Friday, March 23, 2007

I think I'll stay here...

I do believe I'll be staying here at blogger. Why? Well, I still haven't got the email verification from wordpress after asking a few times. No spam filters are on that particular email account either.

So, it seems I'll stick with the devil you know. Also, I can access my dashboard much more regularly now. Wee-Hoo! Thanks for the small favors, eh?

Ok, next post will the 'jumping off the roof' story, and a real kick-ass food section.

Oh, one last thing today... IT'S RAINING!!!!!!!!! I mean, like, REALLY raining! Does this mean the drought is over? Probably not, but it sure is nice. For those of you who don't know, this is the worst drought down here in recorded history, and some scientists think it's the worse one in at least 1000 years. So, yes, I do get excited about water falling from the sky in measurable amounts.

Side note: The bureau of meteorology down here measure rainfall in TENTHS OF MILLIMETERS!

cheers and I'll talk to you all tomorrow

dave

Thursday, March 22, 2007

I can blog again!

Good gosh, and doesn't it feel good? Ahhhhhh......

Anyways, I've got the story behind the pic. You know the pic; the one of me and a future brain surgeon jumping off a two story roof? Yep, that'd be the one.

The only thing is... ummmmm... I've been having so much trouble logging into blogger lately, that I am going to change over to wordpress. I figure the story behind the pic would be a great (grate) way to start the new blog.

There will be links back to this one for those of you needing to catch up (if you think I'm gonna take and import all posts and comments, then you don't know me very well), and there'll be a link to the new blog at wordpress (still setting it up).

I am now going to give you the last food tip/recipe from me that'll appear on blogger (all the others will be at my new blog home):

Apples and Bleu Cheese

This is soooooo tasty and soooooo simple! Slice up a fresh apple into wedges (wedgies) and slice a few wedges off of some quality bleu cheese. Eat a wedge of apple with a wedge of bleu cheese.

Would you like to know the story behind this wonderous discovery? Yes, I thought you would! The story (and many more) can be found over at my new blog at wordpress.

I can't give you a link right (write) now cus it's still being set up, but there'll be at least one more post here directing you.

I'll give you a hint... it *could* be www.alaskandavedownunder.wordpress.com But that's really just a guess at this point in time.

Stay tuned for more news,

cheers,
dave

Friday, March 16, 2007

Wasted Youth?

Wasn't that a title of an Alice Cooper song? Or is my mind playing it's usual tricks on me and tinkering around with my mammaries (memories).

How's about this line from a Moody Blues song: The memories of an old man are the deeds of a man in his prime. Either way, I thought I'd share a photo with you of dumb things dave did when he was younger... By younger, I mean in my 20's; that was a FUN decade!

So, without further ado... here is an actual photo of a FUN thing I did growing up in my 20's:





That's me on the right with the blue snow pants, and on the left is a good buddy of mine. He was my main fencing TA --in fact, I was the faculty adviser on his seniors honor thesis! John is now a doctor... No wait, he is now a BRAIN SURGEON!
Ahhhhh, good times, eh?

If just one of you out in blogland would like the story behind this photo, then leave a comment (I'm begging on my knees here!), and I'll give you the full scoop.

Food Time

Stuffed beef rolls

There ain't gonna be no "what you need" or "what you do" for this one. You'll just have to read and follow along. As you are reading, you'll probably make some additions or subtractions to some of the ingredients. No worries, whatever floats your boat!

Start off by putting 4 or 5 bamboo skewers in some water to soak (keeps em from burning when you chuck it all on the barbie).

This is for one serving. Take a half inch slab of beef rump roast to start with. Flatten it down to around a quarter inch thick --you do that by laying the slab on your cutting board, cover it with a piece of cling wrap, and LIGHTLY tap it with a rolling pin (or a bottle, or whatever is handy) till it's flatter and wider than how it started (it really is easy).

Then, make up the stuffing stuff: Take a couple of heaped tablespoons of sour cream, and add a teaspoon of any of the following: Keen's Hot English Mustard, Prepared Wasabi Paste, or Horseradish Cream. Also add a bit of salt and ground black pepper, and a good amount of either dried tarragon or dried basil. Add a bit of grated cheese --I prefer Bleu or Gorgonzola with this, and then whisk till it's (fairly) smooth.

Next, go out to your back garden and snip one red, ripe, small, chilli pepper. Slit the chilli in half lengthwise, and lightly score the inner flesh --you do this be laying the half chilli skin side down, and gently mince with flesh quickly with a knife (this is really easier than it sounds). Take the scored half chilli and rub it on the piece of flattened beef roast.

Spread the sour cream stuffing onto the flattened beef, then roll that sucker up. Secure it with the bamboo skewers and chuck that sucker on a low heat barbie. Baste it with beef stock --to which you've added a few drops of Liquid Smoke-- each time you turn it (or, you can put the raw roll in your smoker for ten mins before putting it on the barbie, but you still have to baste it with stock so it don't dry out). Keep the lid on the barbie when not basting or turning. Cook it to your liking --I prefer rare.

Serve with cheesy scalloped potatoes and a beer.

Tasty, eh?



Monday, March 12, 2007

Another leg cast for dave...

I was thinking of calling this post something like "The Last Remake of Wounded Knee" --with full acknowledgements to the late Marty Feldman, of course. But then I thought the title might offend some native american folks (the silent 99% of them would laugh --trust me), and perhaps even some Athabascans, Yupiks, and Inuits that I know (but not really, cus they are cool). Please note: if you're a white PCer then I couldn't care less if I offend you, and if you are a right-wing conservative idiot... well, let's just say you and I don't see eye to eye.

I have a great respect for indigenous folk, heck they carved their little niche out of the wilderness when us white european types were still trying to kill each other (and still are). I've always wondered what would have happened to the conquerors of the "new world" (I really dislike that term..."New World"... blarf) if the Incas, the Aztecs, and all the tribes on the US east coast had gunpowder... hmmmmm...

A few years ago (back when I was in Alaska), a friend of mine went down south to see if she could find a job and live in a big city --meaning: she went to a big city in the lower 48. I really don't remember which city, but it was in some state in the eastern rocky mountains. She also happened to be an Athabascan. As she was walking through downtown (denver????), she noticed practically everyone staring at her. After a few minutes of walking around and having all the "good white folk" of whatever city (denver???) staring at her, she approached one of the gawkers (she's never been shy). "Do you know why everyone is staring at me like I've got a third leg or weird tentacles?" The answer (keep in mind, a complete stranger) was, "Well, we're wondering what the heck you're doing off the reservation."

Needless to say, she was on a plane back to Alaska pretty much immediately.

When I first arrived down under, I actually looked for work (GASP!!!!!) and, of course, found work. I "worked" my way up to one step below State Manager --wee hoo! Big bucks here I come! But then, when I was at a statewide sales meeting... the dream was shattered... During the presentation of the statewide sales meeting, the gist of the talk was all about the main city, the surrounding suburbs, and only a few of the rural areas. I asked (somewhat naively), "Why don't you look at all the rural areas, especially up north?". Heads swiveled towards me and one of the managers said (this is an actual quote), "We don't bother with those areas cus they have a skin pigment problem." Everyone in the room laughed and guffawed (except for me).

I quit that company soon thereafter.

Well, hell. This post is waaaay too heavy for a light-hearted young dave story. Let this be a lesson to you all, eh?

cheers from Oz,

dave

ps if my hands weren't as tired as they are, then you'd be getting a recipe...

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Fangoria!

Well, before I get to the "meat and potatoes" of today's post, I feel that I should tell all of you about... Oh, damn... whatever, let's just get on with the show!

Fangoria refers to (as opposed to "reefers") a certain black panther of our mutual acqaintance (sp?). For those of you knot in the know, I'm refering (reefering) to my panther.

The last time we wrestled "his royal hignesses butt" into the car and managed to get him (it) to the vet without a 3 quart loss of blood (mine, not his), was about 9 months ago.

The vet visit then was because "the cat" was feeling a little crook. I noticed he was crook cus when he launched his furry butt at me from high speed via the balcony (him on the balcony, not me) and I would (sometimes) catch him --meaning 20 claws and many fangs would envelope my torso as he bowled me over-- I noticed a slightly pitiful mewling cry emanating from his vocal cords (or it could have been from me).

Well, of course, I'd instantly lower all 100 kilos of him gently to the ground with various platitudes of reassurances emanating from me, but, alas, to no avail: the panther was crook!

Sooooo, off to the vet he goes...

We have a "special" cat carrier for him... It involves 30 yards of barbed wire strung throughout the back seat, ten rolls of duct tape, and lots of yelling and screaming --me yelling, the cat screaming!

So, we get to the vet... oops, gosh, there's a WAIT! Oh no! Let's see... the bill for the mangled pit bulls, the wire bird cages turned into confetti, the miniature schnauzers used as cat batting practice, two traumatized interns... Hmmm, let us just summarize by saying that the cat (His Royal Highness Prince Bagheera) will never have to wait for an appointment at the vets ever again.

So what does the vet do during the exam? Firstly, he (wisely) decides NOT to take Bagheera's temp with a rectal thermometer --the cat would've shoved the thermometer somewhere where the vet wouldn't like-- . However (and give the vet credit for this) he did manage to pry the "jaws of death" open and remarked, "Damned nice set of fangs he has there." I must put a note here, I'm very (pleasantly) surprised with the amount of blood a standard towel will soak up when applied to a severely gashed human wrist.

The diagnosis you ask? The "cat" has a strained muscle in his back... must've been when he was dispatching that timber wolf while holding a kangaroo in his jaws.


So, like, what does this have to do (due) with today? I'm telling you this so you may know just how much of a WUSS the cat has become... I walked out to the backyard towards the garage today (actually, I do that a lot) and I was startled by a group of PIGEONS alofting themselves from the back lawn. THE CAT was also startled from his dreamy reverie after the pigeons flew the coop.

Get this folks: the mean, nasty, vicious, huge black panther was asleep in the back yard with pigeons TWO FEET away from him... The cat then had the temerity to come up to me, bowl me over, and purr and slobber and fall alseep on me.

Do you understand what I deal with each day?!!!????!?!??!!


Ok, food:

Here's a tip; when making onion rings, make sure you slice the rings thickly and dredge them in plain yoghurt before crumbing them. The crumbs will deep fry beautifully and the onions will be done when the breading is. The yoghurt will insure the breading sticks to the rings, not letting any oil touch the rings. And make sure you use very hot and fresh oil (sunflower or olive).

More soon, especially about my knee,

cheers from Oz (not the tv show),

dave

Friday, March 09, 2007

Holy batpoop, birdman!

Before I get to the topic to go along with the title of this post (friday afternoon, if you are interested), I would like to make ANOTHER exclamation... WOW! Someone reads me! I checked (chequed) me (my) stats (statistics) yesterday (turdsday(thursday)) and found out that ya'll actually care about (love?) moi (me).

Alright, enough of the darned paranthetical comments (for now).

Since there is at least one or two folks out there in never-land who are checking for updates from some old Alaskan who's retired down under, I thought I should oblige the reading public and just perhaps pontificate about my day --this means that I should get off my lazy *ss and post some sort of interesting cr*p.

Which brings me to the topic... Birds.

The other day (meaning sometime in the last 2 months of me not posting) I was laying (lying, sleeping, crashed, dead-to-the world?) in my hammock out back. For some reason, I seem to end up there quite a bit lately, hmmmmm...

Anywho, I heard birdies singing their cacaphonous songs incessantly --WeeHoo! Gosh do I know some cool words, heck, didn't even pick up a thesaurus (they bite)... Perhaps I should find a grammar checker... Ah well, whatever.

So, I was in the hammock, and birdses where all around. So, like, where were the birds??? Hmmm, let me see... the sparrows were eating my berries, the blackbirds and sparrows were eating my grapes, the magpies were eating anything, the honey-eaters were munching on the gum nuts and the bottle-brush, the turtledoves were eating the grass seed, and around the corner a pair of rosella parrots were busy eating all my apples.

Where was the cat (his royal highness) during this? He was fast asleep next to my hammock without a care in the world... I decided to join him in his nap --but I did stay in the hammock.

I have since built a three level bird feeder... too late to save my grapes, apples, berries, and whatever. The damn birds now wake me at 6 (5) am with some serious cacaphony demanding that I put out some food... It's a good thing I can toss food to them from the hammock, eh?

FOOD STUFF!!!!

This is more of a tip than a recipe, but I'm sure that any real cook can adapt it to his or her own use... It involves deep frying (yum!)!

Take a small piece of any "oily" fish, and wrap it in nori. Oh, what's nori? That's the dried seaweed sheets you make sushi rolls out of. Just slice a piece large enough to roll up a chunk of oily fish. Then, you batter it (I have MANY different deep fry batters --more soon), and toss it in hot oil. Fry till the batter is done, and then... EAT IT!

It's good with soy based dips, guess I knead to tell you all about soy dips too, hmmm, next time, eh?

Oh, wait! A teaser for a forthcoming post near you: Dave's knee!

Have a wonderful day,
dave

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Still here!

Hi everybody --that is, if any of you still check in with me...

Just to let you know I've survived the holidays and the annual two week holiday food fest, YUM!

Check in later today, I've got some great stuff for you.

more soon, PROMISE!