Hi ho silver & let them eat caviar (Cowboy Caviar, that is!)

First, let's lasso up them ingredients! (Excuse the grammar, we cowfolks talk like that.)

Welcome to the Old West, you cowfolk.  I hope everyone is hungry.  Someone get the grill going.  How ’bout if you play your guitar?  Something like Home, Home on the Range?  Gracias, amigo.  Now, some of you want to come into the kitchen and make some Caviar?  A special recipe just for Cowboys.  That’s what Lori said.

Who’s Lori, you ask?  Lori works with me at the school and last week she brought us buckaroos a bowl of Cowboy Caviar.  We eyed the “caviar” curiously.  She supplied tortilla chips.  We dug in.  We ate, and continued to eat, and chimed in “Hey, Vaquero!  We want the recipe!”

Now let's get out our knives & such. Chop, dice, open cans, stir. No guns allowed at dinner!

So Lori emailed the recipe from her chuckwagon.  And I just happen to have a potluck party to attend tomorrow.  Thus, this afternoon’s chore involved making the grub.

Here’s the recipe.  (I’ll tell you the “official” recipe first and then tell you how this wrangler changed it…)

Cowboy Caviar

Boil together:

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

JUST until the sugar dissolves.

LET COOL!

Chop:

1 red onion

4 stalks celery

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

Drain:

1 can black-eyed peas

1 can pinto beans or black beans

1 can corn and add to vegetable mixture.

Gently mix into liquid mixture, CHILL, Stir before serving.

Better than cows on the grill. OK, if you must eat your cows, have some caviar as a side dish. Yum, yum, ride 'em cowboys!

Got that, buckaroos? 

Now here’s what the range boss added, just because she can’t stand following recipes without being creative:

1/2 cup cilantro

a spicy pepper from our garden (a long green jobbie that has just a tiny jalapeno-ish bite)

Oh, and I only used 2 T. of olive oil instead of a 1/2 cup.  Your choice, Cowfolk!

And when you're done lickin' your chops, could a couple of you cowboys come over with your chainsaws? We've got a few downed trees that need to be chopped up.

Some of you may have heard the rumor about the wild wind and gale warnings in these neck of the woods last night.  It was CRAZY!  I heard between a half-dozen and a dozen trees crash to the ground.  Although none on our ranch, thank goodness.

The waves out there on Superior were bucking like broncos with waves predicted in excess of 20 feet.  I don’t know that they were that high.  But the wind roared, the power flickered and went off three times, and the cows bellowed out in the pasture.  (OK, disregard the last part of that sentence and eat some more Caviar.)

There is a tree halfway down across the road, and therefore I am calling for a cowboy or six to come and cut it up.  Your reward:  some beans and veggies.  You bring your own cow for the grill.  We do have some leftover barbecue sauce in the frig.

OK, all you cowpokes!  Enough of this fun.  We have to get back to work.  But if you’re curious about Why the Heck this stuff is called Cowboy Caviar…here’s what you do.  Head over to this blog One Perfect Bite and read the explanation of the origins of Cowboy Caviar.  I’m not going to tell another word except it involved a honcho who didn’t like black-eyed peas.  You can read this author’s version of the Caviar.  If you try both, let us know which you like best!

Swingin’ on into the sunset…can’t you just hear that horse-hummin’ music? (Ba-dump-ba-dump…  Ba-dump-ba-dump…Happy Trails to you, until we meet again…)  Hi ho silver!!

Until the cows come home, your blogging Biscuit Shooter.  (a Biscuit Shooter was slang for da cook.)