Busted at the Buffet

Upon hearing of the Elliot Spitzer escapade(s), my first question was I wonder what they ordered from room service.

Next thought, of course( I'm a guy), is boy, she sounds cute.

Are we not good at destroying ourselves? Gee, he was so good at destroying others.

Sounds also as if this was not his first time at the buffet.

I feel bad for his wife, and think that she has probably lost her appetite.

Gettin' Chunky

Remember the Chunky Candy Bar that went the way of the Mars Candy Bar before the Mars Bar went that way? If you fill a china coffee cup with equal amounts of semi sweet chocolate chips, raisins and walnuts you have a very close approximation of the original. Sprinkle with sea salt.

Sip espresso on the side if you want to get really fired up.

The Dynamic Duo

In an internet ad Jack Nicholson says gentlemen, there is nothing sexier than waking in the morning and saluting a woman. That would be Hillary he is referring to, as President and Commander in Chief.

If Hillary would be President and would dally w/ Jack in the Oval Office, how would the American public respond? I can see Jack now, sipping his morning coffee, pinky finger flayed, hair all over the place, and that grin on his face. His greatest and final Academy Award performance.

Hedgehogs

I heard on public radio this morning of 23 or so guys who were publicly executed for attempting or assisting escape from N Korea. I guess that's why they were trying to escape.

I wonder what they eat over there. Not much, whatever it is. Dead stuff, tho', like we do.

The NYT food writer, Frank Bruni ,has been eating at and reviewing 10 of his favorite picks of newer restaurants across this country. He ate hedgehog at one in California.

We had a pet hedgehog, once, that stayed curled up in a ball like a tiny porcupine for two years and then died. He looked the same dead as alive.

I s'pose we could have ate him.

All is Well

It is hard to believe that our lakes will have open water in a about a month.

I am a sucker for fast food. Can't help myself. Stuff like fish. They're fast. And deer, grouse, pheasants. All fast. Swift in the water, on the hoof, or the wing. Fairly natural depending on where you get them.

Slow food too, from the garden, to accompany the fast. The perfect balance. Fresh herbs growing close to the kitchen.

A daughter still at home, of course, at 10 yrs of age.

A young lab, too.

Living on the lake.

It is good.

Every Recipe Has A Story

Now that bread is about 3 bucks a loaf, and much more if you like the rustic artisanal variety, it is time to try baking your own. It costs only about 35 to 50 cents a loaf to bake your own and it is way better for you. Buy stone ground whole wheat flour , as it contains the wheat germ - natural vitamins and minerals. The heat generated by steel rollers in the milling process for non stone ground flours destroys the germ.

I've been doing it for about ten years - mostly using my Great Aunt Sophia's recipe for whole wheat loaves, which includes stone ground whole wheat flour, unbleached white flour, scalded milk, a little brown sugar and molasses, salt, vinegar, oil, wheat germ, and some oatmeal, and of course yeast. If you understand the chemistry of bread baking you could make it from that list of ingredients.

Last night I made rye with whole wheat and white flour loaves. Dang it's good. It is hearty, nutty, earthy, with a nice crunchy crust and a soft chewy crumb( interior). The more you chew the more flavor you get. That is called depth of flavor.I used water. It is cheaper than milk.It was the first time I ever made rye bread. Also, it was the first time I ever sprayed the loaves w/ water before baking and a couple of times during the baking process. That's how you get the artisanal crusty exterior. Do it. It works.

In the old logging days around Floodwood( Gowan), there was large Finnish woman who worked in the woods as a lumberjack. She was a close friend of my Great Aunt Sophia. She baked similar loaves of bread, but this story has little to do w/ bread except for the nourishment and strength that she gained from eating it. It allowed her to compete on a level playing field with the men.

Balsam sap was a well known balm or dressing for an axe wound in the woods. It had antiseptic and adhesive qualities. It would glue the wound together and help it to heal. You didn't have to lose work time in the woods. You could keep on cutting wood. Every lumber jack knew about it.

It was on a day not unlike many others that Mary entered the woods, except for on that day she was a little more inflamed than usual with her chronic condition. As the sun rose higher , so did the sap in the maple and the balsam; as did as the burning and the pain of her hemorrhoids. It finally became unbearable.

Initially,it worked, this balsam sap; it was cool and it relieved the pain. Though not the tallest tree in the woods, it was almost immediately that Mary experienced the other property of balsam sap, the adhesive quality, and realized that she had made a mistake. She had glued her butt hairs together.

It was much later than usual that evening that Mary paid a visit to Sophia and explained her recent situation, the dilemma, and her failed solution. " I couldn't walk," she explained," and I had to crawl out of the woods. Don't tell anyone," she said.

Eat, And Let The Games Begin

Just about everyone Up North is fat. I was reminded of this again on Sat while at a volley ball tourney for my youngest in Rogers, which is not too Up North.

It's from eating stuff like "taco in a bag", or "walking taco" - doritos and taco meat and cheese in the chip bag. It's a great imaginative concoction, tastes great, fulfills this craving for the "fried and the fat"that we seem to have. It is all the rage at school sporting events. It will kill you. Don't eat it, unless you are 10 with a ramped up metabolism and you are actually playing in the volleyball game. Remember, you are sitting down for about six hours.

My menu for the occasion? Rye crisp and camembert. Red grapes. Plain yoghurt sweetened w/ honey. Grape, orange/ tea juice( green). It was complete and satisfying.Well, summer sausage from Thielen's too, and muenster cheese, and a apple. Ate every hour. The sausage and muenster was mostly for my grandson( 6 yrs). When you are eating whole grain and fruits, you can have some fat, especially if it's from France, and it's called camembert. They are not fat over there. Just bald w/ big noses. The guys that is. I love the accent, as on the Academy Awards. I wonder if you can get an accent like that if you eat enough camembert? And drink red wine from there, too?

I will let you know.