Saturday, March 01, 2014

Appetite suppressant for today

Сразу Принесите мне мой лифчик!


I always knew two things...

I always knew that I loved to cook.


Mardi Gras King Cake

I can't imagine anyone buying one of these in a store unless they intended to buy a cake that looks like a giant sugared chocha with a little plastic Jesus in it. Good grief!


Laissez les bon temps rouler, I guess.

Friday, February 28, 2014

Where are you having yours? St Patrick's Day Edition

The springtime food holidays are almost upon us. St. Patrick's Day is for Corned Beef and Cabbage, St. Joseph's Day is for Zeppoli and Easter is for Roast Lamb or Ham.

First up: St. Patrick's Day. Where are you having your Corned Beef and Cabbage?

I can't wait!

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Testing a new product: Campbell's Slow Cooker Sauces

I was in the mood for a nice pot roast this weekend but as I was going to be in and out of the house on Sunday I decided to use the slow cooker instead of using the Dutch oven. I had tried the Campbell's Slow Cooker Sauce for tacos and found it to be a great method of making tender, delicious taco meat instead of using ground beef. This time I tried their Tavern Style Pot Roast recipe and right off the bat I'll tell you it was delicious. 

The recipe on the package says to just pop a 2-3 pound chuck roast into the slow cooker, pour the sauce over the top and cook for 8 hours on low. Being a recipe tinkerer, I had to change that a little bit. I seared the roast in a hot dutch oven until it was good and browned on all sides and put the roast into the slow cooker. Then I poured the package of sauce over the top of the roast. I then took 1 pound of sliced crimini mushrooms and quickly sauteed them in the Dutch oven just to get rid of some of their moisture and topped the roast with the mushrooms. I did follow the recommended timing and cooked the roast for 8 hours. I took the roast out of the slow cooker, tented it to keep it warm and strained the juices into a fat separator and reserved the mushrooms. Once the fat had risen to the top of the separator I poured the juices into a saucepan and reduced them to thicken them slightly and added back the mushrooms. The result was a seriously tasty pot roast with a hearty mushroom flavor and a slight acidity from the cooking sauce. I served it with sour cream and chive mashed potatoes and acorn squash. 

I would definitely use this product again and will continue to try the other flavors. 

Is it "Throwback Thursday" already?!?

Tina, Bunnie, Me, Kim Poosikian, Gina, Bob, Tobin and Joe celebrate Bob's birthday at The Bee Hive Tavern.
Sharon, Patti, Ryan and Josh at InProv
Ira and Deborah Flateman at InProv (Wayne Gibson is at the bar in the background)
Kim Holl, Tobin and Bob at Kim's birthday party at Ardeo
Easter dinner at Hedge House. Joe, MaryKaye, Craig, (Hard to recognize) Girl in Yellow sweater, Tobin, Bob, Sarah, Eddie and me
Frenchy on first trip to NYC upon graduating from high school in a black silk robe purchased that day in "Chinatown". At the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, 1972
Frenchy and brother Fred visiting grandma at "the home". It's interesting that everyone is wearing low-cut blouses in this photo.
Nick, opening weekend at Great Woods Classical Series in Mansfield, MA 1986

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Cheeseburger shoes??


 

From DListed: This Story Has Everything: Waffle House, Drunken Parking Lot Sex, And Cheeseburger Shoes

 
You could throw the script from The Last Picture Show, a 6-pack of Coca-Cola, and Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. in a blender, and you still wouldn’t have as much American symbolism as there is in this story from The Hairpin (via Loganville-Grayson Patch) :
“A couple was arrested Sunday (Nov. 3) in connection to having sex while drunk in the Waffle House parking lot in Loganville.
According to the Loganville Police report, an officer saw the woman and male engaging in the sexual act in the backseat of a Dodge truck at the 4752 Atlanta Highway establishment around 1:30 a.m. The car smelled strongly of alcohol.
The officer told the couple to get dressed and show him their licenses. While the man immediately put his pants on and complied, the woman simply sat in the passenger’s seat. The officer had to tell her numerous times to put her clothes on, the report says.
But when the female finally got dressed, she attempted to put a cheeseburger on her foot as if it were a sandal.”
She put a cheeseburger. On her foot. As if it were a sandal.


Never have I wanted to be friends with a stranger from the internet so badly. I’m going to spend the next 30 minutes searching hashtags like #CheeseburgerSandal and #PrideOfLoganville on Twitter because I want to invite her to my birthday party. Wearing a cheeseburger as a shoe is next-level bonkers and I, for one, want to see what other varieties of crazy she brings to the table. I could see myself telling other guests: “No, that birthday cake isn’t for eating; it’s for when Charla polishes off that case of beer and I convince her it’s gotten cold enough in here to wear a hat.”

Truth Time: This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of someone wearing a cheeseburger as a shoe. This story may only be funny to myself (send me your address and I’ll write you a personal letter of apology later) but one time a friend and I were walking past McDonald’s and she stepped on a cheeseburger that someone had dropped (unwrapped, otherwise I would have considered eating it. And yes, gross). Her foot made contact with the bun and she slid erratically across the sidewalk and into the crosswalk with a cheeseburger stuck to the bottom of her foot. Then a homeless man laughed at her for slipping and sliding on a McDonald’s cheeseburger which, in retrospect, I think he may have put it there as some kind of post-modern banana peel gag. Or he was expecting her to wear it as a shoe, I have no idea; we’re talking about cheeseburger shoes here.

 

Monday, February 24, 2014

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Family Business

As some of you may know I have been rummaging through photos and have come up with a few winners. These are photos from my family that some of my sister's kids may not have (or want, for that matter).

Here you go folks... grab 'em if you'd like:

My mother, Marjorie. 1929-1930

Mom in her nurse uniform

Being girlie at the beach


Probably expecting a scolding from my Grandmother, the dragon.
Mom and Dad

My sister and her first husband Paul. I love the Junior League look on you Doll!

What do I say about that dress? "Turn it down!", maybe?

Frenchy and his brother Fred, just before the Junior prom. Yes, Edwardian jackets were de riguer in those days.