Here is a picture that I took in Noble County, Oklahoma, not far from the town of Marland.  It shows some fairly dramatic storm clouds above a lonely tank battery.  I added a poster edge filter to add a bit of drama to the pic.

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Frequent readers of Musings know that Marilyn and I are avid collectors of old cookbooks.  Here is a recipe I found in The New Orleans Cookbook by Rima and Richard Collin.  Yes, I admit I was first attracted to the book because of one of the author’s first names and its connection with the great novel, Green Mansions, but the cookbook’s wonderful recipes go far beyond one of my favorite characters of all time.

The book is subtitled Creole, Cajun, and Louisiana French Recipes, Past and Present.  It is an eighth printing from Alfred A. Knopf, published in 1980.  Not only are the recipes good, the pictures and illustrations alone are worth the price of the book.  I highly recommend it.  If you can find a copy, buy it.  Here is one of my favorite recipes from The New Orleans Cookbook.

SAUCE PARADIS

The richest sauce in Creole cuisine, made with Madeira wine, currant jelly, green grapes, beef stock, and truffles.  When green seedless grapes are in season, we buy them in quantity and freeze them, for this sauce and for Trout Veronique.  The truffles are a grand touch but do not change the flavor of the sauce, so if you have none on hand, do not be deterred.  We like Sauce Paradis on squab, quail, duck and chicken.

1/4 cup salt butter

1/8 tsp freshly ground white pepper

1/4 cup flour

1 cup green seedless grapes (drained if they have been frozen)

2 cups rich beef stock

1/2 cup Madeira wine

3 large truffles, sliced thin

3 tbsp red currant jelly

In a heavy 2 to 3 quart saucepan melt the butter over low heat then add the flour stirring to keep the mixture smooth.  Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 10 minutes, and then slowly add the beef stock, stirring as you pour.

Cook over low heat until sauce thickens slightly (about 6 minutes), then add the wine, currant jelly and pepper, and mix thoroughly.  Cook until the jelly has melted and then add the grapes and truffles.

Continue cooking for about 3 minutes more, just long enough to heat the grapes and truffles through.  Remove the pan from the heat. Right before serving stir gently to mix.

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Saudi king says fair price of oil is $75/barrel.

OPEC ends Cairo meeting without new output cuts - Yahoo! News.

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Betting on the future price of crude oil is a lot like playing high-stakes poker in Vegas, and perhaps even more risky.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=a9VsIu71NpRo&refer=energy

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Thanksgiving was one of my favorite holidays while growing up in northwest Louisiana.  My Mother had three sisters and a brother.  My Grandparents lived but a few blocks from our house and most of my Aunts, Uncles and Cousins would almost always come in for the holiday.

My Grandparents, the Pittman’s, usually had Thanksgiving at their house.  I loved all of my cousins, but was closest to Cousins Ken and Angela, about the same age as I am.  I have lots of younger cousins, and at least one that is older, but I mostly remember Ken, Angela and my brother.  I remember one Thanksgiving holiday in particular.

There weren’t many inclement winters that I remember while growing up in north Louisiana but a certain November was particularly dark and gloomy.  For some reason we celebrated that particular Thanksgiving at my parent’s house.

The Pitt’s all loved politics.  Whenever they congregated, you could bet there would be a spirited discussion on the subject.  It did not matter what half of the group believed, the other half would dispute it, Grandpa Pitt always leading the charge.  While the parents argued inside the house, we kids were having fun in the back yard.

None of us kids cared much for politics, and this included my cerebral, and very pretty cousin Angela.  We were busy outside, amid a blue Louisiana gloom, thinking only of ways to have fun.

Jack and I were the country cousins, Ken and Angela from Shreveport and Houston, respectively.  Jack and I had both had BB guns, bow and arrows and knifes since we were old enough to know better.  Ken and Angela had never even popped a cap.

Fireworks weren’t illegal in Vivian during the fifties and sixties.  Two-inchers and M-80’s were as legal as they were potentially deadly.  Jack and I had made pipe guns, plugged on one end, with a stock for holding and aiming.  You would drop a lighted two-incher down the barrel, followed quickly by a marble, aim and wait for the explosion.

Ken and Angela were slathering at their mouths to shoot the guns.  Finally, Jack and I acquiesced.  The two City Cousins held the barrels in the air as Jack and I dropped two-inchers, followed quickly by marbles down the barrels.  They pointed and the resulting explosion was deafening.  Jack and I watched with open eyes as the projectiles blew out the windows of my Dad’s garage.

Angela and Ken were oblivious to what they had just done but Jack said, “Oh, shit!”

My own rear end began to pucker.

Jack and I knocked out the remaining glass from the windowpane and discarded the broken shards in the trash.  With Thanksgiving festivities in full swing, we got a bye for a few days before my Dad realized what had happened.

When he finally discovered the transgression, he failed to give us the whipping that we anticipated.  Instead, he took away our marble guns, and our fireworks.  Angela and Ken never received any punishment, and I do not suppose they should have, neither having a clue as to what they were doing when they blew out my Dad’s garage windows.

Yes, Thanksgiving is still one of my favorite holidays.  I miss hearing my parents and relatives discussing politics, but mostly I miss those blue Louisiana days when skies were gloomy, and our young eyes wide.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Eric’s Web

The price of oil seems to have found its bottom at $50/barrel.

Oil gains on China rate cuts, EU stimulus plan - MarketWatch.

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Oil fever!

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2008/11/24/chinas-got-a-fever.aspx

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A very interesting article about the current direction of the new administrations energy policy.

Production » Blog Archive » Obama energy policy must “be real” about oil.

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Oil sand producer continues forward, despite drop in crude prices.

http://www.energyscout.com/News/NewsHighlights/43075.aspx

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An interesting article.

http://www.epmag.com/Magazine/2008/11/item17042.php

Eric’s Website

 I learned to read at an early age, and soon began enjoying books.  We had a tiny, one-room town library in Vivian and Mrs. Files, - I kid you not - was the librarian.  The library had little or no budget but Mrs. Files always found an inexpensive way to keep our interest in reading high.

During the summer, she would mimeograph diagrams of the United States, or some such imaginative illustration.  Whenever we read a book, she would give us a gold star for one of the states.  The person with the most gold stars at the end of the summer got a five-dollar bill, which, I now feel sure, Mrs. Files contributed herself.

I liked mysteries from the time I was very young, books with heroes like Freddy the Pig and Miss Pickerel.  As I grew older, I found I also liked a little adventure tossed in.  I read everything I could find by Jules Verne, H. Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs, so it was natural that when I began writing, I wrote stories that combined the two genres.  If you have the need to label everything, I guess you could call them mysventures.

Growing up, I also loved history and have always wondered what happened to the ill-fated colony of Roanoke.  It would seem with all our technology that we should be able to find the answer.  Alas, this is not the case.

I have visited many wild and wooly places in my life but few as wild and remote as the deepest forests hidden in the ancient Ouachita Mountains of central Arkansas.  I realized as much while working on my geological master’s thesis in Sevier County.

I remain entranced by the geologic mystery of the area and feel that central Arkansas is one of the top ten geologic wonders of the world.  To me, it bears the same mystery and intrigue as Haggard’s vision of darkest Africa, or Burrough’s Pellucidar.  Arkansas is also the only place in the United States with diamonds found at their source.

Not only are the Ouachita Mountains lush with mystery, intrigue and danger, their deep valleys and sharp peaks conceal limitless wealth in diamonds and many other valuable minerals.  It seemed a perfect place for a mystery/adventure tale, and became the location for my novel A Gathering of Diamonds.

When I wrote A Gathering of Diamonds, I stole many ideas from masters such as Haggard, Burroughs, and yes-even Cussler.  I also managed to solve the mystery of the disappearance of the Roanoke Colony, at least in my own fictional mind.

Many moons have passed since those days in Vivian’s little library.  Mrs. Files is no longer around to read any of my books.  If she were, I am sure that she would smile, pat me on the shoulder, and give me a gold star.  That thought makes me very happy.

Eric’s Web

 Caddo Lake is the largest natural lake in Texas.  The lake’s history is as diverse as pearls and steamboats, and Caddo remains one of the most beautiful and mysterious lakes in the entire United States.

My Dad was born in Trees City, once a boomtown a few miles from Vivian.  Jeems Bayou separates Vivian and Trees.  During heavy rains in the area, it will result in water rising over the highway, leaving a boat the only way to get to Trees City from Vivian.

I remember, as a kid, fishing from the side of the road.  My parents, Grandmother and I were not the only ones, hundreds of others joining in to reap the harvest of fish from the fabled lake.

There were always fishing camps both on the Texas and Louisiana sides of the lake.  These camps would have a ramp for launching boats, and would rent boats, and sell bait, fishing gear and pop.  Each camp usually had a restaurant where the locals went for catfish, hushpuppies and Cole slaw.

Kool Point, near Oil City, no longer has a restaurant but Pelican Lodge, not far from Trees City is still open.  I always love eating at Pelican Lodge when I visit Vivian.  It is far off the beaten path and only the locals really know where it is.  One condiment all of these restaurants served is green tomato relish.  It is probably best prepared in large batches, and then canned (bottled) but here is a recipe for a single batch, suitable for one dinner.

3 large rough chopped green tomatoes,

1 large rough chopped onion

1 hot green pepper, chopped

1/3 cup sugar

2 tbsp salt

1-cup vinegar

In a small pot, bring the sugar, salt and vinegar to a boil, and then add vegetables.  Return contents of the pot to a boil for two minutes.  Chill and enjoy.

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http://news.yahoo.com/topics/oil-and-gas

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Did viable alternative energy sources die, along with $150 oil?

Drilling » Blog Archive » The Green Revolution: The Next Big “Bubble”?.

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How low can we go?

Oil prices drop below $50 dollars, hit 3.5-year lows - Yahoo! News.

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Here is a chart from the Energy Information Agency.  They predict an 8% rise in oil production for 2009, an assumption not supported by their own decline curve.

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Oil and gas companies, like the price of crude, on a downward spiral.

Petroleum shares fall on inventory rise - MarketWatch.

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Oil prices fall to $55 a barrel.

Crude oil prices ignore winter's chill - UPI.com.

Eric’s Website

I suffered from painful shyness until I was well into my twenties, unsure of myself and almost physically unable to carry on a meaningful conversation with any member of the opposite sex.  I managed to cure myself, sometime between my marriages to Gail and Anne, mostly by bedding, or trying to bed, practically every female that I met.

I was not a sexual addict, just simply trying to improve my self-esteem by proving to myself (through what I felt was sexual acceptance) that girls actually liked me.  The cure was not painless and it left me with more than a few mental scars, but not nearly so many as the ones that I bore through most of my teen years.

I am no longer shy, and anything but a shrinking violet, but some of the old memories of the pathetic things that I did when I was young still haunt me – at least when I allow myself to dwell on them.  Tonight I remembered something I did during that time in my life that still causes me to pity myself and realize just what a loser that I was.

I was a freshman in geology at Northeast Louisiana and along on a geological field trip to northern Arkansas.  It was winter and we camped the first night on an Ozark mountaintop.  I had a sleeping bag but it was Louisiana-rated, and not meant for northern Arkansas in December.

That night, I survived by shivering.  I could not go to sleep because of the cold.  When dawn finally arrived, I was exhausted.  I dozed in the car’s backseat as we spent the day stopping at one geologic outcrop after the next.  By dark, we started back to Monroe, stopping at a roadside café for dinner.

The little café was family-owned, our waitress a young woman about my own age, and the daughter of the owners.  I cannot remember her name or much of anything about her except that she was attractive and had a friendly smile.

I never even spoke to her, except to order my hamburger, but listened as the other male students bantered and flirted with her.  We dined and departed, and that would have been the end of the story, except that I convinced myself that I saw something in her eyes.  Once back in Monroe, I wrote her a letter.

I didn’t exactly pour my heart out to her, but I did ask if she would go out with me if I drove up for a visit.  She probably would not have even known which one of us it was if I had not sent her a picture – a particularly nerdy photo from my high school graduation.  I was surprised, and even a little more anxious when I received a return letter from the young woman that I did not really expect.

She could have ripped my heart out and roasted it over a fire with her words; if she had wanted.  Instead, her letter was cordial, thanking me for my many compliments, but explaining that she had a steady boyfriend.  I was not exactly heartbroken though I did realize how pathetic that I was, hiding behind pen and paper instead of speaking with my heart and mouth when I could have.

Years have passed and old pains have numbed.  Once again, it is winter.  Although I’m not outside in a sleeping bag, I am still putting my thoughts on a page, or computer screen.  Still, no one has accused me of being shy lately, or even a little insecure.

As I keyboard these last thoughts, I realize that, just maybe, it is better to express yourself with written words than to keep them locked, like lonesome puppies, so deep in your soul that you can’t even hear them whimpering.

Eric’s Website

The $64 dollar question in the oil biz today.

http://www.energyscout.com/News/NewsHighlights/42768.aspx

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It all sounds good, except for the windfall profits tax which will ultimately reduce exploration and result, as it did during the eighties, in miles of largely indecipherable red tape.

http://www.energyscout.com/News/NewsHighlights/42766.aspx

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Yet another oil price forecast.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=aDQb_wv2h0c8&refer=energy

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An interesting theory that has no point in fact.  If fields were constantly being replenished with oil, the giant Oklahoma City Field would still be viable instead of having “peaked” decades ago, and continuing to decline since then.

Abiogenic Oil Theory | Petroleum Investing.

Eric’s Website

Rice wasn’t introduced as a Louisiana staple until after the Civil War. Today it is an integral part of New Orleans cuisine. My Mother tells a story of a distant cousin that married a man from south Louisiana and was soon divorced because she couldn’t properly prepare a pan of rice. While I don’t know if the story is true, I do know that rice is an important addition to almost every south Louisiana dish.

Most rice grown in the United States is the long grain white variety. The kind used by many New Orleans cooks is long grain white rice that is regular milled. This means the milling process has removed hulls, germ and outer bran layer producing distinct and fluffy grains when properly cooked. For those of you contemplating marriage to someone from New Orleans, here are simple instructions for preparing perfect rice every time.

Do not wash the rice before cooking or rinse it after cooking. Doing so will only wash away nutrients on the grains. Many cooks in New Orleans always use the same brand of rice. This is because the most important step in cooking perfect rice is using the correct amount of water and this may vary slightly from miller to miller. Too much water makes the cooked rice soggy and too little water leaves it dry. As a rule of thumb, use 2 1/4 cups of water for every cup of long grain rice. One cup of rice serves about four people.

The volume of rice triples in size so it is important to use a pan that is large enough to accommodate the desired final amount. Bring water to a boil on the stove top then stir in the rice, salt (about ½ teaspoon per cup of rice) and butter (about 2 teaspoons per cup of rice). Cover tightly and simmer for twenty minutes. Finally, remove the pan from the heat and uncover until the rice soaks up the remaining water. This usually takes about five minutes.

Once you cover the rice, don’t open the lid until you are ready to take it off the heat. Peeking is a definite no no. Doing so lets the steam escape and lowers the temperature. Don’t stir the rice after it comes to a boil. If you stir it, you’re going to have gummy rice - also a no no. Finally, don’t let the rice stay in the pan that you cooked it in for more than five to ten minutes. Doing so will cause the grains to pack. Got all that? If you do, your marriage is safe. Well, at least from the rice cooking aspect.

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Oil investments plunge, along with oil price nose dive.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=afvXAdlC1sy8&refer=energy

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Present natural gas price cannot support yesterday’s high lease bonuses.

http://arklatexhomepage.com/content/fulltext/?cid=47191

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An engineer friend of mine had an open house to introduce his many clients and friends to his new office.  The place was crowded with fifty people, or so and I soon began recognizing people I had not see in years.  They were all older but they all looked good.  Seeing them again, I realized I was not the only survivor of the eighties oil bust.

Many years ago, my then partner John and I had sold our first deal as independent geologists.  It was to an oil company in Fort Worth owned by a local tycoon.  He paid John and me five thousand dollars for the deal and we thought, at the time, that we were the two richest men in the world.

We drove all the way home from Fort Worth that night.  The Christmas season was in full swing and we stopped in downtown Oklahoma City to attend a party held in the Skirvin (think Perle Mesta) Hotel ballroom and hosted by Dresser Industries.

Dresser always had a Christmas party that was without parallel.  The buffet had endless acres of food, along with enough whiskey and other assorted alcohol to float a battleship.  Thousands of oilies attended every year.  John and I had both attended in previous years, but this was our first year as independents, and we had just sold our first deal.

The Dresser Christmas party was just one of many, but it was one of the best.  Everyone had a Christmas party and they all spent thousands of dollars providing food, drink and entertainment.

My friend’s open house reminded me of the lavish parties of the past.  Tonight’s party was great but nothing as lavish as those days in the late seventies and eighties.  Still, seeing many old friends tonight, I am glad that I’m not the only dinosaur left in the world.

Eric’s Website

Oil heading to $50 barrel.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081111/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices

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Chesapeake goes to Norway.

Chesapeake continues activity with $3.37 billion Statoil deal - MarketWatch.

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Oil prices continue to vacillate.

Oil jumps above $65 on higher stock markets - Yahoo! News.

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Users of asphalt, a byproduct of oil refining, are experiencing nation-wide shortages.  A very interesting and relevant article.

Asphalt shortage delays road repairs nationwide - Yahoo! News.

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I am a great fan of NASCAR and enjoyed seeing Carl Edwards win the last race at the Texas Motor Speedway.  Edward’s was going so slow at the end that almost every car in the field passed him.  Fortunately, he had at least a lap advantage, and an eleven-second lead on the second place finisher, Jeff Gordon.

Carl Edwards won the race on fuel mileage, even though he led more laps than did anyone in the race.  Jeff Gordon, driving a Chevrolet, finished second, also by conserving fuel.  In the winner’s circle, among others, Edwards thanked the awesome fuel mileage of his Ford Fusion.  His unexpected pronouncement was music to my ears.

Recently, here in Oklahoma, gas has fallen below two dollars a gallon.  Some might think this occurrence signals an end to high energy prices forever, and a return to an earlier time when you did not have to think about conserving fuel; you had only to get into your car, put the pedal to the metal and drive.

Truth is, we have not increased our daily production of oil by even a single barrel; we only reduced our consumption, and thus our demand.  What this means is that our present lower fuel price is only a short-term anomaly.

Carl Edwards won the Texas race on a strategy of conserving fuel.  Ford and Chevrolet - two of the greatest automakers ever, and arguably the backbone of America’s economy - finished first and second by following the strategy.

Life is longer than 500 miles and we need a long-term, comprehensive plan to compete, and even survive.  My vote is to elect Carl Edwards and Jeff Gordon as President and Vice President, and have them ride to their inaugurations in a Ford and Chevy.

Eric’s Website

Halloween is past us.  Today, there is a pumpkin on our front porch.  “Let’s don’t let it spoil,” Marilyn said.  I agree because one of the reasons I love this time of year are the tasty pumpkin pies my Mother and Grandmothers used to make.  Here is an old yet simple recipe that I hope you enjoy as much as Marilyn and me.

FRESH PUMPKIN PIE

1 ½ cups fresh pumpkin                        ¼ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp cinnamon                                    1 cup milk

2 eggs, slightly beaten                           1 cup sugar

1 tbsp butter                                         ¼ tsp salt

Combine ingredients.  Mix thoroughly.  Pour into pastry-lined pie pan.  Bake in hot oven (425 degrees) for about 25 minutes, or until an inserted knife comes out clean.  Serve with whipped cream on top.

Eric’s Website

While visiting Northwest Louisiana a while back, I took the opportunity to visit Trees City.  The town was founded by the legendary oil finders Benedum and Trees.  These two wildcatters had moved to north Louisiana after finding large oil fields in Oklahoma.  They discovered the Trees City Field in far Northwest Louisiana.

Trees City quickly became a boomtown, complete with churches, honky tonks and a post office.  During the heigth of the oil boom, 25,000 people lived there.  Today, it is little more than a memory.

Thick trees, vines and creepers cover most of what was once a thriving city.  Permanent steel towers, constructed on site for the drilling of a single oil well, still peek up through the tall trees.  Even the post office is gone, located now at the Oil Museum in nearby Oil City, Louisiana.

Benedum and Trees sold their interest in the Field to Gulf Oil for a million dollars, an enormous sum of money at the time.  The amount pales compared with the vast riches recovered by Gulf Oil.  It doesn’t matter much now.  Where roughnecks once toiled to recover Mother Nature’s dark liquid bounty, only ghosts wisping silently over Jeems Bayou still remain.

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I attended a prospect fair in Oklahoma City and visited with many friends that I have not seen in quite some time.  David, one of the many old friends I visited with, reminded me of a story that neither of us are very proud of, but in hindsight very funny.

My good friend David is also in the oil business and had invested in a portion of a well I had re-entered.  Cecil was my wellhead man, the person that supplied and installed the “Christmas tree” that directs the flow of gas and oil from the well to the heater treater, separator and oil and water tanks.

It was a Friday, toward quitting time and David and Cecil were both at my office.  I was bragging about the well and we decided to take an impromptu trip to see it in person.  Along the way, we stopped for a few six-packs of beer.

The well was in Garfield County, Oklahoma, about two hours from Oklahoma City.  It was dark by the time we reached it, David, Cecil and I deep in our cups.  We had all consumed a goodly amount of beer as we each, in turn, tried to tell the tallest tale.  There are no overhead lights on a remote, rural pumping oil well facility.

We had not even thought to bring a flashlight.  Cecil was a wellhead expert, a person that knew quite a lot about high pressure and how to deal with it.  Still, it was dark and we were all inebriated.  I asked Cecil to check something on the head (what, I can’t remember) and when he did, he caused the pop-off valve on the heater treater to explode and blow gas, oil and water high into the air, along with a loud explosion.

Like good former soldiers, David and I both hit the dirt face first.  Cecil was struggling to control the flow, mostly water, blowing on the ground.  None of us had the sobriety to correct the situation.  There were no cell phones at the time so we drove to a pay phone in the little town of Hunter and called Tony, Cecil’s son-in-law.

Like the Lone Ranger to the rescue, Tony hurried north and fixed the problem that, it turned out, was more frightening than it was dire.  When he finished repairing the well, Tony, completely sober and not very happy about being called out on a Friday night, drove us back to the City, rolling his eyes and shaking his head the entire way at our stupidity.

The cold light of morning revealed no contamination; the water blown out of the well had mostly dried up over night.  Yes, I know it was stupid and my only excuse is that I was quite young at the time.  While frightening, David and I could only laugh about the incident during our visit at the prospect fair.

Looking back, I realize the incident was one of many dumb mistakes made during my life.  I also realize that I am not the only person that has made dumb, youthful mistakes and I am in awe that anyone manages to survive much beyond the age of thirty.

Eric’s Website

Oil approaches $75 per barrel.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081104/bs_nm/us_markets_oil_25

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U.S. cutback of 1.1 million barrels of oil per day responsible for precipitous fall in the price of crude.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=aZjYuJuTJy5M&refer=energy

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Budgets for 2009 are already being slashed.

Offshore » Blog Archive » Economic worries rein in exploration investment.

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My grandparents had a giant pecan tree in their back yard and every year they would share its bounty with anyone that asked.  My mother always got a few bags of pecans and would use them to make her famous pecan pie on special occasions.  Her recipe is simple, its preparation easy but take my word there is nothing much better tasting in the world!

Mama’s Pecan Pie

1 cup brown sugar                    1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup dark corn syrup               ½ teaspoon salt

3 eggs, whole                            pastry for one pie

1 cup pecans, broken

Beat sugar and eggs until thick.  Add corn syrup, pecans, vanilla and salt.  Mix well and then pour into a pastry-lined pie pan.  Bake at 300 degrees for about an hour or until filling is firm.  Wonderful when served hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

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