Good Clean Fun

man and woman sitting on couch

Shaken Not Zapped

Endorphins, Fitness, Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun, Recipes / By

You know popcorn? You may not know popcorn. It shouldn’t cost $58.50 and leave you sick after watching The Matix XII at the Come On In, What Are The Odds Of Getting Ill-plex. It‘s not the ‘as much fun’ (actually far more fun) ‘to make than it is to eat’ stuff. Although the J. Pop experience was always oddly…hot, I won’t lie. And it ain’t Orville Fudruckers Buttery Microwave in a 2 minute ‘bing!!’ all done folded bag. The waxy weirdness of the insides, burnt clumps here and there, dry tasteless stuff elsewhere. 

Grow up! People been trying to mess up popcorn since Charles Cretors invented the popcorn maker out of his old Chicago candy store in like 1890. Get in touch with this Nature’s wonder y’all!l Ima tell you how. 

Good p’corn needs the stove. Period. Why did our moms get a gadget or machine for everything? Keeping away from dirty nature, I guess. Oh well – Greatest Generation, they did win WWII etc. We can forgive ‘em for wanting to get out the kitchen and live! But. Corn goes on the stove. 

Pot. Oil (Google tell you which kind) and you can throw in some bacon fat/lardo or butter because umami. Fair measure of salt. I get it – salt bad. But salt ‘properly seasons’ food. Food’s swizzle stick. To counteract the bad, go for a nice long walk every day. Ahem. 

Gring in some pepper. (Or buy a pepper grinder and some peppercorns and then grind in. C’mon!! Thro’ out that powered pepper from 2011. How old are you??!?) Now, there is a secret ingredient. It is lemon juice. Not ReaLemon, that of the plastic lemon-looking thing with the green screw top. Actual lemon juice, a good bit, squeeze into the oil/lardo/salt/pepper mix. Set it all on the stove on lowwwwwww. Low. Then put in the corn. 

Now go watch a Next Gen or something on Netflix…45 min. By that time — Data having let go of the dream of becoming fully human, somehow becoming more human in the process — the kernels (not colonels) are dark brown and nutty and ready, come what may.  Ready to get rocked. Now you gotta put down your phone thingy and get up. 

What is needed is a blast of the highest heat known to your stove, you at the controls. There’s a lid on the pot and there’s a towel over the lid and you’re shaking that pot like it’s never got shook, its shoes are falling off, it’s missing appointments, it’s making promises it’ll never keep, it is giving and giving, corn popping like absolute crazy, shake shake shake shake and then…

It’s over. Last chord in Day In The Life… bonggggnngggg…. 

That’s it! You will like the result.

Old Man Wrong

popcorn, movie time, snack

Cinco de Mayo – Mexico Versus Napoleon

Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun, Recipes / By

The Buzzed Boomer Research Department has discovered that May 5th celebrates not Mexican independence but something to do with Napoleon.  I supposed that’s because Napoleon Dynamite’s best friend was Pedro from Mexico.  Therefore, have a Modelo or a Corona or, if you prefer a cocktail, try a Tina Tai which is a Mai Tai that honors Tina the llama; courtesy of goodfoodstories.com.

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup spiced rum
  • 1/4 cup coconut rum
  • 2 tablespoons (1 fluid ounce) grenadine
  • 3 cups passion fruit juice
  • lime and orange rounds, for garnish

Instructions

  • Fill 4 highball glasses or large Old-Fashioned glasses with ice.
  • Add the spiced and coconut rums, grenadine, and passion fruit juice to a small pitcher and stir to combine.
  • Divide between the prepared glasses.
  • Garnish with lime and orange rounds and serve immediately.

man architecture high travel

Bike Safety

Endorphins, Fitness, Good Clean Fun, Uncategorized / By

Exercise the fun way!  Saddle up!  But safety first!  Let’s see I need my helmet (with blue flasher on the back and rear view mirror), florescent green vest with pocket for phone, padded bike pants for that firm saddle, bike gloves to keep the hands from going numb, Apple Watch to capture biking exercise minutes and miles, mask in case I need to talk with someone, glasses for eye protection, water bottle and Camelback for max hydration, bike shoes, sunblock, seat bag with mini first aid kit, and baseball cap for post-ride helmet-hair.  And….. we’re out of time.  Tomorrow we’ll get an earlier start.

– Jet Cannon 

no cycling, park, sign

Don’t Fear the Sunset

1 Comment / Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun, Recipes / By

When in Southport, North Carolina at the mouth of the Cape Fear river, try a Cape Fear Sunset. Tito’s, Midori, Peach Schnapps, pineapple juice, OJ, and Grenadine. It’s a little sweet so you might want to alert/tip the bartender to focus on the Tito’s.

  • Rockin’ RoVer reporting live from Cape Fear
strong senior sportsman preparing for competition in racing

Frank Retires

Good Clean Fun / By

After fifty years in the work force, Frank, one of the Friday afternoon Beer Boys, has retired…. and decided…. to take a gap-year before tackling all those honey-do’s.  

So he has learned something along the way.

– Jet Cannon

rowing, single, older

Layla

Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun, Travel / By

Layla, you’ve got me on my knees

Layla, I’m begging, darling please

Layla, darling won’t you ease my worried mind

I’ll have a Hendrick’s dry Martini. Two olives, please.

– Maserati Mike reporting live from Layla’s in Lake Chelan, Washington

National Jelly Bean Day

Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun, Recipes / By

Yes it is!  Break out the beans! 

Inspired by the very successful and satisfying Lucky Charm marshmallow vodka shots from St. Patrick’s Day, the Buzzed Boomer Research Department endeavored to try Jelly Belly vodka shots. Now keep in mind there are “Jelly Bean” shots on the Interweb but these are concoctions that don’t use the actual bean.  Just liqueurs.   The Buzzed Boomer team wanted authenticity and so we sorted through the beans to find five or six of the same flavor then carefully chopped them into little pieces.  The pieces were dropped in little jars to blend and dissolve overnight.  Unlike marshmallows, which dissolved instantly, the beans don’t.  So the shots, if left unstrained, reminds us of a cloudy Goldschlager  with little bits of “gold” almost floating.  Actually the Jelly bits just sit in the bottom of the now quasi-appropriately colored vodka.  But how’s the flavor??!!  Did the vodka take on the remarkable flavors associated with Jelly Bellys?  Close!!!  Pretty darn good!  Worth a shot!!  

– Jet Cannon

dog, sad, waiting

No buzz in Those Greens!

Endorphins, Fitness, Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun / By

Brussel Sprouts still suck, just not as bad as they used to. At the table growing up . . . big brothers (cool, snickery); a sister (holding her own); mom (ringleader, cook); dad (dropped off by carpool at 5:23 pm, a little later on his driving day, serving up); and me (punk, dragged in from kick the can or whatever) . . . there was almost always something tasty on offer. Seems incredible even to me, but we all showed up pretty much every night for many years. 

Which was fine, a little stiff at times but more than a few laughs along the way and like I say, decent-plus edibles (thanks mom!!). And eating together forms bonds (I didn’t know that then). Except Brussel Sprouts. We weren’t poor so they weren’t canned. But we weren’t rich so we had no notion of “fresh” (dirty? European?)  A&P didn’t have fresh anyway. My mom boiled the living Ess out of those frozen, piss-green balls. Stunk up the place. Mouth-feel like the inside of a waterlogged baseball, taste like paste and not the minty kind; rotten spinach, fish? Bad. I cut a deal with the dog – you eat my Sprouts, I shoot you a couple extra Milk Bones.

All that’s changed of course. Now you get BS on the stalk or at least fresh in a zip-lock bag with sell-by date. Try this: Baking pan. A little bacon fat (ok more than a little), salt ‘n peppa, olive oil and lemon. Preheat to 6750 deg. Shove it in and 10 min later, Boom!!. Crispy on the outside — leaves shatter and bacony. Tender on the inside – smooth, the sour gone, almost sweet. Earthy not dirty.

But that pure high never lasts. Along comes oven-roasted BS No. 18, a bigger one that didn’t quite caramelize or tenderize . . . maybe a rough time growing up on Better Than You Organic Farm. Bite into that Eff’er and well, where is the dog??

Old Man Wrong