Here are my tomatoe plants with Mollie guarding against squirels and birds. Should have tomatoes soon!

Wonderful Easter holiday with family, friends and great tradional food: leg of lamb, devil eggs, new potatoes, slaw, pie and ice cream.

Looking for great fried chicken? I had a great time with Theresa, Jula and Aaron at Babe's in Sanger, Texas. Best fried chicken I've ever had! Everything is served family style and it's BYOB.

Though brisket is a popular meat to smoke I've never prepared it for some reason. Since I was hosting a "guys" poker night this week I decided to smoke a 10 lbs. brisket. The night before cooking I rubbed the meat with oliver oil and the following powdered spices: paprika, black pepper, salt, brown sugar, chili, garlic, onion, cayenne, and sage. It sat in the frig until morning. The next day I smoked the meat for 10 hours using pecan and cherry wood. While the meat smoked I mopped (baste) with a combined dark beer, canola oil, beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, minced garlic and chopped onion.

The guys brought home-made potatoe salad, cole slaw, and beans. Desert was home-made apple and blueberry pies.

No left overs so it must have been good!

If you ever been to Pappadeaux's you will appreciate their Alexander Sauce. We grilled a nice piece of salmon and placed it on top of brown rice. On top of that is the Alexander Sauce: chopped sweet onion cooked in butter until soft and then stir in flour to thicken, then add clam juice and whipping cream - add salt, pepper and cayenne to taste. In another pan cook shrimp and crawfish (or crabmeat) in butter. Then mix both pans together for the sauce then pour on top of the fish.
On the side Nancy made a great fresh Caesar salad.

Late in the day and before opening gifts we had prime rib, Caesar salad and wild mushroom and asparagus risotto.

Once again Christmas is a blessing to our family and friends. The morning started with homemade donuts, latkes, applesauce, sausage and eggs.

Happy Birthday Mollie Brown!

Last morning together until Christmas!

A family friend brought over their English Bull dog pup.

The turkey was brined overnight and the table set.

We started preparing for Thanksgiving on Wednesday with a upside down apple French toast. Real pumpkin was baked for the pie.

Nancy and Theresa had a great St. Lous visit with family.

One of the wonderful things about flying a light aircraft is seeing really cool things. This week I flew to Tucson and viewed a large wind farm. See the above GPS display showing the farm.

Also the photo of a unmanned ballon is one of many radar platfarms protecting our southern border against drug runners. The ballon is tethered on a heavy cable up to 15,000 feet.

Nancy purchased this perfect furniture for our entertainment center. My buddy Bruce help me measure and make the cut for the cable and entertainment box.

Fun week! I took some time off this week and we went to the coast for the day, visted the Witte Muesum and later we cooked a great meal of little neck clams and mussels with peppered prosciutto bread and melted brie cheese.

I tried something for the first time by grilling an entire fish - and it turned out pretty good. Picking out a 3 lb. Red fish from our local HEB, I risnsed the fish with cold water and then seasoned it with extra-virgin olive oil, pepper and coarse salt. I pre-heated the grill for direct fire using charcoal and Pecan wood. Once the fire (mid-high) was ready I place direct but high above the fire and cooked each side until the skin was dark and flaky.

After cooking I fillet the grilled fish using a spoon and fork. The meat was very moist since the skin and bones protected meat from the fire yet had plenty of flavor.

The side dish was a Artichoke Salad with tomatoes, anchovies, and lots of garlic and olive oil!