Saturday Soup With Tidbits Of This And That

Today's blog post is going to be a Saturday soup with a few additional tidbits thrown in for nothing. Like take a look at this. This was in front of Shopper's Food Warehouse at Somerset Crossing in Gainesville, VA last month when I was rushing in with Jack to get supplies for our Octoberfest party. Well it looks like some type of racing car to me and when I looked closer I discovered that it must be a woman's car because I saw the name Bunny along the side of the car. Now what man would put the name Bunny along the side of his car? Now even the Easter Bunny would do that.

See. Here is her name up close with the hood up and the wheels and transmission down. Now isn't that strange. First the name Bunny and the Boys and then the car like this. It looks like a George Forman electric grill where you would pop in a piece of meat. I looked for Bunny coming and going from the store but never found her. But I'm still thinking about her. And I reckon that a lot of boys and men are too because they were flocking around that car like carrion birds with a fresh kill. Speaking of birds look below.

Yes, the day I wrote about missing Sarah Palin this guy showed up at our breakfast room window and made a hit on either Sarah or Sunny chipmunk! This was a very young and cold little Coopers Hawk and I don't think his hunting skills are too good yet so I'm hoping he didn't take Sarah Palin or Sunny out. And speaking of our dear Sarah Palin I'm taking a nap this afternoon so that I have enough energy to stay up tonight to watch Saturday Night Live. I just know that they are going to do a skit about the Sarah Palin interview where she is talking while countless turkeys are meeting the head chopper off man. By the way, what do you do for a living? Answer: I chop off turkey heads in a little metal funnel chute contraption. I know. I know. The poor man is just doing his job and next Thursday when we all sit down to our nice roasted Thanksgiving turkey we will be thankful that this man did his job. But the irony of this story it seems to me is the fact that this interview was called to show how the Governor of Alaska would pardon a turkey destined for the governor's mansion while countless other turkeys were being slaughtered in the background! Think about it a moment. I ask you now. Who was the biggest turkey in the video?

After his slam dunk dive that missed the target the Cooper's Hawk flew to the lawn and just sat there shivering and looking up at me thru the window. I was trying to get a photo shot fired off with my little Mickey Mouse camera that doesn't ever get good details in these incidents. A little blurry and out of focus thru the glass. If you click on the photo, you will get a little more detail.

Now look at this. I know I'm jumping all around from one topic to another but how else are you going to make a Saturday Soup With Lots of Tidbits. This old fashioned truck was parked outside Wegman's Gourmet Grocery Store in Gainesville, VA the day Dickie and I got busted for using our cameras in the store! I still think that was the funniest thing that has happened to me in a long time. I could just see Jack having a conversation with the judge.

Judge: "Why are you here?"

Jack: "Uhh...well, I need to post bail for my wife."

Judge: "Was it stealing dope?"

Jack: "No, sir. It was stealing an image of the grocery store.

Let me just add that thru my little gadget that tracks visitors to one's blog I discovered that I had at least a dozen visits from folks up in Rochester, NY. after that blog post. I don't know anybody up in Rochester, NY but I do know that that is the headquarters of Wegman's Grocery Store. So maybe Dickie and I are still not out of the woods yet. By the way here 's a tidbit of info. The busiest Wegman's in the nation and the one that generates the most money is the one located in Fairfax County, VA near Centerville. There people do walk in and order the $700 a pound French truffles to go along with their $1000 a bottle French Burgundy wine or French Champagne. That's a fact.

Next I want to thank everyone who stopped by my blog yesterday and left a comment about my father's baby photo in honor of his birth date. The old fashioned Wegmans truck reminds me of a story that was told at least a million times in our home when I was growing up. I really wish my Uncle Nick, my mother's oldest brother who was both a great reader and story teller, could tell this story to you. Well, you just have me to tell you so here goes nothing and the story:

Both my mom and dad were newly weds of the depression era as well as farm folks so every single time we made a trip to visit my mother's two brothers "who left the farm!" we took half the farm with us in the car. Vegetables from the garden, fruit from the orchard and rich cream and butter from our dairy plus a ton of canned fruits and vegetables that my mom had canned so well. Why? Because my mom and dad felt very sorry for those poor folks who had left the riches of the farm to live and work in the big city of Dayton or the little city of Fairborn, Ohio.

Well, this particular trip must have happened soon after my mom and dad got married because there were no kids that I'm aware of along for the long slow ride to Dayton from Willowdell, Ohio in my father's Model T Ford. I do know that my dad was the chauffeur for his in-laws, Frank and Ellen Dapore. Normally on these long road trips the men sat in front and the women sat in back. On this particular day everyone was seated when either my mom or my grand mom realized that they had forgotten something that they wanted to take to their "poor city relatives". So they quickly and quietly hopped out of the car and headed back inside the house to get what they wanted. In the meantime my father and my grandfather were in a heated discussion about something. They were probably talking politics and/ or farming or how the current politics was impacting their farming. Anyway without looking back they pulled out from the farm drive and tooddled on down the gravel road towards the big two laned paved road coming up on their journey to Uncle Nick's house in Dayton.

In the meantime my mom and grand mom exited the farmhouse and looked for the Model T Ford. No Model T Ford. What! Where did it go? And where on earth are Leo and Frank? Then my mom and grand mom looked down the road and saw thru the dust cloud that the Model T Ford was stirring up that Leo and Frank were heading to Dayton without them! And knowing how those two men could talk and talk without including them in their important men's conversation (Remember that this was not too long after women got the right to vote and men still probably thought that women didn't know anything much about politics or farming for that matter.) they decided that they better grab their goods and make a run for it. And that's exactly what they did. They ran with all their might for nearly half a mile to catch that Model T Ford. When they finally came alongside the car they were panting beat the band. And when my dad and my granddad saw them they wondered why they were running instead of riding. Why are you outside the car? Why aren't you in the backseat of the car where you belong. For heavens sake, get in and and close the doors and let's get rolling or we will be late. We have a long trip ahead of us.

Of course, when they finally arrived on Uncle Nick's front porch they had to tell him the story. And my Uncle Nick listened, embellished the tale and it became one his favorite stories to tell when he visited us in later years from his retirement home in Florida. We kids all knew the story by heart but every time Uncle Nick told the story we laughed harder than the previous time the story was told. We could picture the men talking, the women running and panting and crusty Grandpa Frank Dapore scolding the women to stay in the backseat for heavens sake!

Now I was going to give you a great Saturday Soup recipe but this post is getting just too long so I'll save the recipe for tomorrow's blog post. But here is a short recipe for a fresh cream dessert that is decadent. I now call it Backseat Dessert.

Backseat Dessert

One half of box of graham crackers pulverized to gravel consistency.

(Remember the gravel roads back then.)

One carton of rich and heavy cream and half a stick of pure butter.

(Remember the Ohio dairy farm folks.)

One large can of crushed pineapple drained.

(Remember the exotic big city of Dayton, Ohio where Uncle Nick and Aunt Ruth could find canned pineapple on the grocery shelves.

One half cup of sugar and one teaspoon of French Vanilla.

(Remember our French ancestry from French-Comte region of France.)

Directions:

Mix the crushed graham cracker crumbs with the pats of butter.

Place half the crumbs on the bottom of a glass dish.

I remember that we always used to use one of those square green depression glass refrigerator dishes that had a glass cover.) Save the rest of the crumb mixture for the topping.

Now whip your real and heavy whipped cream in your electric mixer. Add the sugar and vanilla and stop mixing once you achieve nice cream peaks. Remember we are aiming to make dessert and not butter. Beat too long and you will have made real homemade butter which is also a good thing to make and eat.

Drain your crushed pineapple well and add to the whipped cream mixture and then spoon this into the glass dish. Sprinkle the remaining graham cracker "gravel" on top. Chill well and serve. Delicious.

And just as my Uncle Nick could embellish a true story so could my mom embellish this easy but delicious dessert. Sometimes she would drain marachino cherries and place them on top of the "gravel" for a little extra color. And I have learned that if you add some microwaved melted chocolate chips to the whipped cream you have turned this into a Chocolate Mousse. Very French! Sprinkle some coconut on top of top gravel and you would have something I would call German Chocolate Cake Mousse.