U2 ~ Shoo Fly Pie ~ Coyotes

I am thankful for family.

I am fortunate to still have my mom, dad and sister that I can complain, recall, report, cheer and commiserate with. I am also blessed to have three children that I get to “boss” around as they see it…and my husband and his 5 children that adds to my list of blessings.

A week after Margaret’s funeral, my 16 year-old son, Ethan, announced to me that he wanted to get up Sunday morning (5 a.m.) to go coyote hunting and I had to go with him (he only had a driving permit and needed a licensed driver along and his dad was out of town) …. My response to him was something to the effect of … "when Hell freezes over." At that time Ethan promptly reminded me of the many “hippie” festivals that he’d been helping me with recently (Recipe Records booth) … and I dropped my head … ‘cause he was right. I quickly recalled two weeks prior when he spent Saturday (after a 2-hour football practice) at a Woodstock-type hippie festival with me…manning the booth and tearing down…we were both glad the other was along to keep company. He could’ve been doing a lot of other 16 year-old boy things that day, but he supported me -- --and hey, he even sold a couple of books…. So mommy guilt kicked in and I agreed half-heartedly to rise at 5:00 Sunday morning to go coyote hunting.

I grew up in a small farming community (which at the time I didn’t see it like that) …. Where grain elevators were common, surplus corn piled high in the street after a strong harvest, the FFA (Future Farmers of America) kids would drive their tractors and combines to school during FFA week, in the winter the “country” kids would arrive late to school on the bus and implement dealers were plentiful…. My children have always lived in a city with very little farming razzmatazz to be seen. Ethan has the country boy gene and I’ve been surprised and heartwarmed to see his love of “country things” … like riding around on gravel roads, no top on his Jeep, with Lynyrd Skynyrd blaring, loving dirtbikes, guns, knives, dogs and comfort foods.

It was the second Sunday in October and I jumped out of bed when I heard his heavy footsteps on our wooden steps, threw on some clothes, turned on the coffee and tried to clear some of the head fog. We soon left home in his 1995 Jeep Wrangler which was very bumpy and very loud. After about 30 minutes of that nonsense I announced that we might have to listen to music, which I’d been avoiding. The only CD he had in the Jeep monster was U2. Mags LOVED U2 and I’m so happy that she was able to see their concert in St. Louis in July – she reported to me about how marvelous it was. The same weekend that she went to the show, I had Ethan and my 14 year-old daughter Abby at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH. A fantastic video is being shown there of a U2 show in Argentina. Ethan was instantly hooked on U2, as we don’t listen to them a lot, and he mentioned that we needed to listen to them more. I purchased a couple of U2 songs on iTunes to compliment the couple of CD’s that I already owned and made Ethan a U2 CD.

We were nearing the wildlife preserve and the sun was just coming up and the sky had layers of golden yellow and magenta and I remember thinking it was one of the most beautiful sunrises I’d seen for a long time. So the CD kicks on and U2's Bono is singing "It's a Beautiful Day, don't let it get away.... "…. At this moment I hadn’t seen many beautiful days and I think the powers that be were showing me that there is so much to be thankful for.

The preserve where we were driving is just outside our city and it's considered "the country"...or it's at least what the city folks think is country.....      I found a smidge of humor because U2's “Where the Streets Have No Name” rang out in the noisy Jeep and I was riding on country roads that were far from being considered streets, but these country roads HAD names....….I was cracking up at the irony of country roads having street names…….

Perhaps my favorite U2 song is The Fly, due to it's rockin' beat ..… and I wondered if a recipe could be twisted a la' Recipe Records-style........which lead to ShooFLY Pie….  and I wondered is that even real? Is it made up? Is it just something I saw on Andy Griffith? So, I did some research and I found out that Shoofly Pie is real, having originated in the Pennsylvania Dutch country in the early 1700's and it got its name because the people would have to "shoo" the flies away because the pie was so gooey and sticky.  I found a link to Alton Brown's Shoo Fly Pie recipe & you can check it out. 

And oh, we didn’t see any coyotes– not that I would have...... because I stayed bundled up in the Jeep monster….and as far as I know, coyote is not used in recipes……

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/shoo-fly-pie-recipe/index.html


I'd like to wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We have so much to be thankful for....I recently saw this quote in an email .......   "WHAT IF, when you woke up this morning, ALL YOU HAD LEFT was what you THANKED GOD for last night?"

Lanea Stagg
Recipe Records

3 Marlaneas Studio

Evansville, Indiana
http://www.reciperecords.webs.com/

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