Hooray For Saturday!

Our Pal Bert

Makes you kind of want to do The Pigeon, no?

Happy Mardi Gras!

Yes, hello.

Happy Mardi Gras y'all.  Back in Louisiana this is a day for food, drink, family, friends and fun.  Let's make some jambalaya shall we?

Going from right to left we have the following:

• rice
• couple of diced up onions
• four big chicken breasts diced up
• some chuck roast diced up (if I were near the Gulf Coast this ingredient would be shrimp)
• couple pounds of andouille sausage cut up
• green pepper diced
• red pepper diced
• yellow pepper diced
• five or six stalks of celery diced
• few cloves of garlic minced
• Louisiana hot sauce
• loaf of french bread (not pictured)

Here we go!  Seeing that everyone is trying to think heart smart nowadays, only throw about a half stick of butter in that pot, on medium high heat and add the diced up chuck roast.  Let it brown a little bit, but not too much.

Add the chicken to the browning chuck and cook them up together.  Mmmm, look at those juices!  Feel free to add some sea salt, cayenne pepper, cumin, throw a few bay leaves in there.  Whatever spices might tickle your taste buds.

Two words: sausage time.  Add the sausage in once the first two meats are looking pretty and cooked.  Turn up the The Bluerunners coming from the speakers.   Stir that pot and get all those meats simmering together.

For some reason (picture purposes I think) I pulled the meat out with a slotted spoon and set it aside in a bowl, then added the Trinity to all the juices in the pot.  Trinity you ask?  Bell peppers, onions and celery.  Pretty much anything I cook as far as sauce, soup, or stew starts with this.  C'mon I'm from Louisiana.  I threw in a red & yellow pepper for color, you can go just green if you want.  I usually don't take anything from the pot ever when cooking jambalaya, but you can do either way.  Let that Trinity cook down nice and soft.

One the Trinity is cooked down (add your meat back to the pot if you took it out, but remember you don't have to take it out), the juices (NEVER DRAIN ANYTHING!!!) are all mixed up and your kitchen is smelling good, add three cups of long grain rice.  Fold the rice in and mix well.  Once rice is mixed in here is where you can get a little creative.  You need six cups of liquid, I don't care what you use.  I could tell you what I use, but I'd have to....well, you can make up your own mind here.  You can go simple as water, whatever stock or broth you would like, but just be careful of the salt factor.  Some crazy people in Northern Louisiana, add a little tomato sauce at this point, but notice I called them crazy.

Once you add your six cups of liquid, after stirring in the rice, bring the pot to a rolling boil, but make sure to stir so rice doesn't stick on bottom of the pot.  Once it starts to roll, turn heat to low, cover the pot with lid.  Stir the pot every eight minutes or so, making sure the rice doesn't stick to the bottom.  Simmer it about half an hour or so, then turn off heat and let it sit for ten minutes.  While it's resting, split that loaf of french bread down the middle, butter both sides, dash a little garlic salt on it and pop it in the oven for those ten minutes.

Grab a bowl, a piece of that bread, the bottle of hot sauce, your favorite beverage and enjoy.

Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler!

Happy Halloween

Have a safe time trick or treating.

If you stop by our house for treats, this is one of the carved pumpkins you will see in our yard.

Very Rare

Rain in Northern Kentucky.

Look at that finished deck, wow!

The Debonair Gentleman, Circa 1987

Well hello there Mr. Tuxedo!

Hair...perfect!  Smile...charming!

Tara High School 1987 Senior Prom, that's where that photo came from.

Actually, that photo wasn't taken at the prom, it was one of the 438 shots snapped by my prom date's dad as we posed in front of their lovely fireplace. 

As you can see, I have cropped out my date to protect the guilty.

My date to the senior prom was my best friend at the time.  She and I were cut from the same mold, we both enjoy people watching and sharing social commentary with one another, so it was fun to say the least.

Not only did we go to our prom, but somehow my friend managed to procure tickets to another prom, of a school that we didn't attend, the following night.  So needless to say, we were wacky kids and went to that one as well.

I got full value out of that tuxedo rental and yes, that is a floral pattern tie with cummerbund to match.

A while ago I was asked the question, if I could go back in time and tell my 18 year old self something what would it be?  My answer was to keep in touch with old friends.  I would also like to add to that, wear sunscreen on your nose. 

Luckily, because of our 20 year high school reunion information being passed around, I've been able to get in touch with my old friend and prom date.  It's been great exchanging emails with her and remembering goofy things from high school, the past couple of weeks.

I'm not sure if I want to go drop $150 bucks to rub elbows with people that were jerks to me in high school, but I will most definitely want to catch up with her and other people that were in our circle of friends back then.

Zoo Pals

In regards to my last post about digital photography, this is a fine example of I can't go without taking a picture.

The playgroup went to the zoo last Friday to visit some animals.

It could have been the fresh smell of rain in the air, the sunshine peeking out from behind the storm that had past, perhaps it was the subtle Kenny G playing in the area; Love was in the air.

This is a fine example of the fact that my sense of humor is that of a 14 year old boy.

Busy June

This is just stuff I'm supposed to remember

.

In The Creek

My disc golf game has gone about the same place this fawn has, done in the creek asleep.

I was feeling pretty good with my game, but all of a sudden I'm pulling my right shoulder up, which makes the nose of the disc go up, and the rest is out the window.

At least I came across this little thing the other morning to remind me, to me the game is secondary to a nice relaxing walk through scenic Idlewild Disc Golf Course.

Posting a low number is a bonus.

Mighty Fine Vehicle

The kids and I saw this mighty fine vehicle on the way to go have lunch with The Lady at work the other day.

4x4 Cadillac Limo.

I'm thinking I would have loved to have that ride lined up for Prom '87.

What do you think??

Doves Got Next

Not really known for it's rebounding or presence in the lane, but it's got a great jump shot from the perimeter and ball handling skills are off the charts.