Hackey Sack Player's Photo Op

Footbag skill demonstrated by a group of neighborhood hackey sack players.  A footbag is a small round bag as well as the name of the various games played with it.  Hackey Sack is the distinctive trademark name for one specific brand of footbag developed in 1972 by Mike Marshall and John Stalberger.  Now the name has become so genericized that it has come to mean the product itself.  It's like when you ask for a Kleenex and everyone knows you mean any type of tissue.  Now when you say "Hackey Sack" it has come to mean any type of footbag or a footbag game.  This particular footbag is crocheted and is usually filled with plastic beads.  It is  sturdier than than the ultrasuede type and is therefore the preferred type for circle  kicking with a group of friends.  If you & your friends want to play at night there is even a glow in the dark footbag!

This freestyle player executes a difficult move and shows that the  inventive possibilities for tricks are endless.  Current freestyle champion is Milan Benda of the Czech Republic.

The goal is keeping the ball in the air.

Here's a hackey sack circle consisting of 4 players.  Circle kicking is the most common game played with a footbag & involves 2 or more players standing in a circle who attempt to keep it moving from player to player without touching the ground.  Certain friendly guidelines apply: 1) Picking up the footbag when you send it astray rather than requesting others to do it   2) Looking out to pass the bag to others who have not gotten it recently and 3) Not hogging the bag.  In some circles there is an additional unwritten rule of not making apology for dropping the footbag.  This seems to keep any new players from feeling as if it's their fault for any slowness in the game and relieves the more experienced players from having to reassure them about it.

Yellow Tabby Takes a Swipe

Yummy Vegetable Soup

Note: This soup recipe is inspired by a recipe for Vegetable Soup (Soupe Paysanne) which appears in the 2006 edition of Joy of Cooking page 128 but I did it my way using what I had on hand & omitting the cabbage & turnips & butter which are mentioned in that recipe.  So here are the needed ingredients starting from the left of the photo: black pepper, olive oil, 1 bag of baby spinach, sea salt, optional 4 new potatoes, 3 white onions, 8 vine ripe tomatoes, 4 organic carrots, 8 stalks of celery & a bunch or 2 of parsley.

Tools: several cutting boards & a freshly sharpened 9 inch knife.

Begin by dicing 3 white onions, 4 organic carrots and  8 stalks of celery.  Put a bunch or 2 of parsley into the food processor and chop.  Set aside two 1/2 cups of chopped parsley to be added separately at later stages.

Heat 1/2 cup of olive oil or butter in an 8 quart soup pot and add the onions, carrots & celery.  Heat on medium about 10 minutes or til slightly softened.

Add 4 quarts of homemade chicken stock. [ Note on how to make your own stock: the other night when I simmered the 5 or so chicken breasts for the linguine dish I saved the liquid in the pot and after removing the meat from the bones put those bones back into the pot along with the bones of a 4 pound fryer I had saved previously in the freezer.  Then I added enough cold water to cover all the bones along with  2 unpeeled onions quartered, 2 carrots &  2 celery ribs cut into 1 inch pieces, 12 black peppercorns, 4 whole cloves, 1 bay leaf, 6 sprigs of parsley, 4 sprigs of thyme and simmered  this all for 4 hours partly covered then strained it & cooled it uncovered.  When it was just above 140 degrees I covered it & put it in the refrigerator.  Then just before using it today I skimmed the fat off the top and it was good to go into my soup yielding exactly the 4 quarts needed .]

Here I am chopping the 8 vine ripe tomatoes which were going into the pot next.  I figure each whole tomato chops into about a cup so that's 8 cups of chopped tomatoes.

It's optional but I added in 4 new potatoes which I had peeled & diced.  But if you are going low carb then reduce or eliminate these for sure.

Add 1/2 cup of chopped parsley.

Add 3 or 4 teaspoons of sea salt depending on how salty you want it

Stir in 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper, cover and cook about 35 minutes.

Chop up one bag of baby spinach (about 4 cups), add to the pot and cook 5 more minutes.

Right at the end add in the last reserved half cup of parsley and check the taste for any need of additional salt or pepper.

These are a delicious brand of whole grain rolls found in the freezer section of  Sprouts.

Hot rolls warm up from frozen in just 8 minutes at 400 degrees.

Here I'm about to enjoy my favorite hot rolls and vegetable soup with a favorite beverage too- a cup of mango nectar.

Males of this household preferred grilled cheese & avocado to accompany their soup. 

Steve's Linguine with Chicken, Broccoli & Mushrooms

Here's what the completed ready-to-serve plate will look like.  The garlic bread was made simply by adding a little garlic powder & garlic salt to some melted unsalted butter (or olive oil); adding in a handful of grated Parmesan; spreading this mixture on sliced Italian or French bread slices; then wrapping the slices up in aluminum foil and placing in a 350 degree oven.  While the bread is warming up you can start preparing the pasta dish.

We get our broccoli florets washed, bagged & ready to use from Price Costco and I just cook them up by pouring some on top of a steamer basket inserted into a 3 quart saucepan with a little water added.

Ingredients: mushrooms (rear left) which need to be rinsed off  & then sliced, chicken breast meat (rear right) that was simmered for about 25 minutes in water then deboned & shredded, broccoli florets (right front), linguine (left front), and Creamy Ragu Alfredo sauce (middle).

Here you can see the pasta cooking in the large rear pot, the broccoli about to be steamed (once I put the lid on), and the mushroom slices sauteing in butter in my favorite cast iron skillet.

Steam your broccoli lightly then drain.  Avoid overcooked broccoli.  Cut into bite size pieces.

Saute the sliced mushrooms for a  few minutes while the pasta is cooking. 

Sometimes I make my own homemade Alfredo sauce by melting 4 tablespoons butter, adding a cup of heavy cream and a scant cup of grated Parmesan then giving it a good sprinkling with black pepper.  However tonight I just used a jar of Ragu and rinsed it out with some heavy cream to add into the sauce.  This thins the sauce a little so then I'll thicken it back up to the desired level with the addition of some grated Parmesan.

Here is the Parmesan cheese and the style of grater which I use to grate cheese to put  in the mushroom sauce.  It's the cheese that makes the sauce so get the best cheese you can afford.  I then place the grater on the dinner table for folks to grate their own additional amount if they want more. 

Grate some Parmesan cheese and add it to the mushroom sauce.

To finish the mushroom sauce add some freshly grated black pepper to taste.

Use a colander to drain the pasta

Place the pasta, mushroom sauce, broccoli, & chicken into a large bowl. Note the pronged plastic pasta fork which makes tossing and serving this dish so easy.

Toss it all together. 

 

Time to sit down and enjoy our meal.