I was under the impression, Herr Obama, that the contents of telegrams in Austria are private! At least, the Austria I know.

Herr Zeller:

"You never answered the telegram . . . from the Admiral of the Navy of the Third Reich." 

Captain von Trapp:

"I was under the impression, Herr Zeller . . . that the contents of telegrams in Austria are private!  At least, the Austria I know."

(The Sound of Music, 1965) 

Italian Tomato Press Still Available From Williams-Sonoma

You can still get a press just like I use from Williams-Sonoma.

The price is higher now than when I bought one years ago. I think I paid $25 on sale. So I'm guessing it used to be $29.95 instead of $39.95 now.

I can't recommend one enough if you like fresh tomato sauce as much as I do.

This tool just makes it so easy, as long as you have a large smooth counter top to work on and which you can dampen to make the suction cup grip properly.

You'll also need a large, flat and shallow-rimmed plate-like bowl or server to catch the sauce on the left side, and something like a big latte bowl to catch the pulp in the front.

Wear an apron!  

Easiest Way Ever To Make Fresh Tomato Sauce From Romas

This is the easiest way ever to make fresh tomato sauce from Roma tomatoes:

• Harvest your tomatoes when ripe, wash them carefully and dry them thoroughly.
• Drop the Romas into gallon-size freezer bags, whole. Believe me, you don't have to process your harvest any more than this. And when you have bushels and bushels of Romas to deal with, you'll understand what I'm talking about. You'll keep more of your harvest this way when you can't keep up using the traditional ways of making sauce and freezing, or canning.
• Freeze the tomatoes until you are ready to make sauce. I'm down to my last bag from last year:(
• Freezing naturally "cooks" the tomatoes so that skins and seeds easily separate in the press.
• Thaw a bag of Romas in a large roasting pan on the counter, starting in the morning.
• When thawed after lunch, slice each with a serrated knife and allow the water to drain out during the afternoon.
• Make the sauce before dinner, lifting the tomatoes out of the pan where their water has drained out and placing them into the tomato press.
• After making the sauce from the press, simmer the sauce on the stove in a large sauce pan until heated through while you make the pasta and sausages.
• Reserve any unused sauce in freezable containers.
• Drink the tomato water after straining, over ice with vodka, or add it to your next soup.

h/t Dorothy

We Are Never Happy

 

Happiness never lays its finger on its pulse. If we attempt to steal a glimpse of its features it disappears. It is a gleam of unreckoned gold. From the nature of the case, our happiness, such as in its degree it has been, lives in memory. We have not the voice itself; we have only its echo. We are never happy; we can only remember that we were so once.

-- Alexander Smith, "Of Death and the Fear of Dying" in Dreamthorp: A Book of Essays Written in the Country (Edinburgh, 1888), p. 60.

Homemakers Are Still Basically Worth $60K

scrubbin' for the very first time, like a . . .

Yeah right. Tell that to the banker on the mortgage refi application and see how far you get.

Story here, if you can believe it.

In Competent Hands: An American Tradition Since At Least 1936

Curly: Soitently! We're all incompetent.

See him say it here.

"Don't Forget To Feed The Chickens, Huh?"

-- Telly Savalas to Pier Angeli in "The Battle of the Bulge" (1965)

See him say it, here. (Fixed the link 4/21/19).

Down the mountain slick as glass . . .

Ogden Nash, of the Nash-ville family

As remembered by me from P. Allen:

"Down the mountain

slick as glass

came the billy-goat

ridin' on his overcoat."

And as attributed to Ogden Nash:

"Spring has newly sprung

the hills are full of grass

and along comes a billy-goat

sliding on his overcoat

down the summer pass".

Happiness is Telly Savalas As Pontius Pilate: Get Out!

Roman soldier: And that isn't all.

Pilate: And what else?

Roman soldier: He . . . walked . . . on water.

Pilate: Get out!

"The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965)

T-Bone Tuesday

It's cold and blustery outside, but I fired up the charcoal anyway and grilled a single 1.3 pound Angus T-Bone. Wind has been in the 25mph range most of the day, and temps in the low to mid 20s. Just like Wisconsin when I was a boy.

I picked up three of these T-Bones for about $8.50 each last week and put two in the freezer. You defrost one all day in the frig until grilling time, and grill over hot coals in a covered grill about 6 minutes on a side for medium rare. It served three of us, with some Jasmine rice and steamed green beans on the side, for well less than $4 per person. The bone will simmer on the stove tomorrow to make some beef stock for soup. Maybe beef and barley with mushroom.

Steak. It's what's for dinner during Protestant Lent.

"No! Not Like That You Namby-Pamby!"

-- Roderick Spode, "Trouble At Totleigh Towers", Jeeves and Wooster,  video here, transcript here.

Happiness is The Missouri Boat Ride from The Outlaw Josey Wales

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jamie: They comin'. 

Carpetbagger: Do you really think you can shoot all those men down before they shoot you? No, no, Mr. Josey Wales; there is such a thing in this country called justice!

Josey Wales: Well, Mr. Carpetbagger. We got somethin' in this territory called the Missouri boat ride. 

The Meaning of Life, From a Movie

"And when I run I feel His pleasure."

-- Eric Liddell, Chariots of Fire, 1981

Yo Quiero Horsey Taco?

Uh oh. There's somethin' funny goin' on here, Lucy.

Story here.

The Swedish Chef Weighs In On The Ikea Meatball Flap

"So, de beency bouncy burger is a horsey, eh?"

"The Woods Are Lovely, Dark And Deep"

Swedish Meatballs At Ikea Found To Contain Horse Meat, Chef Issues Statement

According to the Borkified story from The Associated Press, here:

"Swedish foornitoore-a gioont Ikea wes droon into Ioorope-a's widening food lebeling scoondel Mondey is uoothorities seid zeey hed detected horse-a meet in frozee-a meetbells lebeled is beeff und pork und sold in 13 cooontries icross zee-a continent. Bork Bork Bork!"

The Swedish Chef was unavailable for comment but said through a spokesman:

"Whee-a I meke-a Swedish meetbells, I ilweys teke-a cere-a to idd a little-a ixtra horsemeet to zee-a mixtoore-a oon speciel ooccesions like-a zee-a Kentoocky Derby. Bork Bork Bork! Meetbells wit 25% horse-a meet reelly get iferyone-a in zee-a proper mood for zee-a rece-a, und iferyone-a who hes tried zeem lofes zeem so mooch zeey ilweys isk zee-a next yeer for my Swedish Qooerter Horse-a Meetbells by neme-a! Horse Horse Horse!"

(video here)

Quarter-Horse Burgers: 25% Less Beef Than Our Regular Brand!

"The sample of one brand . . . was more than a quarter horse", says the story here:

The scandal began in Ireland in mid-January when the country . . . announced the results of its first-ever DNA tests on beef products. It tested frozen beef burgers taken from store shelves and found that more than a third of brands at five supermarkets contained at least a trace of horse. The sample of one brand sold by British supermarket kingpin Tesco was more than a quarter horse.

My Current Super Foods Menu

Monday--Burritos (homemade pinto beans, onions, and saved bacon fat from uncured bacon, ground turkey, homemade Mexican seasonings, in an Azteca brand flour tortilla with extra sharp cheddar cheese and fresh toppings including homemade guacamole, black olives, salsa, green onion and chopped spinach)

Tuesday--Basil Pesto Sockeye Pie (canned wild sockeye salmon, eggs, homegrown tomato sauce, homemade basil pesto sauce, rolled oats) with a green salad of romaine lettuce and spinach with a lemon-evoo dressing

Wednesday--Italian pasta with homemade hot Italian turkey sausage, homemade tomato sauce, grated Pecorino Romano cheese and steamed green beans or baby broccoli or a romaine-spinach salad

Thursday--One of two flexible nights in the week like Sunday, but often curry night, usually leftover poultry, butter, garlic, Penzeys curry powder, canned coconut milk, flaked coconut, dried cranberries, diced Fuji apples and chopped almonds served over Jasmine rice with a salad on the side, or Italian meatloaf made with ground turkey, rapini and seasonings, or baked chicken with rice and broccoli

Friday--Filet of something from the sea, these days baked skin-on steelhead trout with lemon pepper, Jasmine rice and a steamed vegetable like baby broccoli or green beans, or a curried salmon-rice cake with a fruit sauce, or sockeye pie leftovers

Saturday--Napoli style pizza baked in cast iron with homemade basil pesto sauce, homemade tomato sauce, mozzarella, and fresh roma tomato slices, with a fresh salad

Sunday--Charcoal Grill Day: usually hamburgers ground at home from a single piece of Angus chuck served with all the toppings desired on a potato bun and steamed green petite peas with butter, otherwise grilled marinated Otto's chicken (locally grown) with red potatoes baked in the oven, or a stir fry in the wok, or pasta carbonara

Luncheon is usually a homemade barley-lentil soup using homemade chicken broth with some homemade buttered toast, or leftovers like a burrito, and an apple on the side with a square of 70% cocoa chocolate to finish, or a can of Norwegian bristling sardines on rye crackers with a fresh pear

Breakfast is usually stove-top espresso with 2% milk steamed, a hardboiled egg or a fried egg with toast and jam, and a fresh orange, or a blueberry-banana smoothie with homemade yogurt, coconut milk, cinnamon and ground flaxseed meal, or whole oatmeal with berries and walnuts

Wine, especially on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Purists will revolt as purists do, but life is for the enjoying.

I reckon so: Sometimes happiness is paying later

Granny Hawkins: "You can pay me when you see me again, Josey Wales."