Garlic knots

A few weeks back my wife went to Meridian to visit family.  While on the visit, she ate at a place called Mimmo’s in Quitman.  According to my wife, it is the absolute best bread she ever tried (all the other food was really good too).

Last night I decided to have a try at making garlic knots.  I have no doubt Mimmo’s has a complicated family recipe handed down for generations.  However, since they haven’t passed this closely guarded secret around, I opted for a modified internet recipe and the handy dandy Oster bread machine.

• 1.25 cups of warm water
• 1.5 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 3.5 cups of flour
• 2.5 teaspoons of sugar
• 1 tablespoon of dried parsley
• .5 teaspoon garlic powder
• .5 teaspoon onion powder
• .5 teaspoon dried basil flakes
• 2 teaspoons dry yeast

After the bread machine did the work, I pulled the ball of dough out and cut it into 16 pieces.  Then, each piece was rolled out into a fat pencil shape and tied into a knot.  When the 16 knots were on the pizza plate, each was brushed with with garlic butter before going into the preheated 375 oven.  I cooked them until the edges started browning and then pulled them out for another brushing of garlic butter.  They weren’t browning quite as much as I wanted so, I turned on the broiler to finish them up.  When they came out of the oven, I sprinkled them with a mixture of salt, basil and oregano.

The end result:

Not bad for a first try.  The interior was slightly overcooked.  My wife liked them, but they aren’t Mimmo’s.  Better luck next time.

 

New Year’s Resolutions

The New York Post relays some disturbing poll results released by AshleyMadison.  Apparently, the three biggest new year’s resolutions were:

1. Get fit;
2. Travel; and
3. Cheat on your partner.

Ashley Madison is a site dedicated to facilitating cheating.  Their slogan?  “Life is short.  Have an affair.”  97.324% of statistics are made up on the spot to support some point (including the 97.324% statistic).  My point though is that while Ashley Madison’s poll is hardly scientific, plenty of people will in fact cheat this year regardless of whether or not it was their new year’s resolution.

For those of you considering a fling, you might also want to consider limiting your sexting.  TDP reports those sexy pics you send your partner can end up on what are being termed “revenge porn” sites , “where spurned lovers post compromising photos of their exes.”  When I first started practicing law, divorce cases did not revolve around “social media.”  Facebook didn’t come along until 2004.  Now, there are very few divorces and no alienation of affection cases that don’t involve social medial and digital data to some degree.

Speaking of alienation of affection cases, Philip Thomas has a brief report of a recent $150,000.00 verdict in Rankin County, Mississippi.  I would concur with Philip that Rankin County has become a tough venue for these cases.  Given the trial record for the past couple of years, they appear to be tough everywhere in Mississippi and the verdicts can be substantial.

So much for the gloom and doom.  Now for my new year’s resolution———I will work to be a better husband, father and all around person.  Best of success to everyone (except the cheaters) in 2014!

2013 Dove Season in Mississippi

The first hunt of the year is just around the corner.  Dove season opens in Mississippi on Sunday, September 1, 2013 at 2:00 p.m.  You read that correctly.  The pastors of rural churches can hold their services in peace because there will be no opening morning hunt.

Every year, folks try to evade the baiting laws on dove and every year people get tickets.  If you have to think very hard to justify what you are doing to attract doves, it is likely that your field is illegal.  In the past month, members on various Mississippi hunting forums have expressed opinions or ideas about how to hunt doves.  Those ideas range from good to downright illegal.  One guy mentioned feeding doves by placing tarps containing wheat in the field and removing the tarps the night before the hunt.  That is about as illegal as you can get.  Pursuant to 50 CFR 20.11 (j) an area is considered baited for ten (10) days after all grain is removed.

So exactly what is legal when it comes to hunting doves?  Take a look at 50 CFR 20.11.   I would recommend reading the entire thing, but it that proves difficult for you, at least read this handy synopsis from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.  The Mississippi Department of Wildlife Fisheries and Parks also has a brochure for dove field preparation.

There are a number of ways that a dove hunter can go astray of the federal rules and any of the following could result in a ticket:

• placing rock salt out for doves
• top sewing wheat at rates in excess of a normal agricultural practice
• scattering shelled or cracked corn
• hunting an area that was baited within the previous 10 days
• scattering bird seed for doves

Those are just a few of the ways you could get in trouble.  It is easier to tell you how to legally hunt doves than think of every way to break the law.  For example, you could legally disk the ground and top sow wheat the the normal agricultural rate.  You could plant a wheat field, allow it to head out and then burn it a few weeks prior to season leaving wheat on burned ground.  You could plant sunflowers and begin disking strips to expose sunflower seeds a few weeks prior to the opening day.  Plant and harvest a millet field.  Plant a foodplot for deer at the recommended rate.

Recommended rates and normal agricultural processes are defined in Mississippi by the official publications of the Mississippi State University Extension Service.  Arguing to a wildlife officer that your field isn’t baited because farmer Jim down the road routinely plants wheat at one ton per acre for his cows isn’t going to work.

While you are shooting doves, remember that a dove is not worth shooting someone.  Beware of low birds or you could easily blind someone. Think about how often kids are the ones running out to pick up birds. How would you feel shooting a kid? Let the low birds go. This is particularly important in standing sunflower rows that can hide another hunter.

On a related safety note, take plenty of water in the field for kids and your four legged companions.   Kids and dogs can overheat in the hot sun before you know what happened if you aren’t paying very close attention.  Check out these tips from Sportdog about dogs and dove hunting.

Good luck everyone!

A few things not to say to your wife

Mention of these things could lead to a divorce or even worse……………….

 

Really good Chili

I love cooking big meals.  The bigger the better.  Dinner one night, lunch another day and freeze the rest for when I don’t feel like cooking.  I started this while listening to the Mississippi State disaster baseball game.

Ingredients:

• Bush’s chili beans  – 2 cans of the 111 oz size
• Bush’s black beans – 4 cans of the 15 oz size
• Diced tomatoes – 4 cans of the the 29 oz size
• Fire roasted diced tomatoes – 2 cans of the 15 oz size
• Tomato sauce – 3 cans of the 29 oz size
• 1 whole smoked brisket (approximately 9 pounds)
• 2 pounds of pulled smoked Boston butt
• 4 large yellow onions
• 2 red bell peppers
• 2 anaheim peppers
• 2 poblono peppers
• 2 dried ancho peppers
• 2 jalapeno peppers
• 2 heaping Ts of diced garlic
• 1 Ts of Cavender’s seasoning
• 2 Ts of Tony Chachere’s
• 1 Ts of fresh cracked black pepper
• 1 Ts of oregano
• 6 Ts of chili powder
• 1 Ts of ground cumin
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 4 cups of black coffee (brewed, not ground coffee!)

First, remove the stems and seeds from all the peppers.  Dice the peppers and onions.  Add the diced peppers and onions to a large black iron skillet along with the garlic.  Cook it down until the onions are clear.

Cube the brisket and remove any fat.  Place the cubes in a 30 quart stockpot (yes, this makes a heck of a lot) with all the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and seasonings.  Once the peppers and onions are cooked down, add them to the stockpot.  Bring this to a simmer for at least one hour.  Add the 4 cups of black coffee and all the beans (I know coffee sounds crazy, but just do it) .  Let the stockpot cook on low heat for at least another hour while stirring every 10 to 15 minutes.

When you are ready to serve and if you care for such things, add a dolup of sour cream and sprinkle with fresh green onion.  I didn’t have them handy, I was too hungry to go to the store and it was about 10:00 p.m. by the time it was finished.

Total cook time is roughly 20 hours if you don’t have a brisket and Boston butt already smoked.  If you are like me and happen to cook them on the weekends ahead of time, this chili only takes roughly 3 1/2 hours.  If you really want to go all out, skip the canned beans and tomatoes in favor of soaked beans and fresh tomatoes.  It is marginally better, but 98 out of the 100 people you can serve this to will never know the difference.

You can add or subtract to and from most every ingredient listed and still have decent chili.  The one thing that you cannot do under any circumstance is cook it at too high of a temperature and burn some to the bottom of the boiler.  It will ruin the entire pot.  It is much better to cook at a lower temperature for a longer time than to waste the time and effort this requires.

 

 

Brisket done just right

You can cook a brisket in an oven, but why?  A man trying to avoid the use of a grill is suspect in all endeavors.

Besides that, meat on a smoker is hands down better.  Not to mention, it is easy as can be.  Take a couple of briskets and trim the fat down to not more than 1/2 an inch.  Coat them in rub from Rebel Butcher Supply in Pearl, MS.  Add a dash of fresh cracked black pepper, onion powder and garlic powder.

 

 

 

 

 

Let them smoke on a Lang 84.  Regardless of whether you like the low and slow method of 14-16 hours at 225 degrees or prefer something similar to Myron Mixon’s hot and fast, most guests will never know the difference.

Cook them to 195 to 202 depending on the texture.  It probably wouldn’t win any contest, but then again I don’t have BBQ contest judges eating around my house.  Sort of like my dad’s old saying when we built something…..If anyone shows up with a square or plumb-bob, I am kicking them out.

Nice smoke ring and the taste is just right for us.  For some reason, all the dogs are following me around the house now 🙂

Gifts

In July 0f 2009, my wife gave me a couple of gifts.  First, her hand in marriage.  Along with that came another gift……a turkey caller.  At the time, I didn’t even know people getting married were supposed to give each other gifts.  Thankfully the ring I gave her was sufficient and she overlooked my ignorance of the “getting married gift.”

When she gave me the caller I didn’t have a clue who made it and I still don’t have a clue about it today.  Because of the nature of the gift, it has never been used it in the woods…….until this morning.  Last weekend I left my turkey bag with my hunting callers  in a friend’s truck.  He told me he was holding my “turkey purse” hostage until I got him a bird, but that is another story.

Last night I decided to hunt this morning so it was either break out the wedding caller or break into my friend’s truck to retrieve the turkey bag.  His truck glass survived Monday’s record setting hail storm so I figured it deserved a pardon.  After I had made up my mind to use the wedding caller, I located another caller made by Buford Harris that I had misplaced years ago.

With callers in hand, this morning started out decent enough.  Every type of song bird in the world sang as the darkness turned to light.  The cloud cover kept the turkeys quiet a little longer than usual.  At 7:15, I heard a gobble.  I made a few yelps with the wedding caller and then a few more with the Harris caller.  No response.  A short while later, another bird sounded off.  The bird I was hunting gobbled and drifted in the direction of the second gobbler.

With him safely away, I repositioned to where he had been gobbling.  A gave him another round of yelps followed by some purrs.  He gobbled about 250 yards out.  A short while later he was 100 yards out.  No reason to call now.  Yet a few more minutes and he gobbled about 50 yards out.  My only problem was that he was in a thick mess of pines with no way for me to see him.  I just scratched in the straw and leaves a bit.  That must have done the trick because he poked his head out looking for a hen directly in front of me at 32 steps.

The old NEF 10 gauge sent a load of Nitro 7s his way.  He didn’t run and he didn’t flap a wing.  It looked like he just tipped over.  I ran over as I always do to pick him up and said a quiet thank you to the Lord for a beautiful morning and a beautiful bird followed by a silent thank you to my wife for the caller.  As I type this she still doesn’t know that I used that caller to kill the bird.  However, I suspect she will read this and know that I am very thankful for all of my gifts from her.

19.8 pounds, 9.5 inch beard and 1 inch spurs.  All in all it was a great way to start the day.

Alienation of Affection Still Alive and Well in #Mississippi

Alienation of affection lawsuits are the subject of considerable debate in Mississippi.  Philip Thomas has blogged a number of times about the subject and advocates abolition of the tort.

SB2376 in the Mississippi Senate was proposed to do just that, but died in Committee this week.

Personally, I am in favor of allowing injured persons the right to hold those responsible for wrecking their marriage accountable.

The purpose of the tort of alienation of affections is the protection of the love, society, companionship, and comfort that form the foundation of marriage . . . . Permitting claims for alienation of affections protects the marriage relationship and provides a remedy to those who have suffered loss of consortium as a result of the conduct of others.

Knight v. Woodfield, 50 So. 3d 995 (Miss. 2011).

As noted by Philip Thomas, plaintiffs in these cases had a 6-0 trial record last year.  I was actually shocked to see that six cases went to trial because depending on the facts and the financial wealth of the defendant, the verdicts in these cases can be substantial.

One #greatdog

Looking back over the past 39 years, a bunch of dogs have crossed paths with me.   I wouldn’t say I owned them nearly as much as they owned me.  Rottweilers, Beagles, a Pit Bull, Labs and an assortment of what folks from the country call Heinz 57s.  All were good, but one was great.

About 3 years ago, I lost Breaux.  Without a doubt, he was my lifetime dog and there will never be another like him.  90 pounds of chocolate love.  He was well mannered and did it all regardless of whether it was blood trailing a deer or retrieving anything I could throw or shoot.

He left us far too soon…….Sure would like to see him again one day.

#Breaking the Rules

It is generally bad form to blog about cases we are currently handling, but today that rule will be broken.  One year ago today, the world lost a fine young man.  Henry Allen Lutrick.

Allen’s obituary read:

Henry Allen Lutrick, 10, went home to Jesus on Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at Blair E. Batson Hospital in Jackson. Visitation will be Saturday, November 5, 2011 from 4-8 pm and Sunday, November 6th from 1pm until the 2pm service at First Baptist Church in Richland. Burial will follow at Richland City Cemetery.

A little more than ten years ago, the Lord God saw it fit to bless the Lutrick family with a wonderful young man who continually bestowed upon them great love and joy. He had a wonderful sense of humor that he used to entertain folks. He was gifted in origami and was always using that gift to design new airplanes that always amazed others with their abilities to fly considerable distances. His latest project was an imaginative river and bridge system that he, his brother, and cousins designed and constructed in the front circle of his grandparents home. To fuel their desire to be outdoors, they were currently planning the construction of a fort in the woods. The family is certain Allen was destined to be a great engineer. In addition to his engineering hobbies, he also enjoyed horseback riding, bike riding, video games, and exploring the woods on the farm with his brother and cousins. Allen was a student at Richland Upper Elementary School and will be missed by all who knew him.

He is preceded in death by his uncle, Ken Lutrick and his grandfather, Willis “Kenny” Price. He is survived by his father, Daniel Lutrick of Richland and his mother, Tracey Lutrick Pinkard (Brian Waller) of Richland; grandparents, Carl and Elise Lutrick of Richland, Tracey Bailey and Barbara Price both of Richland; his great grandmothers, Mary Farmer of Taylorsville and Janet Pinkard of Pearl; his brothers, Kameron Lutrick (9), Jacoby Baily (7), and Javian Bailey (5) all of Richland; and his cousins, Amelia, Miguel and Mateo Negrete, Santanna and Joe Stowers, and Landon Bailey.

His loss has left us with a great void that can never again be filled on this earth. We love you immensely, and miss you terribly, Allen. We know the Lord God will keep you until we see you again in His kingdom. We would like to thank the community for the continued support and outpouring of love during this difficult time.

Without a doubt, the greatest pain experienced by a parent is the death of their child.  Life just ins’t supposed to end that way.  What is even more painful is that Allen’s death, like so many others, was completely needless.  If you have followed along this far, you are probably wondering how Allen died.

On November 1, 2011, as he had done many times before, Allen waited for the school bus with his brother and cousin.  In the darkness, the grandfather of the children watched the school bus approach with its flashing lights unaware of the tragedy that was about to unfold.  The bus came to a stop and the children began to cross the street in a single file line with Allen first.  Just as Allen entered the roadway, a car driven by Raymond Watts ignored the flashing lights and the extended “STOP” arm of the bus.   Watts crashed into Allen throwing him into the air as his brother and cousin watched in horror.  Rather than stop to assist the child he had just ran over, Watts then sped away from the scene.

A little over thirty four (34) hours later, Allen went on to be with the Lord.  This senseless tragedy could have been avoided if Watts had followed a simple safety rule.  DON’T PASS A STOPPED SCHOOL BUS.

I can’t help but think of Allen every morning when I see my neighbor’s children board the bus in the dark and every time I see a stopped school bus.  The only positive aspect of this event is that the Lutrick family knows Allen is with the Lord and they will see his smiling face again some day.  However, even that does not take away the pain of losing their precious Allen.  Hug your children and let them know that you love them every single day.  Your life and theirs could be changed in an instant.