Moose steaks were awesome!

Long story short, the moose steaks were Grrrrreat! Here's what I did. After two days in the marinade, the steaks have to hang for about half an hour to remove excess marinade and come to room temperature. Enough time to slice up an onion, a green pepper, a potato and a carrot. I cooked them in a separate pan. 

 Then I heated the grill to 425 F. I put the first steak on for four minutes. It was done right through and amazingly tender and tasty. I let the second steak cook for only three minutes. It was just a bit pink inside and also very tender.

Next week I will enjoy the other steak, which is also big enough to slice into two steaks. Can't wait!

Moose steaks

 Scott was kind enough to hand me a couple of fresh moose steaks as I was leaving Sudbury today.  The nice moose meat is from his hunting trip this fall. Scott asked me to let him know how the steaks turn out, so I will be pleased to document this wonderful event. I plan to have them this weekend.

 First off, he gave me two massive steaks, which means I will get to will enjoy four normal-sized steaks.When I prepare beef, I marinade it in olive oil, pepsi and steak spice sauce. So that’s what I am doing with the moose steaks. First I pounded them with a tenderizer hammer, then I cut them in two.

I put them in a nice deep dish and poured the marinade on top; half a cup of olive oil, half a cup of Clubhouse marinade, one cup of pepsi, adding garlic, salt and pepper.

They will sit in the fridge for two days.

I will let you know how things turn out.

Christmas 2012 was excellent!

Another perfect Christmas celebration has come and gone. I am grateful for being a part of it. I drove to Jennifer and Scott’s place early Saturday, avoiding the storm that blew up late last week. It was just enough time to finish up the shopping and spend some great time with the boys.

I was just as glad to see that Don and Denise Alexander drove down from Westree, also to be with the family. They are Scott’s parents and they have perfected the art of hospitality. No wonder; Denise is originally from Timmins and Don is from Newfoundland. They can’t go wrong. 

Christine, Dimitrios and Victoria also arrived on Christmas Eve, making everything even nicer.

It was fun to see the boys since they have grown a lot since I saw them last, at Thanksgiving. I usually snap a photo of Vic, Tyler and Nathan every Christmas so it is fun to go back a few years to see how they’ve grown.

 Christmas morning was fun and it took no less than two hours to open all the gifts. I love see how much the kids still get excited by getting up before the adults and rushing to the living room to sneak a peek at the gifts.  I was pleased that Jennifer’s dog and cat, Buddy and Lucky, even managed to buy me a bottle of my favourite whiskey.

 Christmas Day was perfect; mild with a gentle snow fall. It was a nice lazy day (for me anyways). Denise and Jenn kept the kitchen going and we had a fabulous Christmas turkey dinner. We also enjoyed Denise’s clam chowder, with chunks of Atlantic codfish (that Don caught himself), scallops, shrimp, potato-codfish cakes, coconut shrimp, fried ravioli, lasagne roll-ups and mussels. Scott even had an amazingly good moosemeat chili con carne. To top it all off, we all spent the day eating the sweets and pastries made by Jennifer and Denise. Vic even went outside showing off her new Christmas pyjamas. The day got better for me when Neil called from Vancouver. How nice was that? He enjoyed the day with some friends on the west coast. He is working hard as usual, but it was just a perfect part of Christmas day to hear his voice.  We also enjoyed a full ping pong tournament in the garage that took up most of the afternoon and put a good dent in our beer stocks.  Tournament rules said if the other player hit your glass with the ping pong ball, you need to take a drink. Good thing we got some exercise!

Life doesn’t get much better eh?

Priorities ...

Last night, I was thirsty. I figured that a nice cold beer would hit the spot.

I didn’t have any at home. Just water, wine and whisky.

But I didn’t go out to get any beer. Water was fine.

This morning at breakfast, I noticed my groceries were getting a bit low.

No eggs, no bacon, no juice, no bread, no fruit. 

Oh well, it’s not like I’m starving.

Today was going to be a good day to veg out. Just stay home and relax.

Then I realized I had just finished reading a book

I bought three books three weeks ago. I finished the third one at lunchtime.

Hmmm…

I showered, shaved, got dressed and went out … to the book store.

By the way, I gassed up the truck, got some beer and picked up a steak.

It’s going to be a nice evening.

Good news eh ...

Every now and then I get to write a news story I feel really good about. This week it was the rescue of a dog that fell through the thin ice on the Mattagami River. Fellows from the fire department did the rescue.  It felt good to see the little pooch brought back to shore. I was lucky to be nearby to snap some pictures. We put the photos online Tuesday on our website, and on Facebook,  and the response has been amazing. I have to always remember that people like it when there are good news stories. I couldn't help but think how much Tyler and Nathan would have been pleased to see this.

Arse over teakettle!

Today was a nice and relaxing, although overcast, winter day. I slept in. That’s because I got home at about 2:45 a.m. I guess I didn’t realize how much fun I was having last night after the CTV Telethon wrapped up. As I was leaving the party, I stepped outside to see a couple of fellows standing by the back step. One fellow cautioned me to walk carefully. The freezing rain had made things slippery and his buddy had just fallen. Luckily he had a few drinks in him and may have been a bit “relaxed”.
The fellow said his chum had fallen “arse over teakettle” and was still hurting. That got me wondering about where that phrase came from. I knew exactly what it meant. And I was understandably sympathetic for the poor fellow. Seriously, no one wants to fall arse over teakettle. It happened to me last winter when I slipped on some ice. When my head slammed down on the ice, it snapped my jaw upwards; I broke a tooth and paid $600 for dental work!  (See January 30^th 2012 on this blog).

But arse over teakettle is just one of those sayings most people understand. I remember hearing it from my Dad, when I was a kid. There is another saying I remember hearing from my Mom.  She would say: “You kids are running around like (Get this!) A fart in a mitt”. Okay, I have no idea. WHO would fart in a mitt and what the heck does it mean?