Back to the Smokin' Sage!

Just a little note here to let you know I took my little friend by the hand last night and made a return to the Smokin'  Sage.  Selfish move on my part, but I have been craving barbeque like a house afire!  We were not disappointed.
We both had the pulled pork and it was out of this world.  I had a sauce with mine that appeared to be Jalapeno and Apricot.  They nailed it on that one!  I did not see what my friend had and it disappeared very quickly, leaving me with the impression that it must have been damn good what ever it was.
They are taking their little cart up to the Pikes Peak International Raceway next weekend.  If you get up there you better stop and tell them Lou Mercer said "Hey!"  Randy invited me, but unfortunately (?) that is the weekend I have company coming in from St. Louis so I am a homebody then.  
You know what I like best about this barbeque?  Know how some of it is really greasy?  Not this stuff.  Grease is not my friend and I think I have figured out how he does it without soaking it in grease.  See he has this grill that has baskets in it and it goes around.  Be impossible for grease to hang on to that!  My friend agrees with me on the grease thing.

I forgot to ask him what kind of wood he uses.  I will ask him next time I see him and report back in to you.

He is located right on the south side of the convenience store on the corner of Baxter and Highway 50.  Years ago Baxter used to cross 50 and go into the airport, but that was many years ago.  Anyway, he has a sign by the road, so watch for it.  Then you drive right in and get ready for a taste bud delight!  Have I ever steered you wrong on food?  Hell no!  Eating is vital to keep my little (?) body going and I do not put anything in it that does not taste good.

Now, I am thinking that winter is going to be coming along and I need to visit with them about what happens in the winter.   Pretty sure a blizzard could shut them down.  Would me.  But until then get yourself on over there and enjoy a little bit of heaven before it gets too cold.

And tell them Lou sent you!

 

 

 

Lou Mercer Words of Wisdom: The storm clouds gather...

Lou Mercer Words of Wisdom: The storm clouds gather...: One of my favorite things in life is clouds.  I have albums full of them and now I have my Picasa albums full of digital pictures.  This...

The storm clouds gather...

One of my favorite things in life is clouds.  I have albums full of them and now I have my Picasa albums full of digital pictures.

 This is a fairly harmless shot of "maybe if we get together we can make rain" clouds.

This is a shot of drifty, buttermilk looking clouds at Garden of the Gods on one of the AIDS Walks.

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This looks like it could really do something.

So anyway, you get the idea of the cloud fetish.  I want to go on record now as saying the clouds that are not clearly defined and hang over our heads like a foggy blanket are the ones we need to watch out for.  My state is being devastated by a silly thing called "rain".   For most of the summer we prayed for rain.  "Oh, Please God, just a little rain."  Our world was withering before our eyes.    Remember that?  Three feet of hail in Denver! 

I took Stockyards Road home on Thursday and the conflux of the Arkansas and Fountain creek was visible.  Arkansas was clear and calm.  Course it flows through the reservoir, but the Fountain was a ugly, angry brown mess.  Bear in mind that it had travelled 35 miles down here from up North and it had lost some of it's furor along the way, but it was still enough to terrify this faint little heart of mine.

It made me think of the people who are in the "eye of the weather".  How frightening that must be to have the rain just keep coming and watch your street fill up and see your property line shrinking.  It was bad enough when the fires were burning up on the mountains, but now there is nothing to stop the water when it races down hill.  And the faster it races, the more debris it picks up.  And our "powers that be" just nod and say, "Oh, a hundred year flood.  That is what it is."  Kind of sad that the loss of property and life is written off with such a simple statement.  Course there is always FEMA.

Here are my thoughts on this phenomenon;

We are a mighty nation.  We shake our fist and nations tremble.  We open our checkbook and nations grovel.  We smile and nations simper.  But when the storm clouds gather, no one is in charge.  Mother Nature has the last word.  (In my simple mind, Mother Nature and God are one and the same, but I shall call the entity Mother Nature in this missive.)  Mother Nature can not be controlled by mere mortals.  She causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.  And she keeps no time table.  She sends earthquakes to destroy temples and fires to consume the dead wood.  She washes her earth clean.  And we, being mere mortals that we are, fall to our knees and tremble.  We beg.  We grovel.  We try to explain it away, and  much like the fires in Yellowstone, we wait.  We wait and we know that soon the green shoot of grass will appear.  The tiny pine will peek from the forest floor.  The roots will go deep and cling to the bosom of Mother Earth.  In a few years we will have a forest again and God in his heaven will smile!

So for now, I will continue to collect my clouds knowing that some day I will be seeing the very bright sun!

You can not sprinkle showers of happiness on other people without getting a few drops on yourself!

 

 

 

If summer comes, can fall be far behind?

Ah, the garden has finally yielded nectar of the Gods, or in simple language, I finally got a tomato!  Let me show you my little garden of Eden here.  At first glance it may appear to be a patch of weeds.  That would be the untrained eye! 

See, if you just look way down here you can see a squash.  I planted two full packets of squash so the geese would have lots.  One packet was yellow summer squash and the other was zucchini which is there favorite.  I have 26 squash plants and only 2 of them are zucchini.  Big thank you to Monsato for that one, I am sure.

 

Here is the beginning of a yellow squash.  It is about 2 inches long.

And here is a bunch of them getting ready to be made into goose food.  See, if I pick them when they are 5-6 inches long and slice and sauté them with a little garlic and maybe a green onion....oh they are so good.  But then the skin is no longer smooth they are almost impossible to chop let alone eat.  The geese do not know the difference.  Stupid geese!

Now if you look real close here you can spot a little watermelon.  It is about 3 inches across and is going to have to do some growing if it wants me to eat it, and better yet, if it does not want to get frozen and have wasted all the summer trying to grow for nothing!  Geese don't even like green watermelons!

Some where over there on the west side are some potato vines, but I have learned that I need to wait until the vines dry up or I will have no potatoes.  I do not know why the call them "vines" because they grow straight up like a tomato plant.  Well, come to think of it, they call those "vines" also.  Here is one of them and if you can see a tomato, more power to you.

But, while I was rooting around there, I did find a big red tomato.  Hell, I almost jumped out of my skin!  What you see here was lunch yesterday.  Sorry you missed it, but there was only enough for one, and what can I say?

Oh, look!  Here is the angel Lyn set in my garden to make it produce and keep it safe.  I am thinking this little chickadee is falling down on the job!  But then again, I did get that tomato.

Now,  look what is right over the fence!  This is my New Mexico Sunflower taking over the area between the Choke Cherry Bush and the actual garden area.  That is where I bury all my pets, so it is some very fertile ground.  This is the first time I have had blooms for a while, because if you remember, the Llama's were over there for several years and they liked to eat them and they had very long necks and really big teeth!

 

Remember this?

So there you have my garden.  I have been telling myself for 40 years that next year I will do better and nothing has changed;  I grow weeds and occasionally God will toss me out a little something to eat.  But, you know what?  It has worked pretty good so far, so why mess with something that works?  Like momma always said..."If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smokin' Sage Grill on Baxter Road in Pueblo, Colorado

Shooting down Baxter road, headed for the airport, I saw this sign.  I kept thinking about it over there all by itself and thought I should go visit it.  So yesterday, I did just that! 

Here it is!  I check it out and everything looks clean and new!  I like that!

Before I could disembark the car, a lady came and handed me a menu.  I learned later that her name is Linda and she is going to make my lunch.  Well, in all fairness, my lunch, Bret's lunch and Amanda's lunch, since I do not like to eat alone.

Here is the smoker/rotisserie/barbeque where all the good stuff happens!

And the little tables where we can eat outside!

And the ribbons that attest that this is going to be some good eatin'!

Now this is where you were supposed to see pictures of the lunches we were going to consume, but unfortunately, pigs that we are, we ate them before I could focus.  We went out behind Kohl's and ate under a tree in the shade with green, green grass and some beautiful clouds.  You are just going to have to take my word for the fact that it was some very good eatin'!  Big hat's off to Linda on that one.

I visited with Randy while Linda was creating.  I am here to tell you that those two are a winning combination and the food is out of this world!  They have been on that corner (Baxter and Highway 50 East) for 4 weeks.  Had to take time out to cater the VIP tent at the fair and they are off to Pikes Peak for the big race, but I forgot when that is.  Stop out there and tell them Lou sent you by.  I am sure you will get the same royal treatment whether you tell them or not, but a girl can dream, huh?

Might want to give them a call first just to be sure they are there.  719-568-3914.   Or check them out on facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Smokin-Sage-Grill/264177706951085

For now, I am out of here.  Going to the Springs today to see my former pastor and her daughter.  Get ready Faye and Patty!  Here I come!

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

A snap shot of my test kitchen! Oh, and the judge of the cookies!

You may remember this little tyke when I babysat her several years back.  Well, now she is growing up and insisting I make her cookie, which of course, I did.

 Here you go.  Try this and tell me what you think!  This one is gluten free for your granny.

 

Hmm.  This has a different taste.  Gluten free, you say?

By jove!  I think I like this!  Why yes, yes I do!  Let me give these a big 2 thumbs up!

 

 

And that was how the day went!  A rousing success for my gluten free friends!

 

 

Sneak peek into my bedroom!!

Well, yesterday Jenea and Justin came an laid the new floor in my bedroom!  Let me tell you how this came about.  3 or four years ago I babysat for their baby, Jayvan, and it was on the trade basis.  Usually when I do something like that it is a forgotten favor, but not with these people.  They are friends and friends do not shaft friends.  So a couple months back I ripped the carpet out in anticipation of replacing it with veneer.  My car had other ideas.  First it wanted new brakes, cvc joints and other stuff and then really got pissy about wanting a new transmission!  $3,000.00 later it became clear that the flooring would need to go on the back burner.  Ah, but then I found some money!

And Jenea and Justin came yesterday with saws, hammers, tape measures and a bundle of energy.  Five hours later, they plopped the bed in the middle of the room, cleaned up their mess and away they went.  I am one happy woman today!  I still need rugs, bedspread, the big dresser  and then I can bring Kenny out of the closet and my life will be back to normal.  Both dogs slept in their beds last night.  I think they like this better than the dusty old carpet.

Now I took both of the pictures above from the same spot and a few seconds apart.  For the record, the one on the left with the lavender walls is the accurate one.  I do not know how I got rosy pink in the second one, but there you have it.

Off to church this morning and when I come home I will stop at Lowes and pick up the trim work.  I know where the miter box and saw are, so should be able to make short work of that!  Think I will whip out a blue fleece bed cover.  Going to save my patchwork quilt for winter.

A big old thank you to my friends for helping me accomplish another of my goals.  Ah, yes!  Life is good!