, the only one who had not caught a fish. He had a line in, not really paying attention, when he got a big strike. He was using 14 pound test line, but did not have his drag set well. The fish never gave him a chance. It snapped the line within seconds. The line sounded like a bullet when it snapped.

Talk about disappointed, upset, frustrated……etc.

Oh well, that’s what keeps you coming back.

05.25.06

Rebirth of WineWiki

Posted in Blogs, Cooking, Wine at 8:32 pm by spryken

Yes, WineWiki is reborn.  I have converted it to a Blog on Wine and Food.  I haven’t finished choosing a theme yet, but the site is up and running.  Actually, it is just another instance on spryken.com.

So far, I have completed copying my food and wine posts from “Rants and Raves” to WineWiki.

More to come……

05.22.06

Dutch Oven Cheesy Chicken Tetrazzini

Posted in BoyScouts, Cooking, Dutch Oven at 4:31 pm by spryken

  • 1 (7oz) package spaghetti - salted, cooked, and drained
  • 1/4 cup butter or margarine
  • 1 medium green pepper, chopped
  • 2 1/2 T all purpose flour
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 (10oz) jar diced pimento
  • 1/8 t garlic powder
  • 1/4 cup dry white wine (or water)
  • 1 (4oz) can sliced mushrooms drained
  • 4 chicken breasts halves - cooked & cut into bite-sized pieces
  • 3 cups (12oz) shredded processed american cheese (or use a mixture of Monteray Jack, cheddar, and American)
  • 1/2 cup sliced almonds

Combine butter and green pepper in a sauce pan & saute. Add flour, and stir well. Stir in next 6 ingredients and 2 cups of shredded cheese. Heat thoroughly, stirring constantly.

Add the cooked spaghetti and stir to combine. Transfer to your Dutch Oven. Sprinkle remaining cheese over casserole. Top with almonds. Cover and bake on 300 for 45 minutes.

I doubled everything except the cheese. Used about 3-4 cups total. Baked using 8-10 coals on the bottom and 14-16 on top. Baked for about an hour, until nicely browned and bubbling.
Great Success!!

05.18.06

What Can You Cook In A Dutch Oven?

Posted in BoyScouts, Cooking, Dutch Oven, amusements at 1:47 pm by spryken

Maybe a better title is “What Can’t You Cook In A Dutch Oven”.

Many who are in Boy Scouts know that you can make a tasty cobbler in a dutch oven. All it takes is 2 cans of pie-filling (your choice), a boxed cake mix (your choice) and a little butter. Dump the pie-filling in, cover with the dry cake mix, place a few pats of butter on top and you are ready for the coals. I’ve had apple with yellow and spice cake. Cherry with devil’s food is good. Raspberry with devil’s food is even better.

You can cook beef stew, chili or soup. I made the Grand Prize winning Seafood Jambalaya from Scouting Magazine’s Campfire Cuisine contest. I have made my own Chicken Chili Verde.

You do not have to stick to “Dutch Oven” recipes. Oh no!! You can cook almost anything!! I adapted my Mom’s Buttermilk Pound Cake recipe and it turned out great. OK, I didn’t adapt the recipe. I adapted the dutch oven. I cut the top off of a soda can and used it to make the dutch oven into a tube pan. Worked like a charm.

This weekend, I am off on another Scout camping trip. I am planning to fix Cheesy Chicken Tetrazzini in the dutch oven. Should be good……..

05.08.06

About Snopes

Posted in Rants at 10:42 am by spryken

Bobster has posted “8 Ways to Destroy America“. In the post, he mentions Snopes. In passing he says, “Snopes seems to think it is legitimate”. This implies that Snopes is an authority, but does not explain what exactly Snopes is.

I realize that most of our readers are pretty “Internet savvy”, but not everyone knows Snopes. And that is a shame.

According to their Home Page, Snopes is an “Urban Legend Reference Page”. They research and debunk urban/internet legends.

I, for one, am so tired of my Inbox filling up with forwarded stories and schemes. I know that everyone believes they are doing a good thing. Warning me of the dangers of one thing or another. Most of the time, the stories have been going around for years. I always go to Snopes to check out the veracity and validity of any story I am tempted to forward.

If everyone knew of and used Snopes to research these stories before forwarding to everyone they know, we would significantly reduce the bandwidth being consumed by email. It probably wouldn’t be close to what the spammers generate, but still would be significant.

Think of the save productivity. There would be a lot more time to send/forward all of those old jokes and cute e-Cards.

PLEASE, think before you forward. RESEARCH, before you try to warn all your friends. You won’t have to apologize after you send it to me and I research it and debunk it - replying to everyone you sent it to.

BOOKMARK Snopes and use them!!

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