Dakota Today

** More about juicy hamburgers

About a year ago, I posted a recipe and method for making juicy non-stringy and not tough dry hamburgers, but which were also fully cooked.  The details are still in the original post which I just cleaned up a bit with better formatting and removal of a spelling error or two.

Anyway, since then a few friends and relatives have bravely rounded up the ingredients and dared to try the recipe and method.  So far, no negative reports and mostly very positive reports.  So, why not try it yourself.

Dakota Today Oct3, 2008 Juicy Burgers Recipe

** Stay tuned even if just for the golden oldies-- Doug Wiken

** This is not a beer endorsement

This morning I noticed a comment on the post relating to Palin's resignation which referred to her in passing as "Governor Moose Drool".  That was a term I think I first saw at South Dakola or in a post somewhere else.  Anyway, little did I know that I had seriously offended a micro-brewer by connecting their beer to quitter Governor Pahlin. 

 So, read the comment following that post and enjoy the logo below.   The Big Sky brewery site is interesting site even if I choose not to drink alcoholic beverages of any kind. They have a few other interestingly named brews.

  Moose Drool Beer

So much for serious site news...or not.

*** Stay tuned even if all you live to read about is Governor Pahlin and Michael Jackson-- Doug Wiken

** Consider the lowly peanut ..er.. peanut inspector

Grocers and food marketers apparently thought that the Bush administration destruction of the economy would drive consumers to peanut butter since it is a good and relatively inexpensive source of protein. Instead of increasing however, sales took a dive after reports of salmonella-tainted peanut products hit the news.

In addition to the number of illnesses and recalled products, the outbreak has created a furor because of the importance of peanut butter in the American diet. On average, each American eats three pounds of peanut butter a year. Market research firms said that peanut butter sales dropped sharply in January. Information Resources data shows a drop of 24 percent in unit sales in the four weeks leading up to Jan. 25, compared with the period a year earlier; another firm, Nielsen, shows a year-over-year decline in unit sales of 22 percent in the four weeks leading up to Jan. 24. The numbers reflect only the first few weeks of the outbreak; more recent numbers, when the recalls have greatly expanded, were not available. Besides the newspaper ads, the makers of Jif, Skippy and Peter Pan peanut butter have placed pop-up messages on their Web sites telling customers that their products are not part of the outbreak or recall.
NY Times on Peanut Butter sales drop and TV Ads

Now, I do wonder if the food business thinks we should have fewer and fewer government inspectors and just let the market take care of problems. I also wonder sometimes about the sanity of the ideological market freaks and narrow libertarians who ignore all kinds of evidence indicating the need for government regulations.

The sad truth is that with big corporations capable of such market penetration that their screwups can poison people all across the country, we need a big government to control big corporate abuse. Too big to let fail, is related to so big they can poison people all across the country if not regularly inspected and controlled by big government.

*** Stay tuned even if you can resist peanut butter and South dakota Clover honey on fresh bread--- Doug Wiken

*** Rulle Polse or healthy Pizza?

Too many years ago, my oldmaid aunt Ida made some of the best homemade bread in the world, and now and then Rulle Polse which is a meat roll with beef flank as the base. Perhaps making one of the best sandwiches in South Dakota. I had a rough idea what was in it, but not for sure.

 My son was asking about "rolled post" which might be what somebody unfamiliar with it would guess was the name. My brother got most of my mother's recipes, and he had an idea, so one of these days if I remember, I will get a recipe for that into Dakota Today. But for now, it is easier to copy and post what is supposed to be a healthier pizza crust with increased anti-oxidants.

 My guess is that making healthier pizza is a lot easier than making a meat roll that requires some serious preparation, baking or boiling, pressing and cooling, etc. So for now, take a look at the "Whole Wheat Pizza Crust" from the University of Maryland lab of Professor Lucy Yu in the continuation of this post.

 Also, recent studies suggest that sulfenic acid resulting from the breakdown of a compound allicin in garlic is what makes it such an effective anti-oxidant. Check the SCIENCE DAILY for more stories like these.

***Stay tuned for what's cooking in politics with no anti-oxidant benefits whatsoever-- Doug Wiken

** Happy New Year from Dakota Today

Another year nearly here. Hope 2009 is a happy one for you and your family and friends.

Hope too that a new US President can unscrew some of the messes left by the intellectually corrupt Bush Administration. South Dakota and other parts of the country as well will be searching for money in depressing times in order to make up for the funds previous administrations had used to aid states, but which Bush-Cheney decided could be better used screwing up Iraq even more than had Sad. Hussein.

 I am tired of Winter 2008 and hope the part of it that drags into 2009 will be moderate. Not wishing for perfect or ideal, just moderate.

 DRIVE SOBER TONIGHT. Better yet, just stay home and relax. There is probably no other night of the year that is better suited for sitting home and watching other crazies on TV or listening to radio as they celebrate an otherwise irrelevant day.

 

**Stay tuned, more important news to follow when I get some more information dug out of the SD cracks and crevices covered with political blather-- Doug Wiken

**A few words for the day 12-27-2008

 

First, a few words for 12-27-2008:

Chase,gapes,Rabin,event,award,,latte,Watson,ire, lie,feasted, Sid,Yankee,Betty,Tulane, sec,nostril,Ira,are,Korean,sidle,passe,Anton,enter,loops, and stars.

 You might be able to guess there is not a lot of news in the paper. Weather is tolerable today. Wind not blowing 40mph and temperature is a sunny 22 or so. Relatives are on the way, so we will be eating too much later this afternoon. Wife and daughter are good cooks which is both a blessing and a curse if one needs to diet.
 My daughter can write pretty well too, I keep trying to get her convinced she needs to write a cookbook to add to the list of several thousand that already exist.

 So, hope you will have a very good new year. 2009 will at least not have an active Bush curse on it. The last eight years have been a real continuing presidential nadir for the USA. Digging out of that hole will take years.

 While you ponder that, consider as one of my neighbors suggested, the idea that the US Treasury dumped money into forgiving student loans and providing funding for college students instead of dumping billions of dollars into the hands of greedy and or corrupt bankers and brokers without even so much as an obligation to report how the taxpayer generosity was used and abused.

 Why sure, we all wanted more executives to get  bonuses. How can they be expected to live without millions in salary and bonuses. Ah, let the students eat beans and work 80 hours a week. It all helps with the GOP version of class warfare. Make the already rich even richer. It just has to work. Slash the taxes on highest incomes too.
*** Stay tuned for more coherence and less rambling...a form of blessed relief and you don't even need to say, "Help, I have fallen and I can't reach my lawyer." -- Doug Wiken

** Mayo is on sale in Winner,SD for $3.00 and yes, Virginia, There is Chinese Food.

Big news on the grocery front..about all the news there is in Winner, is that Kraft Real Mayo is on sale until tomorrow perhaps for $3.00 per 32 oz. Less than half the $6.74 or so they were asking a few weeks ago. Make salad while the snow flies.

 The other foodish news here is a closed  restaurant has just been opened again but this time as a Chinese food restaurant. Place looked crowded tonight. My wife heard good reports from co-workers.

 But alas, my guess is the place will close before we ever enter it as that has happened already to several cafes and restaurants since we moved here. My wife is just too good a cook and we..er I...am spoiled.
 ***Stay tuned even if this is making you hungry--- Doug Wiken

*** Happy Banksgiving..er Thanksgiving

Seriously, Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who have either sufficiently poor taste or enough tolerance to now and then take a look at Dakota Today.

 The local school district helped cover the front page of the local paper "Thanksgiving" edition today. The school powers that be want to opt out of the tax freeze for something in the neighborhood of $900,000 and frankly I don't know if that is total or amount for one year or for how many years. Might screw out another buck or so an acre from rural land.

 Not sure why there is a need for that. It is claimed to result because of a drop in the total number of students and thus of state aid. High fixed costs must be a part of the problem. I remember that one of the arguments proponents of building  projects used for Winner Schools was the projected growth in student numbers. Apparently like most of the arguments used, it was also total BS.

 Only one of the local banks is part of a national chain, and it is unlikely that the roof is high enough for any spectacular suicide jumps in light of the current bank bailout fiascos. I read a bit of data a couple days ago indicating that the Bush Administration is dumping enough money into Citibank or Citigroup to have bought all the common stock at the roughly $5.00 a share price a few days ago. There is something rotten and it just isn't in Denmark anymore.

 A local wag..not me..was wondering if Janklow managed to get rid of all his Citibank stock or if he let them decline in value in his cold hands. He was also cogitating about Banksgiving instead of thanksgiving, so most of this post is actually his fault. I have learned a lot from George Bush after all.

 But, eat enough turkey or ham, but not too much. Remember there are bankers in need of $25 Billion ...and that is a lot of turkeys.

 

***Stay tuned even if all you hear or read is the equivalent of gobble, gobble, gobble-- Doug Wiken

** Recipe: Pineapple frosted cookies

57FIND Re, ZiSD, Yo 57FIND. My wife decided since I have had a miserable cold and cough and am slowly recovering, she might bake some cookies that I could actually taste through the condition my condition is in. It is an old recipe she got years ago from her Aunt Maybelle who I think got it from Mary Rutherford of Winner, SD. Anyway, their recipes have lived beyond them. This cookie is not a dieter's special as it is loaded with fats and sugars.

 Today was the day for the South Dakota blogger pheasant hunting expedition near Holabird, SD. Road conditions, weather and my cold and cough convinced me to stay mighty close to a coffee pot today. Had I gone, I might have taken a sack of these cookies along. Below is the recipe:

Pineapple Cookies recipe from Wanda's Aunt Maybelle Wilcox

Cookie Mixture

1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2/3 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 cup crushed pineapple from large can
1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in pineapple juice
------------------
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped walnut

Cream sugar and shortening with mixer.
  Add eggs and beat well

Strain the large can of pineapple and add 1 cup of the
crushed pineapple fruit/pulp to mixture.
Add dissolved soda
Add Flour, salt, vanilla
Mix in chopped walnut meat

Drop spoonsfull on cookie sheet
Bake at 375 F for 8 to 10 minutes on metal cookie sheet
or for around 12 minutes if on baking stoneware.

Frosting

6 Tablespoons Butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 Tablespoons hot pineapple juice

Melt and brown butter. Add about 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
to make easily spreadable frosting.
Add vanilla and hot pineapple juice.

Spread cookies with frosting.  This is not a recipe for calorie counters,
but cookies sure are good with a cup of coffee or glass of milk...or
eaten like candy.

Wanda Wiken.  Winner, South Dakota     November 9, 2008

Download pineapple_cookies_frosted.rtf

That is about all that passes for news here today.  Temperature may finally have gotten above freezing for a few hours.  Watched Sabbath Gasbags this morning.
More on that tonight or tomorrow.

***Stay tuned even if you are a Norwegian-American and have given up hope of ever seeing a lutefisk and lefse eater occupy the White House--- Doug Wiken

**Don't buy your Mayo in Winner, SD

A few days ago, I paid $6.24 for 32 oz of Kraft Real Mayonnaise. I really did want something to lubricate some dry bread and lunch meat. Not a real good article for a healthy diet, but worked with what was available. I was a bit astonished by the price of $6.24 at Winner Foods, but such surprises are not uncommon here. Winner, SD has been labeled a "grocery desert" by a college rating system. I guess that means not so great variety with desert oasis prices.

 Just for curiosity sake, I checked Sam's Club prices for the Rapid City store. Now, I am not driving out there to buy some mayo, but the comparison is interesting anyway. One gallon of Kraft Mayo; ie four times as much as that in the container I bought at Winner Foods for $6.24, is apparently $7.84 in Rapid City. I don't know if that is a regular price or not however.
 Rapid City Sam's Club One Gallon Kraft Real Mayo

A friend checked prices of Kraft Mayo in Iowa (where there also is no sales tax on food) at a Fairway store in Spirit Lake or Spencer (not sure) total price was $3.74 for the same container of Kraft Mayo that cost $6.24 here with a total including tax of $6.67.
 I can understand a few cents difference on the price of a food product in an area with lower sales volume, but I don't see justification for doubling or tripling prices. State government propagandists like to blather on about low cost of living in South Dakota. They must never buy groceries in small towns like Winner, SD.

** Stay tuned even if you are now drooling at the thought of some salty greasy sliced meat, a slab of cheese, a pickle or two, and a few tablespoons of mayonnaise lathered on bread washed down with a hot cup of coffee white with cream...I gotta quit typing--- Doug Wiken