Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Five

[spinnaker2]

9 hours ago, frantic36 said:

A couple of weeks ago I bumped into a friend who has the same breed dog I had before but I hadn't seen her for over 18 months so I told her the sad news of losing my two boys. She was very sad about the news. A couple of hours later she came to my house to let us know she had been told about a breeder who had Jap Spitz puppies he was about to put up for sale. So we had to go and look. After a few days hesitation we couldn't resist.

 

Our Finn arrived on Monday. He is 10 weeks old.

 

He has been learning quickly and I am getting used to waking a couple of times at night for toileting. He is worth the tiredness and I know it won't last long.

Beautiful pup!!!

[frantic36]

Just now, spinnaker2 said:

Beautiful pup!!!

 

 

Thank you. I am loving your beautiful photos of your cruise and so happy that you and your husband are getting to be spoilt by the crew onboard.

[mysty]

Greetings Coolers!

 

Today's funny.....

 

 

Have a great safe fun day all!

[Host Jazzbeau]

[Host Jazzbeau]

[mysty]

Greetings Coolers!

 

Today's funny.....

 

 

Have a great safe fun day all!

[mysty]

Things are about to get busy for Myster and me.  We are hoping to visit our kids and grandkids for the holidays.  All digits crossed that this can happen.  Posts, if any, will be sporadic.  I wanted to send the Cooler denizens and lurkers my best wishes for the merriest of holidays and my hopes for a brighter and more joyful 2022.  Find the joy folks!

 

[highplanesdrifters]

Mysty you are missed. So I stepped up to the plate.

[mysty]

9 minutes ago, highplanesdrifters said:

Mysty you are missed. So I stepped up to the plate.

 

Good Job HPD!  Love it!  And thank you for taking my shift!  😁

[Fletcher]

Tonight I did a seriously laborious dish, based on a recipe from Simon Hopkinson.  You take a ham hock, bring it up to the boil in water, wait for all the scum, then skim and drain it and return to the pot.  Refill with fresh water, bring to the boil, add cider, onions, cloves, carrots, leeks, celery, bouquet garni.  Cover with a cartouche and simmer for two hours.  Then drain and discard all the vegetables.  Return the hock and most of the stock to the pot and keep warm.  Then put some green split peas which have already been soaked for 2 hours into a pot with some of the hock stock (!) and cook for 45 minutes.  Then put some chantenay carrots and leeks into another pot with butter and more of that darned hock stock (!!) and cook for 25 minutes.  Finally, roughly carve up the hock, arrange the vegetables and serve with English mustard and, possibly, an artisan cider or a decent Alsace-style wine.   It's less effort to cook a turkey and all the trimmings.

 

Edited December 18, 2021 by Fletcher

[jpalbny]

@Fletcher, that dish sounds very good! Kind of like a fancied-up version of split-pea soup, but with more meat and some nice vegetables to accompany it. I hope that you made extra and have some leftovers.

 

I cooked up some beef shanks for dinner. They had been sitting in the freezer for months, since I found them on sale and stored them away some time this past summer.

 

After a sear I sautéed some onions in the same pot, deglazed with a little vinegar, then all went together in the pressure cooker with some homemade duck and chicken broth, for 90 minutes. After the meat cooled, I broke it into pieces and then I cooked some mushrooms and onion, poured in the broth from the instant pot, and thickened with a little butter and flour. A little demiglace made it look more like beef broth.

 

The combo was very nice over mashed potatoes. A nice cold-weather dish.

 

Edited December 19, 2021 by jpalbny

[Host Jazzbeau]

@jpalbny you haven't seen my DW's pea soup, or you wouldn't have said that @Fletcher's dish has more meat!  And she tells me it's a lot less work that his recipe.  [Also if you get tired while eating it, you can just stand the spoon up in the bowl!]

 

She and a friend outdid themselves this afternoon, making Spanakopita from a recipe given out by the Greek ladies at the church where our Learning-In-Retirement group meets.  It was delicious, but she'll never do it again [too much work].

[Fletcher]

6 hours ago, jpalbny said:

@Fletcher, that dish sounds very good! Kind of like a fancied-up version of split-pea soup, but with more meat and some nice vegetables to accompany it. I hope that you made extra and have some leftovers.

 

Thanks JP.   Your beef dish looks tasty.  The ham hock thing gets made into lunchtime soup the next day by simmering the stock and split peas, blitzing it in a liquidiser, adding cream and some shredded meat.

[highplanesdrifters]

Your regularly scheduled Mysty programing will return soon.

[mysty]

32 minutes ago, highplanesdrifters said:

Your regularly scheduled Mysty programing will return soon.

 

Thank you HPD for picking up the slack with a gem!  😁

[Reef Knot]

This is so bad but I still laugh

[mysty]

Thanks to HPD and Reef for filling the void!  Much appreciated and now I may have to look for a new gig!  😁  I can access the internet.  I just don't have access to my stash of funnies.  Yours are more than filling the bill!

[highplanesdrifters]

13 hours ago, mysty said:

Thanks to HPD and Reef for filling the void!  Much appreciated and now I may have to look for a new gig!  😁  I can access the internet.  I just don't have access to my stash of funnies.  Yours are more than filling the bill!

Oh no, this is just a temp gig for me. Your shoes are too big to fill.

[highplanesdrifters]

[mysty]

3 minutes ago, highplanesdrifters said:

Oh no, this is just a temp gig for me. Your shoes are too big to fill.

 

I hope you're not suggesting that I have big feet!  🤣  Okay, well I do wear a 7.5 or 8.  Maybe big feet for a short woman. 😅

[Reef Knot]

It's going that way

[drron29]

An unfortunate sign.

Edited December 21, 2021 by drron29
deleted

[drron29]

[drron29]

[Daveywavey70]

5 hours ago, drron29 said:

Keith Moon and the rest of the Who stayed here in my Hotel in the late 60s and when they checked out he had left a little gift for the then very straight laced owner. He left his underpants on top of the flagpole. Needless to say, when she found them a week later she wasn’t very impressed.