What are good friends for?

Feeling sympathetic no doubt for our winter of snowfall, a friend from Alaska sent a recipe she thought would be a good one to use for next year’s Geneva Wild Game Feed event. I wrote back and said she would have to send us the whale meat as I doubt Geneva, Beaver or St. Olaf Lake would have enough of the meat to go around. The recipe seems simple enough and should take care of a lot of good eaters.

Captain Mel Anderson's Alaskan Whale Stew

• 1 (105-ton) blue or sulfur bottom whale

• 1,896 lbs. onion

• 7,326 lbs. potatoes

• 1,908 gallons tomato sauce

• 2,276 lbs. carrots

• 927 lbs. celery

• 104 lbs. salt

• 76 lbs. black pepper

• 52 gallons hot Tabasco sauce

Place whale in large pot with tomato sauce and cook at 300 degrees for four hours. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for at least 36 hours. It serves 347,161 people.

If you care for hare in your stew, you can add a two-pound rabbit.

And if that doesn't tickle your fancy, you can try this recipe for Alaskan Tossed Snowballs.

You will need one dozen ripe Alaskan snowballs; one quart of caribou juice, drained and strained; two cups essence of seal gizzard and one teaspoon mashed moose bellow.

Toss snowballs into a bucket and when you have enough, peel and slice into quarters, or if preferred, into nickels or dimes. Now toss into stew pot. Squeeze a couple of caribou until you have a quart of juice, which you add to the snowballs in the stewpot. Set on fire and heat to boiling. After 30 minutes, test the snowballs for doneness with a hacksaw. If tender, add ywo cups essence of seal gizzard. Stir well and add mashed moose bellow. Cook until the moose bellow is quiet, but do not over cook because of danger to teeth while tossing the snowballs into mouth.

Makes one serving if you happen to like Alaskan Tossed Snowballs. Otherwise, it will serve up to 100.

The author really lives in Texas after being exiled from the Liar’s Club for lack of evidence.

Actually, the cookbook had some very good sounding recipes, including some for rhubarb cake, jam and marmalade. Right now that sounds like spring, but I think it will be a day or three before our rhubarb makes its appearance. I was told Alaskan rhubarb is spectacular.

When there is so much stuff that tastes good and is good for us, why do we eat and do things that aren't good for our health? I guess we may be descendents from Adam and Eve.

Interesting how a color symbol can touch your mind. Pink for breast cancer, red for heart health and white....is it diabetes? Think red, white and pink.

The way the weather has been playing tic-tac-toe with the "snowbirds," they will be spreading their wings and heading north instead of south.

My sister, Kaye, recently called to let us know there was rain and snow in Phoenix. Yes, in Arizona. Not just up on the Mongolian Strip, but in downtown Phoenix. She said they needed the moisture, but it will bring on a rush of green growth of grass and weeds. What's so bad about that? When it turns hot and the weeds dry up, it has to be removed for danger from fire. Many Arizona fires are started by cracks of lightning, destroying acres of land.

If you don't think little things make a difference, consider Celestial Seasonings Tea. The company has found that if they leave off the string and tag, they save more than 3.5 million pounds of waste from entering landfills every year. I guess that gives us some "food for thought" too.

Some of our Star Eagle readers have commented that they like to read about the local happenings and family events such as family and school reunions, birthday and anniversary celebrations, and birth and wedding announcements.

In order to read about these important things we need our faithful readers to pass along the information to us, so we can then pass along the news to you.  If you have news to share, please contact me.

Also, if our NRHEG Star Eagle readers would like to share birthdays and anniversaries of your family and friends, or you know of some that should be deleted, or names have changed, please contact me via e-mail, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; by postal mail, P.O. Box 192, Geneva, MN 56035 or telephone, 507-256-4405.

Birthday and Anniversary greetings this week to:

• Thursday, March 10th:  Julie Stieglbauer Dahl, Sue Misgen, Aaron Callahan, Travis Johnson, Michelle Olson Bedney, Tom Vavra, Heidi Mattson LaFave, Chuck Hanson, Gayle Dummer, Douglas Schmidt, Linda Anderson, DeLynn Johnson Rohrbacher, Hannah Emily Brunsen

• Friday, March 11th:  Marian Mast, Carolyn Flesche, Leroy Folie, Kari Thostenson, Jon Carlson, Michelle Meyer, Larry Richards, Tim Simon, Joan Ahlstrom Diderrich, Tanya Swearingen, Tom Arbogast, David Callahan, Dean Lembke, Spener Sebastian Sommers, his 8th; Doug Blouin, Wendell Kuehni, Paul & Shirley Nelson

• Saturday, March 12th:  David Paulson, Jason Bowman, Terri Engel, Robert Hall, Harla Stanley Malz, Spiering Brody Sundbland, Willard Johnson, Gary & Barb Paulson, Jack & Virginia Jensen

• Sunday, March 13th:  Joanna Ver Hey, David Mangskau, Lynda Kruckeberg, Darla Waltz, Jessica Liverseed, Craig Lunning, Tony Tonsing

• Monday, March 14th:  National Potato Chip Day! Laura Katherine Worrell, Connor Duane Klemmsensen, his 2nd; Sierra Christine Krause, her 2nd; Brian Cerney, Brent Huber, Marcia Hutchins, Lee Loverink, Mary Finch, Kathy Molenaar, Trevor Titus

• Tuesday, March 15th:  Angie Haberman Lyman, Marvel Beiser, Andy Ditlevson, Robin Jepson, Judy Lunning, Tim Phagan, Steve Clausen, Tony Motl, Julie Peterson, Don & Cindy Gould

• Wednesday, March 16th:  Ava Pospesel, Blair Pospesel, Al Batt, Cortnee Langlie, Judy Waage, Tyler Lewis Hagenbrock, Jackson Taylor William Churchill, Howard Boverhuis, Harold & Pat Wayne, Hugh & Karen O'Byrne

• Thursday, March 17th: St. Patrick’s Day, Ashley Marie Hagen, Shannon Weckwerth Pacholl, Mike Cady, Dakota Ray Janning, Nicole Hanna, Patrick Wobschall, Harvey Zicafoose, Mandy Galbraith, Joel Hill, Jenifer Jensen Pietari, Carol Scott, Kevin & Marsha Jensen

• Friday, March 18th:  Ashley Marie Hagen, Lynn Sommer Eaton, Chad Cornelius, Randy Brandt, Michelle Bartness, Dan Enzenauer, Matthew Larson, Wanda Stanley, Kent Toft, Matt & Jennifer Van Hal, Dean & Sue Westrum

Wishing you sunny smiles to warm your heart on your special day!