Bits Of Dust

Archive for March, 2009

We spent the day at a nature preserve where we visited a pow wow and then walked the trails.

Then we had a picnic.

Per the wife, we are taking the night off from cooking.

There’s nothing like a little KFC on a Friday night.

We missed our weekend taco night, so the kids made me watch this video to remember it next time.

One thing we love around here is orzo. Yum.

Here’s how we make it.

We take one onion (chopped) and saute it in one stick of butter (yes, one stick).

Once the onions start to look a bit “clear”, add one pound of orzo.

Keep “toasting” the orzo until some of it browns.

When a fair amount of the orzo is “toasted”, add two cans of chicken broth (we use homemade chicken or turkey stock, but you can use whatever you want).

When it comes to a boil, reduce the heat and cover the pot. Simmer for about 40 minutes (or until the pasta is cooked to your liking).

And that’s it. That’s how we make orzo in our house, and there is never any left over.

I have loved artichokes my entire life, how did I miss the fact that March 16th is National Artichoke Hearts Day?

In celebration of this wondrous occasion, we will be serving Barbecued Chicken (in honor of our International EATAPETA Day festivities) along with those delicious artichokes pictured above, with a side of rice and a nice glass of southern iced sweet tea.

Don’t worry orzo fans, I will post the photos tomorrow.

Many years ago, in response to PETA’s offensive advertising, Meryl Yourish called for a national day of feasting on behalf of all meat eaters around the world.

Here in our house, we have celebrated each year, not only on International EATAPETA Day, but for the entire week.

International Eat A Tasty Animal for PETA day is one of my family’s favorite holidays (well, it should be).

This year, we are celebrating from Friday through Wednesday, and so far we have had a great time.

On Friday we devoured some all-beef hot dogs, baked beans (with pork), and french fries (cooked in animal fat).

On Saturday we decided to mix it up a bit and had tasty pork chops with orzo (made with 100% chicken stock).

And today, the official EATAPETA Day, we ate Sea Kittens (fish), shrimp, and french fries (cooked in animal fat).

Tomorrow we plan to have hamburgers, and on Tuesday we may have fish again, because it’s so tasty. We plan to wrap things up on Wednesday with a trip to KFC, because no EATAPETA week would be complete if we didn’t show our support to the folks who get on PETA’s nerves the most.

I will post some photos of our orzo session tomorrow.

We had the greatest surprise today.

My brother-in-law showed up with his tiller and helped us till out 10×20ft garden. Then he stuck around a few more hours and tilled another 20×40ft garden for us too. We are going to have ONE HECK of a garden this year.

As trade for his hard work, I sent him home with some blueberry jam, muscadine jelly, apple butter, crabapple jelly, and one jar of my prized (and worth more than gold) wild blackberry jam.

Okay, so I forgot to post this picture the other day.