Yard Loafer

My Brother-in-law, lives somewhere in the mid-west. And on a normal October night he would be graced with TP covering his yard and trees.

He is well liked in his community. You can read more about that from yesterday’s post.

But this time, while my Mother and Father-in-law were visiting……

my Brother-in-law received a strange delivery during the night.

It seems that when he was leaving for work, he discovered a strange being, sitting in his front yard.

A yard loafer.

Fred takes up residence in your front yard and stays there until you pay to have him removed.

His eyes glow a menacing red. While his toilet bowl glows an eerie blue.

Oh, he’s friendly and all. Waving at all who pass by.

But he sits there, loafing. Until he is physically moved to another unsuspecting yard.

You see, Fred is a member of the local fire department. He helps raise funds by volunteering to loaf around in the yards of the local townspeople.

He cops a squat in someones yard and resides there until the resident of that home pays a $10.00 fee to have him removed.

Quite a clever fund-raising idea they’ve came up with in the mid-west.

I hope this catches on all across the United States.

 I like the Halloween theme. Not all people do.

But that would give them a reason to pay the fee a little quicker, to get him to find another yard to loaf around in.

I like Fred, the yard loafer!

How about you?

Do they do this, or something similar, in your town?

If so, I’d love to see some pictures!!!

 

 

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An October Visit

The Captain is from a small town in the midwest.

We visited in the month of October. Halloween time.

Where I come from, on Halloween, we TP’d the house of someone who had scorned us. Someone we didn’t like. Maybe a school teacher.

Either way, we only TP’d the enemy’s house. Right?

In The Captain’s hometown, if you get TP’d, it means you are liked. The more you get TP’d, the more you are liked.

It goes on, the whole month of October. Beginning to end.

While there, our son, Boo, got to participate in this ritual.

He was having too much fun to realize how cold and wet he was.

First, they stopped for dinner, just before dark. And planned their strategy. Then off to Walmartz, to stock up on the tools of the trade. The got sly grins and knowing nods as they each walked out with all the TP they could carry.

Then it’s off into the darkness. Staying in the shadows.

Two of the main objects to the fun, is one, to not get caught and two don’t lose your whole roll of TP into a tree. You must keep it rolling, unwinding.

My brother-in-law and his family still live in TP country the mid-west. And according to the reports I’m getting, he has been TP’d once a month, the whole year. He is well liked in his part of the woods.

I’m not so sure that’s a good thing.

Personally, I would get tired of climbing trees and standing on ladders to remove the decorations the admirers have so fondly adorned the yard with.

Boo wants to move there. Just so he can TP peoples houses.

I, personally, have a few people in mind who I would like to TP.

How about you?

Note: My Mother and Father-in-law took these pictures during their recent trip to the mid-west. Thank you, Mom and Dad!!

This is not my Brother-in-law’s house. He had something a little more interesting delivered to his yard while my Mother and Father-in-law were visiting. I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.

Drop Biscuits

This post was spawned from this post, due to my friend Egghead requesting a biscuit recipe.

This post is for my friend and those of you who would like to make drop biscuits, but have no idea how to start.

Some people call these drop biscuits, spoon biscuits or pull-apart bread. I like this type of biscuit better for breakfast.

I’ve never had a recipe, I just kinda watched what others did and mimmicked them. Because at one time I had no idea how to make bread either.

But for you…my TEAMMATES…I have put together a recipe. For the first time I have measured everything to make these biscuits.

First of all, what you need is my favorite flour. Hudson Cream Self-Rising flour.  It’s hard to find here in the south. It’s what I used before I moved from West Virginia. And everytime one of us goes there to visit, we have to come back with it. I have tried MANY other brands, nothing comes close to Hudson Cream Flour. It’s also the flour my Dad recommended. Mom could only make hockey pucks. And yes, we teased her about it.

You can use others. It will make biscuits. But not like MY biscuits.

And you need bacon grease. You can use vegetable oil. But the bacon grease gives it a little touch of flavor. And a little color. I usually start the bacon frying, and when enough grease has built up in the pan, I’ll start the biscuits. That is if I don’t have any saved up from previous bacon frying.

So, here’s how I make drop biscuits.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Coat the bottom of the pan with bacon grease, pouring out any extra. Set aside.

Mix together 2 1/2 cups of Hudson Cream Self-Rising flour, 2 cups water, and mix well. Batter will be lumpy, not smooth.  Then add 1 tablespoon of bacon grease and mix well.

That’s all ya need…flour, water and bacon grease.

In making biscuits other people add milk or dry milk. I never have.

 The object is to make a thick batter that will not run all over the pan. The thicker the less it runs, the thinner, the more it runs.

Don’t worry if it’s too thin. It will bake just the same. It’s just harder to keep it to individual biscuits.

 

Drop by spoonful into greased pan. You kinda have to drop fast, cause the biscuit batter will run somewhat. Don’t worry if you don’t use up all the batter. You can top off the biscuits once you have the pan full of drop biscuits. Just drop the remaining batter onto the top of what you have already dropped.

Like this…

 

Then, with more bacon grease, lightly coat the top of the biscuits, for browning purposes and so the tops don’t dry out during baking, making a tough crust.

Then bake. This is the tricky part. The longer they are in the oven, the tougher they get. Basically, I keep an eye on the bread, while preparing other parts of the meal.  When it begins to turn golden brown around the edges, I turn on the broiler and brown the tops.

But stay with it, don’t walk away. It doesn’t take long.

One thing that really ticks me off, is to burn the bread!!! It ruins my whole day!

So there.

Now you can make homemade drop biscuits.

You can also make the batter a little thinner by adding more water and just pour it into the pan, top with grease and bake what I call batter bread. It’s like one great big biscuit. Just pull peices off like you would an uncut loaf of Italian bread.

Go to a local farmer and get some fresh eggs. Fry some bacon and everyone can enjoy a Sunday breakfast just like at my house.