Outside the dugout: What's cooking?

There's a peppers over behind the krystal on newberry road. Haven't been there yet. We had a few places called peppers in dallas that weren't my favorite so I haven't tried the one here, though I'm not sure if its the same chain. Lived in TX for the last 15 years, chuy's is about the only place that I've been to that's decent tex mex. My mom likes las margaritas, I find it bland. Two places in alachua are worse, and we've been to the one over off 39th near the interstate, not impressed with it either. Wife loves tex mex and chuy's is the only thing that even remotely calms her cravings so far. Maybe we should try peppers.

 

We have to travel to either Tallahassee, Dothan, or Panama City to really enjoy eating out and with the COVID issues that has become a thing of the past at least for us.

That said, we do have a La Parrilla Mexican restaurant in Dothan where the food and service is quite good. The only down side to it (for us anyway) is that it is pretty loud inside their serving areas as they do encourage birthday parties and other celebrations. The one in Dothan also most always has live music on the floor.

Don’t know if there might be one in y’all’s area or not. Probably hard to compete with Tex-Mex food out of Texas.....

 

No doubt. I liked most of the tex mex around here when I was growing up. Then I lived in TX for 15 years, now everything back home sucks, lol.

 

Tonight Ms. Jan said she was hungry for grilled wings so my supper will be both simple and good. Wings soaked in a sink of cold water and then seasoned with coarse black pepper and Everglades seasoning.

Our side will again be a cold tray.

The back porch refreshments have been restocked, re-iced, and ready to go.

Life is good in Gator Nation!

 

Does anyone here use an electric knife? I haven't used one in a long time.

I think I have one somewhere but it was easier just to buy a new one. I'm using it to cut down the foam on a motorcycle seat. Funny....on the product site the very first question was:

Question:

I want to cut foam rubber that is about 8" thick and was told the best way was an electric knife. Will this do it?

Answer:

It's the best and the only way. I bought mine to cut foam only.
By Zetau on August 4, 2014

 

Baz—

I still have all of my sharp knives on hand and mostly use them but yes I do have an electric knife. Because of more arthritis in my hands now, if I have smoked a whole ham I will use my electric knife to carve it up.

One more time—getting old ain’t for sisses.......

 

OK thanks, Bill.

You're in good company, mate.

Today, for some reason, I was comparing how each of my hands performed while snapping my fingers.

Even though I'm a rightie.....I can no longer snap my fingers using my right hand.

Left hand is just fine....snap snap snap!

Good thing you have that electric knife and I have a self-propelled mower!

 

Tonight we will be grilling bone-in country cut ribs indirect over cherry wood smoke. Coarse black pepper and Everglades seasoning with Pat’s Homade on the last two turns will do the trick.

Our sides will be fresh zipper peas, some left over pink eyes w/snaps, and a pot of white rice topped with Rotel tomatoes.

We will enjoy our ice cold longnecks and chilled wine on the back porch along with listening to the rain on the tin roof.

Life is good in Gator Nation!

 

We received a nice dosing of rain today. My rain gauge is the bedliner of my Silverado - and man it was full of water when all was said and done today!

We needed it and I'm so happy.

I worked on my motorcycle seat tonight and was able to pry all the staples out so now have the cover off and can work on the foam part. The entire piece of foam just came right off the plastic base....wasn't glued down or anything. So I think I will go ahead and swap it with the factory seat and check the height without any foam first. This is a replacement seat I bought so I would still have the factory one when I sell it.

Tomorrow being VD I will go visit Mom and bring her a few things I know she'll like. I bought some bar soap that's made in Tahiti with coconut oil. It's just like the kind they had in the place I stayed at when I vacationed there back in 2003. It's amazing and I'm so glad I found a source for it. I'm also going to plant some new flowers in her back garden. "Compact Deep Rose" Sunpatiens...my fav. colour. And I got one of those big fold out cards that has a greenhouse full of plants that pops up. Pretty cool.

I made two big crock pots full of chicken veggie soup today and will bring her some of that too. It turned out so good I ate three bowls of it while it was still hot! For the chicken I used tenderloins and sliced them up into chunks. I think that's how I will make it going forward instead of using breast because it doesn't shred this way. I also used yellow potatoes and left them in fairly large chunks - something I never tried before and I really like it.

Philosophically speaking - what keeps life interesting are all the little things - such as the little tweaks we do in our creative endeavours - such as cooking. Thank the Lord above for the opportunities we have before us to strive for the elusive condition of excellence.

 

Happy Valentines Day to your mom!