This, That, and DIna MO

Odds and ends today to bring you up to date.

This was the last I’ll see of MFO and the MOMSTER for a while, 

as she is setting off to Wisconsin to be with her sister to help with some medical stuff.  SIL is alone in the great white north, so off goes MFO.. leaving me with bachelordom!  Which is good and bad.  WHAT? Do my OWN laundry?  Clean my OWN Kitchen? But also… I think I’ll take a nap now, or,  Gee, I think I’ll just stay in bed for an hour longer.  And lest this sponsors any cute comments, I’m just being dramatic… kind of.. Anyway the MOMSTER performed admirably and MFO is currently helping SIL where the temperature is… zero.

 A couple more from Missouri

One of the things we did in Missouri after visiting the Covered Bridge and Stanley run and before the Gordonville Grill was to visit the Bollinger County Museum of Natural History, located in Marble Hill, Missouri.  It is in an old building that once housed Will Mayfield College (1878 – 1930).  If you click on the link, the currrent museum is housed in the building on the right. The accompanying story is pretty interesting also.  Its history kind of is a parallel to St. Mary’s College, a story for another time.  The current occupant (the Museum) touts itself as the home of the “Missouri Dinosaur” or Hypsibema Missouriense

The discovery of the remains of the previously unknown creature is pretty interesting, involving a kid, a geologist, a clay pit, a cow, and so forth.  The museum also includes lots of fossils and other prehistoric creatures

(life sized, by the way)

It was a fascinating visit into a small privately funded museum.  Being the day after Christmas, we were the only people in the place and talked a lot with the lady who was volunteering that day.  She was very eager to show us stuff, and of course was passionate about the museum and its mission.

Another facet of the many faceted Feeder is that he is a connoisseur of not only food and wine, but also of bathrooms. Mostly because he invariably visits one in almost any building he finds himself.  Enough of that, but I have to say that this old historical building housed one of the finest I have been in for a while.  Sparkling clean, spacious, a good door lock, all the necessities (besides the main one).  Inside the room were a couple of nice antiques and a lovely painting

And if your nasty little imagination is running, the answer is no, the photo was NOT taken that way..

A lovely stop in rural Missouri with our "kids"

Buy Local

After our lunch in Gordonville, we stopped at a local butcher shop in Cape Girardeau to get some meat for dinner, our last one in Missouri.  FOJTY knows all the haunts for local product and so we stopped at The Butcher Block

Perused the cases of lovely meat

Lovely steaks, but, after enjoying the FOJTY smoked brisket and its leftovers, our beef meter was pretty well pegged, so we thought some pork chops might be nice.  Seeing none on display we asked if there were any, and the butcher said he would gladly cut us some: how many, how thick?  We soon had some gorgeous rib chops for grilling

So nice when you can deal with “the man behind the counter” and don’t have to “ring bell for service”.   They produced a great meal..

See?

And while we are on food (and about to close this chapter) I do want to prove that your intrepid food reporter does not (always) “hide behind my keyboard” as he is sometimes accused but occasionally rolls up his sleeves and gets into the food

Shown here participating in the Stuffed Ham party mentioned in an earlier posting.  Do you know how much stuffing those little pockets take???  But I really enjoyed the opportunity to actually get involved. 

Sports (and not really a rant for a change)

And finally, tonight at long last is (mercifully) the end of the college football season, with the so-called National Championship Game between the beefy Ohio State Buckeyes and the flashy, speedy Oregon Ducks (who had the team member who made that astonishingly stupid decision).  It will be an interesting game to watch.  It has altered my whole day, making me coming up with schemes as to how I MIGHT be able to stay awake at least until halftime (how about a nap?).   I guess I know the answer (West Coast Markets), but Geez Louise, why START the game at 8:30 EST??   Can’t those flower children on the other coast come home with their tofu just a little bit earlier?  Even a five o’clock start there would be a big improvement here.  Coffee anyone?

(bordering on rant, sorry)

And after tonight college game is settled “we're number one! - everybody else is crap” full attention will divert to the Holy NFL and the quest for the Super Bowl will take center stage.  I suspect that Gimpy Rodgers and team won’t be able to beat the other darlings of the west coast, the Seattle Seahawks and their classy players like Marshawn (I’m Thankful) Lynch and (new term coined) “The Twelves".  Deliver us.  And I’ll bet after Andrew and the Colts pretty much sealed Peyton’s career in Denver, we’ll see a Pats and Hawks Super Dooper Hoopla Bowl.  And for those of you who didn’t get punished on Facebook with my extremely rare selfie (another story for another time) I’ll (really close) with a bad picture of myself revealing who I rooted for yesterday

After which, I was NOT

DFD

On tap, the Feeder visits Charles Street Brasserie and is surprised