I made a rather crude graph, but it does make a startling comparison between the growth statistics in the U.S. population and the falling circulation rates of our nation’s newspapers. There may be some logical reasons that might explain some of the discrepancy, but if I were guessing, I would say than many local newspapers have worked overtime to lose a great many of their core users…. and attracted few if any young subscribers. Newspaper circulation today is little more than it was in 1940…. what does that tell you?
To be frank, maybe I felt sorry for their pointy heads and kept my subscription going for years… but no more. Our subscription runs out soon… and it’s already not missed.
So, what goes in it’s place on our breakfast table? 2 iPads! I just went out and bought a second one and we now have two. I have to say that although the cost of an iPad would pay for dirty-ink-on-the-fingers copies of the local rag for a number of years… this newspaper has nothing for me. Plus, I will not miss the aggravation.
there is nothing like a real pumpkin pie... make the pumpkin from scratch is even better!
Actually, I wanted to place a picture of the pie I most recently made with this recipe, but with a delicious Butternut Squash… but alas … it disappeared all 12″ round of it! I think what made the Butternut squash pie so wonderful was not the precooking in a pressure cooker, but it was pureeing the mixture infused with a collection of spices and then setting it for a month to blend in the freezer… delicious! Of course the heavy cream substitute for the condensed milk is a superb improvement! (Why was refrigeration invented if people still use condensed milk?)
The culinary tastes of my little family are fairly broad and I indulge them as best I can. So when Karla wanted to go hunt rabbit, I told her there was an easier way… a slight detour to the Arroyo Grande Meat store. Rabbit meat is a bit pricey here and I am not quite used to that… but it is California, and I am sure the rabbit is listed under some sort of protection. 😉
In any event, Karla wanted rabbit and not presented in the the usual stew, skewer or filet cuts. After a bit of looking I found a stuffed rabbit ( the stuffing resembled more than any other a simple turkey bread stuffing) on which an interesting glaze was added in the last 20 minutes or so. I say an ‘interesting glaze’ — because in the way of hunters — it is full of ‘shortcuts’ based on whatever is at hand. In this case, the glaze was a mixture of steak sauce and orange marmalade.
Karla was kind enough to share a bite and it was very tasty!
the nices thing about a great feast... is the leftovers!!!!
Some foods seasoned with spices or various herbs seem to only get better and better as they begin to blend over time into your ‘left over’ culinary masterpieces. This is always true of many soups but turkey meat just seems to absorb more flavors over time. The next time I make a ‘turducken’ or the equivalent, I am thinking it may be fun to ‘pre-cure’ the bird, debone it, season it and freeze it for an indeterminate amount of time!
I hope you are enjoying Day 2… unless it is already all gone!
Our version of this infamous everything-in-it soup! CLICK on the picture to read it's history!
When its cold, windy, frosty and rainy, there is nothing like a big pot of warm soup! As a child I always loved the story of ‘stone soup’… although I think it was a fancy way for my mother and grandmother to serve leftovers! For the miliary of our family they might wish to call it the ‘rock soup method!’
“U.S. Army General George S. Patton, Jr. referred to the “rock soup method” of acquiring resources for attacks in the face of official disapproval by his superiors for offensive operations. In the military context, he sent units forward ostensibly on reconnaissance missions, to later reinforce them when resistance was met and eventually turned small scale probes into all out attacks….”
There are other versions of the story of Stone Soup:
“The story is most commonly known as nail soup in Scandinavian and Northern European countries. In these versions, the main character is typically a tramp looking for food and lodgings, who convinces an old woman that he will make nail soup for the both of them if she would just add a few ingredients for the garnish. In Eastern Europe the variation of the story (having more in common with the Northern European rendition) is called axe soup, with an axe being the catalyst. In Russian tradition a soldier eats axe kasha (Каша из топора).”
In any event, it leaves a lot to you imagination. Large kettle soups were very big in old world european inns. An interesting story concerns one inn near the Spanish border in France where travelers came far and wide to try their soups made in a large kettle. Oddly enough, the kettle was cleaned once a year to great fan fare!
Our soup, this day, contains a wide variety of yummy things: leftover meat*, short grain and wild rice, diced potatoes, a few jalapeno slices ( you can see one in the picture), celery, diced linguisa sausage, chicken stock, some choice legumes, a small jar of pimentoes, bell pepper, onion, garlic, red beans, pinto beans, black beans… and some very nice falorings.
The nice thing is that you can never really cook this soup too long… it just gets better!
Roger
* for those who buy large sections of meat and trim and cut your own, you will always have meat that is left over that is perfect for our SOUP! I had a wonderful 7 standing rib and I trimmed to leave the ‘eye’ of the prime rib, the ribs and what is reffered to as the ‘lip’ although we always called this fatty area the ‘tail.’ The meat I used this day came from the leftover tails which I throughly trimmed of fat.
