Chicago on eastern standard time

Does anybody really know what time it is? (I don't)

Does anybody really care? (care about time)

If so I can't imagine why (no, no)

Ugh.

just Stuff...

Two days ago was “leap day”, the 29^th of February.  This phenomenon won’t occur again until…..4 years from now.  Oh, well.

Within the past week, the Feeder has visited three restaurants in the area.   SweetBay in Leonardtown, Elements in Lexington Park, and Cow and Fish in Hollywood. 

Readers might well expect the Feeder to stack them up, one to three.  Well, the Feeder is not going to do that.  They are kind of in different cycles of their life, from learning to walk, to hitting their stride, to their twilight years.  Each has strengths, and some areas for improvement, but you really can’t go wrong with any of them as long as you know what you can expect. 

The important thing in considering a restaurant is “what is the final thought you had when leaving”. Such as: “great food, but……”;  “wish the server would have…”; “why did it take so long for…” type of thing.   It’s the overall “experience” that counts, not just what’s on your plate.

So we’ve got a few good places, that are worth your $ and time.

Ahead of things as usual

Alert readers may remember that I complained about how food items now have to have a “style” attached?  (St. Louis Style ribs; North Carolina style BBQ)…  And pizza has always been prone to geographical location of the pies.  Well, one of my “trade” rags, Restaurant and Hospitality

Must have read my post, as they came out with this article

They covered (only) five cities:/regions: Brooklyn; New York; American Neapolitan; California: and Detroit.   Chicago didn’t make the cut oddly enough.

Here’s a snippet from the Detroit entry

In a future post, I might go into more depth on the characteristics of their "regions"

OBTW the cover story about “pricing” is very interesting.  The problem arises out of the “minimum wage” situation which requires a restaurant to wrestle with how to meet those regulations without raising prices.  Various schemes are developed to meet these challenges, Subscription Dining; too involved to summarize here. 

Good stuff in there: 5 ingredients to watch in 2020:  Grains of Paradise (west African); Ajvar (Balkan peppers); Unripe Produce (Chefs are playing with the unique textures of unripe fruits and vegetables); Ash (the “new smoke”, look for Ash baked” ingredients to hit the menus this year; Vermouth (This classic will take center stage on drink menus).

This’s and That’s

SweetBay: now has (new menu) a $42 bone-in tenderloin on the menu;  now offers wine by the bottle on extensive list (which currently does not show vintages).

 Quality Street: rumor has it that they may be moving into the “new hotel” in Leonardtown to serve breakfast and lunch.  Big step!

Cow and Fish: not exactly germane, but FOJTE found this “blast from the past”:

Painted plates

Elements: Suiters in work for post-closing (in May)

Bottom of the Hill (Leonardtown) some believe it may be going dark (not confirmed on social media)

Phrases and things that drive the Feeder nuts (short journey)

Arrogance of Subaru.  Picture of man looking at a mangled wreck in driveway.  “My daughter would be dead if it wasn’t for my Forester”.   Gimme a break.  All other autos should be BANNED from the highways!!!!

Sport Shorts:

Speaking of Shorts, are you/people so desperate for the holy NFL that you actually watched the circus of the “Combines”?  “MY GOD! His thumb is a quarter of an inch shorter than (so and so’s)!!”  Drop him 4 places in the “potential” draft.

Gag me: “He runs downhill” (I thought football fields were flat, silly me);  “He just gets stronger as the game goes on”  Huh?;  “he is taking it to the next level!”  we’re moving to the mezzanine?   “that’s a game changer!” oh, I guess we’re switching to Rugby or Badminton.

Okay, that’s the gamut for today

When considering a restaurant visit, consider how you should be

DFD

(what goes here?) on the Brink

The first word should be “Teetering” which is what we did last week.   Oddly enough (you might well think) although the place has been open for over a year, the Feeder never was able to take a tour.  MFO still prefers Giant, saying the parking places at Teeter’s are narrow and hard for the MOMSTER to fit easily.  But with me along we have the (deserved) blue tag enabling us to take advantage of closer in (and wider) parking.  So I asked if we could take a “fam flight” as we used to say.  Yup, she was up for it so off we went.

They were setting up for Valentine’s Day

As you can see, in general, the layout is popular concept of “islands”, 

smallish “centers” dedicated to a single item.

Appetizing, eh?  Ooey, gooey cornstarched to death

or at most harmonious parings, like Pizza and Cheese

Between the islands there is plenty of space to maneuver in and the other aisles are quite spacious

Specifically there is much more variety of product available than the Giant across the road.

The produce, while abundant is somewhat quality challenged as friends who go there warned us

Poor little parsley

However, as I said, the variety of stuff available far outstrips its competition.  Take the "seafood" department or, excuse me, the

For example, you don’t often see Branzino and Monkfish in (our) grocery stores:

Nor squid/calamari, octopus, and not pictured Mussels (dead, dead o)

Of course, I have no way of judging quality nor freshness..

The meat area has actual non-packaged cuts with a person there to help you (“no, the one under the cut the closest to me”) and features Angus beef (did not see the word “certified”).  

Plenty of pre-packaged stuff like sausages (including Andouille!), and a bow to the burgeoning “no beef” mania

Say it ain’t so!! Bubba!!! What’s the world coming to??

The rest of the store is laid out somewhat peculiarly and the aisles are clearly marked with what's on the shelves 

No comment

A more reasonable grouping

And what, pray tell, are “New Age Drinks”? maybe means something to millennials, which I certainly am not!

If it were up to me, I would go their in lieu of Giant, but it is not in my job description.  Be interesting to see what McKay’s does with the old “Shopper’s” location in San Souci…

Enjoy your president’s day!

Descending into (the seemingly popular):

RANTS

I suppose this is sacrilege, but I can’t help it.  Of course I am sorry that Mr. Bryant and his daughter (and the others) perished in the ‘copter crash.  BUT… all of a sudden the man is a saint.  Name awards after him, eulogize, best human ever, etc.  I hear there is talk of replacing the statue in the Lincoln statue in DC with one of him.   He did have a great career, but if a second string shooting guard was one of the victims do you think the outcry and mania would be the number one topic in sports show, after show, after show, after show, after show, with all the hosts being almost breaking into tears?

Segue into sort of a related topic (of hosts), where they find those obnoxious “side men” puzzles me.  It’s not about the game, it’s about THEM.  They know more than any of the coaches or players (he should have passed to so and so, going away from the zone was a mistake, he should have called time out, on and on).  Hindsight is a wonderful thing.  If they’re so damn smart how come they’re not coaching?  My lineup of mute button insufferable examples is:

  1. Dan (I know it all) Dockish;  

  2. Bill (Move those puppies, big fella!) Raftery.    

  3. Gary (Sincerely cute) Danielson

  4. Booger (listen to ME – I played at Auburn!) McFarland

  5. Beth (always “performing” her comments or play by play)       Mowins

  6. Dick (“Diaper Dandies” Are you kidding me?) Vitale (could be anywhere on the list)

  7. Amanda (see how many teeth I have?) Balionis

Best of the best (IMHO): 

Nick Faldo; Tony Romo; Chris Collingsworth; Troy Aikman; Rebecca Lobo; Dottie Pepper; David Feherty (in a class by himself)

Why they let Gary McCord go for DLIII is a mystery

Okay enough is enough

Don’t forget to honor our President’s George and Abe by

DFD

Cuisine is when things taste like themselves

Curnonsky

HNY and Oyster Battles

Well, the drumbeat for 2020 commences.  In the books is the 2019 holidays sort of symbolically  ended by the traditional good-bye wave of the FOJTE’s. 

They were able to squeeze in a visit during his winter break from school.  This was more of a “working” rather than celebratory Christmas.   They were of immense help, upstairs, downstairs, and outside. 

Upstairs:

The big project was the removal of the carpeting on the loft which was very hard for me to negotiate with my office chair.  Doyle’s was “kind” enough to schedule the work while the “kids” were here (to help replace heavy stuff). So we had Christmas eve day punctuated by a compressor and air gun (“Bam, Bam Bam! what did you say??”) as well as the day after Christmas.  But, it turned out well and now my “upstairs” office is much more accessible. With the help of FOJTE doing much of the carrying

Downstairs:

 he and Ms. FOJTE entered all my wines into Cellar Tracker.  If you’re willing to put in the effort, it’s a great tool for knowing what bottles you have and where they are located…

We did our best to lessen the work load

MFO is quite fond of Viognier, and this bottle from Calera was especially good.

Veteran oenophiles know that usually the back label is full of “wine speak” as in “this lovely wine has hints of pineapple and overlaid with waves of citrus and burnt orange” or some such crap.  Not so, the good folk at Calera… everything you wanted to know and more

Outside:

they replaced some pansies that had formed a salad for deer, unearthing the plants and nibbling them to the nub.

This time we enclosed the “new” ones with Cloches and sprayed with DeerAway

Damn deer!

Anyway, a huge thanks to them for caring for their aging parents.

Back to the foodie stuff

Oyster Wars

After the Civil War, the oyster harvesting industry exploded. In the 1880's, the Chesapeake Bay supplied almost half of the world's supply of oysters. New England fishermen encroached on the Bay after their local oyster beds had been exhausted, which prompted violent clashes with competitors from Maryland and Virginia. Watermen from different counties likewise clashed.

BUT! that’s not the war I’m talking about (thank goodness) although it does involve oysters.  My war is much more local.  It is the war between preparing fried oysters via two separate techniques the “traditional” and the “new wave” opportunity

Traditional technique:

heat oil to 350°

Prepare a batter of your choice (I am still trying to duplicate Cow and Fish) with egg, flour, and in this case (forgive me) Old Bay, bread crumbs and a finishing dusting of Southwest Seasoning

I clean the oysters removing the foot and the stringy parts

And then put them in the hot oil flipping if necessary to get crispy and turn them out onto a plate (and dust with the Southwest Seasoning).

Pluses:  nicely formed, crispy all over, creamy inside

Minuses:  Dealing with the oil, and detritus from the frying, wife complaining about oil on her counter.

The newfangled “air fryer” technique

First, get out the device

For this go round (there were predecessors) I wanted to try two different preparations for the oysters, the C&F version and one from the internet using a pre-made coating from that bastion of southern cooking

I prepped the oysters again, and laid out the two preparations: Cow on the left, and Zatarain’s on the right

Oddly (enough) C&F said only flour coating (no eggs), panko bread crumbs, old bay (in the flour) and a post cooking dusting of Southwest Seasoning (which I ground up in the spice grinder).  Other side was egg wash, coat the oysters with the “Fish Fri”, and go at it.

Previous attempts at using the air technique resulted in too long cooking and so this time I reduced the heat to 350 and set it for 4 minutes.

Dredged the Zatarain’s side

Coated the C&F with flour and made the panko adhere as much as possible

And loaded all into the air fryer

After roughly three minutes we had:

5462

The C&F side (left) looked awful but the Zat side looked better

Tasting revealed the C&F to be less than flavorful still, and the Zat versions were quite “zesty”.

Current evaluation:  To date I think overall the boil in oil technique has supplied the better product. Test kitchen experimentation will continue, however.

Wow, this got long, sorry, thanks for hanging in!

And what the hell, I’ll throw in one of many growing list of rants that I have recently made notes on:

I know this time of year is when resolutions are made to lose weight, get healthy, eat right, and so on.  Strike while the iron is hot.

Peloton blasts you with commercials (please forgive me) featuring ladies who obviously are fit and trim, dressed in tight fitting yoga pants, and many shots taken to seemingly (is it me?) feature the posterior of them.  Never have I seen one showing anybody who is obviously overweight, and really might benefit from an exercise machine.. 

Okay, enough getting back on track, more to come

DFD

Crossing the Lines

      

As I said in a previous post, I keep that yellow ruled sticky pad by me (and often lose it) and last time we whittled it down some (I ramble too much), but there are still uncrossed off lines, so I have a few odds and ends to mop up, and a couple are even about food!

NOT FOOD

Show Biz: this is a bit moldy, but still valid.  NBC spent weeks hyping their broadcast of the “Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade”, showing rosy cheeked little cherubs looking wide-eyed at the “famous” balloons.  Somehow the weather channel cashed in and spend a lot of segments taking about how the wind would affect them, etc.  So, what the hell, I’ll tune in and watch some.  So, the first thing I see is some dance troupe strutting around on what is apparently “our new stage” with some “star” I never heard of, but guess what?  I can see them on NBC on such and such a night.  Well, in order to cross off another line and not get to more, I’ll just say that the Macy’s event was indeed a parade, but it was a parade of “Our New Show” with lame productions one after another.  Oh yeah, here’s this balloon thing.  Tune in to NBC…

Sports: always easy pickings.. A): I don’t know how much you listen to the sport talking heads, but I do a fair amount in the wee smalls to ward off the demons some.  There’s a couple of things that bug me (easily done):   Head A: “expanding the (NCAA) football playoffs to eight teams is a must!  The current set-up with four just isn’t working”.  B): Very next program (Same network), Head B: “The current NCAA playoff of four teams is perfect! Opening it up to more teams just dilutes the whole thing by letting teams in with more losses”.  Don’t these guys ever listen to each other?

Last night (Saturday) saw the much awaited bestowing of the hallowed (and overrated) Heisman trophy to the odds on favorite, the guy from LSU.  That concluded weeks (months?) of speculation and Heisman Watch programs with scrutiny of every QB on every play trying to increase the drama. And INVARIABLY, every time they talk about so-and-so he is always characterized as being “In the conversation”.. same phrase over and over.  “Certainly his record doesn’t support it, but he deserves to be “in the conversation””… who’s the best wide receiver.  “Edelman of course, but don’t forget Stone Hands who is certainly “in the conversation””  watch for it...  Makes them sound intelligent and learned I suppose.

IS FOOD

And Drink:  sort of teeing off last entry of sounding pedantic, Total Wine & More is (understandably) ramping up marketing for the holidays.  Many radio spots.  Most feature some self-styled expert telling me that he or she suggests a “Fruit Forward” cabernet from Paso Robles, and I can direct you to the perfect bottle”  They sling around “fruit forward” to show you how much they know about wine.  Gosh!  Another suggests a “daring pairing” for deep fried turkey of a “fruity” Chateaueuf Du Pape.   Beer, my friend, beer.  But gee you must know a lot about that exotic French wine!   They mention their “ridiculous” inventory of wines at affordable prices. At least they don’t push Barefoot. 

Reviews:  for years, as alert readers know, I have followed (and yes, somewhat emulated) Tom Sietsema’ reviews in the WAPO.  I was bowled over by his review of the “House Member’s Dining Room”.  For the first time ever that I know of, he bestowed a HALF STAR on the place.  He ripped them up and down.  Samples:    He calls their Bean Soup (NOT the Senate version) “one of the sorriest dining experiences in Washington; “No sooner does foot start coming than you wish you were grazing away – far, far, away from George Washington’s gaze (a picture on the wall)”; the Caesar looks like a grade-school art project… slices of chicken that taste like they emerged from a freezer bag”.  Space and temerity forbids me to go on.  You can look it up on line.   A Masterpiece of criticism..

Something of Value:  In today’s post Dave Mcintyre the wine critic, who I am growing to appreciate more and more writes “Five tips to help you with sparkling wine”.  Worth reading – the main headings are:

It ain’t champagne unless it comes from Champagne

Vintage isn’t (always) important

Wine is the noun, sparkling is the modifier

Because it’s not just about the bubbles, it’s not just about toasting

Don’t drink it from a Coupe

Space and time doesn’t let me elucidate, but it contains some very basic good information.  Look it up on line Okay, all the lines are crossed off on the pad so time to tell you to

DFD

StnaR

I keep a little yellow sticky pad by me most of the time, and record stupid things I run across till the “rant tank” is pretty full. Then it needs to be emptied.  Apparently (sadly?) one of my more popular postings, food be damned (for today), we'll draw down the tank (no pictures! no pictures!!)

Phone Culture

We all have one, and like the old saying: “you can’t live with ‘em, and you can’t live without ‘em” (WHERE’S my phone????) and with the onset of the giving season, commercials for same and associated topics have proliferated. 

There are GEICO commercials of dogs trained to snatch the phone from your hand.

The woman looking at some phenomenon yelling “Take the Picture! TAKE THE PICTURE!!” and the doofus with the phone protruding from his pocket and a Taco Bell chicken roll up in each hand, and just shrugs shoulders.

A woman extolling the beauty of some "amazing" mountain scenery saying to unseen partner: “look at those amazing mountains---you’re not even looking!”;   “no, I’m posting the amazing pictures I took with my iPhone(?); whereupon they launch into the phone and it’s features of THREE CAMERA’S.

Moral as the Feeder sees it:  Our society seems to be evolving to the point where the only reason to visit places of natural or man-made beauty is NOT for personal satisfaction, education, and enjoyment, it is only to take phone pictures and post them on your favorite site.  I think somebody could hold up a painting and the result would be the same.  Reality is my phone.  Sad.

And there is no doubt that most of the out and out phone commercials and networks are aimed at a generation that I am considered part of.  Most protagonists are young, vital, and whatever “hip” connotes today. The “music” that accompanies most of the pieces are atonal and almost akin to rap. 

One particular segment from (maybe) Boost Mobile is a bit difficult for me to describe.  It features Pitbull (whom I have heard of!) and somebody named Dale Mas (whom I have NOT heard of).  Dale (if that’s her name), could be described by a phrase MFO uses sometimes as: “someone who doesn’t mind a cheeseburger”, along with her troupe of similar body type “dancers”.  Anyway, while the announcer is extolling the benefits of Boost Mobile, Dale and her team are in the background, doing what I suppose they consider “dancing”, feet more than shoulder width apart, toes pointing outward (Ninja warrior like) and “stomping” while flinging their arms in the air in a series of what I would consider anything approaching graceful, more like grotesque..  It is hard (for me) to watch.

Just for the record, I DO NOT have a flip phone.  Okay, on to

Automobiles

No need to talk about re-treads (get it??), like the car that is not a car, but “love”, or the gentleman who gets a GMC truck for each of them (~$70K total); or the (luxury) car made in Japan with the very British lady asking us to make it a “Decembah to remembah” by purchasing said auto.

No, there are two that have caught my attention, one that I (believe it or not) actually like!

Don’t like:  An auto whose symbol is a circle with a three pronged "peace symbol" inside who says “the best or nothing” often featuring Santa with a fleet of said autos.  one with the little pup who has to go potty is kind of cute, but a newer one features a snotty arrogant kid who takes a phone photo of Santa bending over delivering packages, and the kid takes one of his ample (to be expected) hind quarters.  Holds his phone/image up and tells the jolly old elf: “it would be a shame if this went Viral” (there’s that phone culture thing again) and the red dressed gentleman jovially  says “Okay, kid you got me, what would you like?  A drone? A play station?”  Nope says the little brat, I want your sleigh!  Cut to a red German convertible.  Never he says.   Cut to next morning when dad and mom stand in driveway in jammies and a cup, saying “junior did well this year” Stupid all around.

Like (!!): actually another Geico commercial.  Extremely button down, naive mom and dad in driveway with blindfolded son, gleefully announcing “okay, Happy Birthday! Take off your blindfold, this is for you!”  Kid takes off the blindfold to see they are all standing around a behemoth bathtub like 4-Door station wagon, maybe an older Chevy Caprice or something with beige panels on a darker beige body.  Kid looks shocked like he’s seen a ghost or something “oh no beige on beige!"  How do you expect me to drive such thing?”  Goofy dad says “you turn the key, and mimics steering wheel motions”, and the “Harriet Nelson” Mom cheerfully says: “it has cup holders!”

I don’t know who the kid actor is, but he deserves an Oscar on the spot.  Look of total devastation is perfect and priceless.

A tease

Well, the tank is about ¾ empty, and the page count mounts so I’ll “leave them wanting more”, by saying in all my years of following Tom Sietsema’s restaurant reviews I have never seen him give an “award” of one half a star to an eatery.   Details to follow.

For now

DFD

A special day, and Matthew 7:1

Before anything else, it is a day to remember and honor all those who are, or have served our country in faraway places, assuring the freedom for kooks like me to publish things about food and cooking.  I was declared exempt for military service because at the time of the Viet Nam war draft because I was working in the defense industry.  My father was not, he even lied about his age to get in the Army, went through training in the Field Artillery, and was ultimately shipped to France where he was wounded in the grusome battle of Chateaux Thierry, and eventually was sent home for a long recovery.  He never did regain full usage of his right arm.  He never talked about his experiences and I never quizzed him about it.  In retrospect, I think it was a dark period of his life which he didn't want to revisit.  Archivist MFO organized all his papers and letters from his training and while he was convalescing and we gave them to his home town historical society in Holland, Michigan.  Thank you dad and Vets who are still here and those that live in memories…

Seems kind of anticlimactical to talk about food and such, but it’s what I do.

The Bible??? 

Hey Matthew you are quoted in the bible in verse 7:1 as reminding us: “Judge not lest ye be judged”

Well, while that may be a good life precept in general, it doesn’t apply well in the Food Judges department.   This year we had an exceptionally qualified panel of judges evaluating the nine finalist dishes. I want to talk more about one of them, but a brief bio on each follows. 

Gwyn Novak:  Back for her second year as a National Oyster Cook-Off judge, Gwyn Novak is the chef and founder of No Thyme to Cook, Southern Maryland’s premier cooking studio teaching students of all ages the love of food.

Sandra Martin:  Another returning judge She is editor of the Bay Weekly publication and considered an expert on Southern Maryland cuisine. Though born in the center of the country, St. Louis, Missouri, Sandra Olivetti Martin grew up eating native Chesapeake Bay oysters.  

Amy Langrehr, Her first time as a judge this year is the force behind Baltimore's enormously popular Charm City Cook, a Baltimore dining and cooking Instagram and blog.

Jason Yaskoir, another new addition to the judging team is Editor-in-Chief of "DCFüd" and a food writer and editor. He is originally from the most culturally diverse county in the U.S. (Queens County, NYC), where he grew up eating a variety of cuisines and learned how to cook at his Mom's side as a kid.

And finally

John Shields, another returning judge, is a Chef, author, and television personality is the owner of the

celebrated Gertrude’s Restaurant at the Baltimore Museum of Art.  John is often called “The Culinary Ambassador of the Chesapeake Bay,” and he has written three popular cookbooks on the cuisine of the region.

After the competition, John set up a booth to sell his cookbooks, this the latest, the 25^th anniversary edition.

 I bought a copy (can't have too many cookbooks!)

With all due respects to John, I expected just another compendium of crab cake and oyster stew recipes, until I cracked the cover.  What an amazing collection of not only recipes with provenance, and many historical pictures of the Chesapeake Bay region.  For instance: “Gertie’s Crab Cakes” recipe starts out by telling us that “Gertie Cleary hailed from Baltimore’s Greenmount Avenue and her cooking was legendary throughout St. Ann’s Parish and northeast Baltimore“.  He may be a bit biased, since Gertie was his grandmother.  Or Polish Marinated Herring:  ”When Polish John’s not operating his crane at the Dundalk Marine terminal, you’re likely to find him at his East Baltimore home eating or preparing this delicious snack from this homeland”.  He talks about his hometown of Baltimore, or “Charm City”.. the hairdo capital of the world, screen paintings (heard of those?) crab houses, and beehive coifs”

I found myself just leafing through the book not only for the recipes but the knowledge that accompanied them.  In emails to John, I learned he spend over a year in the region gathering the (authentic) recipes and the stories that went with them.

But what bowled me over was when I turned the page to 175 and found this:

 “in the old days, a trip to Southern Maryland would not be complete without a visit and meal with William Taylor”, 

and then recounts his legendary dinners.  I was fortunate enough to be invited to a few of the “Dinner Designer’s” meals in his home that could have been an annex to the Smithsonian, full of playbills, and even costumes from the silent film era.  Anybody who knew Bill Taylor earns my respect.  John is not just some hack cookbook author. 

Quick culinary note and a small rant for the Christmas Season:

Alert readers may remember that occasionally MFO and I get food “From a Bag” if we’re out and about.  Well, we stopped for such a lunch the other day at a McDonalds, and I am so tired of quarter pounders with cheese or a cheese burger meal, that I decided to get a crispy buttermilk chicken sandwich.  It was without a doubt the worst excuse for food I’ve had in a long time.  Under the gooey coating was a hunk of chicken(?) that was nearly inedible consisting of loosely held together little packets of gristle with strings that got in your teeth.  I finally gave up. Awful and disgusting.

‘Tis the season.  Every year at this time the so called “luxury” cars trot out the same old ads’.   Lexus is one of the primary sources of such extravagances.   Showing the perfect American family, Mom, Dad, sis and buddy, in their flannel PJ’s and probably fido with his red bandanna out in front of their spacious home in the equally spacious patio in front of the multi car garage with a Lexus and a big red bow on top with the kids bouncing up and down with glee.  And the snobby heavily (British) accented haughty announcing lady telling us to make it a “Decembahhh to remembahhhh – at yo Lexusss delahhhh”.. and here I thought the auto was made in Japan

And finally (thank goodness you say) while most/some auto makers boast about fuel economy and their environmental efforts, apparently the Dodge company doesn’t buy into that crap.  Commercials of Santa driving out of his bag in a Challenger? With screaming, smoking tires shouting “and to all, get OUTTA MY WAY”, or another with the obligatory chartreuse (good ol’ boy) Charger(?) racing around city streets, weaving in and out, boasting about the amount of horsepower they have (which probably produces massive amounts of hydrocarbons).  Only in America!

Okay, I’m done. 

If you have a friend (or yourself!) who enjoys cooking and learning about regional food, I would highly recommend considering John Shield’s “Chesapeake Bay Cooking”

And if you see or think of a Veteran, say “Thanks for your Service to our Country”

DFD