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Well today was an
interesting one as I woke up to some 5 inches of snow lying on the ground.
That explained the weird noise I heard during the night which must have
been the snow clearing wagon coming through.
As you know my desk is
situated right next to the kitchen so there has been a really good smell
coming from it all day... the cooking of soup beans!!! Now while I
remember here is the recipe...
You take a large pot and
half fill it with pinto beans. You let them soak for 24 hours.
You then pour out the water and wash them in fresh water and then fill the
pot to the top with water. You then cook them for around 1 hour when
you need to skim the froth from the top. After about 3 hours you
then add one cup of bacon fat and half a cup of lard and then add salt to
taste. Then after another two hours you then add 3 large sweet onions and
1 green pepper. After a further hour add 3 granny smith apples or
equivalent. You then cook for another hour and then let it simmer until
the juice gets real thick.
I'm told here they serve it
with fried potatoes, sauerkraut (German pickled cabbage) and corn bread. A
meal fit for a King! :-)
Today I got to taste a wee
helping on it's own and it was excellent.. tomorrow night we get the full
works! <grin>
I am told there are
variations of this recipe and every family has their own favourite way of
fixing them. So a real cheap meal for families was often gravy and
biscuits for breakfast and soup beans for dinner. Both actually filling
and nutritious as well as being very economical.
We also got into
discussions about what a Redneck and Hillbilly are. Of course I am
likely to get into trouble by revealing what I was told so I figured I
might just keep the opinions to myself for the time being. I am told
that Steve is a genuine Hillbilly and Deb is also but she does say she's
not a "hollar head" :-) On Hillbilly day you all need to wear them
boiler suits... they call them Bib Overalls here.
Laura (Deb's daughter) came
home early from working at Wal-Mart due to the snow and her boyfriend John
also left early where he works at the local cinema. As a result they
popped into see us and ordered up a pizza and I got a wee taste. I
have to say that they are far better here than in Scotland. A much thinner
crust making it much tastier in my opinion. In fact I'll likely have
another one whereas in Scotland I really didn't like them that much.
I've also taken to smoking
Doral cigarettes here from the R J Reynolds company. Now to really cheese
folk off in the UK! They are only $18.00 for a carton of 200!!!
<grin>. I was relating the price in Scotland which was around $56.00
so a mighty saving :-)
Today I got in the new site
search engine software but we are having problems configuring it so
tomorrow we'll read the manual for a change and see if we can't get it to
work. We also had some problems with the new postcard program.
We need PHP installed but the company tells us they couldn't get the
script to run so something seems to be incorrect in the setup so tomorrow
looks like being a busy work day. We might just get to visit
Pikeville which I'm told is now only 30 minutes drive from here.
They have just announced the contract for the remaining part of the four
lane which should be completed by end of 2004. That will make
Pikeville closer in time to here than Williamson and they reckon
Williamson is going to suffer as a result.
And here are a few photos
for you...
The outside of Steve's house with Christmas
lights and a close up of Tiger
Here is the other member of the cat family
"Fatso" and just to prove it really was snowing today!
And Bandit and Dip who took the opportunity to
grab my chair while I was out taking that last photo! |
