Dinner

Chicken Tostada

Yellow Rice

Black Beans.

I did that crack chicken thing that broke the internet a few weeks back. Chicken, cream cheese, and ranch dressing, only this time I used one ranch and one low sodium taco seasoning. MUCH better - the double ranch is somehow overly sweet and bland at the same time. This was much better. 

Still a great way to make loads of food for a group if  you need too. 

All Good Things

 Pickings are getting slim at my little farm stand, hundreds of pumpkins, but precious few tomatoes and corn. It is the end of September, and I am just happy we had the summer produce that we did this year what with the drought and all.

MOVIE THURSDAY

 Rainy day means movies! I had no real plans on seeing this one, directed by Clint Eastwood and all - but happy that we did. It is very good and well worth going to see. Starts off really strange , oddly slow and confusing - but then you realize that it is ( a tad of a spoiler ) not in real time, and is sort of reflecting Mr. Sullenburgers state of mind after the water landing. Tom Hanks gives another Oscar worthy performance , given that the pilot is so very low key.  Another equally valid reason for going to the movie is Aaron Ekharts mustache.. maybe a special Oscar this year ...

 Then off for a late lunch at my absolutely favorite Indian Buffet 

 yum!

Advice She Didn't Ask For | Full Frontal with Samantha Bee | TBS

Busy Little Beavers

Y'all know the gist, nothing going on - you get 10 posts on what Koda and I did today. We are busy, out doing things , seeing folks and you get crickets. On top of that, when I did take pics they were lousy. Bad Blogger!

 Monday Night

Our pals Jack and Linda were in town and took us out to dinner, a lovely time and we were back in home just in time for the debate. WHICH WE WILL BE GETTING TOO!

 Then tonight we had book group over at Virginia's very lovely home - which I really should have taken photos of, it is very nice, but food and pets... good job Kyle. Yes, I took eggs .

 A very sweet old kitty!

and a literal wall of Pumpkin Spice at Wegmans..

Happy and Glorious

 The drop date is November 4th !

Week Four ... ish ? , could be 5, who can say .....

THAT WHICH DOES NOT KILL US

Sigh, remember August ? 

Those halcyon days of the grainy distant past when Hillary was up 70 points on DT and UGA was a top 10 football team with a free ticket to the SEC Championship in Atlanta .... yeah, good times... good times. I hate polls.

Welcome to late September and " Bernie would not be losing " and Richt's Miami is #14

Let's do this.

Starting with the good news, the Coach's Poll

1. ALABAMA
2. Ohio State
3. Clemson
4. Louisville 
5. Michigan
6. Stanford
7. Houston
8. Wisconsin
9. Washington
10. TEXAS A&M
11. TENNESSEE
12. Florida State
13. Baylor
14. Miami
15. Nebraska
16. Michigan State
17. OLE MISS
18.  Utah
19. TCU
20. GEORGIA ( yes, this is the good news )
21. FLORIDA
22. ARKANSAS
23. North Carolina
24. San Diego State
25. Texas

and the bad, the AP Poll

( sports writers can just be bitchy )

1. ALABAMA
2. Ohio State
3. Louisville
4. Michigan 
5. Clemson 
6. Houston
7. Stanford
8. Wisconsin
9. TEXAS A&M
10. Washington
11. TENNESSEE
12. Florida State
13. Baylor
14. Miami
15. Nebraska
16. OLE MISS
17. Michigan State
18. Utah
19. San Diego State
20. ARKANSAS
21. TCU
22. Texas
23. FLORIDA
24. Boise State
25. GEORIGA

There you have it, going into October looking at being an underdog between the hedges against a surging and pumped up Vol Nation. The only ranked team we have after that is Florida, and I bet they will not be then after losing to a pissed off LSU in two weeks.  It won't even be Wisconsin in the Capitol One Bowl this year .... San Diego State maybe ?

A repost I think - but, its funny because it's true

Field Trip Buddy

 AN ADVENTURE TONIGHT

ALL the Buffalo Bears in the house

 THAT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH CHURCH other than it happen to be in one !

 A few weeks ago I read that a guy whose voice I just LOVE , Matt Alber, the bear chanteuse would be doing a show in Buffalo, just right down the road, and got Neil and I tickets. Neil was a little bit skeptical not really knowing much of his music, but in the end really enjoyed it. Super sort of low key concert, done in this pretty amazing old church - the only religions object was the single big cross in the back - remove it and it could have just been an odd concert hall.

He started with a pal of his playing with him , Jordan Roy, along with the pretty amazingly talented music director for this church ( this church must have a money printing press in its basement, it is beautiful, and massive ). The three of them started off the show with my favorite Matt Alber song

MONARCH

 He then went on to give a very intimate , personal about 90 min show, just  him and piano , guitar or just on his on, just a delight.

The church posted some of the songs on their site , if i gan figure out how to , I will add them to this post,

 and a super friendly nice guy, very generous to the guys playing with him. Funny and sweet, just gave a great little show. Odd that it is in a church , we were in pews but other than that , it was a real 90's sort of Trackside Tavern vibe, what with the gays and all.

 sorry these are so dark, they are all darn cute guys

He spoke with everyone after the show. Several folks from this church came to the show - he said he had sung there this morning as well, and Matt said to an older lady in front of us that he was " just happy to have some women at his show, it very rarely happens ".

Daily Koda

The morning after the first truly chilly night of the season. A treat after our extra long hot and dry spell. The clean sunsplashed blue of cool Canadian air. Summer is gone now , we have to work at embracing autumn .

MORE PUMPKINS!

 There for a while I was afraid that my Wegmans was going to hold back on the grand haul of pumpkins this year....

 They proved me wrong this weekend!

GAME FOUR

FAIL

45 - 14

and it was not as close as 45 to 14 sounds ....

The University of Missouri Fighting Tigers beat the Delaware State Hornets 79 to nothing yesterday in a game that was shortened by, I think 10 min. THAT is exactly what UGA's trip to Oxford felt like on Saturday.

A drumming of historic proportions, joining the 2011 42 - 10 from LSU and the '08 49 - 10 blow out in Jax. Coming very close to the disputed 1943 48 - 0 killing by Georgia Tech.

Man handled , beat up, trounced - Siri says " soundly defeated " - and it was from the get go. Before folks could take there seats in the house that Eli built, it was 17 nothing - it looked as if our defense was still out in The Grove having bloodies and a ham biscuit, and it went down hill from there. The only bright spot that I saw was our very young phnom of a qb ability to get the ball to receivers - who lacked ANY ability to hold on to that thrown ball. Many many dropped very catchable passes. Not at all sure how you fix that - Elmers glue? And since when did the land of Walsh, Butler and Robinson NOT have a freaking kicker - that is just unfathomable.

The blame game started before the Pride of the South marching band could get off the field at half time.. RICHT would have done better! Which the answer to that is full out bullshit. This IS Mark Richt's team that Kirby Smart is majorly struggling with in 2016. He is playing the hand that he was delt. Now, calling Hershel Chubb up the middle 4000 times was Smarts fault - again, that is going with what you have. ( Note to UGA coaching staff - everyone has our number on that one )

SO, you wake up on Saturday morning knowing that you we were going to face The Roll Tides in Atlanta come December, and you go to bed with the MOST hated word in all of college football : rebuilding.

The LOUD and HAPPY singing of Rocky Top later on that day did not help the Bulldawgs Nation's mood, as all that orange rolls into Athens this coming weekend.

Know Your Produce

White ( or French ) Turnips

 From last Tuesday's Mendon farmers market, and Friday's supper - just now getting around to it.
My current favorite vegetable. I call them French turnips, no idea why, Im guessing I saw Julia or someone on television once call them this - but for the folks that grew them and most of the world they are just white turnips. If you hate turnips - some distant memory of a brown grey musky tasting mush on a plate - this is the exact opposite. Delicate and earthy ( in a good way ) not at all the murky mashed mangle of flavors that you might think you remember.

Very small, some of these the not much larger than a dime, up to small egg sized. The good folks over at Buzz's Garden sell super clean produce - that photo is right from the market, no washing at all, not even any real grit on the greens. I just cleaned them like you would a mushroom, light " scrubbing " with damp paper towel .

• Country Fried Steak and Gravy
• White Rice
• Turnips and Greens w Bacon
• Tomatoes

If you can find these little gems of late summer buy them!

Chop off the greens, wash and save - these were so new and fresh that most of the stem was edible, but if they are older and bigger , you may have to de- stem the greens. Trim up the root itself, off with the little tail and the top . Half the larger ones, leaving the smaller ones whole - drop in boiling salted water. Larger halves first, then the smaller ones - only blanch a few min - it is a very tender root.

Drain, let cool, and then brown up in a little butter . I added a little bacon, just because I cooked the greens were done vegetarian. Serve on top of the sauteed* greens.

* Other than New Years Day collards, I do not boil the heck out of my greens, which we eat often. There is no real need to with summer greens - any really, including turnip greens. You can if that is the dish you are going for, but just a flash fry of almost any with some mirepoix, adding meat fat if you choose, is just fine...

The B-52's - "Rock Lobster" (Countdown 1980)

Billie Holiday: Stars Fell On Alabama (1957)

CLEMSON 26 - GEORIGA TECH 7

Not something that you think would be very high on my list of things to blog about. BUT, my pal Chip, Mr. Clemson , was at the game and posted this really nice photo of Grant Field and Atlanta.

Date Night

Neil surprised me, or if he told me - I forgot, that we had tickets to one of the Fathom special movies tonight. AND a second surprise - there was a Mexican restaurant right across the street from the theater

Unlike Atlanta where there is a cheap Mexican restaurant on every other corner , they are blue moon hens teeth up here - this theater is not at all close to our house. So an extra special night.

My Honey

My Dinner

I knew next to nothing about Miss Saigon. It was the Phantom guys all back together again and there was a helicopter. Really - that is close to it. I knew that it had played a really long time in both London and Broadway, but I had never even listened to the soundtrack before.

This was the big surprise of the night. It is a blow you away Amazing musical! The film tonight was the 25th anniversary " gala " performance of the original 1989 opening on the West End. Just amazing talent - and songs and a score that were just amazing. So happy that Neil thought to get these for us, it was sold out.



After the full show, there was a break and they did a little mini performance with the 1989 and 2014 cast , funny how just in 25 years things have changed, including the theater. In '89, a lot of Asian rolls were played by westerners, Jonathan Price being one of the Asian leads ( as far from Asian as you can get ) . In the revival all the parts are given to the right actors.

Miss Saigon 25th Anniversary Featurette 

1991 Tony Award Segment

Daily Koda

 A beautiful first day of Fall here in Mendon. Summer is holding on hard, feeling as much like June as late September. We got in a good mile and a half walk ...

IMPORTANT - Save The Day

Last Day of Summer Dinner

But first all the tomatoes that I got today - 2.50 , really.

Have a bunch of nice vegetables from yesterdays farmers market, that I did not post any pics of, but being the last day of summer and all ....

 Daily Koda

Burgers, Hot Dogs, Grilled Corn on the Cobb

tiny watermelon 

Nightswimming, again.

More , much more on the coming Mike Mills classical fusion project, that really does seem to be generating loads of buzz - at least in my own little corner of the internets.

FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

and a POD CAST, that is long and I have not listened to it, but there it is.

I was all bummed that Ward Stare did not do a post game meet and greet the other night after his concert, like he has in the past. I would have liked to asked him about it and if he is going to get Mills to come and play with the RPO./

Dinner

With some odd iPhone filter.

Pork Chops

Rice

Baby Yellow Beets

Beet Greens

w lemon

Tomatoes

( we will have tomatoes at ever meal from now until we can't anymore , 

which will not be all that long )

After two days of KFC I thought I should cook us a good meal.

Daily Koda

 Out with Neil in the late summer garden - still a lot of color - dahlias and lots of other little blooming flowers. So much work for Neil to do before the W word comes around.

the long slog back up ....

After falling off that #9 cliff last week, the UGA BULLDOGS start their climb back into the end of year conversation. This week it was the mighty FSU's of Tallahassee time to drop off the map, and #2 falls harder than #9.

We really are, this early in the season, in our own drivers seat - keep on winning and they will keep on moving up in the polls. I need to find out when that first play off poll comes out, because there is no set rule that it has to be anything at ll like the two newspaper polls. We are going with the COACHES POLL this week, because we are one place higher! HERE is a link to both.

1. ALABAMA
2. Ohio State
3. Clemson
4. Louisville
5. Michigan
6. Stanford
7. Houston
8. Michigan State
9. Washington 
10. Wisconsin ( ranked too high, had a bit of a time with neophyte Georgia State! )
11. GEORGIA
12. TENNESSEE
13. TEXAS A&M
14. Florida State ( down from #2 ) 
15. Baylor
16. FLORIDA
17. LSU
18. ARKANSAS
19. Miami
20. Nebraska
21. OLE MISS
22. TCU
23. UTAH
24. Texas
25. Iowa

The upstart Louisville Cardinals are number two in the AP poll after the beat down they put on FSU, and Clemson #5 - they meet in two weeks. The other tigers have Ga Tech this THURSDAY night.

The next two weekends will make or break UGA, with us in Oxford this weekend and The Vols coming between the hedges the following weekend. Good news today that game will be SEC on CBS - the best kick off time at all, 3:30. After that it should be ( as I totally curse us ) somewhat smooth sailing till JAX with " rebuilding "South Carolina there, and Vandy " Vandy "Home.

#10 Wisc takes on #8 Michigan State, that should move us up at least one. Alabama , Ohio State and Louisville are having cup cakes for the coming week. #5 Michigan with an unranked Penn State ( who now has the cute as puppies ex Vandy coach )

HOPE

It had been so very long since we had a late ballgame like this. Seven thirty, a tailgating dilemma.

Earlier in the week when we had those really cool nights, I was all the ready to push fall and do a big pot of chili with all the usual tailgate fixing. But, the cool did not last long and our freakishly hot for almost Canada summer just keeps rolling along, so chili was out. So, I thought I would do a brisket - some sort of bbq beef  - good for a late in the day tailgate - but that would involved me going to the store the night before , getting the brisket, and getting it in the oven for its long low cook - which I did not do.

I got up in time for game day, and then started watching some game - the time ticking by to me to decide what to do, when Neil just chimed in with KFC was fine with him. Lazy man's tailgate it was. And the most fun I have had in a good long while watching our game.

" I gave up, you did , too "

I realized as that game clock ran down that UGA fans are not accustomed to winning games like that - no , we won't score in the final minute of the game. We will give it our best Mark Richt try, then hug he coach across the field, and pray with the team to accept this loss. But that is not what happened - GEORGIA showed some spunk - they wanted to win! And win they did. Yes, it was just ( just ) Missouri, but it was a change of corse, a change of mindset , or at least that is what it looked like to me. And it felt great!

We may be having lazy man's tailgate more often. It is a lot of food, some twenty dollar deal - we had it for supper the next night as well.