Citizen Dog by Mark O'Hare for March 16, 2012

That would be a big blue plate special!Good morning to the CD fish bait.

Sounds like a Saturday Night Fish Fry

“….here’s your invitation to be the MAIN COURSE!!!”

Good morning, Lonewolf, cleokaya, puppybreath, Dry, sugie, Citizen O’GROG!, x_Tech, JP Steve, happy happy happy Hallford, nighthawks, Shikamoo, Greg Trail and CDers everywhere!

@ puppybreath As I said a few days ago, you must have a trillion miles on your car by now! LOL Ralph and Agnes are amazing! They just adapt so well to new places and experiences. StelBel was just the opposite. If we brought any object in the house that was bigger than a breadbox, she would go bonkers, growling and barking at it, and backing away and hiding in another room. She didn’t like a whole lot of change.

@ Dry and puppybreath I found my golumpki (how do you spell it…LOL) recipe and I’m going to make it today, just to make sure that it’s as good as I remember, before I share it with you. Will keep you posted. I feel a little guilty making Polish golumpki, when I have a corned beef brisket in the fridge waiting for the cabbage and all the fixin’s! I guess we’ll have that Sunday while watching the Holyoke (MA) St. Patrick’s parade (2nd largest St. Patrick’s parade, NYC being the largest). Holyoke is the next city over from us.

Sounds fishy to me.

It sounds a lot like that Twilight Zone episode To Serve Man except in this case the entree is fish.

Good Morninig, cleo, sugar, Fellow Baby & the rest of the CD gang

In the third panel, it looks to me like that big fish has hair on his chest. Of course, I don’t have my glasses on either! :-D

Good morning Fellow Baby, cleo and sugie!

Howdy StelBel, x-Tech (love your man with the frying pan!), JP Steve, noicant, puppybreath, and all you fish eaters out there!

Cuddles is so accommodating.

morning everyone.happy,happy,happy!!!if you are going to bake the big guy you best get a couple extra roles of foil.

Cuddles is probably my favorite cartoon cat character of all time… and that’s saying A LOT!

Good morning kids. Hope everyone is having a wonderful day..Cuddles is such a smart kitty inviting dinner to the party.. @noicantspell – Just an idea, I know your time is limited while caring for your mom. IF you can find an extra hour or so, maybe you could make a batch of something you like, portion and freeze it. Then when mom wants her chicken or fish, you could pop something you like in the oven or micro.

That’s the one that got away.

Good Morning Grog, Dry, Cleo, Lonewolf, StelBel, puppybreath, noicant & all CDers out there.

StelBel slow down there! You’ll tire yourself out with all that stirring! :-D

Let me tell you all that we had the most delicious lunch today! Stay tuned!!!

Us CD’ers must check out Greg Trail’s strip! A lot of potential there Greg, so hang in there!

Yes, cleo is correct! In fact my middle name is “food”, :-D

We’re “tuned” StelBel! (I would have put a drooling happy face on here, but . . . LOL!)

This is one of the funniest ads I’ve seen in a while:Guinness Roundup

To all who have been interested in this recipe, it looks long and involved, but is fairly basic…no tricky cooking skills involved.Every generation adds their own touch. My mother added the onion soup mix to my grandmother’s recipe, and I made it the “lazy”, layered way rather than rolled individually, and I added a bit of nutmeg and fennel seed, which we think makes it a little more interesting. This is not so traditional, but darn good. (And it’s not lo-cal either, so read no further if you need to watch what you eat. That’s one reason I only make it once a decade.)

StelBel’s 2012 Lazy Golumpki(makes about 24 squares, approx. the size of a cabbage roll)

1 lb. ground beef1 lb. ground pork1 C. uncooked, long-cooking white rice1 or 2 lg. onions, chopped fairly small3 tbs. butter or margarine1 1/2 C. shredded cabbage (I use pkg’d. slaw mix)salt & pepper to taste1/2 tsp. garlic powder1 tsp. Italian seasoning1/2 tsp. fennel seed1/4 tsp. nutmeg 1 head of cabbage1 29oz. can of tomato sauce1 packet onion soup mixApprox. 1/2 lb. sliced bacon

Preheat oven to 300º. I used a very large (about 18"Lx12"Wx2"D) pan or 2 standard 9″×13″ lasagna pans.

1. Cook rice according to pkg. directions (usually, 1 c. rice into 2 c. boiling water, a little salt and margarine and simmer for 20 min.) When done, put it into your large mixing bowl to cool.2. Remove cabbage core and separate leaves. Boil in lg. pot of water about 5 min. or until fairly limp. Remove and drain.3. Empty half the tomato sauce into your roasting pan and spread. Then, layer on top of the sauce the cabbage leaves, 2 or 3 deep.4. Melt margarine in a lg. frying pan, then add chopped onion and shredded cabbage and lightly saute on med./high until only translucent. Empty into bowl with rice.5. Lightly brown the ground beef and pork in the same frying pan. Drain and add to rice/veg. mixture in bowl.6. Add seasonings to mixture in bowl. Mix. Taste and adjust seasonings at this point (before adding egg).7. When the mixture has cooled enough so that you could comfortably mix it with your hands, add the beaten egg and mix thoroughly.8. Spread meat mixture over the bottom layer of cabbage. Top with cabbage leaves, 2 deep. 9. Sprinkle onion soup mix over the top, then lay the strips of bacon on top.10. Cover with foil, and cook in oven for 2 hrs. Take the foil off the last 30-45 minutes. Cut into squares and serve with reserved, heated tomato sauce, if desired.

So, there it is. My sister, my husband and I really enjoyed it today, and I hope you like it as much as we do. Of course, it could never be as good as Gramma made, but it’s pretty close.

Well, I’m starting my celebrating a little early with a couple Smihwick’s tonight. But the serious cooking begins tomorrow morning. I’ll start with the Irish lamb stew for lunch and corned beef & cabbage for supper. Can’t wait. I’m drooling just thinking about it.

Sounds very similar to Sarma or Dolma. Thank you StelBel. I am going to print if off. Your additions sound good as well. I have never used fennel, have always wanted to try it. I wonder if caraway seed would be a good substitute?

Thanks cleo! As I said, I have never had fennel. It tastes like licorice, or am I incorrect in that assumption?

Fellow Baby I hope you made a lot of all of it, because I think if the CD citizens see your menu, we’ll all be on your doorstep with plates in hand waiting for handouts! :-D