Manly Recipes

Over at the Art of Manliness blog there's an entry on "Cowboys Recipes That’ll Put Hair on Your Chest".  My favorite of the bunch is "Sonofabitch Stew":

This was a favorite beef stew dish among cowboys of the America West. It was also known as rascal stew or by the name of some unpopular figure of the time. For example, some cowboys called it Cleveland Stew in (dis)honor of President Grover Cleveland displacing cowboys from the Cherokee Strip. If you’re not into eating animal organs, pass this one up. However, if you want to put some hair on your chest, belly up to the table and pound this meal down.

• 2 pounds of lean beef
• Half a calf heart
• 1 ½ pounds of calf liver
• 1 set sweetbreads (that’s the thymus gland for you city slickers)
• 1 set of brains
• 1 set of marrow gut
• Salt, pepper to taste
• Louisiana hot sauce

Cut the beef, liver, and heart into one inch cubes. Slice the marrow gut into rings. Place these ingredients into the Dutch oven and cover with water. Let it simmer for 2 to 3 hours. Add salt, pepper, and hot sauce. Chop sweetbreads and brains into small pieces and add to stew. Simmer another hour.

Time to cowboy up.

Houston's Museum District

A recent visit to the Houston Museum of Natural Science and the Rothko Chapel has rekindled a dormant desire for more culture.  I enjoy the hell out of museums, history and zoos. 

HMNS is currently exhibiting the Terracotta Warriors.  This is a fascinating exhibit and definitely worth the price of admission.  There's another interesting site in the Houston area having to do with the Terracotta Warriors, the Forbidden Gardens in Katy.


From the Forbidden Garden's website:

Forbidden Gardens offers 9 different exhibits from our army of 6,000 1/3 scale Terra-Cotta soldiers to an Emperor's dining table. Our weapons room contains replicas of some of the weapons discovered with the terra-cotta army. The Calming of the Heart Lodge, or the Summer Palace, was a vacation getaway for those who lived and worked in the Forbidden City. The architecture room features a 1/20 scale model of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, that is split to view the architectural style of the roofing of the Imperial City.

Check out the Houston Museum District's website: http://www.houstonmuseumdistrict.org/

Additionally, here's a map of the museums in the area: http://houstonmuseumdistrict.org/default.asp?id=144



Inside the Rothko Chapel