Scooter

I knew better than to show my hot rod to the boys.  Unfortunately someone had to assemble it so I was in a sticky position.  My foot is broken and reconstructed…so I need a knee scooter.  I’m totally dependent for the next 12 weeks on these clowns and they took advantage of me by suggesting all the ways they were going to “trick my ride”.   These were threats, really.

Bryce wants to get a customized license plate for the back that reads:  CLARISSE  and put hand lotion in my basket.   Adam wanted to switch the handle bars to “ape arms” so I could ride chopper style.

Then they had to take it for a TEST DRIVE around my kitchen.  OMG     Bryce tried popping wheelies and Adam was cornering on two wheels. Both broke the speed limit.   I was informed that when I was done with it, THEY were going to break it in right on the farm.   Am I going to Hell if my thought was, “Good.  Maybe one of them will break a leg?”

My doctor called me a week after surgery to apologize for not calling sooner.  He asked how the foot was doing.  I told him that it was a real bastard and he is lucky he didn’t call earlier because I would have called him a bastard too.  We both laughed.  (As I secretly wanted to stab his eyes out with a steak knife.)

If the truth be told, these two “clowns” have taken amazing care of me as much as it kills me to admit it.  Bryce has done all the farm chores every morning without a complaint. He even went to the grocery store and came out with lots of good surprises!   Of course, this year the barn water is frozen so he has to hoof it all the way to my kitchen sink to retrieve water for the chickens and goats.  It doesn’t help that we have been hovering around zero degrees.   On the big day, Adam was nominated to take me to surgery and wait for hours and then take his “in the bag” mother home.  I was drooling and practically comatose.  He fetched me all my needs the first few weeks.

I’m lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful men but don’t think for a minute that I am going to let on.

Kupiec Farms

Capri’s Veal Piccata in Pictures

Did someone say, “Capers?” 

Those little dark devils are to die for and this dish is sinfully full of them.  Supermarkets carry capers in little glass jars next to the pickles, olives, and mustards.

My advice:  make a double batch of this because it freezes so well.

Ingredients

1 lb. spaghetti noodles

1/2 c grated or shaved Parmesan cheese

2 tbl. butter

_________

splash of olive oil

1 cup flour

salt & pepper to taste

4 eggs, beaten

4 – 8 oz. veal cutlets

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1 cup dry white wine

1 lemon, juiced

2 tbl. capers, washed and drained

1/2 stick butter

2 tbl. chopped FRESH flat-leaf parsley

Directions

• Cook spaghetti, drain, rinse with cold water.   Return to pot.  Add 2 tbl. melted butter and the Parmesan cheese.  Salt and Pepper the noodles to taste.  Stir, cover, and set aside.
• Put flour in a large Ziploc bag, season with salt and pepper, and mix.  This is your cutlet coating.
• Beat eggs in a bowl, add a tiny splash of tap water, whisk.
• Put 4 tbl. olive oil in large fry pan over medium heat.
• Put cutlets in flour mixture, shake bag to lightly coat.  Next, dip them in the egg wash and then place them straight into the hot frying pan.  Cook all the veal about 2 minutes on each side until light golden brown.  Set aside.
• Deglaze fry pan with white wine and boil until reduced by half.  Add lemon juice, capers, 1/2 stick butter, and half the parsley.
• Serve the pasta on plates topped with the veal.   Drizzle with caper sauce and garnish with the remaining parsley.

The taste is incredible.   Prepare this with confidence knowing that a double batch will feed 12 hungry people.    When I double it, we have it for dinner and then I make three or four more frozen dinners-for-two out of the leftovers.   Hint:  If you can’t find veal cutlets, use a good steak and slice it in half horizontally so you have two big steaks.  Then pound each section flat– to just under 1/2″  thick.  Enjoy!

The Island of Capri in Italy was my inspiration for this dish.

They grow lemons the size of grapefruits there!

The Clean Up Crew

After summer’s bloom is gone and maple trees have bled out,  Jack Frost stops by (he’s quite the guy) and  spreads some crystal cheer.    It is when the leaves are brown and down and ice buckles under my boot that I let my little goaties out for nibbles, treats, and loot.  They are my clean up crew.  Chewing at the forest’s edge, stripping pine needles and grapevine, they keep a slanted eye on me.   Ruby and Stella  are addicts when it comes to licking off the last pink flowers on my knock out rose bushes.  From sun up to sun down, they spend the day manicuring my landscaping.  Once the job is done, carrots are their reward!

Q:  Why did the ram run over the cliff?

A:  He didn’t see the ewe turn.

Q:  Why is it hard to carry on a conversation with a goat?

A:  They are always butting in.

Q:  What do you call an unemployed goat?

A:  Billy Idol

Q:  How do you keep a goat from charging?

A:  You take his credit card away.

Facts of Life

Whittled away by cancer, he keeps a white bed sheet over his head, like a ghost, so that no one will discover him in bed, dead.  He hasn’t eaten in days; he just can’t anymore.  His daughter arrives at the care facility and gently whispers to the tiny sheet in the bed, “Dad, wake up.  I’m here.”  He whispers, “So I ain’t dead yet?”  “Nope, you’re not that lucky,” she says.  He pops down the blanket, looks at her and says, “This is bullshit.  Why ain’t I dead yet?”  They both smile.  She kisses the hollow in his cheek.  And so begins another day.  And so it goes; this dance.  His journey.

When it is over they will both only remember the good times.  She will think back to their summers together, floating in an aluminum boat.  She is wearing her big straw hat and watching him catch fish after fish with a simple hook and a couple of crawlers.  Chihuahua!   Her mind will drift to Disney World, a month ago, when they were both Goofy.   He will be right beside her as she dreams.

Oh, time…sweet time….the double edged sword.

Sweet Surprises

Jennifer lives about 30 miles away and called on Saturday to say she had a surprise for me, “Come to Brighton.”   An hour later I was lunching at Panera Bread with my daughter and her steady, Will.   I cleverly worked them both over for clues and hints.  Shamefully, I tried blackmail.  “If you don’t give me a clue, I’m going to write about you in The Painted Post.”

We slurped the last of our tomato soup and piled back into the car.  Will headed eastward.  I’m thinking…Novi?

Then it dawned on me…THE NOVI PET EXPO!

Nailed it!

It was so sweet of them to think of me and make an outing of it together.    We spent an afternoon watching dogs jump into a 35′ long swimming pool, run agility courses, and saw all the critters who found their forever homes.  It was a special day.

Back at home, I went upstairs to change clothes.  On the bathroom counter, our housekeepers had left this note.  Another great surprise!

Photo Riff

My rooster-man is in love.  With me.  It started last week.  What a shameless display he puts on when I walk outside.  He races as fast as he can to my side and if my hands are down, he lovingly pecks my palms to see if I have food. He’s a boot licker.  If I turn sharply, I might step on him; he is that close.  He never leaves my side.   We’ve advanced to the petting stage and by next week I think he will sit in my lap.  For those of you who know roosters, you know why they call them cocks.  They are  Nasty Creatures.  You can’t trust them.  But MY rooster-man, he loves me so I gave him some pie.

Take a look at my goats.  This is why we can’t have nice things.  Once all the flowers and bushes exhaust themselves and the weather turns frosty, I let my goats out of their pen to do “yard work”.  They clean up on leaf piles, brush, and do a fine job of trimming.  This year, however, they crossed the line when they gorged on my big pumpkin.   They broke the skin and ate the flesh and the chickens stood at the ready to peck out all the big seeds.

The doorbell rang and standing on my porch was a Vietnam Vet who lives up the road.  He brought me a beautiful basket of garden goods he canned along with a sample of some of the herbs still surviving his winter garden.  In exchange, he asked if he could gather wood on our property to heat his home.   He and I made a deal:  we are going to trade the basket each month.  Next month I’m bringing him some homemade breads, cakes, and noodles and we are going to help him with the wood project.

Went down to “The Joe” to see the Wings play.  It was 60 degrees the day before.  It was supposed to be “a little cooler” on game day.  When we got to our cars after the game…there was a thick frost glaze on the windshields,  I needed a crowbar to get the driver’s door open, and it was snowing.   Thanks a lot.    The apple trees are loaded this year and bow down to the ground.  That doesn’t have anything to do with hockey, but is part of this riff.