ness

Carrying on a couple family traditions: At The Stanley: The people sitting there thought I was an idiot. Which I suppose I am 😄 Another tradition: Lotsa spectacular scenery of course: A little more fishing down from the house yielded about a half dozen takes with quick releases. Frustrating! One was a good sized rainbow that was at my feet when I fumbled for the net and bungled it. The catch of the day was this foul hooked sucker: All-in-all a great trip. Got to hear elk bugling for the first time. Lots of wildlife and great scenery. Beautiful weather. Some R&R. A little fishing sprinkled in. A little early for the fall colors though.

Way back in July I gave my wife a birthday gift of a fall trip to Estes Park/Rocky Mountain National Park. We've both been there many times, but never in the fall. I happened to mention this plan to a friend who has a second home in Estes Park and he offered up his place as he wasn't going to be there the time frame we were talking about. Sweet! Since teachers only get a few personal days a year, and can't just use them any old time they want during the school year (something about getting substitute teachers, etc. Geez.) it was a little tricky to get this set up. But, she got her request in early and got Thursday and Friday of last week off. Since it was going to be a 4-day trip we opted to fly, saving about 10-12 hours in travel time. Rolled into the Estes around 1:30 PM on Thursday. Just outside of town we saw a bunch of bighorn sheep: They’re relatively rare so this was a treat for us. The house is right on the banks of the Big Thompson River on the south side of town. After getting our stuff unloaded we headed out the back door to check things out. The stream directly behind the house is a sweet little stretch. A few big boulders strewn about with several nice looking spots all accessible from the bank. Within a few casts with a stimulator I had a good rainbow come up out of the depths and take my fly. I lifted my rod, felt the resistance, then the slack. Dang it! The whole thing took about 1/2 second. Went on to catch a small brown before calling it quits. No pic, but here’s me in the back yard: Went on into the park the next day and I says to my self, ‘Johnny, you always catch the big fish. How about you do like @Johnsfolly and target some micros?’ Well, of course I was successful. Caught this beauty in Fall River: ‘‘Tis the season where elk migrate down and the bulls gather up a harem and make whoopie. They were everywhere. Here’s a couple shotsof some cows crossing with a bull in hot pursuit:

Me too. Any thing, any way...

Ok, this one cracked me up. Out for dinner, checked the phone... I may have a new name for my home WiFi network😁

Fly fishing snobbery is a hoax perpetuated by under-educated, ill-mannered bait fishermen

And...the ads immediately react! I think ensemble #2 looks simply ravishing! And, I never get my flies inspected when I'm wearing tweed.

Had a request for shrimp and grits from the missus. The version she likes is from a Cooks Illustrated recipe. Grits made with some cream, cayenne, onion, yellow cheese. Shrimp marinated in olive oil, garlic, cayenne. Make the grits, nestle in the shrimp and finish things in the oven. Good stuff.

I see you’re still required to use a tippy cup 😄 Ernest T Bass?

My best results start with a good steak (doh!). Salt pretty heavily (no pepper or anything else that burns) and let it sit at room temp for a couple hours while the salt dissolves into the meat. Cook on the hottest part of a charcoal grill. Forget the perfect char marks—flip often and get a good char. Test temp by resistance, not by poking a bunch of holes in it or certainly not by cutting. Takes some practice. Pull and put some thin slivers of butter, pepper and whatever else you want on it. Tent loosely with foil and rest, rest, rest. Great beef doesn’t have to be hot.

Nice going, dad!

Good lobster bisque is hard to find but when it’s good it’s GOOOD.

I like this one Feb22 by John Ingredients 6-8 dried guajillo chiles, seeds and stems removed 3 tablespoons flour 3 tablespoons vegetable oil 1 15 ounce can tomato sauce 1 teaspoon garlic power 1 teaspoon onion powder 2-1/2 cups chicken broth (made with Better Than Bouillon) 2 tablespoons raw sugar Directions 1. Add chiles and 1 cup of broth to a blender. Blend until very fine. Strain through a fine sieve. 2. Add oil and flour to a pot and make a roux. Add chile mixture and remaining ingredients to pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes.

Fuzzy's Tacos here is so crowded that nobody goes to it anymore. (Thanks Yogi!) Pretty good stuff -- like their drunken beans.

Last night good ol' grilled cheese and tomato soup sounded good to everybody. Week nights mean it's generally gonna be streamlined, so you can guess on the soup, right? Yep, good old Campbell's....but. Added a good pinch of herbs de provence, milk/half-and-half, a good sized squirt of tomato paste, a sprinkle of mashed potato flakes, to slightly thicken it, and a pat of butter. This completely transformed the soup into ... ....OK -- it was still pretty Cambell's-y but good. Grilled cheese (for me) was deli beef, Muenster cheese, and a roasted Hatch chile that I did on the grill yesterday. Love that combo!

First -- what did you have? Second -- the whole 'Martini' thing is a pet peeve of mine. You just can't put anything in a martini glass and call it a martini. Third -- carry on.

Isn't that the one where she comes down the grand staircase holding a raccoon?

Red 'Monster' (what ness 2.2 called it when he was very young) was a family favorite. Daughter learned to love crab legs there, but the boys always had to have chicken strips (go figger ). Still go there every so often -- usually with my daughter -- and can always find something I like.

We like a little less garlic than that in ours

Italian dressing marinated grilled chicken salad with mixed greens, beets, walnuts, and some minced homegrown dried tomatoes. First summer doing dried tomatoes. Was inspired by @BilletHead to give this a try. Planted more maters than usual, due to the waskly wabbit eating everything else, so we’ve had a surplus. Fiddled around doing them in the oven because I didn’t want to buy a dehydrator yet. Dialed it in to: 170 degrees convection on parchment about 8 to 12 hours, depending. Dried on racks first but it was a pain to get them off the racks. Pretty easy on parchment paper. No discernible difference though it looks like there’s flavor left behind on the paper.

You want my TRUE AUTHENTIC thoughts? That post makes no freakin' sense at all! And, you're welcome for my contribution to you living less stupidly and keeping you out of the nut house for now.

I heard it was a non-triploid brown that weighed 41 and change. I also heard they torture kittens instead of doing their jobs

This was a fish caught within the limits of the law; a genetically modified fish stocked in a man-made tail water. Extraordinary efforts were made to keep it alive so it could be released to be caught again, but it didn’t survive. Kudos to all involved. I wish it had survived, but I can’t mourn its loss. Not to take away from the accomplishment, but this wasn’t a native wild trout, born in the river that beat the odds and survived in a difficult natural environment; one that passed its superior genes on to another generation, strengthening the species for the future. It was a stocker that likely grew obese eating the guts of other stockers. It was a nice catch. Records are what they are. Would have been nice to release it alive, but not a great loss that it died.

I struggle with the whole sci-fi genre and have for a long time. I've probably seen 2 of the Star Wars -- the first for sure and maybe one other. Never any of the Star Treks. Just not my cup-o-tea I guess. This Marvel-type stuff they're cranking out these days -- where it's all fast cuts and special effects -- just doesn't interest me at all. Toy Story 4 or the Peanut Butter Falcon sound pretty good to me right now. The stuff that really cracks me up is the paranormal crap on TV. The same freakin' thing every time -- old, dark places, night vision goggles, green eyes and either some noise that scares them, a breeze or a speck of light on their ghost meter. Geez

I gave it about 15 minutes. 😄

The book was pretty good—if we’re talking about the same one.