Food too salty?

Yesterday I made a Yankee style pot roast - you know the kind, a chuck roast browned and

Classic American Comfort Food

simmered, with roasted potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, mushrooms and a rich gravy?  Oh yeah.  I found the recipe online and because of the ingredients used to season the roast, the finished product (mostly the gravy, not the meat) turned out to be very salty.  It was too salty for me, and my Mom couldn't even have tolerated one bite.  But everything else about it was perfect.

A lot of old fashioned cooks probably know this trick -- I was not sure it would work, but I remember someone saying that potatoes soak up salt.  You can salt and salt and salt the little buggers but it just disappears into that starchy potato-ness without much effect.

So I stored the gravy from the roast separately (from the meat and vegetables, after cooking), and tonight I put that into a saucepan and added a peeled and diced russet to it.  The gravy was very thick (almost completely a solid after it cooled), so I also added a little water.  I brought it a boil then simmered it for about 30 minutes.  I added a little more water to keep it fluid, and after thirty minutes or so of cooking and another 30 minutes or so of sitting there resting, I fished the potato chunks out of the gravy with a slotted spoon, leaving as much of the gravy in the sauce pan as possible.  Then I rinsed them with a little bit more water, swished that around amongst the tater chunks, and poured that "gravy-rinse" back into the gravy in the pan.  I then tossed out the potatoes -- along with all that sodium they'd soaked up.  The remaining gravy is perfect -- all that lovely beef flavor intact and not salty at all.

You could use this same idea with other liquid foods that are overly salty, whether accidentally or otherwise.  I was happy to be able to figure out a way to "save" that gravy - it's just not Yankee Pot Roast without it.

Buen Provecho!

Cowboy Canned Supper

Use these...

Back in the olden days, cowboys often had to throw dinner together with whatever they had. Heck, I remember times when all there was, was an old burlap sack and some muddy water to make soup outta (you had to boil that a long time, which by then you might coulda rode inter town fer a steak.)  So this recipe here was for days when the chuck wagon had a bit of a surplus for Cookie to work with.  It ain't much, but it'll make you lose your appetite. 

2 slices bacon, chopped
1/4 cup or so chopped onion
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 garlic bulb, chopped
2 wienies or hot links, etc, sliced thin
1 can pintos
Salt and pepper to taste

Start by frying up the bacon until it is about halfway to crispy.  Then add the vegetables.  You can use others just as easy -- green pepper, or chilies, whatever suits you, but keep it simple.  Simple is better.  Fry those and the hot link slices (add the meat about half-way through) over med-low heat until the onions and celery are tender.  By now, the bacon should be all the way crispy.

Next step is drain off most of the bacon fat, but leave a little bit for flavor.

Dump in the pintos with their sauce and a touch of liquid smoke if you like it, or maybe a dash or two of pepper sauce, and simmer until it cooks down a little.  Salt and pepper to taste and serve it with cornbread or biskits.

This'll serve one hungry, or two skinny. Like I said, you won't be hungry no more after you-ins eat this.

This recipe came from this old guy here... he war ugly, but he wouldn't lie to ya none.

Hallowed Ground

On July 3, 1863, three divisions of Confederate soldiers, about 12,500 men and boys, led by their generals on foot and on horseback, marched for about a mile across the open ground of a Pennsylvania valley, near the town of Gettysburg. 

They concentrated and centered on this patch of ground, on a corner of this wall (just beyond the focal point of this photo) – hidden from view by the aged veterans you see standing here. 

This was perhaps the greatest military blunder ever made by Robert E. Lee.  Nearly 7,000 Confederate troops were killed or wounded in the battle (roughly 56% of the soldiers who marched that day), and about 65% of their officers were casualties.  Union defenders lost 1,500 men.

This place is called “the Angle.” Thousands of Federal defenders awaited them here, standing and crouching behind this low wall.  As the soldiers marched across the valley and came within range of the Union guns, they faced a curtain of cold steel.  Once here, the fighting became hand-to-hand and the Confederate assault appeared for a moment to be succeeding. But almost as quickly, turning as they tried to breach the Union's defenses at this corner, the "charge" broke and the Rebel advance shattered and was turned back in defeat. 

Today, this event is remembered as “Pickett’s Charge,” the high-water mark of the American Confederacy and the climax of the Battle at Gettysburg.  It marked the end of any lasting offensive success by Rebel troops in the Civil War and from this moment on the final Union victory was assured. General Lee led the demoralized remnants of his Army back to Virginia, never to venture in force into Union territory again, in the remaining (almost) two years of the Civil War.

Because of what happened here, on this ground, nearly four million of our fellow Americans were ensured their ultimate freedom, and this nation started a long process of finally fulfilling the promise of its own enshrined ideals, that “all men and women are created equal” and are deserving of freedom, inviolably deserving of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This process is not finished, but continues today.

That pivotal moment happened here, at "the Angle," on July 3, 1863. This is sacred ground. 

On the day this photo was taken, many years later, former adversaries met each other in friendship, stretching their hands to touch each other once again across the wall they had so bloodily contested.  

Humans are such strange creatures.

"The real problem with Americans and their disrespect for Obama—according to a Canadian"

From Quartz today, an article by William Thomas...  (and my feelings exactly)

There was a time not so long ago when Americans, regardless of their political stripes, rallied ’round their president. Once elected, the man who won the White House was no longer viewed as a Republican or Democrat, but the president of the United States. The oath of office was taken, the wagons were circled around the country’s borders, and it was America versus the rest of the world, with the president of all the people at the helm.

 

Suddenly president Barack Obama, with the potential to become an exceptional president, has become the glaring exception to that unwritten, patriotic rule.

Four days before Obama’s inauguration, before he officially took charge of the American government, Rush Limbaugh boasted publicly that he hoped the president would fail. Of course, when the president fails, the country flounders. Wishing harm upon your country in order to further your own narrow political views is selfish, sinister and a tad treasonous as well.

 

Subsequently, during his State of the Union address, which is pretty much a pep rally for America, an unknown congressional representative from South Carolina, later identified as Joe Wilson, stopped the show when he called the president of the United States a liar. The president showed great restraint in ignoring this unprecedented insult and carried on with his speech. Speaker Nancy Pelosi was so stunned by the slur, she forgot to jump to her feet while clapping wildly, 30 or 40 times after that.

 

Last spring, president Obama took his wife Michelle to see a play in New York City and Republicans attacked him over the cost of security for the excursion. The president can’t take his wife out to dinner and a show without being scrutinized by the political opposition? As history has proven, a president in a theater without adequate security is a tragically bad idea. (Remember: “Apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?”)

 

At some point, the treatment of president Obama went from offensive to ugly, and then to downright dangerous.

 

The healthcare debate, which looked more like extreme fighting in a mud pit than a national dialogue, revealed a very vulgar side of America. Obama’s face appeared on protest signs, white-faced and blood-mouthed in a satanic clown image. In other tasteless portrayals, people who disagreed with his position distorted his face to look like Hitler, complete with mustache and swastika.

 

Odd that burning the flag makes Americans crazy, but depicting the president as a clown and a maniacal fascist is accepted as part of the new rude America.

 

Maligning the image of the leader of the free world is one thing; putting the president’s life in peril is quite another. More than once, men with guns were videotaped at the healthcare rallies where the president spoke. Again, history shows that letting men with guns get within range of a president has not served America well in the past.

 

And still the “birthers” are out there claiming Barack Obama was not born in the United States, although public documentation proves otherwise. Hawaii is definitely part of the United States, but the Panama Canal Zone where his electoral opponent Senator John McCain was born? Nobody’s sure.

 

Last month, a 44-year-old woman in Buffalo was quite taken by president Obama when she met him in a chicken wing restaurant called Duff’s. Did she say something about a pleasure and an honor to meet the man, or utter encouraging words for the difficult job he is doing? No. Quote: “You’re a hottie with a smokin’ little body.”

 

Lady, that was the president of the United States you were addressing, not one of the Jonas Brothers! He’s your president, for goodness sakes, not the guy driving the Zamboni at “Monster Trucks On Ice.” Maybe next it’ll be, “Take Your President To A Topless Bar Day.”

 

In president Barack Obama, Americans have a charismatic leader with a good and honest heart. Unlike his predecessor, he’s a very intelligent leader. And unlike that president’s predecessor, he’s a highly moral man.

In president Obama, Americans have the real deal, the whole package, and a leader that citizens of almost every country around the world look to with great envy. Given the opportunity, Canadians would trade our leader—hell, most of our leaders—for Obama in a heartbeat.

 

What America has in Obama is a head of state with vitality and insight and youth. Think about it: Barack Obama is a young Nelson Mandela. Mandela was the face of change and charity for all of Africa, but he was too old to make it happen. The great things Obama might do for America and the world could go on for decades after he’s out of office.

America, you know not what you have.

 

The man is being challenged unfairly, characterized with vulgarity and treated with the kind of deep disrespect to which no previous president was subjected. It’s like the day after electing the first black man to be president, thereby electrifying the world with hope and joy, Americans sobered up and decided the bad old days were better.

 

President Obama may fail but it will not be a Richard Nixon default, fraught with larceny and lies. President Obama, given a fair chance, will surely succeed, but his triumph will never come with a Bill Clinton caveat—“if only he’d got control of that zipper.”

Please. Give the man a fair, fighting chance. This incivility toward the leader who won over Americans and gave hope to billions of people around the world that their lives could be enhanced by his example just has to stop.

 

Believe me, when Americans drive by the White House and see a sign on the lawn that reads, “No shirt. No shoes. No service,” they’ll realize this new national rudeness has gone way, way too far.

 

This post originally appeared at Senior Living.

A note by Bob...  I disagree with the author's assertion that this change occurred with President Obama's administration.  It had been developing for quite a few years (and at least a couple of presidents) before that, and to be sure, politics in the USA have always been ugly.  But it surely accelerated and became more venomous with Mr. Obama; racism has come out of the closet and joined with political hatred.  Many people are blinded to the good in the man by their own ignorance. I also disagree with the statement that our last president was not intelligent. He had opinions and policies that many of us found abhorrent, that we feel damaged our nation, and he was often awkward when expressing his thoughts in public forums (which also often made him seem less than intelligent). But these are differences of opinion, and do not necessarily indicate a dearth of intelligence.  While I think he was misguided, I would never say he wasn't "smart," or that he was dishonest. 

The Roundabout in America

Roundabouts have been slow to catch on here in the USA, but they are very common in other parts of the world and they are becoming more common here as well.  This doesn’t, however, keep the average stateside driver from hating them irrationally.  Let me ask you, what's not to like about a traffic interchange that saves taxpayer dollars, saves lives, and keeps traffic moving at the same time?  If drivers in other countries can learn to use them safely, so can you!

How do they save tax dollars?  They typically require less land when they are buying expensive real estate for an intersection, and they don’t require a hugely expensive signal light system – just a few yield signs.  They keep traffic moving because even when busy, everyone can typically keep moving – there is no 45 second wait for a signal to “come around.”  Saving lives is easy, when the only possibilities for wrecks are lane-changing sideswipes and low speed failure to yield conflicts.  The left-turn fatal or serious injury collisions, the red-light-runner t-bones, and the potential head-ons at normal intersections all go away.   

Once you understand how the roundabout is supposed to work, and what the rules are for using them, they become less-intimidating and less stressful to use. If my little essay doesn’t work for you, search online for instructional videos – there’s more than one.  ADOT has one specific to Arizona that is very good, but the rules are basically the same everywhere.  Please note that this discussion is not for the "traffic circles" often used for traffic-calming in neighborhoods or business areas.  Those are different.

The first rule about using a roundabout is you need to know where you are going.  There are signs posted ahead of a roundabout that show you graphically which lane you want for which direction you wish to exit the thing.  Pay attention to those signs if you don’t already know which lane you want – and position yourself in the lane you want.  This may seem elementary, but you and I both know that a vast number of drivers don’t pay attention to anything except their cell phone conversation or even worse, their text messages (don’t let this be you). But typically, you want the right lane entry for a right turn or straight through.  You want the left lane entry for straight through, for left turning and for u-turns.

Then, on arrival at the entry point, prepare your mind to yield, not roll right on in. All roundabouts should require a yield on entry; the vehicles already in it have the right-of-way. You may need to wait a few seconds to yield and then enter the traffic flow in the circle. When you do, enter directly to the lane from which you will exit the roundabout – this is not like a turn at an intersection where you must turn right lane to right lane, or left lane to left lane.  One thing they don’t want you to have to do is to change lanes in the roundabout.

Then just drive on through. Keep in mind the roundabout is not intended to be a high-speed interchange.  Maximum speed is typically 20-25 mph.

One or two more things – if you are driving a long vehicle, pulling a trailer, etc, the center apron is designed to allow you to drive on it.   If you encounter an emergency vehicle in or near a roundabout, you yield to them the same as you would anywhere else – clear the roundabout if you have time to do that, and pull to the right as far as possible, stop and wait there until they have passed the required distance down the road before you resume driving.  If you have to stop IN the roundabout because you weren’t paying attention and they caught you by surprise, pull to the right and stop where you are.

Once you learn to follow these rules, you’ll get used to driving in roundabouts and they won’t stress you out!

Keep the shiny side up!

A Minuteman's Last Post

Having just gone to Boston and once again being enamored of and fired up about the true stories of our revolutionary war, for this year’s Remembrance Day I am posting this story. It is mostly transcribed from another source and is about a real Minuteman.  (see credit at the end)

Did you know that the Minutemen were militia members, but that not all colonial militia members were Minutemen?  The Minutemen were the elite, hand-picked for their dedication, enthusiasm, and their ability to muster at a moment’s notice.  They were our “first responders” of that day, or our original Rapid Deployment Force.  They turned out quickly and held the field (in theory) until the rest of the militia units could form and march.  Gosh, and you thought that idea was something new. 

Anyway, I’ve read the names of some Minuteman leaders, but you rarely read the personal stories of the rank and file, unless they were killed on the day of the battle.  Gordon Lightfoot said a soldier "must be dead to be admired" [Don Quixote]; apparently, this has more than a grain of truth in it. 

So, for Remembrance Day, 2014, I present you:  Mr. Thomas Hill, Esq, of West Cambridge, Massachusetts, a Minuteman, and with thanks to Mr. Thomas Kemp for the original story.

The following is an almost verbatim transcription of an encomium printed in the Massachusetts Spy, Worcester, MA in 1851. I have slightly re-arranged the order of the text for clarity.

A Revolutionary War hero, gone.  Died at his residence in West Cambridge, on Thursday morning (15 July 1851). Thomas Hill, esq, aged 90 years. Mr. Hill was a pensioner. He was in the battle of Concord, and was on Bunker Hill, but not in the engagement.

Thomas Hill…, …the only survivor of a family of seven, then in his fourteenth year, was [also] not under arms on the day of the Concord fight, but…with his father and eldest brother Abraham was of the volunteer minute men who fought at Bunker Hill on the seventeenth of the following June and later in the Eight Years War served two campaigns in the Jerseys and New York. He [was] now 89 years of age.

Thomas Hill was honored, along with four other survivors who were active in the scenes of 1775 [these were all that could be found still alive in 1851*] .  On this occasion, the citizens of the beautiful town of West Cambridge did high honor to one of the least of its quiet native-born townsmen. Thomas Hill, the old soldier, was escorted by a cavalcade of about seventy horsemen, out and home, from West Cambridge to Concord over nearly the precise route of the first instalment of British troops that marched from Boston and fired upon the collected American troops at Lexington, killing eight men, being ordered as ‘damned rebels’ to disperse by the British commander.

First printed, along with explanatory notes, by:
Thomas Jay Kemp | Posted on August 21, 2012 by Thomas Jay Kemp: Thomas Hill—American Revolutionary War Minuteman Hero Gone

Thomas Hill, age 14, didn’t stay at home with the women, the children, and the old folks.  He went out to the battle with the men and braved the fire of the angry and determined Regulars. He not only went, he went with the first of the “shock troops,” the Minutemen. 

So to honor the old soldier, they took his body on parade, accompanied by seventy mounted horsemen, along the same route Paul Revere rode in 1775 and followed that same morning by the British soldiers who initiated the fighting in what we now call our Revolutionary War -- at Lexington Green, and at the Old North Bridge in Concord.  How cool is that?

* In 1851, a soldier who was of fighting age in 1775 would have been about 95 years of age, so there were not many left.  Average life expectancy was much lower 175 years ago than it is today.

Tracy Morgan: ‘I Can’t Believe Walmart Is Blaming Me’ for Crash Injuries

Wal-Mart's driver caused the crash, but Morgan wasn't wearing a seat belt. I wonder how many other people would be just as surprised if something like this happened to them? 

Mr. Morgan called Wal-Mart's argument "despicable."  I don't think so, and neither does the prevailing legal thought in the USA - and probably elsewhere as well.  When you do not do everything reasonable to protect yourself from risk, then the other seemingly culpable party in an injury case may not be held fully responsible.  Depending on where you live, this concept may be memorialized as contributory negligence, or perhaps comparative negligence.  I am told these are two slightly different concepts (along the same lines).  If you do not wear your seat belts, and injuries result in an ensuing collision, the portion of your injuries deemed caused by your failure to wear them will likely be deducted from any claim you might win. Think about it... why would "they" shoulder the complete responsibility when the liability is, in reality, shared?

In my city, about two and a half decades ago, a local police chief and seat belt wearer was driving to a local car wash.  Since it was just a short distance, in his own neighborhood, the Chief did not fasten his seat belt.  He was t-boned by an extremely drunk driver (my characterization) and he suffered a severe, paralyzing back injury, which shortened his life significantly. He lived long enough to sue the drunk driver -- but because his injuries were judged to be about 50% caused by his own failure to wear the belt, the court reduced his award by that amount.  When you think about the costs associated with the treatment of this kind of injury, we're talking about a responsibility of millions of dollars in his case.

These concepts apply to any such liability situation -- failure to wear a helmet in a motorcycle crash, for example, or a case where a collision is a result of failures by both drivers to observe traffic laws -- you run a red light and hit someone who was drunk and speeding, just to name a couple.  A jury might decide 50/50, like in the Chief's case, or maybe 60/40, whatever.  It will vary according to the circumstances.

So if you are not convinced by the overwhelming safety considerations to wear your belts -- at least do it to protect your wallet and your family's future!

Hey... keep the shiny side up, eh?

Strawberry Shortcake

Bob's Shortcake 2014

On the face of the Earth, perhaps even in this galaxy, there may not be anything quite as perfect as good strawberry shortcake.  And while there MAY be bad strawberry shortcake somewhere, I don’t know how that’s even a possibility.

 

PINT STRAWBERRIES, HULLED AND SLICED.
Sprinkle liberally with sugar and set aside until the sugar becomes a syrupy glaze.

SHORTBREAD BISCUITS

1 cup flour

1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ TB sugar +
2 TB butter
⅜ cup half and half (or milk)

Sift and mix dry ingredients.  Rub or cut in the butter until mixed. Add the cream and mix just enough to form a soft dough, just until it comes together and you can squish it into a ball.  A little extra milk or cream may be required.  Do not overwork the dough, no kneading.

Press out onto a floured surface to a thickness of ¾ to 1 inch.  Cut into rounds with a biscuit cutter or cut with a knife into small squares.  Sprinkle pinches of sugar over the tops before baking. Bake at 450 for 12 minutes until done.  Serve warm.  This makes about a handful of biscuits. Maybe 4 to 6.

Break or slice a warm biscuit in half, top and bottom.  Place in serving dish.  Spoon desired amount of strawberries over the biscuit halves.  Top with a spoonful or two of strawberry yogurt and whipped cream.  Vanilla ice cream is also a good choice…  It’s hard to go wrong.  Onions.  Onions probably wouldn’t work. Or peas.

Store the leftovers in an airtight container for later enjoyment.  Shortcake at 3 AM when all others are asleep and unaware!  Score!  If the biscuits have cooled, be sure to toast the halves before loading them up with the strawberries and cream!

Barbecue Pie

Bob's Barbecue Pie

So... last night I made a cottage pie, for supper. It was pretty excellent for something I just threw together.  This resulted in me eating more than usual for supper.  So that was good.  For those who don't savvy, a cottage pie is the beef equivalent of a shepherd's pie, which is made with ground lamb.  I do not eat sheep.  This got me thinking about how I could modify the concept por algunos otros ingredientes.  Mom has difficulty eating meats if they aren't fall-apart tender, so I was looking for ways to accomplish some dishes with the refrigerated or frozen meats in the microwaveable trays you can get at most grocers.  They are always very soft and tender. I used a roast beef in gravy for the cottage pie.

So tonight, since there weren't too many leftovers from that, I got a package of barbecue pulled pork and I made a sort of tamale-barbecue pie with it.  It turned out very tasty.

My cottage pie was a 16 oz package of roast beef and gravy, to which I added some sautéed carrots, mushrooms and onions.  I spread one potato's worth of mashed potatoes over it in a pie plate, drizzled a little melted butter over the top, and baked it at 350 or 400 for about 25 minutes.  Last night, I actually forgot the mushrooms, but it was still good.  Very good.

Tonight, I adapted the same concept to the barbecue pie...



First, make a corn bread batter.  I used this one...

1/4 cup corn meal
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 TB baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/6 cup vegetable oil
1/12 cup melted butter
(yes, that's one-twelfth)
1/2 TB honey
1 egg, beaten
5/8 cup buttermilk (you can sub reg whole milk if you choose)

(Note: I weigh my ingredients using a kitchen scale, so the weird measurements are really very easy.)

Sift the dry ingredients together.  Mix the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Combine the two and mix just long enough to blend the ingredients.  I also add 1 tsp of red pepper flakes and a dash or two of dried chives to the batter.  Set this aside for a few moments.

Other ingredients:
16 oz pulled pork in barbecue sauce
1/3 cup chopped celery
1/3 cup chopped onion
1 303 can no-salt corn, or about 1.5 cups of frozen corn, thawed.
1 batch of the corn bread batter
Opt: 1 can of green chiles, drained

Prepare the 16 oz of pulled pork in barbecue sauce as directed.   At the same time, sauté some celery and chopped onion in a skillet with a little bit of oil, until tender.  Open and drain a can of sweet corn, or its frozen equivalent.  If using frozen, it needs to be cooked first, or at least thawed before going into the pie.

Spoon or dump the hot barbecue pork into a 9 inch pie plate.  Fold the sautéed vegetables into the corn bread batter along with the drained corn, and pour this over the top of the pork. 

Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes, or until the corn bread topping tests done with a tooth pick.  This might also work OK at 400 degrees, and could brown a bit more golden, in less time.

I served this with sides of coleslaw, Hoppin' John, buttered spinach and apple cake with whipped cream for dessert.  I don't know if anyone else liked it, but I sure did.  All of it.

It goes without saying that you could use some fresh green chiles, and they would be even better.  If you happen to have some on hand.

Don't have any fun until I get there!

Bob
 

Living a positive life

"Nobody is trial-free, but we have a choice.  We can choose to allow our experiences to hold us back, and to not allow us to become great or achieve greatness in this life. Or we can allow our experiences to push us forward, to make us grateful for every day we have and to be all the more thankful for those who are around us."

Elizabeth Smart

D-Day + 70

Into the face of heavy German fire, June 6, 1944

There were lots of stories today about the D-Day anniversary tomorrow, and how D-Day "changed the course of the war." 

I disagree - these are empty, unthinking platitudes from people who don't understand how the war progressed and was won (or maybe it's just lazy, sloppy reporting). While the outcome was not yet assured in June 1944, the course of the war was settled long before the first landing craft hit the Normandy beaches. The course of the war was planned and agreed upon by the Allies many months before, as our leaders met on ships off Newfoundland and in the desert at Casablanca. 

WWII was conducted in two parts - Europe and the Pacific - and 1942 was a bleak, dark year for the Allies in both theaters. The almost universally acknowledged pivotal event of the Pacific War occurred before the peak of summer - the Japanese disaster at Midway. After that, the ultimate defeat of Japan was inevitable, even though that outcome was something viewed from a distance and wasn't obvious to most participants at the time. 

In the West by that fall, the Americans also joined the continuing Allied action against the Axis in North Africa. Allied efforts drove Rommel's vaunted Afrika Corps into the Mediterranean in 1943. Then the Americans and the British went on to Sicily and Italy, driving the Italians and Germans ever northward before them in a long, relentless and hotly fought campaign. After North Africa's defeats in 1942-43, the Germans never had any lasting victories again and the Italians closed up shop early.

 

During the war, a Liberty ship was completed by
an American shipyard about every 42 days.

During that time and peaking in 1944-45, the American industrial behemoth was cranking up - American steel, American manufacturing and American transport made the massive war-making efforts possible on a global, multi-front basis and scale. It helped supply the British, it helped supply the Russians, Canadians and the Chinese, and ultimately it supplied the needs of the increasingly involved American Army, Marines and Navy.* The invasion of North Africa, increasing Allied dominance in the North Atlantic and the turn-around in Russia, all fueled by American industrial might, these are the things that changed the course of the fight in the European theater.

*At the same time, Soviet industrial output was not insignificant.  Especially toward the latter years of the war, Russian production exceeded that of Germany in many respects.  But none of them could match what American industry could build and deliver, not even close. We built what was needed, and with the help of our allies, we delivered it where it was needed.

In the end, the war in Europe could not have been won without the Russians; it is largely true that World War II was won on the backs of the Russian people and they are justly proud of how they held, and then completely stopped and destroyed the Germans on Russian soil, before driving them all the way back to Berlin.  It also could not have been won without the British and the Americans, the Australians and every other nation, people and resistance movement that contributed to the Allied war effort. 

But "the battles on the Eastern Front constituted the largest military confrontation in history.  They [the battles] were characterized by unprecedented ferocity, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life [both civilian and military] variously due to combat, starvation, exposure, disease, and massacres."  [Wikipedia]. The West owes a huge debt of thanks to the people of the former Soviet Union for what they did, and for what they sacrificed, during those years.

8th AF B-17 over Marienburg, Germany

The war could not have been won without American industrial might. It could not have been won without the massive successes of Allied air power - the strategic bombing campaign had more detrimental effects on German war-making ability than anyone realized at the time.

Had we known what to hit sooner, we might have been able to end the war months earlier than we did; but the most crippling blows were not understood at the time - those specifically against German transportation systems, energy sources and synthetic fuel plants and depots. General Spaatz apparently understood this, but many other strategic planners did not. Allied air operations between autumn 1943 and D-day virtually neutralized the German air force - and almost completely prevented them from attacking the landing beaches on June 6th.  Our invasion would very likely have failed had it been opposed by the second-to-none Luftwaffe as it existed in 1943.

D-Day was the beginning of the end for the Germans in the west. German decisions and actions subsequent to the invasion hastened that end and assured its inevitability.  But that end was already underway from the Russian thrust in the east and from the Allied efforts in the Med. 

I would never discount the monumental undertaking that was D-Day -- nor the courage and sacrifice of the ones who prosecuted it. It was a necessary step. It was a huge risk and in the end, a huge success. It was the greatest sea-borne invasion in history, before or since, and a massive undertaking almost beyond comprehension. 

But it was not the turning point. Instead, D-Day was a critical step along the way to a carefully-planned outcome made possible by events (victories) that had already occurred.  If you want to pinpoint them, German failure to defeat England in 1940, the reversal of German fortunes in the North Atlantic, Rommel's defeat in North Africa and Russia's offensives causing the steady defeat and withdrawal of German forces from Soviet soil beginning in December 1942, these were the watershed moments, the "turning points."

In honor of the Allied soldiers and sailors and their officers, and our great nations, whose steadfast resolve, dedication and bravery won the greatest war ever fought, against two truly evil empires. I hope we never forget what they accomplished and at what cost.

Summer Pickles

Would you care for a pickle?

Not my recipe, but I made these simple pickles the other day and they are very good.  I've gobbled up almost an entire jar already. I found the recipe on the internet at http://allrecipes.com/recipe/summertime-sweet-pickles/ - it was posted by LIZ1888 of Lansing, MI.

These are not processed (although you easily could), but are kept in the refrigerator.  So it is a small batch. First, grow some cucumbers, then...

Ingredientes:

2 lbs pickling cucumbers, washed, cut off a bit of the "blossom" end (the one opposite the stem end), and sliced however you like.

1 med onion, sliced

2 cups sugar
2 cups apple cider vinegar
1/4 cups canning or kosher salt
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp mustard seed


1. Prepare two quart canning jars and lids.

2. Prepare the cucumbers as noted.

3. Loosely pack the cucumbers and onion slices in the clean jars in layers.

4. Put the remaining ingredients for the brine in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to med or low, cover and cook for 5 mins.  I cooked it at just above a simmer -- a low boil.

5. Fill the jars with the hot brine until the pickles are covered.  Remove any air bubbles by running a blade or a spatula around inside the jar. 

6. Put the lids on and store in refrigerator for at least 24 hours before serving. They should "keep" for a good long while (like any jar of pickles when kept refrigerated).

You may add a clove or two of garlic to each jar if you like.  Oh... and you may have to make additional batches of the brine to have enough to cover your pickles -- one batch is approximately enough to do 2 quart jars. 

 

Uncle Bob’s Advice to Everybody

Schultz

Take care of and be good to others (ALL others) and don’t expect government to do it, because that’s never what government is about.  Stand up for your friends – stand up for what’s right.  Make your voice heard even if it causes you trouble. Bad and evil things happen when good people look the other way.

Sunday Morning Waffles

Here's a simple and quick recipe for waffles on a Sunday morning.   It's not my creation, but I'm not sure whose it is.  Hopefully, they won't mind us sharing it anyway!

2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
2 TB sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups warm or room-temp milk
1/3 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla

Break the eggs into a medium or large mixing bowl.  Add the milk, melted butter and vanilla.  Whisk together until blended.  Add the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar (I would whisk these all together dry before adding to the liquid ingredients).  Whisk just until blended.

Bake in your hot waffle "iron" until done.  This will probably make about 5 or 6 waffles depending on the size of your waffle maker.  Mine is kind of a little one, so it's hard to tell!

I didn't take a photo -- but I will next time.  But they looked just like waffles look...  This recipe is easily halved if you're only serving two.
 

In Amelia's Footsteps

A few years back, I spent a day in Lower Manhattan. I had driven with Mandy across the country to her new residence in Queens and while she reported to work for her first day on a new job, I took the subway to the City for a quick walkabout.  I rode the Staten Island Ferry, walked to the site of the World Trade Center and generally enjoyed being in that wonderful and historical place for a few moments. The next day, I got on a plane and came home.  It was the only time I have ever spent there – and as it was extremely limited (and as I was sick as a dog with a sudden cold), of course I am planning a return trip someday. There is more to see of New York City.

I have recently been reading much about Amelia Earhart.  I am reading about her and I am reading the few books she wrote herself.  She’s such an icon that few today know who she really was.  Even in her own time, her public “face” was carefully constructed and deliberately controlled to the extent it could be.  But in reading her own words, I feel I am getting to know her to a degree.

Whitehall Building in 1930

Tonight, while reading in her book The Fun Of It, written and published in 1932, she wrote of having visited the Head Weatherman of the USA (in those times), a man who collected and disseminated the National Weather Service’s forecasts to interested parties.  His name was "Dr. Kimball." She had made use of his services while she was involved in planning and executing the 1928 transatlantic flight in the Friendship with Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon where she was the “first woman to fly the Atlantic” (actually as baggage, as she put it, but that's another story).  This was about one year after Lindbergh flew to Paris in the Spirit of St Louis. 


Earhart’s profession, after that first Atlantic flight, was “promoter of aviation and its possibilities.”  Up until that flight and the doors it opened for her, she was not a career aviator.  But in this new role, as America’s ambassador of flight, she went to see this nationally-renowned meteorologist in his headquarters atop the Whitehall Building near Battery Park in Lower Manhattan, he whose information was indispensable to the aeronautical adventurers of that day.  There, she learned how each day’s weather data was collected, plotted, and predicted, and what this weather guru thought should be the future needs of his profession and its work, as it grew.  Much of what they discussed has come to pass in the subsequent years.

Whitehall Building as it looks today!

This Whitehall Building, where Amelia visited at some point between 1928 and 1932?  It is at 17 Battery Place across the street from Battery Park.  I looked it up on Google maps to see if it is still there.  It is.  I saw the satellite photo, and tonight, I looked at the front doors that Amelia walked through on her way to her interview upstairs (I love Google Street View).


I walked right past those front doors as I walked about Lower Manhattan that day a few years back. I am sure I looked at that building – because I looked at them all while letting the sights and sounds of Manhattan soak in.  So I discovered this evening that I have stood where Amelia Earhart stood and walked where she walked!  You know how I love to do that, live history.  Bliss.

NOTAM - A notice to present day airmen (and women) from an old and timid aviator.

I am an eternal student pilot and here are two of the main things I have learned: (1) no one is exempt from the laws of physics and (2) attitude is everything. Ernie Gann believed that the outcome in flying was largely controlled by "fate."  I only agree with that partially; we also quite often make our own luck.

I have been a pilot for many years (still a student though).  I started flying as a teen in the mid to late 1960s, and gained the first of my civil licenses in 1975.  Although I do not fly anymore,  I have something to say that is relevant.  If you fly, this is for you.  I survived my mistakes (often through dumb-luck) and I learned how to keep from bending aluminum and shearing wings off on trees. I never landed gear-up, mostly because I learned from others that it can be difficult to taxi back to the ramp once you do that…

From the beginning, back in the late 60s, what causes aircraft crashes has been of interest to me because foremost, I saw that many crashes happen for the same reasons over and over again.  There isn’t much new under the sun when it comes to human nature and physics, although we do still get surprised occasionally.  I love to fly and while I understand the risks, meeting my death doing so was never in my plans.  In examining the circumstances and errors of those air men and women who have augered flying machines into the ground, or rocketed straightforwardly into the cumulo-granite, we might avoid the same fate. 

Others agree with this basic approach; this is why the FAA and the AOPA sponsor Aviation Safety Seminars; this is why we pilots practice our flying skills repetitively.  Back in the good old days, I used to make it a matter of religiosity to read the MASS report first page to last, every single month (a summary of NTSB crash investigations). I’ve still got ‘em around here somewhere, along with all my old textbooks on flight physiology, of which I was a devoted student for about thirty years.

We drill, we fly simulators where we can set up emergency scenarios and aircraft failures of almost unlimited varieties, and learn how to extricate ourselves safely from the deep, dark pit of air-crash smoking-hole despair while there is still blue sky below.  We do this (study and drill) so our responses are correctly ingrained when mere seconds count. The worst advice ever given to a pilot whose “engine was on fire, hydraulic gone, gear won’t budge,” was "just wing it.”  While we make jokes about that, and about what a “good landing” is, these jokes are left behind when it’s wheels-up time because bouncing is not standard operating procedure for landings.  Aviating is serious business and should be undertaken only by those who can think, not only quickly but correctly.

From a time shortly after the Wrights first flew from a North Carolina beach, flight into adverse weather has been killing us.  Neophytes and experten alike have suffered this untimely demise on regular intervals through the years. It results from hubris, it results from get-there-itis, it results from ignorance. It results from thinking that because you have a “hot” and capable aircraft, you are somehow exempt (or more exempt) than the “other” guy.  Sometimes we think because of our immense load of piloting skill that we will somehow recognize impending doom and through those superior skills, think and act on the fly, in time, and survive.  This is the pilot the government’s flying manuals many years ago used to call “Ace Manymotors.”  Ace was the bad example.  Ace was an oblivious idiot.  Ace was, once or twice, or three times, me.

Uh..  no go?

Now that I’ve set this up for you, let me get to the point.  When it comes to weather, I learned early on what “go” and “no-go” was, sometimes almost by mistake.  Light general-aviation aircraft are what I am talking about. High-performance aircraft operate in a different world and they blast through yours in a hurry, if you're a GA pilot.  They have their own set of problems.  But if you are flying something with limited ceiling, in which group I include anything under FL250, you live and breathe as an aviator in an often stormy, dangerous world.  You need to learn what go and no-go is, visually. Those who do, survive.

I was lucky enough to survive my encounters with Jupiter Pluvius and his bastard off-spring (and in some instances, luck was all it was).  But you, if you are young or green, might never have seen what “no-go” is.  Go flying with, and listen to, the more conservative greybeards in your hangar (but not the crazy ones). Don’t be ashamed not to risk it.  If you are not sure, stay on the ground if you can’t give bad weather or poor visibility a wide-berth.  Don't just rely on the meteorologists either - they can get it terminally wrong.  Most of them work in basements with no windows and they haven't looked out there for hours.  It's true, I wouldn't lie to you.  Do you know when the last totally accurate weather forecast was?  It was when God told Noah...  Really, get all the information you can, but be sure to use your own eyes; there's no substitute.  A pilot has always been taught that he or she is responsible to collect all the available information concerning any proposed flight - and nothing is more important.

A couple of times, here in the intermountain west, I looked ahead to clouds and thunderstorm activity and thought, “I can make it through that, look, there’s light at the end of that tunnel," only to soil myself from "excitement" shortly thereafter -  when said storm threatened (or succeeded) to engulf me while I was scud-running.

In December 2013, a “good” pilot flew his beautiful Beech single into a rocky tree-covered ridge, after flying into and losing his engine (and his lift) in “known icing conditions.”  I’m not being facetious about his flying skills; I didn’t know him, whether he was a cautious man or a risk-taker and I don't know what was in his mind.  I only know that he was reported by others as a competent aviator.  Still, I wonder who didn’t teach him that storms like he was facing in the northern Rockies that day are no-go?

This pilot had just overflown a primitive back country airstrip, when, with rising terrain in front of him he reportedly picked up a load of ice. He not only had structural ice, but induction ice as well. The aircraft had a mechanism to clear the induction ice, but the pilot may not have followed procedures to accomplish that (that mechanism was determined to have been functional by the NTSB crash investigators).  It's also possible that the ice was so heavy that it overwhelmed the aircraft's capability to clear it.

He was apparently attempting to get back to that field he had just overflown. If you take a look at the approach to that field [Yellow Pine, ID] in clear weather, it is in the bottom of a narrow valley, almost a gulch, with high ridges on both sides. There are "YouTube" videos of the twisting approach to it; take a look at them. This is a tricky approach even in VFR conditions.  It was impossible in bad weather, with a load of ice and no power. He flew into a situation where he had zero chance.  Unfortunately, by the time he realized that desperate fact it was too late. 

From where I sit...

From the safety of my armchair, I can tell you that looking right in front of him and knowing the reported weather, he had to know this was a risky day for flying in a light single, IFR or not, even a high-performance one, and yet he took four others of his family with him.  His judgment that morning was definitely flawed.  At the risk of being preachy, what is it about nasty weather that we don't "get?"  Bad weather can kill you no matter who you are, and it will.  He deliberately flew into it, he quite predictably suffered the worst possible set of circumstances and failures, and he ended up without any options.  We never think it can happen to us, but it does happen on a regular basis.  It happens so frequently that some almost consider it normal.  So until you know what go or no-go is definitively, don’t guess. The plains, the forests and the mountain-sides are liberally scattered with the wreckage of those who did. Some of them were my friends.  

I wish "rest in peace" to the victims of this mishap.  Even more, I wish peace and comfort for the wide circle of friends and family these fine people left behind.  But these deaths were preventable and I find that excruciatingly sad.

[The NTSB's report on this incident cited continued flight into known icing conditions as the primary cause of the crash.]