Edna's Super Bowl Clam Dip and Other Oddities

Today, after two weeks of procrastination, I managed to Eat the Frog once again, so here we go..............

The Dallas - Fort Worth metropolitan area and more precisely, Arlington Texas, is about to host the 45th Annual Super Bowl Football Game. No surprise to anyone in the US not living under a rock someplace, this will probably be the biggest hyped-up media event to hit North Texas in decades. We have a fancy new stadium (home to the Dallas Cowboys, who unfortunately didn't make it to the big game again this year) and an economy which most certainly welcomes the influx of revenue from both Packers fans and Steelers fans.

For me, however, it's not so much about who's playing, or the fact that the game is being played virtually in our backyard. Okay, McKinney Texas is an hour's drive northeast of the game site and we don't have a backyard anymore since we moved into an apartment, but it sure seems close to us. No, Super Bowl weekend is important to me for another reason altogether. It gives me an opportunity to share a special recipe with folks and to enjoy the fruits of that recipe myself, while watching the big game.

Edna's Super Bowl Clam Dip became a tradition in our home years ago, and is often enjoyed on other special occasions as well. It's only been elevated to Super Bowl stature since Edna's passing in April of 2008. It has been shared with others from time to time, and has typically drawn rave reviews from those who have partaken of its goodness. I present it today in hopes that it will bring pleasure to your Super Bowl watching this year.

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Edna's Super Bowl Clam Dip

 

Ingredients:

 

8 bricks of cream cheese

8 cans of "minced" clams

4 packets of Lipton dry onion soup mix *

4 oz of Worcestershire sauce *

2 squirts of Tabasco sauce *

2 Family sized bags of Frito's Dipping Chips

Carrots, celery and cauliflower cut to dipping length

 

Prepare the day before the Super Bowl:

 

Place 4 bricks of cream cheese in a large mixing bowl and allow to reach room temperature.

Open 4 cans of minced clams and drain juice from 3 into a container and save.

Add 2 packets of Lipton dry onion soup mix to the bowl.

Add juice from fourth can and all four opened cans of minced clams into mixing bowl.

Add 2 oz of Worcestershire sauce to the bowl.

Mix cream cheese, dry soup mix, Worcestershire sauce and clams with a beater on slow speed.

Add 1 squirt of Tabasco sauce and continue to mix until all ingredients are combined to a thick dip.

Test flavor and consistency of dip with a Frito's dip chip. If chip breaks, add more clam juice.

Place resulting clam dip in a covered container in refrigerator to chill over night. 

Place remaining clam juice in covered container in refrigerator to keep chilled.

 

Morning of the Super Bowl:

 

Removed chilled clam dip from refrigerator; open bag of Frito's dip chips and test consistency of dip.

If chip breaks, add a small amount of clam juice. Test consistency again until chips no longer break.

Continue testing dip until first bag of chips are gone.

 

Important:  When this first batch is gone (usually hours before the game),

  repeat mixing directions above using the remaining ingredients and refrigerate until game time.

Serve in large bowl on a tray, surrounded by dipping chips, and veggies.

 

Note: My Mother, Edna (1921-2008) would not have approved of finishing the first batch before game time, thus saving considerable expense.

* More or less can be added, according to personal taste.

Ah yes, the naughty ingredients....even those have positives....so focus on those instead ...

cream cheese = Calcium

clams = Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron and quite low in Cholesterol

onion = Fiber

Worcestershire sauce = very low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol. Calcium, Copper, Vitamin C, Iron and Potassium.

Tabasco sauce = Pretty much nothing bad in it.. but does have Vitamin A and tastes so good it gets the heart going!

Chips..... Yes, well we shall ignore these... LOL.... Today's portion has had ALL the calories taken OUT! :D

Carrots, celery and cauliflower = ALL healthy!

So you can excuse yourself and eat more, knowing its not that bad for you really.... (Wicked Grin!!)
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On the perchance that you don't give a damn about America's Super Bowl football game and you absolutely can't stand the thought of eating raw clams, allow me to share a few Random Thoughts from a Wandering Mind.

We're all aware of the old axiom (probably heard it in one of your high school English classes): "Never use a preposition to end a sentence with". That lesson was driven home recently by this short story (an old joke, I'd wager).
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On his 74th birthday, a man got a gift certificate from his wife.  The certificate paid for a visit to a Cherokee medicine man living on a nearby reservation who was rumored to have a wonderful cure for erectile dysfunction.  After being persuaded, he drove to the reservation, handed his ticket to the medicine man, and wondered what he was in for.

The old man slowly, methodically produced a potion, handed it to him, and with a grip on his shoulder, warned, 'This is a powerful medicine, and it must be respected. You take only a teaspoonful, and then say '1-2-3.'  When you do that, you will become more manly than you have ever been in your life, and you can perform as long as you want."

 The man was encouraged. As he walked away, he turned and asked, "How do I stop the medicine from working?"

 "Your partner must say '1-2-3-4,'" he responded, "but when she does, the medicine will not work again until the next full moon."

 He was very eager to see if it worked so he went home, showered, shaved, took a spoonful of the medicine, and then invited his wife to join him in the bedroom. When she came in, he took off his clothes and said, "1-2-3!"

 Immediately, he was the manliest of men. His wife was excited and began throwing off her clothes, and then she asked, "What was the 1-2-3 for?"

 And that, boys and girls, is why we should never end our sentences with a preposition, because we could end up with a dangling participle.

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Tetanus Shots - a MUST READ for you older folks:

The old man in his mid-eighties struggles to get up from the couch, then starts putting on his coat. His wife, seeing the unexpected behavior, asks, "Where are you going?"

He replies, "I'm going to the doctor." She says, "Why, are you sick?"

He says, "Nope, I'm going to get me some of that Viagra stuff."

Immediately the wife starts working and positioning herself to get out of her rocker and begins to put on her coat.

He says, "Where the hell are you going"?

She answers, "I'm going to the doctor, too."

He says, "Why, what do you need?"

The wife replies, “If you're going to start using that rusty old thing again, I'm getting a tetanus shot!”
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The foregoing were merely "Random Thoughts from a Wandering Mind" because "I let my mind wander and it didn't come back". I'll try to do better next time.

The 11 January 2011 Phenomenon

"Today will soon enough become tomorrow, and spent wisely, will then become a yesterday to remember." How will yours be remembered?

Tuesday, January 11, 2011 began pretty much as any other day of an otherwise nondescript weekday for me. Oh, there was (and still is) snow on the ground here in McKinney Texas; 4"+ of the white stuff. Temperatures were in the teens with a wind chill of 11F. Hmmmm, there's an interesting number.

And so it began, the phenomenon of 1/11/11 (US) 11/1/11 (UK). Now I'm not a numerologist by any stretch of the imagination, but numbers have always fascinated me. You can do some pretty strange things playing around with numbers. I'll not drag you through a list of them here, so just relax.

I was napping today, as I usually do after lunch, when I was awakened by the telephone ringing. "Damned telemarketers!" I thought as I reached for the handset to check the caller ID. There it was. A perfect subject for today's blog, though it didn't dawn on me at that moment. The call came in at 1:11pm. The caller ID read "Alzheimers" 951-281-3716. Seriously. My wife asked me who it was and when I told her, she said "maybe they forgot who they were calling?". Folks, you can't make this stuff up. 

In an earlier blog, I mentioned the idea of eating a frog first thing every day (http://www.eatthatfrogmovie.com). Do that, and everything else will seem pretty easy the rest of the day. So, I ate the frog a little late today, but it's down and I'm blogging. Look, I'm a newbie at this blogging stuff and I've been putting it off for way too long, so cut me some slack here.

One of the things I have become accustomed to doing every day is "tweeting". It took me a while to get into it and understand the power of using Twitter to reach a multitude of people around the globe. There is a huge amount of information being shared out here in the cloud of the Internet and a lot (if not most) of it is on Twitter. It runs the gambit from the informative to the sublime to the ridiculous. If you're not using Twitter, you're missing a good bet to learn something, be amused and if you're not careful, to be abused as well.

Therein, lies this next little piece for today. 

For some folks, being ignored on Twitter is taken as a personal affront, a rejection by those from whom we seek attention and a tweeter with an exaggerated sense of entitlement can be thrown into a rage of revengeful recriminations.  Today, I ran across this comical YouTube video, done I believe by one of our British cousins. It's a real hoot (that's Texas talk for a laugh).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJr8uAqQCBM&feature=player_embedded Trust me on this one.

In my 6 January 2011 "Water, Water Everywhere" blog, I made mention of a US-based company, WaterPure International and its newest distributor, Acqua Pura LLC (http://myacquapura.com), in conjunction with an article about the purity of the world's water supply. The CEO of Acqua Pura wrote to me, asking for permission to include a link from their web site to my blog. I was flattered, to say the least. Okay, so now you're thinking, "here we go, OldMrBill has sold out and his blog is going to go commercial". Not so. I'm just doing a bit of bragging here, okay?

And while I'm at it, this isn't really a brag, but rather a mention......My 90 year old Dad, a retired US Forester, actually read my last blog and dropped me a note saying he was proud of me. He went on to say, and I quote "You are doing mighty well with the English language". Now before you get the idea that perhaps English is a second language to me, it's not. I am American born and bred, of British heritage, and the offspring of a mother (may she rest in peace) and father who have always been sticklers for correctness in speech and writing. Dad was always meticulous in his own avocation as a writer, so a small pat on the back from him was warmly received.

Let me wind up today's blog with a few Random Thoughts:

- The verb "cleave" is the only English word with two synonyms which are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.

- The only 15 letter English word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.

- The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched." 

-  Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

- In England, in the 1880's, "Pants" was considered a dirty word. 

- Einstein couldn't speak fluently when he was nine. His parents thought he might be retarded.

- Aztec emperor Montezuma had a nephew, Cuitlahac, whose name meant "plenty of excrement. Montezuma's Revenge come to mind. 

- An average person laughs about 15 times a day.

I hope perhaps you got at least one of those laughs from reading today's blog. Until I can stomach another frog, let me close by saying "Thank You" for spending some time here today. Your comments are always welcome. And at the risk of sounding like I'm begging, please click on the "follow me" link and spread the word that OldMrBill is at it again.

Water, Water, Everywhere

A recent article in The Atlantic titled "U.S. Cities That Risk Running Out of Water" prompted the following editorial response from OldMrBill:


"Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

    Day after day, day after day,
    We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
    As idle as a painted ship
    Upon a painted ocean.

    Water, water, everywhere,
    And all the boards did shrink;
    Water, water, everywhere,
    Nor any drop to drink.

At first blush, one might think a rhyme from so long ago has no bearing on the issue, but avast ye hardies, 'tis but a foretelling of our plight, lest we take heed and secure a steady course towards conservation and the wise use of new technologies to produce potable water.

There is today a superfluity of companies flouting the issue with Rube Goldberg devices all promising to deliver the purest of pure water, but most require a source for that water which is to be made pure for our drinking pleasure. And, it is the source of water that is the issue; a dwindling resource in many areas of the world.

What if water could be squeezed from the very air we breath, purified and delivered in such a manner as to quench our thirst day or night, without tapping conventional water sources? Atmospheric Water Generators (AWGs) extract moisture from the atmosphere through a condensation process and transform it, creating absolutely pure, healthy drinking water. Multiple air and water filtration systems remove particulate matter smaller than .01 microns. Utilizing ozonation, it eliminates any micro-organisms including bacteria and viruses.

Test results of WaterPure water measured 99.9% purity, exceeding EPA requirements. Operating on standard 110v/or 220 power, it is extremely efficient and uses a minimal amount of energy to produce water. The unit requires no plumbing, water lines or pipes and is easily installed (just plug it in). Driven by a microcomputer control system, it will stop generating water when full. The WaterPure (Water Cycle) proprietary purification system also employs specialized filters to remove any unpleasant tastes or odor that may be present in the air. 1-888-757-8598

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/11/the-10-biggest-us-cities-that-risk-running-out-of-water/66399/

January 3rd Frogs Are Hard To Swallow

Adriana, Danny and Gracie - Thank you for taking the time to stop by and read my first feeble attempt at blogging.

As I mentioned to a few friends in a Skype message yesterday, I need to start eating a frog every morning http://www.eatthatfrogmovie.com if I'm going to stick with this. But I also need to decide how to garner some followers in order to feel like I've accomplished something here. Any suggestions?

Oh, I guess I could go out on Twitter and Skype and Facebook and MySpace and Me2everyone and post a link back to this blog, but isn't that a bit like begging? Wait, that's right, I remember my Mom telling me that "beggars can't be choosers", so maybe a little begging could go a long way. Okay, so let's see......I'll need to put together some catchy phrases to entice folks to make the time to visit. Sounds a bit contrived to me. I mean after all, I'm not selling anything on here, so why do I need to be cute? Why not just tell folks what I'm up to and let them make up their own minds? Yeah, that might work.

I had another one of those "Random Thoughts" today. Do the jerks that drive around with their boom boxes blasting that really low, loud booming sound actually hear it inside their car the way we do on the outside? A few months back, I was sitting in our car waiting for Suzanne to come back out from our local Walgreens when one of those jerks pulled in next to me, got out and left his engine and his boom machine running while he went into the store. I thought "what if I went over and turned off his noise-making machine" wondering if he'd be really pissed or just curious when he came out. So I did.

Only one problem, I couldn't find an "off switch", so I just turned off the motor, and slid the keys up under the driver's seat. Suzanne came out and we left before he came back out. In retrospect, I should have waited around to see what his reaction was, but discretion being the better part of valor, we left. I hope maybe he got the message, thus saving some other old fart from getting his blood pressure up over such a silly thing.

Here's another not so "Random Thought": Do you enjoy music while you're working (or playing) on your PC? I do. Each morning when I boot up the old desktop PC, I am greeted by music of my choice and it plays all day until I shut down for the night (which I need to do here in a minute). About a year ago, I stumbled on something called Pandora Radio. If you haven't heard of it or tried it yet, you really should. It's really cool. You select an artist you like and Pandora establishes a station just for you which plays that artist's music and the music of other artists of the same genre. For instance, I like the acoustic guitar music played by a fellow named Andy McKee. Pandora plays selections of his works and those of other acoustic guitar players I've never heard of before. It's really a neat application.

Okay, I'm outa here for tonight. That first frog went down easier than I thought it would. I'll be back again after it passes (the frog, that is) and if there are no lingering side affects, I'll try next time to ramble less and perhaps you'll be enticed to come back again.

"Today will soon enough become tomorrow, and spent wisely, will then become a yesterday to remember."