Bush Wins and a Weekend Trip

Yeah he won. He won big. Now we get to listen to 4 more years of the wacky conspiracy theories emanating from the Democrats. Am I missing something? Didn't the wacko conspiracy nuts used to be Republicans?

I took a trip this weekend up to visit relatives in northern Iowa. The first night I went with my grandparents to a church supper at the Methodist church in Livermore, Ia. They served turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, corn and numerous salads. For desert they had a choice of a dozen different kinds of pie. It was really cool because I have spent a lot of time in the church over the years when visiting my grandparents. I knew quite a few people there. Also I spent a couple days helping paint the church back in the late 80's.

The next day I went to a small town called Ledyard and spent an afternoon with my Great Aunt and Uncle. My second cousin also came down to visit. He lives just up the street from them. Ledyard is pretty much the place our family moved after we left North Carolina after the Civil War. We got there at about 11 AM. We had coffee and cookies. At noon we sat down to a dinner of baked chicken (recipe below), squash, baked potatoes, broccoli salad and apple crisp with ice cream. It was absolutely wonderful. The chicken was so delicious that my head promptly exploded.

After I glued my head back together we sat and talked for a little while. Then we drove up to Elmore Minnesota for coffee. They took me on a tour of the town. My grandparents were along as well. As it turns out, Elmore is the boyhood home of Walter Mondale. In fact, he has been named the 'favorite son' of Elmore. I think I would be pretty pissed if my home town christened as favorite son some guy who lost an election in one of the biggest landslides ever. Also there is a naughty boy's home in Elmore. They named the naughty-boy's auditorium after Mondale. His name is plastered on the side of it in 4 foot high letters. I tried to get my grandfather to have his picture taken in front of the auditorium but he refused.

Last year one of the naughty boys escaped and ran to Ledyard. He stole my great uncle's truck and drove to South Dakota. He left the truck and didn't hurt it at all so no harm done. He ran it out of gas though.

Besides stealing trucks, the naughty boys of Elmore run a coffee shop in the Elmore Grocery on highway 169. We stopped in for coffee. When we entered the most amazing thing happened. The women automatically split off from the men and went to join a table of women. The coffee shop was segregated by sex automatically! I guess I haven't been in any small town coffee shops for quite some time. It was pretty neat. We got to meet the people of the town and have conversations etc. I heard a lot of funny stories.

When I was up there I collected quite a few new recipes, including one for Klubb. Klubb is a Norwegian dish. It has potato dumplings that are boiled in ham broth. My great grandparents used to drive from Ledyard to a neighboring town for church suppers whenever they served Klubb. I haven't made it yet but I plan to soon.

At the end of our visit my second cousin gave me a badass hat. It is a Stormy Kromer. It is an awesome wool hat that has ear flaps. I love it so much that I am buying people Stormy Kromer's for Christmas this year. It is a cult hat. You can learn all about the brotherhood at The Official Stormy Kromer Website. To repay his kindness I bought a Buck knife that I will be sending him in the mail shortly.

Here is the recipe for the chicken:

Great Aunt Darlene's Mushroom Chicken

4 large or 6 medium chicken breasts
1 can cream of mushroom soup
3 oz can of sliced mushrooms with liquid
1 C sour cream
½ c cooking sherry

Place uncooked chicken breasts in baking dish. Combine rest of ingredients and pour over chicken. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake uncovered for 1 to 1 ½ hours (probably 1 ½ or more) at 350.