MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year... too. May there be lots of yella in your pan.

Don't eat too much or take too many naps.

Enjoy your families and friends.

Dickb

Back at cha Dick and to everyone!

Well today the reason for the season is upon us all. Merry Christmass and happy New Year to all!

Hey Dickb, Russ, everyone...

I am up early today.................Christmas Day............drinking hot coffee, tending my roasty warm wood stove here in my Man Cave.........looking out at the 3 inches of new snow...

Wishing EVERYONE a super, duper Christmas 2015!!!  

Hope everyone gets some gold in their stockings...........and not a lump of coal.  

God bless,

Randy Witham  "C-17A"  

P.S. A little bit of Christmas trivia for you:

How Scrooge Saved Christmas

Christmas was being scrooged out of existence.....until a ghost story came along to save it.

Everyone knows about Ebenezer Scrooge. He's that cold hearted miser who won't let his employee, Bob Cratchit, celebrate Christmas. Fortunately, on Christmas Eve, the ghost of his partner, Jacob Marley, and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come give Scrooge such a fright that he reforms and changes his money-grubbing ways. Okay, you know the story. But did you know that the tale of Scrooge not only changed the celebration of Christmas, it probably saved it from extinction?

On December 19, 1843, a slim, gilt-edged book, A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, appeared in London bookshops. In that same year, no one wished each other a Merry Christmas. They'd probably never even heard the phrase. And Christmas itself had long since waned. Oliver Cromwell and his Puritans considered it a pagan holiday and in the 1640s began to pass various acts to restrict the celebration of Christmas. Even after the monarchy was restored in 1660 and many of the laws repealed, Christmas had been delivered a severe setback.

By winter 1843, the Industrial Revolution was hammering the final nails in the Christmas coffin. Folks had migrated to cities. The old country Christmas that had been celebrated for 12 festive days was already gone. Most urban employers, like old Scrooge, weren't about to give workers even one day off just to have a party with their families. The dying traditions of Christmas, it seemed, would soon be a quaint part of England's history-if they were remembered at all.

When Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, he made a plea for the renewal of the customs his own father had known--spiced wine punch, roast goose, and the warmth of Yule logs on a snowy Christmas night. But like Scrooge, what he hoped for was profit from his holiday tale. Dickens's parents had never been as warm and loving as the Cratchits.

When Charles was 12, his careless father went to debtors' prison, and Dickens labored in a rat-infested boot-blacking factory. The dark memory made the author a reformer of workhouses and child labor laws. It helped him value family celebrations like the one he created in A Christmas Carol. It also made him desperate to be as rich as Scrooge.

In his push to make A Christmas Carol a best seller, Dickens gave readings of his little book, sometimes for charity, often for a fee. Dickens was a wonderful storyteller and his readings did as much for Christmas as they did for his bank balance. "I feel," one factory owner said, "that after listening to Mr. Dickens's reading of A Christmas Carol tonight, I should break the custom we have hitherto observed of opening the works on Christmas Day."

As A Christmas Carol became beloved throughout the English-speaking world, Dickens's idea of how to celebrate Christmas caught on. People couldn't spend 12 days at it, but, like Bob Crachit, they could wish each other Merry Christmas. They could spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with their families. They could strive for good times and goodwill.

In 1870, so the story goes, a Cockney girl heard that Dickens was dead. She gasped, "Dickens dead? Then will Father Christmas die too?" The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come would have been happy to tell her that Father Christmas would remain alive and well all thanks to Charles Dickens.

---------------- So, Merry Christmas to all!

Merry Christmas Randy:

That story seems to ring true in our times as well. Sad how greed never goes on vacation.

On a happier note, I have a large pork roast smoking over apple wood as I type this and about 6PM we will be having our Christmas Feast and a small portion of libation as well. We had a very good year and have lots to be thankful for.

Cheers from our house to all the members and their families and friends. May they have a prosperous new year,............ if they are allowed.

Dickb

Hi all:

Well a short report on Christmas dinner. IT WAS GREAT!

Was that short enough?

It's amazing what 6 hours of apple wood smoke will do for meat. The pork roast was moist and tender, the mashed potatoes with garlic and butter added to the meal along with roasted veggies and apple sauce. Hot buttered rolls and a green salad finished the food portion of the meal and a little Chianti red wine completed the meal.
Now add family and friends and what could be better. We all had a great time.  

Can't wait for NEW YEARS DAY.

I hope Santa was good to you all.

Dickb

Dickb,

Yep.......... One awesome short dinner report! Sounded GREAT!

Now, makes me want to pull out my smoker from the garage and put 12 hours of love into a big pork butt with apple wood smoke.

We did a feast of King Crab legs & garlic butter.............and marinated venison medallions grilled with a small strip of bacon on top. Was super yummy too.

Randy "C-17A"

My favorite way to cook deer chops is outside on my pit with Hickory lump charcoal and baste it in butter and garlic salt and don't over cook deer! It has had people licking their fingers for many years. BUT that's when I used to hunt!

Russ,

Ha. Not to worry...........I have learned to marinate well and cook almost none.

My venison medallions are about 1/2 inch think and 3 to 4 inches around.... I grill them on high heat for only a couple minutes a side, grill the bacon, combine the two.....enjoy. The middle of each medallion is still reddish/dark pink and the two outer layers are kinda gray/brown.

I make a dipping sauce out of 1/2 cube cream cheese, a splash of milk, several finely chopped garlic cloves and some salt. I heat it slowly on the stove until it's a melted, bubbly consistency. Awesome!

Randy "C-17A"

Well, It seems that prospectors also like to cook!

Certainly nothing wrong with that and might even make the little lady happy too,

Dickb