Sorry for the lapse in posts lately.  I actually have a ton of things I want to get up for all of you, but have been consumed by personal issues that have to be handled in a very expedient manner for our move to Alaska.  I hope to have a lull in this personal activity in the next few days and a little time to post some of the recipes I’ve been working on over the past few weeks.

In the mean time, thanks for your understanding.  CbsoP is very much still here, just a bit sidetracked at the moment.

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Completely un-food related, but such a memorable experience that I had to share!

This is Stumpy.  He’s been a fixture in my yard for a year now. Sort of like an unwelcome relative who’s overstayed their welcome, Stumpy has been cluttering the corner of my front lawn, constantly reminding me of just how badly I wanted him gone.

This week was it.  I decided Stumpy and I finally had to go our separate ways. My lawn needed to be a place of joy, serenity and a lack of stumps, so I started digging stumpy out.

It was a long process and was progressing little by little and day by day.  My boys and I would dig, chop and muck for an hour or two, satisfied in the knowledge that Stumpy was just a little closer to gone.  I was at it again on Friday morning, about 40 minutes in, and at the three-quarter finished mark when something randomly wonderful occurred.

A delivery driver with a massive forklift stopped in front of the house and offered to give stumpy a boost.  Mind you, this was happy news to the sweaty guy with axe in-hand who was whacking away at yet another huge root.  Even if the man only got the tree a little looser, life would be a LOT easier, so I said sure!

I mean really; How often does someone with a very expensive piece of equipment stop and offer to help you with a really nasty project out of the kindness of their heart, at no cost, when they should just be getting back to the office?  It isn’t an offer I’m going to pass up.

So massive forklift met massive tree in a fairly epic battle.  For a few minutes it looked like Stumpy would come out the winner, but he eventually succumbed to the sheer might of the two-tined tree killer.  But not without getting some measure of vengeance on us for the audacity of clearing him out.  He took my water main with him. Read more…

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Today is a very bittersweet occasion here at the CbsoP campus.  It marks the end of the most remarkable time that we have had as a family in our new home and the beginning of something greater.  It was a day full of laughter and tears.  It was a time for new traditions and memories. Today is the day that my wife returned to Turkey.

It was about ice cream for breakfast.  Lots of it. With whipped cream. It was about memories of the past two and a half weeks of fun, food and bonding that we did not have the chance to do as a family when we moved in.  For the first time in the history of our family the four men of the Russell household bade farewell to our home’s most important member as she left to do something greater than even she believes she is doing.

Her time here wasn’t wasted.  There was a flurry of cooking, with recipes from the Far East, the Mediterranean, South America and the Deep South.  There were oohs and ahhhs from everyone over one dish or another, and many will be featured here in the next few days.

We laughed.  A lot.  We bonded.  We spent time together and went to events.  We cried.  In short, we relived the last seven months of our lives in a very short time. “Mom” the myth became “Mom, the nurturing mother.”; no longer just a face on a computer screen.

The kids love her.  I love her.  We all miss her to the point of insanity. Suddenly losing a mother does that to kids… Especially when that mother is a very, very good one.  But in the process she has given us a whole new family tradition.

Ice cream for breakfast.

From this point in time forward, if ever there is a time when one family member will be away for a long period of time, there will be ice cream for breakfast.  There will be laughter and stories and good wishes.  Because the alternative is gloomy, and this is not a conducive environment for kids.  It’s bad enough to say goodbye to your mother for 6 months without having to worry about eating a well balanced breakfast.  So why not go all the way and just go for dessert?

It works for us.

Other than that the long wait has begun again.  Until then, we will fly a yellow ribbon and wish for a safe and healthy return.

Peace out Y’All.  I’m done for the day.

Keep our men and women abroad in your thoughts and prayers.  It’s all that they ask.

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Well folks, this week is starting out on an incredibly high note.  I just got word that my wife has pushed her mid-tour visit up and will be home by the weekend!

I can’t tell you all how much this means to both myself and for my kids.  Life as a military family can be stressful, and those stresses exist here as well as in any other household separated by time, distance and duty.  The last 9 months have been difficult to say the least.

But we get her back for three weeks!

Expect a lot of gushing from me on twitter and Facebook, and most likely a slew of posts and pics here that have to do as much with food as they do with just her in general…  There may even end up being a few pictures of me thrown in for good measure, since there will be someone else around with a camera for a bit.

My wife is coming home.  At least for a little while.  Color me ecstatic.

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It’s that time of the Apocalypse calendar again.  Zombie outbreaks loom on the horizon and here at CbsoP, we take these things seriously.  In this edition I’m going to give you a few pointers for ways that common pantry items could help save you and your family during a possible zombie outbreak.  Read carefully, this information could save your life.

This information is presented in no specific order of importance.  I know that not all pantries contain the same ingredients, so I’ll try to be as general as possible, hoping that I can cover at least a few of the items that you might already have at hand during a trying time like this…

Read more…

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If you’ve been wondering whether or not I’ve taken off for a lovely all-inclusive vacation on some lovely Caribbean island, or perhaps joined a very exclusive internet free monastery you would be wrong on both counts.  I do have to say though, that either one of these things would have been far preferable to the reality of my life over the past 6 weeks or so.

Unfortunately, I’ve been ill.  first there was a staph infection and 10 days of antibiotics that laid me out on the sofa for a full 11 days.  fast forward 4 days and the infection was back, but this time it came with friends.

This put me on another round of antibiotics, plus a pretty severe regimen of  doctor visits and other unpleasantries all of which kept me from particularly caring one way or the other about eating.  My focus was sleep.  As much as I could get and as often as possible.

with the second round finally declared a success, I began making my way slowly back into life as normal, with step one being the aftermath of a semi-detached parent who has been ill for nearly a full month and-a-half.  I needed to get the house in order and that was a week long job on legs that weren’t all that steady yet.

Then, as if to add insult to injury, round three hit in the form of a rather nasty flu that’s been running around my kids’ schools for the past few weeks.  With an immune system depressed by two rounds of antibiotic treatments, I was no match for it and it took me down somewhere in the middle of last week.

As of today, I’m hopeful that I’ve licked that issue as well.  At the very least I’m excited about cooking again, so it’s a great start.  Recipes will start flowing from CbsoP’s tiny and rather outdated kitchen very soon.

It’s good to be back.

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Just a quick note to say that CBSOP turned three years old today.  I hope to be here for another three and beyond, but I wouldn’t be here doing this at all if it weren’t for all of you wonderful folks out there.

In the past three years this place has seen hundreds of posts written and hundreds of thousands of people dropping by for a dose of real food made with love, the way food should be made.  Do you have a favorite recipe from CBSOP?  Is there one stand out to you?

Have I been lax on any subjects or is there something you’d like to see covered?  If so, just let me know in the comments.  After all, this is a journey that we take together.  You have the right to give it some input as well.

Have a great day, Y’All!

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Now that we’re in the new year, I thought I’d talk a little about the direction that Cooking by the seat of my Pants will be taking this year. For this blog the theme of the year is “back to basics”.

In all my writing here I have neclected the simpler items that grace our family table, this is completely wrong, and needs to be stopped.  Who am I tho assume that everyone in the world knows how to make brown gravy, or a bechamel?

It is sometimes hard to remember what it was like when I was just starting out, when I was hungry for new methods, new basics, new tools.  I have not adequately been covering these.  In failing to do so I may have been alienating a large segment of readers.  This year I intend to correct that.

It may very well be the year that CBSOP begins a series of videos on topics as well.  I’m hoping that it is, but I’m going to have to push myself to get the first one made, then see if Y’all don’t just laugh me out of the food blogging community.

don’t get me wrong.  There will still be a bevvy of dishes that were created on-they-fly, just as there have always been.  I am, after all, the cooking by the seat of his pants guy.  I’m not going to stop throwing goodness together on a whim.  If I did that, I’d be giving all the winging it cred to No Recipes, and we can’t have that!

Having said all this, I’m currently in the middle of a super hush-hush cooking marathon that must be completed tomorrow, so expect my year-in-review posts a bit later this week. (They’re compulsory… Who am I to argue that?)

For now, Peace. I’m out.

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I’m in agreement with my good friend Peter this year.  No long speeches, no resolutions, no fuss.  Just wishes to you and yours for a very happy and safe new year.

Enjoy your celebrations and time off if you have it.  Tell your family that you love them and appreciate what you have.

One last thing from me: a very heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you for making the past year a wonderful, warm and dizzying year.  This blog would not exist without you and I never forget that.  I just don’t mention it often enough.

Happy, Happy New Year to all.

Peace. I’m Out.

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Though I must admit that the food at a tailgate party is by far my favorite part of the day, there are a few other things that the rabid fans in your group might find both fun and useful for the perfect tailgate party.  Themed party plates and banners are fun, and the die hard fan will want to be decked out in team colors with official NFL clothing and perhaps a little face paint (for the more serious fans.)

A great spread with chips and salsa, brats, dogs, burgers and assorted finger foods is a must, of course.  Your bunch may prefer subs, hogies or wings.  some would rather have a steaming bowl of chili.  I think it depends on the region and the fan, but as long as there is good food, good friends, a decent game and a lot of laughter it’s the perfect party.

I’m sure there are a few in your bunch who like to bet on football while having a few too many of their favorite beverages, and that’s just fine too as long as it’s all in fun.  After all, wh doesn’t enjoy a good wager every now and then?

What foods do you make for your tailgate parties?  I’m the chili and wings type myself, but I’m sure other people have different favorites.  Let me know in the comments and I’ll try my hand at some of those recipes between now and game season next year!

For those who like chili as much as I do, here’s a great recipe for a no-bean chili that works just as well as a hot-dog topper as it does steaming in a bowl.  Enjoy!

Southern Chili Georgia Style

Ingredients:

• 3 lb chuck,cut in chunks
• 3 tsp. vegetable oil
• 1-1/2 cup  beef broth
• 1-1/2 cup  chicken broth
• 4-1/2 tbsp  California chili powder
• 4 tbsp.  Gebhardt chili powder
• 1/2 tbsp.  New Mexico hot chili powder
• 1/2 tbsp.  chimayo chile powder
• 1/2 tbsp.  pasilla powder
• 3-1/2 tbsp.  cumin
• 1 tbsp.  granulated garlic
• 4 tsp.  onion powder
• 1/2 tbsp.  brown sugar
• 1 tsp. Tabasco or your favorite hot sauce
• 8 oz. tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup  canned diced green chilies

Method:

Brown meat and add to chili pot along with broths, tomato sauce, and green chiles. Add 2/3 of the spices. simmer for approximately two hours.

Add remaining spices. Cook 1 hr or until meat is tender. Add salt to taste.

Share and Enjoy!

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