Fournet's Fast Fish Chowder

I’ve never posted, nor even thought of posting a recipe, but the following spontaneous combination was so tasty and quick that I felt I really should share it.

I got a hankering Friday for some protein and we were fresh out of franks. We were also low on some other key provisions, so I started scrounging around the pantry and the Frigidaire. I rustled up the ingredients in the photo here, including a pot o' brown rice I’d cooked earlier. When I saw the foil pack of Salmon, an idea popped into my brain that it would go well with the potato & leek soup. So I put them all together, added a dash of Tabasco, and commenced chowing down on Fournet’s Fast Fish Chowder. Oh, yeah!

That evening, Andrea steamed up some broccoli and cauliflower and added that to a bigger batch on the same basic theme. I thought of adding canned crab, but we were out. The proportions of ingredients are as you like it.

In case the photo isn't clear, the ingredients are:

Wild caught pink salmon in foil pack
Creamy potato leek soup
Brown Rice
Pepper and/or hot sauce to taste
Vegetables (optional)

The crackers were served on the side.

My wife Andrea and I spent a delightful time Friday and Saturday (Nov. 2 & 3) as guests of the Bracken’s at The Canebake on Fort Gibson Lake in northeastern Oklahoma. Andrea and Bryan, her senior yoga teacher at The Arkansas Yoga Center will be conducting a “New Year’s Revolution” workshop there in January.

We ambled down the hill Saturday morning to a series of clear, quiet ponds. I caught about a dozen bass and sunfish as the kingfishers performed aerobatic stunts over the pond named after them. We love Fayetteville, but we didn't want to leave. Part of me is still on that dock.

The maples are starting to blush in northwest Arkansas. I've heard the distinctive call of the migrating white-throated sparrows recently. I think they're hanging around until the colors peak and the temperature gets frostier. This is my first experiment with an e-mail blog posting, a feature pointed out to me in preparation for a Barbara Sher WriteSpeak teleconference workshop tomorrow. The workshop has already begun.

My wife and I found a shower door latch today at Home Depot for $1.87 + tax. The old one had broken. The shower door would come open even when we weren’t making whoopee in the shower. We’ve never done that in the shower, but it was annoying all the same. We estimate that the door and latch are 52 years old, about the same age as she and I. We high-fived the clerk and made loud and joyful sounds when he directed us to the new one. He was pleased. We were pleased. It was a pleasant experience. Our shower door stays shut again. I had previously cleaned the cancerous oxidation on the door using a wire brush and Diet Pepsi. My wife was satisfied. We saved over a hundred or two dollars by keeping the original door. Yee ha. This is my first posting in 8 months. I'm as rusty as that old latch. This was an old latch dispatch from Dave. Have mercy.

Any guesses what this might be?

The follow-up photo will reveal what it is, but probably not why it is.

As part of my ongoing multi-media education, one of my goals is to post a video or a link to a video on this blog. It's a seven second clip from family movies (with the end cut off for some unknown reason. Perhaps the YouTube was tied).

I'll try a link first:

An early duet with Adele & Dave

O.K. that worked for me. Let's see if I can embed the video.



Well, I'll be. It's a start. Maybe tomorrow I can shoot some video of the snow-covered landscape of Fayetteville, Arkansas, my hometown.

I came across these enlightening opportunities. If I don’t figure out how to make the links lively, you can cut and paste one at a time into your browser for more information:

"World Wide Mind," the premiere episode of 22nd Century, a new PBS series, will air Wednesday, January 17, 2007, at 8:00 p.m. EST.

[7 p.m. CST on AETN in Arkansas.]

In the first episode, surgeons have implanted an electrode in an injured man's brain to allow him to communicate just by thinking about what he wants to say.

In another segment, a neurophysicist tells how he has developed bundles of wires thinner than spider webs that can be inserted into the blood vessels of human brains.

22nd Century is an innovative new PBS series about technological advances taking place today that within our lifetimes will significantly change the way humans live and interact.

http://www.pbs.org/22ndcentury/about.html


How to go to M.I.T. for free
Christian Science Monitor Jan. 4, 2007
*************************
By the end of this year, the
contents of all 1,800 courses taught
at MIT will be available online to
anyone in the world. Learners won't
have to register for the classes,
and everyone is accepted. The
OpenCourseWare movement, begun at
MIT in 2002, has now spread to some
120 other universities...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0104/p13s02-legn.html

I’m typing this on my improvised stand-up computer desk. My back complains when I sit too much, so I’m designing a computer arrangement that allows for both sitting and standing. I’ll probably build something out of wood once I figure out what heights and proportions work well. The two coolers are working well so far. There are books inside for stability.

I met with my amigo John on Thursday to compare notes on various projects and aspects of our lives. We have a lot in common and figure we can coach each other to be more productive. I found it very encouraging. This post is a direct result of our meeting. He asked me, among other things, what would be the very next action I would take if I were going to develop my skills as some kind of innovative journalist. I’m currently researching that sort of adventure as a venue for some of my creative energies.

The first thing that came to mind in response to his question was: “posting to the blog I started a while back and have ignored for months.” This is that blog and this is that posting.

If I were ultimately wise and effective, my wish would be that every thing I wrote or uploaded to this web log would be enormously life-enhancing to every reader. Short of that ideal, my intent is to put things on this page that are useful and entertaining. For now, though, I’m simply publishing this to end the drought.

Northwest Arkansas is under an ice-storm warning as I type this. My thermometer says 36F, so I don’t think the icing is imminent here. Oklahoma is apparently a bit colder and is getting quite a glazing.

Be well.