Our good friend, Tommy O’Rourke, from Steve’s high school days in Chicago, was a regular in the pits. His father, Cowboy O’Rourke was a racer of midget cars( make sure you check out his bio. with this link). He was affiliated with the Indy 500 starting in the 1940's although he never actually raced in it. I think he was a on a team as a mechanic. His sons Tommy and Patrick accompanied him down there each year. Tommy used to tell us hilarious stories about “Cow”. It seems Cow crashed a “few times’ one of which left him blind in one eye. Well he never let on and continued racing half blind! I first met the legend when we moved from sunny San Diego to Chicago’s 18 degree January winter in the 70’s. A few of Steve’s old friends threw a Super Bowl party in a local hotel. It was also a welcome back party for Steve, even though we were only supposed to be there one year. All of the O’Rourke boys were there including their cousin, Billy Seguin. Cowboy O’Rourke had a cocktail glued to his hand most of the day telling stories. He knew how to get the crowd going. Before I knew it he had his hand in his pants with his finger wiggling outside of his open fly right in front of me. Everyone was falling down laughing . Scared the daylights out of me. Welcome to Chicago and get used to this type of behavior as I soon found out. One of the guys decided he needed the fire hose that the hotel had hanging on the wall in case of fire ( no fire extinguishers in those days) so he wrapped it around his person and put on his heavy winter coat and off he went. Luckily we didn’t have anything to do with renting the room because I am sure that bill was HUGE as they left it pretty trashed.
For many years those friends also gathered for Indy 500 bbq’s or just to get together for Memorial Day weekend if they didn’t actually go down there. Cowboy lived to the ripe old age of 83 and still chased the ladies around in his retirement home scaring the living daylights out of them. Tommy had to go make the peace so he wouldn't get evicted. The stories were priceless.
I have absolutely no idea what they eat at the Indy 500 but am pretty sure there are copious amounts of beer and booze. These eggs would certainly pair very well with that venue with a few dashes of Tabasco sauce.
Today I decided to do “clean out the refrigerator” scrambled eggs with the usual suspects as side dishes, spring fruit and chicken breakfast sausages along with brunch salsa. It is getting harder for Steve to swallow but this seemed to go down okay.
"Indy 500 Scramble"
1 T. milk
Dash black pepper
Dash Tabasco
Whisk all together in a bowl and set aside.
Dice the following veges or substitute veges you happen to have on hand:
1/3 c. red bell pepper
1/3 c. green bell pepper
1/3 c. onion
1 large or 2 small crimini mushrooms. Saute all in a non stick skillet with butter and olive oil, until tender. Season with salt and a little pepper.
Dice up 1/2 fresh tomato.
Cut one thin slice of ham into thin strips about 1" x 1/4". I usually have ham around for sandwiches.
Add to the skillet and heat until warm.
Have some chopped herbs on hand ie parsley, thyme, basil, rosemary (not too much) to the tune of about 1 T.
Add eggs to the vegetables along with 2 tsp. herbs and a little salt ( taste veges for salt first). Slowly cook them stirring constantly. Add 2 T. cheese, I used feta cheese, crumbled, today but any shredded cheese would do.
When the eggs are set, immediately plate onto heated plates.
Garnish with more cheese and the rest of the herbs.
Pass the Brunch Salsa and (for me) Tabasco sauce!
I love this time of year for fruit. Peaches, apricots, cherries, strawberries,blueberries and nectarines are showing their wonderful faces. A simple presentation is all that is needed to enjoy these fruits at their best. I got sooo lucky as the farmer's market had tiny Chandler strawberries. These are the most fragrant and tasty of all strawberries. I should have bought more but I did get a batch of ice cream out of them.
Chicken apple sausages were cooked as I usually do but with a maple syrup glaze this week.
We had 2 half bottles of bubbly left and they actually had a little life left in them so we polished those off.
Steve tuned the TV into the Indy 500 and enjoyed the ride!
