Rex and Ty's Food Blog

A good friend of mine bought some yearbooks from an on line auction recently. The yearbooks were from Scioto Valley Schools. Inside one of the books was a picture of some of my relatives. On the back of the picture was written, The Lee Herriott Family Dinner 1966 . I know I was probably at the swimming pool when this picture was taken. We held our reunions at the fairgrounds in Delaware, Ohio and at that time the public swimming pool was there. We always had the gathering under the Grandstand and after dinner, while the adults talked the kids would go swimming.     In this picture are five of Lee Herriott's 13 children. Eugene, Wilbur (my grandfather), Paul, Cora and Dortha. The Lee Herriott Family still holds a gathering every year. I sure would like it if we had descendants from all his children attend. It would be nice to hear from relatives I haven't seen for a long time and to meet their children and grandchildren. I know this is hard. It takes real commitment. ...

      What is it about fellows and their grills? I had friends come over for dinner and they showed up with their own food. Not a side dish, not a dessert but their own food that they wanted to grill on my grill. Most family men don't have much to call their own. There is little that they can say this is mine do not touch. But their grill is one of those things. No you are not going to use my grills to make your supper. My grill is my Domain, my Kingdom, my Realm. The few times I have allowed others to grill I sit close and watch every move they make. Don't turn that more than once. Finish it on the cool side. Close the lid, open the lid. Now is the time to Baste. Don't over cook. All these things going unsaid in my mind. Now their food turns out just fine! It's the idea of being stripped of the Kingdom. Losing my coveted space next to my grill that is bothersome.      We are now full in to the grilling season and yes I am again at the head of the Rea...

    Are you ready for an Apocalyptic event? Or a natural disaster. Two things happened recently that had me asking that very question of myself. One, I went through a small blizzard while traveling in Colorado where we weren't completely without food but really short. And two, my granddaughter Lily had to do a report on a disaster, natural or man made. Although she chose the Palm Sunday tornados of 1965 all of the disasters we looked at were unnerving.      Now any one of these events could leave you without electric and searching for food.  In the case of the Colorado blizzard we were able to boil water and warm food on a stove top. Tornados are a little different. At best you may be left without electric and have to figure out a way to heat water. You may need to host other families or neighbors if you are spared and they weren't as lucky.     Now I have a fairly sizable pantry and have plenty of food so  that if at home we would survi...

         When I was growing up pancakes were a part of my Mother's breakfast repertoire along with cold cereal and occasionally bacon and eggs. We had a few varieties of cereals but certainly not the football field length aisles of choices today and especially at the small grocery near us. So to feed a large mob of boys, Mom would make pancakes.      Pancakes to us were poured dry from a box mixed with water and pan fried. If she really wanted to make them special she would dress them up with the optional egg. Now don't get me wrong this was living large! A warm breakfast of filling cakes satisfied four hungry boys. We would liberally butter these and try to drown them with a warm sugary watery substance that was supposed to simulate maple syrup.  Usually it was poured from a glass or later plastic bottle that was shaped like a lady. This "syrup" was sugary enough that we didn't mind the fact that it was only a simulation of maple syrup. ...

     I don't live on Sesame Street but I think Big Bird made an appearance here. Sometimes I order meat from a company called D'artagnan . Mostly duck but if they have something on sale or an item I can't get locally, I'll try it. This time when I ordered my duck they had Capons on sale.    I am more than a little embarrassed. I lived on a farm for many years and raised chickens for eggs and butchering.  I had heard of chickens called Capons and thought that they must be a different breed. My favorite breeds were Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rocks. They were good egg layers and were meaty enough to butcher. Occasionally we would buy a meat breed but we wanted chickens that were good for egg production as well as meat. So what about the Capons?     I did a little research and found out that the Capon I had ordered was a rooster that had been gelded or castrated at a young age. And according to the D'artagnan website they are fed a rich diet o...

     I distinctly remember The first time I ate duck. My brother was a raccoon hunter in our younger days. He had come home to go hunting with some friends. After dropping the dogs out to hunt they got separated and the dogs didn't return. Usually if this happens a hunter will leave his coat and lantern near the spot where they started their hunt. When you return in the morning the dog or dogs are usually curled up in the coat waiting for your return. Not this time. He soon got a call from the county sheriff's office. If he wanted his dogs he had to make restitution for some livestock that they had killed. With checkbook in hand he headed for the farm to meet a deputy.      It wasn't until he was at the farm that he realized that livestock meant ducks and geese. The officer asked the owner how many were killed. A few geese and many ducks totaling 37 birds. My brother asked how much and was given a price. He wrote the check and handed it to the officer with...

    So Lily and I are back to our culinary travels of our DNA destinations. She has three percent DNA from the African country of Mali. I of course knew nothing about this country so we had to do a little research. It is a land locked country in the north west section of Africa. Algeria is to the North, Niger to the East, Guinea to the South and Senegal and Mauritania to the West. I must admit a couple of countries near Mali I haven't heard of. Since my geography lessons many years ago it seems that many of the countries have changed names.       With the research I found out that there is a lot strife in the area at this time. Warring factions trying to gain control of areas and killing and displacing hundreds of thousands of people. It sort of disturbs me that I didn't know about this. I haven't seen anything on our news channels about this. This is not a political blog so I'll only say that I am glad to live in a country where our warring takes place in the ...