Brother Rice Baseball and Knockwurst from Pat & Jack's Old Fashioned Butchers

Brother Rice 8, Marmion 1: Ryan Palmblad pitched a one-hitter for Rice (21-6, 15-1 Catholic Blue).

I watched Ryan P ( one of my juniors at Brother Rice) pitch a 1 hit-game.  It was very nearly a no hitter until the second to the last batter in the Seventh inning with two outs and a man on for Marmion Academy.  The Marmion hitter skinned a sweet one down the right field line for a single and drove in a walked batter.  The next batter hit a grounder to short and that was the game. Brother Rice 8- Marmion 1.  I was cold. I wore only a La Lumiere School hooded sweatshirt to game and my normally robustly larded frame withstands winds up to twenty miles per hour with temperatures in the mid -40's.  However my perch right behind home plate at Sedlacek Field is shady and the winds were exceptional.  

I immediately thought knockwurst.

Knockwurst, or Knackwurst,  gets it's name from the 'pop' the casing makes when it is cut and seasonings flood the senses. Knockwurst is made of veal, pork, hog casing and plenty of garlic - individual butchers add their own secret spices. Knockwurst packs on the lard. That is why it is so tough to find, in our Euro-globalist dweeb-thin culture. Everyone wants to look like an idiot lane weaving cyclist.

I was chilled.

My thoughts turned to lard fuel and no place on earth is more conducive to fighting the elements than Pat & Jacks  Old Fashioned Meats in Chicago Ridge, a couple of miles from Brother Rice.  This gem of a butcher store is of the old saw-dust and straw Kelly'd butchers type. Love them on Face Book!

The meat is exceptional and the service like no place else.  More importantly, Pat & Jacks is one of the only places left on the south side where one can buy genuine KNOCKWURST.  Can't get it at County Fair, Jewels, Whole Foods, Pete's Produce, or Saveway.  Can't even get it at the usually helpful Mariano's.

Pat & Jack's Old Fashioned Butchers was my next port of call.

Got me four knockwursts, four thuringers, five Russett potatoes cut into thin ( 1/4" pieces) one large yellow onion, a head of  green cabbage ( cut in wedges and cored, a 12 ounce box of pinot grigio apple cider vinegar, caraways seeds, Kosher salt and black peppercorns . . .Oh, and some serious cloves of garlic and half a stick of Kerry Gold butter.

I parboiled the cabbage and then tossed it in apple cider vinegar, Kosher salt and caraway seeds in a big oil oil treated skillet and stir fried the cabbage for two minutes.

Then I place a layer of potatoes in the bottom of the slow cooker, added the cabbage in a layer then more potatoes, then more cabbage. covered all in wine and apple cider vinegar salt,pepper and caraway seeds and set on high for three hours.

After three hours I drained out the liquid and put in the half a stick of Kerry Gold cut into four pieces, added the minced garlic, pepper corns and cooked on low for one hour.

Then I added the whole Knockwurst and Thuringer sausages and cooked on low for three hours.

I turned off the pot and waited for it to cool and placed it in the ice box over night.

After 8:30 Mass, I set it on warm and will devour one portion ( 1 Knockwusrt/1 Thuringer ladle of cabbage and spuds) and dip with Dusseldorf mustard.


This will be a weeks work of great eating with a cold salad.

I love baseball. 

Fourth Sunday After Easter - I still need a kick in the . . .pants.

One of my all-time favorite Readings is from today's Lectionary and the Acts of the Apostles.

Someone told me that there was a T.V. series about Acts, I find that hard to believe - no market: no vampires, rough sex, LGBTQ sub-themes, nor a willing cast.

Could be wrong.  I 'll look into it, after 8:30 Mass at Sacred Heart*.   Not that I'll watch it, just out of curiosity.  Maybe I'll watch it.

Anyway, this reading is a good one:

Reading 1 ACTS 2:14A, 36-41
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven,
raised his voice, and proclaimed:
"Let the whole house of Israel know for certain
that God has made both Lord and Christ,
this Jesus whom you crucified."
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart,
and they asked Peter and the other apostles,
"What are we to do, my brothers?"
Peter said to them,
"Repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins;
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is made to you and to your children
and to all those far off,
whomever the Lord our God will call."
He testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them,
"Save yourselves from this corrupt generation."
Those who accepted his message were baptized,
and about three thousand persons were added that day.

Peter is by far my favorite saint, as he is the most male, the thickest, the most impulsive, the most 'FEET , do your stuff!' and the most honest of the disciples.  Peter is upfront about his betrayal of Jesus in the garden and that is evident here.

Easter was only four weeks ago. The Renewal!  Like New Year's Eve.

I am already dodging my spiritual resolutions, like politicians promises.

The Pre-Resurrection Simon Peter reminds me of me.  Easily fooled - 'Jump out of the boat!'  Quick to anger, "Cut off the guy's ear."  Easily cowered by responsibilities - "Cook-doodle-do!"

The Peter of Acts is nothing like me.

I hope to be.

Thanks for the swift kick.




* yep, it was Roma Downey produced this series. I'll binge watch it sometime.

President Trump and the Media - A Full Press Court in Vinegaroon, USA

You have been tried by twelve good men and true, not of your peers but as high above you as heaven is of hell, and they have said you are guilty. Roy Bean

Much of Trump's cluelessness about issues stems from his refusal to make more than a minimal effort at his job. As his comments about Andrew Jackson and the Civil War confirm, Trump is not merely too lazy to learn; he's too lazy to notice there is anything others know that he might need to. His is indolence on an epic scale. Steve Chapman

 Well, I'm about as tall as a shotgun, and just as noisy.- Truman Capote

The American media is as judicious in its treatment of President Trump as that sound voice of due process from Vinegaroon, Texas - Law West of the Pecos.  Judge Roy Bean is now working under many pseudonyms - Frank Rich, Dana Milbank, E.J. Dionne, David Brooks, George Will, Billy Kristol, and Kat6rina Vanden Huevel. The Judge has morphed into whole editorial boards at Washington Post, New York Times and even the hick burg rags like Chicago Tribune and Sun Times.

Only months ago, Judge Roy Bean had been Truman Capote to Barack Obama - smooching the patron and hissing at everyone else and then Trump won.  Lord the change.  The Resistance!

Me?  I just read the papers - most of them and then some.

Here is the Cinco De Mayo, 2017 sampling of Trump Thumping from the New York Times in Headline  Real journalism. Like nowhere else.

EDITORIAL

• The Trumpcare Disaster

SUNDAY REVIEW

• Mexican Drug Smugglers to Trump: Thanks!
• Trump’s Civil War Comments: Right and Left Reactions
• By ANNA DUBENKO
• A roundup of partisan writing that includes three political myths Mr. Trump has helped to bust and a comic you won’t believe.
• Obamacare Repeal Faces Senate Hurdle
• Fact Check: Is Congress Exempt From the Bill?

 Then,  I read a deceptively titled story -President Trump Returns to New York for a Brief First Visit - Home Boy President?  Nah.

This was a "We Ran Him Otta Town!"  piece by Michael Wilson.  NY, NY!

The Rube Media here in Chicago is mildly amusing with daffy screeds by lightweights like Rex Hupke, Mary Schmich, Eric Zorn and the Bruce Dold editorial ink.  The worst of this sad lot is the Tribune's own David Brooks JV player Stephan Chapman - The Minority of One, his own bad self!

Donald Trump has many worrisome, regrettable and even deplorable traits. But after studying him for the past two years, I have concluded he has an overlooked quality that cancels out many of his bad ones. Say what you will, the man is lazy.
This is a discovery that should gladden people of all parties, philosophies, races, sexes and religions. His detractors can be glad that he will never muster the drive or discipline to actually bring many of his worst ideas to fruition. His admirers can rest easy knowing he will not work himself to death.

 Really? Trump has been like an horny rabbit on bennies putting the blocks to the Obama Legacy - nothing for everyone, BUT Obama and his peeps. 

Lazy?  Chapman was right with his opener "Donald Trump has many worrisome, regrettable and even deplorable traits."  Can't argue that.  But, the lick spittle who munched Obama's rump for eight years and more should have stopped there,

There was a great line from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Roy Bean-like character exclaims, "I'm not crazy; I'm just colorful. That's what happens when you live "( 8 years alone in a Banana Republic)-, "you get colorful! " Then he is shot dead.



Judge Roy Bean was colorful.   The Press is crazy.

The GOP - Making America Great. . . again, and again, and again, or "Is This Your Homework, Larry?"

WASHINGTON, May 4 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives was set on Thursday for a cliffhanger vote to repeal Obamacare, as Republican leaders worked to deliver President Donald Trump a win for one of his top legislative priorities.
House Republican leaders have expressed confidence the bill would pass and several party moderates who previously objected to it got behind it on Wednesday, giving the effort new momentum.
Still, the vote was expected to be close. Even if the measure passes the House, it faces daunting odds in the Senate where Republicans hold a narrower majority.

The Grand Old Party.

Say it with me.

Sounds better than Republican.

A Republican, when I was growing up, wore grey clothing and had a very bad haircut. He went to non-Union barbers in Roseland.  There were not many of them. They took commuter trains to work in the Loop at places like the Board of Trade, Quaker Oats, or Morton Salt.

They were Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Baptists and Non-Denominational Billy Graham fans. They were the minority population of Englewood, the Highlands, Scottsdale, West Lawn, or Brainerd.

Their kids went to public schools, belonged to the Cub/Boy/Girl Scouts, the Y and went to Bible camp in the summer.

Our Dads took the bus, the L, drove early model Buicks, Pontiacs and Chevys to the Stockyards, Standard Brands, Central Steel and Wire, Kenwood Construction, Boyington House Movers, Donahue Steel, the County, City Hall, Canfield's Bottling and National Can Corporation.  Some worked in the steel Mills over by the Lake, most worked nearby.

We went to parish grammar and high schools or high schools operated by the Carmelites, Sisters of Casmier, Mercy Nuns, Irish Christinan, or De LaSalle brothers.  Some very few were educated by the Jesuits at St. Ignatius - they were really smart.

We swam at Park pools and they swam at the Y.

We stayed out of the Y - naked swimmers and birth control.

Politics was as easy as being a White Sox, or Cardinals fan.   I do not recall any great affection for George Halas's team back in the 1960's.  We liked Green Bay, Oakland and the Jets.

The Cubs?  I knew two families, the Sitorouses and the Balinas.  The Balinas moved to Rolling Meadows, wherever the hell that was, in 1964.  Nick Sitorous went to mass where Louis Farakhan demands that the Jews get what's coming to them and whitey too. Nick was Greek.  He was not a Republican, but he loved the CUBS and fixed television sets.

The rest of us were Italian, German, Belgian, Dutch, Polish, Lithuanian, Jews and where I lived predominantly Irish.  Many of the younger families were mixed. Diversity was called white flight bigotry.

The Republicans could never win an election.  They supported Planned Parenthood, used to belong to the Klan, kept Catholics and Jews out of the American Eagles clubs and kept to themselves, which was OK by us.  We waved.  They waved back.

I remain a Democrat, even though the Party is more like the cold, humorless and robotic GOP that I recall from my wonder years.  I voted Democrat for President until Barack Obama.  I had gotten to know young Barack Obama, executive director of the Woods Fund, congressional candidate, Illinois State Senator and U.S. Senator, before he became the Untouchable Candidate and President.  I found him to be a dope.  He has not let me down.

Worse, the Democratic Party, which had once been as honestly invested in the neighborhood and its people, as any parish, had become a branch of the Unitarian Abortion and America's Biggest Critic Book and Alchemy Club. 

Try and find a union bug on a Progressive Democrat's business card.  Good luck with that.

However, The GOP is worse.

They are screw-ups.  Hand a Republican a winning Lotto ticket and he goes to debtors prison.

Obama had some of the nastiest, wealthiest and committed  people in America directing his every prompt, move and triumph.  The Progressives.

The GOP remains dominated by the tasseled loafer crowd of Judge Smails opportunists like John McCain ( for whom I worked like a dog in 2008, only to watch him quit like Girl Scout in a downpour ditching the cookies and heading home), Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell and so many others.  Paul Ryan has become as noodle spine-ed as Yertle the Turtle and the other two war-happy phonies.

With seven years of whining about ObamaCare, the Budget and House Committees on Everything, the people voted in change at the executive, legislative and a tiny,tiny bit at the judicial branches of government.  The GOP benefited and has done . . .nothing.

I credit President Trump with keeping his promises and energetically doing exactly what the American people demanded.

Right out of the chute, Paul Ryan screwed the pooch on the Affordable Health Care recall.

Now, only weeks later the GOP are trying to force another failed vote.

These clowns are like a very few of my students who write forty characters of a 500 word essay on Frederick the Great in dull tipped pencil on a single page badly torn from Tommy Doyle's notebook on the way to school, when Times New Roman # 12 font is required and MLA citation demanded,  without any mention of Prussia, much less the Enlightenment- " Is this what you wanted?"

Is THIS your homework, Larry?

That is the GOP.

I do not consider  President Trump to be a Republican.

I find hope and change in that fact.