Daily Archives: June 22, 2012

Cabin Cooking Tips

Tip 1: Get some corn-on-the-cob and a large pot for which you have a tight fitting top. Husk the corn while you boil a large amount of water in the pot (salted if you like, for flavor). Put the corn-on-the-cob in the water and leave the heat on only for a minute, put the top on and turn off the heat. Since there is no more boiling the corn will not likely overcook. In ten minutes or so it will be ready, but it will sit there in the hot water for a long time (did you remember to keep the to on?) as long as you keep the top on.

Variation: If you have a smallish pot, microwave the corn for a few minutes before you put it in the boiling water. You’ll get less long term holding because there is less heated mass.

Tip 2: First, decide if you want to use catchup or ketchup. If you find people objecting to the use of either, call it Umami Sauce. Then, put the Umami sauce and the mustard on the hot dogs BEFORE you grill them. Ketchup, er, I mean, Umami sauce and mustard makes an excellent BBQ sauce. Add any available cooking oil to make more spectacular fire.

Tip 3: The main use of inexpensive bottled beer is to manage the above mentioned fire. Acquire long-necked bottled beer. Hold with fingers around neck, thumb over opening. Shake lightly and using thumb to regulate flow, the beer bottle now becomes an effective and tasty fire extinguisher. As the amount of beer goes down more shaking will be needed. When it is mostly gone feed it to the dog and get another one.

Tip 4: You probably don’t really want to feed that to the dog.


More “Notes from the North Country” here

Photograph by Amanda Laden, used with permission.

Art Imitates a Video Game

I’ve been watching old World War II era movies lately. I just watched The Last Escape starring Stewart Whitman and a cast of dozens. The plot: A British unit (sort of) led by an American is trying to sneak a German rocket scientist out of Germany as Russian units move into the area. It turns out the Russians are also after the rocket scientist and his colleagues.

There are two things about the movie that were interesting, one of which anyone will understand, the other for a select audience.

The first thing: Most of the scenes were of the English and American soldiers and the Germans that were with them. In these scenes everyone spoke English. But there were extensive scenes with the Germans, with lots of activity and conversation, and those scenes were all in German. And there were a few scenes with the Russians with dialog and action, and those were all in Russian.

There were no subtitles. You kinda had to know all three languages.

The second thing: Near the end of the movie is all became a chase scene with large strange looking trucks, tanks, and guys on foot with bazookas. And it looked exactly like one or two of the challenges in Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues