DISAPPEARING SERVICE

Company ads in publications and television commercials continue to tell us how great their service programs are.  After listening to one of the ads, I began to give some thought to services we enjoyed years ago.  I was a recipient of services that most people living today never experienced or even heard about.  When my car needed gas I went to a "real" service station.  Calling them a service station meant that you pulled into the pump area, waited a bit and was soon greeted by an attendant who proceeded to begin filling my tank.  He then requested that I raise the hood to enable him to check my oil, the water in my radiator, and even the water level in my battery.  Then of course he wiped my windshield.  How does this compare with your last fuel stop where all these tasks are left up to yourself.  I suggest that gas station should be unable to add the word "Service" to their name.

Ok, how about bottle and can returns?  In my day we put the empty bottles into a wooden case, brought it to our grocer who then handled the return.  Today.....you collect them in a bag, haul them to a store where you hope the line won't be too long.  Then handle each and every one of those sticky wet vessels and individually insert them into a machine.  But of course, every now an then you have a can or bottle rejected because their computer hadn't been programed for that brand. In that case you need to find someone who can handle the transaction and get you your nickle. Then search for the soap and napkins to remove the sticky fruits of your efforts.

And how about the non-service at checkout in the supermarket.  Haul your own carry out bags into the store, pack them yourself and then get them into your car.  There were time in years past when you even had help bringing your purchases to the car.

I won't even get into the situations that were handled for you by an actual human being.  Forget it today, when you are expected to be proficient in all computer functions and do the damn things yourself.  The only benefit to this is the increase to my pulse rate.  Frustration has a way of doing that.  Hopefully it forces me to improve my patience, which unfortunately I have very little of.

Recipe of the day:    Here's a treat we were served during a wildlife boat trip in Juneau, Alaska.

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.

 

CHICKEN REVIEW & MORE

 

Picking the best Chicken Sandwich is proving to be a more difficult job than I thought it would be.  Obviously, the key ingredient to compare should be the chicken itself.  There’s where the problem begins.  In all the sandwiches we tried each contained a very nice, crispy, deep fried breast of chicken.  The only variable to the breast was its size.  A few I considered overwhelming in size.  Buns in almost all cases were a vast improvement over the previous use of a regular hamburger roll.  Rolls like brioche, pretzel and others now were used to hold offerings such as pickles, tomato, lettuce, and even cole slaw.  I really felt that the sandwiches we tried from six locations were all darn good, making a “best” a tough decision.  We’ll keep testing.  Perhaps we’ll chance to run across one we can call the champ.  At the present time my personal choice is the one offered at KFC.  By the way, I was very disappointed in the French fries at all locations.  This man’s opinion only.

Work on the pool, base, new liner installation, and filling with nice clear water from Cheshire, all finished.  Ready to hopefully start enjoying some nice summer weather. Family and friends events should be a vast improvement over last year’s Covid-19 tense atmosphere.  Especially since every member of our family and friends have all had their two vaccine shots.

The year 2020 messed up a lot more things besides backyard parties. Over the past few years instead of celebrating a whole bunch of anniversary and birthday parties for our married children and spouses, Marge and I hosted a party at a restaurant to cover all those very important dates.  Our family has had a very good track record.  Years married for all of us combined in 2021 amount to 212 years:  

Wisk Sr’s                             67 years

Pixton’s                              42 years

Wisk Jr’s                             38 years

Palko’s                                36 years

Elliott’s                               29 years

Anniversaries are milestones where you can pause and look back at your life, to cherish all the beautiful memories and bind yourselves to all the wonderful promises that are yet to be fulfilled…   

                                                                 HAPPY ANNIVERSARY 

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Recipe of the day:   Great soup for that hot summer day.  This is one I make on a regular basis every summer.  Nice and refreshing and low cal. (I think)

           

              Cold Beet Soup

 

4 cans, 15 ounce, sliced beets

2 medium cucumbers peeled, and coarsely julienned

Water as needed

1/4 cup cider vinegar (white vinegar also ok)

1 pint sour cream

Salt and pepper to taste

1/4 teaspoon dill (optional)

 

Drain beets, reserving the liquid.  Stack the beet slices and julienne.  Add water and reserved beet water into a pot to bring up to about 2-1/2 quarts.  Take a cup or so of the liquid and whip in the sour cream.  Add julienned beets and cucumbers all ingredients into a pot stir and chill.

May be served with a boiled potato and a dollop garnish of sour cream.

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Terrible 2020

 

As citizens of the United States we are blessed to be living in a land of plenty.  During this past crazy year we were astounded at the shortages of toilet paper, paper towels, hand soup and all our familiar cleaning products.  As long as we could remember the aisles in our super markets were always filled their entire length with everything we ever needed….and then some.  Year 2020 developed quite a few empty spot on the shelves. In addition to some shortages eating out in restaurants was taken out of our lives and many in the trade lost their jobs. Eventually even the restaurants ended up having to close their doors.

It’s been a great number of years since we needed to live through shortages.  But being one of the aged (86 years old) citizens, shortages are something we’ve lived through in the past. We grew up in the war years of WW2 and experienced shortages much worse than toilet paper.  During the war the needs of the military came first and it created a multitude of painful shortages. No gas for the car……gasoline was dedicated to our forces to keep all the tank and airplane motors running.  US citizens were given stickers to place on their windshields designating the owner’s status which indicated how much he was entitled to.  Trips were almost impossible to take.  To take an auto trip of any real length there was a need to beg, steal or borrow other’s stickers to obtain enough for the trip.  Nylons for women were impossible to buy.  Sugar to sweeten your coffee was also hard to come by.  My grandmother who loved coffee and started me on it when I was only four resorted to using Karo Syrup to sweeten up her brew.

Even a fair share of horses disappeared and then were sneaked into meat markets as beef.  All these various shortages forced the country to adjust its life style.  We now became volunteers to gather materials needed for the war effort.  Cigarette packs were wrapped in paper which had a metallic foil covering.  Evidently the foil had a military use so we were asked find the empty packs of cigarette.  I can recall scrounging up empty packs to peel the foil off the paper and rolling it up into a ball.  It was fun to see how big one could create his or her ball.  We even collected the fluffy stuff in milk weed pods because we were told it was used I the production of parachutes. 

There was, however no shortage in finding work.  The war effort put everyone to work.  Women became essential in the effort.  My mother-in-law became one of the first welders at Landers Frary and Clark in New Britain and my mother spent time at Pratt and Whitney as a grinder. Some very strange times in the 1940’s. 

As bad as year 2020 was, there were some positive results.  I always said that to every negative there exists a positive.  2020 gave us all the opportunity to take a good look at our lives and spend some time making the changes needed to adjust to a new lifestyle created by Covid-19.

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Today’s Recipe:  Great soup for these hot, hot days.  Made this once and served it to a group of about twelve Red-Hatters.  There was nothing left in any of their containers…….a great test of the soups taste!

Southwestern Gazpacho

6 large ripe tomatoes, peeled, cored and diced

1 large English cucumber, diced (peeling optional).

1 each red and yellow pepper cored and diced

1 large red onion diced

2 cups tomato juice

3 tablespoons olive oil

Juice of one lime

1 jalapeno pepper minced (optional)

1/2 bunch of cilantro

12 or more large shrimp

 Mix all ingredients except shrimp (can use food processor to coarsely chop vegetables) and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight to cool and for all flavors to blend together.  Grill shrimp with tail on and refrigerate separately from soup.  Just prior to serving dice 1/2 avocado and add a few pieces to each serving. Garnish with cilantro, decorate edge with shrimp and enjoy.                                        About 12 servings

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      Trivia Question: What was the first toy to be advertised on television?                       Answer:  Mr. Potato Head