A variety of emails come to my desk and the latest has come from Richard Ehrenberg of Wenatchee, Wash. Richard grew up in Mobridge and was employed by JC Penney in Mobridge and elsewhere for years before having his own Mini Blinds store in Wenatchee.
Jim Phillips, who loves to hunt our South Dakota pheasants, and his wife Jacque presented Richard and his wife Shirley with a nice gift of local pheasants last week. Don and Peggy Laabs, an old school friend of Richard’s from Mobridge now living in Santa Rosa, Calif., were visiting the Ehrenbergs. The visitors and Richard’s brother and sister and spouses joined them for dinner.
The highlight of the dinner was the pheasant they prepared. “You may want to give it a try,” wrote Richard, “because it was delicious and they all loved it!” Here is the recipe:
South Dakota Pheasant
4 birds, in pieces and rinsed clean
4 cans cream of mushroom soup
2 soup cans of milk
16 ozs. cultured sour cream
“Krusteaz Bake & Fry coating” mix
Egg/milk batter (4 eggs, ¼ cup milk)
1 whole Walla Walla sweet onion, sliced
5 Idaho potatoes, quartered with skin
Dip pheasant pieces in egg batter and then in Krusteaz coating mix. Brown well in hot Canola or corn oil. Sprinkle with seasoned salt. Place in baking or roaster pan. Spread onion slices over top and place quartered potatoes over that. Cover it all with mixture of soup, milk and sour cream.
Bake, covered, at 450 degrees in oven for 45 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake 1 1/2 hours more until tender.
Serves 8-10 people, generous servings.
By coincidence, another email also centered on dining of another sort:
A little old lady answered a knock on the door one day to be confronted by a well-dressed young man carrying a vacuum cleaner.
“Good morning,” said the young man. “If I could take a couple minutes of your time, I would like to demonstrate the very latest in high-powered vacuum cleaners.”
“Go away!” said the old lady. “I’m broke and haven’t got any money!” and she proceeded to close the door.
Quick as a flash, the young man wedged his foot in the door and pushed it wide open. “Don’t be too hasty!” he said. “Not until you have a least seen my demonstration.”
And with that, he emptied a bucket of horse manure onto her hallway carpet. “Now, if this vacuum cleaner does not remove all traces of this horse manure from your carpet, Madam, I will personally eat the remainder.”
The old lady stepped back and said, “Well, let me get you a fork, ‘cause they cut off my electricity this morning.”
Of course, we can’t let this blonde email story get by us:
It’s a beautiful summer day and a man is out pruning his rose bushes when his blonde next door neighbor emerges from her house. Walking down her long driveway, she heads straight to her mail box, opens it, and slams it shut. She then disappears back into her house. Moments later, the neighbor sees her again run to the mailbox, open and shut it in frustration, and head disgustedly back to her house. For the next half hour, he watches as the bird-brained blonde repeats the process, each time getting more violent with the defenseless letter receptacle.
Finally, after she begins pounding on the mailbox, he approaches her. “Is there something wrong?” he politely inquires. The blonde rolls her eyes. “You bet your boots there is. My stupid computer keeps telling me: ‘You’ve got mail!’”
Whether by email, letter, phone or in person, keep these bits of humor coming. Things may be tough but we need a good chuckle to keep us going.
