Wet Stormy Weather

We watched the clouds a lot Saturday and Sunday

Larry was in Topeka this weekend

For those of us in the Heartland, it is fairly normal to spend at least one day in the spring watching the local channel and having them break away from the programming to show us the latest weather radar. Two days in a row we have watched big red globs lining up with the Kansas Turnpike somewhere down in Oklahoma and travel north like a freight train of wet windy weather. For the most part when they were loaded with winds going two directions (SPINNING) went either East of us or West. After having a tornado throw us out of our home in 1983, we are always a little more unsettled in bad weather. Saturday night I probably only got 5 or 6 hours sleep. I made up for it last night by sleeping at least 10, with a nap thrown in during the day.

Yesterday evening I just got tired of sitting on the couch and made a pie. This time I used a combination of sour cherries, blueberries and cranberries all from one package. The cherries didn't rehydrate as well as I would have liked but it was darned good pie. I did make a mistake and didn't wet down the cornstarch to melt it when I added it to the juice to thicken the pie. I had to strain out the lumps and clumps and add the cornstarch again. It worked out OK but it wasn't attractive in the sauce pan. Yes, I know there was a top crust on the pie and you couldn't tell in the finished product. One of these days I am going to try to do an apple pie with a crust from scratch.

Have you taken advantage of the pork loin roast prices lately? They vary from just over a dollar a pound to just less than 2 dollars a pound. Talk about your great white meat at a cheap price. I have a rotisserie on the Weber grill and do double duty when I cook my pork loin. I can cook chicken or beef on one side of the grill, put all the coals and hickory on one side and hang the loin right down the middle. One of these days I am going to find a way to keep the temp down about 200 degrees and do a long smoky stint for one of the loins. Right now I can get the temp down to 350 to 400 degrees and about 2 hours makes it done by temperature. There isn't many meats much better or versatile than a pork loin. With a good marinade and a stint over hickory smoke there isn't much better to cook with. I have had the loins cut into 3/4 inch slices with brown gravy, a wonderful sandwich on a hoagie bun and small pieces in pinto beans. There is enough left to put with one of those steam in bags of stir fry vegetables for one more meal. Heck, the night we had the medallions in brown gravy, the kids took home at least one meal of the loin and potatoes. That makes the cost of the meat to about 1 dollar for each person/meal served.

Yea, I heard the first newscaster call it the Human/swine flu virus. So it isn't all the pigs fault. Especially those poor Mexican pigs. If you kiss or shake hands with a pig, wash your hands a lot. If you feel sick, stay home and nurse yourself. Don't drag the flu to work and make others sick.

Over the weekend, Larry the Cable Guy came to Topeka. He filled the house at our Performing Arts Center. I did the numbers and saw there is just no way they could have paid him his $250,000 per night. With the max number of seats at 2500 and the tickets about $40 and two shows the max box office is about $200,000.00. Poor Larry he had to do two shows and I'm sure that it worked him hard to make about $75,000 and hour. According to the newspaper Larry and I both poke fun of Hillary and ALGORE. Most of my quotes can be printed in polite company and neither of his could.

Oh well, enough ramble, have a great day, week, year out there (Pick one) I will.

MUD