Newbrassky

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

She noticed it right away, just never thought to comment on it 'til now.

Duke would eat suet.

[Delmonico]

Ridin' inta the ranch after a hard day in town workin' at the dry goods store, Delmonico unsaddles his horse and puts it into the barn.  Walkin' to the dugout he slips and falls flat on his back.  Gettin' up he looks and he seems a silvery ribbon as far as he can see in either direction.  What ever it is is is slippery and has frozen in the sub-zero weather.   :-

Delmonico thinks his tired eyes are playin' tricks on him, cause it looks to him like one of those delicate trails a snail or a slug would leave behind, but a trail a slug the size of a horse would leave.

Thinkin' his tired eyes are playin' tricks on him, he hobbles stiffly to the dugout and to bed.

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

Taking pity on the poor coozie, the Frumpy Fairy Godmother waves her wand and his soogun massages his shoulders in his sleep.

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

Getting an odd twinkle in her eyes, the Frumpy Fairy Godmother poofs out with a scattering of glittering sawdust.

A little while later, she poofs back in, with that small "cat who ate the canary" satisfied smile.

[Delmonico]

Delmonico comes back to the ranch late and heads right to the dugout and heads to bed.  By the time he gets there it is snowing lightly and there is no wind.  If he wasn't so tired he would have noticed how beutiful it is early this Christmas morning.

[Delmonico]

sudenly Delmonico is awaken by strange noises outside.  Peeking through the door, he sees there is a light dustin' of snow on the ground.  But by now the clouds have passed and the moon is out.   In the snow in front of the dugout is a bunch of hoof prints.  To the side of the dugout it a large tarp coverin' somethin' liftin' the cover Delmonico see's that under it is about a 1/2 ton of good hard coal.

Lookin' up toward the moon he sees what appears to be a sleigh, in it a large man whith long white hair and beard, wearin' what looks like red Carhart coveralls.   But what is really srange is that the sleigh is bein' drawn, not by 8 tiny reindeer, but 8 large buck pronghorn. 

[Delmonico]

Delmonico gets up late the day after Christmas and starts to fire up the stove and clean up the dugout.  (If ya want ta know about what happened on our ranch Christmas, get a Copy of Michael Martin Murphy's Cowboy Christmas and listen ta it over and over.)

(By the way that is a shameless plug for the BEST Christmas album ever.  Sorry I sold out 3 weeks ago and could not get anymore till after Christmas.)

Delmonico has plans for later and with all the coal he won't have to be stingy with fuel.  But right now it's dinner time and he is hungry.

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

Duke is wolfing down what appears to be fried sausage, eggs, and onion wrapped in a soft tortilla. He doesn't know where they came from, but his wagging says they are good!

[Delmonico]

Delmonico is searchin' fer both his Anise cookie recipe's and can't find them.  That means that he is gonna have to go upstairs and print them off on the "Old Time" word proccessooor upstairs.  (Ya didn't know dugouts had an upstairs.)

But before startin' upstairs, delmonico evicts Duke from the dugout.  (Remember the coal burnin' cookstove.)

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

Poor Duke whimpers and scratches at the door, not knowing what he did wrong.

[Delmonico]

Delmonico can't hear him, since he is upstairs lookin' for anise cookie recipes.   Sides that even if he could he's got enough sense not to let a dog that has been eatin' Hueveros ranchos in a house with a wood stove or any other open flame.

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

After a time, Duke stops whimpering and scratching and wanders off on his evening rounds.

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

In the morning, Duke comes trotting back to the camp, limping a little with his rear left leg. But he's wagging as he runs, and he stops to look back, as though he is expecting to see someone coming up the trail behind him.

[Delmonico]

Delmonico opens the door and lets Duke in, since 24 hours has passed.  He pulls the sandburr out of the sore foot and puts on some salve.  Sorry Duke, Slim must have got lost on the way back to the ranch. 

I did find both my anise cookie recipes and tommorow I might have time to make them.

[Russ T Chambers]

Russ T. comes ridin' through Newbrassky on his way back to balmy Nevada Territory.  Hasn't had a problem back trailin' from Wisconsin, as there was this funny lookin' frosty, slime trail. to follow.  Looks like instead of cold, he's headin' for warmer, but snow.

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

Duke licks a little at his paw, then gives a contented sigh and settles down, watching toward the door.

Sometime in the night, he gets up and starts barking wildly, like he smells something awful out there.

[Russ T Chambers]

Russ T sees a yellar dawg off to his right passin' through Newbrassky.  Seems he is still sniffin' that funny lookin trail.  Russ knows it's not his trail he's followin', as he swapped mounts in Milwaukee at the Dawson spread, and is ridin' on one of those new Wright fliers.  They seem to follow the same track as a good ol' hoss would returnin' to the home barn.

[Delmonico]

Delmonico desides to stay up late and bake cookies.  Anise cookis to be exact, a Christmas tradition in many parts of the world.  To those who don't know, anise is a seed of the anise plant, part of the parsley family, a relative of carrot and dill.  Even though the taste is similar to licorice, it is not the same, licorice flavor is from the root of the licorice plant, this is a legume, a relative of the pea and bean.  So don't be callin' these licorice cookies or I'll have to go inta one of my frothin' rages, not good when makin' cookies, maybe ok fer meringue pie cause no one would notice.

A couple hours ago delmonico mixed this up and has had it chillin'.  This one has also been in our family for many years and I would say it dates to at least before the Civil War by many years cause it uses 1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter and 1/2 teaspoon bakin' soda (salertus).  One can just use 1 teaspoon bakin' powder for the same results.

     Anise Snaps

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
1 beaten egg
1 tablespoon anise seed

Mix together dry ingrdieants, Cream butter and sugar.  Add dry mixture and anise seed.  Mix well until blended.  Chill for at least 2 hours.  Heat oven to 350. (Medium Hot)  Roll dough 1/8 inch thick and cut into desired shapes.  Bake 12-15 minutes on ungreased baking sheet.

While these are bakin' delmonico prepares the next ones.  these are of German origin.

     Springerle

2 eggs
1 cup white sugar
2 1/4 cups flour
anise seed

Beat egg and sugar for 5 minutes, mix in enough flour to make a stiff workable dough.  Cover and chill for 2 hours

Roll out 1/8 inch thick, cut and sprinkle with anise seed, let dry 10 hours and bake in 325 degree (medium hot) oven on ungreased baking sheet, 1/2 inch apart for 12-15 minutes.

Delmonico will bake the hard cookies tommorow.

[Delmonico]

After makin' a bunch a noise it the "Quiet" thread in the Longbranch, Delmonico bars the door to the dugout, parks his Sharps and a case of ammo in the corner and has Duke listen fer a posse.  He then goes back to his cookie bakin'.

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

Barred doors and alert retrievers don't stop some things, and as Del is mixing batter, he notices some glittering sawdust on the countertop. His hair now looks like this: