In My Dreams

Hearty Minced Meat Stew
Originally uploaded by Wayne-K

I've hiked or run every day for the last seven days. Today I decided to take a break, rest my legs, and get some chores out of the way. I watered the plants, mowed the lawn, watered the lawn, prepared my backpacking meals, and did the dishes. I learned something today....if I wash the dishes after every meal, I don't have a stack of dishes to wash after three days. Pretty cool!

While I was doing the dishes, I saw this guy outside the window. My little beady eyes became as big as saucers....then I remembered I was having hamburger stew again tonight.


As I was eating supper tonight, I remembered a story. As a kid, I used to love to bake cakes, cookies, malasadas, and all kinds of good stuff. When my little sister got older, she started cooking, so I quit....I guess I liked the eating part and not so much the cooking part. Anyway, this one time my sister made meat loaf. Unfortunately, she didn't realize the little "t" in the recipe stands for teaspoon and not tablespoon. She put tablespoons of salt and pepper in the meat loaf instead of teaspoons...essentially three times the recipe. The black pepper left major scars on our tongues and memories and the salt nearly killed the dog. Rather than throw the leftovers away, my mom sliced it up and made a stew out of it....but it was still really spicy!

Anyway, my stew was delish again....just the right amount of salt and just the right amount of pepper.