Happiness is this little fella takin' a ride on The Fun Slide

Video here.

In August 1944 happiness was the RAF Short Sunderland flying boat and U-boat killer

A Sunderland takes off after retrieving three airmen in the Bay of Biscay

"We had been flying all day long at one hundred fucking feet, The weather fucking awful, fucking rain and fucking sleet; The compass it was swinging fucking south and fucking north, But we made a fucking landfall in the Firth of fucking Forth."

Happiness is the English language

Seen here:

English is by far the most powerful language. It is the dominant language of three G7 nations (USA, UK and Canada), and British legacy has given it a global footprint. It is the world’s lingua franca. Mandarin, which ranks second, is only half as potent. French comes in at third, thanks to its prestige standing in international diplomacy. Rounding out the top five are Spanish and Arabic.

Happiness is becoming increasingly elusive

Don Williams has passed away, but the songs never will

The story is here.

If I Needed You, here.

My new favorite restaurant

"Police: Taco Bell Employees Fatally Shoot Armed Robber"

Happiness is a watchcat

Happiness is a broccoli joke

What's the difference between broccoli and a booger?

Kids won't eat the broccoli.

It's not really a joke.

It's snot.

Happiness is cheap, never-bitter, boiled egg coffee

For three cups of medium strength coffee, plus a little more:

1. Bring 18 oz. of water to a boil in the coffee kettle (You won't need the internal percolator parts or a filter because the egg holds the grounds together in suspension).

2. Beat a small egg in a bowl (If you're going to use the shell, wash the egg first).

3. Add 1/2 cup cheap ground coffee to the beaten egg, a tablespoon of water, and the shells if using, and whisk well.

4. Scrape this coffee mixture into the boiling kettle, and boil one minute.

5. Let it rest 10 minutes covered, then shock with another 6 oz. cold water, and let it rest another 10 minutes.

6. Rewarm and serve.

Betty Crocker's basic ratio, which is way too weak for me, calls for 1 egg for up to 5 quarts of coffee water, made with 1 1/2 cups of ground coffee, plus 3/4 cup cold water to mix the grounds and 1/2 cup cold water to shock. That works out to just 1/3 cup coffee grounds per quart of water. 

So you are at liberty to add more grounds to your recipe to suit your taste up to that 5 quart limit when using one egg.

Happiness is Lodge's Round Cast Iron Grill Pan and matching Round Grill Press

If you're square, buy the square one and matching rectangular press. :-\

I chose the round one because the lid from my ancient dutch oven fits the round grill pan perfectly.

It's for the times when you don't want to fire up the charcoal grill for a hamburger, or when you want a panino and you're too cheap to buy an electric grill press. 

Happiness is raw Star Thistle honey from Sleeping Bear Farms in Beulah, MI

Toast an English muffin, slather on some butter and add a teaspoon of this stuff. Like heaven in your hand.

I paid $20.45 for this jar at Harvest Health. Worth every penny.

Happiness is T-bones for $7.99/lb

Meat included!

Siegfried Farnon is dead, long live Siegfried

Robert Hardy 1925-2017

There is a complete recounting of his long and storied acting career, here.

Happiness properly estimates opportunity, and takes it

The happy have whole days, and those they use,

Th' unhappy have but hours, and these they lose.

-- John Dryden

Happiness is nothing more than the opposite of "anhap"

"Anhap", a Welsh word for misfortune.

Good fortune to you.

Happiness is saving $125 a month by giving up wine, and sleeping better too

Two people sharing cheap bottle daily now drink water and tea, saving $1,500 a year.

Happiness is being an adorable four, like Prince George of England

Happiness is Tim Tebow having fun playing baseball with the St. Lucie Mets, and suddenly hitting 90 points higher

Story here.

Happiness is a gift of home made orange marmalade from the south of France

For the recipe, see here.

Good look finding the Seville oranges, though, especially from right off the tree in your own backyard.

This stuff is to die for.

Happiness is Dwight Yoakam singing his 1995 "Near You"

Here.

Happiness is a kilo of sea salt from western Europe's largest river delta

Happiness is Lyle Lovett singing "Church"

Here.

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.