Remembering Eats

My mother made a dish one time called Chicken Divan. It had broccoli in it, yech, broccoli! It was a casserole and was actually quite good. Even the broccoli tasted pretty good. I do not remember much about the dish but have seen the recipe advertised several times over the years. However, being a family who made fun with words Chicken Divan became Chicken on a Couch. So from time to time when she made that dish we all talked about having Chicken on the Couch which thoroughly confused some who were unfamiliar with the family name game tradition.

I loved bacon and eggs, still do. I call them "something different." So my wife gets a little smile on her face when I say I think I'll have "something different" for breakfast. My first wife and I called them "baswan and oggoose." How the hell we came up with that name is beyond me. I like "something different."

Chicken on a stick was actually a pork dish or veal. You could buy some type of ground pork or veal that was formed around an actual piece of wood and lightly breaded. It was quite tasty. We had it when I was a kid, then later on in my first marriage my wife and I found the same meat from time to time. It did seem to disappear and for the life of me I do not know what it is really called. Our name was Chicken on a Stick. It had a drumstick appearance.

Milk Toast was a favorite of my Dad's and I also. It was just toast, buttered. You poured milk over the toast until it was saturated, then salted the toast and dug in. I could eat a lot of that when I was a kid. It did not take long to go through a loaf of bread at our home.

Chicken Noonie soup was a great favorite. I always ate the broth first as I loved slurping up the noodles with a saltine cracker in my mouth. There was something comforting and warming about Campbell's Chicken Noonie soup.

My Dad loved Oyster stew and he passed that love on to me. Now I make my own from scratch. Have for many years. However Campbell's came out with a frozen Oyster Stew, with few oysters, that my Dad would buy from time to time and have my mother prepare. He loved to get an oyster, but made sure we all got one or two. When I began making Oyster stew I made sure there were a lot of oysters in the stew and that you could get a lot. That is another dish that speaks to me of the Christmas Holidays, New Year's Day and the taste of a good batch of Oyster stew and friends. Even today I made that stew several times during the holiday. I have begun to experiment with it, adding onion, mabe a little bacon bits. It is all good.

Vollwerth's Meats located in the U.P. used to come out with a hot dog that still was in a casing. It had some fine seasoning to it that was excellent. I've purchased those kinds of hot dogs for years when I travel back home. I freeze them and we enjoy them throughout the year in Arkansas. However, they don't taste the same as a hot dog cooked on a stick over a bed of coals. Perhaps the fresh air of camp, the natural fire, and the situation we found ourselves in added to the seasoning, or maybe they changed their recipe. I don't know, but I do enjoy hot dogs still in a natural casing.

My Mom's ham loaf. I have the recipe and from time to time Terry and I grind our own meat and make the dish. It is excellent. It was my traditional birthday meal when I was a child. It still tastes as good today as it did then, provided you get a tasty ham. Ham loaf, baked potato, and some vegetable side dish and you got a good evening. It is even good cold on a slab of bread. I always put some ketchup on it though as that makes it a little better.

Then I end with pasties. A Danish dish carried into the mines by scandanavian miners back in the late 1800's still can be found in most communities in the U.P. You run out of pasty places the further south you go, but in the U.P. the pasty is a staple of a good meal. A meat pie with potato, some type of beef, rutabega, and onion all finely chopped, or ground together as I do, encased in a pie dough shell. Baked with some lumps of butter to provide moisture and the crust painted with a mild or egg wash to give the crust that pretty brown appearance and you've got a meal you will not forget. The next day, cold left over pasty, a salt shaker, some ketchup and a cold beer to wash it down and you will not have a bad day. I make pasties, not too often as they can seem like a lot of work, but they are to die for.

That eats from my youth. Good days, good people, family and fun. You cannot ask for more.

My Father's Version

I was taught this saying by my Dad. It is a common little poem known by most fisherman, but sometimes the versions vary. This is the way it was taught to me by my father:

When the wind is from the West that's when fish bite the best.
When the wind is from the South, it blows the hook in the fish's mouth.
When the wind is from the East that is when the fish bite least.
When the wind is from the North, the fisherman doth not venture forth.

A lot of truth in the old sayings.

Dog Oberservations

The dogs are a pair of Labradors. They are mostly white in color with a little yellow cast at the shoulders and down the back. The noses are pink. Their names are Molly and Lily. At this writing they are about 5 months old. They were strays picked up by Terry's mother, kept for a while, when the owners could not be located we adopted them.

This morning it was cool, about 74, low humidity and very comfortable outside. I took my last cup of coffee and went out on the porch to enjoy the morning air. The dogs behavior has been easier to control so I let them out so they could enjoy the day also. Molly went down on the ground and lay just in front of the porch, Lily lay on the porch near my chair. Within a short period of time Molly decided she might like a little romp so she picked up an old face towel we have outside for them to play with. Lily immediately sat up, ears alert, eyes focused on Molly. The invitation was made, but not accepted at this point. Molly then spied a clump of weeds and root ball and jumped on that beginning to tear it apart. That was too much for Lily who came off the porch and wanted a piece of the action. So now we had a little game of keep away going on. Abruptly Lily broke off the game and grabbed another nearby towel, bunched it up in her mouth and began seducing Molly to play. Lily positioned her head in front of Molly's to entice her to grab the towel, when that did not work she began to swipe the towel on the top of Molly's head. Finally after some coaxing Molly took the bait and grabbed the towel. Lily let go and Molly, towel in mouth rolled away from Lily to keep the towel away from Lily. That was just what Lily wanted, she immediately jumped on the wad of weeds and took off with the intended prize all along. Molly followed and we had a tug of war over the weeds. Finally the weed ball broke apart sufficiently so it lost their focus of their interest.

Exploring the yard Molly came upon one of our apple trees. Finding an apple on the ground intrigued her and she began to bat it around. After a few minutes she decided it was worthy of sport so picking it up she pranced toward Lily who was exploring the base of one of our Pecan trees. Lily decided that they should have a rollicking game of "Apple, Apple, who's got the Apple." The dog without the apple would place her muzzle along side the dog with the apple, then cocking her head so her muzzle went under the head of the dog with the apple the head would twist up forcing the dog on top to raise its head and open its mouth. Then a little further twist would bring the canines into play and sometimes the apple would pop out and the other dog would have it. Then the wrestling would continue. Back and forth Molly and Lily went, one dog had the apple then the other. If one held the apple to long she would drop the apple on purpose to motivate the other dog to go after it. It appeared to be away of extending the game. It was kind of like as long as each dog got a turn at having the apple the other was willing to play.

Finally Molly decided she wanted to eat the apple. Perhaps it had nutritional value as the body of the apple got softened in the play and the juice didn't taste too bad. So Molly became very possessive and ate the apple. Lily wanted some, but Molly growled and protected her prize. They would end up barking at each other as though one were scolding the dog with the apple and Molly who was intent on eating the apple told Lily in no uncertain terms it was mine. Lily finally strolled off and got her own apple. Seeing the I cannot find any remnants I believe they each ate their apple.

So ends this observation. Very interesting.