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October 31, 2010
October 13, 2010
October 10, 2010 - 1 of 31: Tailgating at The Buffalo Bills Ralph Wilson Stadium
Today we began our quest to tailgate at all 31 Stadiums in the NFL. Fittingly we started in Buffalo where we should be fans because they are the only team that actually plays in New York.
Well, that was fun! I mean deep, deep fun. 70,000 really nice people cooking, eating, drinking and sharing. The fans were devoted, appropriately dressed in red and blue, extreme, proud and gourmet cooks to boot.
For RVers one stadium parking lot opens up up at 8:00 AM the day before the game and you can stay parked there until the afternoon of the day after the game($50.00 for the whole time) By mid-afternoon on Saturday before Sunday’s game we were in wall-to-wall campers, barbecue grills, costumed dogs and friendly fabulous fans.
One party on Sunday, Kenny’s Tail Gate Party was an unbelievable event thrown by the Bill’s #1 Fan, Kenny Johnson, or Pinto Man, Pinto Kenny... He parks his Ford Pinto in Lot 1 and grills food directly on the hood of his car. His cookware is far from ordinary. An army helmet is used to deep fry chicken wings, bacon is grilled on an old saw, Pizza is cooked in a file cabinet and pancakes are made on a shovel. Hubcaps, paint roller trays, and garden shears play an important part in his cuisine prep. Cooking is also done inside an old mailbox.
I hope our experience counts as REAL Buffalo Bills Tailgating because the weather was absolutely beautiful. From watching Bills’ games on TV we are well aware that Buffalo can have some of the worst weather in the country. (In fact the Jets game last week was played in a biblical downpour) The Buffalo fans are amazing... and sadly so devastated when their team lost to the Jaguars.
Some tasty items we enjoyed as we wondered around the parking lots:
Grilled Redskins: (From DC, I gotta like the name) To see the picture is to know the recipe. OK, OK, slice a redskin potato, slather it with butter, sprinkle with seasoned salt , wrap in tinfoil and cook on grill until done.
Terry’s Chicken Wings aka The Harrisburg Specials: The best chicken wings I have ever tasted... Terry barbecued them with a sauce of ketchup, honey, apple cider vinegar, pepper, cumin, Worcestershire sauce and 1 can Goya adobe peppers
Kielbasa steeped in beer, sliced and served with honey mustard for dipping.
Adele’s Kahlúa Shooters: Instant chocolate pudding and Kahlúa. We’ll be making these soon.
We have posted 155 photographs of the Tailgating Party of the 1000 we took. Except for the people who were there that is far too many for anyone to look at. Click here for all 155 captioned photos,
For the rest of you here are 23 pictures for you to see. They include the hood of Kenny’s pinto, another shirtless Canadian (really great guy), the effigy burning of former Bill’s QB, Trent Edwards and the bowling ball from which some drink shots.
This is a cool movie of the burning of an effigy of former Bills QB, Trent Edwards.
We will be in the Buffalo area for another week or so. If anyone has suggestions for great things to do or eat we would love to hear from you.
September 04, 2010
News and Flashbacks About the Dog(s)
We’ve been visiting friends in and around New York City for the past week or so, and it’s been great. Mussels with Harriet, breakfast with Sukey, hanging with Jay at Playground Pups, where he will soon be working, checking in with Shio and her family, seeing all our old friends from 219 and having pizza with Karin, Benjamin, Aviva and Allan...
Besides all the good food and wine we had one other mission to accomplish and that was to take Newton and Frida’s ashes to their favorite spot and return them to the earth and water.
We had been keeping Newton’s ashes for almost 5 years. Frida left us in January of this year; before the 54” of snow in DC. With Sully and our friend Leah we returned to the park for a quiet moment. Leah lightened the mood considerably when she said, “Look, Frida’s ashes are so much whiter than Newton’s.”
For the first time, we have only one dog.
That dog is Sully! Do you think we spoil him? Do you think he is getting enough attention? Sully in Margaritaville.
August 04, 2010
Key Lime Pie in Annapolis (an update)
We met Bernie’s parents for lunch today at Posser’s Dockside Restaurant in Annapolis. Bernie and his dad described their crabcakes as excellent and my crab Quesadilla was filled with beautiful back-fin lump crabmeat. Bernie ordered Key Lime Pie for dessert. Here is what it looked like. Beautiful, but any taste of any kind of lime was missing in all the action. Still, good company, a lovely setting, lots of yachts about and Big Tuna at a table behind us.
July 30, 2010
Breakfast in Key West
The bakery down on MacArthur Blvd. had key lime tarts in its showcase the other morning. At first I was tempted, but than I saw that it had quite a thick crust made of something I was unable to identify and the case it was in didn’t feel very cold. And what was up with the mint leaf? I resisted.
Ahhh, but then I came home (the camper) and started looking at my breakfast pictures from our time in Key West. Yes, there were a few late morning beers and a little fruit flavored vodka in there. Does that really count if they were consumed after 10 AM? And it was only a few mornings out of the 50+ days we could not bring ourselves to leave the place.
Mostly, for me it was the quest for the best key lime pie I could find...and eat it. All of it. There is a reason there are no clear pictures of me in this little slide show. Key LIme PIe and Baby's Coffee in Key West
Six ways I do NOT like Key Lime Pie served to me:
- Sitting in a pool of melted bittersweet chocolate and a few under-ripe sliced strawberries on the side
- With strawberry syrple splashed over the top
- With any fruit coulis of my choice
- Chocolate cookie crust NEVER
- Room temperature (A whole paper could be written to describe the correct temperature at which to serve Key Lime Pie)
- Slathered in homemade whipped cream
This was the postcard for sale with the classic recipe on it. The key (ha ha) is the condensed milk...any thing that even hints of a healthy substitution will be doomed to failure.
While we loved the Incorrect meringue version at Salute! as well as everything else we ate there, our favorite was at Fishbusterz’s Shrimp Shack. (And that’s where they served Sully Frosty Paws Ice Cream)
I would be remiss if I did not mention the Key West Key Lime Pie Co. Their product is quite tasty and has just the right amount of whipped cream. Baby’s keeps it in a VERY cold refrigerator and it was delicious. See label picture for ingredients. Don’t ask me why, but it’s awesome!
Finally, searching the internet I found this example of the Worst Case Scenario: Key Lime Pie with Passion Fruit Coulis and Huckleberry Compote with homemade whipped cream. GLOP!
Yummy Sources and Places:
A Dream
A few months back I dreamed I could ride with Calli and we were out galloping where the Pecos River meets the Rio Grande... but I woke up in the Walmart parking lot in Wilson, NC with a lot of ring billed gulls standing around the camper in the rain.
June 12, 2010
Talladega
May 22, 2010
Update for March and April
Finally leaving DC, we spent the first glorious week of March out of the snow and freezing weather right on the beach at Emerald Isle, North Carolina. Sully hadn't noticed yet that Frida was no longer with us (She left us for the Great Central Park in the sky in January). The first morning I stepped out of the camper there was a bluebird on the dune fence right outside our door. Inspired by the great turnout of birds at our DC Blizzard campsite, we set up feeding for the local birds. Emerald Isle
Headed for Miami very slowly, we stayed at Huntington Beach State Park, South Carolina. Great campground; the ocean on one side and a wildlife preserve and the Huntington Mansion on the inland side. The sculpture garden around the mansion was huge and lovely... with a very strong emphasis on naked boys hunting, riding, dancing and prancing. Tour a fun garden
After the gardens we traveled slightly more south to the Apple Store in Charleston and bought another 21" iMac, so now we both have one. It has taken me longer that I would have liked to become efficient with the new operating system and programs. Especially shifting between Aperture and Photoshop. Who cares if I can't use them? The two of them look so cool back in our workroom!
The Eisenhower Commission had a lot of work for Bernie, so instead of heading on to Miami we stayed near St. Augustine next to I-95 in the pouring rain for several days.
When his work slowed down a little we continued south to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida for five days (Yes, even Bernie likes the big cool birds and gators). The first night was spent reasonably close-by at the Walmart in Coco Beach; but then we found we could overnight on a causeway leading to a bridge under reconstruction near Titusville - much closer. We parked right on a little beach. There were lots of kite-surfers and birds to watch while we sipped our cocktails. The solar panels had generated plenty of electricity for an evening of TV watching and using our computers. Yes, we were energy independent! At least for those nights... very encouraging. We drove the long Black Point Loop 5 different times, twice with park guides. It was that good. Check it out
And this will be the third place you can learn my new email address.
pegcallihan@gmail.com
March 20, 2010
November 30, 2009
Leaving New York
Sometime last July we were returning home to New York City on the New Jersey Turnpike and we started to talk about what we would miss most about the City. The first thing we both said was walking the dogs in Central Park…but after that we were unable to come up with a single place, event or thing that we would miss the most. We kept coming back to the idea of people. The friends we have made and the feeling of all the interesting lives that swarmed past us every day and everywhere. Walking down a city street in the late afternoon and sensing extra shadows cast by people who once lived and worked there. A world full of people unseen and anonymous… as we have been.
All went well and we drove north up Broadway and left the city via the George Washington Bridge by noon. However, before the departure we spent three nights parked in front of Starbucks camping out and sleeping in the motorhome. Lots of friends and neighbors stopped by to visit and say good-bye. It was fun and sad at the same time. Each night we would sit in the dark and watch the people pass by outside our window and drink red wine. Halloween night was especially entertaining… until about two am when the drunken yellers left the closing bars. They can be pretty noisy.
Our original plan had been to head down to Cape May, New Jersey for a few weeks. Get organized in our new home and watch the migrating birds until journeying on to DC for the Thanksgiving holidays. A strange quirk of fate took place. The Eisenhower Memorial Commission for whom both of us and now just Bernie have worked for years decided that they needed Bernie to work for them night and day for a while. How long we do not know…but until a few days ago we have been parked on the hill in front of our daughter’s or at the Medieval Library where we sometimes work. A few days ago we moved to a campground near the University of Maryland and the subway where we could open up our slide-outs and have our full living space.
