Floating the Yellowstone

Much like my Outfitters slogan, Outside the Box Outfitters, my pal KJ openly admits two, not so obvious beliefs he has while floating. But an attitude like that could never put a dampner on the day so long as you're on the river.

You really can't beat the view during the entire trip.

We stopped several time to swim, on purpose, and even tooks turns surfing the raft. At times it seemed if you were in the rodeo.

All in all, a great day on the river! Right in my own back yard.

Spatchcock

     Spatchcock, that's what they call it. It's a fancy, schmancy name for splaying a turkey. It all started out so inicently. I wanted to cook a turkey, during the week, in a short period of time, without heating up the kitchen; and along came Spatchcock.
     I brined the turkey, overnight, in water with sugar, salt, cider vinigar, sage rosemary and tyme. When I got home tonight I pulled the turkey out of the brine and patted it down like one of the usual suspects and surgically removed its back bone.(I must admit, I felt a bit like Rosanne Bar on a date with Tom Arnold) A light coating of kosher salt, pepper and some cajun rub and without any provokation what so ever, I gave the grill the bird. Now, for you faint of heart "Dash fans", I elected not to kill this bird myself. It was actually a contract killing of sorts, as I never had any interaction or knowlege of anything pertaining to or about "said" turkey, before pulling him out of the freezer.
     The 16 pound bird cooked in 1 1/2 hours and was without doubt, THE TENDEREST WHITE MEET EVER!  I know I'm going to sound a bit like Col. Oliver North here and perhaps even a bit like Ronald Regan, but, I have no recolection of any Thanksgiving turkey, EVER, that came out this moist.
Now that you know this, go ahead and try it.  Wait 'till you have the place all to yourself, don't ask, don't tell, try it you'll like it.   SPATCHCOCK! 

A Toast to Car Shows

     Saturday was a crazy day. I rode the bike to Laurel,MT for Fat Fender Freddy's car show. It was hot as blazes out. The cars, however, were cool. I always enjoy seeing the beautiful machines. Sometimes I marvel at the quality of work that goes into them and others just make me go, eh. What always gets me is the people that sit around in the hot sun, in front of, behind or in close proximity to their vehicles. Wouldn't it be way cooler if they were behind the wheel, going 80?  Time for my own version of Myth Buster.
     I came home from the car show inspired. Upon entering my garage, I noticed that none of my cars had chrome on them. Two didn't come with chrome and the third didn't have chrome on it, "any more". As I made my way into the kitchen for a glass of cold water, I spied it..........my show machine. I decided to pimp out my toaster. Don't laugh, it already has lots of chrome and with a little elbow grease, I think I could make it a real show piece.
     I decided to do a complete tear down and rebuild. I pulled off the sides and tore out the crumb catcher, underneath. The original cord was white yet stained a bit from the constant heat as well as some errant coffee spills of days past. I debated with keeping it all original, but.... The stock cord was a standard two prong and I had thoughts of swapping it out with a three prong cord off an old blender but I actually found a two pronged,three foot cord off a fan I had in the back room. The three foot cord would allow me to move the toaster over to the end of the counter so I could make toast and still watch ESPN in the mornings. The springs inside the toaster have lost some of their stiffness over the years. I was able to take the overhead spring off my fron screen door, cut it in half and trim the ends to give my bread a soft ride down and my fresh toast a firm boost at the end. I toyed around with chopping it, but I new if I did, the fresh pumpernickel from the bakery would never come to fruition, so to speak. (Stick with the plan Dash)  The dial for temperature setting had loosened after years of abuse. I pulled the dial off and ran it through the dish washer, on the "Pots and Pan" cycle. *If you do this, place the dial in the silverware basket and place the basket on the TOP SHELF. I looked on line and saw a video of a guy that was redoing his blender. He put the dial on the bottom rack and ended up with a mister potato head ear. On YouTube, that video got like 27 hits!
     The sides were solid chrome, and while they were in good enough shape, they didn't need to be re chromed, they just had a few dings in them. From the looks of it, the lip on the taller coffee cups seem to match up with the dings. After bumping out the dents, I decided to put two small pieces of door molding to prevent future dings. They are a cool avacado green, just like my old Plymouth Volare.
      The heating element ended up being the tricky part. I dug around in box full of junk, left over from our garage sale and found our old "starter" toaster we had out grown and never sold. In one of my "think outside of the box" moments, I removed the heating elements from the old toaster, scrubbed them with a Brillo pad and tepid water, then meticulously interwove them into my project toaster. WOW!
   After careful re assembly, I was ready to plug it in. A quick once over with the Armorall and my new machine was a thing of beauty. It was cooler than sliced bread! I didn't even want to make toast in it, heck, I just got done polishing it, so I pulled up my lawn chair in the kitchen, and had two pieces of plain rye bread and butter.
     I knew company was due shortly, so I grabbed the lap top, pulled up pictures of the old toaster I had from Easter and made a cool slide show so folks could see the before and after shots. Company came and went all day long and I was able to just sit there in my kitchen watching people as they ogled  my  new toaster. I did make up a small note card the read,"please do not touch", but I didn't want to seem like a grumpy fanatic, so I drew a piece of bread and made a bubble so it looked like he was saying it.
  All in all the project went well. On a side note, I ended up running to the store this evening and picking up a new toaster, you know, an every day user. I figure I have so much time into my show toaster, why mess it up. People are always saying, "you only get out what you put in", but me and my toaster beg to differ. To each his own!

Fathers Day

     As dawn broke, I rolled out of bed and grabbed a cup of coffee. I picked up my phone, texted "Happy Fathers Day" to a great friend that reminds me of my father and called another great friend that I love as though he were my father. With my Pop no longer alive, I get my father fixes when I need them. My mother recently sent me a photo book, full of pictures of me and my dad. Amazing how much I now look, like he did then. I miss the old boy. I am proud, however, that I still carry on many of his good traits and hope they remain in motion, with both of my kids.  
     When I was a wee bit younger, I wrote a poem about my dad;
My dad's my man, he thinks too much.
He speaks of love and other stuff.
He thinks he doesn't worry much,
but he worries much about needless stuff.
I wish I knew my dad,
when he was young.
Love you Pop!

     To make sure I end on an up note, please watch the following video, it's way cool!
http://vimeo.com/12714406

Dad Life on Vimeo

Cattle Drive

The morning started off a little nippy. In fact, the freeze guards on the pivots, shut the flow off, so the water didn't freeze. Today, we were moving cattle to greener pastures. What should be easy, gets just a bit complicated when "newer pastures" are on the other side of I-90. If that weren't bad enough, we had to take 'em across the railroad tracks. A quick call to the Santa Fa station master, told us there was a short stack due by and all we had to do was wait for the train to pass and we were good to go. As always, I was in a hurry to get moving and left my gloves in the truck. Let's just say, I put my hot air to good use, warming my hands as I rode over to the calving pen. Waiting on the train was easy for us, but for 800 head of cattle, standing by the tracks can get a bit nerve racking. "Easy does it", rang out over and over.

     Once over the tracks and under the highway, all we had to do was get 800 head to make a left turn, on command. If you haven't noticed, cattle don't have turn signals.

Lots of cattle, some good dogs, well behaved horses and a few great neighbors.

Gods country, no doubt about that!

Folf Rules!

Sunday found me on the links of a different kind. I made my first debut on a disc golf course. If you like being outdoors and being active, folf is for you. If you want to surround yourself with great, friendly people, folf is definitely for you. I had the time of my life! It's pretty simple and much like a "stick" golf course. We played 18 holes throughout the beautiful rolling woods in Allegheny County PA.

The tees were all cement pads and there were plenty of challenging 3 par and 5 par holes. There were lots of trees that constantly threatened to swat your disk. Up hills and down hills. I have a very unorthodox throw for distance. The first time I hucked the disc, two players came over and wanted to know what in the heck I just did. They had never seen that before. Before I knew it, I found myself giving lessons on how to replicate my signature throw. Talk about a small world, of the two guys that came over to quiz me, one of the turned out to be a card caring member of the Dash Confab Fan Club. Talk about a small world! They dubbed my throw, "The Montananan".

After the hucking lesson, they let us play through. On the very next hole, the guys that let us, once again play through, said,"what the heck did you just do?" He said that it was the first time he ever saw a throw, like that on the golf course. I told him that was the second time I heard that today. They too ended up being great people.

Hole 15 proved to be a favorite as it required you to drive across a disc eating lake. Wat cool.
People rave about soccer. So much so that if you tell a soccer head that you don't care for soccer, the will spend 3 hours telling you why you should. If you were to tell a fireman, they loves soccer, while he was on his way to put out a blaze, that you didn't like soccer, the place would burn to the ground because he is gonna stop and convince you that you have to love soccer. Well. I'm here to tell you, you gotta go play folf. Buy yourself some discs and head to the nearest course and give 'em a toss. You will inevitably meet genuinely nice, helpful people, good people. Don't worry about looking silly, just tell people, it's called "the Montanan".

The Strip District

     On of my favorite places to spend time, while in Pittsburgh, is the Strip District, or "the strip" as the locals call it. The Strip is one-half square mile, northeast of downtown Pittsburgh. If you love people and food, hit it, it's all there. I decided to get some fresh food to cook for dinner that night, but first I needed some gastronomical inspiration.
     The morning started off with a bloody Mary at Bar Marcos. A sweet midget pickle, cube of sharp cheese and a chunk of prosciutto sat on to of my drink far better than the taste of the bill when it came.(live and learn).

     The Polish market in the strip brought back memories of Kopytko's in Hamtramick, MI as well as Henrietta's kitchen where I spent countless hours perfecting my perogi making. The fellow in the above photo sported a sleeveless, gold lame' shirt and a Mohawk. (awful Tawney for a mining town)
     Being a self proclaimed pizza connoisseur, I was lured into Bella Notte for a slice of pizza.

     While I often find, taking pictures of food, as it's set upon your table, when you go out to eat, "way cliche'", I could not resist. When you order a slice here, it's not a precooked pizza with your topping added and the warmed up in the oven. They take a pre-formed, unbaked pizza, slice it and add your toppings, then they bake away until the thin crust is crispy and the whole milk mozzarella gently melted. Decorated with fresh roasted, sweet red peppers and fresh anchovies, my slice was scrumptious. Fresh pepperoni and hot yellow peppers filled in as a close second. Two ice cold Yuengling beers made lunch complete.

     My next stop should be no surprise to any Dash fan, Wholey's Seafood market!

I could spend hours in this place, and I did. I was looking for something special to cook for dinner for my gracious hosts. The possibilities were endless and I must have paced the floor like a caged tiger. Suddenly the crowds parted and a sparkle, as though cast from the gleaming eye of Davy Jones himself,called to me and I saw it. It was the most beautiful cut of wild caught Scottish Salmon I had ever seen.

I decided to pair them up with lamb chops in a surf and turf fashion. For color I elected to serve fresh asparagus, steamed in ginger water. I softened up some fresh mushrooms and slow cooked them  with shallots and butter. I topped the pan off with a can of Yuengling and boiled it until it was reduced to a thick sauce so as not to serve the lamb chops naked. All cooked on a grill and eaten to perfection. What a day!

Double Header

 I thought I was dreaming. I wasn't, I was actually standing in line at the creamery, on the campus of Penn State ordering peanut butter ice cream.......... for BREAKFAST!     The best ice cream in the whole world. Totally worth the trip all by itself. While that is the truth, it wasn't the sole extent of my visit to State College,PA. Penn State campus was hosting the 43rd annual Special Olympic Summer Games. The campus was buzzing with loads of excitement; loads of athletes milling about and somehow one of the main courtyard areas was magically transformed into Olympic Village. I was there to cheer on York, as they waged war on Chester, on the softball field.

     It's like the excitement never ends. Two teams, York and Chester, slugging it out on the ball field. You haven't seen anything until you've seen my boy "T-Bone" make his way to the plate, give a smile to the girl announcing him, confidently he swaggers into the batters box and with all eyes watching, he calls his shot. Oh no he di ent! Oh yes he did. Like the Babe of old; right hand on the bat, peacefully resting it on his right shoulder, and like mighty Zeus himself, summoning lightning from the sky, he slowly raises his left hand and points high in the sky toward left center. It didn't quite end that way and I didn't want the day to end either. I can't wait till next year. Second to "T-Bone" calling his shot, was the hard core catcher who paced back and forth behind the plate yelling over and over, "let's get rrrrrrreal ruff!" God knows, I love this stuff.

Not quite getting my fair share of baseball, I managed to get to PNC Park in Pittsburgh for the night game between the Pirates and Kansas City Royals. The weather was perfect and the Pirates stole the show. The park is beautiful and the crowd was filled with excitement. The view of the city as beautiful during the day as it was during the night.

While I am a people person, sometimes it's hard to focus on the game when the crowd is so full of characters. Unless you're watching York play, then all the characters are on the field.

Get out and support your local team.

Barneywood

In typical "Dash Fashion", Thursday found me at an "exclusively", "private" golf course, in Roaring Springs,PA.  The club house was so spectacular, that pictures would NEVER do it justice. We had the entire place to ourselves, minus our escorts. The property was originally purchased to build a manufacturing plant on. The owner fell so in love with the property, he couldn't bring himself to do it.It's now a stunning golf course. You can NOT buy your way on to play, it's invitation only.  WOW, can't wait to get there again. Barney is an amazing man. Nuff said.

Car Gazing

I went to visit a family friend in Indianapolis and he gave me the grand tour if his Man Cavern. An impressive collection as well as an impressive cavern. The amazing cars and cavern are second only to the elaborate security system. Scanning lasers are only the beginning. While I can't go into extreme detail, I can say, pick another garage, ANY other garage.

Not pictured here is "Regis", the last car driven by my father." Regis", as my father affectionately referred to his red Olds, lives just as comfortably in the other garage, with the other 3 cars that were not to be photographed. 
   The black car in the above photo is a Russian car. The last time my father was driving in this car, the gear shift came completely out while driving. It was said, my father laughed so hard, they thought he was never gonna make it. He called me at the end of that road trip and told me he had the time of his life. It's good to have an end to your journey, but in the end, it's all about the journey.
Love you and miss you POP.

One More For The Road

At first glance, you might not recognise it, after all, some things are not always as they appear from a distance. While it my look like a Roy Lichtenstein original, http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/,
it's not. And although Andy Warhol, www.warhol.org, would smile upon this one, it's way too cool for even him. The sheer novelty of this one makes me tip my cap. Functional art for the common masses!

What's truly priceless about this one was the small Tupperware container on the center of the dash board. It was half full of bottle caps as though it were in lieu of a touch up marker.

OH the Hu-Manatee

Monday found me perusing the marina in Michigan City,Indiana. As it was not the weekend the crowds were nowhere in sight. I did have some fun with a few tourists that were fishing in the marina. I cautioned them to neither foul hook nor feed the manatee. It caused quite the chatter from dock to dock.

What would a visit to Lake Michigan be without taking a plunge? After convincing my cohort to go for a swim, we did just that. The water was surprisingly warm. It wasn't long before I heard the faint shrill of a life guards whistle. It wasn't until that moment I realised it wasn't the swim limit buoy I had reached, it was in fact an indicator that I was entering the shipping channel. I can't help it that I'm a good swimmer. As my pal KJ says,"you ain't at the beach if you ain't getting yelled at."

Finding a suitable place to watch the Celtic's game turned out to yield quite the hidden treasure.

ShoreLine Restaurant & Brewery - Michigan City, IN

Giant screen T.V.? CHECK! Ice cold micro brew? CHECK! And then the menu arrived.
http://www.shorelinebrewery.com/index.php?page=menu
Take a look for yourself. On the menu that night was pork osso buco. When I asked the waitress what was up with that, she told me I probably didn't want that because it takes so long to cook. "Ah, tell me more." My curiosity peaked and my taste buds teased, I had to try it. I must admit, I was just starting to curl my upper lip, kinda like Elvis, when I saw the steak knife on my plate, but when I pulled at the monster hunk of pig leg with my fork, a smiled washed over my face like I just flipped over to the cool side of my pillow. Absolutely top notch! Super delicious. as a matter of fact,it actually taste a bit like manatee. (To far? you know I'm just jokeing)

Cupid and the Lunch Lady

     When I was in High School, I liked the lunch lady. I smiled extra wide and perhaps even batted my eye lashes a bit too. As a healthy, athletic 17 year old, I had an apatite that would seem endless at times. As I made my way through the lunch line, I smiled, said my "yes please" and my "thank you mam", and by the time I got to the cashier, there was always something different about my tray. For some reason, the light I stood in seemed to make the scoop of mash potatoes on everyone else's plate appear dainty. My cheese burgers looked as though they were triples! My plates of spaghetti made my plate disappear under the sheer weight. I liked the lunch lady and she liked me. She new I loved vanilla cake with white icing and on the days it was dessert, my slice of cake would always be retrieved from under the counter on the lunch lady's side. She would stoop down and arise with a plate that looked as though it was intended for 4.
     It appears that the tradition continues. The lunch lady at the high school loves my dog, "Cupid".  It is safe to say that Cupid loves her. Mirna, the lunch lady has come to adopt Cupid as part of her family. Day after day, Cupid looks out the window, always in anticipation of Mirna coming to visit with treats.  You can always tell when Mirna has stopped by when no one is home. There is always a neat little pile of dog treats, arranged in a smiley face pattern or clover leaf, just outside the back door. On the other side of the glass door is Cupid, laying in wait for the door to open and the opportunity to reap the rewards of fulfilling her name sake.