Iced Tea Forever

You’ll thank me for this. A great-tasting meal of meat that’s non-fattening and Atkin’s Diet friendly!

One of the guiding principles in my culinary experiementation is recipe self-tailoring. I modify and tweak dishes to better suit my superior tastes and preferences. I try to minimize the things that I’m not particularly fond of while maximizing the elements that I prefer. This is the principle which culminated in today’s culinary masterpiece.

Ground beef is a central pillar supporting America’s menu. Without it, our country’s food infrastructure would crumble and collapse. As a loyal American citizen, I love a good hamburger. But how could I make it even better?

Minimize the bad, maximize the good! Follow along with me in your kitchen.

Here’s what you need:

At least 1 lb. of ground beef (or equivalent), 1 onion, 1 tomato, cheese, mayo, condiments, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, 1 egg, and iced tea. I actually used buffalo burger on this occasion. It is expensive but tastes fantastic! It’s a rare luxury, I don’t normally have it. Notice the tomato slicer my Mom gave me! I couldn’t find one anywhere so she gave me hers.

Notice what we’re missing? The bun! Yes, let’s eliminate that carb-filled fattening meat-diluter and keep our burger tasty and healthy!

First of all, let’s get that burger frying.

Make sure you shake on plenty of salt and pepper, and if you care to dash on some cayenne pepper. While it’s frying, slice the onion and tomato. Drink plenty of iced tea throughout this procedure.

When the burger is nearly done frying, top with grated cheese. Remove when cooked to desired degree. Then throw some butter into the frying pan, followed by the sliced onions.

Fry the onions hard, then dump them all on the burger.

We need lots of mayo.

Add other condiments at this time. I might have put the mayo and condi’s on before the onion, but I forgot.

Another thing I forgot was the egg! But fortunately for you, I remember now. Fry one egg, and throw it on top at this time.

Crown this sterling achievement with a bunch of tomato slices. Eat the leftover slices plain.

Immediately consume with plenty of iced tea!

Feeds one person.

I apologize for not getting the much-anticipated culinary masterpiece post up tonight. It is about half written, but it’s too late and I’m beat.

Went to a Valentine’s banquet tonight.

Tonight is Jewel and I’s 2 year dating anniversary.

Work is in a few short hours.

What I had for Breakfast: One small can of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup. This is actually very rare, I hardly ever eat any breakfast.

A little side note, Campbell’s Chicken Noodle was my favorite soup ever, nay, close to favorite food ever when I was a small child. I remember once my Mom trying to dampen my unbridled enthusiasm for it by telling me that if I ate too much I wouldn’t like it when I got older! I still like it, but my enthusiasm has been tempered somewhat.

Now I prefer the Cream of Chicken!!

Anyway, let me get back on track here.

Number of Octaves Spanned During Congregational Singing this Morning: Just over 3. Low E-flat, D, to somewhere around F above high C.

Number of People Amused at Above Statistic: One. Jewel.

Number of People Annoyed: Unknown. Likely the entire congregation.

Amount of Snowfall: WAY TOO MUCH!!!! 2 or 3 inches maybe, I don’t know. Sloppy wet stuff this time, often it’s really dry and powdery. But it rained some too today, so hopefully we’re getting a good start on getting rid of the stuff.

Duration of Time Between the Benediction and Actually Leaving Church: Probably well over an Hour.

Were You the Last Ones? Yes, with two other couples.

Is That Too Long? Yes, it is.

When Was the Last Time You Cleaned Your Computer Screen? Right now! It looks so much better! It’s like I turned the brightness way up!

What is Coming Up in the Near Future on Iced Tea Forever? I’m really excited about my next post! I will give specific direction and illustration on how to prepare one of my favorite culinary dishes! The concept of this dish isn’t new, but I have highly modified and improved upon it and given it my own special touch! You won’t want to miss this one.

My Mom recently subscribed me to the little newspaper from my old hometown, Brownsville, OR. I know one guy on the front page, Ernie’s evidently been doing alright in the karaoke contests.

After 47 years Jerry finally sold his gas station there on the corner of 228 and Washburn, just down the road from my house. I’ve filled many a gas tank (and can) there. Had him fix a three-wheeler flat tire once when I was a kid, too. It was a bad one. One time (also as a kid) I got some gas and then realized I forgot my wallet or something, or just didn’t have any money. I promised I’d come right back and pay for it! Which I did, and he was easygoing enough to wave it off like no big deal. He sold the station to the dude that owns the PV.

The editorial section is still the political battleground of the editor and his daughter (the managing editor). He’s staunchly conservative, she’s an extreme liberal. Sometimes they trade issues doing the editorial, this one he wrote and she gave a response. Um, she doesn’t like Bush very much.

Nice rather over-the-top letter to the editor from a former town resident. He’s pretty steamed at how a long-time current B-ville resident and good guy (and a former customer of my Dad’s) is getting the shaft from the town over some inane and bizarre property dispute. He used LOTS OF CAPS.

Great stuff!

Currently listening to Glad A Cappella Project III.

As a rabid a cappella music nut, I’m a huge fan of Glad’s a cappella music. Their a cappella project series is phenomenal, starting with the nothing-short-of-groundbreaking original “Project.”

Project III is more of the same arranging innovation/brilliance and vocal proficiency. Glad has done a ton of hymns (including their a cappella Hymns project), and this recording is no exception. The Solid Rock, Arise My Soul Arise, Crown Him with Many Crowns, My God I Love You, and also We Gather Together are the timeless classics given new and stellar treatments here.

Other especially notable tracks are Keith Green’s Your Love Broke Through and the Bob Kauflin composed/arranged Doer of Your Word and Stars in the Universe. I love Bob Kauflin! He’s one of my favorite a cappella arrangers, a giant in the field. Truly a musical genius. He also composed and arranged my favorite Glad song of all time, In the First Light, the epic a cappella anthem found on the original Project.

The A Cappella Project III is another landmark recording from Glad, a must-have for serious a cappella aficionados.

In Nov. of ’03 (is that possible!), I moved from the utopia of Oregon to the climatically tempestuous Indiana. Northern Indiana, Amish country: motto — Don’t Step in Our Exhaust.

You never know what the weather is going to do here! A few weeks ago we had about a foot of snow on the ground, then suddenly the warm winds and rain came and pretty much obliterated it. Then it turned cold again and the last couple of days it’s trying to snow some more.

And on May 8 ’04, check this out!

I was surprised to hear a loud roar outside, and what do I find but monster hail!! Being from Utopia, I had never seen anything like this.

And these had already melted a bit in my hand, they were huge! Average of maybe almost an inch in diameter.

Snow, freak hail, high winds, monster rain and thunderstorms (I kinda like those though), this is not the weather of Utopia!

My friend Ellen sent me this pic from Utopia recently. By the file date, she took it 2-5-05. Yes, in the dead of winter.

Looks like spring. I have a particular fondness for this picture also because I grew up three or so miles closer to this mountain (Snow Peak). This is about the exact view I saw every day as a kid.

If there was anything this size here in hoosierville, they’d think it was the Matterhorn. They call a gentle rise in a field a “mountain.”

Now this is cool. Somebody had a little too much time on their hands, but hey, maybe it would save a little money too.

I am shopping for a new computer case. I know which one I want, but this would be considerably cheaper.

I want to come up with a way of tracking my Iced Tea manufacturing/consumption. I think this would be a very appropriate place for such data. It would be highly relevant and completely riveting.

I’m 27 hours into my current gallon and it’s almost depleted.

I struggle with keeping caught up on email. The last few weeks have brought a new low. I just can’t get ahead of the disaster that is my inbox. When I start pushing sixty, seventy messages I usually try to clean up and knock it down to -40 or 50, but lately that ain’t been happening.

My inbox is sitting right now at an unprecedented 172 messages. I’m overwhelmed. I’m ready to just delete the whole thing and start over.

I took this picture a while ago, I was going to email it to David and Kon but I never got around to it. I parked near this thing once at the mall in Dunlap, IN, I think it was.

AHQ travelled in a Caprice the last few tours we did. So we always had our eyes peeled for unusual Caprices (and similar cars, say the new Impala) and we’d say, hey, there’s a quartet car!

This one’s a little older than we normally desired, but does it say pack-me-to-the-gills-and-hit-the-road or what?