rps

Lamb. IMO nothing better. Shanks. Slow cooker braised with wine, stock, and herbs. Polenta. One of God's gifts.

I am so glad you did well here! Come back soon.

Both allow the hook and plastic to swing free. If you fish the jika, you can crank it as those who fish the swing head do. And vice versa.

Caramelized fennel, spanakopita, sauteed cod, amazing good meal.

I have had an unsmoked ham from a feral hog. Lean as could be, but very good.

Spanakopita, the way it should be.

All pork products are meatier than they were years ago, and leaner. The "real white meat" campaign and the "anti fat" groups are to blame. The next thing you know, we will have to buy free range pig.

Neither What's Cooking nor its Son are elitist, gated communities. Besides, in the grand scheme of things, home made grilled quesadillas put you in the 1%.

Ness is busy smoking ribs on the "pater" thread so I'll chat on this one. I am busy doing prep work for tomorrow's slow cooker meal. I have rough chopped an onion, a leek, a carrot, some fennel stalks, a couple of mushrooms, six large cloves of garlic, and a bit of sweet pepper. That went in the cooker crock. I threw in a large sprig of rosemary and two bay leaves. I also added six sundried tomatoes and about a Tablespoon of tomato paste. I added enough chicken stock to barely cover that. The crock goes in the refrigerator until tomorrow morning. I am about to brown two large lamb shanks that I will cool and baggie until tomorrow. In the morning I will put the shanks in the crock and add about a cup of decent red wine - enough to put the shanks about half under. That will spend all day on low. When I get home tomorrow, I will drain the liquid and defat it for adding to a brown roue for gravy over the shanks and polenta. This is how you work and eat like a king. I will post a picture tomorrow night.

I took an internet recipe for Carolina style mustard sauce and changed it to make it more "friendly" without changing the sweet and tart that I liked. Ingredients: 1.5 cups yellow mustard 1.5 cups tomato sauce 1 cup (packed) brown sugar 1.5 cups apple cider vinegar 1.5 cups beer 2 Tbs. Chili powder 1 Tbs. black pepper 1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce 1 Tbs. Liquid Smoke 4 Tbs. butter 1 Tbs. Franks Red Hot sauce 1/2 tsp. onion powder 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder Method: Combine all ingredients in a non-reactive sauce pan and simmer over low heat without boiling for 30 minutes. The sauce will need to rest for a few hours in the refrigerator so the vinegar softens and melds. Yield will be 3.5 pints of sauce.

Your rub is similar to what I have used in the past. In the last few years I have switched things around a bit. I use brown sugar, smoked paprika, Cavendars instead of Lowry's, plus I add some Chinese five spice and ground coriander instead of cloves. I have been known to sneak chili powder in there as well. The removal of the silver skin is an excellent point. As for using the kettle - good on you. The key is controlling the temp and the amount of smoke. A trick I learned was to make a foil package that contained the chips I wanted to use. and then poke 15 or so holes in it with an ice pick. You toss the packet on the coals and the lack of oxygen forces the chips to smoke rather than flame. You get plenty of smoke over a longer time period from one double handful of chips. Enjoy!

Way to go!

Handsome fish! Beautiful fog on the river!

Last night was pizza night at our house. We made and didn't order it, but who wants to see another pizza picture? Tonight I have started a southwester style adventure. I made fish burgers with serrano peppers and green onion tops mixed in and used chili powder as the spice. I made a salsa fresca (pico de gallo). We will add chicken stock and saffron rice as the starch. Pictures will go up later. Later:

I run a bit past Big M to reach here:

You can use this for almost any vegetables, sausage, left over roast, what ever. You need to learn this technique.

Egg and cheese with herbs onto cooked other ingredients. Leave long enough to set the edge, then into a 375 oven for 10 minutes or so.

I enjoyed Ness' thread, but it was getting very old and long. Forgive me for refreshing. Tonight I am serving a frittata. Also known as the crustless quiche and the Spanish omelet, a frittata allows you to bind leftover thises and thats in a beautiful and tasty breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner. Tonight I will use ham, mushroom, shallots, sweet bell pepper, sage and parsley, and Gorganzola cheese. I will add pictures as I go. Here is the mis en place.

To continue Al's theme - the truly large fish I have managed to land have all been reaction bites. The largest bass was a Mepps spinner that bounced off tree limbs as I pulled it to the bank. Number 2 was a trolled wart that pulled free from a hang. Number 3 was a walk the dog top water. The largest walleye was a worm harness I had just stepped over a brush hang. The second largest was a trolled Storm Thunder crank that pinged off tree tips. The largest striped bass was a victim of a pumped c tail grub in Texhoma.

You are spoiling my cynicism!

In my previous post in this forum, my anger showed. I said true but unkind things about someone. Today, Jerry at Wolfe Boatworks called me. He immediately apologized for what I experienced and offered to make it right. I asked if he had a transducer in stock to replace the one damaged. He said no. I told him I had ordered one from Tackle Warehouse and expected delivery soon. We made arrangements for me to bring the boat to him with the new transducer and the invoice. He assured me that this time the install would be the correct one. I was pleasantly surprised and promised him I would immediately post the facts in this forum. All those years lawyering made me harshly cynical. I don't mind when life proves me wrong on that point.

When I went down to the marina mid morning on Saturday I found this at the Holiday Island ramp. I will note there were no boats with motor running anywhere in sight. None. Whatever belonged on these trailers were away from the ramp, away from the marina, and away away. The first boat came up nearly 15 minutes later and, predictably, required three tries to seat the boat on the trailer. I left the marina before the second boat returned to its trailer. The once or twice a year meat fishermen without manners are out in full force. This will soon taper off and the once a year "let's go to the lake and do maintenance on the ramp" crowd will show up in May.

Sunline and Maxima are quality lines. Both package and sell line at close to its actual break strength. 6 pound test is going to test between 6 and 7 pounds. This is common to many of the Japanese made lines as well. Yozuri is packaged and sold in the same style as Trilene, Stren, and many others. The actual strength will exceed the labeled strength by several (2 to 4) pounds. This explains much of the diameter differences. Do not get me wrong, I think Maxima is first rate line. So does Tackle Tour. Their benchmark when they compare lines is Maxima.

Wrench, I am completely unskilled. My father raised me with the Depression era attitude of one who had no role model. If one is talented enough, one will have the money to pay others to do things. I will keep the broken cable to use, spliced, if needed. Thanks. The next time I need maintenance or installation I am driving up to you.

For 25 years, until I grew tired, I made my living as a trial lawyer. I represented people who felt wronged and put upon - whether it was car wreck victims or banks holding bad paper. Based upon this experience, let me assure you, on the scales that measure stupid, entitled, and self centered, there are no maximums.