Today is Alan’s birthday and with Covid on the rise again we are choosing to celebrate at home. I put on a pot of spaghetti sauce early this morning and the house has been smelling good since. We will have a freshly made Caesar salad and the Five Cheese bread as our sides. There will be a nice Cav on the table for supper and I am sure appropriate toasts will be made with a top shelf bourbon. Life is good in Gator Nation!
"Park your tail right over here and I'll come get you when your order is ready." That's what Irene said to me when I was at Big Joes picking up a sub for the game tonight. "Park your tail..."...lol..... All in good fun.....that's how we roll here at the beach.....
Heard back from the shipping company that my backsplash for my new range should arrive late next week. Then I have to schedule a local pro to install. Warranty issues and I don't have a pallet jack for moving a 350 pound range. So maybe a bit less than two weeks from now and about two months after ordering it I will have it.
Escarole soup tonight. I am starting to think that my wife asks for the roasted pork loin with cabbage and everything just to get escarole soup soon after. My wife first had escarole soup at Amelia's in downtown Gainesville. (She likes mine better.) Sadly Chef Andy died this year and I don't know if they are still operating. We had many great dining experiences there. The funniest one was when we both had the flu and it was New Year's Eve and we had to "pass" on going out for dinner with a big contingent of friends. But by late in the afternoon we felt a lot better and made reservations to Amelia's for dinner. Turns out that the party that we passed on was at Amelia's. And it gets funnier. We were driving my FIL's car and we didn't know that one headlight was out. We got pulled over (makes sense to pull everyone over on New Year's Eve if you can) and because we recently had the flu we had nothing to drink all night. The trooper was really cool about it. I did have to produce a receipt in the next few days for a new headlight to avoid a ticket.
Lurk— Back then those were called “Correction Cards”—we would give notice to the driver of the faulty equipment—if corrected within 48 hrs and the card or receipt was turned in, then no citation was issued. Sadly, I don’t even know if the FHP uses that contact anymore.
It was a while ago, but that was essentially how it worked out. I felt bad for the guy having to have New Year's Eve duty. And having every auto parts store closed on New Year's Day made it a bit tricky.
The only way you could get Christmas off was it either fell on your RDO’s or they made you take a two week block of leave (80hrs) to get it off—in other words they wanted maximum manpower on the roads during the major holidays.
Ribs last night and today for lunch. Finally Tacos tonight. I bought some of those Nacho Cheese shells too..... The second Gunsmoke was a good one today. "Get out of here or I'll kill you myself!" Matt Dillon...the original Clint Eastwood!
Do they still park unoccupied trooper cars in the median on interstate highways to slow down traffic? Just asking because we almost never take long trips over the holidays anymore.
My wife wanted cubanos from Mi Apa so that is what we are having tonight. Nothing wrong with a Cuban sandwich that is as good as what you can get in Miami.
That was never done through any of my duty stations during my time. I heard of it but I always thought that it was just an easy way to get a patrol car vandalized (in the metro areas where I heard about them employing this tactic).
Tonight is Bolognese sauce over orecchiette with a salad of escarole, endive and tomatoes. The bitter greens in the salad should complement the smooth and fatty taste of the pasta. Lots of different ways to make Bolognese sauce, but all of them are meaty with either butter or cream and not spiced. And using really great tomatoes is key. I use organic canned San Marzano tomatoes. I tried growing San Marzano tomatoes one year and I think that my yield was two or three with a lot of vegetation. Tomorrow I am smoking some pork ribs and making a Carolina slaw. It has been a while and I have it down pat. It is the one meat that I smoke where I don't use my Thermapen for doneness. It is impossible to get a good reading between the bones. It is all about how much the meat exposes the bone and feel by touching. On Monday it will be escarole soup again. I still have lots of the pork roast with caraway left over. I will need to hide it from my 26 year old son. I should put it in the vegetable drawer in the fridge. LOL.
My tacos were fantastic! I really should make those more often. Speaking of cubanos.....when I was at UF, I worked part time at Alan's Cubano Part II. Delivery and food prep. Learned out to clean the meat slicer - prepare lettuce - cook onions - all kinds of cool stuff! Every Friday we had a delivery to one of the medical buildings and they were always very generous with a tip. Always pizza...several boxes of them.
Tonight we are doing a local (Ably’s) Chinese-Asian restaurant’s take out. Every time we’ve been there the food has been excellent. Cold enough here still that it’ll be bourbon tumblers again tonight. Life is good in Gator Nation!
Cold and wet weather prevails here in Jasper, Ga., so we are trying to keep up with that in the kitchen. Tonight we are going to have a spicy pork & green chili verde. It’s brimming with seeded poblano, seeded jalapeño pepper and sweet red and yellow peppers for a nice kick to it. It will be topped with sour cream, and shredded Monterey Jack—tortilla chips will be on the table for anyone who wants them. It also has coarsely chopped vidalia onions as well as purple hull onions, chili powder, minced garlic, and a touch of nutmeg. The stock is made from chicken broth. The ice cold longnecks and chilled wine are ready to go as desired. Life is good in Gator Nation!
