akaShag

Repent, ye sinners! And use not the cream of mushroom soup, but seek goodness in milk and flour. If I am making up a casserole to send to somebody who is sick, old, feeble, bereaved, etc, I line the bottom of the (aluminum) baking pan with thick-sliced ham, or chunks of ham from my home-canned stuff, then build the scalloped potatoes on top. Ham and scalloped potatoes in one dish, and tasty too. I do cut down on the salt I put into the potatoes if I have ham in the pan. Old Ironmaker, your method is the same as my Mom's, with the sprinkled flour on each layer. I prefer my method though.

Yes absolutely you need flour. Personally I do NOT follow my Mom's recipe, I put the sliced potatoes and onions in a greased baking dish, with seasoning salt on each layer, sometimes with some grated cheese, but usually not, and a few extra pats of butter here and there, then I take about 2 cups of milk, heat in the microwave until it is almost boiling, whisk in about 3 tbsp or so of flour, pour it on the potatoes, grate fresh ground pepper over it all, COVER IT, and bake it at 350 for about an hour or until it looks done and I can put a fork easily through the potatoes. Cover stays off, under the broiler for a minute or so just to brown it up a bit, let it sit about five minutes, and serve

Use much more milk than the recipe calls for (about half again as much), cook them longer, and most importantly COVER THEM until they are cooked, then under the broiler for only a minute or two. Your Mom will be proud of you. Doug

The pucks are just sawdust and epoxy, right?

At that price I would have bought twenty pounds! It looks reasonably lean too. Doug

Sausages are of two main types: fresh and prepared. (I am summarizing hugely here) Fresh sausages you take fresh meat, add your chosen spices, and maybe a binder, and put it into your casings. When you want to eat those sausages you have to cook them. Prepared sausages you take fresh meat, add your chosen spices, probably a binder, definitely a cure, generally put it into casings,and then "IN GENERAL" cook or smoke it to a given internal temperature then let it cool. Your pepperoni, salami, summer sausage, etc etc needs no further cooking, just slice it and eat it. I like working with collagen casings, they are much more forgiving than natural hog or lamb casings (made from intestines). Collagen casings also come in standard lengths, fit easier on the sausage stuffer tube and don't generally tear as much or as often. And personally, I find no difference in the taste. I am aware that there are many other views on this. Doug

I have only cooked back ribs. I have seen side ribs for sale in the grocery store but they always looked to have almost no meat on them. If I am going to go to all the hassle of doing up ribs I want to have meaty ones! Doug

and leftover ribs for supper tonight too!

Yes indeed those ribs were good, but I am going to buy a bottle of that rooster sauce and make up spincast's recipe next time! Doug

I wanted to make Spincast's rib recipe but I could not make the mumbojumbo sauce. It being 1 January the grocery stores are closed so I could not get the harikari sauce (Red Rooster) that is an important part of the recipe. So I had to go with "the usual", ribs rubbed with a Carolina rub, in the fridge for a few hours, then slow roasted in the oven. And with no mumbojumbo sauce Diana's Gournet Maple had to do for a glaze. An hour or so on the BBQ at low and indirect heat and they were ready to eat. But I was not a little piggy I just had half a rack: So yeehaw I have leftover ribs for tomorrow. And since wifey is away I also got to take some pictures of the tasty bits! Doug

OK since we are going down memory lane, how about Dick Swan, the guy that invented the noodle rod? I fished with Dick, and John Slade, on the Saugeen one day back in the '80s. John was something of a legend in his own right, but here he was, just hanging off every word that Dick spoke. Afterwards, John said to me, "That guy is the father of salmon fishing." By which he meant Great Lakes salmon of course. In those years, Dick would attend the Toronto Sportsmen's Show for at least a few days (maybe the whole time?) and talk to anybody that wanted to listen about noodle rods for salmon and trout. What a gentleman he was! And yeah, his rods would sure make that Big C.................... Doug

But for table fare, I hear that nothing beats a nice muskie about six or eight pounds!

Try a quart or three of Moosehead draught along with your polenta................

Yes, looking back now I can smile. And my buddy just about had a heart attack he was laughing so hard. But I reckon you could use salmon skein slime in place of syrup of ipecac as an emetic.................I pretty near hurled right then and there.

I was tying roe bags in the back of my camper one time down at the mouth of a well-known Ontario river, and having a few wobbly pops with my buddy. We had enjoyed a good day on the river and were going to catch up on our beauty rest before we hit the water again before daybreak. So we had some PBJ sandwiches for a quick meal, then I noticed some leftover jam on the table and licked it up. It was actually salmon roe slime off some skein. BLEAHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Had to rinse out my mouth with firewater afterwards to get rid of that taste.............. Doug

Digress all you want, I learn a LOT from you and I am very THANKFUL for it. Doug

Spawnee, that was the name I could not recall, and the proprietary rolls of their own material in a rainbow of colours.

A Cardinal 4! I never did get my hands on one of the originals. I did buy a Daiwa "Whisker" reel when they were first imported. The box had only Japanese characters on it, no English or French, and it cost a very princely sum at the time. But what an awesomely smooth drag!!!

The so-called "float reels" were just a new thing when I last drifted a roe bag or Michigan wiggler. Now I hear that practically everybody uses the centr-pins.

Once upon a time, long ago, I was a devoted steelheader. This time of the year I would be up to my jewels in some half-frozen river or river-mouth, trying to find some fresh silver. Then I took up bow-hunting. Then I had three sons, and a very busy career. Then I got older and have a creaky back, knocky knees, etc, and wading the fall waters are probably in my rear view mirror. So I was making some space in the basement for "stuff" and found a box of my old steelhead stuff, including a bunch of yarn, roe bag mesh, one of those roe bag tiers, etc etc. Does anybody still use this stuff? Somewhere I know I have about a thousand Eagle Claw #42 hooks, sizes 6 through 12 or maybe smaller, some Mustad 9555s (If memory serves me), floats, split shot, etc etc. Same question, do steelheaders still tie on hooks, or has the sport metastasized into something I would not recognize if I slipped on my old vest and waders ? Just curious. Stuff like this keeps older men awake at night. Doug

Art, thank YOU for your devoted work here! All the best, Doug

Yes me son, and pour ALL of the grease that you rendered out of them onto the pan of fish and brewis!!!! Enough salt in that dish to season a whole cow. Doug

And there I thought they were called scrunchins. My mother-in-law (from Witless Bay, how hilarious is that!) puts what she calls scrunchins on her fish and brewis. Doug

They look delicious Rick. I have never had good success making meatballs, do you care to share your recipe/how to make them ideas? Doug

How many moose did you have to shoot to feed moose balls to your whole family!?!?