Kryptonite

I feel just like Superman when the evil villains were able to get him near some Kryptonite. My powers like his, have suddenly begun to disappear. Up to this point, my life has been virtually pain free, no back aches, strong like Polish Bull, able to walk into walls and not feel it, arm wrestle and beat even the youngest. Looking around me I could see the ravages of age on many of my acquaintances and felt that no way was that going to be me, I’m escaping all of that.

Well, my Kryptonite has finally found me. It’s not that “Green”stuff Superman had to deal with, mine is the 2010 Calendar that said, Bill, you’ve been beating the shit out of your body for 75 years now here’s what you should really feel like. And Mr.2010 started to show me. Stayed away from the golf course for many weeks this year with shoulder and arm pain caused by my friend Art Thritis pressing on a nerve. After treatment and shots, I finally cured that problem. Next on the list was a chunk of filling from a tooth which could no longer be patched up, thought that was it but started to have tooth aches on the other side. Shit, now there’s no place to chew. Forget the steak, big man, unless you win the lottery and can afford Kobe beef. Oh well, oat meal and farina should nourish me enough to stay alive. At least the body pains are gone and I can start thinking about golf and our annual Myrtle Beach trip.

Wrong!! Said yes again when I should have said no. Volunteered or coerced into setting up table for an AARP Christmas party. Myself and a two other seniors even older than me were the only help for the project. Of course because I am Polish and strong like bull I began to pick up and stack those heavy tables like I was thirty. Was going ok until I felt something in my lower back give way, now for the past couple of weeks I’m walking around like the hunchback of Notre Dame. What’s next?

Fortunately, during this painful period of recuperation I’ve been blessed with the company of a new friend whose name is Kindle. A few weeks ago I decided to purchase an Amazon Kindle and tackle some of those giant Stephen King books that have sat unread on the book shelf. I've been putting them off because they’re so damn big I can’t even take them to bed and read. Kindle solved all that. Since buying it I’m already on my twentieth book.
I downloaded a very inexpensive mystery book written my Lorena McCourtney. The book was book one of a four book series called the Ivy Malone mysteries. Never thought I would enjoy a book written by an older woman and one that had no profanity, no sex and even a little religion built in. I ended up reading all four of them and each time I finished the book I noticed that she listed her name, address, and even her email address. Thought I’d write and tell her how much I enjoyed them, never expecting to get a return response. But I did get one a couple of days later thanking me especially since she doesn’t have that many male readers and even commented that I had a very nice front door. That kind of floored me a little until I remembered that my Blog site address is listed at the end of my emails. It surprised me that she took the time to go to my Blog site. You will recall my last one which showed some of the new things we did at the house.

Since it’s time for New Year’s resolutions, I think one of mine will be to act my age and leave the bull work to the young guys. I’ve shaken most of the Kryptonite effects away and want to keep it that way. Of course, having a few pains in the back provides a great excuse for playing a lousy round of golf……might even get me a few extra strokes.

A random thought: Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

Glad it's over

Well, several very hectic weeks are over with and I’m able to finally sit down and concentrate on my feeble attempts to entertain you all with a few Blogs. What was hectic you ask? Well let me tell you: For one, the seven therapy sessions I attended to try and get rid of the terrible pains I was having in my shoulder, arm and hand, and the of three spinal injections for the same reason. If that wasn’t enough my wife decided that it was about time we had some of the house projects done that were gathering moss on the family to-do sheet. I must say that she has had some real patience with me on a few of them. When we bought our house about thirty years ago it came with a God-awful front door which she hated from the start. A metal one, that included a terrible attempt to make the inside look like wood. Additionally even opening it was a chore. I guessed that it was time to take care of that disaster. Of course that meant a few days of staining, and then two coats inside and out of the polyurethane.
Next on the list was a new furnace, not much work for me, thank heaven, but still a cleaning of a furnace room that still has dust from the 1980’s. Oh, and there’s more, shopping for a new bed and mattress. And what a bed, its’ so damn big I never know if Marge is in it. And tall, I figure when I get older I’ll need a ladder to get in and out. I almost forgot, since we know have a new door, our front (brass?) light looked like s__t, so it was off to Lowe’s for a new one. Of course those electrical jobs never go smooth and easy…..none of the new stuff fit the old. Fortunately I have 75 years of experience making things work without tools or the right parts. Marge thinks I’m a genius when it comes to fixing things without the stuff to fix it.
To top all this stuff off, there was always my Church work. Snipping pine branches to make 68 advent wreaths and hauling and putting our Nativity figures up in our Crèche.
Well, what else? I know I had even more November thrills, but I’m sure by this time you’re already bored to death. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea, the month did have some bright spots: the shoulder is feeling great, even with all the November work and only one more shot in the back…..yippee!, and Thanksgiving was marvelous, no cooking! Just eating and drinking wine at my daughters. After many, many years of cooking for the holidays the kids have retired the old man. One has us over for Christmas, another Thanksgiving, and even Easter is out of my hands. As much as I enjoy cooking this arrangement is working out just dandy.
So after all this I’m just about ready to begin bitching about everything pissing me off and the world better remember not to make old people mad. We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off.
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of hearing about “Black Friday”, “Small Business Sunday” and “Cyber Monday” and when and why did all this crap start. I don’t know about you, but the fancy names won’t make me buy any more stuff than I would without the “catchy names”. Now on to Christmas carols. Don’t know about you, but I’ve always loved Christmas carols, but I’m talking about the ones that used to be in the little John Hancock carol book that the insurance agent always dropped off in December when he made his rounds to collect the twenty five cent monthly premium payment. Not talking about the crap they try to pass off on us for a whole damn month. Please folks, I never saw Mommy kissing Santa and I sure as hell never had my Grandma run over by a reindeer. This has the makings of one of those nostalgia things, so I’ll stop here and just say that I’m real happy to have had the chance to experience a few of the “real Christmas holidays”.

Back to Normal

The other day I was thinking about my last couple of Blog entries and started to beat up on myself for dwelling on the “old age, aches and pains and senior stuff, and boring everyone. But then I remembered the name I gave my site, “rhinoroars”. Hell, bitching is what it’s all about and as so many of you know I have never had any problem doing that. Well, now I feel better and will be more comfortable with all my future complaints. Hopefully I’ll also be able to include a few enlightening and entertaining little tidbits. Now that I feel free to continue my extreme negative outlook on things I was thinking about a couple of things that annoy me.

We pay the cable companies dearly each month to watch television, but I’m starting to feel that all I’m paying for are commercials for which they’re also getting paid. I’m astounded daily at the proliferation of commercials. I don’t care what crappy channel you might be watching, you’re still inundated with 10 to 12 commercials during each break, and how quickly they come. I swear commercial time must be a real bargain these days. Just look at what we’ve had to endure during this election campaign. Everyone I speak to cannot wait till November 3rd. The stations might have to revert to using test patterns to fill the screens after the election. I wonder if the kids today even know what a test pattern is.

And please dear friends don’t wake in the middle of the night and try to watch something good on TV. No, no folks, its infomercial time. Think about it folks we’re paying all that money and now we’re paying to watch commercials.

Still on the TV band wagon I just have to know why all the political shows are on Friday and the stations feel like we need our dose of religion Sunday. I take care of my spiritual needs all by myself and make my regular church contributions. Now I’m also paying to watch multiple sermons on the tube.

The other day I filled up my Enclave and was mesmerized by that dial spinning madly and mounting up the dollars. At $3.00 per gallon I wasn’t surprised that the tab was over $50.00. And you know what, no young fellow ran out with rag in hand to find out if I needed my oil checked and then washing my windshield instead of me braving the wind and cold with that squeegee which still leaves those damn streaks. I used to get that wonderful treatment at .25 per gallon. If I asked nicely I probably could even have the air in my tires checked. All this was why they called that gas place a “Service Station”. Don’t you think its time they dropped the service word. That guy behind the bulletproof glass only takes your money. We do it all ourselves now and no one pays us or even says thank you.

Amazing, isn’t it, how they have us trained to accept.

I'm Back

As much as I enjoy composing these little visions into my life I have been hesitating doing it for over a month. Why, you ask? It’s primarily because when I last wrote back in August I committed to stop writing about all that “old senior stuff”. I promised myself that I wasn’t going to look at any of those old people or nostalgia emails anymore. I was going to think “young”, but damn it, it hasn’t worked.

Damn back, shoulder, arm, and hand, all of them hurting like hell. Skipped golf more times then I want to even think about, passing up on some of my favorite kind of weather. Gobbling up Aleve, Ibupropin, and even some of Marge’s left over Vicodin (from her knee surgery) on a regular basis.

Finally went to a couple of doctors to find out what was wrong. So now I’m going to physical therapy, a pain doctor for spinal shots for you guessed it……stuff that happens to old people. Arthritis spurs at a disc and pressing on a nerve. So here I am with nothing but old shit on my mind. How am I going to write nice stimulating stuff will all that going on?

But putting all that aside, I decided to exercise a few fingers that are still working and let all of you know I’m still around and still kicking albeit not quite as hard. I'm still keeping myself busy with other activities, never did learn how to say no. Just helped run a successful Oktoberfest at my church .One hundred thirty people, eight piece orchestra and a great German Dinner, Knockwurst, Bratwurst, roast pork with gravy, German potato salad, red cabbage and rye bread. Had loads of old people there, felt right at home….lol.

Since golf has been on the back burner I decided to start reading novels again. Knocked off several and was really getting into the swing of it. There were a few Stephen Kings on the bookshelf that I wanted to get to, but kept hesitating because the damn things are three or four inches thick and weigh a ton. No way I could hold the up for hours with my new lame hand and arm, especially could never handle them in bed. Finally a light bulb went off in my head, why don’t I buy myself one of those new fangled “Kindle” things from Amazon. Did just that, what a great invention! This thing now goes to bed with me. I’ve already read about four books including one of King’s monsters, “Insomnia”. Working on another real beast, “It”, over eleven hundred pages.

I do have to get one “bitch” in this entry. Are you people tired of the political campaign commercials, especially the constant smear tactics and the frequency. I’d like to know what it is costing them to drive us crazy. When the hell is one of them going to take a positive approach and tell us how they plan to improve our lives. Makes you want to move to Canada where they are only allowed to campaign for five weeks prior to the election.

Here’s hoping I can be more entertaining the next time around…..maybe the treatments will let my smile again.

No more do you remember

Here’s a line uttered by Norman Thayer in the movie On Golden Pond when he was gassing up his boat.

“Think it's funny being old? My whole goddamn body's fallin' apart.
Sometimes I can't even go to the bathroom when I want to...but I'm still a man and can take on you punks”.

Man, can I relate to poor old Norman. My back hurts, my shoulder is killing me and like Norman, when I do have to go to the bathroom at night I have to sit on the edge of the bed to get my bearings so I don’t fall as I limp along to the can. When the hell did I get old? Seems like yesterday when I could bounce down the stairs and take them two at a time going up. Now I make sure I have a hand on the rail in either direction.

I’m also finding less and less humor in all those “old people emails” and those nostalgia ones constantly reminding me of the old days…do you remember black and white TV, keys for your shoe attached roller skates and candy cigarettes. No more please, I remember, I remember, ok! I’m also tired of the constant senior citizen doctor appointments, regular, eye, prostate, dermatologist, foot and so on and so forth. I visit the blood letting people so often they are starting to greet me by name when I walk in. My golfing partners are giving me so many strokes there’s no more room for dots on the score card. Unfortunately I need all I can get.

Enough of this already, from this day forward I refuse to think old. I’m going to begin watching Saturday morning cartoons and start all over again and thank God for letting me be here to do it.

Things might be changing

You’re driving along on the interstate. You and your passenger’s stomachs are empty and your bladders are full. You pass exit after exit without food or rest area signs until finally, “Halleluiah”, an exit sign with restaurants and gas stations listed. You get to the exit, look around and decide that the area looks like you landed in the twilight zone. Oh well, the sign says food that a way so we take the turn, squeeze our legs together and head for relief. Oh yah, so we thought. We drive and drive and drive with nothing in sight, where the hell is the damn restaurant? I’m embarrassed to tell you where some of my bladder relief’s have been. I swear it should be against the law to post a highway sign unless you’re less than a mile from the exit.

Well, this little “bitch” was the result of a recent trip four of us made on the way to a golfing location, Crumpin Fox, to be exact, in Bernardston, Massachusetts. It was very early in the morning and we were all anxious to have a coffee and some breakfast. First possible exit had a Cracker Barrel so we got off only to find it was closed at that early hour. Onward we went to another exit with a Friendly’s sign. Took the exit and started to look for the restaurant. Well, I still don’t know where the Friendly’s was, but I now know what Holyoke looks like in the morning. We’re a little frustrated, but we haven’t starved yet and none of us are crossing our legs so we truck Northward.

We see the exit for Northampton, Mass ahead and lo and behold, it’s got another Friendly listed. No way can we strike out again, but we did. Now it’s onward to a tour of downtown Northampton with still no sign of the Friendly’s……unbelievable. We’re almost out of town when we spot a diner sign, the Blue Bonnet Diner. Doesn’t look that exciting, but at this point we definitely need some food and a coffee? What a surprise when looks are deceiving. Diner was large, clean, service excellent and as fussy as I am with breakfast (you recall some of my previous blogs), I have to admit that the cheese omelet I ordered was by far the best I have had in my 75 years. Couldn’t believe it! And the home fries were good too. All of us were very, very happy we never got to a Friendly’s. Once in a while things turn out great.

Golf turned out pretty good too. Weather held out, no rain, not too hot, beer was cold and I survived 27 holes. Might have been a little too many holes for this old fart. Didn’t play that well, but my partner and I still took the young guys for $4.00 bucks.

By the way we stopped at the Blue Bonnet again for dinner. This ones a real keeper. For $10.59 I had a huge New England boiled dinner of corned beef, boiled potatoes, carrots and turnips. Even building a real hunger after all that golf I still had trouble finishing the meal. All that and a super waitress to boot. Are things changing for me? What the hell am I going to bitch about?

A LITTLE HISTORY OF THE BLUEBONNET DINER

Built by the Worcester Lunch Car Company in 1950, the historic Bluebonnet Diner stands as a familiar Northampton landmark. The name "Bluebonnet" is derived from the Texas state flower of the same name.

Seeing many additions over the years, yet sparing the original craftsmanship, the diner takes on a character all its own.

The dining room was added in 1960, with the later additions of a lounge and banquet all in 1967. Since its beginning, the Bluebonnet has seen a ten-fold increase in seating; with a present capacity of 110 in the restaurant, and 240 in the banquet hall.

Good food, prepared by competent people is standard fare here. Many recipes have earned us the reputation for good home-style cooking. We are most famous for our home-made puddings and cream pies.

The versatility of the Florentine Room (the banquet hall) is present in a week's schedule. The hall has seen many faces, from weddings, showers, and receptions to meetings, seminars, and parties.

On the Road Again

No, not that Willie Nelson road. We’re back on the Connecticut Wine Trail “Road again”. This year like the past three or four will be another attempt to win a trip in the Passport program run each year by the Connecticut wineries and vineyards. As you recall, a passport book can be picked up at any participating winery. When you make a visit to one they will happily stamp it for you just like a regular passport book. After you have had the book stamped by the required number of wineries you submit the book to be drawn in a lottery. The list of Connecticut wineries now numbers thirty with new ones coming on board every year. Last year Marge and I and another couple visited nineteen and even with a late start this year we’ve already been to thirteen.

While it would be great to win one of those trips to Spain or France, our excursions to our Connecticut wineries have still been a lot of fun. I was joking, however, that with what we’ve spent doing it these past years we could have financed one of those trips by ourselves. Our trips begin with a picnic lunch. Most locations have areas where they allow you to picnic, but this past Friday we had ours at the great facilities in Salmon River State Park. We even have a hot lunch occasionally since our friends purchased a small grill just for that purpose. On this trip we got real ambitious and were able to get the book stamped five times with visits to Maugle Sierra in Ledyard, three in North Stonington, Jonathan Edwards, Stonington Vineyards, and Dalice Elizabeth along with a last minute stop at Chamard in Clinton. This was a helluva day since we included dinner at Lenny and Joe’s Fishtail. Good stop for me, haven’t had oysters on the half shell since Myrtle Beach. A dozen along with a bowl of clam chowder helped make the day. Made Marge's day too, because she's been longing for a lobster roll all summer and the Fishtail visit took care of that.

All of these wineries offer wine tasting for a nominal fee, usually $5.00 to $7.00 dollars. You get a chance to sample the vineyards six or seven wines and take home the glass. Can’t do this much anymore since our cabinet now has over thirty monogrammed glasses we would need to throw out some pots, pans and dishes to find room for more. Besides that we now know which wines we like, so we just buy a bottle, borrow four of their glasses and go out sit around one of their tables and enjoy the scenery and the wine. I suggest you try one of these excursions yourself, I know you will enjoy it. With so many wineries all around the state now the drives aren’t that long anymore. You can check them all out by going on the web and punching in: www.ctwine.com

Heat Wave and More

Any of you who have read some of my previous Blog entries know that on occasion I bitch about the lack of benefits provided by aging. I joke about the only benefits from advancing age being an occasional senior discount and hitting from the gold tees when I play golf.

Well, lo and behold, I found another one. Sitting here in my air conditioned office hiding from another oppressive day of heat, the result of a now seven day heat wave, I realized that I don’t work anymore, I’m retired. I can remember those miserable 90 and 100 degree days when I had my business. Trying to work at the desk with papers sticking to my arms, listening to office staff complaining about the heat and still others bitching that the air conditioning was too cold. Worrying about my poor warehouse workers sweltering in the non-air conditioned warehouse, should I send them home early? If I do that then the office will be pissed, pardon my language. How do I run the business when everyone wants their vacation time in July, dilemma after dilemma? And don’t forget fighting the bees that always seem to find a home somewhere in my walls. Well thank heaven these are only memories and I can continue my quest for additional benefits.

On a lighter side, I want you to know that I have continued my attempts at farming. These last few years I have planted some vegetables in the fifty foot wall bordering our pool. Have tried a few things, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers etc., but I’ve had the most fun growing butternut squash which we love, especially in a soup on those cold fall and winter days. I always save the biggest for last and when preparing for a meal, I take all the seeds, dry them and start them in small pots the following spring. I figure that if I keep using the biggest every year, some day I’ll be growing some real monsters….lol. The crop looks good this year in spite of some early cold snaps which really hurt the start. In addition to the squash, I’ve got a few pots of tomatoes along with something new for me.

This spring a friend of mine presented me with a tiny plant that he said was a pumpkin. I planted it and nursed it along until it began to develop what looked like a zucchini, but has now developed into an honest to goodness pumpkin. Right now it’s the size of a medium sized watermelon. I’ve decided to feed the hell out of it and bring it to one of those contests at a local fair this fall. Only kidding, but it’s going to be fun seeing how big I can grow it.

Surprise in the Morning

 

 

 

 

Wooosh, wooosh. A familiar sound at several times a year, but rarely is the wooosh accompanied by a surprise landing at 7:15 on a Sunday morning. Quite a surprise as this beautiful balloon with five passengers landed on my driveway. I quess our cul de' sac made a great target for journeys end from nearby Cheshire, Connecticut. Almost got my self in trouble when I told them had I known they were dropping in, I would have had bacon and eggs ready for them. THey had the right answer that shut me right up.....we can wait was their reply. All in all a very interesting way to start the day.
Was able to document the activity with pictures, so here they are.

Cruise News II

Those of you who know me are quite aware of my passion for cooking and obviously eating based on my size and appetite. It is then natural for me to be keenly interested in all things food aboard a cruise ship. The cruise on the Maasdam included not only many great meals, but several cooking demonstrations ( you can be sure I went to them all) by a master chef and even a tour of the kitchens. I found out that every day over 6,000 meals are served on the ship by a dining room staff of 84. It was interesting to see how they handled that many meals it in the kitchen and what the kitchen itself looked like. Some of us panic when we have a few guests for dinner. Can you just imagine how organized you have to be to handle that many meals. After you finish the tour you begin to think about the quantity of food consumed when you dish out 6,000 meals a day and a total of 84,000 for our 14 day trip. Well, of course I found out for you folks and thought it might be interesting to pass it on.

Here’s the consumption for a fourteen day cruise:

17,000 pounds of meat and meat products
8,000 pounds of poultry
4,000 pounds of fish
5,000 pounds of seafood
2,200 pounds of butter and margarine
24,000 pounds of fresh vegetables
9,000 pounds of potatoes
3,600 pounds of watermelon
36,000 eggs
8,000 quarts of dairy
1,400 pounds of sugar
40,000 individual sugar packages
4,200 pounds of rice for the crew
40 pounds of caviar
5,800 pounds of flour
400 gallons of ice cream

Oh, and I also calculated that they needed 40,000 chocolates to leave on the beds each night. Can you just imagine the consumption on the really big ships. This list doesn’t even take into consideration what the baker produces daily. The baker and his staff of four prepare over 20 different kinds of breads that include 120 loaves of bread, 100 loaves of French bread, 4,000 dinner rolls, 800 croissants and 800 Danish and sweet rolls.

And just think of the dish washing involved. Each evening 3,000 dinner plates, 7,000 dessert plates, 2,000 side plates, and 5,000 glasses are washed, not to speak of ramekins, plate covers, silver cutlery, trays, and other odds and ends. Unbelievable!

Cruise News

If any of you have been wondering about my long absence from this blog site this picture is part of the reason. This ship is called Maasdam and is part of Holland America’s cruise fleet of 14 vessels. By the way, Holland is part of the Carnival conglomerate that also owns several other cruise lines such as Princess, Carnival etc. Marge and I recently spent 14 days aboard the Maasdam as it cruised from Boston to Montreal stopping on the way in Bar Harbor, Halifax, Sydney,Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec City. From Montreal we reversed direction and headed back, stopping again at all these ports.

This is the third cruise we’ve taken, all with Holland America. We think Holland America is the cruise for us at our age, no climbing rock walls, surfing down pool waves and late night dance parties. A more sophisticated crowd (but not everyone), but you do have to dodge the wheel chairs, walkers and motorized vehicles carrying people who aren’t quite sure where they’re going.

The Maasdam is an older ship that was built in 1993 and is scheduled for a makeover in spring, 2011. It’s much smaller than the huge new ships they are building, but not small in class or service. Its size also allows it to make some ports that the big boys can’t make. She’s 720 feet long, carries 1258 passengers and a crew of 572. It has its share of amenities, beautiful dining room, casino, computer area, library, pools spa’s etc. Entertainment was phenomenal. Went to the shows every evening and had opportunities to meet a several of the entertainers. I was even part of the act one night, but that’s another story.

Obviously whenever anyone thinks about cruises they think about the food. The Maasdam didn’t disappoint. We had a nice gourmet dinner very night which included Alaskan king crab, Tenderloin, Lobster, Duck, Salmon, Chicken, Pheasant and so on. Appetizers started me off right by offering me Escargot on two occasions and great shrimp on many others. If you didn’t want to be waited on elegantly you could choose to enjoy a buffet type dinner up on what they call the Lido deck. Food was very good up there too, and the view from that top deck was great.

We had the good fortune to meet a great number of very nice and interesting people during the cruise. Trivia was played somewhere every day and we were fortunate to meet and team up with a very nice couple from Wales who were retired doctors. They were pretty sharp and the four of us had about four victories and many, many second places over the fourteen days. Seems we lost by one point almost every day.

Enjoyed the tours we took at the ports and visited many of Canada’s historic places. The excellent tour guides did a super job relating a great deal about Canada’s history, which frankly, I knew nothing about.

I really feel that a cruise is the way to go vacationing. If you want to do nothing you can do nothing. Want to live it up, you can. Want to read a book, grab a deck chair and enjoy the book along with the ocean. Marge and I took advantage of just about everything offered to us, and filled our time between events playing Gin Rummy (often by the way, 44 games in all. Score: Marge 22, Bill 22).

Stopping now because you’re all probably bored and fourteen days creates two many stories to include in a short blog. You’ll have to wait to be bored during a future face to face.

Loved this on our Alaska cruise a few years ago.

Taku Smokeries Famous Pate

1 pound smoked sockeye salmon
16 oz. cream cheese
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tsp. dill weed
A few turns of fresh ground pepper

Remove skin and finely shred the smoked salmon. Add softened cream cheese in small chunks. Process all ingredients in food processor. Enjoy on crackers, bagels etc.

A Tiny Bitch

“Live to Eat or Eat to Live”. I think we’ve all heard that phrase. I’m sure I fall into the first category and, I guess like being there, but at times I envy the picky eaters who care little about eating but tolerate it just to stay alive. That first category makes it difficult to stay trim and healthy, while the ones in the other category are the ones we look at and say how the hell do they stay that skinny?

While I’m not quite like Andrew Zimmer on the Travel Channel, I must confess that it’s difficult for me to find foods I won’t taste or foods I dislike. Only one exception, I don’t care for bananas. Can’t stand the texture, but they’re fine in a nice banana bread. My love for so many foods creates a problem for me when going out to eat in restaurants. It’s very difficult to make up my mind. The problem is even worst when we eat at diners, especially those real authentic Greek ones. No one page menu specials for them, oh no, you’re handed a menu book, and if you’re there with a few people almost too heavy for the waitress to carry.

You begin to thumb through the six or seven pages and begin to wonder how the hell can they have all these types of food and keep them fresh. Then to top it all off the waitress comes back in a flash and says “are you ready to order”? Are you kidding, I need the whole damn afternoon to read this thing. For us indiscriminant eaters we are now in trouble. We find so many things that we like in the damn thing, how the hell can we possibly make the right choice. Oh please, please give me a single sheet special sheet and end my frustration.

Such a minor problem in my life that I’m ashamed to write about it, but I can’t enter a blog with out a little bitch, I’d lose my reputation. By the way we stopped in one of these diners last Sunday after the play I wrote about. One of only a few bad diner experiences I’ve ever had. Only one inexperienced waiter who got trapped having to make my coffee, and tried to take the order from a table of six who each asked him questions about every menu item they were interested in. We sat there for a half an hour without ever even giving him our order out of one of those huge menu books. Rarely walk out of restaurants, but gave him two bucks for my coffee and got the hell out of there,

The diner pictured here along Pennsylvania route 209, however, was an exception. One sheet of specials, great service and great food. Once in awhile I get lucky.

Here’s a little diner type recipe from one of my Mother-in-Law’s handwritten notes.

Simple Bread Pudding – Mary Shields

2-1/2 cups stale bread, broken in small pieces (about 4 slices)
1-1/2 cups milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup pecans
Cinnamon

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except butter. Stir to mix well. Pour into buttered loaf pan. Cook at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes. Serves 4

My Blog Block

In the past I’ve expressed my admiration for prolific writers like Stephen King and others who can sit down and bang out 1000 pages of script. I don’t know how they do it, I know I’m not one of them. I really enjoy entering these one page Blogs, but even the one page becomes a challenge at times. During the course of a day many things I consider interesting cross my mind, but when I come downstairs rigor mortise seems to set in my fingers and the thoughts just die. Oh well, I sold screws and bolts for a living, a far cry from creative writing.

But guess what? I think I’ve got my fingers moving. I was fortunate enough to receive two tickets from my brother and Kathy for a performance of The Producers. The play took place at the Warner Theater in Torrington, CT. The Warner, I learned is a renovated movie house that was built in 1931 by Warner Brothers. Now, with the exception of one year, I have lived in Connecticut all my life and never once attended anything in this 79 year old theater. What a wonderful thing it is to keep from tearing down these wonderful structures. I have also attended a concert at one of these in Poughkeepsie, New York. They are absolutely gorgeous and certainly too costly to build today. They’re a far cry from the multi-room theaters of today, which, for my book are pretty boring.

Anyway, back to my tale. I’m certainly familiar with the play and the movie of the same name, which never impressed me, but not anymore. Marge and I were treated to an absolutely great performance. I thought this was being performed by a traveling group of professionals until Marge told me that this was Community Theater. Unbelievable!! Thirty six in the cast, all with wonderful voices and professional acting. Sets and costumes were outstanding. What have I been missing all these years? I wish you all could see it, but unfortunately this was the last performance.

My thanks to both of you for a very nice birthday present.

Dinner after the theater is another story, but I’m going to hold off since I decided not to include any of my bitches in this Blog.

I’ve been thinking about menus for some of our summer pool picnics and pulled pork sandwiches keep cropping up in my head. I thought I’d research a few recipes. Found these two which look not only tasty, but easy to make. One is real easy because it’s a crock pot one while the other is an oven creation. Haven’t tried either one yet so I can’t give you a review. If you make it before me let me know how it turned out.

Bon Appetite!!

Pork Barbecue North Carolina Style

4 lb. Boston butt roast
1 large onion, chopped
1 1/2 cup water
1 cup vinegar
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoon. brown sugar
2 tablespoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon each red pepper and black pepper

Mix all ingredients except roast in large 4 quart Pyrex dish. Place roast in mixture after mixing well. Cover with lid and bake at 325 degrees for 5 hours. Remove from oven and let cool. Remove roast from sauce. Remove meat from bone and spread meat with fork. It falls apart. Return meat to sauce in pan and stir the sauce into the meat. Cover and bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes or until heated. May be served over rice or on hamburger rolls.



Easy Crock-pot Pulled Pork

1/2 Cup Ketchup
1/3 Cup Worcestershire
1/3 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Ground Mustard
1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Paprika
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Liquid Smoke
Dash Red Chili Pepper Flakes
Pinch Salt and Pepper
1 Medium Sweet Onion, Chopped
3 Pounds Pork Shoulder, Trimmed of Fat.

1. Combine all ingredients except for onion and pork into crock pot. Whisk all ingredients until well blended.
2. Place pork and onions into mixture, coating both sides of meat.
3. Cook for 8 to 10 hours under "low" slow cooker setting.
4. After meat is cooked, remove from slow cooker onto plate and break apart with fork. If meat has any bones, please discard at this time.
5. Place meat back into warm sauce to reheat.
6. Serve on hamburger buns or Kaiser Rolls.

A Blog about nothing much

I set up this blog site a few years ago and have enjoyed using it to not only vent a little with some of my pet bitches, but also in an attempt to entertain. Some of you have actually written and told me you enjoy these little written escapes from my weird mind. These compliments have made my efforts rewarding. This has, however, created a problem for me. When I don’t write anything for extended periods of time I begin to start feeling guilty. The guilt then makes it hard for me to write because I feel I must write something great, and I really don’t have greatness in me.

When I returned from my annual Myrtle Beach golf trip, I said to myself…”self, you’re all set now, you’ve got gobs of stuff to write about”. I was wrong; nothing seemed exciting enough to pass on so here I sit laden with guilt and frustration. Then I thought, these people I write for are my friends, I’ll just let them know what’s going on in my mundane life and they’ll forgive me for this unexciting blog entry.

Ten years ago, my family and friends held a retirement party for me. At the party a few of my friends and family roasted me a little along with extending me best wishes. During his little roast my brother expounded on the number of speeding tickets his older brother accumulated during his lifetime. I think the counting stopped at around fourteen and some most have been strange ones, like getting one in Vermont for going thirty miles and hour. Well you can add another to the ever growing list. I was able to support the town of Nichols, South Carolina on the way home. Got a speeding ticket for endangering many lives as I sped thru their little hamlet at an astounding 41 miles per hour (35 mile an hour zone). Hope they put the 81 dollars to good use.

Few days later I was coming home from one of my shopping trips and daydreaming as I was entering the garage. Banged up the front fender and scratched up the doors when I hit the door entrance trim. Tried like hell to touch it up, still looked like crap so it’s at the body shop with a couple of thousand dollar work to be done. Can’t believe what they charge. Well, the only consolation is that I get back some of the thousands they’ve collected from me every year.

What else has happened? Heavy rains we had flooded the backyard and pool. Put under five inches of water. Septic system completely saturated and spouting water from the ground like old faithful. My small pump ran 24 hours a day for 4 days. By the way, life without a septic system and not being able to use water is not pleasant. Peeing in a coffee can was a very new experience for me. I won’t expound any further.

As you all know, Marge is a very, very, very avid fan of UCONN women’s basketball. During the course of the season, we keep the blood pressure machine on the table next to her chair. Yes, I’m not kidding. I thought it might have to be used during that final game, but thank heaven the girls did it again. I don’t know what she’ll do for these next seven months until they start to play again. There is a plus for me with the season ending; I’ll be able to watch NCIS again. Can’t believe the number of times the games were on Tuesdays.

Back to Myrtle Beach; in case any of you golfers are interested, the old guys were the champs this year. My partner and I beat the young fellow’s five matches to two.

Oops, almost forget to add a recipe. Tried this one out last night and thought it was worth passing on, easy to do, inexpensive and pleasant flavor.


HONEY MUSTARD COATED CHICKEN
________________________________________
1/4 cup Dijon style mustard
3 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2/3 cup bread crumbs, seasoned or plain
1-1/4 pound boneless, skinless, chicken thighs or breasts
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Combine mustard, honey and lemon juice in shallow dish or pie plate. Place bread crumbs in another dish or pie plate. Dip chicken pieces in mustard mixture, turning to coat and then in bread crumbs. Place on cookie sheet that has been lightly greased or sprayed with non-stick vegetable oil cooking spray. Drizzle chicken evenly with oil. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.

Reading

I really enjoy reading, but I have terrible reading habits. Once I pick up a book and start to read it’s like a horse race with a gallop to the finish line. Can’t keep the damn things down, take them with me to bed, bathroom and even stop watching the boob tube after dinner. Over the past year or so two of my daughters, who think I should be reading more instead of sitting at this computer, keep giving me books in an attempt to make me pick one up. My eldest recently gave me a copy of one of Stephen King’s book of short stories. I figured, how can I go wrong with a book of short stories, I can always stop after each one? Well, wrong, wrong, wrong. I knocked that one down in a couple of days. Into second week I’m on number three. Four hundred ninety eight pages and only one hundred thirteen pages to go.

Trip to Myrtle Beach next week will put an end to the marathon and give my eyes a rest. Actually, except for a few weird dreams while reading Stephen King’s, I’m quite happy I started again. Along with my little exercise program I hope I’m able to keep it up……not bad habits to have.

At the same time I still want to hit the computer, delete all the crap emails and occasionally enter something on the blog site. Don’t want you people to forget all me. I doubt that many of you are that interested in getting a recipe along with my blogs, but I don’t really care, I’m going to keep sending them. Here’s one that I haven’t made yet, but it looks interesting and I’ll be sure to try it when I get back from swinging my clubs six hundred or so times next week. Hope they don’t take too much money from me, so I’ll have enough for the ingredients.

Garden Skillet Dinner

12 oz. Pennsylvania Dutch Broad Ribbons

1 lb uncooked chicken diced

1/4 cup flour

1/3 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons garlic, minced

1/2 cup red bell peppers cut into strips

1/2 cup carrots, peeled and cut julienne

1/2 cup celery, sliced

1/2 up broccoli florets

1 tablespoon dried basil

3/4 cup chicken broth

3/4 cup heavy cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Cook ribbons according to package directions. Toss chicken in flour. In a large skillet over medium heat, sauté coated chicken in oil until browned. Add garlic, vegetables, basil, and cook for 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low, slowly stir in chicken broth and then cream. When the mixture has slightly thickened, stir in hot ribbons. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serves: 4 – 6

Food for Thought

The other day I was scooping some stuffed green olives into our daily salad and got to wondering. Who was the first person that said to themself, let’s squeeze the hell out of these and see what happens. Well, we know what happens, turns into that glorious liquid called olive oil…..thanks be to him. But what about all that other brave souls who took a chance on some strange looking food. Imagine the one who cracked open the first egg and released that slimy looking white stuff and that glob of yellow. How did he get the courage to taste it?

And who is the brave individual fellow that tried the stuff inside those hard shelled creatures, oysters, clams, snails, and the nastiest looking of all, that Pacific Geoduck Clam that even puts the ugly black tipped steamer clam to shame.

I’m also looking in the history books for the first person who cleaned out a chicken and said oh boy, those things look yummy. They took the risk and now we have great giblet gravy and for some, tasty fried chicken livers and pate. We cringe watching that brave Andrew Zimmer on the Travel Channel sampling strange foods from cultures around the world, but thinking about it, we’re as brave as he is. Squid and octopus aren’t the prettiest fellows, but some pasta dishes from Italy would sorely miss them. Even lobsters are kind of scary if you take a good look at them, but still we’re willing to pay $12.00 a pound, and they’re not even cooked.

I’m sure you can think of many, many more examples of our courage at the dinner table.

Here’s the recipe of the week that doesn’t have any nasty looking stuff in it.

Irish Beef Stew Recipe

1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/4 pounds well-marbled chuck beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch pieces (NOT extra-lean)
6 large garlic cloves, minced
6 cups beef stock or canned beef broth
I cup of Guinness beer
1 cup of fine red wine
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
3 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 7 cups)
1 large onion, chopped
2 cups 1/2-inch pieces peeled carrots
Salt and Pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1. Heat olive oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Lightly salt the beef pieces. Working in batches if necessary, add the beef (do not crowd the pan, or the meat will steam and not brown) and cook, without stirring, until nicely browned on one side, then use tongs to turn the pieces over. Continue to cook in this manner until all sides are browned, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté 1 minute. Add beef stock, Guinness, red wine, tomato paste, sugar, thyme, Worcestershire sauce and bay leaves. Stir to combine. Bring mixture to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, then cover and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
2. While the meat and stock is simmering, melt butter in another large pot over medium heat. Add potatoes, onion and carrots. Sauté vegetables until golden, about 20 minutes. Set aside until the beef stew in step one has simmered for one hour.
3. Add vegetables to beef stew. Simmer uncovered until vegetables and beef are very tender, about 40 minutes. Discard bay leaves. Tilt pan and spoon off fat. Transfer stew to serving bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with parsley and serve. (Can be prepared up to 2 days ahead. Cool slightly. Refrigerate uncovered until cold, then cover and refrigerate. Bring to simmer before serving.) Serves 4 to 6.

Something to consider

You are unique. You are today, at this moment, the sum of all things that have transpired in your life. As a result there is no one exactly like you, nor has there ever been anyone like you and likewise never will be. Think for a moment, you are special, unique in the universe and you’ve been given talents that no one else shares. It is up to each of us to use these talents to the best of our ability and never let them go to waste.

Although not in his exact words, these are some of the thoughts and wisdom I gathered from a talk given the other night by our Pastor Emeritus of Saint Dominic Church, Father Henry Frascadore. Obviously this is quite a deviation from my usual blog prose, but for some reason these thoughts made an impression on me and I felt that I needed to pass them on.

Enough serious stuff, here’s the recipe of the week. Can’t vouch for this one, because I haven’t made it yet. But it looks interesting and sounds perfect for one of these cold weekends. If you happen to make it before me, let me know the results.

White Chili Recipe

1 lb large white beans, soaked overnight in water, drained
6 cups chicken broth
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium onions, chopped (divided)
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 4-ounce cans chopped green chilies
2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
4 cups diced cooked chicken
3 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese
1 jalapeno or serrano pepper, chopped (optional)

1. Combine beans, chicken broth, garlic and half the onions in a large soup pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until beans are very soft, 3 hours or more. Add additional water (or watered-down broth), if necessary.
2. In a skillet, sauté remaining onions in oil until tender. Add chilies and seasonings and mix thoroughly. Add to bean mixture. Add chicken and continue to simmer 1 hour.
3. Check seasoning; add jalapeno or serrano to level of desired hotness. Serve topped with grated cheese. Garnish with cilantro, chopped fresh tomato, salsa, chopped scallions, and/or guacamole. Serve with fresh warmed flour tortillas or tortilla chips. Serves 8 to 10

A little more food talk

If you’re one of those people who, like myself, ”live to eat” as opposed to those unfortunates who only “eat to live”, then you probably went to see “Julie and Julia” the movie. The movie, in case you know nothing about the film, is about a culinary legend who provides a frustrated office worker with a new recipe for life. The film depicts events in the life of chef Julia Child in the early years in her culinary career, contrasting her life with Julie Powell, who aspires to cook all 524 recipes from Child's cookbook during a single year, a challenge she described on her popular blog that would make her a published author.

If memory serves me correctly, the first recipe that Julie attempted was a soup called Potage Parmenter, a simple potato and leek soup, but a real tasty combination.

POTAGE PARMENTER

1 pound potatoes, peeled and diced

1 pound leeks (or onions), diced

3-4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Salt and pepper

4-6 tablespoons heavy cream

2-4 tablespoons minced chives and parsley

Sliced radishes for garnish

1. Simmer the potatoes and leeks in salted water for 40 to 50 minutes, until soft.

2. Puree the vegetables with an immersion blender. Add the butter bits; then salt and pepper to taste. Stir in cream.

3. Pour into soup bowls and sprinkle on chives, parsley, and radishes. ~ “Bon Appetite”.

Soups have been on my mind for about a month now. The Men’s Club at my church started a Scholarship Program and to help finance this year’s awards they decided to hold a “Soup Night”. Well guess who opened his big mouth again? If you guessed yours truly then you guessed right. The Parish was invited to stop in after the Saturday Mass and partake of three different soups created by “Chef Rhino”. We didn’t charge (only requested a donation), so I had no idea how much to make. Well, I must have guessed right because at the end we were scraping the bottom of three big pots of, Cheese and Corn Chowder, Tuscan Chicken and Minestrone, one hundred and fifty servings. I’m getting a little too old for this kind of stuff, but the satisfaction of putting on a successful event keeps me saying yes and coming back for more.

I've made a decision

I enjoy sharing my thoughts with all of you on the blog site, but am constantly struggling to come up with things that will be at least a little interesting to you. I had wild aspirations of entering stuff every week, but gave up on that a long time ago. Then it dawned on me, I love to eat and love to cook. Why not devote some of this site to eating and cooking?

Anyone with similar interests probably has the same problem I do…..we download and print recipes off the internet, clip them from magazines and accumulate handwritten ones from relatives and friends. They pile up in a drawer somewhere, most never to be seen again. Well, a couple of months ago I took on the daunting task of putting my collection into cookbook form. Not an easy task, and one that needs to be added to regularly, but I got it done. I put the recipes into sections, indexed them, printed them, put them into a binder and distributed them to all my kids. Now even after I’m gone the book called “Rhino’s Recipes” will be there to haunt them......lol

One of the real pleasures I got out of the project was to preserve many of the handwritten family recipes. Hopefully, my mother, mother-in-law and even grandmothers are smiling down, real happy that they’ve been remembered.

I’m starting to get a little long winded so I’ll cut to the chase. I will attempt to enter a blog weekly with some of my thoughts and will include a recipe from the book….. hope you enjoy. My first entry is a recipe for salmon which our daughter Karolin made for us on a visit with friends to Governor’s Island, New York, when my son-in-law Bob was stationed there during his tour of duty in the Coast Guard.

Salmon with Mustard Sauce – a recipe from Karolin Palko

2 pounds salmon fillets

4 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup white wine

2/3 cup heavy cream

1-1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

4 shallots, finely chopped

Juice of one lemon

1-1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Arrange salmon in single layer on a large baking dish. Drizzle with butter and lemon juice. Cook uncovered in 400 degree preheated oven for 15 minutes. In a small saucepan, simmer shallots and wine together on low heat until wine has evaporated and shallots are tender, about 8 minutes. Stir in cream, mustard, salt and pepper. Pour sauce over fish, return to oven and bake for additional 5 minutes or until fish is glazed but not browned. Serves 6