You've got to bend your elbow to get that spoon to your mouth.

You've got to bend your elbow to get that spoon to your mouth, although when shooting a handgun you want to mostly keep your elbows locked. I love good food, although I've tried to cut down on the amount I eat. I will attempt to write, from time to time, about what I've been cooking, or where we've gone and what we had when we eat out. There might even been a few recipes and some photographs. Now and then I may write about shooting or hunting, or what I've been trying to grow in the yard.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Comment about Leon Hale's "The Stove Job"

Well, I’m happy to know that Mr. Griffin came along and you and your buddy had a change of heart and you didn’t start down “That Long Highway,” like Clyde Barrow.  I will have to say that I never really had to deal with such a situation.  While growing up in Schulenburg, my brothers and I were never really punished frequently.  Maybe I should mention here that my dad was a veterinarian and my mom a schoolteacher.  Dad had graduated high school at age 16 and had received his doctoral degree by age 21.  I was born in Corpus Christi in 1949 while my dad was finishing veterinary school at A&M and my first home was in College Station.
I guess I could count on a hand and a half the whoopings I received while growing up.  But when we were punished, it was not a little play-like punishment it was the real thing.  Generally, there were never more than 3-4 licks, but they raised whelps.  It was a long process.  First there was a discussion about what I, or we, (usually we) had done, (or not done) and what we should have done.  Then we were sent to our room to think about it for some time, often close to an hour.  Then we were called out our room, and there was discussion and lecture, and then the “whooping.”  “Bend over and grab your ankles,” is what we heard.  “Don’t stick your hands back there, or you may get a finger broken.”  As I said, usually only 3-4 licks, but they were the real thing.  Then, it was back to your room for more cogitation.  After that, it was over and not mentioned again.  I think that this long process, 2-3 hours, prevented our parents from ever striking us in anger.  They did mean to make an impression, though; and we never made the same mistake twice.  We might get another whooping in the next year or so, but it was never for the same thing.  We knew better than that.  Maybe my dad’s drive and ambition (a doctoral degree at age 21 is fairly impressive) plus the lessons that many learned growing up in the Great Depression had some effect of influence on his sternness.
Another thing that I guess I should mention is that we never lived more than a few blocks away from the church.  We were usually there for Sunday School, Sunday morning services, and for Sunday evening services, and then on Wednesday nights for Prayer Meeting.  My mom was not the usual pianist at church, but it was not uncommon for her be the substitute.  One of my favorite memories of childhood is the late afternoons, after my mom had gotten dinner started and she took a few minutes, maybe 15, for contemplation and prayer.  She would sit at the piano and play the hymn, “Sweet Hour of Prayer.”  She usually didn’t offer an oral prayer, but we all knew she was praying, and that often she was praying for us.
I never thought about stealing a wood burning stove, never crossed my mind.  Probably mostly because I knew it was wrong, but also because I knew how heavy the suckers were.  My grandfather had begun leasing 400 acres south of Military Mountain, near Camp Wood, Texas in the early 1950’s, for hunting.  There was a little two-room shack on the place, and after hunting for a few years, my dad bought from H.P. Schaefer Hardware Store in Schulenburg, a four eye, wood burning cook stove to install in the place.  It was a beauty; a firebox in the front, an oven with doors on either side for biscuits or cinnamon rolls, and plenty of room on top for frijoles, tortillas, chicken-fried steak, or fajitas.  There was even a way to add a hot water tank, although we never purchased that addition.  When folks buy short sticks of firewood, called barbeque nowadays, for their grills that have a firebox on the side, they are buying what we used to call stove wood, back in those days.  It was usually my job, or that of one of my brothers, to take those short sticks of mesquite and split them into smaller (not shorter) pieces, so that they would catch and burn more readily.  We didn’t mind it much, it wasn’t a difficult chore, and within a half an hour we would have enough split and in the box to last for at least a day.
By the time I was 12 or 13 years old, I was a big boy, about 5 feet, eight inches, and weighing about 180 lbs, and strong.  (I kept thinking that I would grow taller, but I never did.)  There came a time or two when we had change out the stovepipe, which necessitated a slight movement of that stove.  That big stove must have weighed at least 200 pounds.  So, I never stole a wood stove.  Aside from the strict rearing, my previous experience with such a stove discouraged me from a life of crime with cast iron stoves.


Here is a photo of the shack, or cabin to which I earlier referred, a true Texas Hill Country goat herders shack.  I took this photo in about 1966 using a Sears and Roebuck, Tower brand 35 mm. Camera.  It had a focal plane shutter.  The film was probably Kodak Plus X.  The camera had no auto-features.  I used a light meter and set film speed, f-stop, and shutter speed.  I developed the film and made enlargements in a little dark room my dad and I had built onto the back of our garage in Schulenburg in about 1965.

          Here is an interior picture from the same cabin.  My dad, Dr. Robert Owen is on the right, and my uncle, Bobby Ray Younts, of Agua Dulce, is on the left.  This picture was probably taken with a Kodak Instamatic, at about the same time as the previous picture.




Here is a wood-burning stove that is similar to the one we had in that wonderful, old shack.  It’s not identical, but it is similar.  Ours didn’t have the warming rack at the back of the stove, behind the hole for the stovepipe.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Ribs and a Beautiful Day

February 13, 2011--We finally had nice weather in Southeast Texas on Sunday--sunny, mild, high temp near 70, a great day to cook something outdoors.  The past few weeks of February have been cold and sometimes rainy.  I think that for the first 12 or 13 days of February we had 10 nights below freezing, and one of them got down to about 19 degrees.  Daily highs mostly in the 40's, not the kind of weather I like for being outside around the barbque pit, but sometimes it's OK.  It was a little easier to be out there when I was younger.  Heck, sometimes now when I'm at the hunting lease and get up at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning and the temperature is below 35, I will decide to just crawl back into bed and cover up and say, "Let the younger guys do it."  Now, I'm not always that way, but sometimes.

Anyway, I decided that today would be a good day for some pork ribs.  Pork ribs, baked beans, and cole slaw.  It came together well.  I seasoned the ribs and put them on to cook around 3:00 in the afternoon and they were ready to eat by around 6:30-7:00.  And now, I've got to find out how to post some pictures.  I took some pretty good pictures of the ribs and pork chops I smoked, and I'd like to share them.  I'll also tell you how I seasoned the meat and made the cole slaw dressing.

When I seasoned the ribs I started with some pepper/vinegar sauce.  I sprinkled both sides of the slab of ribs with the vinegar sauce, then I rubbed it in a little.  I think that the use of the vinegar/pepper sauce helps to cut through the outer layer of fat a bit and open it up for the other seasonings, the dry seasonings.  I sprinkled one side with the Bolner's seasoning and and some black pepper, and then the other side with some of John Henry's seasoning and some black pepper.  I didn't use a mopping sauce for the ribs today.  Sometimes I do, but today I didn't.  When I do, it is the same mop I use for brisket or chicken. 

I'm planning to cook a brisket or two at the deer lease in a couple of weeks and I'll take some photos and post a recipe.

I put the ribs on the grill, no direct heat, fire in the firebox, not under the meat.  I used a combination of charcoal and mesquite.  I tried to maintain the heat and somewhere under 250 degrees, at least 180-190, but less than 250.  It's ok to turn the ribs over a few times, but I mostly keep them with the fat side up, the same as for a brisket.  I do turn them
 sometimes to alternate between the meaty end of the ribs or the less meaty end of the ribs, but keeping the fat side up. 

After cooking/smoking the pork chops for about an hour or an hour and a half, I wrapped them in heavy duty foil and put them on the cool end of the grill.  I seasoned them the same way I seasoned the ribs.

The beans we had were just canned beans, Bush's baked beans, the ones with extra onions.  The cole slaw recipe follows--

KFC Coleslaw
 
 Recipe By     : Copy Cat Web Site
 Serving Size  : 1    Preparation Time :0:20
 Categories    : Coleslaw
 
   Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
 --------  ------------  --------------------------------
    1      head          cabbage -- finely chopped
    1      medium        carrot -- shredded
      1/3  cup           granulated sugar
      1/2  teaspoon      salt
      1/8  tablespoon    pepper
      1/4  cup           milk
      1/2  cup           mayonnaise
      1/4  cup           buttermilk
    1 1/2  tablespoons   white vinegar
    2 1/2  tablespoons   lemon juice
 
 Be sure the cabbage and carrots are chopped up into very fine pieces about the 
 size of rice kernels.  Combine the sugar, salt, pepper, milk, mayonnaise, buttermilk, vinegar and lemon juice and beat until smooth.  Add the cabbage and carrots and mix well.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

This dressing recipe makes great slaw.  Be sure to use real mayonnaise and real real buttermilk.  Light mayonnaise and milk/lemon juice works, but it's not as good.




Spices used
On the grill
About two hours

On the plate

Be sure to check out the photo at the bottom of the page.  It includes a picture of my barbque tool.  It is almost two feet long, a two pronged fork on one end and a hook on the other.  An iron barbque and Dutch Oven tool made by a blacksmith in Needville, Texas.  I've had it for about 15-20 years and it's definitely one of the handiest tools I've ever used in outdoor cooking.