Thursday, November 26, 2009

MMMmmmm Good

Team Jones is doing ten pounds of bone-in picnic pork roast.

Peel and cut four apples into rings (red delicious this year).

Sea salt and coarse ground pepper

1/2 cup fresh pressed cider
tbsp extra virgin olive oil
tbsp BRUTAL oak aged balsamic vinegar
tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
teaspoon soy sauce
dash tabasco

1/3 cup dried ground onion (we forgot to buy a fresh sweet onion)
tbsp garlic powder (you can use cloves of garlic, but powder seems to work better in the slow cooker)
dash paprika
dash ginger
two scruples parsley flakes (gives contrast to dried chopped onions/forms nice coating on meat)

Some recipes call for putting in two bay leaves and removing them after some time interval. The last two times I tried this, I left them in too long and was not impressed with the result.

To cook:

Get all your ingredients located. Locate the meat thermometer. Go down to your daughter’s room and steal back your heavy gauge extension cord so you can put the six quart crock pot on the end of the long kitchen bar.

Sear the meat in a dutch oven. You want it smoking hot with just enough oil to coat the bottom of the oven. The roast will shed enough fat to do the rest of the job. Have your big honking fork and heavy mitts on hand (so to speak) BEFORE dropping the meat in.

Mix the wet and dry spices and set aside.

Turn on the crock pot - set for “High” tempature for 3 hours.

Place 3/4 of the apples in the bottom of the pot.

Take the seared roast out of the dutch oven and place on a cookie sheet or platter. Rub pepper and salt to taste (less salt is always better - look at all the other spices already in the broth). I fork the heck out of the meat, and cut a shallow slit in the top as well, to allow the spices to penetrate. Fat side up with pork, always.

Place meat on top of apples, skin/fat side up. Place remaining apples on sides/top of meat.

Pour spice broth over meat, cover, and cook on “high” for 2-3 hours, then reduce to low heat for about 3-4 additional hours, until a meat thermometer pushed to center of roast reads 150f. According to some recipes you may remove from heat now and let stand, and then serve when temp reaches 160f. We usually leave the roast in until the temp actually registers 160f.

Make sure to argue with your spouse about whether or not to reduce the fat that will accumulate in the pot; every body needs a Thanksgiving tradition, you know.

Serves four adults with generous leftovers for sammiches.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Warning Order

Weather permitting, this Saturday morning at 0900 The Team, friends, and a random number of FYM*, will be on the ground here:


View Larger Map

We will be in the clearing shown in the center of the map, with the tube set up at about 6 o'clock oriented WSW to have the ridge as a back stop.

Yes, Virginia, it's time to shoot cannon. And Mosins. And whatever else we decide to throw in the truck.

The forecast is better than we expect for late November, but rain is still a possibility.

Anyone who is interested in this outing, or simply interested in going shooting, can contact me at tmjutahAThotmailDOTcom.

Bonus: There is a 1943 Izhevsk arsenal retired PU at the West Jordan Big 5. It is on sale at $99 dollars right now, and will be marked down to $89 from 0500 to 0900 on Black Friday. This rifle has excellent rifling, a pristine, compound radius crown, and I believe that the stock is custom to this action. By this I mean that the wood to metal fit exceeds any example of Mosin I've seen to date, that key dimensions are "fat", most notably the wrist and fore end diameters, and finally that I think the wood may not be birch but some other hard wood. The shellac finish is very well done, with no flaking.

The receiver marks are clear, with a lined-out seven digit serial number on the left side above the wood. There are the typical welded holes visible through the open receiver. Matching numbers throughout, including the bolt. It appears to me that the straight bolt handle was attached to the originial sniper bolt. I have never felt an action so smooth on a Mosin. I didn't have my scale with me, but the trigger felt like it broke clean at somewhere around four pounds - sweetly clean, too.

I have called a few friends about this one but money is tight. I also found a 1935 Tula retired PE in Sugar House today, and it did follow me home. I considered trying to sell Mrs. Tmj on getting both rifles, but she remembered that there are already two 1943 Ishevsk retired PU's downstairs.

Happy Thanksgiving to you!

Keep your powder dry.


*Fine Young Men. The Goddesses always have a few following them around.

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Blink

Jerry Pournelle has observations on last night's house vote here.

I left my some opinions here.

My wife of twenty one years will not speak of politics or the economy with me any more. She will not understand that “Healthcare” isn’t about care, it is just another brick thrown on the back of a national economy and society about to break.

I have failed as a husband here; I cannot protect my family from a threat they will not see.

Friday, November 06, 2009

Range Day

I will be at the Lee Kay Hunter Education Center in West Valley City tomorrow, hopefully arriving between noon and one.

My veterinarian friend is coming out (if he's not needed in surgery) with his P17 and my partner from work will be there around two as well. No word at this time if Mrs. Utah will be up to a session or not, or if the Goddesses or their Fine Young Men are interested and/or available, either.

I will shoot. I will coach. I will not think much, frankly.

What a week this has been.

God bless the dead of Ft. Hood, and may He keep and comfort the survivors and the wounded.

God help us all in this country under siege. We are a nation bending dangerously under the weight of an evil and corrupt administration. We are a society weakened by generations of sloth and ignorance and these are sins that will be paid for.

We will bear the burden of a defeat by retreat in this round of the war against Islamist fascism. Our elected representatives fully intend to shove this war behind socialized health care and American Idol.

Our economy and our freedom are under attack. The crises are upon us, and they are indeed just too "good" to waste. In 1982 unemployment topped ten percent but 83 and 86 saw tremendous growth... after tax cuts, easing of government regulation across many sectors of the economy, the dawn of the information age, and most importantly the appeal from the chief executive to the citizenry to be Citizens.

The Obama insurgency is not about any of that. Incompetence or mere corruption would be bad enough but this administration truly sees itself as the instrument that will end the republic. Make no mistake about that.


God bless and keep you in the dark, dark days ahead.