Wow! July 4th once again — over half of 2009 in the books and time keeps screamin’ like a Koenigsegg hammered by Top Gear’s Stig! The flag’s out, flapping gently in the breeze of a heavily marine-layered sky — was sunny for the early dog walk — and there’s 17-1/2 pounds of brisket in the smoker with only nine hours to go before major chow time. 16 pounds of turkey will hit the Weber kettle in about 4 hours or so — life is good!

A few months ago I thought that I might be giving a Tea Party report today from good ol’ Santa Monica, but looking on the Tea Party site the other day none was scheduled. Probably for the best, as the last one was notable only for the fact that anyone in/around this “People’s Republic” would show up for such a right-wing event — no organized speeches, just a lot of folks wavin’ banners and screechin’ “No More Taxes!” Mostly Ron Paul fans . . .

Sarah Palin announced yesterday that July 25th will be her last day as Governor of Alaska. Crazy that! Or, maybe not. Over at Ace guest writer Russ from Winterset lays out 9 important steps for her to take if this is a prelude to her making a serious run at 2012. After reading much and praying over it The Anchoress thinks that Sarah Palin is declaring her independence and reacts to her announcement with this:

And I suspect Sarah Palin has looked around and decided, no – she is not going to die on that hate-constructed hill. I think she’s going to do her thing, forge her own path by her own lights, and eventually head back into politics on her own damn hill – and with (one fervently hopes) a hum-dinger of a speech-writer.

One of the jobs of a believer -whether Christian or not- is to find meaning in what is going on around and within. I suspect Palin is finding meaning in the abuse she’s been handed. I suspect her interior strength and her interior narrative of faith, family and love of homeland are commingling into a strategy, based on that meaning; a strategy that will be broad in scope, takes the long-view and is played close to the vest.

The Republican Examiner quotes Mark Levin at The Corner in full — hey, I’ll borrow that for you readers:

Palin is running for president, get used to it.

The reason is pretty simple. Sarah Palin loves America. And she knows we are a hair’s breadth from losing much of what we and millions of our countrymen have painstakingly built with sweat and blood over more than two centuries. She knows that Cap and Trade is not just another piece of legislation. It is a hollowpoint bullet aimed straight at the heart of the American economy. She knows that health care reform is designed to, and will, utterly devastate the quality and availability of health care that is currently the best the world has ever known. She knows that American presidents don’t nationalize automakers. Third-world dictators do that.

Sarah Palin has five children. She doesn’t want to subject them to a future of soft tyranny and poverty.

But unlike nearly every other American, Sarah Palin can do something about it. Conservatives know she is the real thing. And so do Liberals. How else to explain the daily, spittle-flecked rage spewed at her and her family? Is there anything about Sarah Palin that is vile, repugnant, or amoral? There is one thing and only one thing driving the Left’s hatred of Sarah Palin: fear. It is the fear that she is the next Reagan, who was viciously attacked in the same way. It is the fear that she will, through her classic American values and sensibility (think Truman), sweep all the rubes in flyover country into a tidal wave of support and decimate Liberal power.

Palin is not your standard politician. She is not Mitt Romney, John McCain, or Mike Huckabee. To judge her by the standard playbook is a fool’s errand. There is no playbook for people like Sarah Palin, just like there was no playbook for Barack Obama. So when you hear folks speculating that her career is over for whatever reason, e.g., she will be seen as a less-than-one-term governor or she doesn’t have enough experience, remember that our side (and the Clintons) said that about our current president. Sarah Palin is the rare politician who can play by her own rules.

So, if you are a conservative and what President Obama is doing to our great country is making you physically and emotionally sick, let’s all keep good thoughts coming for the Sarah Palins of the world — not many like ‘em, that’s for sure!

Happy 4th, folks! Stay safe, eat well, have fun, and may God Bless America!

[H/t: Hot Air]

Folks that read this blog know that here at Okie Manor burnin’ meat is almost a religious experience, but The Bacon Explosion is a mind bender in its own right. Don’t miss the step-by-step instructions with great pics, and be sure and blow up the video to full-screen to watch it being made at a tailgate party.

Hmmm, already did the shop for this week — but next week’s lookin’ pretty good for a trial run.

Lipitor® for everybody!

Technorati Tags: Bacon Explosion

See full-size image at LGFIf you are as curious as I am about how that US Airways‘ Flight 1549 pilot, Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III, was able to make a turn and glide to a splashdown landing in the Hudson River, check out this airliners.net discussion: How Long Does A Jet Glide With No Power?

Who knew? I always thought that jet airliners would drop like a stone without motive power. The caveat is that to maintain the airspeed required for maintaining lift, thereby allowing the bird to continue flying, requires that you exchange altitude for continuing that airspeed. Courtesy of today’s LA Times comes this map/chart of the fated flight. Note, the pilot only had 3,200 ft. of altitude to work with, and lots of skyscraper-dense Manhattan to miss.

• No buildings hit: check!
• No bridges hit: check!
• Perfect water crash landing: check!
• No one killed: check!

Not impossible, obviously. Highly improbable, definitely.

The only word that comes readily to mind is:

Miracle.

Technorati Tags: US Airways, Flight 1549, Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III

Hmmmm, can the Barack Obama campaign try a premeditated, totally jaded and deceptive tactic like handing out signs at their rallies that are intended to look “homemade”, as if those holding them are so enamored with their Messiah candidate they couldn’t help but express themselves for all the world to see?

Yes, they can!

Now, for something completely different!

See Gary Vanerchuck‘s review of four Oklahoma wines, made in Oklahoma from Oklahoma grown grapes. A big surprise awaits the results of a group of community college students and their teacher’s efforts at a Cabernet/Mertiage blend.

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, Gary Vanerchuck, Oklahoma wines

OK, quick break from politics and general kvetchin’ to catch up a bit on the food blogging. Let’s call this breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack. As we like to say around here, Lipitor® for everybody! Let’s start the day off right — Okie Breakfast.

Not really the way “Mom” used to make it, and the cleanup is a snap! Combine nuked bacon with fresh potato slabs, moist egg scramble and stove-top griddled toast, add some blackberry jam and a cup o’ real Kona coffee and you are definitely good to go. Nope, can’t nap yet, lot’s more cookin’ & eatin’ on the schedule so best to get to it!

Next up — Slow Oven Braised Pork Shoulder:

This one’s super easy. Just braise the chunk o’ beast for a good eleven hours in a low oven and voila — pork for days! Pull it apart and add your favorite BBQ sauce for some great sandwiches, or break it all down for chili verde, or just eat ’til ya pop right out of the oven. With 15-pounds of shoulder you really don’t have to choose. That’s pic shows only the half of it! Best part? You don’t even have to chew; This puppy dissolves on your tongue!

Snack time — Beef Sirloin Chili & Beans:

Cube up 10-1/2 pounds of top sirloin, add a ton o’ onions, a bit o’ tomotos and spice it the way you like it and what can ya say? Maybe, where’s the Fritos®?

Let’s wrap this up with a healthy dinner — Oven Poached Salmon in Chardonnay with lemon, capers and herb butter:

This is how it looks going into the oven. You top with a piece of parchment paper and bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes; That’s it!

Serve with rice pilaf and you favorite veggie, or combine those two should you feel like it. Reduce what’s left of the wine and juices down into a sauce and pour over the fish and pool on the plate. As Andy Griffith used to say back in the day, “Mmmm, Mmmm, Good!” If’n ya like that sort o’ thing.

Bon Appétit!

CAUTION: No one here at Okie Manor recommends eating all this in a single 24-hour period unless you are a professional athlete, have an LDL of less than 100 or a body fat index below zero; Or better yet, all of the above! Recipes for all these tasty tidbits will be posted over at the Okie Cafe before the weekend is over.

Technorati Tags: Okie Breakfast, Braised Pork Shoulder, Sirloin Chili, Oven Poached Salmon

[Update: SeeDubya just emailed me -- "Heh...your Googlebot is now giving me a huge Mike Huckabee polling ad over ads for squirrel traps." Ya know -- he's right!]

Folks, you’ll have to blame SeeDubya over at Junk Yard Blog for this post! He sent me an email with the link to this YouTube of Mike Huckabee talkin’ with the MSNBC Morning Show folks, and there’s a good bit o’ talk about cookin’ and eatin’ “fried squirrel” — even how he fried em up in a popcorn popper at his college dorm. Sure would smell better than cookin’ up fish in a microwave — but can you imagine the Inaugural Dinner menu? At least, opposed to cousin Eddie’s opinion, it’s not really high in cholesterol . . . “Tastes great, less filling!”

Now, eatin’ squirrel has been discussed before on this blog, most recently here. Looking on the net it seems the “yuck” factor about eating squirrel is kinda high when you get out of the sticks. Hey, I wouldn’t steer you wrong — skillet fried squirrel is pretty darn fine . . . as long as the squirrel is a youngun and it’s been cleaned properly. It also helps if your dad is a good scope-shooter and avoids gut shots. Let’s see what the Missouri Conservationist Online has to say about all that:

Squirrels, if handled and cooked correctly, offer some of the finest wild game eating. However, mention squirrels as a meal and watch how many people wrinkle their noses.

People who frown on squirrels as food can be placed into two groups—those who can’t stomach the thought of eating an animal that’s furry and cute and those who have eaten squirrels but found them less than appetizing. The first group will probably never enjoy eating squirrels. The second can be won over if hunters avoid these mistakes.
{…}
I have eaten squirrels that tasted gamy, though tasted bad is a more accurate description. The squirrels had been shot through the abdominal cavity and poorly cleaned. Any meat will taste bad if allowed to marinate in gut contents and urine, and that is exactly what happens when gut and bladder contents touch the meat, be it squirrel or any other game animal. Typically, gamy taste comes not from the natural flavor of wild meat, but from wild meat tainted through mishandling.

If you accidentally shoot a squirrel through the abdomen, skin the animal and remove its entrails immediately. Then rinse the body cavity with water. Removing the entrails is a fairly easy task. Using the tip of a small, sharp knife, make an incision where the ribs meet the abdomen. Cut toward the animal’s hindquarters, taking care not to puncture the internal organs.

See, a good clean head-shot followed by quick field dressing is key to some fine eatin’. But wait, there’s more:

More squirrels than not are placed on the dinner table with hair clinging to the meat, which is unappetizing to say the least. Skinning squirrels is difficult, regardless of how you go about it, and hair is easily transferred to the meat. My skinning method, however, handles the problem.

1. Dip Squirrel in water. Scrape off fur at base of tail and cut through tail leaving it attached to the back skin.
2. Extend cut up back.
3. Cut around flanks.
4. You can pull the skin off beginning at either end.
5. Here the skin is pulled over the forelegs first.
6. Reverse the squirrel, pull the fur over the hind legs and cut off the head and feet.

Any squirrel hair remaining on the meat can be rinsed off in the sink underneath a gentle stream of running water . . . OK, OK — enough of that.

But hey, if your mouth is waterin’ as much as mine right now, you’ll probably enjoy the links on this blog to a handful of squirrel recipes such as:

Wild Buttery Squirrel
While this concoction of Vodka, Amaretto, Butterscotch Schnapps does not actually contain any squirrel, I recommend that you knock back a few of these before sampling some of the other recipes.

Pork Rind-Crusted Fried Squirrel with Molasses Red-Eye Gravy
Anything encrusted with pork rinds and then deep fried has got to be good.

Squirrel Casserole
Surprise your family this Thanksgiving with a squirrel casserole topped with the traditional Durkee French Fried Onions.

Chicken Fried Squirrel
This recipe leaves out 8 of the Colonel’s herbs and spices to let that squirrel flavor come through.

Squirrel Fricassee
Nothing warms you up on a cold winter day like a warm bowl of squirrel soup. MM…Good!

Squirrel Sorbet
This refreshing treat is the result of that ominous question: What happens when you put a squirrel in a blender?

Just watch out if you run across that squirrelly little guy with the big piece!

Heh!

Technorati Tags: Mike Huckabee, fried squirrel