FEATURED Morning Pops!

[GrammaJan]

Morning, Pops and pen pals. Welcome to the Weekend! We went to an Italian restaurant for dinner last night. I got the "tour of Italy" special. It had a serving of chicken parmesan over spaghetti, a serving a fettuccine alfredo and a serving of lasagna made with Italian sausage and beef. I brought most of it home and expect to get another meal or two out of it. Y'all take care and enjoy the weekend.


Yes it is. I'm so intrigued with Tyrion. He has been in and out of trouble so often I'm waiting to see what befalls him next.

Morning Pops and everyone.

Leon, I think you went to a place I love to go to... I think I recognize the name of that entree. They have a great Moscato. Must've been the day for pasta tho. I did 'skettis' at home last night for supper. Needed something that was a quick fix.

My fabulous, over-the-top IQ and generous boss came up wth the idea to give us all the afternoon off yesterday for Good Friday. Too bad he forgot to tell the office manager or any of the employees... we found out late afternoon. I finally got to leave at 5:30. Thing is, he's been out of the office on his spring break this week so I'm sure we were the last thing on his mind. (Side note, he really is a good boss. Very generous.)

Supposed to shape up to be a really nice weekend here. 78° tomorrow for Easter. My sister and her husband are cooking out, which I'm totally stoked about. Where I live fire code won't let the tenants have a grill on the deck so I rarely get food that is grilled. I miss it terribly. Before my divorce I would grill out year around at our house. That's one of the reasons I'm anxious to get my own place. My goal is for that to happen next summer/fall. Hopefully will have this leftover 'why-did-I-do-that' debt (vehicle loans, etc...) finally taken care of.

Anywaaaaay... I'm up early and off to the store to beat the crowds. Spending the whole day cooking so I can take some food to mom and treats for my local grandkids.

Hope everyone has a great day and an amazing Easter weekend. (Now, where did I leave my coffee...)

 

[CouchCoach]

Morning Pops and all you little Easter bunnies. I've never gotten the bunny or egg connection to Easter and selling those little chickens and ducks should be illegal. I also do not get the ham thing about Easter. Did they need something to go with the funky looking deviled eggs or confetti colored potato salad?

However, I will be keeping one tradition, lamb. Rib chops, that is. I get this rack of lamb at Costco and have compared it to others and it is the best and the least expensive, a nice combination. I cut these into individual chops I call lambpops, marinate them in olive oil, lemon juice and zest and garlic and then toss them on a hot grill, broiler would work just as well because this is a gas grill, and sear them on each side and then just eat them like a popsicle and gnaw on the seared bones like a mongrel. Grill some asparagus and make a dip of mayo, stone ground and Dijon mustards and lemon juice and I am in finger food paradise.

A fine Easter dinner followed by the 2nd episode of Game of Thrones and that's a good Easter and I wish you and yours a fine Easter as well. No bees in your bonnets.

 

[Montanalo]

Morning Pops and all you little Easter bunnies. I've never gotten the bunny or egg connection to Easter and selling those little chickens and ducks should be illegal. I also do not get the ham thing about Easter. Did they need something to go with the funky looking deviled eggs or confetti colored potato salad?

However, I will be keeping one tradition, lamb. Rib chops, that is. I get this rack of lamb at Costco and have compared it to others and it is the best and the least expensive, a nice combination. I cut these into individual chops I call lambpops, marinate them in olive oil, lemon juice and zest and garlic and then toss them on a hot grill, broiler would work just as well because this is a gas grill, and sear them on each side and then just eat them like a popsicle and gnaw on the seared bones like a mongrel. Grill some asparagus and make a dip of mayo, stone ground and Dijon mustards and lemon juice and I am in finger food paradise.

A fine Easter dinner followed by the 2nd episode of Game of Thrones and that's a good Easter and I wish you and yours a fine Easter as well. No bees in your bonnets.

Good morning Pops and Zoner Friends.

Feeling a bit lethargic this morning - looks like I have the man flu.

Umm... Lamb lollipops. Typically, we do a rack of lamb but this year, I am doing a slow cooker Irish lamb stew. Seems like a perfect dish for a projected cold rainy Sunday.

Funny story about lamb - as a child growing up in the Texas Hill Country, we often ate "lamb". It was horrible: tough, greasy and, as a result, I swore off lamb completely. Fast forward 30+ years and we are living in Australia. Our Aussie neighbors organize a BBQ for us and serve lamb lollipops. They were delicious!

Some time later, I was sharing this experience with my mother. She was so amused, telling me "oh, son, your father never served you lamb. It was some old mutton he couldn't sell at auction". I felt so deceived

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

AFB?

Yeah.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Morning Pops. Morning Fellas and good morning to any who decide to stop in and say hello today.

No lamb for me this Easter. This Easter I think we are having Ham Steaks, home made Mac and Cheese, Asparagus, Bacon and Sausage, Quiche, Breakfast Casserole, Cinnamon Rolls and Glorified Rice. Now, this may seem a little disjointed, the menu that is, but it's actually Easter Brunch and the kids all make something to bring so they usually make what they like and it doesn't always fit the menu so.......

Either way, it will be a good time for sure.

Coach, the connection between the Easter Bunny and Easter are actually Pagan in nature. Going back a ways, the Druids celebrated a Spring Festival of Fertility called the Festival of Eostre for the Goddess Ostara. She was the Goddess of fertility, among other things. One of the symbols associated with her was a rabbit. I'm sure the connection between fertility and rabbits play a role here. Either way, in the first Century, approximately 597 AD, Augustine unified Christianity in England and part of that was a sort of adoption of the old ways with the new. Easter or Passover was married with Pagan traditions in order to appease the masses and one of the traditions that made it's way into the new world, so to speak, was the the Rabbit, which turned into an Easter Bunny. Interestingly enough, it was the Germans who introduced it into America. The Germans who settled in Pennsylvania brought the tradition of creating nests, for the Easter Bunny to lay colorful eggs in, which became Easter Baskets of today. These nests were strewn about, populated with Eggs, for the Children to find. This is how the tradition of Easter Egg hunts came about. It went from searching for nest of Eggs to hunting for Eggs and putting them in your Easter Basket (or nest). Sometimes, the truth is stranger then fiction.

Jobs, Leon, dbrp, Xelda, zrin, Trouty, ksk, RGV, Coach, RWB, Ranching, SW, John, Jan, Corso and Colo, I hope all of you are off to a great weekend. You all enjoy your Easter Bunny Celebrations.

Everybody, Happy Easter! For those of you who are religious, have a Blessed Easter Holiday. Everyone, enjoy the celebration, regardless of if it's to celebrate the return of Spring or the Religious Implications.

 

[Xelda]

Morning Pops and friends with or without meat-sicles. Oh Leon! I forgot you were watching GoT for the first time. I don't dare bring up anything because the whole series is a brain tickling blur to me. I've gone back to watch certain things and can't remember which season they were from. At times it seemed too gory for my tender eyes, but I can look away, speed past it, power through or in the case of certain miserable characters, back it up and watch it five more times to make sure they're dead. You're in for many treats with Tyrion.

I'm with Gramma too! We love a good tour of Italy. Sorry to hear your boss's best intentions were over looked until 5:30. CRIMINAL!

I'm also with coach in believing baby animals should not be given out for amusement of anyone that doesn't know how to take care of them. One year we got pastel bitties for Easter. Momma took us to see a cousin that's a Southern Baptist preacher and his kids got a bucket full of water and baptized Easter chicks. We called them the bitty baptizers. My sister's bitty was stolen by a cat. She was upset so I gave her mine and momma took me to some place that sold live chickens and I got two little non Easter bitties. I put them in doll clothes and held them as I rocked back and forth. They did their best to keep their heads in the exact same location at all times. They grew up and momma took me to a farm to sell my grown chickens only after the farmer promised not to eat them. They cross pollenated and filled the woods with a legion of my bitties. One would ride around on the top of their dog's head on his patrols. They were some kind of foreign chicken from what I've been told. They were unusual. Anyway, that's my Easter chicken story.

Colo, I can relate to you on meals growing up. Steak was all the rage, but I think we were getting cow butt holes dredged in egg yolk and flour then fried. Tough and no flavor 5 nights a week. Add in a vile vegetable or two filled with all the vitamins a growing kid needed that tasted awful and we have supper. Momma was a terrible cook who informed us that we were ingrates.

 

[CouchCoach]

Let's see here, my choice is between a Pagan story about the eggs and the bunny part of it from ABQ or Xelda's pet chicken riding shotgun on a dog's head and trusting her chicken to a farmer. Nope, just can't pick one, gotta like'em both. I would have liked them tied together where the Pagan farmer worshipped chickens and Xelda's chicken became the High Princess Chicken aka The Big Cluck.

My Mom was a good cook except for steak, she pan fried round steak. You have to beat hell out of it with a sledgehammer to tenderize it. She did try putting Accent , MSG, on it and that did make it taste better as I chewed until my jaw hurt and the damned steak was still the same damned size in my mouth. Then one glorious day, my uncle who was the National Sales Manager for Portable Kitchens, the original cast aluminum charcoal grill, brought a new one to my Dad and they grilled T-bone steaks and I was never to go near a round steak again unless it was pulverized for chicken fried steak and steak was considered a very special meal from then on and T-bone was the Cadillac of steaks.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Let's see here, my choice is between a Pagan story about the eggs and the bunny part of it from ABQ or Xelda's pet chicken riding shotgun on a dog's head and trusting her chicken to a farmer. Nope, just can't pick one, gotta like'em both. I would have liked them tied together where the Pagan farmer worshipped chickens and Xelda's chicken became the High Princess Chicken aka The Big Cluck.

My Mom was a good cook except for steak, she pan fried round steak. You have to beat hell out of it with a sledgehammer to tenderize it. She did try putting Accent , MSG, on it and that did make it taste better as I chewed until my jaw hurt and the damned steak was still the same damned size in my mouth. Then one glorious day, my uncle who was the National Sales Manager for Portable Kitchens, the original cast aluminum charcoal grill, brought a new one to my Dad and they grilled T-bone steaks and I was never to go near a round steak again unless it was pulverized for chicken fried steak and steak was considered a very special meal from then on and T-bone was the Cadillac of steaks.

Just so you know, the Pagan chicken worshiping version ends up with the Chicken in a Pot. Kinda leaves little to no room for any furthering of the story. Kinda comes to a very short, very abrupt end, if you know what I mean.

 

[LeonDixson]

Morning, Pops and pen pals. Happy Easter. We are having ham today. Gramma, the name of the restaurant we went to is Joe's Pasta and Pizza. It's a franchise so you may very well have one in your area. ABQ, you never cease to amaze me with your knowledge. You either paid lots of attention, read a lot, or are a fantastic "Googler". Xelda, I'm almost through with season 6 of GoT now. Cirsei has just blown up the chapel with all the priests and the queen inside.

Have a blessed day, everyone.

 

[Sarge]

Happy Easter Pops and to everyone on this thread.

 

[GrammaJan]

Morning, Pops and pen pals. Happy Easter. We are having ham today. Gramma, the name of the restaurant we went to is Joe's Pasta and Pizza. It's a franchise so you may very well have one in your area. ABQ, you never cease to amaze me with your knowledge. You either paid lots of attention, read a lot, or are a fantastic "Googler". Xelda, I'm almost through with season 6 of GoT now. Cirsei has just blown up the chapel with all the priests and the queen inside.

Have a blessed day, everyone.

Morning pops and everyone, and Happy Easter! We traditionally have a ham dinner as well, but due to my mother's living conditions going south (no offense to those of you living in the geographical southern U.S. -that's beautiful country, btw), we are opting for a cookout. Was going to be at my sister's but since the temp is supposed to hit the upper 70's, we are heading to the park. Looking forward to some grilled food and being outdoors in the sunshine.

Leon, that's not a chain we have here, but there is another chain that carries a dish with the name Tour of Italy or something very similar to it. If I ever get to an area with a Joe's by that name I'll have to try it out. We have a Happy Joe's (pizza chain) that is extremely popular here and they recently did a name change that is similar to the name you mentioned tho.

Time to start gathering what I'm taking to the cookout and what I cooked up for mom, and think about getting these bones moving for the day.

Everyone have a wonderful Easter. Be safe in your travels if you're hitting the road.

 

[kskboys]

Good morning Pops and Zoner Friends.

Feeling a bit lethargic this morning - looks like I have the man flu.

Umm... Lamb lollipops. Typically, we do a rack of lamb but this year, I am doing a slow cooker Irish lamb stew. Seems like a perfect dish for a projected cold rainy Sunday.

Funny story about lamb - as a child growing up in the Texas Hill Country, we often ate "lamb". It was horrible: tough, greasy and, as a result, I swore off lamb completely. Fast forward 30+ years and we are living in Australia. Our Aussie neighbors organize a BBQ for us and serve lamb lollipops. They were delicious!

Some time later, I was sharing this experience with my mother. She was so amused, telling me "oh, son, your father never served you lamb. It was some old mutton he couldn't sell at auction". I felt so deceived

If the lamb you ate was tough, it wasn't lamb, it was an old sheep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[CouchCoach]

If the lamb you ate was tough, it wasn't lamb, it was an old sheep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And if there's an expert on these boards about old sheep, ksk's the man!!!!!!

 

[CouchCoach]

Morning Pops and Happy Easter to one and all and I know you think you're the one and you are right!

Taking it easy today and am looking forward to those lamp pops, preceded by an artichoke and accompanied by seared brussel sprouts with browned butter and rosemary roasted Yukon Cornelius Gold's and the Bluebonnet Cafe's cherry pie with Haagen Dazs' Vanilla Bean ice cream. Got to eat earlier than my usual 8ish time because of Game of Thrones. I need my undivided attention to stay involved and do not want to gag while chewing.

So, I decided to get dirty yesterday. Not real dirty like in the ground dirt with creepy crawly things but in Organic potting soil and pots and plants. Planted jalapeno, Thai Bird, Chili Red's and Garden Salsa pepper plants. Also two different mints for Mojitos and put my mosquito plants in larger pots so they can work some mojo on those bane of mankind pests. The trick, I discovered just last year, is that in order for the mosquito plant to work it's magic, it needs to be disturbed. I told the plant lady at the nursery that I'd had them for many years and was disturbed enough for a forest of them. She explained that she meant they need to be awakened by a vigorously watering or rubbing so I massaged my mosquito plants last year and could tell the difference because they're inert until disturbed. But once massaged, much to the delight of my neighbors with one more thing to add to the list, you can smell their mosquito don't like much aroma in the air.

If you are religious, celebrate this Easter with that in your heart. If you are not, be pissed that another holiday fell on the weekend and you didn't get the day off. Of you could be like Gramma, congrats, you've got the half day off, shame we didn't tell you until the whole day was worked but it is the thought that counts.

 

[kskboys]

Morning Pops and Happy Easter to one and all and I know you think you're the one and you are right!

Taking it easy today and am looking forward to those lamp pops, preceded by an artichoke and accompanied by seared brussel sprouts with browned butter and rosemary roasted Yukon Cornelius Gold's and the Bluebonnet Cafe's cherry pie with Haagen Dazs' Vanilla Bean ice cream. Got to eat earlier than my usual 8ish time because of Game of Thrones. I need my undivided attention to stay involved and do not want to gag while chewing.

So, I decided to get dirty yesterday. Not real dirty like in the ground dirt with creepy crawly things but in Organic potting soil and pots and plants. Planted jalapeno, Thai Bird, Chili Red's and Garden Salsa pepper plants. Also two different mints for Mojitos and put my mosquito plants in larger pots so they can work some mojo on those bane of mankind pests. The trick, I discovered just last year, is that in order for the mosquito plant to work it's magic, it needs to be disturbed. I told the plant lady at the nursery that I'd had them for many years and was disturbed enough for a forest of them. She explained that she meant they need to be awakened by a vigorously watering or rubbing so I massaged my mosquito plants last year and could tell the difference because they're inert until disturbed. But once massaged, much to the delight of my neighbors with one more thing to add to the list, you can smell their mosquito don't like much aroma in the air.

If you are religious, celebrate this Easter with that in your heart. If you are not, be pissed that another holiday fell on the weekend and you didn't get the day off. Of you could be like Gramma, congrats, you've got the half day off, shame we didn't tell you until the whole day was worked but it is the thought that counts.

Or drink!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[kskboys]

And if there's an expert on these boards about old sheep, ksk's the man!!!!!!

Next time try carressing her ears, maybe kiss her under the chin a bit. They get tender pretty quick!!!!!

 

[Xelda]

Happy Easter Pops and friends. It's a beautiful day with nary a Tor Con value in sight. Have a blessed day everyone.

 

[LeonDixson]

Morning, Pops and pen pals. I'm off to Catoosa, Oklahoma today to pick up the Gkids who were visiting their father for Easter. It's about a 12-13 hour round trip depending on traffic so I'm leaving early so I don't have to rush.

I'm all caught up on GoT except for the episode l recorded last night. I have experienced the side effects of binge watching a series. I've started calling my wife your grace. I figured that would find more favor than the W word. Have you ever lit the fireplace in 90 degree weather to find out what you can see in the flames? I saw nothing. But I did smell singed eyebrows, so there is that.

Some how through all that I did get most of my flower beds finished.

Have a great day, Y'all.

 

[John813]

Morning Pops and everyone here.

Completely zoned out and forgot this thread was in the Member zone lol. A lot of stuff went down between January and early April but life is calming down now.

Hope everyone enjoyed Easter/their weekend and we are finally in the draft week!

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Morning, Pops and pen pals. Happy Easter. We are having ham today. Gramma, the name of the restaurant we went to is Joe's Pasta and Pizza. It's a franchise so you may very well have one in your area. ABQ, you never cease to amaze me with your knowledge. You either paid lots of attention, read a lot, or are a fantastic "Googler". Xelda, I'm almost through with season 6 of GoT now. Cirsei has just blown up the chapel with all the priests and the queen inside.

Have a blessed day, everyone.

Google is my friend Leon! Truth be told, I researched this years before because, alas, I have kids and they ask the damnedest things and that one was asked to me some years ago. So, when I saw it here, I just googled and reread.