LOREN ALLRED - PRIME RIB - WHAT MAY BE COMING, SV AIRSPEED, VERN'S POTATO SALAD, FRESH BEE HONEY

 Loren Allred on BGT 2022

I wonder if this performance will be clouded with her already being a professional singer. Golden Buzzer and all. Regardless, always a beautiful rendition of "her song."

Another performance. Easy to watch and listen to. I think sung better here than on BGT.

I am going to have to follow her this season out of curiosity and to just to hear her sing.

Another excellent Golden Buzzer moment.

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PRIME RIB SUNDAY

An Easter dinner not planned.

Wife covered the leftover roast with the dregs from the roasing pan and  put it to rest below. Habit!

A quick trip to town just prior to Easter Sunday to pick up a few basics. We found prime rib roasts on sale. $5.99 a pound. Picked out two beautiful 6 lb. roasts and an Easter dinner planned itself. 

I enjoy prime rib from time to time. Who does not? But no matter how properly seasoned or cooked, the roasts always seem lacking in the perfect prime rib flavor for me. 

This time though we were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the roast. One hundred percent perfect in flavor. Well-done portions to rare rare.  Melt in your mouth and all that.

The perfect prime rib roast does exist but apparently not every time, at least for us. That flavor promise is what brings us back especially when on sale. 

Her said several times that we will most likely not see these prices again. 

A dozen garlic clove shards set in slits throughout the roast. A light coat of olive oil hand rubbed in. Then sprinkled with DASH Garlic and Herb seasoning bend and hand-patted into the roast surfaces. Let set one hour before cooking.

Into the oven at 425F degrees for 15 minutes and finished the 2 1/2 hour bake at 375.

The above mentioned DASH seasoning is worth having on the kitchen shelf. We find it universal for meats, soups, stews and vegetables. Again, not pushing a product. Just sharing personal opinion. 

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An early harvest. Onions not fully developed, but I have decided to start using as meals may dictate. Scalloped potatoes needed this onion. Also an abundance of greens that bleed fresh flavor from this single onion. 

Cabbage, onions and potatoes.

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Fresh and hot!

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QUICK FIX to keep deer from eating the lemon trees.

The lemon trees in their new permanent home are budding wonderfully. We have one buzzy bee we see in the afternoons working both trees. Time will tell.
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AIRSPEED under sail some where in the Bahamas.

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ARE YOU READY FOR WHAT IS COMING? A half-hour of your time well spent and think of adding his situation reports to your weekly reads. 

The 3rd and 4th quarters of this year are just around the corner. Time is short.

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Verm's potato salad.

'Tis the season for potato salad. I used red potatoes this time with fresh garden onion and parsley. The bride says this salad is always perfect, but using red potatoes has raised the bar. "Best ever." Vern always said that "every bite must have crunch, a piece of pickle and egg" to qualify for a top notch potato salad. This salad is always best the second day. 

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LESS SHOWERING URGED

It's a PTA folks!! I will stick with my hot, warm, fuzzy feeling showers thankyou.

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Gifted fresh bee honey on dollar, add water-only biscuits. It is all about the honey. Heaven!

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It has been a week of having some place to go every day and not being able to get to my last garden chore, planting pole beans. I gave up a day of fishing to finish this project. The growing season waits for no one. 

Two home made bins for pole beans. Filling bin #2 and completing the major garden planting. We do have two planting seasons so in a prefect world, I will get to more planting in July. 

A wonderful east Texas rain soaks the land this morning. 

Late post this week. Appreciate the visit and God Bless!

REFLECTIONS - PECANS - THE LAST GUIDE - GUMBO - BOB HOOVER - WIDEN THE MOAT

REFLECTIONS 

I tell my son that he has a natural eye for great photography. 

I am always pleasantly surprised at some of the photos he takes, seemingly with such ease. These kinds of photos present themselves quickly and are not easily re-created. 

JUST PECANS

Gifted a bucket of pecans from a friend of a friend. We borrowed a nutcracker for the pecans and set to work learning what locals already knew about pecan shucking. 

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THE LAST GUIDE 

An excellent story. Good for the heart and a slice of days past. Take the time to enjoy this story and the telling. From Bustedknuckles blog.

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GUMBO

Two years now living in east Texas and this is our first try at homemade gumbo (using a package seasoning base). 

Followed directions. Used half homemade chicken broth and half chicken base seasoning with water. One pound of sliced sausage as the stock heated to boil. Added 3 pounds of uncooked shrimp the last three minutes of cooking. Could have added more sausage and shrimp as this made a big batch of stock. 

Served alongside hot, white rice. 

 The heat and the flavor were perfect. 

My wife, having history of living in and working out of New Orleans, says this flavor was great, but the gumbo she is used to "had more moving parts."

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An early morning drive down to a lake.

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A BOB HOOVER DOCUMENETARY. "FLYING THE FEATHERED EDGE."

I saw Bob Hoover perform at the Reno Air Races. I knew the name and new of his skills as an airshow performer. I never knew the whole story.

Regarded by many top aviators as the very best fighter pilot ever. Take the time to watch this documentary. Excellent storytelling and remarkable pilot/man. 

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We have finally gotten some soaking rain here in east Texas. The garden explodes when the rain is followed by a couple days of sun. It is magic in my view. (Pole beans sprang up last night.)

Her flowers are also in tow, pushing out color and cascading growth from hanging baskets. The simplest of times.

.............. 

All of the sky-is-falling predictions, the constant barrage of news that is no more than words on pages, media dancing purposefully out of step and a president looking to shake hands with thin air causes me to look over my shoulder as a new default.   

There is a quiet in this world that screams, "widen the moat and tend to the drawbridges."

Thank you for the visit this week. Happy Easter and God bless.

FOODFOODFOOD - "EYE-TALIAN TREAT" - NEW HAND PRUNERS

FOOD FOOD FOOD

The link above was found on Bayou Renaissance Man blogpost. In keeping with this "the after" postings, I found this link leads to other excellent reads on the upcoming food shortages that will impact all of us. 

Rather than run down one of the many rabbit holes on this subject here, I think his post covers it well and you can dig as deep as you want for your personal concerns and actions. 

If all of this is coming in the 3rd/4th quarter of this year, then there is little time left to become fully self-sufficient. I have been visiting and harping on this for years. 

Planned Starvation  Another good read. But disturbing. 

My blog plan this week was to include many quick links here that speak to all that is coming. No good news regarding the end of this year, let alone after.

Taxicab Depressions and an article written in 2014 "The Pig Trap" that is worth the time to read.  

Mid-week I asked neighbor about the costs of the fertilizers he uses. He said that fertilizer was $500 dollars a ton and is now $1000 a ton.  

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SHELDON COOPER'S MOTHER WAS RIGHT!

"A real "eye-talian treat."

Left over spaghetti and a grilled lunch hotdog. I would never in a million years thought of putting these two items together had it not been for Sheldon Cooper. Just had to try it. Surprisingly tasty mix of flavors.

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Wife is learning breadmaking. 

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Back roads of east Texas scenery.

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A FIND

Estate/garage sales on Thursday mornings. Neighbors and us always on the roads early. An outing and great visiting. Much laughing. A doughnut stop on the way home.

These two hand pruners were found in a box of rusted tools. A buck a piece. Not working, rusted shut. Did I mention a buck a piece?

They are older obviously. Feel different in the hand. Old school. Smaller yet heavier. Handles indicate little use. My bet is that the steel in these two tools is of a higher grade than those on the store shelves today. 

To the work bench when I got home. A kid with new toys! 

Took the nuts/bolts off (design allowed for maintenance/sharpening). To the belt sander for light cleaning. Edges came back to razor sharpness with little effort. If I had a wire wheel, I would have better cleaned surface rust. 

WD40 and a half sheet of 100 grit sand paper to the task. Re-assembled. Nut and bolt properly tightened. 

Grandpa would be most proud. Every garden tool he ever made or purchased was always cleaned, sharpened and oiled for protection. It was sin to use then put back on the garden tool rack dirty. Tools once had to last a life time and did so through pride and TLC.

Both pruners live now on the side-by-side tilt bed. These are mine. Her is welcome to use them anytime she wants. In a perfect world, I should be able to find one sharp hand pruner as needed where needed. Every time I use one of these, a little happiness will be attached. The mechanical function of  matching parts is flawless.

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"Times they are a changin'." Thanks for the visit this week. God Bless.

FYI. Wife called the butcher regarding advertised split chicken breasts. Butcher said that major supplier is not producing split chicken breasts anymore.  

Soup made from those chicken breasts just yesterday. Garden fresh greens.

BAG 'O' FISH - ITCHY BOOTS - THE ABERNATHY BOYS - SV AIRSPEED

 

Thirteen crappie inside two hours of fishing. Older gentleman knows how to fish. Period. He had three bagged by the time neighbor, his bass boat and I arrived at the piers under the overpass. Dropping small bait fish, hanging on a bobber, right alongside cement piers. 

Neighbor and I did some of the same and then moved towards big lake docks and dropping/casting inside and next to dock posts. Neighbor caught two this day and me. Well, I have much to learn of east Texas fishing. 

I need to simplify all that I am doing. Drop the right bait, hanging at the correct depth next to structures in the lake. Longer, lighter pole, maybe.  

I was talking with my wife about looking for a small used affordable bass boat. Because of honey this and honey that and a little bit of "wow" and "oh boy" and old man charm. Trying to say all the right things. I believe in the long run I will have as much success with all of this as I did fishing on this day. 

And I have to admit, it is ok. But always fun to look at toys. Always. And more engines and machines to take care of does not hold any interest for me.

When I catch my first catfish or crappie, you will hear about it. The lakes we fish are no more than 10 minutes away. 

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"YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU ARE BIG ENOUGH TO DO!"

A quote from my wife. She has a way of putting living a life into words that I would struggle to do. It would take me paragraphs to come close to giving such advice. I get it. Understand it. Have lived it. Living it. But passing it along to others? 

Itchy Boots an excellent episode post. Travel logs I have shared before. This episode is full of wonderful photography, music and adventure shared. She is "big enough" to live a life, huh? I am amazed at the skill sets she has developed over her years riding a motorcycle around this world. 

THE ABERNATHY BOYS

I found the above article posted on Knuckledraggin My Life Away.

There was/were days in our history where adventures like this story were common. Take the time to read and enjoy good storytelling. Share. 

If there is a deep dream inside of you and you are still young, my advice is to give yourself permission to do the adventure. You will not regret it. Take a lot of photos and write the story. Age will take away adventures you can live now. 

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Morning pancakes from a pouch.

Quick. Easy. Add one egg and some milk. Mix and into the frying pan. EOTW worthy. Some pouch mixes just require water and they too are good eats. Butter and syrup a must in my pancake eating world. Left over batter next day. NOT SO MUCH.

My wife and I have taken this movie clip to heart.   We laugh out loud every time we find ourselves saying this to clarify a moment during these crazy days we live in. 

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SV AIR SPEED AT ANCHOR this past week.

Captain says he is having a hard time getting pics and text messages to send from that corner of the world. Damn those first world problems, huh? 

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FARMERS MARKET OPENED YESTERDAY

 

Shopping yesterday at this season's opening of our town's local farmers' market!! 

We jumped on three bunches of fresh garden carrots from this seller. He had to drive 1.5 hours one way to work this market. His costs have most likely doubled since a year ago. 

Local local local will become more and more important in all of our lives. Best to help foster relationships and support these local vendors. Three bunches of carrots fresh from the ground. 

"Those were the days my friends. I could tell you stories of the easy and simple times we lived in."

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SISTERS NO LONGER KITTENS

It has been a year now, give or take. My wife has become the main guardian in their lives, having taken over the care and feeding since they left momma cat. 

The sisters roam together. Have taken to their corner of this world. Dead critters appear daily at our doorsteps now and they are experts at getting into everything. 

My wife has an "it's ok they are just being cats" approach to all of this until the cats started eating her lemon grass plants the same day she brought them home. 

Pointing, finger-shaking and gruff voice shooshing with one cat receiving the lightest of taps on her cat bottom. Ohhhhh the severity of these scoldings!!

Lemon grass is a delicacy in cat world.

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Gardens coming on the lands here. More on this and that in the weeks ahead. 

Appreciate the visit this week.