Author Archives: rike52

As I awoke to face this last (hopefully) wintry Sunday of the year, I was inspired to haul out my favorite recipe for a cold Sunday: lamb shanks.  Now this is no ordinary lamb shanks recipe, as the little lamb legs rest in a pot with 2 full cups of peeled garlic cloves.  The recipeContinue reading “shanks!”

Admit it.  We non-essentials locked into our homes didn’t spend all that secluded time reading the classics.  With the grocery store and the liquor store among the few allowed outings, we of course bought a few things for home use.  I thoroughly enjoyed refining my cooking skills and to this day Kathy and I rarelyContinue reading “I’ll drink to that”

Dontcha just love records?  Not those little CDs in their precious plastic jewel boxes that play on forever and surely not the mp4s you can buy for cheap (it seems) on iTunes, but those black (usually) 12 inch slabs of vinyl you scraped to get for $3.25 back in the day.  I’ve kept all ofContinue reading “Records!”

Just what do those old, retired couples do with all that time?  For me, in the 3 years that I haven’t answered an alarm clock or a clinic schedule, stuff to do just emerges.  Often, it’s stuff I’d never thought of.  But now there’s not enough time in the day to do all the thingsContinue reading “read on!”

I ran out of shallots again tonight.  They went in to accompany the onions in Chicken Yakhni Pulao, an epic venture as Indian recipes often are.  Began yesterday with a lamb leg bone to make the spicy stock yaknhi shorba and continued today as I searched all over town to find cassis bark, a relativeContinue reading “here’s to shallots”

It just seemed a bit much this year.  It’s not the high cost of beef.  I’ve got a 4 pound brisket in the freezer.  We’re nearing our limits again on available refrigerator space for leftovers.  I was drawn to another of my favorites.  Didn’t have any pie for pi day yesterday, so maybe this dishContinue reading “Éirinn go Brách”

Today, March 10th, marks the second anniversary of the report of the first 2 COVID cases in Michigan (1).  In response, our Gov. Bimbo – a.k.a. “That Woman from Michigan” (2), Gretchen (half) Whitmer of the plastic face and the 40Cs – declared a State of Emergency.  Within a week, she urged social distancing andContinue reading “burn on II”

This is about a family event that happened 2 and a half weeks ago. Since the event was a Christmas celebration occurring 8 weeks after Christmas, what’s a little further delay? Dateline Onstead, MI (pop’n 1,132): Cowboy Creek Lodge 40 or so of the spawn of my late bio–Dad Dick Spei plus their spouses haveContinue reading “Chimney!”

John Phillip Sousa – the March King – died 90 years ago Sunday March 6th in Reading Pennsylvania.  He was 77.  His prodigious output – 134 marches, 690 total recordings in an era spanning a time when placing a needle on a wax cylinder was considered an advance (1)  – included some songs about Michigan.Continue reading “Hail Sousa! Hail Elbel?”