COOKING AGAIN

Well, its been busy with Doctors appointments for me and Anna Mae for her Back. We're doing OK!! We took our daily weekly day trip and went over the the St. Lawrence River again and went to Fishers Landing, Chaumont Bay and Clayton, it was beautiful but fishing was lousy but we did manage to see several large ships coming down the river thru the 1,000 Islands heading for the Locks and then out the St Lawrence River headed for the Ocean and home ports far far away!!!

In the picture below is an island flying an American flag and directly in the back is our neighbor Canada.

We went to "Stone Soup Supper" thursday night and enjoyed a nice cold plate and salad put on by the Nazarene Church, it was a nice meal and some great conversation and socializing. We sat with our friends and enjoyed the meal.

I cooked out tonight, this picture is a picture of our rear patio, the gardens and grilling area.

So, yours truly got 2 nice Pork Steaks, rubbed them down with Garlic Powder, Onion Powder and let them sit.

I took 2 nice large fist size baking potatoes, scrubbed them down, sprayed the skins with "I can't believe its not butter" sprinkled them with a little salt, ground pepper, then I made a shaker bottle of Red Wine Vinegar,. garlic powder, Onion Powder and Olive oil.

I then cut the potatoes into about 1/2 inch slices and took everything out to the grill, We have a good landlord, Nancy bought us a brand new Weber Gas grill, we usually have several people cooking out everynight on nice days and today was a really NICE DAY!!!!!! IT GOT UP TO 80!!!!

I loaded up the grill and started tonight's dinner.

I preheated the grill to HOT, about 450 degrees then turned it down to low, I put the sliced potatoes and pork steak on, sprinkle them with the shaker bottle and then sit down and relaxed.

While everything is slow cooking I went over to our garden, lettuce is up and delicious, the Parsley is coming along and tastes delicious, onions, beans and cucumbers are growing nicely and the tomatoes *(Early Girls)have nice small yellow flowers started on them. The cucumbers are in the hanging basket and parsley is in the black pots.

Finally after turning the steaks a few times, flipping the sliced potatoes and sprinkling with sauce dinner was ready, complete with fresh parsley sprinkled on them from the garden, This meal with a nice tossed salad and WOW, what a meal we were blessed with.

This is the finished product after an hour of cooking!!!!

It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny, so tomorrow its going to rain, we already have set a record for one of the "Wettest" June months in a long time.

Tomorrow one of my best friends, Mark and his wife flies in from Texas, he has rented a boat and an Island in the Thousand Islands for 2 weeks and hope to get with him during the next 2 weeks.

Hope everyone is doing OK and enjoying themselves!!

With a sad note the Governor has agian ordered Flags on Government Buildings lowered to half staff due to more recent losses in Iraq and Afghanistan!!!!!

Happy 4th

Hope everyone had a Great 4th of July!!!!

xxx

Military Weekend

Well is sure was a busy week,, Wednesday we sat up for the Thursday Night "Stone Soup Supper" We now have replaced all those old heavy metal, cardboard type with brand new heavy duty plastic ones which are nice to handle!!! We came back thursday and we grilled and boiled 150 Hot Dogs, made chili if some one wanted a chili dog and also made some Home Made Baked Beans with Brown Sugar, butter, Maple Syrup and loaded with pieces of bacon, and we served a side of Green Beans and Corn with all kinds of home made cakes, pies, cookies, cup-cakes and brownies, we opened the doors at 4:30 and we served almost 90 people a nice meal.


We didn't get to go fishing this week but theres always next week!!!

This week end was "Mountainfest" and the "Airshow" at Fort Drum which is only 12 minutes from here, Friday we saw plane after plane flying over head over our place as we are on one of the entry ways into Fort Drum Wheeler Sack Air Field, some people don't like it because of the noise and I remind them that there were places not that many years ago where some of our men and women were in places where the planes flying over drop bombs on them!!!!! That usually "SHUTS THEM UP!!!! We drove over to the Army base and spent time watching the many many air planes doing their stunts, precision flying, we wandered around with the other 60,000 thousand people who also went over, saturday was cloudy and it rained a little off and on, Sunday was beautiful, sunny, nice fluffy clouds and warm, almost Hot.

I took a lot of pictures but had to pick just a few for the blog!!!

In the above photo 4 of these Planes were Old Navy Planes and man were they loud and nice to watch!!!!!!! In this next picture is the old red and white water tower at the beginning of the runway!!!! There is an old plane doing some fancy manuvers you can just barely see, BUT they made sure they flew tree top level when they came over the bleechers.






There were many displays all over the huge runway and Hangar area and you could walk thru most of the displays and get the hands on feel except most of the Pilot seats were blocked off but plainly visable. Pictured below is a chopper we just went thru, this helicopter was awesome to see.

This is one of the planes in the next picture that flew over our house to get here, and we went thru it as best we could, what was nice was all the Army and Air Force people offered my honey any help she needed to get around, most of these monsters had their rear ramps open so it was easy access!!!

This picture is one of the old planes doing his thing and it was awsome!!!! to watch!!!

Not only was the Army and Air Force well represented but the Navy was too as you can tell from the next picture!!!

This next picture is a lumbering giant that we went thru!!!

This next picture is the UNITED STATES NAVY doing some mighty fine flying!!!

All the planes on display were flown in from and will fly back to their home base!!!

This is 4 of the yellow Navy fighters that put on some awesome displays!!!!

My Honey looking over a chopper!!!

Security was tight, there were State Police, Sheriff's, Federal Police, Military Police and Homeland Security all over, there were even people ontop of some of the towers. Security was raised to "ALPHA" for the weekend!!!

We had to get up and walk around so Anna Mae's back didn't get to sore or tight which gave me a chance to play with the many TOYS the United States Army had around and I enjoyed myself!!!

My Little Darling said she would not mind one of these to help keep me in line!!! I DO NOT try to out shoot my wife, in High School she was a good Marksman, maybe that should be Markswoman!!! on the school "Rifle Team"!!!

This little baby is one of the weapons you see our men and women on the 6 o'clock news in Iraq are using!!!!!! And yes it is heavy!!!!!!

The NAVY is getting ready to go back up for some more stunts!!

The stunts were awesome to watch and the noise they made was fantastic!! This was a 2 day event, well worth attending, Saturday Night there were "FIREWORKS" that lasted for a half an hour and was impressive.

The Navy was there, the Air Force was there and the Army was there, AND YES JACK, the United States Marine Corps were there also!!!! This was one of the best ones to go thru because you could sit in the Pilots seat as long as you DIDN"T TOUCH ANT THING!!! The crew assigned to this crate were very much gentlemen, they offered to carry my wife up the gang way so she could get inside the plane but instead they dropped the rear door ramp,!!!!! "SEMPER-FI!!

This next photo is one of the old time trainers they used to train pilots during WWII!!!!!

THESE PLANES WERE HUGE!!!! AND interesting to actually see up close!!!

This next picture is an A-10, it is one from from the "Boy's in Syracuse" from the 174th Fighter Wing, it had a steady line all day waiting to get a view of the Cockpit, you were not allowed to TOUCH as there was always a Pilot taking turns to answer questions sitting in the cockpit. I stand outside and can watch these baby's fly over Carthage and the house as there attached to Fort Drum and they like to scream into Fort Drum and the are constantly flying in, out, around, Fort Drum and the area!!!

This is another plane used as a Trainer during WWII and is controlled by a stick and pedals!!! This baby would shatter your ear drums!!!!!!

This is the United States Navy flying over just before the Moment of Silence and just before they played "TAPS"!!!!!!

The crowd was about 60,000 people, there were many, many Veterans there, The United States Army and Commander at Fort Drum need to be applauded for the fantastic week-end event held.

Lets never forget our Veterans!!!!

MONDAY

Fathers Day has come and gone, I hope all the Dads had a Great Day, I did, My daughter called me and wished me a Happy Fathers Day and my Son dropped in with a surprize visit and a card, My Honey bought us a couple of Nice HUGE Sirloin Steaks for me to grill out and they were beautiful cuts of meat!!!!

They were thick, brownish red, they were aged a bit and nice and heavy without all the fat trimmed off from them so they would sizzle when cooking!!!

I still miss my DAD!!!!!! BUT, I sure got a lot of good memories of him!!!

I went out and started the grill and got it good and hot to about 400 degrees and then turned it down to low, the steaks were seasoned with rubbed garlic powder, Onion Powder, some salt and pepper, a little bit of Brown Sugar rubbed into the edges of the fat, I then let them slow cook and I went over and weeded our garden.

The garden is coming along, the parsley is coming, onions are up, beans are coming up, Lettuce and Romain Lettuce is coming up and the Tomatoes *(Early Girl) are now almost ready to tie up to stakes, and the cucumbers are almost ready to thin out.... Thankfully it has stayed warm, all the way up in the 70's!!!!!!!!!!

I finished the Garden and came back to those Beauties on the grill and slow cooked them and touched them up with a little more Garlic and Onion Powder and let them s l oooo wwwwly cook!!................

This is our garden and what has come up so far, the hanging basket is the cucumbers I wil let droop and tie to the shepards crook. The black pots have Parsley planted in them.

Almost ready, Just a few more turns over and these beauties will be Medium Rare and ready for the table, My Honey made a tossed salad of Lettuce, Mandarin Oranges, Sharp Cheese, Onions as the Sweet Vadalias are in season now and we had a fresh loaf of home made bread to go with it!!!!

What do they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, These slabs of Beef are now ready to come off the grill and head for the dinner table, they look almost perfect.

Below is a picture worth framing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The above were fantastic to eat!!!............

Dinner was delicious, and there was left over steak, believe it or not. We only eat Beef on special occasions, we try to stay with Pork and chicken and fish but this my Honeys Fathers Day Present for me and also her!!!!!!! Shes a wonderful little woman, She is still having back problems.

Wednesday we go back to the Spine Center to see whats going on and get an update.

Thursday is our "Stone Soup Dinner" for the public so its going to be a busy week!!!!!!!!! Hope everyones week is starting off great!!!!!!!

Let's not forget our men and women serving over seas, My Great Nephew heads for Iraq in 3 weeks, He is an MP, He will do just fine!!!!

RAINY THURSDAY

Well it was nice weather until today, yesterday we went over to the Thousand Islands and drove up to Lisbon, we fished the Brandy Brook Fish Launch, My honey caught the first Bass, but they were biting really soft, I caught a couple small perch, nothing to brag about.

It was sunny, and about 70, it was a beautiful day, Anna Mae said the hot sun felt good on her back, she is stillhaving back problems and a lot of pain, she tries to cut back on the pain medications and has but she is taking them today. This picture is of the days first fish!!







We fished, sat and talked and watched people come and go and we saw a lot of boats being put in as this saturday June 20th Bass season opens up, if you catch any bass you put them back in as there are spawning right now, We saw lots of ducks and also the Big Canadian Geese are nesting now, we fished and enjoyed the morning sun and time togeather, we stopped for lunch and enjoyed our little Picnic Lunch we take with us

We had a nice day fishing and it got even better becasue I hit the jackpot today, In the below photos are some "Smallmouth Bass" that I was lucky enough to latch onto and I didn't have a net to got them in so I got them into shore using the boat launch to bring them into shallow water, then I could bend down and grab them, these are really good scrappers, they like to jump to the surface and walk along on their tail trying to spit the hook so you have to keep a tight line on them to get them in!!!










Right now the Bass are spawning and laying eggs and if you find a spawning area you can catch bass all day but the limit is 5 per person, we put them back after taking their picture.






We enjoyed the day, it was just over a 2 hour drive over but we stop alot so anna mae can strech her legs and ease the back pain.

Next week is a busy week, We have Doctors appointments, a trip to Syracuse to the Spine Center for a review of Anna Maes surgery and Thursday we are cooking our Monthly Stone Soup Dinner at church.

Today was a lazy day, it rained all day, and right now its 58 and cool out so you have to wear a jacket.

Hope everyones week is going great!!!!

Don't forget our servicemen and women!!!