Oh, Those Eagles

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My Packers didn’t play well last weekend. They just weren’t quite on the ball (no pun intended). And here they go, coming up on a Monday Night Game against the defending Super Bowl champions. Oh, my.

I’m sure Coach LeFleur is preparing the team as he does best. The receiving corps will work on filling the hole left by Tucker Kraft’s injury (sob), and Jordan Love will be perfecting his pass precision.

The ordinary fans at my house ate the opponent with a classic: Philly cheese steak on a sub bun. Here’s a look at it:

Yum!

We stopped at the deli to pick up thin sliced beef and cheese. The white cheddar was out, so we chose provolone. It worked. Onions and green peppers we already had in our pantry, and the neighborhood sub shop sells their day old bread for next to nothing. Pile them all together (well, it’s not quite that simple, but almost) and Chuck presented the family with his version of a Philly cheese steak sandwich. And yes, it was delicious.

He served it with a side dish of roasted potatoes from the air fryer and my homemade applesauce with peach added. A great combination! We’re ready for Monday night. Are the Packers ready? We can only hope.

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Eating the Opponent and the Halloween Candy

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Chuck made Bog Rice with chicken and sausage for Eating the Opponent: Carolina Panthers. It’s a recipe we found that fits the region and incorporates ingredients we already have in the house. Oh, and it’s delicious, too. Go! Pack! Go!

I had a brief moment of panic thinking we’d have to devour all the Halloween candy ourselves. The front porch light and the doorbell both gave out tonight within minutes of each other. Is the front porch haunted? Well, Chuck found a suitable battery for the doorbell – not the exact size needed, but close enough that it worked. He replaced the light bulb on the porch and then announced that we were out, completely out, of light bulbs now. I sense a trip to Home Depot or Ace Hardware coming up soon.

On a more positive note, all three of us received our Covid19 boosters today at the pharmacy. The pharmacist was quick and she was good. We hardly felt a thing. We’re all up to date with flu and Covid vaccines. (Take that, conspiracy theorists. We’re vaccinated.)

So there you have it, folks. Bog Rice, Halloween candy, a new light bulb and doorbell battery. That’s all the news from the O.K. Chorale.

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Pittsburgh Steelers ahead!

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This game is a bigger deal than it appears. Aaron Rodgers, he who quarterbacked the Packers to Super Bowl XLV, is now a Steeler. This guy has a history; he has defeated very team in the NFL except Green Bay.

Green Bay, on the other hand, has defeated Pittsburgh a few times, most notably (and ironically?) in Super Bowl XLV. However, the Packers haven’t won in Pittsburgh since (gulp) Bart Starr was quarterback. Yikes.

So here at the O.K. Chorale, we’re taking our superstitious responsibility seriously this week. Eating the Opponent: Pittsburgh – bring it on!

Pierogies, of course. Not racing around the baseball diamond like the Famous Racing Sausages (hey, Pirates, we haven’t forgotten you), but pan fried and delicious.

Pan Fried Pierogies

With a little research, we found the Chip Chop Ham Sandwich. Thin sliced ham with barbecue sauce on a soft toasted bun. Delicious!

Simple and yummy.

Did you know that Pittsburgh claims to be the home of the Big Mac? We’re going to try it at home tonight. Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun! I have all but the buns in my kitchen right now.

To continue Eating the Opponent: Pittsburgh, I’ll pick up sesame seed buns, and my favorite Pittsburgh product: Klondike Bars.

If we have anything to do with it, the Steelers don’t stand a chance. Sorry (not sorry), Aaron.

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Daisy Attends the No Kings Event

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Wow.

That’s my reaction, much like others who were there. Wow! Enthusiastic, excited, loud when it counted (Hey hey; ho ho; Donald Trump has got to go!), and yet – peaceful. An estimated 4000 people gathered downtown in my small city to protest the current administration.

Signs included the basic No Kings, of course, and other standards, but many were more creative.

  • Keep the immigrants; Deport the racists
  • Free Press in a Free Country
  • No Kings; No Fuhrers
  • RIP Rule of Law
  • So much Wrong; So Little Cardboard
  • I’m Not Paid; I Hate Trump for Free 
  • I Like My Democracy Neat: No ICE
  • Protest is Patriotic

There were inflatable costumes, of course, too. I saw a T-Rex, a frog or two, a pig, an alien, a unicorn, Patrick Star and Squidward from Spongebob Squarepants, and that’s just on one side of one block.

I didn’t bring a sign or wear a costume. I wore my tee shirt that says Stars and Stripes and Reproductive Rights and kept one of Amigo’s cowbells hanging from my purse strap.

So, readers, that’s a microcosm of the No Kings protest in my admittedly conservative city. Nationally, the turnout was close to 7 million. Saturday’s No Kings event gives me hope.

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Enchiladas from Home

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Sorry, folks. No picture. We did, however, get back into the routine of Eating the Opponent this week. The Packers play the Arizona Cardinals, so I brought out my binder and let Chuck (chief cook at our house) take a look. He almost chose a chicken dish, and then decided to shift gears and go with enchiladas.

He seasoned the ground beef with my home-grown green onions and jalapeno peppers. My hot peppers are still growing, thanks to climate change. After wrapping up the enchiladas and placing them in the pan, he poured my homemade and home canned enchilada sauce over them. This enchilada sauce is yet another way to use tomatoes and stock the pantry shelves. The grated cheese, of course, included good Wisconsin varieties: mozzarella and cheddar.

No picture (I forgot, oops), but the enchiladas were delicious. Even though Chuck cooked them, I had a hand in the process with my home grown ingredients and made from scratch sauce.

Go! Pack! Go!

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Guerrilla Gardening or Scavenging Squirrels

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Ah, guerrilla gardening. Not gorilla, the animal, but planting and growing in a surprising and sneaky manner. Guerrilla gardening takes a name from guerrilla warfare, also surprising and sneaky.

I was pulling out weeds, mostly burdock, when I yanked on one that wouldn’t come out from the ground next to a walkway board.

It’s not burdock.

Burdock? Nope. Kale? Nope. Either way, I did not plant anything here. The board is old and rotting, so if I’d dropped a random seed in it, something may have come up. But this? This is more than an accidentally dropped seed.

Surprise! It’s turnips.

I definitely didn’t plant turnips here. I blame the squirrels or chipmunks, those tricky little furballs. Some tiny critter moved seeds or ate seeds and pooped them into this cozy little spot. And they grew. Grew and grew and grew.

I enlisted Chuck’s help with a crowbar and harvested the surprising batch of turnips. They became part of a stew later on.

Despite the weeds taking over most of the garden (courtesy of our late June early July vacation), we didn’t get to harvest much this season. But turnips? Turnips are tough. I pulled up quite a few, including the random guerrilla-planted turnips under the board.

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Taking Action in our World

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Sometimes, and this is one of those times, the world seems impossible. Scary. Up to No Good. Frightening. Hopeless, even.

I feel less hopeless (yeah, I know, that’s a double negative) if I can take action. Individual actions, no matter how small, add up to a larger total. That drop in a bucket? Add enough drops and the bucket will fill.

I signed up for our local No Kings demonstration on October 18. I have a plan. Chuck will drop me off, or I’ll park in a downtown parking structure. I don’t mind paying for parking; it’s a contribution to our vibrant downtown.

I’ll wear one of my activist tee shirts, weather permitting. I’m leaning toward “Stars and Stripes and Reproductive Rights.” If the weather is cooler, my “Teach Peace” hoodie will be appropriate. If it snows (I know, I know, it’s October, but Wisconsin…) I will put my new jacket from Denali National Park to good use. It’s Denali, you idiot, not McKinley.

There’s a sign-making workshop ahead of the demonstration. I may or may not go. My attire will make a statement.

Meanwhile, I keep focusing on basics like canning and preserving goodies from the farm stands, and preparing the garden for next season while picking the last of the cherry tomatoes and jalapeno peppers.

Readers, how do you stay sane in an insane world?

 

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Eating the Opponent: Dallas

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I looked through my binder for Eating the Opponent, and we had a few recipes that worked for the Dallas Cowboys. Cowboy beans, for example, the dish we call Calico Beans outside of the NFL season, is easy to cook. Amigo reminded us that Papa Murphy’s Take and Bake Pizza has a Cowboy Pizza, too. Then Chuck remembered that he had made Texas Chili in the crock pot, and it was delicious.

And then we went out to lunch for our Fun Day Friday and found this on the menu.

Cowboy Chicken Sandwich

We made cider that afternoon, so Texas Chili in the crock pot was the perfect solution. Go! Pack! Go!

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Eating the Opponent: Cleveland

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“Eating” the Cleveland Browns wasn’t easy. Cleveland, dear readers, has a lot in common with Milwaukee. My Internet searches found references to Lake Erie perch or cod. Would a Lake Michigan fish fry count? It’s Great Lakes fish. Pierogies and polska kielbasa were options, too. I found terrific pierogies at a Polish deli in Milwaukee when I was bunny-sitting for La Petite. I’m certain we have a polska kielbasa in ring bologna form in our freezer.

Then we found the Polish Boy sandwich. Polish sausage, with coleslaw and French fries piled on it, topped with barbecue sauce. Nope. This pile of foodstuffs, no matter how yummy, wasn’t going to cut it in our house.

We cut down the Polish Boy to a simple Polish sausage on a bun with pierogies on the side. We got our pierogies from the grocery store because we weren’t going to be in Milwaukee this week. Added a fresh peach from the farm stand, and that was supper.

We made an effort, Packers. Jordan Love and company will need to do the rest. Go! Pack! Go!

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Herb Garden in a Cooler

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We have a local chapter of the Buy Nothing Project, and I love it. I’ve given things away, and I’ve gotten some awesome items as well. Here’s one of my favorites. Someone posted the cooler, explained that they could no longer use it, and I shared the picture with Chuck. “Wouldn’t this make a great planter? Maybe herbs on the deck, right outside the kitchen door?”

Long story short, we expressed interest, the donor said yes, and we picked it up on our way home from Fun Day Friday lunch. The donor apologized for not cleaning it out, and when I explained how we planned to use it, she was relieved.

The fun piece of trivia: the donor is a tennis coach at the small college downtown, my alma mater.

Cooler turned Herb Garden

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