Picture Sunday

Hello to all, and welcome to another lazy Sunday evening. Well, it was if you're me, I did absolutely sod-all today. I don't think I was even out of my pajamas until about 2:30pm. Anyway, it's time for Picture Sunday.

It's a small band of pictures tonight, starting with one I took last week while I was traversing G Road (Mr M's street) in B'burg. I didn't go to B'burg this weekend, which probably accounts for my incredible laziness. Podding around the house is fine, but I really do get lazy if I'm here too long. Anyway, back to the picture. Remember that horsie? Sure you do, come on, think a little. The horse I was telling you about in a field on G Road that wears a mask with no eyeholes in it. The horse I worry about on occasion, what he could have done that got his face bagged up like a country ham. Well, last Sunday I saw him yet again, in his mask, so I risked my life to stop right there on the very curvy G Road to take his picture.



See? See what I mean? That horse is blind! No eyeholes, no gauzed-over openings, nothing. That is a sightless horse. I hope he has a keen sense of hearing and smell.

My other pictures are from Friday night. Now, I have to tell you that while being lazy I also spent the weekend crawling out of my own skin, because I found out on Thursday night that my own very favorites the Hackensaw Boys were playing no less a venue than the Purple Fiddle in tiny Thomas, WV (remember that blog? go here 2/20, if you don't) not one, but two fabulous nights, Friday and Saturday. Well, not so fabulous for me, because I couldn't go.

Which is not to say I didn't see a fine band on Friday night. Our little town has something called Evening Shade every summer Friday at 7pm, where local musicians play for townies at the gazebo right on the corner of College & Virginia Avenues. And this Friday the musicians happened to be my dear nephew's band The Stetsons.

An odd evening, it was. The band came over to my sister and I and joked about their ever-changing demographic, because every time they play in town the audience gets older and older. On Friday the average age was about 70. After the very fine funk number with the rapid-fire lyrics, the lady in front of us shook her head and left. But a fine time was had by everyone else, or seemed to be, and here's a picture of the band in action.



That's Brent in the green, Andrew in the red, and of course, the dear nephew in white on the drums.

You know, there's an ongoing joke amongst the #squeezesters wherein everyone assembled at any given time gives me suggestions of song titles to yell out as requests. They've run from the 80s punk classic "Institutionalized" to the 70s pop nugget "Ariel" to the bluegrass barn-burner "The Orange Blossom Special." And while I didn't yell a single one of those out, the boys pulled one over on me when they - in the middle of one of their own compositions - stopped dead and broke into a blistering "Folsom Prison Blues." It absolutely cracked me up.

Hey, do you think Tay noticed I had a camera?



And one of the boy in action.



Hey, look! He's being filmed! The local TV Guy was there filming them for the 11 O'Clock News, and I'll be damned if I didn't forget to watch. What a bad aunt I am.

And finally, a picture that answers the question, "Just where is the shade in Evening Shade?" Well, it's about 7:55, when the sun goes behind the big trees beside the pharmacy.



A lazy weekend.

Hey! Speaking of musical questions, tonight's recipe du jour answers the musical question, "How do you know when it's time to clean out your cabinets?" For some, the cleaner amongst us, the answer is probably, "once a month." Or for some, like our own Stennie who did it this very weekend, it's, "when you move." But for me, the answer is, "when you're stuck at home on a Sunday and have no recipe ideas."

And so this week's recipe du jour is, well, let's see. First of all, it's a small nod to Mr M, who hates the wasting of food (even though he left the goodie bag my mom gave him last night here), and who often mentions to me that I spend too much money buying food that I waste on the recipe du jour. So to you, Mr M, I say that this meal cost me exactly zero dollars and zero cents to prepare. And it's also the perfect way to clean a kitchen of food that's been hanging around way too long, some of it a good three to four years, taking up space I don't really have. So let's all say hello to, from the "Stick To Your Ribs Meals" file at cardland (and boy, will it), Cabinet Clean-Out Casserole.



Now, here's a meal. And you know, the great thing about Cabinet Clean-Out Casserole is that it can be made any number of ways, depending upon the cabinets in question. But here's my version. You start with a can of Campbell's Bean With Bacon Soup circa 2004. Pour it into a casserole dish that's been covered with the bread crumbs that were opened and never used again because you didn't like the spices in them. Add a 2 ½ year old can of chicken. Then over the soup and chicken you spread some instant mashed potatoes, which were still around even after an entire two-bedroom cottage was built with them last week, and for looks how about making a nice mound of potatoes in the middle of the dish. Then that potato mesa is surrounded by a year-old can of pinto beans and some red cabbage that, well, truth be told, is probably around four years old. Top that all with sweet pickled cauliflower, a forgotten purchase from about three years ago, and a half-bag of stale croutons. Bake it all within an inch of its life, and there you go.

Oh, the topping on the served portion of our casserole is made of enchilada sauce and decaffeinated coffee. Because, well, someone's nice enough to give you a package of coffee, you don't have the heart to tell them you don't drink de-caf, you know how it goes. The dish is served with the rest of the coffee, and the only thing that will keep you alive till tomorrow's acrochallenge, some Tums.

Happy week.

Betland's Olympic Update:
* Two guests have now peed in my new bathroom. I'm so proud.
* Did I mention I missed seeing the Hackensaw Boys this weekend? Yeah, I think I did.