Text 14154, 106 rader
Skriven 2008-09-22 09:40:32 av Ruth Haffly (1:396/45.28)
     Kommentar till en text av RUTH HANSCHKA
Ärende: fruit for thought
=========================
Hi Ruth,

-> Ever have a thunderstorm in the middle of a blizzard? We had that, in
-> March of 1980 on the coast of NC. Wierd.

 RH> Every once in a while we'll get thunder in the middle of a snowstorm,
 RH> but not a blizzard.

This storm dumped about 18" of snow on the coast, more inland.

-> -> I know; I was thinking of Steve's future employment prospects.
->  RH> There is that.

-> Yes, because it makes a big differnce in how well we eat.  If we have to
-> live on just his military retirement, it's beans and rice.  If he can
-> pastor a small church (for a small salary), we can occaisionally afford
-> something to go with the beans and rice, like cheese.

 RH> Half pay is about poverty level, IIRC.  With a pastor's salary, you'll
 RH> be able to season the rice.

Actually Steve will get 62.5% of his base pay for staying 26 years. It
goe up 2.5% every year between 20 & 30 to max out at 75%. HIs retirement
check is based on an average of his 3 highest years of pay.  Last night
we were discussing where to have lunch after his retirement ceremony.
It'll be down at Fort Stewart so we'll probably got to.....

Zum Rosenhof where we went for our anniversary.  It's in the town of
Hinesville; a small place with a bar & some tables downstairs and the
kitchen and more seating upstairs.  We stayed downstairs as there was a
large party going on upstairs; shared a table with another military
couple, then a civilian one.

For you folks that went to Blob's Park last year--this redeemed that
experience.  Steve had the sauerbraten with a potato dumpling, some
spaetzle (they fry theirs in butter after boiling it) and red cabbage.
He said the dumpling tasted somewhat of instant potatoes; the bite or so
I had was inconclusive.  He also said the sauerbraten wasn't as tangy as
mine; he's pretty sure there were no gingersnaps in the gravy.  I didn't
get to try any of his meat but it looked tender, not quite fork tender.

OTOH, I went with something that I don't fix at home, a jaegerschnitzel
(hunter's schnitzel).  This was a pork cutlet, pounded to maybe a
quarter of an inch or so thick, breaded, fried and covered with a brown
mushroom gravy.  They were geneous with the mushrooms, not like some
places where you have to hunt for them. The meat covered most ofthe
dinner plate but there was a bit of room left for the spaetzle
(actually, the meat covered about a quarter of them).  I had a side of
red cabbage--brought out in a cereal size bowl so probably about a good
cup and a half or so serving.  It was very good, not super sweet as a
lot of places make it.  There was a good interplay of the sweet & sour.
I took about half my dinner home.

For starters, a cucumber salad was served.  This is mostly lettuce &
cucumber, with some green beans and a milk (sour cream?) dressing.  The
beans tasted like they had come from a can or had been over cooked.
But, that was redeemed by dessert, which we got to go....chocolate
cheese cake.  We were given 2 generous slices, big enough that we were
able to split each into 2 to enjoy a 2nd time. As usual with German
cheese cake, it wasn't super sweet, but dense and delicious.  We had
iced tea for drinks (they accidentally refilled Steve's unsweet with
sweet) but there looked to be a fair selection of beers & wines.  With
tax and tip, it came to a few cents over $51.; the cheese cake was about
$10. of the total.

A bit of a drive but well worth it.  Too bad they're not in Savannah but
maybe it's good they're not or we'd spend more $$ there. (G)


->  RH> That's what I was thinking of.  I watch the Travel channel about once

-> We'll watch it for a bit every now and then but not very often.  If they
-> have a program on HI, we'll try our best to catch it.

 RH> I watch anything that looks interesting.  I hit that program by
 RH> accident.

That's the way we've caught quite a few shows.

->  RH> a year.  Pretty darned funny.  All I could think of was the time Dave
->  RH> fed Leo a chunk of durian...it was about the same look.

-> I only read about that episode; it sounds like the dog couldn't get away
-> from himself.  At this year's picnic, a friend of Janis's daughter tried
-> some of the durian.  Dale or somebody got a couple of great pictures,
-> before and after.  Priceless!

 RH> Gotta love those faces.  I haven't seen the pictures, but I can
 RH> imagine. It was probably something like my first exposure to
 RH> limburger.  I
 RH> eventually developed a tolerance for it, but never really liked it.

I've not had limburger in recent memory but would porbably like it;
after all, it is cheese. (G)


---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly@earthlink.net  FIDO 1:396/45.28


... The buck doesn't even slow down here!

--- PPoint 3.01
 * Origin: Sew! That's My Point (1:396/45.28)