Caption Contest

I want to invite you to partisipate in my first Caption Contest for Rackafracka. You are my family and I need your support. I'm trying to spread the word about my comic and get readers to interact with Rackafracka. You can go to my webpage for all the details, but I'm looking to you to share this contest with your friends so that I can spread the joy of Rackafracka to the world. Its as simple as posting a link on facebook or emailing your favorite cartoon to a friend.

Please add your caption to the mix on this contest too. I'm not picking the winners. Voters are, so the more people included in this the better. Cassi Piper has already submitted 3 captions. I look forward to your thoughts on the caption.

I shared this video on my facebook page, but I don't think anyone in the family saw it. It's a video poking fun at the recent Muslim boycotts of Israel in Europe. Amazing stuff. Your dad is alive because a Jew invented the stent, which the doctor installed after my heart attack. Check out the other things they've invented. Reminds me of Genesis 12:1-2, God's promise to Abraham that his children will be a blessing to all the people of the world. This true two times over: through the coming of Jesus the Messiah to save us for all eternity and in the inventions of the Jewish people that make our earthly life easier this side of the grave. Amazing stuff. Enjoy. Dad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saeky9I5T9c

Video from Woody Roland, Bing's friend

My friend Woody Roland shared the video below on Facebook. Give it a go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZiMlwXU6fQ

Farmer's Market Cucumber Salad

This one is from your moooooother. Simple. Great in summer after a trip to the Farmers' Market:

One part cucumber, sliced and peeled
One part tomato, sliced
One-half part onion, diced
Enough mayonnaise to make a salad.

Mix all together and serve with grilled chicken wings, Iowa sweet corn, baked potatoes and grilled garlic bread. Reminisce about Iowa.

Hey, if you haven't done garlic bread like this your summer Iowa picnic lunch will be a little pale: butter a slice of bread on both sides. Sprinkle garlic powder lightly on both sides. Grill briefly on both sides enough to melt butter and slightly darken the bread but don't over-brown. Moohee.

Em's Crepes with Homemade Blueberry Syrup

Hey, Em, Thanks for your crepe recipe in the Wall Cookbook. We had them this morning and they are awesome. I found them easily by going to Word on my laptop, loading the cookbook and searching for "crepe". It's on page 16. Took a couple of seconds. If any of you don't have a digital copy of the cookbook, let me know and I'll send you one.

Homemade Blueberry Syrup
Blueberries are in season and pretty cheap. We been buying some each week lately and had some older ones that weren't ruined but wouldn't have tasted so hot eating raw. So I cooked them up (about a pint's worth) on the stove on medium heat, added a couple tablespoons of water and sugar and stirred once in awhile and then we added a teaspoon or so of corn starch to thicken it up. Here's how you do that: once the blueberries are boiling you add the teaspoon of corn starch to a tablespoon of or so of water and stir til it makes, what your mother calls, a "slurry". Add the "slurry" to the cooking blueberries and let the juices thicken, a minute or so. You can add more corn starch slurry if the 1 teaspoon isn't enough. When the blueberries are done, start frying up your crepes and serve with your warm blueberry syrup. Hard to beat. We served this with Emilie's crepes and they were soooo good. We also fried up some ham and a couple of eggs. Oh, yeah. You can also do this same technique with apples, strawberries and raspberries.

This is your faaaather.

Chicken Wings as per Marty's Request

Hey, Marty, here's the recipe for chicken wings the way we made them all those years when you were growing up. We had two main recipes:

On the Grill:
You can grill them on medium heat (spray the grill with Pam first) with my medium spice on all sides (coat with olive oil first so the spice will stick). Grill 5 minutes on one side and then turn. Coat the top of the wings with your favorite BBQ sauce (I add several tablespoons of Cookie's Hot Wing Sauce to whatever BBQ sauce I have on hand to kick it up) to the exposed side and after 5 minutes turn again and grill on both sides for two minutes to caramelize the sauce.

Here's the traditional oven recipe:
3 pounds chicken wings, thawed and cut into pieces. Discard the little tiny wing thingies.
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon Bing's Medium spice
vegetable oil in your favorite skillet between 1/8 and 1/4 inch deep on medium heat

Directions:
Put oil in skillet and turn on high heat until it warms up. Then reduce to medium. Turn on oven to 350. Rinse the wings in cold water. Mix the flour and spices together in a cereal bowl. Dredge the wings one at a time in the flour-spice mixture until coated. Place the coated wing in the heated oil skillet and do the next wing until all wings are dredged. Fry wings 2 minutes a side, careful not to burn them. When fried on both sides, add wings to a cake pan. Continue frying until all the wings are fried on both sides. Put the cake pan with the wings in the oven one layer thick (i.e. not on top of each other.). Turn after 10 minutes. After 20 minutes coat wings with your favorite BBQ sauce (I add a couple of tablespoons of Cooikies Hot Wing sauce to regular BBQ sauce). Stick under broiler in oven for a few minutes to caramelize the sauce. Turn and caramelize the other side. Serve immediately.

Misc:
-3 pounds of wings will feed 4 people. For a crowd of males and females I figure 6 per person. If all males 9 per person.
-You can buy frozen wings at the grocery store already cut into the little pieces. This saves some work and they are often the same price or less than buying fresh from the meat market.
-If you buy frozen wings take out of the freezer the number you want the day before and put them in the fridge. They'll be mostly thawed by the time you are ready 24 hours later.
-Don't make these wings unless you want people to rave and oooh and awwwww at your miraculous ability.

These Boots Are Made For Walking!

By special request from Grandma, here is the video of Alyas in the family cowboy boots!

Mock Chow Mein

In all the editions of our family cookbook, I'm amazed that Mock Chow Mein never made it yet! It's been a family staple that Mary Sue made for me right from the get-go in Mrs. Murphy's little upstairs apartment in Highland Park. It may have been the first meal she made me? I loved it. It's one of her favorites, too. She got it from her Grandma Pearl, so if you prepare it, that goes back 4 generations. Anyway, I go to make it this morning, so we'll have lunches this week and look in our family cookbook and it's not there! YIKES! So here it is:

1 pound of hamburger crumble and fried (cook on medium heat and be careful not to burn it)
1/2 cup chopped celery (2 stalks is fine)
1/2 cup onions chopped (Crap. This is optional I suppose.)
1 can mushroom soup
1 mushroom soup can full of uncooked regular rice (Instant or regular. Instant takes 5 minutes and is your mother's preference cuz it's quick. Regular rice takes 20 minutes and is my preference because to me it tastes fuller. If you use instant rice use 1/2 the water.)
2 1/2 mushroom cans of water (with regular rice)
1/4 cup soy sauce (lite is fine)
1 teaspoon pepper

Directions:
While your hamburger is frying up, chop up the onions and celery. When the hamburger is half done, push the hamburger aside in the pan and add the celery and onions and continue to fry them til they are tender, a few minutes. Mix all the above ingredients together and lower the heat and simmer until the rice is done. If it gets too dry as the rice cooks, add more water.

Serve:
With chow mein noodles (Sticks, to the uninitiated!) and soy sauce so each person can add enough to their taste preference.

Variation:
You can use cream of celery soup instead of mushroom soup if you prefer. Today I used cream of celery soup cuz I was out of cream of mushroom.

When eating this meal, remember your mother.

Let me know if you try this staple of the Wall Clan.

Crock Pot Beef Roast

Here's what we discussed on the phone:

1 teaspoon Better Than Bullion Beef flavored
2 cups hot water (from tap is fine)
1 package of dry onion soup mix
2 pound roast

Mix the Better Than Bullion in the hot water to dissolve and the pour into the crock pot and stir in the dry onion soup mix. Once mixed up well, add your roast and turn to coat roast with seasonings of your onion soup- beef bullion mix. Cook covered for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low until the meat breaks apart easily with a fork.

Serve with mashed potatoes and gravy
Or add cut up potatoes, carrots and onions and cook with the roast for last hour until tender.
Or make beef stroganoff (see below)

Mashed potatoes:
Peal 4 medium sized potatoes. Cut into one inch chunks. Boil in hot water for 20-30 minutes until tender. Remove the water and add 1/4 cup milk and 2 tablespoons butter and salt and pepper to taste. Mash together with a masher on top of the stove with heat on low. Serve immediately.

Gravy:
Remove the roast from the crock pot and set aside. Pour the liquid from the crock pot through a strainer to remove the onions (This is for Marty only! The removal of onions pains my heart!). Set aside. Add 2 tablespoons flour to 1 cup cold water and stir thoroughly together. Add to a frying pan on medium heat and heat to a boil, stirring and adding the liquid from the crock pot. Boil this together for several minutes until it thickens. If it doesn't thicken you'll need to add a little more flour.

Lunches: With a 2 pound roast and 4 potatoes you should be able to get 4 meals. After eating the first meal, divide mashed potatoes, meat and gravy into 3 separate containers and store in fridge. Be sure to let cool before you put the lid on tightly to keep bacteria from growing (yuck!). You can open a can of corn and divide it up between the various containers also for a little variety. You can also serve it with a piece of bread. Bread and gravy are great.

Beef Stroganoff Variation:

After making the gravy remove from heat and add 1/2 cup sour cream and stir to mix together. Serve immiately over cooked macaroni or noodles instead of mashed potatoes. Yum.

(Marty, if you buy noodles or macaroni or other pasta, follow the directions on the package.)

Optional: add a can of mushroom pieces to the stroganoff. You can also serve with Chow Mein Noodles (what we used to call "sticks" back in Fort Dodge!).

Let me know how it turns out.

Dad