Test Flight!

Pirate and The Kommandant, first ride:

Cooking Class: Hot Dog Buns

Hot dogs are an abomination, however, sometimes they have to happen. It's best to be able to salvage the situation with a good grilled bun. It's pretty easy but it really helps to have a hot dog bun pan; you can get them from Amazon. As for the dough, use frozen; there's only one brand I've ever seen, Rhodes. Each loaf will make ten buns, plan accordingly.

(Update: you can now get a pan that will make 48 buns)


Hot Dog Buns

Makes 30



1). Thaw the loaves on a greased cookie sheet, covered with some Pam sprayed Saran Wrap, just for about an hour; they need to be just able to cut, they shouldn't have started to expand;

2). On a floured surface, use a bench scraper or sharp knife to slice the thawed loaves into 10 equal slices. They'll look absolutely ridiculous, it's okay;

3). As you cut them, dust the sides with a little flour and move them onto the oiled bun pans;

4). Cover again with the annoying sprayed wrap; watch your language at this point, someone will hear you, trust me;

5). Go away for 2 - 3 hours, till the dough has risen to fill the pans;

6). Uncover and bake at 365F for about 15 minutes;

7). Remote from oven and cool about five minutes, then transfer to wire racks 'till dinnertime. You can separate the buns easily now.


Special Directions:

At dinner time, slice the buns vertically about halfway through. Melt a ton of butter and brush the tops and sides. Grill the soft sides on a skillet or griddle till they are just perfectly toasted.

Eat the buns and give the hot dogs to the Canine Contingent. There is a picture of a fully loaded West Virginia Hot Dog included for your cultural edification.

Summer Cookery

Another day wasted in Drudgery and Hardship. It's Beer Thirty and the kitchen still isn't really going to pass inspection; three loads in the dishwasher, a sinkful of hand washing and it just goes on and on. Why is that?

Possibly because it's now officially Grilling Season-certainly no one would think of cooking inside when it's this hot outside.

So, in lieu of recipes, we present:



A Brief Review of Favored Condiments


Girards Italian Dressing; fabulous for salad, but also for grilled veggies;


Spice Island Chili Powder; for making rubs (and chili) it's just that good...sometimes hard to find but just as often in the Five for a Dollar Section;

Dukes Mayonaise; this just appeared in the kitchen a few weeks back. It's a southern favorite and tastes rather like homemade;

Bone Sucking Mustard; last but absolutely not least, this stuff is from somewhere in North Carolina and is just the best. It's available online, but ask yer local specialty or liquor store, it'll save you the shipping.

Summer School

Here's the Boys, watching the Girls:

And So It Begins

The horses have arrived and done a little round penning. We do this not to wear them out, but to kind of get their heads on straight, put them in the right frame of mind to work. We use something you've likely heard about if you have TV, the Clinton Anderson Method. It's also called Down Under Horsemanship, cleverly abbreviated as DUH. More about that as we go along.

The bay mare is Roxy, she is H's new horse. She seemed a little pushy today, but it is Day Two, always about the worst, and by the end of her session she'd settled nicely.

The bay paint (how cool is that?) is Pirate. She is actually missing an eye, but you'd never know it from her behavior. Well, she does have a little trouble with cues while free lunging on her blind side, but I think she can have a pass on that. The best part is getting to tell her "Pirate, ho"!

Changing of the Seasons

It's now official, Not Quite as Hot has passed, and it is now Hot here in the Great State of Confusion, approaching 90F.

Evidence you ask?

Hobbies

I was told today to get some. Really. Truly.

So, today we'll have corn and salad, spuds, and tons of maters from the garden. We're picking Cherokee Beans to dry for next years crop, and cutting sunflowers for the table arrangements.

The first Horsie Camp horses will arrive today; they'll be installed in the Guest Pasture and start working in preparation tomorrow. I've not met them, but the Kommandant says they'll do. Updates to follow. I'm getting a Haflinger (yes, you heard that right), a small draft horse with a big Attitude. But glamorous only begins to describe her.

Rufous is getting a harness to pulll the pony cart-who knows, someday maybe the donkeys or the Haflinger might too. At any rate, he can help with the garden hauling and get some exercise too.

I finally got some foundation, so another box of honey can be taken off soon as we eat up twenty pounds or so of the tons of feral hog that we've shot this last few weeks (current score: Hogs - 1; Me - 7; yes I missed one darn it). Most recently we shot a couple of Quarter Pounders last night after returning from a pool party-that's what all good rednecks do, right?

The first photo(s) are our Girls, Granny and Mamma, the third is the Kommandant and The Dread Pirate Robert. Sometimes the Kalifornia shows LoL! The rest are self explanatory, you'll note however there are no obligatory dessert photos. They were there, trust me.


And I need a hobby?

A Riddle for You!

It's been slow around here today (or maybe
I'm just lazy) so today we present,for your entertainment, a riddle composed by our Famed Guest Blogger:

What is bigger than a salt shaker, but smaller than a coffee mug? - It's gray and white, and moves at the Speed of Light!

Any guesses?

It's Me! Tea Rose!

Stuff Around Here

Lots of tomatoes mean canning is in progress; this is more than we had all last summer;

The puppy is Bruno, my nephews dog. He and Rufous got on well as did the Dynamic Duo (shocking isn't it ?);

Bruno's boy, taking a time out with Roof;

And lastly, the Chef's, smoking up some cuisine so I won't have to!

Oh My....

This is Kitty Girl, lounging in the parsley and asking why we can't grow catnip. She knows the reason we don't have catnip, but continues to pester me. If she'd pester her brother, perhaps he'd stop digging it up.

At any rate, shortly after this Glamour Shot was taken a cottonmouth slithered through the parsley. Sadly unprepared, I watched him slide under the Thai Basil and make a quiet escape.

You can look up a snake picture on your own, but here's Kitty Girl and the Parsley:

A New Addition

Apparently the Flock O'Felines requires expansion as we now have a new kitten. Not just any kitten, mind you, but the cutest and most adorable kitten in the history of ever.

Meet Tea Rose:

And Here it Is:

SnapeMato!

The Side Yard

This has been quite the drawn out project, started in October or so , and just starting to come together this last couple of weeks. It should look pretty good next spring. Here's how it looked when we got here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/m/viewer#search//Beer%20for%20Walt%20texas/5353156487055804706


Here's how it is today, still a lot of work to be done, but Significant Progress has Been Made. Most of the stuff is perennial, extremely drought tolerant, and a lot of its edible:

Another Harvest Monday

Today was the first big tomato picking; we've had a few of course, but hopefully this is just the first wave. There's also a few cucumbers, and a handful of tomatillos and berries: