celebrating Juneteenth

I just heard that today is a holiday.  Nobody told me to take the day off work!  So I did some research, so I won’t miss this opportunity next year.

June 19 is Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day.  The day is to commemorate the announcement of the abolition of slavery.  The holiday started in Texas in 1865 but is now recognized in 31 states, including Arkansas.  The name Juneteenth is a combination of the words June and nineteenth, which is called a portmanteau.  (You learn something every day.)

I’ve been told the day is traditionally celebrated with a large feast served as an all day meal in a park or outdoor space, and that food typically includes barbecue, fried chicken, greens, baked bread, red soda, pies, home-made ice cream, and watermelon.

Did you notice the part that said “all day meal”?  There was also a mention of fried chicken and barbecue.  That’s what I’m talkin’ about!    Unfortunately I don’t know anyone having a party for this, but now you know, so there’s no excuse for next year.

Fab’s burger challenge

This past weekend, Fab and Bag O’ Donuts hosted a party, and the food was inspired by recent discussions and pictures on this blog.  I was invited but had previous commitments for that evening.  After seeing the pictures Fab sent me, I’m really sad I missed this party.  Check out these burgers!  These are burgers of legend!

There will be leftovers...

These were called the twin towers of cholesterol

There is a LOT of meat and cheese on those burgers.  There’s also a lot of bacon, which doesn’t show up well in the pictures.   They cooked two packages of bacon, and here’s a picture of the bacon grease they drained off.

I showed that pic to someone before posting it, and they asked if the burgers were dipped in the bacon grease.  While that would probably be tasty, I hope that did not happen, or the people involved should probably make sure their will is up-to-date.

For the record, no one finished a whole burger.  Maybe next time I will be able to attend, so I can show ‘em what’s up!  

eat chili responsibly

For the “big game” last weekend, my church had a SOUPer Bowl party, where we had a soup / chili cookoff.  (FYI, this was after service, on time-delay, so we could skip the commercials and halftime show.)  I made a pot of chili-cheese chili, which didn’t win, so it must’ve been a conspiracy.  But whatever…

Before the event, I was looking online at some different chili recipes, and I was reading the user comments on a few that I thought sounded good, and I came across this:

I’ve had his Texas Chili many years ago.  My spouse forced me to buy an air filter shortly after.

Eat Chili responsibly.

If that isn’t a great endorsement for chili, I don’t know what is!

Not only is that funny, but it’s good advice.   You do need to eat chili responsibly.  In fact, towards the end of our party, I saw one of our regular readers sitting at a big round table all by himself.  I had to remind him to be responsible with his chili and the associated after-effects.   While he certainly has the right and freedom to conduct his flatulence* however he pleases, there may be the consequences of sitting alone.  It reminds me of this proverb:

Man who farts in church sits in pew.

Okay, so that doesn’t really directly apply, but it’s funny (or punny), and some folks appreciate such humor.  (I’m doing it for you, my readers.)

* The phrase “conduct his flatulence” applies in more ways than one.  This is the same person who has what we call “Active Gas On Command”.   He is, in fact, able to conduct his flatulence better than anyone I know.

how I’d party in Obama’s situation

I was just reading about the crazy-huge inauguration party that Obama is having.  The budget for it is $49 million, but the estimated actual cost is around $150 million.  I could think of much better ways to allocate taxpayer funds, but I already ranted about that on my other blog.

Here, let’s take a more humorous view of it.  The $49M will cover the standard amount of food, security, and other necessary items for a Presidential party.   (That still seems very excessive, but whatever.)  So Obama is spending an additional $100M for his party.

Let’s see… if I was hosting a party and had an extra $100M to spend, what would I do?   That’s so much money that it boggles the mind.  I don’t even know where to start.

I’d have the world’s largest nachos buffet, for starters.   (Although that could be covered by saving money on the standard food package — you know they’re overpaying for that stuff.)   Actually, with all that money, I’d have available ALL the types of food I want.  There would be lots of games with fabulous consolation prizes.  I’d have huge virtual reality gaming booths, with the latest technology.

I need to start thinking bigger or I’ll never spend that kind of money.  Let’s see… I’d buy my own private island.  Yeah, that’s it.  And I’d have a castle built on my own island.  I’d buy my own private plane (along with carbon credits so folks couldn’t complain).  And I’d fly all my friends to said island for a massive after-party party that lasted for weeks.  They’d all get vacation pay so it won’t hurt to miss work.

I’d probably still have some money left over after that, surprisingly.  So I’d build a weather-controlling satellite and take over the world.   Wait, maybe I should hold off on that one for a while.

I’d create my own TV station, and it would play only programs approved by me.   So of course it would be awesome, and I’d make millions more dollars. 

This could go on for a while, I think.  So I’ll stop for now.

our buffet o’ bacon

Last night I had the entire Buffet o’ Blog staff at my house, and we created a Buffet o’ Bacon.  There was regular crispy bacon, baked bacon-wrapped smokies with BBQ sauce (which were awesome!), shish-ka-bobs with bacon, ham, and cheese, and there was some bacon-wrapped croissants.  It even got a little crazy when someone put candy corn on some of the bacon-wrapped croissants before putting them in the oven.

Needless to say, we had a great time.  We shared our unique analysis of the second presidential debate (and it’s too bad our discussion wasn’t recorded for a podcast), and we did some multiplayer network gaming (to build an empire and conquer the world), and we ate lots of bacon.

I do have to say the bacon-wrapped croissants didn’t turn out as well as expected.  Here’s a picture before cooking, when it seemed like a good idea:

The problem was, most of the croissants absorbed all of the bacon grease, and thus were quite “heavy”.  We’re gonna have a talk with that “Important Doctor” that frequents this blog, because he’s talked of using bacon grease in your diet, and there’s some flaws with that plan.   I still think the bacon and cheese plan might work, as long as you drain the bacon grease.

Ironically, the ones with the candy corn turned out pretty good.  The candy melted and most of it ran off, and the bacon grease drained off some, too.  So what was left was like a cracker with bacon and a honey glaze.

All in all, that evening was the awesome!  I do think we’ll have to do this again…