Chuck Zumbrun

Tales from Skunk Hill

  • When Life Gives You Couscous

    We made couscous for a side dish the other day and ended up with way too much. Like 3 cups of leftover cooked couscous. I like couscous, but that’s a lot to use up. I was looking around for what to do with couscous and came across “Couscous for breakfast” ideas. A lot them…

  • Inauguration Day

    The first presidential election I could vote in was 1976, Jimmy Carter vs Gerald Ford, that was a no-brainer, and I’ve voted in every election and primary since then. But I’d never watched an inauguration until January 20th, 2020. I’m not one for pomp and circumstance, and politics and political speeches bore me to…

  • Indiana’s Shame

    My congressional representative, Jim Banks (IN-03) refuses to admit his complicity in the attempted coup on January 6th and continues to spew the same rhetoric that led to it.

  • Pearls

    When we packed up my Mom’s apartment after she died we found some pearls among her things. I’d forgotten about those pearls, if I ever knew about them. My sister Anne said they’d been given to her by a Japanese educator who visited Elmhurst High School when Mom was an administrator there. I remember…

  • Well Aged

    When we last butchered pigs, early in 2019, I took one of the hams, cured it, and left it to hang in my garage. That’s right, no typos there, the ham has been hanging in my garage at ambient temperatures since early 2019, almost 2 years. Until today. On a lazy Sunday I thought…

  • Inutterable

    I went to Menards today to buy supplies for what seems to be the never-ending porch renovation. Happily I found everything I needed and I parked my self in a line that seemed surprisingly short for a holiday weekend to check out. But it wasn’t short enough for the guy in front of me.…

  • Just Another Friday Night

    Nothing I’d rather be doing on a Friday night than being at home with my good dog Owen. Of course the minute I stop petting him he starts whining. So I’m posting this one-handed. It’s a good night.

  • And Yet Another Black Raspberry Post

    The wild black raspberries produced like crazy this summer. I made black raspberry pie and black raspberry jam and black raspberry syrup and then I took all the black raspberry pulp left over from that and made black raspberry vinegar. I had black raspberry syrup on my fried mush this weekend, and today I…