Your last meal

Attention, attention asteroid XR-7 is hurtling towards us and will crash into Earth in one hour. What are you going to make for your last meal? It's simple, a no-brainer, Fettuccine or Linguine with Italian Sausage and Red Sauce. That was easy now remember that this is a time critical project.

First run out to Safeway, or if you're in So. Cal., it's either Von's or Pavilion's. Get a one pound chub of the Italian Sausage. Grab a can, or jar of Spaghetti Sauce. The brand doesn't really matter as long as it's red, and get a package of pasta. I prefer Fettuccine or Linguine. The question does beg, why would anyone get Spagetti when a same-sized package of Fettuccine or Linguine costs the same amount.

First brown the sausage in a pan. This stuff is so lean there is no need to pour off whatever fat does render out.

When the sausage is browned, the tricky part comes. You must actually open the sauce container before pouring it into the pan.

Then, as Alton Brown says, step away. Just step away, you are done.

Except, obviously, you must cook the pasta.

Your patience will be rewarded. When that nasty old asteroid crashes, you will surly die with a smile on your face. Yum.

This is very reminiscent of what Marge, my mother-in-law, called Slumgollian but with an Italian bent.

What do mean that the satellite story was just some oldies radio station's promotional jive. Oh well. It was well worth the scare.

We all scream for Ice Cream

I'll own up to it. I have a sweet tooth.

Cookies, my favorites are chocolate chip and Pecan Sandies.

Cakes German Chocolate stands way out.

Pies, Pecan and Black Bottom.

And then there is Ice Cream. I have to steer way clear of any ice cream place.

Thrifty and Save-On Drugstores here in So. Cal. were the best deals around. Sadly, Save-On is gone and Thrifty is now Rite-Aid but they still have ice cream cones. Basken & Robbins is another good place to wreck your waistline.

On the road, there are a few places that I can't avoid. They are, in no particular order;

Braum's is mainly in Oklahoma and "parts of Texas, Kansas, Arkansas, and Missouri".

Culver's frozen Custard is all over the northern Mid-West. Ohio west to Minnesota. Forget the burger, get a Turtle Sunday.

Honey Hut is in the Cleveland area. Again, get a Turtle Sunday.

Handel's in the Akron area. They have "over fifty flavors". If you can possibly pair your choices down to four, which will be a real challenge. Get one of these four scoop samplers pictured here below. Four scoops is like the foot long burrito, it's just about the right amount.

Ritters in Indiana.

Mary Coyle one outlet in Akron. They are an old Italian family and have great spaghetti as well as world-class ice cream.

Chili today, hot tamali.

It is now Summertime which is a good time to fire up the Chili pot.

It would be understatement to say that I like my chili. Down through the years, I have made hundreds of batches and have cooked in four major cook-offs.
Chili is an entree, a side-dish and a condiment. If you should ever want to master the art of Chili making, a good way to start is to buy a Carol Shelby's Chili Kit. Not only does it have all of the basic ingredients right in the bag, it has printed instructions enclosed. Once you make the first batch, you should be on your way to Chili Nirvana.

Some of the things that should be learned are,

1. There is a packet of Chili Powder enclosed and contrary to conventional thinking, you really can't use too much Chili Powder. The only limitation is the salt content in the powder.

2. Shelby advises using a cheap cut of beef such as Chuck or Round and hand cutting the meat into pieces that are "the size of your little toe". You should also trim off some of the fat, some because the fat provides flavor and keeps the meat from turning into Chili flavored Jerky.

3. As you should know by now, plain old GP flour is used to thicken gravy. To thicken the Chili, Shelby provides a packet of Masa Harina in the kit. Masa Harina is the flour that is used to make

corn tortillas and imparts a better Tex/Mex flavor then GP wheat flour.
4. There is also a small packet of Cayenne Pepper enclosed in the kit. I find the whole packet to be too much Cayenne so I found, through trial & error, that half a packet is about right for this Cleveland boy. You should now be ready to castoff your chili training wheels and go where the bold cooks go and become a citizen of the Chili Nation.
One last thing, chili should be hot and spicy. Spicy, by all means, yes. Hot, yes, but not too hot. After shoveling a spoonful into your face the stuff should be hot and spicy enough to make a swig of cold beer your next thought. But not so hot that fire blows out of your ears.

Cornbread

I think that a really good accompaniment for Chili is cornbread. The best cornbread that I have made, so far, is made from a box of Jiffy Corn Muffin mix. I follow the directions on the box with the following exceptions.
1. I don't use any liquid, at all. Instead, I use a can of cream-style corn. Add most of the corn and mix it in. Don't put the whole can in at first, you don't want the batter too soupy. You may well use it all but the liquid varies from can to can and brand to brand.
2. I add half of a small can of Diced Green Chilies. A whole can could work, but start with a half can for starters.

Oh yah. Don't forget the beer. Good beer. Mexican is apropos. Budweiser is not.
ABB.

Bye bye Merc

I heard on the radio yesterday that Ford is discontinuing the Mercury line of cars. This got me to thinking about all of the various auto manufacturers that have folded in my lifetime. Edsel, Nash, Hudson Kaiser, Fraser, Henry J, Studebaker, Packard, AMC, Crossly, Muntz, Plymouth, DeSoto, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Saturn, Hummer and Checker come quickly to mind. I'm sure that I have forgotten a few.
Now if you are under forty, you probably don't recognize hardly any of these names as car brands. Some of these such as Studebaker and Packard were very good cars and some others are frankly best left on the dust heap of history.
Edsel for instance, like Mercury, was nothing more than a re-badged Ford. No better and no worse than any other contemporary Ford that was made at that time.
Nash and Hudson were OK car lines that merged into American Motors Corp. The AMC cars were about the same as their Nash and Hudson predecessors.
Crossly was unique. It was a very compact car built in the late forties and early fifty's. Besides being compact, Crossly's had four cylinder engines with overhead cams and disk brakes. These features were, at least, fifteen years ahead of their time. They were built, along with Crossly's line of home appliances, in Cincinnati.
Checker automobiles were built in Kenosha Wisconsin, and as their name implies, for the taxicab industry. They were big, very roomy inside and were tough. They could take the abuse of a Cuban middleweight.
Why are they all gone? That's a good question. It was said that the cost of American labor closed down the smaller builders and moved some of the big guys off-shore to Mexico and beyond. I say that's bullshit. Mercedes. BMW and Volvo now build some cars in the USA. As do Honda, Toyota and Nissan. Even Hyundai and the lowly KIA are built here. What gives?

Whiting Brothers

In 1961, after I graduated from the US Navy's Terrier Guided Missile School at the General Dynamics/Convair plant in Pomona California, I and Tom, another schoolmate drove back East in his brand new Corvair. It was a real adventure and truly a trip of a lifetime. This was right before the Interstate Highway System opened and so we basically drove back on Route 66. There was an interesting phenomenon, for lack of a better term, and it was the Whiting Brothers chain of gas stations.

The Whiting Brothers had a gas station every 200, or so, miles along the old road. They were placed so that whenever you saw a station, you knew that it was probably time for another fill-up.

As you can see in the picture above, not only was there a filling station, there was a motel and a small grocery, or convenience, store. These are pictures of one such abandoned station that I took last week on our road trip.

You may not believe this if you are under 45, but a uniformed attendant would come out to your car and not only pump your gas, they would also check the oil and "water" and even the tire pressures, if you asked. This was all done without any additional charge. There wasn't any two tiered pricing back then for full and self service. When you got hungry, you would stop at Bubba's Burger Barn, or Molly's cafe, or Lefty's diner. You didn't normally order a #5 with fries. Some of it was real good, some not so good, but most of it had character and individuality.

Alas that's all changed now. When you cruise down the interstate now, you are never really sure if you are in Montana or New Hampshire. It all looks pretty much the same now. All graded nicely with long sweeping turns. Sure, you can make a bit better time now, but at the price of loosing a lot of the character of this big beautiful country of ours. Few people these days have actually driven across the country. We all fly across it in the time it takes to listen to the safety announcement, drink a few beers along with a bag of pretzels, make a trip to the lav and then buckle up and put your traytable up for the landing. If you don't drive it, you don't realize that it takes five days to drive it, not five hours like it is to fly it.

There used to be regional differences around the country. Different accents, food styles, attitudes and paces of life. Thanks to McDonald's and Wendy's and NBC and Interstate 10, it's pretty much gone. There are a few pockets of regional individuality here and there, but you really have to get away from the Interstates and the chain restaurants. Good luck.

Home again

Although Sadie and I have been back since Tuesday, we both still seem to be adjusting. My body clock seems to now be on Mountain Time and Sadie isn't crazy about walking more than a quarter of a mile. Not that she ever was a marathoner.

I love snuggling up in my own bunk. Sadie also like climbing up with me. I was planning on going walkies today to get us both limbered up somewhat, but so far this morning is been classic a So. Cal. gray May morning. The Sunday morning news is on and the blond weather bimbo just said that at 63, it's warmer at Big Bear then at the beaches. Just what I needed, a reason to lolly-gag in my bunk today. Maybe I'll read some more of Atlas Shrugged or Jim Murry.

TWS Cinci, Indiana & the Long Road Back

On Friday 7 May, the 17 day on the road, we left Cincinnati and headed back to John R's. John, Sadie and I went to a great restaurant/bar, Bushman's Brewhouse

http://bushmanbrewhouse.com/default.html.

The place used to be the local Nashville Indiana Country Club. They had a great band and being it was Friday, we ate a creel full of of fish. Large Red Stripe beer was the special so we also drank our weight in Jamaican beer. All went reasonably well except I guess that in my diminished state, I, maybe, committed a social faux pas with Virgil, a local "character". Virgil is a semi-recluse who has a collection of Indian Motorcycles in his barn. I happened to have on a Triumph Motorcycle tee shirt on and Virg made a remark about the alleged sexuality of people who ride English motorcycles. When I pointed out that Indians, for the last 10-12 of their history, were made in the UK, and therefore he must also like to dress like Richard Simmonds, he hit the roof. Fortunately for me, I had walked out to the side porch to check on Sadie when Mount Virge erupted. Apparently, John was the only target of opportunity at the time, so Virg unloaded on John. By the time I returned, John was saucer-eyed, Virge had slinked off into the woods, so I finished my Red Stripe in peace. John and I laughed our asses off all of the way back to the red barn.

Saturday, we loaded up the BRT and headed west. We drove through the rest of Indiana and then all of Illinois. Before dark, we crossed the Mississippi River at St. Louis and drove through Missouri. The Oklahoma Turnpike is to be avoided if you ever plan to drive that way. The road's surface is crappy, food and fuel services are almost non-existent and they charge yoy a toll for this. Typical for government provided services. Somewhere in Western Oklahoma, I pulled over to catch a nap. Being I was chomping at the bit to get home, I couldn't sleep, so we continued on. As we were driving through the Panhandle of Texas, just west of Amarillo, I spotted a small group of people walking through a field and wondered where the hell they were going. Then I spotted them, the up-tilted cars. It was the Stonehenge of Texas, The Cadillac Ranch. I did a quick U-turn and headed back. I couldn't miss this cultural icon.

Miss Sadie, always the art critic had to sniff the work. She was intrigued my the work.

But, was it art?

We'll let you decide. I managed to drive to Holbrook Arizona by Sunday evening and I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, so we hove to at the local dog friendly Motel 6. Monday morning, we got under way towards California and with a few Route 66 stops made it to Carl and Freda's that evening. Carl handed me a cold Mexican beer, flopped a few New York steaks on the barbie and we ate. Freda happened to have a few Jeopardies recorded on the DVR and put them on. Not conducive to a good social climate. I kicked their asses on the first one. I then really kicked ass on the second. By the third, Carl wasn't a good loser. That's good. Show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser. He put on his jamies signaling that it was bed time so we all crashed.