This is a recipe that I have prepared before and will tell you that it is a "keeper."
The first time I prepared it I was swimming in vine-ripened tomatoes and with an abundance of cherry tomatoes from your garden, your local farm market or CSA this is a terrific recipe that incorporates all of those delectable fruits.
This is an easy-peasy meal to enjoy in a bowl by the wood stove accompanied by a chewy baguette. A perfect dinner or lunch for that time when the frost is on the pumpkin.
Ingredients
4 cloves of garlic – finely chopped
2 cups smoked sausage of your choice (andouille, venison, chorizo, etc.) I found a package of Bryant's Smoked Pork Sausage in a chest freezer (Bryant's Meats - Taylorsville, MS) that was not too sweet and not too hot.
Olive oil
½ t fennel seeds
15 oz can of garbanzos – drained and rinsed
3
C of cherry tomatoes (I added three of my precious remaining garden tomatoes)
1/3 C dry white wine
24
jumbo shrimp (peeled and deveined). I used Argentinean-sourced. wild-caught, frozen south-Atlantic colossal shrimp.
½
cup torn fresh basil leaves. I moved my basil indoors a month ago.
Fresh-cracked sea salt and black pepper to taste
Crusty
baguette. We generally have homemade French boule - toast a couple of thick slices
Crushed red pepper (optional)
Instructions
Mix yourself a martini with two colossal green olives. Rocks or Up – you pick. This is an important step. Take a sip.
In a stock pot brown your sausage in olive oil until it is brown and beginning to crisp. Add the garlic and fennel seeds and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant.
Sip your martini
Add the garbanzo beans, tomatoes, wine and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat and cook (covered) until the tomatoes begin to break-down.Thirty minutes or thereabouts.
Sip your martini
Uncover and break-up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon. Add ½ C of water.
Sip you martini
Add the shrimp to the pot and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
Finish the martini and share one of the anointed olives with your sweetie.
Remove from heat and stir-in the basil.
Serve with bread. Fireside is best - paired with a dry white wine.
It’s acceptable to dunk your bread in the stew.
Cheers!
Pay close attention to what is transpiring right now in China.
This may be instructive.
I should hope the Chinese people are too smart and too talented to settle for this dictator for too much longer. He has been a disaster for China and the Chinese people.
Cold turkey salad is terrific - solo or on toasted homemade bread.
Cut your bird into bite size chunks and mix with diced celery, shallot (or sweet onion), walnuts and dried Door County tart cherries with a dollop of Duke's Mayonnaise. Season with fresh-cracked pepper, sea salt and celery seed.
Make in small batches.
There is also turkey noodle soup.
Make an all-day-long stock of your turkey bones and parts. Strain into another pot, add diced celery, carrots, shallot. Cook until veggies are al dente. Add cubed turkey and three fistfuls of Kluski-style egg noodles. Simmer fifteen minutes. Return the lid to the pot, turn-off the heat and allow to set another fifteen minutes. Season with cracked sea salt to taste and top with diced celery tops and fresh Italian parsley.
These bucks were all photographed before the start of the gun opener last weekend.
I wonder how many of them are still walking around the landscape?
Gun season closes tomorrow at sundown.....
Composed by Simon and Garfunkel and released in 1968 this song is best-known for its association with the 1967 movie The Graduate.
This band from Boston, Massachusetts has been around since 1986 yet barely reflects its original composition. Known for a repertoire that reflects elements of punk, pop, grunge and alternative rock they breathe new life into this oldie but goodie.
Covering Mrs. Robinson are The Lemonheads.....
As is customary The Thanksgiving Holiday occurs while deer camp is in session.
The hunters have departed and Jill and I are hanging out with her recently widowed sister. It's a bit melancholy to not have brother-in-law with us; nevertheless, it will be a relaxing day of cooking, baking Mollie Katzen's No-Fault Pumpkin Pie, a sit in a deer stand and relaxing at fireside following out feast.
I have a great deal to be thankful-for. My family, my friends, a comfortable retirement, terrific community and the great outdoors.
A few words about the feast. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation's (AFBF) 36th annual survey reckoned the average cost of last year's Thanksgiving feast for ten people to be $53.31. That's an increase of $6.41 from $46.90 in 2020. That's a 14% increase.
It's much higher this year.
All retail food prices were 11.4% higher in August compared to a year earlier. Contributors were increased supply costs for everything from fertilizer, feed, fuel and labor. Even though prices are higher, the supply of turkeys should meet demand.
As for the eggs that are incorporated in the pie - they've come down from record highs in July with an average price of a dozen grade A coming-in at $2.34. That's 27% higher than at the same time in 2021 and 44% higher than the five-year average of $1.29.
The staff here at The Platz extends their best wish to you on this Thanksgiving holiday.
Gobble Gobble!
The darkness this evening is brought to you courtesy of the new moon. If you venture outside this evening it is going to be particularly dark. If we are blessed with cold, clear night skies the star-gazing opportunities should be very good.
If you want to impress your friends and relatives with the astronomical arcane the new moon this evening is a supermoon. A full supermoon is spectacular to observe rising in the night sky as the close approach to earth lends a larger appearance.
Because this evening's supermoon is a new moon you will not see it as its passage between the earth and the sun makes it invisible. It's out there, super-large and out of sight, so I suppose you'll have to take my word for it.
Enjoy the next few nights of extra dark skies.
No skeets this time of year!
One of the cool things about the November night sky is:
The Return Of The Hunter
Beginning this month and through February is this constellation that those of us members of the stargazing and hunting community will recognize.
Orion - a familiar image situated on the celestial equator - is one of the most recognizable constellations in the night sky. Finding Orion's Belt is the easiest way to locate the Orion Constellation. Orion's Belt is formed by three bright stars; Alnilam, Mintaka and Alnitak.
Named for Orion 'The Hunter' of Greek mythology the constellation's brightest stars are blue-white Rigel and red Betelgeuse. The most noticeable part of Orion is Orion’s Belt – with the alignment of three stars sure to catch your eye. Hanging from The Hunter’s belt is a sword identified as three fainter stars. The central star of the sword is actually not a star at all – it is the Great Orion Nebula.
In the mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere this time of year Orion appears to be lying on his side – with the Belt stars pointing upward – when he rises in the eastern sky.
This photo taken with my iPhone XR from the porch looking south.
As the story goes - Orion hunted along the river Eridanus along with his ever-present dogs – Canis Major and Canis Minor. With his dogs Orion stalked various celestial animals including Lepus the rabbit, and Taurus the bull. In the mythology of the ancient Greeks Orion was in love with Merope - one of the Seven Sisters forming the constellation Pleiades. Alas, Merope spurned Orion’s advances. Tragically, the heartbroken Orion met his end when he was stung by Scorpious the scorpion.
Nevertheless, the gods were kind and they consequently fixed Orion permanently in the heavens with his two dogs. The creatures he hunted were placed in the sky as constellations as well. With foresight the gods exiled Scorpius to the opposite side of the heavens so that Orion would forever be safe from harm.
Raising a toast to cold, clear skies, star gazing and deer hunting.
Cheers!
By the time you are reading this the annual Wisconsin gun opener will be open.
The sun will rise.
Gunshots will ring-out.
Check-in from time-to-time for updates.
In the mean time there are these buckaroos who have been roaming around the landscape.......
I don't want
you to get the impression that I'm superstitious or anything but I never
begin my gun deer camp without the Cowboy Junkies.
It is a really, really long story; yet do not ever provoke the wrath of the Deer Hunting Gods by switching-up tradition.
This is a nice tune. Live in Liverpool.
Enjoy.
And safe travels if you're on your way to camp...
As I pointed out in an earlier post, November is a busy month for us astronomy nerds. November also brings the Leonid meteor shower. The 2022 Leonids will be a moderate meteor shower for most of the month of November delivering 10 to 15 shooting stars per hour. The peak display will be the evening of November 18. A waning crescent moon should also keep the night sky relatively dark.
The meteors originate when the orbital path of the earth collides with the debris left behind by
comets.
These bits and pieces of comet detritus enter the earth’s atmosphere
with the resulting vaporization creating the streaks of light we call
meteors.
The debris associated with the comet Tempel-Tuttle
results in this November display. Like other meteor showers, this one
will be best viewed after midnight. Turn your gaze toward the
constellation Leo the Lion, where the shooting stars appear to emanate.
Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo the
Lion, dots a backwards question mark of stars known as the Sickle. If
you trace all the “shooting stars” from the Leonid meteor shower
backward, they appear to radiate from this area of the sky. A dark rural location with minimal light
pollution provides for optimal viewing opportunities.
Tempel-Tuttle
is a periodic visitor that will return in 2031. it is worthy of
mention that the Leonids can be stunning on rare occasions. With the
reappearance of Tempel-Tuttle every 33 years the debris left in its wake
can result in meteors up to a rate of 1000 an hour! 2001 was a very
good November and 1966 was breathtaking.
The best time for observation is just before dawn after the moon has set.
Plenty of big bucks with very large and symmetrical antlers on the landscape.
Wall hangers they are.
Let's face it - Southern Door County is home to some awesome whitetail genetics.
Then there is this...
Situations like this are generally the result of genetics. Sometimes an injury. And sometimes if you live long enough you out grow the awkward adolescent appearance.
Not that it matters too much to me. That is a big two and a half year-old buck. Besides, I still haven't found a good recipe for antlers.....
For more than 100 years, a federal law known as the Jones Act of 1920, has restricted water transportation of cargo between domestic ports to ships that are built, owned, crewed and registered in the United States.
Also known as the Merchant Marine act of 1920 this federal statute was intended to support the development and maintenance of a merchant marine in order to support commercial activity and serve as a naval auxiliary during times of national emergency or war (see 46 USC § 50101).
Alas, the Law of Unintended Consequences has replaced the best of intentions with the result of significant costs to the US economy while providing few of the promised benefits.
Concise explanation here:
In the run-up to deer camp there are deer and evidence of their rutting (mating) activities.
Buck rubs
A sensory (visual and olfactory) signpost that this is my territory
And tending a scrape
Another thing associated with scrapes is a licking branch. A tree branch above the cleared out soil. Bucks will rub their forehead glands on the stick and will also lick it with their tongue.
It's all quite romantic.
This year's graduating class of turkey poults are almost practically fully-grown.
An excellent recruiting year that leaves this blogger encouraged about spring turkey-hunting!
And just in time for winter the birds are bulking-up.....
First peninsula snow squall of the season - a meteorological phenomenon that is a consequence of the close proximity of water. From time-to-time the intensity of these squalls can reach near to total white-out conditions.
My own personal snow globe.....
Halloween pumpkin-carving is behind us and the memories of making use of the resulting bumper crop of pumpkin seeds persists. I've been roasting pumpkin seeds most of my life. Beginning as a child with the help of my parents - followed-on with jack-o'-lantern carving with my daughter and continuing into retirement. The upshot of this has culminated in farming pumpkins solely for their seeds.
Admittedly, I've grown pumpkins for carving, roasting on the grill or making pie filling. Yet we all can get a can of inexpensive pie filling just about anywhere - but where can you get a good roasted pumpkin seed?
A number of years ago I began raising hybrid pumpkins renowned for their pulp and seeds. If you're a fan of roasted pumpkin seeds you have to check this out. Not only are these pumpkins terrific for fall décor they are prolific seed producers. Furthermore, their seeds lack the tough outer hulls of other gourds making them perfect for roasting. On top of that they're a bush-variety and don't take-up large amounts of space in the garden.
In 2019 disaster struck. My seed pumpkins germinated, grew to maturity and by all outward
appearances looked perfectly normal. However, at
harvest time I was
surprised to find them
full of ordinary,
pedestrian, white seeds with the tough outer hull. My pumpkins were
the victim of a cross-pollinated batch of seed stock. The entire crop
was
a loss. The seed company apologized, furnished a credit for my
next order and I had to fall-back on a strategic reserve of 2018 seeds
in the bunker freezer. The 2020 harvest was a welcome return to normal.
This
year was beset with a different set of problems - namely a cold and wet
spring followed by drought conditions. First planting didn't
germinate. The second planting failed too. The third sowing
successfully germinated one solitary vine that produced fourteen plump
gourds. Remarkable but a month behind schedule. My pal Six Deuce had a
crop failure - and as a consequence he was the beneficiary of a
half-dozen of my gourds to meet his winter seed snacking needs.
Behold the Kakai pumpkin......
A fetching bright orange gourd with dark green digital camouflage, non-GMO and organically-raised pumpkin of about 5 to 8 pounds. And chock-full of hull-less green seeds. Pure kernel and without that nagging-tough outer shell. All you have to do is open them up, insert your hand into the pulp and all of those seeds will slip right out. And plenty of them too.
Pour your seeds into a stock pot and add enough cold water so that they float freely. Add to that a cup of kosher salt. Bring your pot to a boil, then turn-down the heat and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes.
Finished product.....
A light, nutty, salty, snack that is full of vitamins, minerals and healthy antioxidants. They’re good for your prostate fellas. You can trust me on that.
Eight gourds yielded five (generous) one-cup paks of vacuum-sealed seeds. Freeze to maintain freshness.
Serve with an icy-cold adult beverage during the Packer game and at deer camp. Jill has pronounced them terrific on vanilla ice cream too.
On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the
eleventh month of 1918, there was a temporary cessation of hostilities on
the Western Front of World War I as a consequence of the armistice signed by
the Allies and Germany.
 |
| US Troops Celebrate General Pershing's Armistice Order |
Most everywhere else this day in history is celebrated as Armistice Day.
On its first anniversary President Woodrow
Wilson proclaimed November 11, 1919 as the first celebration of Armistice Day. In 1938 this day officially became a federal
holiday. Later, in the aftermath of
World War II and the Korean War, Armistice Day became known as Veterans Day in
the United States. And while the allied
nations honor members of their armed forces on Armistice Day – we commemorate
it as Veterans Day.
Sure, we call it
something different here in America – nevertheless the sentiment is the same.
If you have an opportunity be sure to watch the remake of All Quiet on the Western Front on Netflix. A gripping remake of a classic ode to the futility of war.
Composed by guitarist Randy Bachman and lead singer
Burton Cummings this song was released in November of 1969 by Canadian group The Guess Who.
One
of my all-time
teenage dating favorites - this is basically a Dear John or Get Lost
song. I've long associated it with summer art camp at UW Wausau - and a
garage band dance that included a friendly German girl.
But I digress. The song peaked at No. 5 in the U.S. and was the third in a string of million-selling singles that all hit No. 1 in Canada for this rock band.
From 1973 - No Time....
Today is the 47th anniversary of the wreck of the Mighty Fitz.
Of the 29 sailors lost to the sinking were two natives of Sturgeon Bay. The connection to Great Lakes maritime shipping history goes a bit deeper yet.
The USCG tug Naugatuck was the first Coast Guard vessel to respond on the scene of the missing freighter. The crew recovered life rings, jackets, life boat oars and other debris over their three days on the scene.
The Naugatuck is still working on the Great Lakes now as the Jimmy L of Sarter Marine Towing in Sturgeon Bay.
When she is not at work you can find her berthed along the west waterfront adjacent to the Oregon Street bridge.
Small maritime world.
The November night sky is a busy place. The Taurid meteor shower is active during the months of October thru November.
As the earth passes through the debris of comet Encke the Taurids are better known for their brightness rather than their volume. Peak viewing should be the evenings of November 11 and 12.
The light cast by the Beaver moon will wash-out some of the shooting stars during the predicted peak; nevertheless, they are called fireballs so many of them will be capable of burning through the moonlight.
When a stellar object is opposite the sun in the night sky this is what is known as opposition to the sun. (Word of the Day) The object might include a planet from our own solar system such as Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune. It can also include a dwarf planet such as Pluto or an asteroid such as Vesta. These opposition events are significant for us stargazers as the object will rise at sunset and set at sunrise. It will remain visible in the night sky in-between those times.
Opposition is the very best time these bright and shiny objects in the night sky.
The seventh planet from the sun is an icy giant nearly four times larger than our home planet. It will attain opposition this evening becoming its largest and brightest for the year.
The light cast by the Beaver moon will call for you to grab a pair of binoculars or a telescope for viewing. Nevertheless, you will have an opportunity all night long!
Look for the planet Uranus in the constellation Aries - The Ram.
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