#13 - Frog Gigging

What says Memorial Day better than huntin' fer frog legs?! 

Today I had the unexpected opportunity to add another new adventure to my list - frog gigging.  To gig for frogs means to hunt them with a multi-pronged spear.  You basically try to find them among all the scum in a pond and then just brutally spear them. It is actually quite hard. 

This adventure took place at Chico Basin Ranch, the same place where we branded the cattle.  We were attending a farewell party for our Marine neighbors who are (very sadly) moving this week.  There's a pond near the ranch house where some pretty massive bullfrogs live.  The boys decided to go gigging, so how could I pass up this opportunity?  The best gigging is done at night, but we wouldn't have the chance to try it at that time.

I have seen bumper stickers reading "Vegetarian is the Native American Indian word for 'really bad hunter.'"  I'm afraid that if I were an Indian, I'd be a vegetarian!  While both my boys caught frogs, I struck out.  I blame part of it on my shoes. I was wearing slip on sandals. It is fairly hard to climb out on fallen trees and along marshy, muddy shores when you are constantly in danger of losing your shoes.  So, had I been properly dressed, I'm sure I would have been more successful.

So, what does one do with a gigged frog?  You had hand it over to the 8 year old ranch boy to butcher and skin so you can eat frog legs.  As with our branding episode, I was struck by the difference between ranch kids and city kids. This kid was not the least bit phased by butchering a frog (I'll spare you the details), and he required no parental involvement at all - except for mom grilling the legs.  Eating frog legs was not a new experience for me. I had tried them in New Orleans in the summer of 1990. However, fresh frog legs are definitely better than the tough, rubbery legs I ate in New Orleans. 

I think that between my crepe experience and my frog leg experience, I'm far more likely to prepare and eat crepes again, but I'm glad I had the chance to give frog gigging a try. Besides, it's just fun to say - "I frog gigged today!"

#12 - Making Crepes

While I consider myself a pretty decent cook, I've always been afraid to tackle crepes.  I think that is because I'm not particularly good at flipping pancakes, so I figured I'd be worse at crepes.  A while back I decided I needed to get brave and attempt making crepes as one of my 40 new adventures.

I have a friend who bought a crepe maker about a year ago.  While I was tempted to call her and borrow it, I figured that was sort of the cheater's way.  I decided I would try to make crepes the old fashioned way and would borrow the crepe maker only if my efforts met with total failure.

Guess what?  Making crepes is far easier than making pancakes!! I can't believe I lived in fear all these years!  I'm a crepe convert. 

Here's the quick rundown on making them. The batter is very thin.  You lift the pan off the burner when you add the batter, so that the batter doesn't cook too quickly . As you pour the batter, you swirl/tilt the pan around in a circular motion so that the batter spreads out into a very thin, circular (or not so circular) cake.  Becaues it is so thin, the top part will cook/get dry very quickly. Then you flip the crepe. That part was SO much easier than I anticipated. They just don't break/fall apart/smear like pancakes do. Once you flip it you only have to cook it about 15 seconds on that side and you're done.

I insisted that my daughters and mother-in-law also take turns so that they, too, could have a new adventure. Aubrey is a natural! Her crepes were nearly perfectly round.

We made what are supposed to be dessert crepes, but we had them for dinner. They were chocolate crepes filled with strawberries and topped with (real) whipped cream and chocolate syrup. They were SO good.

The only downside was that I doubled the recipe. Bad idea. We had crepes coming out of our ears. But, I guess that's not really a downside. I delivered crepes to 4 different neighbors' homes and to quote one, I "made their whole evening."

There will defintely be more crepes in the future for the Cox family.  I think we might actually implement a ban on pancakes!

#11 - My Fair Lady

OK, lots of you are going to call this one lame, and that's fine. But, this whole "40 new adventures" thing is mine, so I can make the rules, and I say this counts!

I finally watched My Fair Lady. This falls into that "I've always wanted to...." category.  It's a classic, and it seems to be referenced a fair amount. Lots of people talk about how Pretty Woman was a modern day spin off of My Fair Lady. Well, since this year is the 20th anniversary of Pretty Woman (yes, it really is, believe it or not!), this seemed like a good time to watch it.

So, I rented the video and actually made the time this weekend for it.  I really enjoyed it. I liked it better than Breakfast at Tiffany's (another classic I always wanted to see and actually did a couple years ago).  A lot of the humor in it was rather timeless.  It did fall a little on the long side, but overall it was a pleasant evening. I'm glad I can finally cross that one off my to-do list of my life!

There's not much more to say about this one--aside from stating the obvious--Audrey Hepburn was beautiful.  It was a simple new adventure, but one I'm glad I had.