It's Just Snow

This week we got a little bit of snow here in the great northwest. Somewhere between 4 to 8 inches I would guess. It depended on where you lived.

It did not snow much in North Carolina when we lived there.

It snowed a lot in the place I grew up. Pennsylvania gets more snow and it’s colder.

I’m glad I live where I do now but it wouldn’t surprise me if I moved again someday.

Merry Christmas

I was wondering where the name Black Friday came from so I did what all of us do now whenever we want to find the answers to any of life’s important questions; I Googled it.

What a tool we have at our disposal. What an amazing engine. Yes, that’s what it is referred to as, an engine. A search engine. Pretty cool I guess.

Wikipedia, an equally important tool for all of us in the know, says that the name Black Friday can be traced back to the 1960s. It apparently originated in Philadelphia and was used to describe the terrible traffic on the day after Thanksgiving. I wonder if perhaps we should go ahead and make it an official holiday. It has come to represent the insane consumerism that is so important to the survival of the American economy.

I watched President-elect Obama on TV the other night and saw how he tip-toed around Barbara Walter’s question regarding their family Christmas. He had to make sure that he did not sound as though a big Christmas was easy for his family, given the problems many Americans are facing and at the same time sound an optimistic note in an effort to inspire confidence in the whole system. I thought he did well. At least he didn’t just tell us to “go buy things”, like our current Chief Executive so crudely put it.

The good news for me and my wife is that we are not even thinking about going out to participate in the madness. The weather here is a little bleak anyway, what with winds and rain, but even if the sun was shining we have no desire to get involved. We are perfectly happy to sit this one out.

By now of course, we have all heard about the Wal-Mart employee who was trampled to death after a crowd of bloodthirsty consumers stormed the doors of the business in an effort to get the things they felt entitled to. I am trying very hard to imagine what any Wal-Mart in this country could contain that would mean that much to me. Do these people ever sit quietly and read books? Does the advertising on TV fill them with meaning and give them purpose in their never ending quest for more stuff? Pick up a Bible or almost any book, friend. Take a deep breath and come up with an alternative to crushing someone alive.

Our Thanksgiving Meal

Yesterday MP and I had a nice quiet Thanksgiving in our traditional non-traditional manner. I have included photos. We spoke with most of our family on the phone and in the evening I watched an old Alfred Hitchcock movie while my wife attempted to absorb it by osmosis as she slept on the couch. I really don’t know who enjoyed it more.

One of the other great things about the internet is that in addition to finding out all of the answers to our important questions, it is a great way to shop. Books, clothes, food, furniture, hardware supplies, and in fact, almost everything can be purchased online and shipped to your home without the messiness of crushing people to death. We think it’s a great option.

I guess I must sound rather pessimistic. All this talk of people dying and unbridled greed for stuff, but I don’t really mean to be that way. One of the fun things I did this week was get back to baking pies again. I have mentioned on this site before about my recent struggles with my recipe for pie dough. My mom got in touch and offered her usual words of encouragement and after listening to her and re-reading my Julia Child instructions I am happy to report that I seem to have reacquired my touch. Thanks Mom.

Three Pumpkin Pies

Last week I made five pumpkin and two pecan pies and I don’t mind saying that they were pretty good. Next week I am going to try some more. I also want to point out that I sent three of those pies to my wife’s office Thanksgiving lunch and gave two to our great neighbors next door. I can’t imagine what eating all of those pies by ourselves would have looked like. Actually the problem is that I really CAN imagine what that would be like and therefore I am always looking for people to give pies to. Any volunteers out there?

Two Pecan Pies

I also want to share a website I have found with all of you pie lovers out there. Check out www.pie-off.blogspot.com. This is where I got the recipe I used for my pecan pies and they were very good. You will find a lot of interesting pie stuff there and when they have their annual pie-off competition next year I hope to travel to Portland to compete.

If you must travel in the next couple of days, please be polite to those around you and be safe.

Oh, and of course since Turkey Day is past us now, Merry Christmas.

Sometimes we eat and sometimes we have to wash the dishes. At least most of us have to. Some people never wash their plates, silverware or cookware. It usually catches up with them after awhile but of course there are those who have people who do that for them.

Everyone knows that I eat more than I report. It’s not some big secret. I try to concentrate on certain aspects of my food experiences. Things that I judge may be more interesting to you or more likely to me.

This may not be a confession, but I do want to come clean.

I went to the ballpark and ate some fantastic hot dogs and chicken wings and taco salad. I talked with some very interesting people, some of whom I had never met before, and that was great fun. It’s pretty much impossible to talk about what you have been eating without sharing a little bit about what you did and who you met. Remember? Life and food; two and the same.

I ate at a new favorite barbecue place for the third time and am going to share my experience at some future date or then again, maybe not. See, I get to choose.

I have enjoyed a couple of nights with fresh oysters popped on my grill for about five minutes. I really need to talk about my grilling sessions, not because I make anything all that fantastic, but it is a great deal of fun for me. I bought a cherry pie at the Farmers Market and enjoyed it very much, here’s a shout out to Deborah’s Homemade Pies.

I regret not talking more about seasoning iron cookware when I posted about my steak cooking. You must never use soap on them and you must season them before you use them and you have to pay attention to the seasoning and not hurt it. See? There is a lot to learn about using this stuff. Look it up on the Internet.

I want to talk about that great bread I used when I made that fried egg sandwich. That stuff is good and I eat a peanut butter sandwich made from that stuff almost every single day of my life. And I usually eat a banana.

I usually drink two cups of coffee every day.

I usually have at least one glass of plain flavored soy milk.

I claim to never eat ice cream and I don’t ever buy it at the store to bring home, but about twice a year I eat ice cream either when invited to dinner, eating out or visiting a Baskin Robbins with friends. I don’t deny myself very much, but I try to stay clear of ice cream and chocolate.

I do enjoy good beer and good wine. We had homemade pizza while my daughter was here and that made it taste all the better. I love to make pancakes for my wife but have not done it for a few weeks. Maybe tomorrow.

Enough. That is certainly not everything but it is food I remembered for one reason or another.

I need to air my feelings about washing dishes so I guess I’ll file at least part of this post as What’s Eating Bob? I am not a man of strong principles but more a man who looks around in wide-eyed wonder at this big old goofy world, to borrow from John Prine. I have no special knowledge. All I have is the desire to talk and write about the goofy things that catch my eye.

I don’t think a person has any business fixing food in a kitchen unless they are doing the dishes. Oh, I know that Bobby Flay and the rest of the crowd that goes in for “stunt cooking” don’t have to clean up their own messes, but that is not the way it should be. Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time. Anyone who does not want to do dishes has no business cooking, which makes me think of an earlier time in my life.

When I graduated from high school I got a job as a carpenter’s helper. The pay was two bucks an hour and I caught a ride every morning with the boss, his father and another guy my age. I was eighteen years old and this was my first real job after graduating from high school. We rode 45 minutes every morning to Erie, Pa to build houses in a project. The father of my boss was 72 years old and his name was Bert. At the end of the summer the project was finished and Bert and I started putting new roofs on old barns. We spent the whole fall way out in rural Pennsylvania working on old barn roofs. I learned how to do the job and I hauled most of the new roofing up the ladder and I think perhaps more than anything else, kept an eye out for Bert. Bert knew more about what to do than I did by a mile, but I had a younger and stronger back. I was glad to play my role.

My favorite memories of Bert were when we stopped for lunch or took a break. I loved to listen to what he had to say and there was one particular saying he had that has become part of my vocabulary. Whenever it was time to go back to work, Bert would say, “There’s no rest for the wicked”, and then he would pause just the appropriate amount of time before finishing, “and the righteous don’t need it”.

When you think about it, that about covers all of us, doesn’t it?

And it is with that notion in mind that I extend my admonition to do the dishes. If you are cooking you should be expected to do your own dishes and if you are not cooking, then you should be willing to do the dishes. I think that about covers the subject.

I do have two rules I follow though. Not only do I insist on doing the dishes in my house, and on my time, but I also do not volunteer to do the dishes in others homes. That might sound cruel, and I have sometimes bent the rule, but I try to live by this.

One more thing that I must own up to is that all of these rules are arbitrary and can be changed whenever all parties agree or someone is shamed into it. Get it?

Life is not black and white. Sometimes you do the dishes in places where you had no intention of ever washing a plate or drying a coffee cup. In any event, we all need to do the dishes so I just wanted to clean up a few loose ends here.

I very much want to thank both George Huger and Abraham Whaley for all of the help they have given me in starting this blog. I would never be here without them. Thank you gentlemen. I will not forget your encouragement and technical assistance. I thank all of my family and I thank God for all of my family. I think that cleans a few things up for me. Thanks to all.