NOW, It's Fall!

The temperature dropped like a rock yesterday! Maybe our extended summer is over? My garden is done, I won't have to be running out with blankets to cover the tomatoes from frost. I want to get all the houseplants inside today, then I won't have to worry about them either. Mr. Ose hates having to haul plants in at 10:00 at night. Where am I going to put them?

Nick and Nate picked most of the apples off the tree yesterday. Now I have to do something with them. Come and get some if you want, we have plenty! I didn't spray them with anything this year, and they still look pretty good. Sometimes I use the juicer to make cider. I want a cider press, I have my best engineer on it. He should be able to make me one, don't you think?

I'm trying to write shorter blog posts (maybe with less gut-spilling), so let's get right to the recipe:

Caramel Apple Cider (Never spell it "Carmel" or I'll come find you!)

Cider
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 cups apple cider
1/2 cup water

Caramel Whipped Cream
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 Tbls brown sugar

Cider: Bring the cream and brown sugar to a boil, stir in the cider and water and heat just until the cider begins to steam, about 4 minutes. Divide among 4 mugs, top each with caramel whipped cream and serve at once.
Caramel whipped cream: Whip the cream with the brown sugar until soft peaks form.

Something Big!

I have matriculated! I am going back to college at Augsburg. I'm excited and overwhelmed at the same time.

I first went to Augsburg in September of 1981. (At freshmen orientation I noticed a cute boy named Paul.) Augsburg is a private, Lutheran college in Mpls. I lived on campus for 3 years and off campus as a senior. I went through ceremonies in a cap and gown and everything, even though I was a few credits short. (They let you do this.)

Anyway, I never got all those credits. I have been this close to a Biology degree for 24 years! I have taken classes at the U, Anoka Ramsey Community College and one other college. I'm still trying to figure out which one. I took Gen. Chemistry SOMEWHERE in the summer of 1983, because I took Organic that fall. Macalaster says it wasn't at Mac. I still haven't heard from Hamline. It's hard to ask a school if you ever went there without sounding ditzy at best.

It's so funny to be back there. I spent over 4 years of my life on that small campus, and some things look familiar, but some don't. They have done a lot of expansion, but still. The funniest thing is that I realized I have put all my college years in a big box in my head marked "Failure" and locked it. I now have the opportunity to take something out of the box. When I explained to a professor that I was a 25-year senior, and a cautionary tale, he replied that on the contrary, I was an inspiration. Yeah, I cried.

I realized I belonged there. I have a history at that school. Not only did I go there for 4 1/2 years, my husband went there. My mother-in-law and father-in-law went there. My sister and her husband went there. It's MY school.

So, I'm at the weekend college and taking one class during the week. It's "The Lutheran Heritage". I'm taking this because according to my transcript, I signed up for this in 1985 and got a 0.0 as a score. I must have never gone! If I retake it and get a decent grade it will help my GPA. It is also having a another effect on me.

I have been thinking for years that I was a bad Christian because I don't seem to think like the other Christians at my church. For example, last Sunday, the parents of the 9th graders were asked to participate in the youth group meeting. This involved kickball and a game played in the hallway and everybody sweating on and smacking balloons at each other. I hated it. Everybody else seemed to love the "Fellowship". I hate fellowship. I hate modern Christian music, radio and TV. I thought something was wrong with me. (Did I mention the box in my head is a BIG box?)

For this class, we are reading the important books and papers of the Lutheran religion. As I read them, I realized that I believed it all! Really believed it, and belief is the key here. "Saved by Grace, through Faith" and I have Faith! (Who knew?) All the things I don't like are just details.
So I got that back, too.

I'm a little worried that I've been gone so long that I won't know how to do all that college stuff. Footnotes, and the like. I've already written a paper for the Lutheran class. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who used the phrase "naked trollop in the kitchen" in a paper on Martin Luther. I'll let you know how I did (maybe).

The downside is, I have NO time. I have to plan everything days in advance and be super-organized. I know, welcome to your world, huh? I'm making good use of my crockpot, because when I finally make it home after teaching this year's 3-year olds (one word- YIKES!) and going to class in Mpls, my brain is banana pudding. It's nice to come home to a yummy smell and dinner already made. This recipe was in the strib. I thought the sauce was kind of runny, so I thickened it with corn starch.

Easy Chicken and Dumplings

1 (3 1/2 lb) chicken, cut into 8 pieces
2 carrots peeled and diced
2 celery ribs with leaves, chopped
4 fresh parsley sprigs
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 3/4 cup Bisquick
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbls milk
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley (or other herb)
Sour cream, for garnish

Put the chicken and everything up til Bisquick in the crockpot and add water to cover. Cook, covered, on high for 3 hours or low for 7 hours, until meat falls from the bone.
Take chicken out of crockpot and let cool enough to handle, then remove meat from bones and discard bones and skin. While chicken is cooling, mix bisquick and milk, stir in parsley. Drop the batter by tablespoon into the liquid in the slow cooker. The dumplings should be just submerged. Cover and cook the dumplings on high for 40 to 45 minutes. Remove dumplings and add chicken back in. Thicken with corn starch if desired. Serve chicken in sauce over dumplings. Sour cream may be added for garnish. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I didn't think it needed it!

Rich Folks

My buddy Chris and I went to Wayzata on Sunday. They were having some festival with a parade and craft fair. We love craft fairs, and the guys were out of town, so off we went! This photo shows the view from the patio bar by the marina. Beautiful flowers, cold beer, (um, we were warding off heat stroke) it was great.













Here we are all cooled off. You can tell rich people drink here because the drink menu was a bound, hard cover book and not a laminated piece of paper. Also, we were amused to see that they sell wine by the glass, and charge $15! For one glass! I know I'm a rube, but I try not to pay that much for the whole bottle.













We took a tour of Lake Minnetinky on the refurbished steamboat that at one time was sunk on the bottom of the Lake. It has a nice, loud whistle that made me scream whenever it went off. The ride was a real bargain at $5, and lasted an hour. We figured it was probably our last chance to retouch our tans before winter.













Here is one of the mansions on Lake Minnetonka. We tried to imagine what it would be like to live in such a place. All we could think of was how much work it would be to clean! We also can't imagine having servants to clean for us. I would make a serious effort to get used to it, though.








The parade was also interesting. Marching Band must be cool at their high school, because it was huge. The middle school has a steel drum band! The best part of the parade was the "Westie" group. Over100 West Highland Terriers and their owners marched in the parade. Not only that, but all the dogs were wearing frog costumes! I'm told they do this every year, last year they dressed as loons. I've never seen anything like it. The little dogs don't seem to mind, either.

Rich people just seem to think differently than I do. We should have a zoo-type thing for them so we could watch them. This may explain the popularity of some of that reality TV, like "The real rich housewives of Texas". (I know 2 rich people, and they are both really nice. I like to visit them and see what is new. One has a microwave that is an undercounter drawer! It looks like a regular drawer, but it's a microwave! Fabulous. )

Although I would really like a big, neverending pile of money, There are probably some drawbacks, like worrying that somebody will kidnap your kids. That would be horrible. I'd rather be poor. (Let me point out that I know that as far as material possessions and such are concerned, I am blessed. By the standards of just about everybody in the world, I am rich. I (obviously) get enough to eat, I have a roof over my head, clothes to wear and easy access to excellent medical care. Not nearly enough people in the world can say this.)

I think there are advantages to NOT being rich like Paris Hilton. Such as:
1. We don't have fights over inheritance. We are not waiting around hoping for someone to leave us money, we know we have to go make it ourselves.
2. We are not shocked when something bad happens, we expect the s**t to hit the fan on a regular basis. Then we deal with it.
3. We won't be getting any of that hideous plastic surgery all the movie stars are getting. Why do they do that? It looks worse in the after pictures.
4. Our clothes don't go out of style from year to year, or if they do, we don't know or care.
5. Our kids can't get TOO spoiled.
6. We know people really like us for ourselves, not our cash!

I left book club early tonight to hit the William Kent Krueger book signing in downtown Anoka. I had told my friends that the last time I had a book signed by Mr. Krueger, he remembered me from the time before, complimenting me on my name and writing IN MY BOOK that it should be the name of a book character, maybe in HIS books! I was so flattered, he sees thousands of people! It's been a couple of years, so I didn't expect him to jump up and yell, "Kellet, great to see you!" which is good, because what he said was, "Hmmm...... Kellet, huh? What an unusual name, I've never heard that before!". Sigh.

Gotta go, but stay tuned. I'm working on something BIG! (NO, NOT a baby! put that out of your mind, RIGHT OUT!).

Today's recipe is for dog treats. Make them the right size for your dog, and while you could go all Martha Stewart and use a bone-shaped cookie cutter, remember that the DOG DOESN'T CARE!

Dog snacks

1 (6oz) jar turkey and rice baby food
1/4 cup beef gravy (use leftovers, the dog won't care)
1/4 cup water
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 egg white

Egg wash: 1 egg yolk mixed with 1 Tbls whole milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or foil. Mix all ingredients (except egg wash) together to make a dough. Roll out on a floured work surface to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into rectangles appropriately sized for your dog. Roll it thinner for small dogs, too. Put snacks on cookie sheet and brush with egg wash. Bake for 35-40 minutes (shorter time for smaller snacks) until golden brown. Cool before giving to dogs. Duh.

One for the books

Shortest summer EVER! Man, and what do I have to show for it? (Besides a freezer full of corn?)
Well, I did read a lot. I read 42 books this summer, most of them were fluff. This is a good time of year for new books. Many publishers bring out new books in the fall. Maybe so people will buy them as Christmas gifts. I try to get most of them from the library, but I will be buying the new William Kent Krueger mystery. Also, my favorite author Diana Gabaldon is publishing the 7th "Claire and Jamie" book, "An Echo in the Bone" in 12 days. Just 12 days!

There is not enough time to read all the good books out there. If you are ever wondering what to read, I have a cool link for you. You type in the name of an author you like, and this site shoots out a grouping of similar authors. It's fun to watch. It's called "Literature Map" and it's at http://www.literature-map.com/

I found that site by blog hopping. See up at the top of my blog where it says, "Next Blog"? If you click that, you go to a stranger's blog. It's different each time. Some of them are in foreign languages, then you have to make up the photo captions for yourself. It's a real slice out of someone else's real life. They WANT you to read them, they posted them on the web!

I like to read cookbooks, too. I get a lot of the shiny, celebrity chef ones from the library. Jamie Oliver (the "Naked Chef" who, sadly, is never naked) has the most gorgeous photos in his books. They are food porn. The Julia Child book isn't. I'm thinking of selling my copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". It's going for $30 on Ebay, and I'm never going to want to cook brains in wine sauce, anyway. Those recipes are way too complicated for me. The author of "The Silver Palate Cookbook" just died. That is a good cookbook. I'm keeping that one.

I also like books with recipes (big shock). Diane Mott Davidson and Susan Wittig Albert write mysteries with recipes. Jan Karon's "Mitford" series has it's own cookbook. Ruth Reichl wrote 3 autobiographies with recipes. She was the "New York Times" restaurant critic, so she knows a good recipe. I read a book by Kathleen Flinn called "The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry". It is about her time in the Cordon Bleu cooking school, and has recipes from there. I will not be attending this school, I'm not paying frenchmen to yell at me! Jill Conner Browne (the author of the Sweet Potato Queen books, which have really yummy recipes in them) has a website, writes a blog AND will be your Facebook friend! Just ask! I'M on her friends list. I knew you'd be impressed.

Here'a a picture from last weekend. A bat was in the cabin, so we opened the doors and shooed it out. The brooms are merely for self defense.

Today's recipe comes from a book, my church cookbook! It's a little something different.








Mexican Stuffed Shells

12 ounce pkg jumbo pasta shells, cooked
1 lb ground beef
12 ounces medium or mild picante sauce
1/2 cup water
8 ounces tomato sauce
1 can (2.8 ounces) French fried onions
4 ounce can chopped green chilis (not jalapenos)
1 cup shredded cojack or cheddar cheese

Brown ground beef, drain. Combine picante sauce, water and tomato sauce. Stir 1/2 cup into ground beef along with drained chilis, 1/2 cup cheese, and half the can of onions. Pour half the remaining sauce mixture on the bottom of an 8x12 baking dish (9x13 is fine). Stuff shells with ground beef mixture. Cover with remaining sauce. Bake, covered, at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Top with remaining cheese and onions. Bake uncovered 5 more minutes.

Squirrelly

I'm feeling squirrelly! Not goofy (I think I covered that with my last rant), but like it's time to store up acorns for the winter. A little crisp fall air and I can't help myself, I start stuffing the freezer and cupboards full. A couple of weeks ago, Chris and I canned 52 pints of jalabeanos! That should last us a while. It took all day and we were exhausted! How did farm wives do it? They canned every day for weeks, all while doing their regular work AND feeding the work crews!




This is 9 dozen ears of corn. Paul went to Rochester and stopped at a farm stand. I told him that the cheapest price here was $3 a dozen (Coborn's), so he drove a hard bargain with the guy. They started at $6 a dozen and ended with $20 for 9 dozen. (I asked for 3 or 4 dozen). The boys helped me peel them and I spent all morning cutting off the kernals and scraping the cobs. Right now, it's all cooking in the roaster. When it cools, I will package it in ziplocks and stack it in the freezer. This winter it will be "fast food" when I microwave it for dinner. Intellectually, I KNOW that I can BUY corn, canned or frozen, all year round and don't have to do this, but somehow, I NEED to! I also need to make jelly, wine, beer, spaghetti sauce, frozen green beans, applesauce and more than one kind of pickle. Part of it is a "Locavore" thing, the idea that eating locally grown food is superior to eating food shipped from far away. Partly it's because I can make these things just the way we like them, and without a lot of preservatives. It just makes me happy to see the bags and jars of stuff I worked so hard on putting up. Unfortunately, this all is ready to be put up at the same time! With some of it, like wild grapes and berries, we have to do the picking as well as preserving. Grapes are having a good year, and I've got a batch of wine fermenting away. It will be a couple of years until it's really good, wild grapes are kind of sharp. I could not resist getting this going even though I had preschool open house last night and squeezing grapes makes my hands purple. Looked nice with my yellow shirt.
These are the balloons that were tied to the mailbox of a house that was having a garage sale. They lost most of their air, and were lookin' a little, um, testicle-ish. How are you doing with the hunt for outrageous garage sale items? I haven't received ANY photos yet! Don't make me win my own contest, people.













Speaking of outrageous things, I met this nice dog in a sundress at Joann's yesterday. Her name is Molly. She gets all dressed up and goes to the hospital to cheer up the patients. It must work, she made me laugh! Little Miss Molly wasn't even embarrassed to be wearing the sundress, (like my dog would be,) she seemed to like it. Paul says now she REALLY looks like musky-bait. In a hula-popper.












This is how you get juice from the fruit to make jelly. Cook it with a little water, smash it, and strain it in a jelly bag. I picked these door handles on purpose because they are so good to hang a jelly bag from. Don't be tempted to squeeze the bag, that will make the jelly cloudy (and your hands blue!).

I have to go, there's a farmer's market in Anoka today, and I think I need more green beans. Maybe some cucumbers.

Here is an easy recipe for making freezer jelly from wild grapes. It is delicious! Put it right back in the refrigerator after using it, as it has no preservatives it molds quickly. Be sure that you are picking grapes and not something else.

This is from"Abundantly Wild" by Teresa Marrone.



Wild Grape Jelly

1 1/2 cups grape juice from wild grapes
2 1/2 cups sugar
Half of a 1.75 ounce box of powdered pectin
1/3 cup plus 1 Tbls water

Combine juice and sugar in a glass mixing bowl, stirring to dissolve sugar. Let stand for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. In a small saucepan, combine pectin and water, stir well, mixture may be lumpy. Heat to full rolling boil over high heat and boil for one full minute. Stir constantly.
pour over juice in bowl. Stir constantly until sugar is dissolved and no longer grainy, about 3 minutes. Mixture should not be cloudy. Pour into freezer containers, leave enough room at the top for expansion. Let sit at room temperature for 24 hours, it should be set. If it isn't, refrigerate it for several days or until set. Sometimes it may take up to a week. Then freeze it.

To make juice: Place washed grapes (no stems) in a pan, add 1/2 cup water per pound of grapes. (about 3 cups). Crush grapes with a potato masher. Heat for 5 minutes at medium heat, do not boil and crush again. Cook for 5-10 more minutes until skins lose much of their color. Strain through several layers of cheesecloth or in a jelly bag. You should get about 1 1/2 cups juice from each pound of grapes. When using the juice, leave the dregs in the bottom of the bowl, don't use it, it may cause your jelly to crystallize.

The Decline of Print Media (A Long Rant)

I feel a rant comin' on! Am I the only person to notice that newspapers and magazines aren't what they once were? I love to read the paper in the morning. I read it and do the puzzles. It wakes my brain up. I like finding out what is going on in the world AND locally.

We get the Mpls StarTribune (STRIB). Lately I have begun to suspect that it is being written by college interns. I am tired of reading an article and wondering, "What do you suppose they MEANT to say here?". There are egregious typos and errors in usage. (Does the paper not have spell-check?) Maps are misprinted and never corrected. They dumped the "mistake correction" department ages ago, so all mistakes stand as the truth unless it's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Most of the news comes straight off the wire service. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it seems the other papers still have spell check and use words of more than two syllables. It does mean however, that someone has picked what THEY think we want for news. It's the local news that takes the biggest hit. It leans on opinion columns and police blotters. On Mondays, they combine the "world" and "local" sections into one section now. I know things are tough all over, but the paper is at least half advertising. I want NEWS.

My definition of what IS news is also apparently different from the world's definition. Paul says most people are getting their news on-line now, so I looked online. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place, but the newspaper's website has even less news than the paper. It just skims the highlights, and does not put up all new content daily, so you don't know what's new news and what's old news.

Remember when Saturday Night Live had "Short Attention Span Theater"? That's what we have going on here. Not just Minnesota, but world wide. There was a morning news program we saw on vacation in England several years ago called "The Bigger Breakfast". It was just quick news headlines, leaning heavily towards celebrity gossip. Paul and I laughed, hah! "news" for 16 year olds! Now that's all any of us have. Look at the MSN homepage. Celebrity gossip and speculation.

Journalists used to strive for unbiased reports of things which have actually happened. Opinions were welcomed on the opinion pages. Speculation on news events was limited and limited to actual experts on the topics. Now it's all blurry as to what is fact and what is opinion. The Strib slants left, I know. If my news is going to slant, I at least want it to slant my direction.

Do you recall some time ago when the big news of the day was that Ashton Kutcher had more Twitter followers than CNN? I weep for the future. What Ashton had for breakfast should not be important to anyone but Ashton!

Magazines are losing content as well. One magazine I get has recently combined several similar publications into one. To serve me better. Yeah. Or to publish a magazine with half the staff. If I wanted to subscribe to a 4-wheelin' magazine, I would have done so! Also, I do notice when I used to get 12 issues and now I get 6 for the same (or higher) price.

Book publishing may soon be a thing of the past as well. It is so much cheaper to sell books online that there may be no more bookstores! I saw an episode of "Star Trek - The next Generation" one time that showed Capt. Picard reading an actual book and explaining to an amused first officer that he liked real books better than ones on computer. I thought, "That'll never happen!", but it's looking like paper books will be as obsolete as 8 track tapes. Just like most people now buy their music on-line, we'll be buying books the same way. We won't have a choice.

Like we didn't have a choice in the Hi-def TV switchover. I do not find it to be an improvement. After purchasing new tvs, converter boxes and antennas, I do NOT GET BETTER RECEPTION! I lose a lot of the sound to digital hiccups. My friend Mary Ann now has to put her TV in the middle of the floor and hold onto the antenna if she wants to watch FOX "News" (don't get me started). All those extra free channels we now get? Cartoons, hymn singing and one channel that never seems to have anything on it except a show in which bikini-clad women tour zoos. (Ion-life, channel 41-3). This is not better. Don't spit in my face and tell me it's raining!

Whew! Sorry, but I feel better! I have been reading "Julie and Julia". It is pretty good. It's about a woman who cooks every recipe in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". I looked at my copy of the cookbook. This is a book about doing things the hard way. I would not be able to cook all those recipes without changing them. I wouldn't cook the yucky sounding ones at all. I try not to make nasty food on purpose! Anyway, Julie fights through the whole chapter on aspic. Aspic is meat (or fish) jello. Ick. This week I made tomato juice jello. It wasn't bad, actually, in a June Cleaver's bridge luncheon kind of way. As I tasted it, I was thinking it was like eating a Bloody Mary with a spoon. Then it hit me! Bloody Mary Jello shots! Genius! That would really liven up a brunch, wouldn't it? I'll give you the June Cleaver version and mine.

Molded Tomato Salad

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1/3 cup cold water
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
1/3 cup finely chopped celery
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp celery seed
3 1/2 cups tomato juice
1 tbls worcestershire sauce.
Spicy Buttermilk Dressing (recipe follows)

Soften gelatin in water. While it is softening, combine rest of ingredients (except dressing) in a pot and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add gelatin, stir until gelatin dissolves. Pour into a pretty jello mold and chill until set. Unmold and serve with buttermilk dressing.

Spicy Buttermilk Dressing
1 cup mayo
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp chopped parsley or cilantro
2 tsp tabasco sauce
1/4 tsp black pepper
Combine ingredients to make 2 cups dressing.


Bloody Mary Jello Shots

2-3 envelopes unflavored gelatin (see note)
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup each finely chopped onion and celery
1/2 tsp celery seed
3 1/2 cups Bloody Mary mix
1 cup vodka
Pickles, olives, pickled jalapenos as desired for garnish

Soften gelatin in water. (Note: use 2 envelopes gelatin if making shots in little plastic cups. Use 3 if you will cut it up into Knox-blox like squares). Simmer onion, celery, celery seed and Bloody Mary mix for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, add gelatin stirring until dissolved. Add vodka. Pour into little plastic cups or a pan that will give you one or one and a half inch squares of jello. Put a slice of pickle, olive or jalapeno on top, shoot away.

Smooth Saling

"My name is Kellet, and I'm a purse addict". I'm a sick girl. (Not literally, I am over my virus, thank you for your well wishes).

I love purses. I love to buy them at garage sales where they are very reasonably priced. All but 4 of these handbags came from garage sales. Of those, 2 came from the Duluth Pack store (on sale) and 2 I bought at an illegal purse party! They are designer knock-offs, and were frighteningly expensive (to me) for poorly made plastic. Still, I was caught up in the madness and grabbed several ADORABLE bags and then put back all but two. Sick AND weak! I bought two more today. Mr. Ose does not understand (nor does any man) why I NEED so many of these. I must confess that last week I bought a basket meant to take a bottle of wine on a picnic and tried to use it as a purse. It was cute, but wouldn't hold a book, so I had to give it up.

This is the best (and possibly ugliest) garage sale item I have bought this year. It is a HUGE chair and matching ottoman. ($8). It does not fit in my living room AT ALL, either the decor or the size! However, the whole family loves it (including the pets) and we all fight to be the first in it after supper. Guess who never wins the race? MOM! (Somebody has to put the food away, so I always lose.)












This is last week's major score. Five sets of vintage salt & pepper shakers for 50 cents each! I collect these, adding to my grandmother's collection. The little orange dogs have a very evil expression on their faces, I'm a little scared of them.








Here is a mixed bag. The Pampered Chef Chillzanne platter was a great deal. The odd green bean slicer was not. It was supposed to french cut the beans, but instead it kind of chipped them. No good. Fifty cents down the drain!









Another bad deal, this hummingbird feeder leaked sugar water all over the deck.

















The potpourri in the basket smells like aftershave. I don't like it. Also I bought two nice bras for 75 cents each. They were almost new! It wasn't until I got home and tried them on that I noticed the extra hardware. THEY WERE NURSING BRAS! Still, they are newer than anything else I have, and comfortable!

The goofiest thing I ever found in an alley is this throne. We use it for preschool.
This is "Chicken on a Throne" one of my favorite summer recipes. Rub a chicken with your favorite BBQ rub such as: Citrus Rub 4 Tbls Kosher salt 4 tsps black pepper 2 Tbls lemon zest 2 tsp dried marjoram 4 tsp dried thyme 1/2 tsp ground coriander OR: BBQ Rub 1 1/2 Tbls kosher salt 2 Tbls brown sugar 3/4 tsp cumin 1 1/2 tsp chili powder 1 1/2 tsp black pepper 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper 2 Tbls paprika 1 1/2 tsp onion powder 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder OR just rub that chicken with Lowrey's seasoning salt. Drink half a can of beer and stuff the can (and remaining beer) up the big hole at the bottom of the chicken. Put the chicken in a pan such as an 8x8 cake pan (disposable is genius, but flimsey). The bird should balance on the beer can with the legs providing the rest of the tripod. Put this in the grill, (or oven) close lid and cook until done (160 degrees, maybe 45 minutes?). The hardest part is removing that can without spilling boiling beer. The chicken is very moist and tender, with crispy, salty skin. YUM!
I apologize for the odd set-up of today's blog. I imported a "purse" recipe thinking it would be cute, but instead it was badly behaved and won't even let me delete it. It's down below here, messing up the margins. Serves me right for trying to do it the easy way!

Chocolate Beggar’s Purse

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This is a fancy Greek dessert simplified. Inside a flaky pastry is a brownie topped with peanut butter and chocolate. The name comes from it looking like an empty purse. I serve these at dinner parties, and people are always impressed.

SERVES 8 (change servings and units)

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Ingredients

• 1 (19 1/2 ounce) fudge brownie mix

• 1/2 cup oil
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 egg
• 2 (8 ounce) cans refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup chocolate fudge frosting

Garnish

• vanilla ice cream
• chocolate syrup, for serving

Directions

1. 1

   Coat bottom and sides of 9x9-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Combine brownie mix, oil, water and eggs. Beat 50 strokes. Bake according to directions on box, 350 for 30 minutes. Cool. Cut into 8 squares.

2. 2

   On a lightly greased baking sheet, separate dough into 8 rectangles. Firmly press perforations to seal. Place one brownie in the center of each rectangle.

3. 3

   Stir peanut butter and sugar in small bowl to blend.

4. 4

   Top brownies with 1 heaping tablespoon chocolate frosting and 1 tablespoon peanut butter mixture.

5. 5

   Pull four corners of dough to center of chocolate mixture. Twist firmly to form top of purse.

6. 6

   Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, or until lightly golden. Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving, but serve slightly warm.

7. 7

   When serving, cut each “purse” in half, displaying the inside. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and drizzle with chocolate syrup.