Happiness is New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick pissing off the Taliban in the media

Wearing a t-shirt rockin' this image.

Stories here, here and here.

Happiness is the loyalty of Hachi

2009

Happiness is good huswifery (and husbandrie)

 

 

 

 

Good huswifery trieth

To rise with the cock;

Ill huswifery lyeth

Till nine of the clock.

-- Thomas Tusser, Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie & Note, 1573 

Happiness is a barn quilt, conceived on a Sunday, finished by Wednesday

Her pencil drew whate'er her soul design'd,

And oft the happy draught surpass'd the image in her mind.

-- John Dryden (1631-1700)

Happiness is a house with a gas log fire place and a "dinning area"

I mean, where else are you going to raise a din unless you have a "dinning area", right?

Happiness is whole Rainbow Trout on the charcoal grill, at least that's what she said

I went to the fish counter at Meijer. They had two fresh farm-raised whole rainbow trout from Canada on ice in the display case. I said I needed four.

Tyler of handlebar mustache fame went in the back and brought out a sealed styrofoam box. He opened it and dug through the ice and pulled out four one-pounders for me. It doesn't get much fresher.

He wrapped them in freezer paper and tossed them to me so that I could say that I caught them.

At home I prepared a double-banked charcoal fire in the Weber.

The fish went into the big lasagna pan with copious amounts of canola oil to slick them up real well. Then I salted and peppered the cavities.

When the fire was ready the fish went onto the grill, heads over the coals on the one side, tails over the coals on the other. The lid was closed with the vents fully open.

The fish cook in about 9 minutes on a side. Turning the fish is a little tricky. Use two spatulas.

Prepare a garlic lemon butter for serving with the fish. Zest a lemon, chop the zest and place in a large bottomed bowl, press two cloves garlic into the bowl, and add about four tablespoons of butter. Cut it all together using a pastry blender and fill two small ramekins for sharing at your table for four. 

Serve each trout on a large plate after chopping off the head and tail, which you can save for the cats if you like.

Smother with the butter as you eat.

Our guest from France said it was the best trout she ever had.

I'm still blushing.

Happiness is George Thorogood's "I Really Like Girls"

Here.

Released in 1988 on his album Born to be Bad, the song was first performed by Thorogood at Red Rocks in Colorado, August 16, 1985. But Hank Williams Jr. already covered this song written by Thorogood on his May 1985 album Five-O, on which Thorogood himself performed. Hank Jr. also performed at Red Rocks that summer month.

And I was there for them both.

Happiness is The Bellamy Brothers singing 1982's "Redneck Girl"

Here.

". . . plays her heart when she's down on her luck".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happiness is sleeping through the night, to wake to 58 degrees F and clear on the last day of spring 2017

Happiness is boycotting Starbucks, drinking Lavazza instead!

Alien snack bait: Earth 27.2% fat

Not exactly a giant Hostess Twinkie hanging in space, 27.3% of the calories of which come from fat, but you get the idea.

PLANET GIRTH Two billion people across the world are obese – with one in four battling fat-related diseases, experts warn: Four million people died in 2015 as a result of being too tubby, struck by cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other killer conditions

Earth current population: 7.35 billion.

Speaking of Twinkies, this nutrition professor went on a diet of them for 10 weeks back in 2010, getting his body mass index below 25 and improving his average lipid profile by 26%! He's still alive and kicking in 2016, and even got a promotion.

Happiness is a guy named Ray reunited with a cat named Lily

Here.

Happiness is a good cook, and a good doctor

 

For great the man, and useful, without doubt,

Who seasons pottage, or expels the gout;

Whose science keeps life in, and keeps death out.

-- Walter Harte (1709-1774)

John Denham on happiness

 

 

 

 Oh! happiness of sweet retir'd content,

To be at once secure and innocent.

-- John Denham (1615-1669)

Happiness is Jean Knight singing "Mr. Big Stuff" from 1971

Here.

Happiness is "More Than 60,000 Margaritas Reach Europe By Sea in 2017"

Oops, sorry, I read that wrong. Oh well, it's the thought that counts.

"More Than 60,000 Migrants Reach Europe By Sea in 2017"

You'll eat more fresh garlic if you own one of these

The Kuhn Rikon stainless steel garlic press fits the hand well, functions smoothly and cleans up easily with warm water. With it you can quickly press fresh garlic right into your pasta plate, soup, sauce, dressing, marinade or toast! And fresh is best, in all its phytochemical glory.

Happiness is Meijer wild Key West Pink shell-on shrimp and De Cecco fettuccine

After thawing and shelling the shrimp, the shells went into the salted, boiling pasta water for 3 minutes before adding the pasta to make the fettuccine truly "of the sea". I simply pulled the pasta insert out to discard the shells before cooking the pasta.

The shrimp were given a five minute bath in lemon juice, olive oil, pressed garlic, and cayenne pepper before sautéing in extra virgin olive oil during the last five minutes of pasta cooking.

A fresh salad on the side by the lady of the house from our own garden made the meal magnificent.

Three dined fabulously on a Friday evening at home for something a little north of $17 total, not each.

That's livin'. Italian. American. 

Happiness is not Caledonia, Michigan, in the spring, a town which with an east wind stinks of manure

 

Gentle gales,

Fanning their odiferous wings, dispense

Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole

These balmy spoils.

-- John Milton, Paradise Lost

Happiness is fast and easy grilled Mexican lime chicken cutlets for fajitas

The recipe is here:

2.0 lbs chicken cutlets (from Omaha Steaks, thanks Gramps!)

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

1/8 cup olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

Whisk ingredients together in a large bowl, throw in the thawed chicken and marinate up to 2 hours, grill it, slice it and serve it with your favorite salsa in a warm flour tortilla.

Happiness is that moment when Moe realizes "We ALL put in the yeast"

Here.

All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled

-- Ecclesiastes 6:7

Happiness is Gordon Ramsay's braised short ribs of beef for Mother's Day

I'm at the "put up your feet" part right now.

Here.

Once you know what's best to eat and drink and how to prepare it, you can kind of set it on autopilot

A temperate person is not curious of fancies and deliciousness; he thinks not much, and speaks not often, of meat and drink.

-- Jeremy Taylor (c. 1613-1667)

Some of the top vitamin-rich foods

Fish are more vitamin rich than any other category

Seen here:

Tuna and trout

Spinach and kale

Sunflower and flax seeds

Broccoli

Pork

Beef and lamb

Mushrooms

Nuts

Eggs

Sweet bell peppers

Avocado

Peas

Butternut squash

Papaya

Dried fruits

Some of the top mineral-rich foods

Nuts are in a class all by themselves

Seen here:

Almonds, cashews and Brazil nuts

Beans and lentils

Spinach and kale

Salmon and sardines

Sunflower seeds, flax seeds and pumpkin seeds

Oysters, scallops, mussels and clams

Mushrooms

Oatmeal, whole wheat and wheat germ

Milk and yogurt

Beef and lamb

Avocado

Dark chocolate

Parmesan, Swiss and Mozzarella

Apricots, prunes, raisins, figs and dates 

Happiness is Jamarkus Jontiquil McKrackerberry III

"JJ" for short.

Or whatever.

Here.

Happiness is learning that antique glass has not in fact flowed

http://pioneercourthouse.org/cupola.html

Here:

The reason for the observation is that in the past, when panes of glass were commonly made by glassblowers, the technique used was to spin molten glass so as to create a round, mostly flat and even plate . . .. This plate was then cut to fit a window. The pieces were not absolutely flat; the edges of the disk became a different thickness as the glass spun. When installed in a window frame, the glass would be placed with the thicker side down both for the sake of stability and to prevent water accumulating in the lead cames at the bottom of the window. Occasionally such glass has been found installed with the thicker side at the top, left or right.

Happiness is Jimmie F. Rodgers singin' "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" and "Honeycomb" from 1957

Here.

Happiness at Easter is Grilled Leg of Lamb

We coated one like this with lemon zest and crushed dried rosemary leaves in olive oil after stuffing knife slits in the fat layer with flat garlic slices made from two cloves. The surface of the whole was also salted with Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

The charcoal fire was made in an 18" Weber grill with the coals to each side behind metal banks specially designed for the purpose by Weber, with a drip pan in the center.

The 4.6 pound lamb leg was roasted in the center of the covered grill, between the coal banks, for 1.5 hours, turned every 30 minutes with a righteous carbon steel pig tail.

It was perfect.

Thanks be to God. 

"For my next flip-flop, get a load of this!"

Happiness is finishing and filing US and State income taxes today, ahead of schedule

No matter how easy Turbo Tax makes it, the hoops you have to jump through to get the scraps with which they leave you is insane.

But between my time and the tax software it still cost me only 11.5 cents for each dollar back, a return on investment of almost 770%.

What a genius am I!

Happiness is Crane Lake Sangiovese

I'm consistently obtaining bottles of this marked 2013 for $5.29, and boy am I lovin' it.

Happiness is Yanni performing Aria, in the Royal Albert Hall, 1995

Here.

The origin is in the "Flower Duet" by Leo Delibes.

An amazing, full operatic version is here.

There's a reason Popeye the sailor man eats his spinach: It ranks better for more nutrients, fewer calories and better palatability than kale and the others

spinach

basil

arugula

broccoli

dandelion

kale

It turns out you could make it on just French Fries, milk, oatmeal and some kale, spinach or broccoli, and lose weight

This story got my attention:

Why French Fries Are More of a "Superfood" Than Kale.

From there I landed on:

Could you survive on just one food?

From which this:

Some years ago a reader wrote to The Chicago Reader advice column, The Straight Dope, asked whether it was true you could live on just potatoes and milk. After all, it's been said that before the Irish Potato Famine, people there were living almost solely on potatoes. Cecil Adams, the erstwhile columnist, claims to have run the numbers with his assistant and found that a whole lot of potatoes and milk would get you most of what you need – with the exception of the mineral molybdenum. But you can get all you need of that by also eating a bit of oatmeal.

Hearing this, [dietician Jennie] Jackson [of Glasgow Caledonian University] laughs. “Oh, that's our diet – that's the Scottish diet from a hundred years ago. That fits right in. Potatoes, milk, and oatmeal, with some kale in there, too.”

Happiness is "The Boys and Me" by Sawyer Brown, 1993

We talk too slow, drive too fast, we're high on life and we're low on gas . . ..

Here.

Happiness is Crusoe the Celebrity Dachshund . . . hunting rabbits!

Here.

Happiness on St. Paddy's Day is . . . 239 bean stew

And why 239 beans you ask?

Because one more and then it would be too farty, if you know what I mean.

Happiness is a grilled pork chop seasoned with Budapest's Best Hungarian Paprika

Sprinkle liberally with kosher salt and this stuff, and grill over white hot coals.

It's a magnificent taste of summer in the late winter.

And in the summer it'll be a magnificent taste of the late winter!

How do you say "carbon monoxide" if you're dyslexic?

Happiness is Chef John's roasted Greek chicken thighs with potatoes

Adapted from Chef John at all recipes dot com here.

10 chicken thighs with skin on

1 T kosher salt

1 T dried oregano

1 t black pepper

1 t dried rosemary leaves

1 pinch cayenne pepper

.25 cup lemon juice

.5 cup extra virgin olive oil

6 cloves fresh garlic pressed

4 russet potatoes, peeled and quartered

1. Combine salt, oregano, black pepper, rosemary, cayenne, lemon juice, olive oil and garlic in a bowl. Whisk until blended.

2. Lightly Crisco a large roaster.

3. Dredge each piece of chicken in the spice mixture in the bowl and place each in the roaster. I could have used a little more lemon juice, but .25 cup was all I had. The last two pieces of chicken got shortchanged. Chef John's original recipe calls for less chicken than I used, but mine still turned out just fine.

4. Position the potato pieces around and between the chicken pieces.

5. Preheat the oven to bake at 425F while you tidy up.

6. Roast the chicken and potatoes for one hour.

7. Reduce heat to 350F and roast another 10 minutes.

8. Switch to broil for a few more minutes if additional browning is necessary.

9. Serve chicken and potatoes on a large plate, topped with some of the pan juices if you like, and steamed petite peas and butter.

10. A glass of cold Moscato was perfect with this.

11. OK, two glasses.

Happiness is nonsense verse

Happiness is Camille Paglia, who once ate two steaks during an interview, tearing into Meryl Streep

Noted here:

At last we were seated at a small table a few yards from the first. We would remain there for the next 4 hours and 45 minutes. In the grand scheme of Paglia interviews, mine was brief. When Francesca Stanfill profiled her for a New York cover story, in 1991, their conversation lasted ten hours, long enough for Paglia to consume two steaks: one for lunch and a second for dinner. ...  “I have been on an anti–Meryl Streep campaign for about 30 years,” she said. When Trump called the actress “overrated” in a January tweet, “I wanted to leap into print and take that line but I couldn’t, because Trump said it.” ... In the general election, as a resident of Pennsylvania, she voted for Jill Stein. ... She approved — of all things — of the Women’s March. “I think it’s important that women rediscover solidarity with themselves,” she said. ... Still, the pussy hats: She buried her face in her hands as she discussed them. “I was horrified, horrified by the pink pussy hats,” she said; the pink pussy hats were “a major embarrassment to contemporary feminism.”

Happiness is . . . Der Wunder-Meyer

The Great Encyclopedia for the Educated Classes by Joseph Meyer (1796-1856).

Ultimately numbering 52 volumes, Das Grosse Konversations-Lexikon für die gebildeten Stände was the most comprehensive completed German encyclopedia of the 19th century, also called "der Wunder-Meyer" (The marvellous Meyer). The complete set was reprinted 1858-59. ... The 9th edition, now from Mannheim, entitled Meyers Enzyklopädisches Lexikon in 25 Bänden (in 25 volumes), appeared in 1971-79. Just like the very first, this final Mannheim edition was the most comprehensive German encyclopaedia of the century.