Lorence's Kitchen

Skillet Ziti with Chicken and Broccoli

2012-01-24T21:23:00.005-05:00

This week’s “Kid meal” (no, not that kind, the meal was MADE by the kid!) was a tasty selection from his DSi game “Let’s Get Cooking” from America’s Test Kitchen. This is a great little application with 300 recipes and easy to follow instructions, hints, tips, tricks, and even basic instruction, like how to chop an onion. He’s made several dishes from it before and all have been very good. Last night’s Skillet Ziti with Chicken and Broccoli was no exception. Though it has several ingredients, it only uses one pot and had a good depth of flavor.

The recipe can be found here.

He did a great job and was justifiably proud of his creation:
Give the DSi game a try and try this dish, too!

Enjoy,
Lorence

Baked Egg Cups

2012-01-02T20:32:00.009-05:00

I saw a couple of interesting posts while perusing Printerst a couple of nights ago and tried my hand this morning - Roasted Egg cups with ham.
Here are the two posts that I saw:
Bacon, Egg, and Toast Cups
Baked Egg Cups

I didn't have any bacon in the house (I know, for shame...), but I did have some deli ham (Kroger Private Select Smokehouse ham) that I had just bought, so off I went.
First, I spray greased the muffin pan and the cups with some bread I had rolled flat.
Then I placed a slice of ham in the cup, a little bit of cheese, and then cracked an egg into it.
I topped each with a little salt & pepper and a couple of strips of prosciutto.
Then into the oven (375º) for 20 minutes, and voila, breakfast!

Give it a try!

Enjoy,
Lorence

Pho Asian Noodles

2011-11-16T23:55:00.015-05:00

An unassuming ex-Taco Bell at the end of the strip of stores on Lane Avenue might seem an odd place for a great dinner, but oh, my, can looks be deceiving...

Tonight we finally took the plunge at went to Pho Asian Noodles House and Grill for dinner. I've read many reviews and we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to try, but the extensive menu still made the decision a little tough. We finally decided on the Vietnamese Salad Rolls, Chicken Pad Thai, Roasted Duck Noodle Soup and, of course, Pho Dac Biet. I ordered at the counter and at at our table to wait for the food to be delivered.

First came the Vietnamese Salad Rolls which were very good, served with a plum sauce that was covered with crushed peanuts. The rolls have a rice paper wrapper around lettuce, rice noodles, some Thai basil, shredded chicken and 3 shrimp:

They were fresh and light, had great flavor (especially with the plum sauce) and a very good bargain at $4. We each demolished one.

Next came our entrees:
Karen's Chicken Pad Thai, which she described as the freshest and best she'd had. All of the flavors burst forth and it had just the right level of spice and heat, all in an amazingly huge portion:
The Boog's Roasted Duck Noodle Soup:
H loves duck and this soup was packed with chunks of it, mostly on the bone (not the easiest to eat!) along with a huge heap of noodles and oriental lettuce (like bok choy) and a broth that he described as rich and mildly sweet:
He was very happy at his bowl full of bounty!

My pho dac biet, another huge bowl of soup, laden with incredibly tender beef slices, beef tendon meatballs, a ton of rice noodles and a plate full of accompanying add-ins, cilantro, bean sprouts, jalapenos and Thai basil:

I tossed a bunch of each of the add-ins as well as a healthy squirt sriracha, and dug in. After about a half hour of chowing down we all decided that we'd eaten our fill and wrapped up the remaining pad Thai and duck soup ( I pretty much killed off the pho!). We left satisfied bellies full of flavor and delicious food and all for about $30, including drinks (Karen & Boog both loved the Thai iced tea).

Here's a scan of the menu as of 11/16/11:

The place was packed at dinner time (6:30 pm) and was mostly filled with Asian people of all walks. It was interesting to hear all of the accents and dialects being spoken. And it's always a good sign, when you go to an ethnic restaurant and the people that are of that ethnicity are patrons.

Go to Pho. Have the Pho! Have anything - after tonight, I can't imagine anything they serve not being totally tasty. And if you're just driving by, stop anyway, they have a drive-thru!

Pho Asian Noodle House and Grill

1288 West Lane Avenue, Col, O 43221

Enjoy,

Lorence

Lorence's Goat Cheese Empanadas

2011-09-15T21:48:00.005-04:00

A coworker recently made a "hummus" of sorts, an interesting concoction of chickpeas, oil-packed sun dried tomotoes, garlic and goat cheese. I was heating up my lunch in the work kitchen's microwave and flipping through a copy of "Real Simple" magazine when she offered me a taste. I really enjoyed the intense flavor and creamy texture and immediately flipped back a couple of pages inthe magazine to a recipe I had just seen, Goat Cheese Empanadas (can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/3snfv7w). I knew what I had to do...

So tonight I combined the two recipes and made a third to accompany my creation, a roasted corn salsa.

Here's what I did:

Ingredients:

2 cloves of garlic

4 oz oil packed sun dried tomatoes

1 can chickpeas (drained/rinsed)

4 oz goat cheese

olive oil

refrigerated pie crust, 2 crusts (make your own if you have the time)

Method:

In a food processor, process the garlic, tomatoes, chickpeas and goat cheese and add the olive oil until it reaches a smooth hummus like consistency.

Roll out the pie crusts.

Using a 3-inch round cookie cutter, cut circles from the 2 refrigerated crusts.

Put about a teaspoon of the hummus in the center of each round.

(I rolled out the scraps of dough and made more rounds to stuff!)

Lightly dot the edges of the dough with water, fold in half, and press with a fork to seal.

Bake on a foil or parchment lined baking sheet at 375ºF until golden, 20 to 25 minutes.

Serve with fresh made Roasted Corm Salsa, found on Taste of Home.

The roasted corn, fresh off of the grill:

Enjoy!

Lorence

Bari Pizzaria in Galloway, off to a good start

2010-11-01T22:11:00.007-04:00

We had a craving for pizza last night feuled by an ad we had seen in the weekly community paper (Westside Messenger) for a new local business, Bari Pizzaria. The ad had a $5 coupon and a link to their website, http://baripizzaria.com/. We really wanted to eat out, so I called and asked if they had any eat-in tables. I was told that, yes, they do, but they have no public restrooms.

O.K., why not...

Upon arrival, we found a small front section to what is essentially a carry-out business, but there were two small 3 seat tables. We looked over the menu a bit more and ordered a 14" pizza with pepperoni, onions and mushrooms. We also ordered a side of breaded fried cheese ravioli ($4.50) and 3 cans of soda (Grape Crush, A&W Root Beer,Diet Pepsi). With our $5 coupon, our total was $17.50. We sat down to wait and the owner showed us that the two arcade game machines were free to play while we waited (my 10 yr old son loved that!). One machine was the "Multicade" machine, which has 60 different classic video games... The wait passed quickly.

When our pizza and ravioli arrived, we were NOT disappointed. The first thing we noticed- the pizza was cut PROPERLY! Not in those stupid little squares that Columbus pizza is 'famous' for, but cut into slices, 8 nice triangular slices, like a pizza should be. Next, we noticed that the mushrooms were fresh, not those rubbery canned mushrooms most places use; and then we noticed that the onions are a mix of both white and red onion, another very nice a tasty touch.

So far, it looks great. But how does it taste? Quite good, actually. The hand tossed crust is nearly perfect; it has the correct consistency and the right flavor, the pizza crust flavor that I remember from my youth in Jersey. The only thing that would have given it a perfect rating would be if it was a bit more crisp in the center, as can only be achieved in a genuine high temp flat bottom traditional pizza oven (Bari uses the modern moving track pizza oven). The sauce was very good, somewhat mild, possibly could use a bit more oregano and garlic, but still very tasty. The cheese was plentiful, had a very nice melt to it, and a genuine and fresh taste. The pepperoni was mild and not too greasy, perhaps a bit too mild, but the mushrooms had great fresh taste as did the onions, which were not burnt or even crisp, they were probably put on late in the baking process so they didn't lose their flavor. As I mentioned above the onions were a mix of both white and red onion. And I could actually pick up a piece and fold it like a good slice should be folded!

All in all, it was a very good pizza. I'm an East coast boy, a native New Yorker, raised in central Jersey, and Columbus has just been hell when it comes to decent pizza. Bari gives me hope.

I didn't get a shot of the pizza at the shop (forgot the camera!), but this is what we had leftover:

We'll definitely be back for more.

One more test that all pizza must pass - the morning after test - how does it taste right out of the fridge for breakfast? This pizza was THE best cold breakfast pizza I've had so far in my 24 years in Columbus! Outstanding - worth ordering a larger size just to have extra to put in the fridge for later!

Bari's menu lists both Chicago style deep dish and stuffed pizza and we're big fans of Chicago style pizza, especially Giordano's , so we'll be giving Bari's Chicago style a try, too.

Oh yeah, the Breaded ravioli...Not bad, not great. they were stuffed fat, had a very nice crispy golden crust and were served with the Bari pizza sauce. Not bad, not great, but interesting. Glad we had the $5 coupon, though.

If you live anywhere near Galloway, please give Bari's Pizzeria a shot. It's worth the drive to pick it up. They've got a good product, a clean shop, a good attitude towards using fresh ingredients and the owner is a real friendly guy.

Bari Pizzaria
946 Galloway Rd
Columbus, OH 43119

Enjoy,
Lorence
614-878-7700

Chocolate Strawberry Sorbet

2010-08-06T00:25:00.006-04:00

After the success of our first two sorbet attempts (based on Martha Stewart's recipe - see my Blackberry sorbet attempt here, My son wanted me to make Strawberry sorbet - he loves strawberries, they're in season AND on sale at the grocery store. He suggested that we add cocoa powder to it so it would be chocolate strawberry flavored.

And so we did.

Same basic recipe -

12 ounces of fresh fruit, frozen overnight;

Process the frozen fruit in bursts to break it up some;

Add syrup (1/4 cup water + 1/4 cup sugar (dissolved)) while processing (for this recipe, I added a large tablespoon of cocoa powder and blended it in well to make a chocolate syrup);

push the mixture down into the process and mix it a bit,
then process it lots more until it's really smooth. It will be slightly frozen at this point.

Transfer it to a container and freeze for an hour or two;

Eat and enjoy!

Like I said up there, I made the syrup with 1/4 cup of sugar dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water, then whisked in a heaping tablespoon of cocoa powder. My son says it has "a very good balance of chocolate to strawberry, neither one is overpowering the other, but they're playing off of each other well."

I'll have to take his word for it since I do NOT eat strawberries - besides the fact that I don't like them at all, they make me break out really badly, so none of this batch is for me...

But you should make this!

Enjoy,

Lorence

Vanilla Peach Sorbet

2010-08-06T00:07:00.005-04:00

This is Sorbet recipe attempt #2, a la Martha Stewart's recipe (I previously posted the recipe as I made it with Blackberries). I was ok with the blackberry version, but berries always seem a bit 'grainy' to me - it's a texture thing, what with all of the seeds...the flavor was great, though. Since peaches are in season right now, I thought I'd try them out this way. And for some reason, I thought a bit of vanilla flavor would be great with them. I was almost right - wrong vanilla, but great flavor.

So here's what I did:

Peeled and cut up 12 oz of fresh peaches.

Froze said peaches overnight

Process the peaches as in the original recipe - a few good bursts to break the up;

then whir the crap out of them while adding the 1/4 cup of vanilla'd syrup (1/4 cup water with 1/4 cup sugar dissolved in it + 1 teaspoon of pure REAL vanilla extract).

Push the mixture back down into the processor and keep processing until smooth.

Freeze for a couple of hours.

Eat.

Say Mmmmm......

It was quite tasty and I ate nearly all of it over the next 3 days - I did share some, though;

I'm not that mean.

You have to try this with your favorite fruit. Next up for us: Chocolate Strawberry sorbet.

Enjoy,

Lorence

Grilled Lamb Kebobs

2010-07-26T23:27:00.010-04:00

My wife did the grocery shopping recently and came home with a pound of organic free range ground lamb for me do something with. Normally, I would make Kheema, but since it was nearly 7 PM and still over 90°F outside, I didn't want to cook anything in the house; Grill, baby, grill!

I went in search of a grilled ground lamb recipe and found this recipe for Ground Lamb on Skewers - essentially, Grilled Lamb Kebobs.

It's a pretty straight forward recipe, chop up some stuff, combine some spiced/herbs, mix it all with the meat, skewer it and stick it on the grill.

Grilled Lamb Kebobs

Ingredients:

1 green chile, finely chopped

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 pound lamb (or beef)

2 teaspoon coriander

2 cloves minced garlic

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon garam masala

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons ground almonds

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

vegetable oil

1 egg

For the chile, I used a jalapeño and the 'coriander' I took to be fresh cilantro (both right off the plant from the garden). I ground some raw almonds in my spice grinder. Be sure not to process too much, it'll get a bit pasty if you're not careful.

Method:

Preheat grill.

Mix all ingredients together.

Mold mixture around long skewers (or do it the hard way and form the mixture into long thin sausages and thread onto skewers). Only the ends of the skewers should be visible.

(obviously, thiswas not how I did it!)

Place on grill, brush with oil and cook until done.

Remove from skewers and serve.

Traditionally served with rice and onion slices.

Kebobs just placed on the grill

After the first turn

A little flare up starting from the oil/grease

Into the fire for a final char

Off the grill and ready to serve

And ready to eat!
Topped off with some tahini on a bed of Jasmine rice.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Blackberry Sorbet, oh, so easy

2010-07-19T23:58:00.000-04:00

A former coworker (now retired) posted a comment on Facebook last week about making Raspberry sorbet in a flash using a recipe from the current issue of Martha Stewart's magazine. Later that night, my wife was raving about the fresh blackberries she had purchased when she went grocery shopping earlier.

Wife: You have to try these, they're perfect!
Me: Hmm, fresh berries, now what did I just read about making something with fresh berries..., Oh yeah, sorbet!
Son: Sorbet? Did you say you can make sorbet? Can we do it NOW?

And out to the store we went for more berries.
We bought two 6 ounce containers of beautiful fresh blackberries and stuck them in the freezer.

<time passed... about 12 hours. 12 very long hours>

Then after less than 10 minutes more of blender splendor, Sorbet.
And not too shabby for a first go at it.

And no ice cream maker needed!

This is Martha's original recipe:
Raspberry Sorbet with Fresh Whipped Cream
Ingredients:
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup plus 1 T. sugar
1 bag frozen raspberries, 12 oz, OR 3 cups fresh raspberries, frozen
1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions:
Stir together water and 1/4 cup sugar until sugar dissolves.
Pulse raspberries in food processor until coarsely shopped.
With machine running, pour in sugar-water; pulse until mixture is smooth.
Transfer to an airtight container, and freeze until firm, about 30 minutes.

Whisk cream and remaining tablespoon sugar until soft peaks form. Scoop sorbet into 4 glasses and top with whipped cream..
Serves 4

I modified the recipe only to use blackberries. I froze fresh berries myself (they were on sale - $1/6 oz pack) and after the initial pulse, I had to run the processor while adding the sugar water, then push the mixture down and process some more to get the right consistency. It was still a bit grainy, but WOW, is it tasty.

Oh, yeah, I skipped the whipped cream. It would work really well, though.

These photos aren't the best, but you get the idea.

The ingredients

After the initial pulsing

Half way there, time to push it down inside my little processor

Ready to put in the freezer for a while

Voila. Blackberry Sorbet.

The boy wholeheartedly approves.

I'm looking forward to trying this technique out with some other flavor combos, like mango, strawberry & chocolate, peach and vanilla, maybe even apple caramel.

Any other ideas?

Enjoy,
Lorence

Jambalya-Red Beans and Rice mashup, Quick Style

2010-03-13T22:32:00.006-05:00

While out doing the weekly grocery shopping, I came across Aidells sausages. On sale and with coupons! I tried the Chicken and Apple, Italian style with mozzeralla (both were very good in the dishes I made with them) and I also bought the Cajun Style Andouille. Ok, what should I do with THAT? First thought - Jambalaya. But I don't really have the time to make a good from scratch Jambalaya. I've had box of Zatarain's Red Beans and Rice up in the cupboard for a while, though, so I could do that, but I didn't really want to make just a plain reb beans and rice dish. Jambalaya or Red beans and rice? I like 'em both...Which should I make? Can't decide, can't decide...ok, I'll make them BOTH! Together! In one pot! know what? It was pretty good and pretty quick. My son's friend was over that night and chowed down on it big time. I sent the little bit of leftover home with him for his parents to try, but he never gave them the chance (he ate it for breakfast the next day!).
A couple of weeks later I had to make a dish for the annual Cub Scout Blue and Gold dinner and it was suggested that I make that same dish. Off I went to the store to find the mix and sausage. The good new was that the mix was easy to find. The bad news was that they were out of Aidell's...The only thing I could find was Johnsonville New Orleans Brand Smoked Sausage. While I didn't like it quite as well as the Aidell's, it did the job just fine.
I doubled the recipe, included additional rice, both canned and fresh tomato, the "holy trinity", green pepper, onion and of course oil; but not just any oil. Lard, baby, lard. You, of course, can use plain old vegetable oil if you prefer.

The resulting big pot of food disappeared quickly at the dinner, garnering praise form those that partook.

Mission Accomplished.
Jambalya-Red Beans and Rice mashup, Quick Style
Ingredients used:
6 1/2 cups of water
2 tablespoons butter,margarine, vegetable oil or lard. (DO NOT DOUBLE THIS ITEM)
2 packages Zatarain's® Red Beans and Rice
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 fresh tomato, diced
1/2 cup each celery, bell peppers, and onions, all diced.
1 package of Aidell's Cajun Style Andouille sausage, sliced, diced or whatever size cut you like (see photo for how I did mine)

Method:
On high heat, haat a large dutch oven and add the sausage. Cook while stirring constantly, until just starting to brown a bit. You should get a bit of browning on the pot's bottom from the sausage.
Remove the sausage to a bowl and add the oil and the celery, bell peppers, and onions and saute until the onions return opaque.
Add the oil, water, rice mixes, tomatoes, stir it all around and bring it all to a boil.
Reduce the heat to low.
Slap a lid on the pot and simmer 25 minutes or until rice is tender, stirring occasionally.
Serve hot.

You can also add some cayenne to it if you like it with even more of a bit more kick.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Matzo Ball soup - not like mom's

2010-01-10T02:38:00.004-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I made a batch of Matzo Ball soup, using a box of Manischewitz Matzo Ball & Soup Mix. I hadn't had it in a long while and it wasn't bad, but sure wasn't like mom's. Actually, the broth was pretty darn close, but the balls, well, they were light and fluffy. I don't like them light and fluffy. Mom always made them, um, differently, far "firmer" - we called them "cannon balls"! I love them that way, but I can't figure out how to make them so.
Anyone have any idea how to make hard matzo balls? Leave me a comment!

Enjoy,
Lorence

Cayenne peppers - finally made the grind.

2010-01-10T01:08:00.008-05:00

Last spring I planted cayenne peppers in the garden.
After I picked them, I let them dry while hanging in a bag, a great bag that I got a loaf of bread in (from Giant Eagle) the year before. It's got holes in it that let the peppers dry out just right. It took a while, a couple of months at least, but the end result was worth the wait.
I used my old Braun coffee grinder for grinding all of the spices I need to grind, including the Indian spice blend I use for Kheema. It works great. After I'm done grinding, I clean it by grinding a tablespoon or two of kosher salt, then wiping it out with a wet paper towel. Again, it works great.

So I went from this:
to this (there's one of those bright red beauties on the left:
and into this bag:
and they finally became this:

Last week, I finally got around to grinding the peppers and the results were great, a full 2.5 oz bottle of nice finely ground cayenne, which should be enough to last 'til next harvest.
After pulling the stems off and grinding, I wound up with this:
I used a bit in the stuffing for the tilapia stuffed with crabmeat that I made the next night. Great heat, great flavor.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Quick Chicken Noodle Soup

2010-01-06T22:14:00.010-05:00

Got a cold? You need chicken soup, boobula ...
It's January, 2010, winter is here, and it came in with a vengance.

I hate winter, just ask anyone that knows me .

I hate winter. And just like everyone else, I always get at least a bad cold and nothing, but nothing helps a bad cold like a good bowl of Homemade Chicken Soup. A few years back, I discovered an easy way to make a very quick pot of soup, done and ready to eat in less than 15 minutes, an important thing when you or some one you love feels like crap. If I've got leftover chicken, I chop it up and add it in while the noodles boil. If not, I try to add some uncooked chicken (if I've got it) at the beginning.

This recipe uses one of my favorite fast/easy ingredients, Orrington Farms Chicken Base. I use it to make "broth" quickly for many of the dishes I make, including and especially this one!

One of the things I like about this soup is that it needs only a cutting board a knife and one pot to make:
Ingredients:
6 cups water
5 teaspoons Orrington Farms Chicken Base
1 large carrot, sliced very thin
1 stalk of celery, sliced on the bias, very thin
1 small turnip, cut in a small dice
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Chicken, equivalent to 1 breast, diced or chopped up. Use leftover chicken or fresh/frozen.
chopped celery leaves for garnish
Fine Egg Noodles, like Manischewitz , as many as you like (I use about a 1/4 bag, 3 oz)

Method:
Add the water to a small stock pot, then add the chicken base. Turn the heat up to High and bring the pot to a boil.
Slice the carrot and the celery. Add them to the pot.
Dice the turnip and add it to the pot.
Add the seasonings (parsley, celery seed and pepper)
Chop the chicken and add it to the pot.
Add the noodles.
Cook until the noodles are done.
Server with a sprinkling of chopped celery leaves.

Enjoy, and feel better...
Lorence

Rustic Lamb Stew, Crock pot style

2009-12-30T21:06:00.011-05:00

Mmm, Lamb. I love lamb, always have. I remember my mom making baby lamb chops for me as a birthday present, a great present, as they certainly weren't cheap and we certainly weren't rich. But damn, they were good. I hear people say about lamb today, "modern lamb", that it's not as gamy tasting and not as strong smelling as it used to be. Personally, I liked the odor, liked the strong, strong flavor.
I recently found that the grocery store I frequent carries "Lamb for stew", cubes of pretty lean lamb. I bought a package and went in search of recipe. I found this one on recipezarr and gave it a try, changing up a couple of things (Mushrooms! We must have mushrooms!). I was very impressed. It has a deep woodsy flavor, hearty and very satisfying. I have made it twice more since, including once with a combination of beef and pork instead of lamb.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs boneless lean lamb stew meat, cut in 1 inch cubes
1 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon crushed dry thyme leaves
1 teaspoon rosemary, crushed
1 large onion, sliced thin
2 cups of water
1 cup bite sized carrot chuncks (about 1/2 pound or more or as much as you want)
2 cups diced potatoes
1 pound Crimini mushrooms, quartered
1 cup frozen peas, thawed

Method:
1. Sprinkle the lamb with 1/2 t salt and the pepper.
2. Dredge the lamb in the flour to coat.
3. Heat the olive oil in a 2 to 3 quart Dutch oven over medium-high heat.
4. Brown lamb a few pieces at a time in the hot oil. Be sure not to crowd it while browning.
5. Remove the browned lamb to the crock pot with a slotted spoon.
6. Reduce heat under the Dutch oven to medium.
7. Add the sliced onion and cook 3 to 4 minutes, stirring occasionally until lightly browned.
8. Stir in the water scraping up browned bits on bottom of pot.
9. Transfer the onion mixture to the crock pot; add carrots, mushrooms and potatoes to the crock pot, too.
10.Cover the crock pot and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours, adding peas during the last 30 to 45 minutes (or earlier if youlike them a bit more mushy!).

As mentioned above, I made it once with beef and pork instead of lamb, but only because I was craving a hearty stew and Kroger was out of lamb that week. That version was pretty good, also.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Italian Meatballs

2009-12-22T23:29:00.007-05:00

Last Friday was the office holiday party and due to so many budget cuts, there's no money in the department budget for going out or catering or much of anything at all. Kinda stinks, but we sucked it up and had an Italian potluck. The result was a real good lunch of antipasto, salad, fruit, lasagna, a most excellent cheesecake, and my contribution, meatballs in sauce. It's been a long time since I made Italian meatballs, so I went looking for recipe in my old cookbooks and I found this one for spaghetti and meatballs in my 1980 Betty Crocker International Cookbook. I didn't make the spaghetti, just the meatballs. They were good - no pictures, though, sorry. I'll post them next time. And there will be a next time.

Meatballs!
Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds ground round
3/4 cups dry bread crumbs *(make your own)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
2 Tablespoons fresh grated Parmesan**
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

* Make your won breadcrumbs - I toasted some 2 day old Italian bread, let it cool, then ran it through the food processor to make the bread crumbs.
**2 Tablespoons? Really? No. I added a little more, about a 1/2 cup.

Method:
1) Heat oven to 350.
2) Mix all of the ingredients together and use the very best mix mixer you've got, your hands!
3) Shape the mixture into 1 1/2 inch balls. (For easier shaping, dip your hands into cold water from time to time.)
4) Place on an ungreased jelly roll pan (I lined mine with heavy duty foil for easier cleanup).
5) Cook uncovered 15-20 minutes. (I "sacrificed" one to make sure they were done. Yummy.)

As for the sauce, well, I went easy and cheap. Once at work, I put the meatballs in a crockpot, and added a 26 oz can of Hunt's Garlic & Herb Spaghetti Sauce. I gave it a quick stir and let it sit in the crock on low from about 0900 until lunch at 1130.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Quick Dinner - Mock Lasagna

2009-12-20T22:02:00.009-05:00

Back in October, we picked out a recipe from one of our old cookbooks that looked like a quick easy meal and wound up with a quick tasty meal that we've made a couple of times since. We love a good lasagna (who doesn't?), but don't ever take the time to make one. This has become a easy substitute.

Mock Lasagna
From "Hearty Family Favorites" (Time-Life Books).
Ingredients:
1 Medium Onion, coarsely chopped
1/2 Italian sausage
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 pound Farfalle (aka bow tie pasta)
15 ounce can crushed tomato (or diced in juice/puree works, too)
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups grated part-skim mozzerella

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 400.
2) Bring a large pot of water to a boil (for the pasta).
3) Coarsely chop the onion.
4) Remove the sausage form the casing (if using link sausage).
5) Crumble the sausage meat into a medium skillet over medium heat and cook, stirring, until the meat is no longer pink.
6) Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until the onion is translucent, 3-4 minutes.
7) Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook to al dente per package instructions.
8) Meanwhile, Add the tomato paste, crushed/diced tomatoes (including juice), bay leaf, basil, red pepper, salt and black pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to Low, cover it and simmer for 10 minutes.
9) Drain the pasta.
10) Remove the bay leaf from the sauce.
11) Assemble the dish - Cover the bottom of an 8-inch baking dish with 1/3 of the sauce. Top the sauce with 1/2 of the pasta and half of the mozzarella. Top the cheese with 1/2 of the remaining sauce and all of the remaining pasta. Top the pasta with the remianing sauce and cheese.
12) Bake uncovered for 15 minutes, or until heated through.

I like to let the cheese brown just a bit. I also add some seasoning (basil/oregano) to the top layer of cheese.

Step 6: Browning the sausage, garlic and onion

Step 8: added the tomatoes and seasonings
(yup, that's the bay leaf in the center)

Step 11: first stage, sauce and pasta layers

Step 11: Assembly complete and ready for the oven

The end of step 12: Out of the oven and ready to eat!

Quick and easy - a decent meal in under 40 minutes.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Meatloaf on the grill? You betcha!

2009-10-27T23:29:00.004-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, Dave of WeberCam.com posted about making a meatloaf on his Weber grill - not just any meatloaf, but a loaf with the good meat, a mixture of Veal, Beef and pork. (see his post here)

Tonight, highly inspired by Dave's carnivorous grilling triumph, I made my own, following his recipe suggestion as follows:
Ingredients & method:
In a big ol' bowl, combine the following:
A bit over a pound of the veal, beef & pork mixture (picked up from the Grandview Kroger).
about 1 1/2 teaspoons of sea salt (don't exclude the salt!)
2 oz milk
additional seasonings (these are similar to Dave's suggestion, but you can pretty much do what ever you like here)
3/4 cup of breadcrumbs - I made homemade breadcrumbs (a toasted hot dog bun (makes 1/2 cup) plus 1/4 cup panko to make 3/4 cup, to which I added:
1/2 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon parsley
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
(mixed it all in the little food processor to blend it well).
1 nice fresh large egg to bind it all together.

Mix it all gently with the best tool available - your two attached hands.

I formed it into a nice loaf in a small lightly greased foil lined pan and gave it a light coating of BBQ sauce (hickory flavor, I think). I placed pan on one side of my gas grill and had the flame turned up high on the other side to cook it with indirect heat for about 45 minutes. I let mine get to an internal temp of 160°F (be careful out there!), removed the pan from the grill to the kitchen counter where I let it sit covered for about 5 minutes.

(Fresh off the grill)

Then I sliced it and served it up with some baked russets with butter and sour cream ( as shown above).

Thanks, Dave, for the inspiration, it was a great dinner!

Enjoy,
Lorence

Going Rogue: Claudia, An American Kitty

2009-10-23T10:53:00.004-04:00

Yeah, Claudia's not happy... and poor Phoebe doesn't know what to think.

I've seen/heard screaming before, but not like this!

See the entire post here on Count Stockula's blog

Enjoy,
Lorence

Dry rub ribs tonight with a smoky sweet mop sauce

2009-08-10T22:40:00.006-04:00

While they were labeled as "Country style ribs", they certainly didn't fit the the ribs described here, they were lean and meaty. I decided to try a modification of a recipe I'd written down a while back (I can't remember where I found it originally). I rubbed the ribs on all sides and cooked them on the gas grill over a low heat for about 45 minutes total, turning them once onto each of their four sides. I slopped some of the mop sauce over each when I turned them the last time to finish them off. The tasty and tender results are shown above. Rub and sauce recipes below.

Lorence's Dry Rib rub
(modified from some one else's, don't remember who's)
1 Tablespoon Kosher salt
1 Tablespoon fresh coursely ground pepper
1 Tablespoon Dry Cilantro
1 Teaspoon ground Coriander
1 1/2 Tablespoons Ground Cumin
1 Tablespoon Smoked Paprika
1 teaspoon dried ground Thyme
2 Tablespoons Chili powder
3 Tablespoons brown sugar (dark brown sugar if you have it; I didn't)
Mix them all together in a bowl and rub it on all sides of the pork before grilling

Smoky Sweet Rib Mop Sauce
(again, modified from some one else's, don't remember who's)
1 cup store brand barbecue sauce, hickory flavored
1 Teaspoon Liquid Smoke
1 Tablespoon Maple Syrup (I used the real deal, not that fakey corn syrupy stuff)
Mix them all together in a bowl and slop some on top of the ribs after turning them for the last time.

(The Dry rib rub about to be mixed together)

If I had more time, these would have been great over and indirect heat on the Weber for a couple of hours... Gonna have to try that before too long...

Enjoy,
Lorence

It Is Balloon!

2009-08-07T23:27:00.007-04:00

We had a great bit of adventure this evening as a hot air balloon landed in the neighborhood's elementary school yard just down the street from us. It was very exciting as the huge balloon floated across the tops of the trees, coming down, down, down... We all thought it was going to crash into the houses across the street from the school. It landed safely, though, close to the fence at the edge of the school yard, but safely none the less, missing all of the wires and playground equipment by a good margin. I managed to capture some photos and I may have a bit of video, too...

Enjoy,
Lorence

Dr. Boogie to the ER, Dr. Boogie to the ER, STAT!

2009-07-09T00:39:00.004-04:00

Boogie's been watching lot's of "Emergency!" on the Retro TV channel lately...Click to embigificate

From what I hear, the bear survived...

Enjoy! The Boog sure is!
Lorence

Tomatoes, too!

2009-07-08T23:06:00.006-04:00

Not the first, but the second, third and fourth of the season. Just a few little tiny Sungolds, the largest only about a 1/2 inch across, but HUGE flavor, oh, so sweet. I've never had these before, but will definitely be putting them in the garden again. The plant is getting huge (it's over 6 feet tall already and has tons of greenies still growing and hundreds of blossoms just getting started. Here's a shot of it from 2 weeks ago with most of it at 4+ feet tall and one branch well over 5 feet (with the heavily producing basil, beneath it). Please ignore the crab grass and my neighbors garage...

Enjoy,
Lorence

Broccoli!

2009-07-08T22:48:00.004-04:00

This season's first broccoli! This is the first year I've grown it and it's producing very nicely. I cooked this up using my Quick Steamed Broccoli recipe with a few modifications - I used a teaspoon of butter in place of the oil spray and only 1 teaspoon of water in a large bowl. I covered it very tightly, sealing it up well, then zapped it for 2 minutes, serving immediately with a nicely grilled medium rare porterhouse. Sorry, but it smelled (and tasted!) way too delicious to wait for pictures.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Boogie's Next Recipe: Caprisi Salad Sandwich

2009-07-02T22:56:00.005-04:00

Another night time snack adventure. Boogie was hungry, and in a creative mood.

First, he went to the yard and picked some fresh basil. Then he mixed up a bit of olive & Mrs. Dash® Tomato Basil Seasoning Blend in a small bowl and spread it on the bottom half of the only roll we had in the house, a day old kaiser roll. He topped that with some slices of fresh mozzarella:

He sliced some tomtato and topped the mozzarella with that:

(honing his knife skills... he does pretty well for an 8 yr old.)

Then more of the olive oil mixture:

Ready to slice:Ready to eat!

Yumminess ensues...

Enjoy,
Lorence

Father's Day present, 2009, A Salad Spinner!

2009-07-02T22:48:00.005-04:00

My brand new salad spinner, Father's Day, 2009. It works great.

Greek Cinnamon Stewed Chicken

2009-03-17T22:52:00.005-04:00

Another recipe from last week's Oprah show - and a great one at that. I made Cat Cora's Greek Cinnamon Stewed Chicken tonight and it was a HUGE hit, and deservedly so - this dish is fantastic. It's kind of like cattitore with a little twist. The chicken was tender, juicy and full of flavor, the sauce was bright, tomatoey, and with just the faintest hint of cinnamon - not overpowering at all. I loved it and I am NOT a fan of cinnamon at all.

You MUST make this dish!

I did not preboil the water with sea salt as the first step in the direction- she doesn't give any indication of how much sea salt (though I would imagine it would be a teaspoon to a tablspoon...). The dish was more than fine without it.

Be sure to read through the recipe first.

Greek Cinnamon Stewed Chicken
Recipe created by Cat Cora (original recipe here)
Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 chicken (2 1/2 to 3 pounds), cut into 8 pieces (legs, breast and thighs)
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
5 cloves garlic , peeled and minced
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 large yellow onion , peeled and coarsely chopped
2 cups water
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
1 Tbsp. dried Italian herb seasoning
1 cup orzo , cooked according to package directions
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Method:
Preboil water with sea salt.

Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. A wet chicken will cause the oil to splatter while the chicken is sautéing. Mix the cinnamon, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Rub the chicken pieces on all sides with the seasoning.

Heat the olive oil in a large, nonreactive, deep skillet over high heat. A 12-inch skillet with sides about 2 1/2 to 3 inches high will allow you to brown all the chicken at once. If you don't have a skillet large enough, brown them in two batches using 1/2 the oil for each batch. What's important is that the chicken isn't overcrowded, which would cause them to steam rather than brown.

Add the chicken to the oil and brown for about 4 to 5 minutes on each side. Turn the pieces using a metal spatula, as they have a tendency to stick to the pan. Remove the pieces when they are well browned on all sides.

Mince three of the garlic cloves. Lower the heat to medium-high, and add the onions and minced garlic. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly, until the onions have softened and are a rich golden brown. Add about 1/2 cup of the water and scrape the bottom of the pan with a spatula or spoon to deglaze the pan, loosening any particles stuck on the bottom.

When the water has evaporated, add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of water, tomato paste, Italian seasoning and remaining 2 garlic cloves, minced.

Return the chicken to the pan. The liquid should cover about 3/4 of the chicken pieces. Cover the pot and simmer over medium-high heat for about 30 to 40 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and thoroughly cooked. If the sauce becomes too thick, it can be thinned with a little more water. Season the finished sauce with kosher salt and pepper to taste. Serve over orzo, cooked according to package directions, and sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top.

A new favorite here at Chez Sing!

Enjoy,
Lorence

Tilapia Lettuce Wraps - "Gyros"

2009-03-16T20:54:00.007-04:00

My wife saw a recent Oprah episode that featured 3 celebrity chefs. Each was paired with a family that was clueless in the kitchen, and they each came up with a weeks worth of recipes that were interesting and simple to prepare. That, of course, means that I have more recipes to learn and try!
So far I've made 2 of them and will be making more. This recipe is from Cat Cora, the first female Iron Chef, and was titled "Lettuce 'Gyros'with Tilapia and Yogurt Sauce". The original can be found on Oprah's web site, but its not put together well- the idea is great, but the writeup isn't, so I've redone it here with a few of my own little modifications.

We enjoyed this - It's fresh tasting, satisfying, easy and quick, plus it's the base of a pretty healthy meal. I even like the yogurt sauce a kind of tzatziki, which is really saying something as I'm definitely not a fan of yogurt.

I made a few minor changes, for example, instead of using "butter lettuce", I used the romaine I already had in the fridge. Using the romaine also gave it a nice "crunch". I changed up the fish easoning mixture a bit, too.

Make the tzatziki first - it should sit in the fridge for a while, an hour or so, before serving. Beware, too - this tzatziki recipe makes a whole bunch more than you'll need for the lettuce wraps. You may want to half the tzatziki recipe.

Tilapia Lettuce Wraps with Tzatziki
Serves 4–6

Tilapia Lettuce Wraps:
3 fillets (6 ounces each) tilapia or whatever fish you prefer. If frozen, thaw completely first
4 Tbsp. olive oil
1 lime
1 tspn chili powder
1/4 tspn cayenne pepper
1/4 tspn ground cumin
1 tsp. sea salt, divided
Fresh black pepper
Romaine lettuce leaves, washed, dried
1 medium ripe tomato, seeded and diced
1/2 medium yellow onion , sliced very thinly
Black or kalamata olives , pitted and halved
1 Tbsp. dried Italian herb seasoning blend (I used Mrs. Dash® Tomato Basil Seasoning Blend)
2 or 3 scallions, sliced thinly on the bias

Method:
Preheat grill or oven to 400°.

In a mixing bowl, mix the tomatoes, onion, olives, Italian herb blend, 1/2 the olive oil, 1/2 the lime juice, 1/2 tspn salt and pepper and blend well. Set aside to serve as a condiment for the wraps.

Line a baking pan with foil and spray with vegetable spray.
Mix 1/2 the olive oil, 1/2 the lime juice, the chili powder, cayenne, cumin, pepper and 1/2 tspn salt in a small bowl.
Place the fish on the pan and spread the seasoning mixture over the fish.
Let the seasoned fish sit for 10 minutes.
Place in the oven until cooked through, but not dry, about 6 to 8 minutes.
Once the fish is done, remove from the oven and let sit until slightly warm.

On warmed serving plates, flake a generous amount of fish into each lettuce leaf.

Serve with the tomato/onion mixture, tzatziki (recipe below), scallions, etc. I served them with sliced cucumbers, too.

Tzatziki:
Ingredients:
1 lemon , juiced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic , minced
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt

Method:
Add lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and salt to the yogurt. Chill for at least 1 hour.

I also served this with some Sabra hummus and rye crackers.

A delicious dinner!
Enjoy,
Lorence

Big Shot Buffalo Meatballs

2009-02-10T21:22:00.008-05:00

A recent class project on prairie animals gave Boogie a hankering for buffalo. So a'huntin we went and wound up finding a pound of prey at Whole Foods. Boogie was on a mission - he had created his own recipe, gave it a name and was ready to cook.

Since he's still just a kid and kind of little, I supervised his use of the food processor (he made the bread crumbs fresh), the oven and the stove closely, but I pretty much let him loose to do his thing. He did very well handling the ingredients and tools, chopping the mushrooms, grating the cheese, measuring the herbs and spices (I did separate the egg for him, though), and even smooshing it all together and forming the balls.

The end result was well worth the effort and this dish will wind up in a regular rotation at our house.

Big Shot Buffalo Meatballs
An original Boogie recipe

Ingredients:
1 pound Ground Buffalo meat
1 Egg
1 Egg White
1/2 Cup grated Parrano cheese
1/2 cup fresh Bread Crumbs
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 teaspoon Marjoram
2 portobella mushrooms, 1 chopped fine, 1 medium diced
1 jar Heinz Brown Gravy (12 ounce)
1/2 pound wide egg noodles

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 350F
2) Cut one mushroom int o a medium dice.
3) Put gravy into a small saucepan. Add medium diced mushrooms. Place on burner on simmer an partially cover. Be sure to stir the gravy occasionally.
4) Chop the other mushroom fine.
5) In a large bowl, mix the fine chopped mushrooms, cheese, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, marjoram, eggs, and meat. Blend well by mixing with your hands.
6) Line a baking sheet with foil. Spray the foil with vegetable cooking spray.
7) Form meatballs from the meat mixture that are about 1 to 1 1/2 inches around & place them on the baking sheet. Leave some space between each meatball.
8) Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes.
9) Prepare the egg noodles according to the package instructions. Drain them well when they're done.
10) Remove the meatballs from the oven.
11) In a clean large bowl, add the gravy to the noodles.
12) Serve by putting the noodles and gravy on a plate and topping them with several meatballs.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Finally. Our long national nightmare is over.

2009-01-20T23:26:00.002-05:00

I've kept my personal political views off of this blog since it's inception, save the link to my other website. I've waited for today for a long, long time, though, so I'd like to say, "Here's to you, George. Thanks for mucking things up so bad. Now get the hell out. Good-bye and good riddance, George."

1/20/2009. The end of an error.

We now return to our regularly unscheduled mostly food posts.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Pickin' apples

2008-11-28T20:44:00.007-05:00

Pickin' suncrisp apples to be exact. Boog and I went out to Lynd's Fruit Farm early on a Saturday this past October with the intention of picking Asian pears. When we arrived we found out that the pear trees were picked clean the day before. After a brief moment of being totally bummed (complete bummitude!), we decided to pick some Suncrisp apples. The nice pady at the gate assured me they were crispy and sweet; I asked how they compared to my favorite,the fabulous Honeycrisp. She said "Nothing compares to the honeycrisp, honey."

We had a great time going through the orchard, looking for the biggest and best apples. I was somewhat surprised to see that all of the trees are pretty short, maybe 7 to 8 feet tall a the most. The last apple tree I remember seeing was in the yard of a house in Dayton back in fall of 1985. . A classmate of mine was renting a room there and invited us for a picnic - Bambi-burgers, fresh veggies and homemade apple pie! That tree was huge! HUGE, I tell ya! The littel trees at Lynds were full of apples, though, and nearly all were within easy reach.

We picked a full bag and headed back to the car and to the exit gate to pay. Almost all of the apples made it...
Here are some of those that made it home:

The Suncrisps are indeed crisp and sweet. And they're very juicy, too, but next year, I'll be taking the proper Fridays off to pick both Honeycrisps and Asian pears.

There were plenty of other things to do at the big tent Lynds has set up at the big intersection - lot's of fresh baked goods, other crops (gigantic fresh picked cabbage, cucumber, zucchini, peppers, onions, potatoes, and of course, lots of defferent kinds of apples). There was freshly made caramel corn, giant pecan turtles, great hot dogs (again, huge!), fresh squeezed lemonade...nothing was cheap, but it was all tasty.

Can't wait for next fall. We had a great day.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Shrimp and Scallop pasta

2008-10-07T20:48:00.005-04:00

I created this dish a couple of years ago and forgot about it. I found the recipe written in one of my notebooks and remembered how much we liked it, so I gathered the ingredients together and cooked it up tonight. It was as tasty as I remembered, but perhaps could have used a bit more heat (red pepper flakes).
It's quick to make, not too fancy, but tastes rich. There's a whole lot of garlic in it, and If you've read any of my other posts, you know I love garlic.

This recipe made about 4 servings.

Shrimp and Scallop Pasta
Ingredients:
½ pound pasta (I used thin spaghetti)
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 pound Shrimp, peeled (26-30 size)
½ pound bay scallops,rinsed
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 ounces plain tomato sauce
4 ounces chicken broth
2 more ounces chicken broth with ½ teaspoon flour blended in
1 small tomato, diced, drained
1 roasted red pepper, cut in ½" x ½" pieces
½ teaspoon dried "Italian seasoning" blend (blend of basil, oregano,
Hot red pepper flakes to taste (¼ to ½ teaspoon)

Method:
put the shrimp and scallops in separate bowls. Sprinkle each with ¼ of the Italian seasonings and stir.
Cook the pasta per package directions.
Heat the Olive oil in a large saute pan on medium-high
Add the sliced garlic, cook 20 seconds or so.
Add the shrimp, saute about a minute.
Add the tomato and roasted red pepper. Saute another minute.
Add the 4 ounces of chicken broth, the tomato sauce & minced garlic. Bring to a boil
Cover and cook for another minute.
Add the scallops.
Stir the broth with the flour to be sure it is well blended and add it to the pan.
Add the red pepper flakes and return to a boil.
Cook until the scallops are just cooked through, another minute or 2.
Toss with the pasta in a large bowl, and serve.

I've used shrimp and scallops, but I think the next time I might try some shrimp and fish, like cod or even salmon.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Chicken Sausage with Spinach, Feta and pignoli

2008-09-27T23:24:00.011-04:00

I've wanted to try these sausages since I saw them at Whole Foods - Chicken Sausage with Spinach, Feta and pignloi. I finally picked some up last weekend and popped them into the freezer for safe keeping. I pulled them out yesterday and tonight came up with this recipe. I will definitely be making this again. be warned, though, most of the amounts of ingredients were just eyeballed as I made this up as went along, so use your best judgement - more of what you like, less of what you don't...

The eggplant, tomato and basil came fresh out of my garden. It was a pretty good year back there.

Chicken Sausage with other stuff...
Ingredients:
3 fresh Chicken sausage with spinach, feta and pignoli, about 1 pound
Roasted eggplant, about 1 pound
1 can of cannellini or great northern beans, rinsed.
Roasted red pepper, cut ½" by ½"
Fresh tomato, chopped
Gemelli pasta, about ½ pound
Paranno cheese, shredded
Fresh basil, cut chiffonade
½ cup chicken broth/stock
Olive oil

Method:
Set oven to 350°.
Prick the eggplant all over and put in a baking dish (foil lined) and roast for about 45 minutes.
Cook the pasta per package directions.
When the eggplant is done, remove the peel and cut into bite sized pieces.
Slice the sausage into about ½ inch slices.
Heat a large pan, add olive oil, brown the sausage on both sides in batches. Remove to a plate, keep warm.
Deglaze the pan with the chicken broth.
Add the beans, red pepper, tomatoes, eggplant, and sausage, and stir gently (don't break the beans!) to heat through.
Serve over a small bed of gemelli, top with shredded parrano cheese and some of the sliced basil.

some notes:
Slicing sausage was made easy as thy were still partially Frozen. I would recommend removing the casing first, too.
When browning the sausage, between each batch try to scrape out some of the looser browned bits and pignoli that may escape from the slices and put them with the cooked slices.

Since I was pretty much just winging it, I'll make a couple of changes next time:
I'll I think I'll saute some garlic, probably sliced, before the sausage, then use some white wine to deglaze.

The Parrano cheese was a great find. Boogie and I tated it on a trip to Whole foods about a month ago, and I picked up a wedge this past week when I bought the sausage. I thought it tatsted like a combination of parmesan and gouda - turns out I hit the nail right on the head. From their web page:

It has the alluring nutty flavor of a fine-aged Parmesan with the versatility of a young Dutch Gouda.

It's great right out of the package and with apple slices, too.

UPDATE: 2200, 09/28/08: I was poking around my favorite sites and I remembered what really inspired me to get these great sausages:Sausage, greens and beans on Dave's Beer. Good stuff.

Enjoy,
Lorence

It's as easy as riding a bike...

2008-07-07T22:54:00.007-04:00

And today, that's what Boogie did.
After a nice dinner of Tilapia stuffed with crab, we headed outside to relax for a bit on the front steps. I decided that it was a great night for Boogie to try his bicycle without the training wheels, so he scurried inside, retrieved his helmet, elbow pads & knee pads, the air pump, his water bottle, the pliers and the adjustable wrench. Yes, he was quite prepared. After struggling with one of the training wheels for a good 10 minutes (that sucker just didn't want to come off!), we were finally ready.
I figured I'd be running along beside him, propping him up by the back of his seat for a good hour while he got the hang of riding, the balance, the steadiness.

Nope.

Twice.

Two times.

That was it! I only had to steady him up a couple of times and away he went:

The second time...

And away he went!

I'm completely stunned; he just took to it immediately. I think it took me a week to learn what he did tonight in all of 5 minutes. It wasn't a perfect trip every time, of course, but he only ate dirt once. He did get sucked into the retaining wall a few times, though:

conclusion: retaining wall = Bike magnet

After about an hour of practicing going back and forth on the sidewalk, I think he was pretty pleased with himself:

Cool bike, cool kid. Very proud mommy and daddy.

Enjoy,
Lorence

We need a home!

2008-06-23T23:30:00.003-04:00

UPDATE: Both of these fabulous felines have been placed in great homes.

Our neighbors are currently trying to care for a very young, very sweet mother cat and her lone surviving kitten, and we'd like to help find them a home. The mother cat (I call her "Velvet") isn't much more than a kitten herself, maybe a year old, 2 at the absolute most. The kitten (I've been calling her "Teddie") is about 12 weeks old, still quite fluffy, and very playful; she was trying to play soccer with us last night. The ball is so much bigger than she is that my wife was calling her "Kittiana Jones" (remember the boulder scene in "Temple of doom"?).

Here are some pics of both. If you want to adopt them or know some one who might, please contact me. They're both very sweet and friendly and need a real home as soon as possible.

Here's some kitty eye candy. I know that once you have a taste, you'll want to hold and cuddle and play with them and take them home...

This is Momma kitty (I call her "Velvet). she's soft and sweet, and loves her kitten.

Say "Hi" to the kitten (I call her "Teddie"). she fluffy and extraordinarily playful.

"Better back off...ok, not really, I'm just playin'! Ain't I fierce lookin' , though?"

I'm hungry and lonely and want a hooman to take me home!!!!

Please help us find these girls a home.
Contact me at Lorence.Sing @ Gmail.com (take out the spaces to get the real address...)

Thanks,
Lorence

Chile Verde Cafe, Great (New) Mexican

2008-04-29T23:38:00.014-04:00

I've been meaning to post about Chile Verde Cafe for a while.

We've been regular customers of this small Mexican jewel for well over 15 years and for good reason: the all-made-from-scratch food is great and the staff has always been top notch. Chile Verde has always been a family business, and even now that a new family is running the place, it's still related in some way to the old family. The current owner, Tom Anthony is just as friendly a host as our old pal Julie was (Julie, we miss you and hope you are well!). We've seen waiters come and go, too, including our old regular waiter, Rob, but through it all, one thing has remained constant, and that is the quality of the food.

Ok, start with the salsa. nice fresh chips and the best salsa in all of Columbus. This photo doesn't do it justice.
It is a bit chunky with bits of onion, tomato, and peppers. It was the first salsa Boogie dug into and is still his favorite. Chile Verde was actually the first restaurant Boogie ever went to, at a couple of weeks old (shown here with me, a still weary mommy and Julie, Oct, 2000):
It is still Boogie's most requested place to go to for a night out or a weekend lunch.

On one recent visit, I had my favorite, the shredded beef chimichanga. Most of their selections come in a shredded beef variety (Chicken, too), soft tender, slow cooked, tasty shredded beef and plenty of it, too. I only have a shot of the half I brought home:
There's just the right amount of cheese over the top with a merlot mushroom sauce, too. And the side dishes - don't be afraid to stray from what the menu says each dish comes with, substitutions are allowed without question. While the rice is just o.k., the beans and potatoes really shine. There are 2 types of potato: the fabulously thin and crispy shoestring fries (even better than Steak and Shake's), and the mashed potatoes, flecked with red pepper. I usually get one of the potatoes and ALWAYS get the pinto beans. These are not your ordinary, bland run-of-the-mill refried Mexican restaurant refrieds. No, my friends, these are spicy, house-made tender-firm, spicy moist and meaty spicy beans. And their spicy, too. If you lucky, you'll go on a night that chef is mad about something and the potatoes and beans will have that little extra "kick" to them. You'll know...

Last weekend we visited for a late afternoon lunch. It was the first time that we've been there in a looong time without having to wait for a table. Of course, we're usually there for dinner and have a wait of at least 20-30 minutes even when we call ahead to get our name put on their list. This time, though, at about 3 p.m. on a Friday afternoon, we pretty much had the place to ourselves:

Boogie and I split the shredded beef nacho
with jalepenos, sour cream and guacamole. Between the two of us, we had no trouble cleaning that plate off. Karen had the shredded beef tacos. Be sure to ask for the red sauce on the side when you order tacos. They can be a bit plain without, but red sauce is the perfect completer for them.
The shredded beef burrito is also a family fav, as well as the enchilada. We usually pair them together in the CV Duo Plate.
Other items of note: chile rellenos, fajitas, green chili stew, beer, wine, margaritas and a children's menu.

If you live in Columbus and think Vaqueros is fab, you must try Chile Verde.

Those who know, don't go Vaquero.

In a nutshell, the food is consistently good, the service warm and friendly. The prices are more mid-range other Mexican places, but worth every cent. They also have a full margarita menu with each one made from a fresh on-site made mix. With their drinks, like their food, freshness reigns.

Some other reviews:
Columbus Alive, March, 2008

CMH Gourmand

ActiveDayton

Chile Verde Cafe is located at the west end of the Carriage Place Center, at 4852 Sawmill Rd., Columbus, Ohio
614-442-6630
Call ahead for seating.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Appetizer in a box

2008-04-29T00:18:00.007-04:00

In our never ending quest for a quick fix for dinner, Boogie found a new little treat for us in the Kroger freezer case, Mussels in Garlic Butter Sauce from Bantry Bay Seafood, an Irish mussel producer. The 1 pound package was on sale for $2.99 and I figured, "how bad could it be?".

All 3 of us love mussels, but have only had them out, at restaurants and wedding parties. Yes, I know they're quite easy to prepare, and I have a great recipe for "mussels prodotto" that I saw Lidia Matticchio Bastianich make on a cooking show on PBS a few months ago. I think it is from her book, Lidia's Family Table. I also just stumbled on "Tapas of Mussels" on The 64 Sq Ft Kitchen blog. I will try them both soon.

In the mean time and until I have the patience to do it myself, the Bantry Bay frozen mussels weren't bad at all!

We fixed them as an appetizer a few nights after we bought them . They cooked up quite easily and we were very happy with the taste.

To prepare them, the sealed package is opened and dumped into a large saucepan:

After heating on high for about 4 minutes and simmering for another 2-3 minutes,
I just transfered them to a big bowl and sat them in front of the family.

The mussels were sweet and tender and the sauce was good, not too bold, not really bold enough, but pleasant. It wasn't anywhere near the heavenly broth my table was fighting over at the Scottsdale, Arizona "Bobby's, A Mancuso Restaurant" back in August, 2006, but it wasn't bad at all, and certainly worth the effort of scooping up and slurping from an empty mussel shell.

The package went quickly that night, and we've since tried the "Tomato and Garlic Sauce" variety. Boogie really preferred them over the garlic and butter, but he was out voted 2-to-1 on our last shopping excursion (still $2.99).

Better luck next time , Boog...

Enjoy,
Lorence

A New Family Member

2008-04-28T23:28:00.006-04:00

Last September (2007) I wrote about Emily's 20th birthday. The morning after Christmas, 2007, though, she had a massive stroke and died. Though at 20 years, she was very old, her death was still quite sudden.

We miss her immensely.

We also found the house to be so very quiet, just too quiet. And though we knew we could never replace Emily, we began to realize that we needed to bring another little one back into the house. I had thought we would wait until the fall, but that just wasn't going to happen. My boss told me about one of their cats that needed a different home, a more settled and quiet place, and we decided we couldn't wait until the fall, the time was now. So we went to meet our new cat, it was decided that we would call him Nick.

Nick has such a bittersweet/sad story; He was adopted by my boss's partner about 7 years ago from the Licking County Animal Shelter, where he arrived after being rescued from a his original owners who raised him for about a year in a closet (why, oh, why do people do stupid thing like that?). She took wonderful care of him and tried to look after all of his needs, but he is a bit scared and skittish, even after all these years, and was afraid of some their other animals, especially one other cat that completely terrorized him (strangely, that other cat looks a lot like Emily did...).

We brought him home on 3/27, and after a couple of days, he began to make himself right at home, claiming my side of the bed as his own:

In the month we've had him, we've found out that he's just a great big ol' baby, sweet, gentle and very loving. He absolutely loves to be be held, cuddled and pet, purrs very loudly and will rollover and cover his eyes while getting a belly rub.

Nick's mostly calm and relaxed now, though he's still a bit scared of people walking around him, and he REALLY doesn't like the doorbell or the vacuum. Overall, though, he's settled in real well and our house feels complete to us again.

Enjoy,
Lorence

A Cub Scout Outing - A visit to CD101.1

2008-04-14T23:32:00.007-04:00

A fun tour of the locally owned and operated Alternative music station, CD101.1

What do you think, Future DJ's or no?
Enjoy,
Lorence

Fresh Basil all winter long

2008-04-12T23:42:00.011-04:00

Last September ('07), Dave posted about starting some basil cuttings hydroponically. This was about at the beginning of the start of the end of the basil season. After years of disappointment and complete inability to grow anything that even resembled basil, I had finally had a successful planting in the herb garden for summer '07 - I actually grew basil!
I know, it isn't really that big of a deal for most, but for me I always seemed to have a brown basil thumb. No longer. I even was hoping that I would have enough in the garden to make some pesto. That was a big fat joke. I'd only put in one plant (figuring I'd kill it just I had murdered all of the others) and I babied that plant all summer long. Around the beginning of September, though, I began pulling pieces off to use at a furious pace and though my lone plant began to grow infinitely better, it just wasn't going to make a pesto load in return. No matter, I thought, I'll just use what I have and maybe try out Dave's experiment on my kitchen window sill...

I'm getting a real spring mindset and preparing to plant for summer '08, which will definitely include multiple basil plants, and they're all going to come from my window sill. I'm pleased to report that I've had fresh basil all winter long as a result of the hydroponic growing and frequent clipping:

The above photo was taken around Mid December of a clipping growing for about a month and a half. I had two others that I thought had good enough roots to plant in a small container. I placed them in the window of the upstairs room with a nice eastern exposure, but it was either too cold, too eastern, too dry, too something, and they withered and died. of course, I began to get paranoid that my brown basil thumb had returned, but I still had my kitchen hydroponic basil going, growing, so we soldiered on. I babied it, changing the water every 2 weeks and adding a small bit of the only fertilizer I had in the house, Schultz African Violet Plus™ Liquid Plant Food. I put a couple of drops in 2 cups of water, drained the plant's bottle and refilled it with the fertilized water. I didn't cut any until mid January, then I went to town, using whatever I needed whenever I needed. The plant responded well. We even had plenty of large leaves for the beautiful Caprese salad that Boogie helped to make on Easter Sunday:

(Boogie's own Caprese salad recipe, sans salt and pepper on the platter -
people can add those if they want them, he reasons, and that way Grandpa won't get too much salt)

This week, I snapped this photo:
The last remaining original cutting is on the right, and while it looks pretty spindly, it has provided well. It has grown well and been snipped at quite a bit. I started the 3 other bottles about 2 weeks ago for future spring planting, and they've already grown 1 ½" roots. I'll probably keep the original in the house for the occasional quick access.

Thanks for the idea, Dave!

I wonder if this would work for oregano, too?

Enjoy,
Lorence

The Last Honeycrisp

2008-04-02T01:01:00.004-04:00

When I was a kid back in the late 60's and early 70's, I loved the crisp, sweet juiciness of a great big white dotted Red Delicious apple. The disasters that go by that moniker in the stores today are mealy, dry and bland. I had all but given up on apples a couple of years ago when I discovered the Fuji. Not bad, I thought. then I tried the Jonagold and the Cameo. Pretty good. Maybe there really are good apples still to be found, I thought.

And then I came upon the Honeycrisp. Sweet. Juicy. Crisp. Bright. Tasty! A Great apple, finally!
I don't think I've ever had any fruit better than a fresh picked Honeycrisp apple.

Ever.

True, they're pricier than other apples, but I don't care. I think I even paid $3.99/lb for some at one point this past winter.
So it was during a bittersweet moment that I snapped this photo back in the middle of February. I was eating the last of the Honeycrisp apples. I was surprised to still find them in the store. I had found a small basket of them at Giant Eagle in mid-January and bought a bunch (I think I bought about 4 lbs @ $2.99/lb).

And this was the last one...it was almost an Iron Eyes Cody moment.

Goodbye my honeycrisps, 'til next fall. I will miss you.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Thank goodness that's over...

2008-04-01T23:59:00.007-04:00

It's been almost a month since winter hit Columbus in a big, big way with 18 inches of snow in our neighborhood over about a 24 hour period.

Boogie shot this as I attempted to dig the cars out.
Little did I know I'd be digging another 6 inches later on.

Since then we've had rain, sleet, rain, hail, sun, wind, cold rain, sun, warm rain, cold rain and more rain. And I think that was just the following week. Welcome to Ohio weather. What's that old saying?,"If you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes."? Coined by an Ohioan, I'm sure.

Nothing new here, just some of photos of the "Blizzard of 2008":

First, my "winter wonderland" picture
ok, everyone say "aaaawwww...

Our snowy backyard

The driveway - this one car LONG driveway was a real pain to clear. I only did one side, right up the side of the house and was running out of places to move the snow to. The wind blew the snow to carve the shapes on the cars. My wife thought they looked like the ugliest vehicle on earth, the Pontiac Aztec. She made me clean them off right after she noticed.

There were a few others out, mostly dog walkers. The dogs seemed to really like the end of my driveway.

I'll have to check the weather report before I really believe it's all over - for now.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Windozes pooched

2008-03-09T23:26:00.003-04:00

I'm coming back online soon. My home PC crashed - BSOD from a totally pooched windoze.
Again.

Moved went over to XP (was W2K & , NO, I will not go to Vista, A.K.A. Millenium II).

Just a few more apps to load and I'll be up again. yippee.

Herbed Pork Roast

2008-02-24T22:55:00.009-05:00

I've only made a pork roast a couple of times before, and I don't recall either being all that great. So when My wife came home from the grocery ( I was a bit under the weather, so she subbed for me that week) with a big ol' hunka pork, I coulnd't help but wonder what the heck she was thinking! I guess I'd impressed her enough with my recent culinary accomplishments that she figured I'd have no problems...
After a bit of 'net research, I came up with a recipe that I hoped would produce a half-decent outcome. From the family's reaction, I think I did. I found a few tips here and there. First was to not trim off the layer of fat that is usually on one side of the roast and to keep that side up while roasting. Oiling up the roast with the seaonings and putting it in a very hot oven for a short while before turning it down for a long while was another good tip, helping to "seal" the piece and keep it juicy
so here's what I did----

Ingredients:
2 ½ pound pork loin roast
Olive oil, a tablespoon or two
1 Tablespoon of a combination of herbs:
-a mix of rosemary, thyme, marjoram leaves
¼ teaspoon rubbed sage
¼ teaspoon ground red Thai chili
½ teaspoon of salt (I used kosher salt)
¼ teaspoon of fresh ground pepper

Method:
Preheat the oven to 450°
Put the olive oil in a small bowl.
Add the herbs, chili, salt and pepper, mix to blend.
Rub the mixture all over the roast (top, bottom, sides and all...).
Line a pan with foil and put the roasting rack in it.
Put the herbed roast on the rack with the fat side up and put the roast in the oven.

After 10 minutes, turn down the heat on the oven to 250° and continue to cook for 50 to 80 minutes, until a meat thermometer measures the internal temperature at150°. The cooking time will vary with the roast's shape - longer for a thicker piece, shorter for a more narrow piece.
When it is done, remove the roast to a cutting board. Cover it loosely with foil (I just loosely tented the roast) and let it sit for about 15 minutes to rest*.
Slice the roast about ¾" and serve.

I served mine with garlic-sour cream mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli.
*Resting meat: there is some controversy as to whether one should cover/tent/wrap meat while resting (AKA complete carry-over cooking). It works for me, so I do it.

BTW, this is a bit of the "ground" Thai chili pepper I used. I made this from the peppers that Rosie brought me last fall (Thanks, Rosie!).

Enjoy,
Lorence

Tandoori Chicken Burgers

2008-02-21T22:09:00.010-05:00

I was watching the PBS show Everyday Food last weekend - the show was called "The Best Burgers" (episode 405 according to their website). I love a good burger, but don't make them from scratch very often, so I thought it would be worth the time. After the show was over I had 2 things: a couple of interesting recipes to try and a big hunger. Good thing it was lunch time.

I didn't have any of the ingredients readily available for either of the recipes, so it was a couple of days before I could cook one up. The first (and as of 02/21/08, the only so far) was the Tandoori-style Chicken burger in pitas. There are so many interesting flavors going in, I was really looking forward to how they would turn out. I was also excited to get to use the cardamom pods I'd recently purchased from Penzey's. The original recipe called for a cumin-yogurt sauce, but I made the tahini mayonnaise from the veggie burger recipe.
The use of chicken thighs makes for great chicken flavor. The thighs are run through the food processed a bit to break them up, but not enough to make them mushy.
For the pitas, try to find the thin pitas, not the thick heavy ones. I'm not a big fan of one of the national brands, Father Sam's; they're just a bit too thick/bready for me, but are very popular and usually available near your grocer's deli department. If you live in an area that has an Aladdin's Eatery location (northern Virginia; Charlotte, North Carolina; San Antonio,Texas; western Pennsylvania, Chicago,Illinois; and 16 Ohio locations), I recommend that you stop in and buy a bag of pita from them. It's pretty cheap and perfect for almost anything, even (and especially) just snacking on. Oh, yeah, they're great for this dish, too.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs (4 to 5), cut into rough chunks.
4 scallions, sliced thin (both the white and the green parts)
2 Tablespoons of finely chopped fresh ginger (about a 2 inch piece, peeled)
2 Tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 Tablespoon of paprika
2 teaspoons of ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon of ground cardamom (I ground mine fresh in the old coffee mill!)
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons of Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper
Whole wheat pitas
Cucumber, thin sliced on the bias
Fresh Cilantro leaves

Directions:
Place the scallions, ginger, lemon juice, cumin, cardamom, cayenne, salt and pepper in a medium bowl.

Add the chicken and toss to combine all of the ingredients and set the bowl aside to marinate for up to 30 minutes (at least 10 minutes).

After no more than 30 minutes, transfer the chicken mixture to your food processor. Pulse the mixture just until it is roughly chopped, and not yet pasty (maybe a dozen pulses).

Heat a skillet to medium-high heat and spray it with vegetable oil spray (Pam or the equivalent)
Form small patties fromthe chicken mixture (about 3 Tablespoons each).
Season the patties with salt and pepper and place inthe skillet. Be sure not to crowd them.

Cook until they are opaque, about 2 to 3 minutes,then turn carefully and cook 2 to 3 minutes more.

Tahini Mayonnaise
1/2 cup of Mayonnaise (use the real stuff, not that nasty Kraft M.W.)
1 to 2 Tablespoons of fresh squeezed lemon juice
kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
1 to 2 Tablespoons of tahini (I used "Ziyad" brand)

Whisk the above ingredients together and season with a bit of kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.

Serve the burgers in the pitas - halve the pitas and place 2 cooked patties inside with some cucumber slices, cilantro leaves and some tahini mayo.

They turned out moist, tender and full of freshness. I need to cook from scratch a lot more.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Garlic Lemon Shrimp Pasta

2008-02-19T23:05:00.006-05:00

Yeah, let's hit all the good stuff at once - garlic, shrimp, pasta, and lemon all living in perfect harmony and with one goal in life: to make me happy.
This recipe is based on one of those old recipe cards I got from First Magazine years ago (early 1990's?). I haven't made it in a while, but I pulled it out last week when I was pressed for time. I always have a pound of shrimp in the freezer for emergencies, and I'd just been to the store and found some nice lemons at a decent price (for February), so I was all set (garlic is, of course, a staple...).

I usually use a thin spaghetti, and until recently my preffered pasta was Barilla Linguini Rigate. I can't seem to find it anymore and it's no longer mentioned on their web site. I've had to settle for their Spaghetti Rigati, which works ok , but it's a bit heavier than I like for this dish, although I think angel hair would be too thin. Such a delicate balance..

It's a pretty simple and quick recipe, and tastes even better as leftovers.

Ingredients:
½ pound spaghetti
3 large cloves of garlic, crushed, then minced
¼ cup of olive oil
2 Tablespoons of butter
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (I used the zest from ½ large lemon)
2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice (I used the juice from ½ large lemon, the same ½ that I got the zest from)
¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped

Directions:
Cook the pasta per package directions.
While the pasta is cooking, heat the oil and butter over medium heat in a large sauté pan.
Add the minced garlic and cook for about a minute.
Add the shrimp and cook until pinked through; that should only take a couple of minutes.
Add the parsley, lemon zest and lemon juice and toss well.
Be sure to time the finshing of the shrimp with the finishing of the pasta.
Drain the pasta and toss the drained pasta into the sauté pan of shrimp and garlic sauce, blending it well with the shrimp/garlic sauce.
Serve with a finish of a bit fine salt and fresh ground pepper, garnish with some thin lemon slices if you're into that sort of thing.

Sorry, no photo this time - too hungry.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Toasted Chili Mayonaise

2008-02-15T01:30:00.002-05:00

Eager to do something constructive with my new haul from Penzey's I cracked open the chili powder with a specific condiment in mind. Since I had 1/2 of a torta carnitas in the fridge from our trip to Cuco's Taquieria, I decided to make some toasted chili powder mayonaise. I've made this before and love how it makes an ordinary sandwich jump with flavor. I never have found a real recipe for it, so this is what I've been doing. It seems to turn out ok:

Toasted Chili Mayonaise
2 to 3 Tablespoons Penzey's Chili powder (whatever type you choose is fine)
Real Mayonaise (I always use Hellman's, NEVER EVER that nasty M.W. stuff - even if I believed in miracles, it would take more than a miracle to make that stuff any good...)

Get a heavy skillet nice and hot over medium heat. Add the chili powder and toast the chili powder, stirring constantly until fragrant, about 1 minute. Transfer to a mixing bowl to cool.

Once the powder has cooled, it can be transfered to it's own jar for future use, or just use some of it right away like I did to make the mayo.

Put a couple of Tablespoons of mayo in a small bowl. Add some toasted chili powder to it and blend well. Taste it & tweak the flavor - does it need more chili powder? Add some more, then! Too much chili? Add a bit more mayo. You'll know when it's right.

Cover the bowl and refrigerate until ready to use. I used some on my leftover Cuco's torta. Very nice...

Enjoy,
Lorence

My first trip to Penzey's

2008-02-14T23:37:00.002-05:00

Penzey's Spices.

I know it's been sitting there in that little round building on Reed Road for a couple of years now, I just never seemed to get there - until last weekend. Finally, I'm not a Penzey's virgin anymore.

I was no stranger to this building, though - I'd actually been inside of it years before it was a Penzey's. Way back, this odd shaped building was a bank, the covered portion on it's south side was drive-through. After the bank closed, and after a while of being empty, the building became the home of the "Zacchaeus Short Man's Clothing store". Yes, I'm a bit vertically challenged, so I visited the store in search of some pants to wear to work. I quickly learned that the name of the store should have been "Zacchaeus Short *FAT* Man's Clothing store". I was looking for 29x29 - they had 26x45, 27x49, etc., with prices as large as the wiast sizes and in those fabulous golf prints everybody loves to wear to the office... Lovely. Would you believe I didn't buy anything?

But I digress.

We stepped in to Penzey's and I almost felt overwhelmed. I have been receiving their catalog, so I was somewhat familiar with their products,but I was completely unprepared for how nice the actual store would be. Boogie grabbed a basket and I immediately started fiding things to put in it. Of course, I did have a list to follow and quickly reverted to it in a desperate attempt to keep from spending too much. It was tough, but I managed to stick mostly to the list, spending a bit over $20 on: chili powder, garam masala, Fine ground white pepper, white cardamom pods (for Kheema), vanilla sugar, and some hot chocolate mix with mint:

Back at home, I decided that before I put my Penzey's bounty away, I would clean up/out my spice rack & cabinet and boy, oh, boy did they need cleaning. This turned into more of a project than I had anticipated, but I was still giddy from the shopping adventure in that little round store and had plenty of energy to burn off.

I wiped down all of the bottles & I found some really old and scary stuff hiding back there, along with some things I know I'll never use. Both categories included a few bottles of spice that originally came with the rack (we received it from my classmate Tracy as a wedding present in back 1987...). When the heck am *I* ever going to use pickling spice? I also found a 10 year old can of cinnamon hiding inthe back of the cabinet. I hate cinnamon. I emptied both of those (and a few others) into the trash and thoroughly washed and dried the bottles for re-use.

With a cleaned up space, I began to put my spices & herbs back into the rack. After a bit of organizing/alphabetizing/categorizing, I decided, being the nerd that I am, to make a list to blog, a list of my spices... I discovered that I had much more variety than I thought. Actually, I hadn't really thought at all about how many different herbs and spices I had. I've accumulated so many different ones over the past years that I lost track. Here's what I found in the rack and two shelves of the cabinet:

My Spices

Allspice	Whole Cumin Seed
Basil Leaves	Ground Cumin
Black Peppercorns	Mustard Seed
Ground White Pepper	Ground Mustard
Caraway Seed	Marjoram Leaves
Cavender's Greek Seasoning	Ground Marjoram
Celery Seed	Nutmeg
Chili Powder	Old Bay Seasoning
Toasted Chili Powder	Oregano Leaves (Homegrown)
Chinese 5 Spice	Paprika
Cilantro Leaves	Smoked Paprika
Cinnamon	Rosemary Leaves
Coriander Powder	Sesame Seed
Whole Coriander Seed	Tarragon Leaves (Homegrown)
Dill	Thyme Leaves (Homegrown)
Onion Powder	Ground Thyme
Dried Onion Flake	Wasabi Powder
Whole Sage, Dried (Homegrown)	White Cardamom Pods
Rubbed Sage	Whole Fennel Seed
Garam Masala	Baliene Sea Salt
Garlic Powder	Course Sea Salt
Ground Cayenne pepper	Kosher Salt
Red Pepper Flakes	Lowery's Season Salt
Thai Chili Powder	Morton's Iodized Salt
(made from Rosie's Homegrown peppers)

48 in all and I'll be buying more the next time I get to Penzey's, which hopefully won't be too far away.

Go, Shop, Enjoy,
Lorence

A Cuco's Taqueria lunch - on the card of course.

2008-02-14T00:45:00.006-05:00

This past weekend's lunch outing was a trip to Cuco's Taqueria up on Henderson Road. I've always loved going up to this area. There have always been so many great places to eat around there, with one of my all-time-but-long-gone places just a few storefronts away from Cuco's, the old Gloria Cafe, aka Harold's Cajun Glory. It's been a while since our first visit to Cuco's (last summer) and after our lunch we realized that we can't stay away that long again.

So we headed up to Henderson Road, Prestige Dining Club card in hand, at about 2 in the afternoon. There weren't many people in the place, so we were seated quickly and were served a basket of crisp fresh chips and a great fresh medium-mild salsa. They have a wonderful salsa bar to paretake of, but we were so happy withthe regular stuff they served us that we completely forgot about the salsa bar. After much deliberation (their menu offers great variety), we made our selections & our soft spoken very polite waiter took our order - A $6.99 combo of one beef enchilada, one crunchy beef taco, rice and beans fo my wife, torta carnitas ($5.95) for me, and the kids menu fish and chips ($3.95) for Boogie. I was very surprised that he went with a non-mexican style choice, but he's been on a real fish kick lately (must be all that Easter/Lent talk at school). We completely killed the bowl of chips along with 2 bowls of salsa while we waited for lunch to arrive.

When the plates arrived at the table, they were, of course, very hot and looked fab. The combos plate was steaming and very colorfully pleasing to the eye; my torta was enormous and smelled great (sorry, I haven't installed BlogSmell yet); and Boogies fish selection turned out to be an excellent choice - the fish used in his kids meal was the same fish Cuco's uses in their great fish tacos and burritos, lightly breaded golden brown strips of grouper.

We polished off another basket of chips and more salsa with our meal, and I wound up taking half the sandwich home. Of course, I forgot the camera again, so the olny photo I have is of my leftovers:

We got out with a check of $20 (including $4 tip) with the help of the Prestige card, plus a tasty lunch to make my coworkers jealous with on Monday's.

Go for lunch, go for dinner, go for a late breakfast...Just go. And be sure to print out the coupon for 1/2 off a second entree if you don't have or have already used your Prestige card there.

Cuco's Mexican Taqueria
2162 Henderson Road
Columbus, Ohio 43220
614-538-8601

Enjoy,
Lorence

Hearty Blueberry Oat Pancakes

2008-01-22T23:15:00.001-05:00

My wife found the basis for this recipe in the February 2008 issue of Prevention Magazine, and their original version can be found here - Cranberry-Orange Oat Pancakes.

The first time she made them, she didn't add any fruit to them at all, but really enjoyed them and they lived up to their claim of being a satisfying breakfast that held hunger at bay easily until lunch time. I made the second batch for her and added whole organic frozen blueberries - this batch was an even bigger hit. If you're looking for a hearty breakfast that will get you starteed and give your metabolism a boost, try these. they're full of fiber, protien, and are low in calories.

Our version - Hearty Blueberry Oat Pancakes:
Ingredients:
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup Tropicana® Healthy Heart with Omega-3 Orange Juice
¼ cup 1% milk
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
¾ cup frozen organic whole blueberries

Directions:Preheat a nonstick griddle. (no need to grease or spray)
Whisk together the oats, flours, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, orange juice, milk, and oil.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Fold in the blueberries (try not to crush them).

Drop ¼ cup of batter onto the griddle and cook them until edges look dry and bubbles come to the surface, about 3 minutes.

Carefully flip them and cook until their bottom browns and the pancakes are cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes.

Repeat with the remaining batter.

These pancakes freeze very well, too, so we put ½ in the fridge and ½ in a the freezer. This batch made 18 pancakes, enough to last her over a week.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Updated:Pork Tenderloin Medallions with an Orange Reduction

2008-01-22T22:43:00.001-05:00

Made the Pork Tenderloin Medallions with an Orange Reduction again and this time managed to get a few photos. Take a look.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Spiced ChickPeas from Dave's Beer

2008-01-22T22:06:00.000-05:00

Tonight, whle roasting a turkey breast, I decided to try a recipe from DavesBeer.com, for Spiced Chickpeas. They looked like they wold make for a very interesting and far too healthy snack. since I had the oven on, I figured, what they heck...

Here's how they turned out (Dave's look nicer):

Taste was interesting indeed. My wife and I tried them and at first, they were,well, odd tasting. We both soon realized that the taste really grew on us fast and we wanted more. Then a few more...

We'll definately be making these again, but I think I'll vary the spice mixture by adding some cayanne, some garlic powder, maybe even some wasabi powder - ahh, the possibilities are endless.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Hello, Goodbye? No, Hello Ci'ao!

2008-01-04T00:59:00.000-05:00

One of the first places we tried using our 2007 Prestige Dining Club was the Ci'ao Bar and Grill in Upper Arlington. The 3 of us arrived fairly early and the place wasn’t very busy. We were met and seated by the owner who informed us that this was their first night open after a remodel, so not everything on the menu would be available, but most were. We looked over the menu to order and found, not surprisingly, a mostly Italian theme. I can’t really remember what we ordered, but I think one of us had the lasagna and I know Boogie had a small pizza. We were all very pleased with our selections. I remember the lasagna was housemade (he said it was his wife in the kitchen cookin’ up all that goodness) and was very good – the details escape me, but I remember the portion was generous and the flavor as a homemade lasagna should be, rich and meaty. Boogie’s pizza was also satisfying. The cost of one of our entrees was comp’d because of our Prestige card, but even at full price it would have been a good value.

We’ll be going back again with our 2008 card and probably a time or two again.

Ciao Restaurant
2820 Nottingham Rd
Columbus, OH 43221
614-457-2777

Enjoy,
Lorence

The Prestige Dining Club card - Get one!

2008-01-04T00:46:00.000-05:00

2007 has come to a close and as we begin 2008 (Happy New Year!), I realize I need to write about the best $30 I spent last year. If you live in Columbus, Ohio (or Dayton), you should look into this as well.

The Prestige Dining Club.

(above image is from the Prestige Dining Club web site)

Membership in this club entitles you to go to over 100 different restaurants and when you order two entrees you receive the second entrée of equal or lower price free. That’s FREE, as in at not cost, no charge, gratis, on the house…

We first bought into this club back in 1990. The restaurants in it back then allowed us to enjoy many different types of food for the first time, introducing us to Indian foods and many local restaurants we may never have tried otherwise. After a couple of years we let our membership lapse, but renewed it again at the beginning of 2007. Of the 100+ restaurants available to us last year, we were able to go to 19 different, getting 19 free meals for our $30 investment (NOTE: the cost of membership is actually $60, but we jumped on a 2-for-1 deal that was offered and split the cost with a co-worker. Best $30 she’s ever spent, too!). Not bad, especially considering which restaurants they were and what we ate. Unlike the popular “Entertainment” books, there aren’t menu limits (other than excluding buffets, and some minor restriction on hours – very few and still quite flexible). We can order whatever we want and get one entrée FREE. There isn’t a participating restaurant list for last year (and I’m not typing them all in now…), but here’s the current list for 2008 (as of 01/04/08):
94th Aero Squadron
Amazon Grill Steak House
Amul India
Anatolia Cafe
Ashley's
Avesta Eclectic Cuisine
Banana Bean Cafe
Barley's Brewing Co.
Barley's Smokehouse & Brew Pub
Baxter's Bar & Grill
Bayleaf India Bistro
Bistro 86 Asian Fusion
Bogey Inn
The Burgundy Room Dublin
Butch's Italian Cafe
Cafe Mediterranea
Camille's Sidewalk Cafe (3 locations)
Cananas Mexican Restaurant
Carfagna's Kitchen
Caribbean Jerks Island Bar & Grill
Carsonie's
Caucus Room
Chile Verde Cafe
Ciao
Clarmont
Colonial House
Cuisine of India
Don Patron
E J Canon's Cafe
Embassy Grille
Figlio
G. Michael's Italian American Bistro & Bar
Gahanna Grill
Gibby's New Albany Grill
Gibby’s
Grandview Cafe
Happy Greek
Hoover Grille
Hunan J
Iacono's
Inchin's Bamboo Garden
Indian Palace
Johnny Buccelli's (2 locations)
Juergen's European Bakery & Cafe
Justin's Place
The Kitchen Lounge
La Comedia Dinner Theatre
La Hacienda Real
La Scala Italian Bistro
Las Margaritas (5 locations)
Lido's Pizza & Restaurant
Linardos Villa
Los Candiles Mexican Kitchen
Mac's Cafe
Maca
Maharajas
Mama Zarella's
Mariachi’s
Mi Mexico
Milano's
Minico's
Morgan House Restaurant
New India Restaurant
O'Shaughnessy's Public House
Otani
P.K. O'Ryan's Irish Pub
Pasta Petite
Pesto Creative Italian Bistro
Polaris Grill
Pomegranate Mediterranean Cuisine
Quaker Steak & Lube
R.J. Snappers
Red Brick Tavern
Red Door Tavern
Robin's Italian Cafe
Rotelli - Pizza, Pasta, Perfect
Rothschild Market Cafe
Rude Dog
Schmidt's
Scrambler Marie's (5 locations)
Sedeo Cafe
Stone Creek Diner
Stoney River
Taj Palace
Taste of Bali
Thai Lagoon
The Hickory House
The Wine Guy Wine Shop
Trattoria Roma
Tropical Bistro
Tutto Vino
Vaquero's
Verdi Ristorante
Village Wines & Bistro
Vino, Vino Restaurant & Wine Bar
Vito's Italian Pub (2 locations)
Warehouse Italian Grill
The Worthington Inn
Zum Rathskeller at the Columbus Maennerchor

Note that nearly all of these are locally owned, not chain restaurants, and many are small family owned places. I consider both of these facts to be a a huge plus as we try to avoid the chains as much as possible (with a one notable exception – more on that in another post to come).

Most of the 19 Prestige club restaurants we visited this past year are places we would have gone to anyway, but we did manage to get 5 new to us. We were disappointed in only one place (one of the new ones), but were still glad we tried it as we had wanted to for some time (more on that in a later post, too).

With the new card for 2008 in hand, we’re ready to hit our old haunts and try a few more new places, too, since many of our dining out choices are determined by what’s in the Prestige Dining Club book.

I’m going to try to post a small review of each of the places we went last year (ambitious, I know), trying to remember what we had. How good each was won’t be a problem.

In the mean time, if you live in Columbus (or Dayton!), order a membership, I implore you!. It’s well worth the money and the adventure.

Enjoy,
Lorence

UPDATE: I forgot to add that we always present the card when we request our check and have never, ever had a waiter/waitress give it or us a funny look - it is always accepted without notice. The club rules require that you tip based on the original full cost of the meal before the free entree is subtracted, and there are a few restaurants that add the tip in (18%) for you, but this isn't a problem for us. I usually tip pretty well; I remember my days as a waiter all too well.

Ebay and Ecko - Another win!

2007-12-19T00:08:00.000-05:00

We've been using the same old colander for over 20 years - a cheap (yet obviously sturdy) buck ninety-nine Odd Lots plastic colander. Now, if yuou've read some of my older posts, you know I have nothing against using durable old kitchen equipment. As a matter of fact, I prefer it. So when a 50+ year old Ecko Flint Stainless colander came up on my saved search for Ecko stuff on Ebay, I was pretty jazzed. I immediately put it on my watch list and bid on it onthe final day of the auction. I probably paid more for it than I should have, and shipping was, wel, shipping always seems high to me, but the seller sent it out immediately, it was exactly as described and packed very well. Into the dishwater and then right to work it went, draining that night's pasta for dinner.

Another addition to my working Ecko collection. Yippe for me!
11 inches from side to side and 4 1/2 inches tall

The stampings on the bottom

Enjoy,
Lorence

Tilapia Stuffed with Crabmeat

2007-12-18T23:14:00.001-05:00

What to make tonight...Same old question, made harder by long stretches between grocery store excursions due to colds and bronchitis...I got lucky, though, a couple of weeks ago as we were "recovering". We all felt somewhat better and were hungry for dinner. What do we have? Nothing obvious... Lets dig around in the freezer... Hey, look Tilapia! Ok, that could be good if I had some way of making it, um, interesting. Tilapia *can* be a little bland. So I went rooting around for something, anything to do with the fish & I found this recipe on Recipezaar. I've had a can of crabmeat in the cupboard for a couple of months just itching to be used. The perfect opportunity, I thought.

I was right.

The recipezaar version calls it "Crabmeat Stuffed Tilapia". Well, not really. I couldn't see anyway to roll the little fillets around the crab mixture, as the original recipe on http://www.blogger.com/www.tilapia.ws describes, and I didn't want to "sandwhich" the stuffing between fillets as the recipezaar recipe called for. I did something just slightly different and wrapped a fillet over a mound of crabmeat mixture. They were big enough. You'll see what I mean below.

This was a very good tasting & easy to prepare dish. Nice crab flavor (even better with some fresher fillets & crabmeat if handy). We'll definately be making this again.

Tilapia Stuffed with Crabmeat
Ingredients:
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 celery rib, chopped fine
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup fresh parsley (yeah, I had to use dried, but it worked just fine)
1/2 cup breadcrumbs, unseasoned (we used fresh from whole wheat bread)
8 ounces white crab meat (I only had a 6 oz. can of BumbleBee)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/8 tablespoon cayenne pepper
4 (6 ounce) tilapia fillets, approximately 6 oz each (had 6 fillets in the bag)
2 tablespoons butter, Melted
paprika

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Chop the onion and celery into fine pieces.
3. Flake the crabmeat and check for pieces of shells. I drained it a bit, too.
4. Sauté the onion and celery in butter until tender.
5. Add the parsley, stir, saute for just a bit more and remove from heat.
6. Stir in the bread crumbs, crab meat, lemon juice and cayenne pepper.
7. Spray a casserole or oven pan with cooking spray. I used a foil lined pan.
8. Make a small mound of the mixture, then drape a tilapia fillets over it as shown inthe photo.
9. Sprinkle with melted butter and paprika.
10. Place in a 400°F oven for about 15 to20 minutes until the tilapia flakes easily with a fork.
"Stuffing" the tilapia.

After about 18 minutes in the oven...
Plated, with some quick steamed edemame.

Give this a try - quick and tasty.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Jenny's Butter Cookies - 'Tis the season!

2007-12-17T23:33:00.000-05:00

Our friend, Jenny, gave us this recipe several years ago. She's made them every Christmas for years, and since we got the recipe, so do we. As a matter of fact, Santa gets a batch, fresh made on Christmas Eve, right along side the reindeer's carrot and a can of Coke (you did know Santa loves his Coca-Cola, didn't you?).

Me and Boogie, XMas Eve, 2004

We always enjoy making these simple cookies. It's a lot of fun rolling the dough in the sugar crystals and squishing them down. We used to use a glass that was just the right size, but it cracked and broke several springs ago, and for a while we struggled to find a new "squisher". We even used the bottom of a pinot grigio bottle one year until we discovered that the bottom of our sugar shaker was a perfect fit. Usually we empty it out first 'cause it needs to be degreased afterwards...

This recipe makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Jenny's Butter Cookies
Ingredients:
1 Cup (2 Sticks) Butter
¾ cup light Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla
2 Cups sifted flour
colored granulated sugar
Pecan halves

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350˚.
Cream the butter & the brown sugar
Blend in the vanilla
Gradually add the flour, mixing well.
Chill the dough for at least ½ hour.
Pull off about 1 teaspoon of the dough and roll it into a ball.
Roll the dough ball in the sugar crystals to coat it well.
Flatten the ball to about ¼” thickness.
Press a pecan halve into the center.
Place the cookie on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake 10-12 minutes at 350˚.
Let cool, bite, chew, swallow, say yum...

The last bit of the dough

A dough ball ready to be squished

A dough ball being rolled in sugar crystals

Squishing...

Getting the pecan pressed into it...

Ready for the oven (350˚)

And done! Out of the oven.

2 dozen (minus the one I ate...)

The one I ate - say goodbye!

Enjoy,
Lorence

Chicken in Vinegar Sauce

2007-12-15T23:35:00.001-05:00

Some years ago I bought this HUGE cookbook at a book sale they had at work, "The Complete Step-By-Step Cook Book". The thing is so big that it won't even fit on my scanner. I've made a few dishes from it over the years, including this one a couple of times just this past fall. It's pretty straight forward and has lots of garlic in it, always a plus! We all liked it very much and I'll be making it again soon. The recipe calls for sherry vinegar,which I didn't have, so I used what I did have - champagne vinegar the first time and red wine vinegar the second. Both worked just fine. I suppose I might even try rice wine vinegar next time. I served this dish with couscous the first time and egg noodles the second.

Ingredients:
4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
1/3 cup Olive oil
12 garlic cloves, sliced, divided, 4 cloves and 8 cloves
-(see, I told you there was lots of garlic!)
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 Tablespoons Sherry Vinegar (or whatever you have...)
1 Tablespoon Paprika
1 ½ Tablespoons chopped fresh Oregano
2 Tablespoons fresh Breadcrumbs
1 ¼ cups Chicken Stock
salt & fresh ground pepper

Directions:
1. Season the chicken with salt and pepper
2. Heat the olive oil in heavy pot just large enought o hold the breasts with out crowding. Add the chicken and cook on both sides, 10 minutes over medium heat.
3. Add 4 cloves of the sliced garlic and onion. Continue to cook until the chicken os lightly browned all over, about 5 minutes more.

4. Remove the chicken to a plate and keep warm. Stir in the vinegar and bring to a boil for 2 to 3 minutes.
5. Combine the remaining 8 cloves of garlic with a little salt, the oregano, and paprika. Pound it all together then add the bread crumbs and stir in a quarter of the chicken stock.

6. Pour the garlic-stock mixture over the chicken and add the remaining stock.

7. Cook for 20 minutes, until the chicken is tender and the sauce is fairly thick.

The last part of the recipe says to "Adjust seasoning and amout of vinegar, if necessary". I never know what this means when I first make a new dish, so I do the adjustments the next time around. In the case of this dish, I didn't have to do anything.

'Twas tasty.

Enjoy,
Lorence

I Made Butter! Sweet Cream Butter!

2007-12-14T23:20:00.001-05:00

Today, I came across a very nice website called Indian Food Rocks, and on one of the pages there was a very nice entry on making Homemade Sweet Cream Butter. I read it and couldn't believe it could possibly be that simple to make fresh homemade butter. I decided to stop on the way home, pick up some heavy whipping cream and make some to have with dinner (Classic Stuffed Green Pappers).

IFR has a great description and some fabulous photos of the process. After getting the peppers into the water to parboil, I started the butter process. I didn't have a jar to put it in, so I used a 2 cup Rubbermaid container that I knew would seal tightly, then started shaking. And shaking. And shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking...I shook it alot, for about 15 minutes. At one point towards the end of the shaking, it seemed like there was just a solid mass in the container and nothing was moving around, so I shook it REALLY hard for a minute and all of a sudden the solid seperated out from the liquid and I had butter. Real butter. couldn't belive it - it really was that simple!

Here's the start: and the end product:
Ready for the table:

And here's how you can do it:

Pour about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream into a container that will seal tightly and not come loose even with vigorous shaking.
Close the lid (make sure it is sealed well!) and shake the bejesus out of it for a good 10 minutes. When I was shaking it, I was getting 300+ shakes per minute. After about 10 minutes, you will notice that the cream isn't moving very well inside the container. Don't worry, you're almost there, just shake harder. HARDER DAMN IT, HARDER! When it looks like there's a solid mass in the bottom of the container and just a bunch of milk sloshing around it, it's probably done. Wait... Shake it some more! Ok, now it's done. Pour off the liquid (buttermilk! You can save it to bake with, or make curry with or just drink). Put the butter into a container for use.
I refrigerated mine until the peppers were ready and we spread it on some store bought crusty bread. Mmmmmm....

since there are no presevratives at all in this, it won't keep long, but if you find it as yummy as we did, it won't be around long enough to worry about.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Thanksgiving, finally!

2007-12-02T21:39:00.000-05:00

Yes, we finally gorged ourselves for Thanksgiving with a huge meal today. Our annual feast was delayed for us due to what seems to be another annual event - colds and bronchitis. With everyone feeling better, we deemed this year's phlegm fest to be over & time to eat!

Boogie and I prepared the menu, a host of traditional foods for the day. This is the menu he helped design:
We started of with Devilishly Good Dijon Deviled Eggs, a real family favorite. I used jumbo eggs this time, so I had to adjust the measurements up a bit. Our main course was also a variation on our regular. I made a ½ turkey from Jennie-O, an "Oven-Ready" turkey. This worked out very well for us since we were able to just keep the turkey in the freezer without having to worry about thawing, and since there would only be 5 of us for dinner, a whole turkey seemed to be a bit much.
On the side we had my favorite potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes using the easy recipe from Cook's Illustrated. The recipe can be found here and here (pdf version). I've made this recipe several times and it comes out perfect every time. It also gives me an opportunity to use my wonderful 50-some year old Ecko Flint potato masher. This time, though, I added a layer of mini-marshmallows on top for Karen, and popped the casserole into the oven with turkey and beans for a few minutes, just to toast the marshmallows.
Our other side dish was traditional green bean casserole. Usually it comes out great, but despite the good reviews from my family, I wasn't pleased with it this year. The beans were off - I couldn't find the right beans. I prefer frozen french-style, but no one seemed to have them so I wound up using frozen cut green beans. It just wasn't the same for me.
The Sister Schubert's yeast rolls were good, though - Karen discovered their great taste a few months back. I'd seen them in the store but hadn't tried them before. They're readily available pretty much everywhere since the Columbus, Ohio-based T. Marzetti Company acquired them a few years back.
And what can you say about store-brand canned jellied can-berry sauce? Is there anything better on this cranberriest of cranberry days? God, I love that stuff (ColumbusFoodie has a great photo of it here, better than the blurry shots I kept taking...)

For desert we had a Mrs. Smith's Cinnabon® Apple Crumb Pie. It's huge, heavy and comes with a bag of cream cheese frosting to drizzle over the dutch apple pie style sugary crumb crisp topping. Yeah, that was pretty darn good. Grandma brought a variety of Kroger Private Select cheesecake slices - I had a couple of those, too, plain and turtle. Yum.
Here's a really bad photo of the spread before I sat down.

Besides the good feeling of a full belly, I also felt thankful for my family, my health (crappy as it's been lately, it's still better than many), my work, my good fortune, and my life in general.
All in all, a pretty good Thanksgiving. I hope yours was good, too.

Enjoy,
Lorence

The Rollover! Finally...

2007-11-13T22:43:00.000-05:00

In October of 1992, our Renault Reliant's transmission died ( A Renault? What the hell were we thinking?!?). We wound up buying our first brand spankin' new car, a green Toyota Tercel Dx. 15 years later, she burns oil (typical for a Tercel) to the tune of a quart every three weeks, but she still gets great gas, rides real smooth and is completely dependable. She's only had one battery replacement (a new Diehard after 11 years of using the original) and no major engine work in all those years.

Today, she finally rolled over the 100,000 mile mark. Last night the odometer read 99999.0:
After dropping Boogie off at school, I got to see this:

and I even got to make a small blurry shaky darkish video to commemorate the occasion (Martin Scorsese I'm not...) :

I know 100,000 miles isn't that big of a deal these days, but after 15 years of driving this old faithful car, I'm pretty excited to finally reach this milestone.

ok, ok, I'll get some food postings up soon...

Enjoy,
Lorence

Vijay's Kheema recipe- Updated!

2007-10-17T23:41:00.000-04:00

In April of 2007 I posted a recipe for Kheema that was given to me by Vijay, the husband of one of my co-workers. Earlier that month, Vijay had a very serious intracranial bleed (stroke) that doctors say only 5% of those stricken with survive. Thankfully, Vijay has not only survived, but has amazed his doctors with his recovery, and he seems to improve daily still.
When they went to make kheema a few weeks ago, they actually printed my posting since the original recipe was in Vijay's head , and Vijay's memory was still in recovery (ok, yes it is on paper, but in his native tongue which his wife can't read...). Proof of Vijay's recovery came quickly as he realized that what I had posted was missing a few ingredients and steps.

The original recipe has been updated to include the additional seasonings (curry leaves, cardamom, cumin seeds) and the process of grinding them first...
Check it out here. Nothin' like some good ol' spicy Punjabi comfort food when the weather turns cool...

A True Sign on Insanity

2007-09-24T23:21:00.000-04:00

From everything I've ever heard, I now know that I've reached the brink of sanity, the precipice of psychosis, the ledge of lunacy...yes, if you've done it yourself, you know what I'm talking about - remodeling the kitchen.

We're not going for the full Bob Vila - a complete tear-out; no I'm not THAT crazy. I suppose you could say we're just rehabbing the kitchen. But to a guy that hasn't done it before and hasn't done any painting/papering, or much of anything like it in at least 5 years, it sure seems like a full remodel.

So, what's the a plan, you ask...ok, I'll tell ya:

Strip the wallpaper off and clean all of the old wallpaper glue/residue off
Clean all of the dirt & grease from the last 25 years off of the ceiling and walls
Strip the paint off of all of the woodwork around the doors and windows
Strip the top finish off of the 60 year old wood cabinets
Re-stain/urethane the cabinets.
Re-stain/urethane or repaint the door & window frames (not sure which yet)
Replace the 20+ year old faux-brick linoleum with new vinyl
Kilz, then paint the walls
Put up a w allpaper border
Get a new gas line installed
REPLACE THE STOVE!!!!! (more on that later)
Install some new cabinets on either side of the new range
Add some additional cabinets to the primary counter to extend it, both above and below
Install new countertop & sink
Replace the refrigerator
Repair the 60+year old 42" Nutone range hood (an old model 3060)
Repair some of the loose/missing wall tile (all tin)

I'm exhausted just writing all of that.
The good news is that we've already picked:

a color scheme/theme
the wall color picked out
bought the wallpaper border
the new vinyl flooring
the new refrigerator

and I've narrowed my choice of range down to three or four - all dual fuel, gas on top , electric in the oven, with convection:
A Jenn-Air, a GE Profile, a Bosch, and a Kenmore Elite. (yup, all in black...)

Any opinions?

Here's some "before" photos:

Above: From the back of the kitchen looking towards the front

Above: from the front looking at the back

Above: The current range (a 1950 Frigidaire model RM-60 electric range) & fridge

Above: The counter, sink & cabinets

Above: Over the sink, the cabinets, & window (and tomatoes from the garden!)

Definitely ready for an update, don't you think?

So far, I've gotten the wallpaper down and about 1/4 of the gluey residue off. What a pain.
And as with all remodels, I've hit a snag - I'm going to have to have some of the wall covered over - the wallpaper pulled off layers of paint with it, right down to the original snowy white plaster. It's only happened on the soffit over the sink/counter. I'd scrape it off, but I don't know if it's lead paint so I'm just going to have it covered over with some drywall and mudded up. It's not too much, so it should take long or cost TOO much (oh, I hope those words don't come back to haunt me...)

Above: The pulled off paint

Wish me luck! I'll keep posting updates...

Enjoy,
Lorence

Idiots Among Us

2007-09-03T23:04:00.000-04:00

This is going to be my first rant... bear with me, please.

I was off to do the grocery shopping today, with Boogie, my trusty sidekick, in tow. We usually go to a Kroger about 5 miles away, bypassing the Kroger closest to us, because, well, because the closer one sucks. I'd been going there for years, but last year they remodeled it, took out he service meats and seafood, moved everything around, stopped carrying products I like, etc...it just sucks there. So off to Grandview we go, to a much nicer, cleaner, well stocked, SERVICE-ORIENTED store. I like it there. It's pretty nice for a Kroger store. They even have a computerized touch-screen deli ordering system, so we never have to wait at the deli to place our order, wait for it to be sliced, etc... They have a sushi counter where I can actually see the sushi chef making the day's selections. They have a Starbucks (I know, the devil's coffee shop, but still..) , they have everything in the weekly flier in stock, even on the last day of the sale, and I don't get sneered at asking for paper bags - if I even have to ask; the cashiers there usually ask first.

The clientèle are even prettier there.

Anyway, we're on our way, driving along, obeying the speed limit (please don't speed through Valleyview) and I'm approaching the intersection of Hague and Fisher when I realize there is a light blue mini-van riding my rear bumper. I turn onto Fisher and he's right behind me still, so close I can read the number on the handicap placard dangling from his rear view mirror. I proceed as I normally do down Fisher at 35 MPH - I generally drive the speed limit, especially in town, and Mr. mini-van is still right there climbing into my trunk. I turn onto McKinley and he's still right behind me, trying to climb up my tailpipe, starting to appear a bit impatient. I then turn onto 5th, where the speed limit drops to 25 MPH and the cops like to hang out. I am NOT going any faster just because Mr mini-van can practically change my radio station. I can almost count his nose hairs he so close now, and he's getting pissed - most people fly right down this section of 5th Ave at 40-45 MPH. Not me. Never do. Especially now. We get to Lake Shore, where the road widens from 1 lane each way to 2. Mr Mini-van jumps on the gas, swerves around me on the right, blasts ahead and cuts in front of me, just in time to get stopped behind another car at the light at Dublin Rd. This desperate passing all happens in the length of perhaps 300 feet. No kidding see for yourself.
So now he's in front of me. He should be happy. I'm a bit peeved.

And that's when I see it. The sticker on his rear window. It's one of these:I'm laughing now. Yep. This idiot wants an "Idiot Free America". Then I notice exactly where on the rear window the sticker is placed . It's completely covering his 3rd light, the required safety light in the center of the rear window., just like this:

(Note: this is not the ACTUAL idiot mini-van, just my own personal rendering of it)

All I could think of was that someone gave Mr mini-van the sticker in jest and he still doesn't get that the joke is on him.

I was gladdened a bit more, even, as the car in from of Mr Mini-van wasn't in as much of a hurry as Mr Minivan was either. Am I evil for this making me feel very good inside.? Once they got up to Arlington Ave, Mr Mini-van squeezed between the car in front of him and the curb on the right so he could make a right turn, almost jumping the curb to do it... Good riddance.

So here's to you, Mr minivan, and on the off-chance that you're reading this, on the even slimmer chance that you recognize yourself in this rant, I salute you - one finger only, though.

Try and guess which one.

/Rant

Enjoy,
Lorence

Happy 20th Birthday, Emily!

2007-09-01T09:00:00.000-04:00

A 20th birthday may not sound like that big of a deal, but for Emily it sure is. Well, maybe not for her, but certainly for us. Emily has been around for 20 years now and, in early October will also celebrate 20 years of living with us. She's not our daughter, cousin, sister, or for that matter, any kind of blood relative - we don't share the same DNA in any way. She's not even the same species...

Emily, you see, is our cat, our first cat, and we also call her our first born since we took her in after being married less than a month.

Emily's story:

One of Karen's brothers found her in a parking lot while working on a construction site in southern Ohio. It was a cold, rainy early October evening when he saw her brutally ejected from the parking lot's guard shack by the foot of the lot's attendant. He went over and picked up the little kitten, barely a month old as far as he could tell, cold and shivering and hungry. He brought her to his car, so she could stay dry and wrapped her so she could warm up. After he got off work, he brought her home to his mom's house. Karen arrived the next day and took her to the vet, who gave her a shot of something, cleaned her eyes and ears (both were badly infected) and gave her a positive prognosis, given continued care. Her sense of smell worked fine as she was easily ab;e to sniff out her food bowl and munched down with great gusto. As she began to regain her sight (rather quickly after the vet visit), one of the first things she seemed to see clearly was Karen. Munch, munch, look - ok, good, she's still there watching me eat...munch, minch look- ok, good, she's still there watching me eat...

Karen brought her right home after that and the two have been inseparable ever since.

This is Emily at what we think is about 6 weeks old , shortly after we brought her home in early October, 1987

About a year later we brought home Gretchen, a "sister" for Emily.

Emily was NOT pleased, and though the two occasionally got along, Emily was usually pretty indifferent to Gretchen.
The above photo was in August of 1988, when we brought little 6 week old Gretchen home. Emily made sure to eat all of Gretchen's food -as you can tell Emily was already very skilled at eating all of her OWN food. This was also just before Emily tried to eat Gretchen's head...

Gretchen left us in April, 2003 after losing her long battle with irritable bowel and diabetes, but Emily pushed on, doing just as well as ever, and as the years past, continuing to impress her vet, Dr. Seimer, of Suburban Animal Clinic, even rebounding well from her recent diagnosis of high blood pressure...

(Suburban Animal Clinic, Wilson Road, Columbus, Oh)

Dr. Seimer is a wonderful vet, and has been Emily's vet almost from the start - of course there was that first visit in Huber Heights, then her first routine shots were administered by a friend of mine, Cheryl Burger, who was a vet student at O.S.U. at the time (and is now a vet in Beavercreek). Emily has on occasion also seen some of the other doctors at Suburban, like Dr Weale, and we like them all. I can't say enough good things about the staff at Suburban; they're all wonderful and have treated us and our feline family with great care and kindness over the years.

And today we saw this as we drove past:

So, Happy Birthday, Emily, with hopefully many more to come.

(Emily today)

(Emily's little Birthday cake)

(Emily licking her slice of cake)

And thanks to Suburban for the great care, support, and birthday wishes.

For more cat blogging, take a look at Weekend Cat Blogging...

Enjoy,
Lorence

UPDATE: 12/28/2007
It is with deep sadness that I pass along the news that our beloved feline family member, Emily, died the morning of December 26th, 2007. Her death came quite suddenly, but she died in the arms of her "mom", Karen. Her vet, Dr. Siemer was also present. We will miss her very much.

Again, we'd like to thank the entire staff of Suburban Animal Clinic for the wonderful care they provided to Emily and to us.

Dinner from a bag the third

2007-08-12T02:00:00.000-04:00

In my unending quest to make something tasty using pre-existing products, I bring you "Dinner from a bag, the Third". The previous one was horrible, and as The Columbus Foodie properly pointed out, would have been far tastier and just as simple if I could only get my butt up to Carfanga's. Everytime I turn around, someone is telling me about something wonderful they got from Carfagna's. It's a 25 minute drive for me, way up I-71. I hate going way up there, but I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet...

Enough about the last time. this time was a bit better.

We've had a very busy summer and last week was no exception, with something scheduled for every evening except Friday, so it was on to the next "bag" dinner. This time we went seaside.

While shopping the week before, I grabbed a "family size" Vigo brand Saffron Yellow Rice mix, a 1 lb bag and picked up about a pound of tilapia fillets from the seafood counter ( I think it was on sale for $4.99/lb) . I began by preparing the rice per the package directions, but I added an extra 1/2 cup of water. Once the rice was down to a simmer and about to be covered, I added the tilapia fillets, pushing them lightly down into the rice mixture. I then placed a couple of fresh tarragon sprigs (about 5 inches long) on top, covered the pan, then let the dish simmer for the time indicated on the package directions, about 20 minutes.

(just before adding the tarragon and covering)

I removed the tarragon sprigs before serving. (no other pictures - no time...ok, plenty of time, I just forgot.)

This was a rousing success! Both Karen and boogie gave it a thumbs up, especially since it was done, eaten and enjoyed with enough time to not have to rush out of the house to our activity du jour. The rice was a bit sticky, which gave the dish a more substantive feel, and the fish was flaky and flavored well by the rice's seasonings and the tarragon. I'll be making this again when we have another busy week.

If you don't like "fishy" fish, give tilapia a go. It' s quite mild, yet seems to have more of a thickness, a bite to it than other thin mild white fish fillets. According the to the American Tilapia Association (seems like there's an association for everything, doesn't it?), Tilapia is now the fifth most popular seafood consumed in the United States (and, no, I don't know what the first 4 are...let me know if you do. I'm pretty sure shrimp is number 1, though). It seems to accept other flavors really well, kind of like a blank canvas to apply what you like to.

Enjoy,
Lorence

We're Grillin'!

2007-07-31T00:01:00.000-04:00

I finally have a gril! Hooray for me! Hooray for Father's day! boogie took me to Target and showed me the grill he wanted me to get, a little Aussie with a side burner ("You know you want one with a side burner, Daddy"). It took us the better part of an evening to get it put together (1/2 hour, my ass...):
Of course, this time included a good 10 minute hunt for a dropped wing nut on the driveway as darkness crept in...

Eventually (2 hours later) we were approaching the finish line...
And finally arrived!

A couple of days later we made it to the store for a Blue Rhino and we were a'grillin'! But, Whoa! not so fast...the valve on the first gas tank we brought home was stuck - I could open it, but nothing came out at all - couldn't get the grill to light. We brought it back, got an exchange from the nice lady there and hooked it up, turned the knobs and pressed the button - FOOM!

Ah, I Man! Make Fire! Fire Good!!!!

I walked around and grunted for a minute or so, letting my inner caveman out. Felt good.

So now I have fire, er, a hot grill. It would have been nice if I had remembered to get something good to toss on the grill, though, once I was ready to start. Yeah, that would've been smart.

all I had was a round steak, so I figured that would have to do. I seasoned it up with some worchestershire, soy, and some garlic powder and tossed it on the grate. Ah, yes, the sound of sizzling beef, music to my ears.
It was far from perfect, but I had to start somewhere, and I'm desperately out of practice (Dave would be so ashamed of me).

I'll do better, I promise!

Enjoy,
Lorence

Dinner from a bag, Part Duex

2007-07-30T12:45:00.000-04:00

Back in April, I made a Bertoll frozen dinner, Chicken ala Vodka & Farfallei (see this post for details) and it wasn't bad. It wasn't great, but for a quick meal with minimal effort (a must these days as we try to keep up with an active little boy), not bad at all. So it wasn't a stretch for me to grab another to try when the inevitable time-crunch-to-dinner came around (again).

This time I went for the Orecchiette with Broccoli ina Garlic and Olive Oil sauce. It certainly sounded good and I've really had a hankering for Orecchiette lately. We used to get a very nice dish of Orecchietti with goat cheese at the Cafe Bistro at the Easton Town Center Nordstrom (it doesn't appear to be on the menu anymore), and I haven't had it for a long while. I didn't have to wait much longer for my little ears. About 2 days later, pressed for time, I dove into the frigid "depths "of my little freezer and yanked out the Bertolli...

I tossed it into the pan and sauted some shrimp in garlic to go with it (remembering the portion size from last time). The shrimp turned out great. The rest? It was...barely OK. Lots of little broken pieces of broccoli, not enough flavor, and pretty bland. Garlic? Wasn't there supposed to be garlic in this thing? Yeah, I thought that's what it said....and yet, nothin'.

Sorry, no pics of this one, it just wasn't' worth the effort. I was disappointed to say the least, but perhaps my expectations were just too high.

I will be trying to make a version of this that tastes as I was expecting - I just have to find some decent orecchietti. Dinner in a bag can't be all bad, can it? So far I'm 1 for 2. We'll try something new once I get over myself from this one...

Enjoy,
Lorence

North Market Food Blogger Meet & Greet

2007-07-12T02:29:00.001-04:00

How far behind am I?

(Ok, that's just a rhetorical question. I really do know how far behind I am and it's not measured in numbers any more....)

Last month, at the beginning of last month, I was fortunate enough to be invited to an informal meet & greet with some of the other Columbus food bloggers at the North Market. I was really excited and brought Boogie along for the ride with the promise (read:bribe) of Heil's potato salad which we both agree is the best potato salad In-The-World. We arrived and met up with Rosie from Bitchin' in the Kitchen with Rosie and Lisa from Restaurant Widow. We said our hellos and went off to hunt saladified potatoes... After a successful hunt we returned to chat some more and were joined by Dave from Dave's Beer and his family, too. I hadn't read Dave's blog before, but I'm a regular now. Dave has some wonderful insights into everyday life trying to raise a child and writes about them so very well. He and I have some similar opinions about and experiences in being fathers "later in life"...

We all had a good time talking about food, grocery stores, Thurns, kids, and what-not, and I'm pretty sure a good time was had by all. I hope we can do it again before summer's end, and have some of the other great Columbus food bloggers join us. There are so many!

The North Market seems to me to be the perfect place to meet - It has everything and My wife and I have decided that we need to visit much more often in our quest to eat a more healthful diet.
For thorough run-downs on the latest happenings at the North Market and other local farm markets , check out the afore mentioned Restaurant Widow and also Columbus Foodie - she's always my first stop when perusing the local blogs...

It was a great morning and I wish I could have stayed longer. Maybe next time!

Enjoy,
Lorence

The Ranier Cherries are in!

2007-07-12T02:05:00.000-04:00

I know they've been seen around town for a while now ( I saw them at the North Market a month ago for $7/lb)), but they're way cheaper now (only about $3/lb). Not much to say except they're wonderful - big, juicy and almost peach-like.

Yummy.

Enjoy,
Lorence

The West Side has Gelato!

2007-07-12T00:28:00.000-04:00

I am so Excited! The West Side of Columbus has Gelato!
"So what", you say...Well let me tell you, we never get anything new or good over here. Anything interesting has to go to the hip areas, like Easton or Polaris or one of the 'burbs. If we're lucky it (whatever "it" might be) will open in Grandview or Arlington, so it's not too far of a drive, but no never the West Side... There's not even a freakin' Starbucks for christ sakes...

So last Friday night, I'm driving back from a journey to one of our favorite (pretty good, but also the closest) Indian restauran, Taj Palace in Mill Run (in the 'burb of Hilliard). I turn south onto Hague Avenue and as I'm passing our favorite nearby pizza shop, Sparano's, I notice that the little shop next to it is no longer a computer shop, but has a sign in front of it that reads "Sparano's Ice Cream and Gelato".
If I wasn't so danged stuffed full of Chicken Makhani, I would have pulled right in. Instead, we waited an entire 24 hours to test out this stranger in a strange land...It was well worth the wait.
We pulled into the small parking lot around back (off the tiny Britton Ave), and walked up to the window on the north side of the little building - it looked pretty empty inside, but there's a couple of freezers in there, a menu in the window, and the very friendly Meilie to take our order:
My wife and I split a dish with two scoops of the white chocolate raspberry. The bowl was very heavy and the taste was delightful - lots and lots of little rectangular bits of smooth white chocolate and flavorful raspberry bits - I would have like more of those, but the flavor was still right on:
Creamy and not too cold, just as it should be. Boogie had a lemon Luigi's Italian Ice pop which he proclaimed as "The Best" & wasn't real interested in sharing, though he did want some of ours;
We left sated and happy - so much so that we only waited an entire 24 hours more to go back, trying the Black Cherry Zinfandel:
Boogie had the Cherry Luigi's this time which he proclaimed as "The Best" & wasn't real interested in sharing, though again, he did want some of ours...

They don't make the gelato on site, but rather use Palazzolo's Gelato. I have to admit that it's not as good as the Shriver's gelato I had in Ocean City, NJ, last summer, but it was still damned good. Of course, being on the boardwalk on a cool summer evening, hearing the Atlantic waves crashing, smelling the sea foam AND eating gelato...I think Shriver's kind of edged out a victory on atmosphere...

We'll be back to Sparano's again soon ( we actaually had their pizza tonight! 2nd place winner, People's Choice award, at the latest Columbus Pizza Challenge or whatever they're calling it now...). Each time I drive by, it looks like there's people there, but I know they'd like to have more customers, so stop by, say hi to Meilie (call her "May") and have some West Side Gelato.

Sparano's Ice Cream and Gelato
1783 N Hague Ave
Columbus, OH 43204-1618.
Phone: (614) 487-0087
Open:
Monday-Thursday, 4 pm to 9:30 pm
Friday - Sunday, Noon to 9:30 pm

Enjoy,
Lorence

If it's cheap and easy it must be...Slutty Chicken

2007-07-11T23:44:00.001-04:00

With a name like that, you know there's a story...

So what do I make for dinner when I haven't been to the grocery store in a while and all I've got is one large boneless chicken breast and some pasta...? Dang, not even a can or jar of tomato sauce. Ah, my wife is headed to Target - "Hey, Honey, pick up a jar of sauce while you're out, ok?" So she returns with a cheap jar of Target brand "Traditional" spaghetti sauce - 99¢; I dump 2/3's of it into a medium sized sauce pan and add the diced up chicken (which I had gotten pretty cheap, too, on sale for $1.29 lb). I dropped in some dried basil, dried oregano and a couple of minced cloves of garlic, then slow simmered it covered for about 40 minutes (stirring occasionally, of course) while Boogie and I played Lego... There was a package of Kroger brand campanelle in the cupboard (another whole 99¢), so I boiled that up.

The chicken had cooked up so tender in the sauce that it was falling apart into shreds -just perfect and exactly what I had in mind... I served the sauce over the campanelle with some grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (the most expensive item in the entire meal!).

Both my wife and Boogie were happily wolfing it down when I realized that I had just made a meal that was cheap and easy and for some reason it reminded me of a girl we all knew about in high school - thus the name, Slutty Chicken.

Sorry, no photos, so just make some and see for yourself.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Been away, but I'm back!

2007-07-11T22:00:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted in a while - work keeps getting in the way of fun...

sorry for the absence, but I'll be back with some posts...Stay tuned!

A new feature... Snap Shots link previews

2007-05-25T00:28:00.000-04:00

Tonight, while reading another local food blog, Restaurant Widow, I noticed that her links had previews that displayed when I moused over them... I thought it was pretty cool, so I went to the Snap Shots website and installed it on this blog - yes, I know, blatant plagiarism of sorts, perhaps, but as I learned a few months back, give credit where credit is due. Thanks for the tip, Restaurant Widow!

So take a peek at the link before you go there - just mouse over it.

Nifty, eh?

Enjoy,
Lorence

Another EBay coup!

2007-05-10T22:49:00.000-04:00

I recently added to my collection of Ecko Flint utensils with an EBay win of a set that included 3 new pieces for me: a flat icing spatula, A small (about 5") strainer, and a short offset spatula with a long blade.

The slotted spoon goes into Boogie's collection for him to use when he's older and on his own (I'll get to keep my set then!) and the ladle and fork will go to the annual garage sale, since I have 3 of each now. All in all, a very exciting purchase, and a great value at only about $8 a piece including shipping.

It's been a pretty heavy past 2 months on EBay for these tools, with 6 or 7 sets appearing after a year of nothin'. It appears to be slowing down, though and that's good, since I've already spent my quota for a while...

Enjoy,
Lorence

Vijay's Kheema

2007-04-16T22:15:00.000-04:00

(RECIPE UPDATED, 10/16/07)
One of my co-workers, Sue, is married to a fellow from India named Vijay - He's one of the sweetest, nicest guys I've met, but he's not feeling too well lately. He's improving every day, though and we're all sending good thoughts his way. Since I've been thinking of him so much recently, I thought of this recipe that he gave me a few years ago, called Kheema.

(Vijay and Sue, at Sue's daughter's wedding)

Kheema is basic Pujabi (northern India) home cookin'. It's usually made with ground lamb, but any ground meat will do; I normally use a lean ground beef.
I also take Vijay's sage advice and add an array of veggies to the pot, cubed potatoes, green beans, and pigeon peas - an ancient legume, very important to Indian agriculture. They're perfect for this dish, providing a nice firm texture and deep earthy flavor. You might find them in the Mexican section of your grocery - in Spanish, they're known as "gandules".

This is also a great cold weather dish, and a dish that really sticks to your ribs - good ol' fashioned home cookin'!

Use an old coffee grinder for grinding the spices or buy a second one just for that purpose. The difference fresh ground spices makes is tremendous. Since I had to stop drinking coffee (irritable bowel woes...), I simply retired the old coffee grinder to a second career.

Kheema, by Vijay
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 large onions, finely chopped
Leaves from 1 stalk of curry (about 8 curry leaves - find them at your local Asian store)
½" peeled & finely chopped fresh ginger
6 cloves of garlic, minced (6 of 'em! oh yeah!)
2 pounds of ground meat (lamb or a decent beef, like sirloin)
8 white cardamom pods
½ teaspoon of black peppercorns
½ teaspoon of cumin seeds
½ teaspoon of mustard seed
a couple of dried red chili peppers, (like the Asian peppers (those nice long skinny hot ones you always pull out from the kung pao)
1 teaspoon of salt
2 Tablespoons of garam masala (if you can't find it locally, order it from Penzey's)
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 cup of cut green beans
1 can of pigeon peas (gandules), drained. (I think it's a 14.5 ounces can)
Cubed potatoes, ½"cubes (I use 3 regular sized russets, about 2 cups or so)

I usually don't have fresh ginger on hand, but I always have a tube of ginger paste in the fridge. Fortunately for me, my local grocery store carries it, so look around! It's probably hiding out there somewhere. Also useful for this dish is a small can of whole tomatoes (in tomato juice) instead of fresh - I keep a couple of cans in the cupboard at all times for just such an emergency... chop up the entire can and add the juice, too.

The directions:
Grind together the following:
8 white cardamom pods
½ teaspoon of black peppercorns
½ teaspoon of cumin seeds
½ teaspoon of mustard seed
chili peppers

Add the oil to a large (did I say large? I meant LARGE) skillet and sauté the onion and the curry leaves until the onion is soft and transparent.
Add the ginger and garlic and sauté for another minute or so.
Add the ground meat and brown it for 10 minutes. Break it up so it is in fine pieces.
Add the spices, tomatoes, and veggies, stir it all around...Cook, covered, on low heat for about 40 minutes (stir it every 10 minutes or so...)

The finished product:

Sometimes I serve this with basmati rice that I flavor with a bit of cumin, cilantro and some whole garlic cloves. The cloves boil and steam to a tender softness that allows them to be spread on some bread...

Enjoy, and think good things for Vijay.
Lorence

Vintner's Dressing - I'm ready for grape season

2007-04-13T21:22:00.000-04:00

My wife loves Prevention Magazine and has had a subscription for a number of years. Back on 2004, they had the recipe for this dressing as part of another, their "Spinach-Endive Salad with Vintner's Dressing" (nice photo on their website). We make it in the summertime and usually just toss it with chopped romaine or other leafy lettuces. The smoked almonds and fresh grapes give a great variety of textures and flavors, especially when combined with the blue cheese crumbles (so says my wife - I can't stand blue cheese!). I thought that this would be way too sweet for my tastes, but I was quite wrong - it is a bit sweet, but the other ingredients help cut it nicely. We also have made this with Nakano's Balsamic Blend Seasoned Rice vinegar, as well as my favorite commercial balsamic, Monari Federzoni.

Here's Prevention's original recipe:
Spinach-Endive Salad with Vintner's Dressing
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp rice wine or white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp olive oil
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1½ c sm red seedless grapes
2 Belgian endives (12 oz), sliced crosswise
3 c baby spinach
¼ c crumbled Gorgonzola or blue cheese
3 Tbsp chopped smoked almonds

Directions:
Using a blender or hand blender, process the vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, and ¾ cup of the grapes until smooth. Set aside for dressing.
Toss endive, spinach, and remaining 3/4 cup grapes in salad bowl. When ready to serve, toss with dressing, and top with cheese (or not!) and almonds.

For more information about commercial balsamic vinegars and the difference between commercial and traditional balsamic vinegar, Cook's Illustrated has an excellent article here.
They also have a nice guide to tasting and buying commercial balsamic.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Flat Iron Steak grilled with a Southwest rub

2007-04-12T02:21:00.000-04:00

Last year while visiting the Indianapolis Children's Museum, we stayed at a nearby hotel that had a TGIFriday's in it. It had been years since our last visit to Friday's and the menu had changed quite a bit from what we remembered. When served, we were pleasantly surprised, and my dish impressed us the most. I had the Flat Iron steak, which the menu said was "hand-cut especially for Friday’s®". I'd never heard of this cut of beef before, but it looked good and I was hungry... I asked for it medium rare and it was cooked perfectly, and more tender than I could believe for the price. The flavor matched it's tenderness and I was quite satisfied by the time the obligatory "save any room for dessert?" question was asked (No, I didn't...Boogie had the "Cup of Dirt", though!)
Now I know why it was so good. According to Wikipedia, the Flat Iron steak is:
"a relatively new cut of steak from the shoulder of a cow. The steak was discovered by researchers at the University of Nebraska and the University of Florida during the course of a study of undervalued cuts of beef. The study also found that this specific cut is the second most tender cut of meat, after the tenderloin. "

I'd forgotten about the Flat Iron until I discovered them in the beef case on a recent visit to the grocery. I had to try it out at home.
On the peel-away label was a recipe for a southwest rub - what the heck, lets try that...
So here it is a bit more legible than the photo:

Flat Iron Steak grilled with a Southwest rub
Ingredients:
1 - 1 ½ pound Flat Iron steak
2 Tablespoons Chili powder
2 Tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 Tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon worchestershire sauce
¼ teaspoon ground red pepper (Cayenne)
a hot grill...

Directions:
Fire up the grill, get it good and hot...
Mix all of the seasonings, dry and wet in a small bowl:
Spread ½ of the mixture on one side of the steak, then toss it on the hot grill seasoned-side down.
Spread the rest of the mixture on the on the top of steak:
Grill to medium rare - try to turn it only once if possible,the less handling/flipping of the beef, the better.
Remove it from the grill and place on a plate to rest for 5 minutes:
Then slice the steak straight across, not on the bias:
and serve:

I served the steak medium-rare with the leftover Mashed Sweet Potatoes ( a fantastic and simple recipe from Cook's Illustrated) and Classic Green Bean Casserole from Sunday's Easter Dinner. For the Green Bean casserole, I always use frozen French style green beans. It's what I grew up with so, of course, it's best that way!

Enjoy,
Lorence

Pork Tenderloin Medallions with an Orange Reduction

2007-04-12T01:40:00.001-04:00

I was just winging this one, makin' it up as I went along. As many of you may know, that can be real dangerous, but I got lucky on this one...Of course, with a good cut like pork tenderloin, it's gotta come out pretty good no matter what, but this one was excellent. This was also my first attempt at a reduction, and I think I succeeded. I have two more tenderloins in the freezer and this recipe is going to make onto at least one of them for sure.

Pork Tenderloin Medallions with an Orange Reduction
Ingredients:
1 lb (or more) pork tenderloin
½ teaspoon ground Cumin
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon dried Cilantro
¼ teaspoon Cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground dry mustard
¼ cup white wine
¼ cup chicken stock
¼ cup Orange Juice (fresh blood orange if you can get one)
1 Tablespoon of butter

Directions:
Slice the pork diagonally into 1 inch slices.
Mix the seasonings (cumin, garlic, cilantro, and cayenne) in a small bowl.
Mix the white wine, chicken stock, and orange juice in a small bowl.
Sprinkle half of the seasoning mixture onto the pork slices and rub it in.
Turn the slices and repeat with the rest of the seasoning.
In a large non-stick skillet, melt the butter over medium-low heat.
Place the seasoned pork in-the hot pan and brown slowly on one side, then turn to brown the other side.

When browned on both sides, pour 1/3 of the orange juice mixture AROUND the pork, not over it.
Bring to a slow boil and cover. allow this to simmer for 3-4 minutes.
Remove the pork from the pan to a warm dish, cover and keep warm.
Increase the heat to Medium-High and bring the broth in the pan to a boil.
Add the remaining orange juice mixture, stirring to scrape up any bits from the bottom and sides of the pan.
Keep stirring constantly until reduced by ½ to ¾ and thickened.
Serve the pork with a generous drizzle of the reduction over it.

I was so eager to eat this that I forgot to take pictures...Next time...
UPDATE:
Next time indeed (01/22/08):

Enjoy,
Lorence

Panko Crusted Scallops

2007-04-10T00:48:00.000-04:00

Last week I bought some beautiful jumbo scallops, only 6 to a pound, and so large that I sliced them in half horizontally to make a dozen still-huge scallps ready for pan frying. I found a recipe on Recipezaar.com for Panko Shrimp for 2 and adapted it for the scallops. Not much adaptation was really required, though, just substitute the scallops for the shrimp. The result was quite satisfying and I'm looking forward to the next time my favorite bivalve mollusk is on sale...

Panko Crusted Scallops
The ingredients:
6 large scallops (6-8 per pound) sliced in half horizontally
1 egg, beaten with a little milk (a couple if teaspoons or so)
1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

The Directions:
Mix seasonings with egg and milk mix.
Put flour on one paper plate and Panko on another.
Dry the scallops well.
Dip the scallops into the flour mix first, then into egg mix and finally into the Panko crumbs.
Be sure to coat well with Panko.
Place the scallops on a pan and let coating dry in refrigerator until ready to fry.
These can be prepared earlier in the day to save time.
Fry the scallops a few at a time (don't crowd them in the pan!) in 350 degree oil until golden brown drain on paper towels and serve.
Served with Parmesan Roasted Asparagus.

If desired you can add some parmesan cheese or other seasonings to the Panko.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Dinner in a frozen bag?

2007-04-09T23:36:00.000-04:00

So after yesterday's Big Easter Dinner (more detailed post coming soon), I decided that today's dinner would be nice and simple - straight from a bag to the pot to the table; I decided to try one of the Bertolli "Classic Dinners" from my grocer's freezer section. They are advertised as "skillet dinners for two that deliver a restaurant-quality at-home dining experience in just minutes". I went with the Chicken ala Vodka & Farfalle. The instructions are simple enough - drop the contents of the bag into a 12" skillet and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes and serve. I can do that...

First a complaint, although I really should have known better. No, it's not about the quality of the meal, but the quantity. Yes - I read the package, I know it says "dinner for 2", and I know that Boogie's eating enough to qualify as a full blown grown-up person now (even more than that. He's gonna really clean us out when he hits those teenage years!), but I figured serving sizes are pretty big these days, based on my restaurant experiences...WRONG! Once the dish was done there was just enough for 2... fortunately we had some leftovers from The Big Easter Dinner.

Second, a compliment. Several, actually. The stuff was pretty good. Yes, I was surprised... There were enthusiastic yummy sounds coming from both sides of me, thing like "This is really good, daddy", and "Mmm, I like this. Is there more?" (sorry, Dear, there isn't...). The sauce was just a tad bit greasy and was just about to break as I took it off the burner and served it up, but it had good mouth and flavor, with lots of garlic and herb taste present. There wasn't nearly as much chicken as I would like, but the chicken that was there was very tender breast meat. It was a bit pricey for a frozen meal, up over $7, so I'm not sure about trying another, but it was simpe and tasty. If I know I'm going to be pressed for time again (ok, so I definately know that'll happen...), I may have to try another, perhaps the Shrimp Fra Diavolo...

Here's the photo essay, start to finish:
The ingredients and tools:

Preparation - As easy as:
One:

Two:

Three:

(Those big brownish chunks will become the sauce...)

The finished product:

Plated and ready to serve:

If there are two of you and you're not too hungry, give this a try.
If there are two of you and you are hungry, make a salad, make some tomato butter and get some good crusty bread, open up a Chianti (Bertolli's web site says to have a Merlot with it...), THEN give it a try.
It was pretty good.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Our Favorite Asparagus - Parmesan Roasted

2007-04-08T21:46:00.000-04:00

A couple of years ago, my wife returned from visiting a friend in Colorado with some great stories, photos, and this recipe - her friends favorite recipe for asparagus, from Ina Garten's "Barefoot Contessa" show and one of her cook books (I don't know which one, but it's on page 46...). The "Contessa" says in her book (I only have photocopied page of this recipe) that she prefers thick asparagus, but I kind of like the thin ones better. I make it as a side dish, using only a pound instead of the 2 ½ she calls for in her recipe.
We made this recently along side some panko crusted scallops (yep, I'll post that one, too), and, as usual, they came out great. The recipe is simple and straight forward and you don't need anything special other than some good fresh asparagus:

Parmesan Roasted Asparagus
Ingredients:
1 pound fresh asparagus
Olive Oil
Kosher salt
ground black pepper
Parmesam cheese

Yeah, there's no exact amounts, just follow the directions below and use your best guess on what you like:
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 400°
Trim the aspragus of their tough woody bottoms - don't worry it's easy. Just snap the bottoms where they want to snap. It's so easy even a 6 year old can do it:

If you have thick asparagus and the bottoms after "snapping" are still tough, just peel the bottoms down a bit with a vegetable peeler.
Lay the trimmed asparagus on a foil lined cookie sheet:
and drizzle them with olive oil. Salt and pepper them:

Roast them in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes - BE CAREFUL and keep an eye on them. If they are thin, you'll only need 15 minutes at most.
sprinkle the parmesan over them and pop them back into the oven for just a minute, then serve them up. The Contessa suggests serving them with lemon wedges, we just like 'em straight up.

This is the finished product along side the afore mentioned scallops:

Enjoy,
Lorence

Oh, and sorry about the video quality above; it's our first attempt at using video on this blog. We'll try again and might even use sound next time!

Not too fishy...

2007-04-05T01:13:00.000-04:00

As I promised Boogie, we bought some Nigiri this past weekend on our trip to the grocery - actually he picked it out, a very nice looking sampler pack with a bit of everything: California rolls, Tuna, Salmon, Shrimp and Unagi - yes Eel. I actually bought Eel. Barbecued Eel. To eat. Really...

And once we got home, it was a race to get the groceries put away so he could bust open the package. First between the chopsticks was the Unagi. I was a bit tentative to try it, but Boogie dove right in and I barely got a taste:

Once I finally got a bite, I was surprised - it was pretty tasty. So were the other pieces inthe pack, so I guess were just as hooked as the fish we were eating.

Ok, ok, just one more pic...I love the contrast between the sophisticated food and technique and the kids cup and band-aid...just too cute,but that's my boy!

Enjoy,
Lorence

Sage bush no more...but more Chicken with Sage Browned Butter

2007-04-04T23:55:00.000-04:00

I've noticed a number of food bloggers have been very excited about the arrival of spring, posting photos of their flowers and gardens. I, too, had been been bitten by the nice weather and early sproutlings, at least I was until I started cleaning up my herb garden this past weekend - I've discovered that my beloved sage bush has bit the dust -nothing but dead wood.
below is a photo of the bush late last summer as it was blooming (ignore the neighbors chipped paint garage (they've since painted!). That's thyme on the left, and oregano and French tarragon on the right...).
I suspected that something was amiss back then, as it only achieved about 2/3 of it's usual size, reaching only about 24" in height, with none of the leaves being any longer than 5" or so... In years past, the bush sprang up to almost 3 feet tall with leaves as long as 7" - Super Sage! I had so much sage, and I gave most of it away. None of the recipients could ever believe the enormity of the herb I was bringing them, and now, it is no more, nothing but a bare, brown, brittle non-sprouting foot tall stump.

I first planted this sage 11 or 12 years ago from a store bought pot, I think from Miejer. For the several years it didn't do much, barely surviving from year to year with smallish inch and a half leaves and not much in the way of overall yield. Then, suddenly, after the 4th or 5th year, KABOOM! My little plant seemed to just explode with vigor, growing rapidly and producing absolutely enormous leaves averaging 6" long withsome as long as 7½" and well over an inch wide. I've always thought that this happened when the little guy finally pushed it's roots through the thick Ohio clay and in to some good rich stuff waiting underneath. But now...sniff, sniff...I miss it already.

I do have some seeds from last year, so I may try to grow it's children. After my initial sadness, though, I also realize that this is the perfect excuse opportunity to head over to the nursery to pick out a new baby
Ah, there's the silver lining! After all, I've gotta have fresh sage. One of our favorite dishes is a simple broiled chicken recipe I saw on an old episode of "The Frugal Gourmet". Jeff Smith had some guest chefs on making their restaurant's signature dish. One chef made broiled chicken thighs with sage browned butter. It was so simple andd seemed so elegant, that I just had to try it. Big success ensued...
I've never been able to find a video of the episode or a copy of the recipe from it, and i've never really written it down, so I'm just going to wing it here:

Broiled Chicken Thighs with Sage Browned Butter

What you need:
8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 stick of butter
16 - 20 large sage leaves
salt and pepper
freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

What you do:
Salt and pepper the chicken on both sides.
Put the chicken, smooth side down, on a wire rack in a roasting pan. Be sure spread the thighs out.
Broil the chicken thighs, turning half way through, until done and just crispy on the edges. Remove them broiler, and keep them warm.

In a large(wide) frying pan, melt the butter. Put the sage leaves in the cooking butter in a single layer - don't let them overlap. Keep heating the butter slowly, but do not allow it to boil.
The idea is to:

Fry the sage leaves until they are crisp;
Cook the butter slowly so that it browns but doesn't burn

While frying the leaves, you will need to turn them carefully. As the leaves crisp up, they will turn dark. Once they are dark and crispy, carefully remove them to a paper towel - they will be a bit brittle. The butter should also be turning dark at this point, too.

Place the chicken thighs on the serving plates and sprinkle them with some Reggiano. Keep heating the butter while swirling the pan slowly until the butter browns - you should actually see it turn from it's golden color to a chestnutty brown. immediately remove it from the heat and spoon a generous amount over each thigh - the cheese will sizzle and melt (I love that part!). Top each thigh with at least a couple of sage leave (more if they're small) and serve with either wide egg noodles or fresh made mashed potatoes (either of them buttered with the browned butter). Munch on any extra fried sage leaves...

Enjoy,
Lorence

Danger!!! ¡¡¡Peligro!!! Ah, Unagi...

2007-03-31T00:09:00.000-04:00

I know I linked to these videos in the last post, but this is one of our favorite episodes of Friends: "The one with Unagi"

I even found it on YouTube en Español and it just proves what a truly funny show it was, cause I don't really understand many of the words (they're talking WAY too fast for me),but I still laughed my ass off...

Enjoy,
Hahahahaha
Lorence

First Sushi - Summer Rolls

2007-03-30T21:44:00.001-04:00

We recently started going to a new grocery store - ok, an old store, but a new location for us - the Kroger in Grandview. It's a pretty nice store compared to the Kroger that's closer to us where they've removed the service meat and seafood counters, and many of the more healthy items we buy (like Kashi Heart to Heart cereal). The Grandview store has a Starbucks, an olive bar(the garlic stuffed olives were great!) and an automated deli computer that lets you pick your order from the touchscreen, take your ticket from the printer and come back later to pick your order up from the cooler next to the olive bar. No more waiting for your turn to order and waiting for it o be sliced, all while your ice cream sandwiches melt...

There's also has a sushi counter... Yeah, I know what you're probably thinking, sushi from the grocery store? Are you crazy? Well, no, I'm not - there was the sushi chef at the gleamingly clean counter, making it up fresh and it looked pretty good - see for yourself - this is what we bought for our first taste of sushi:

Those are summer rolls - tapioca wrappers around avocado, cucumber sticks, some lettuce, carrots and surimi with a pack of sweet hot sauce. An interesting and successful first foray for us.

So the next week Boogie and I returned to the same store and, of course, we had to stop and pick up an other pack of sushi, and at Boogie's insistence, a different kind this time. I'm not exactly sure what these are called, but again, they're a pretty basic roll - Seaweed wrapped around rice around surimi, packaged with some wasabi, soy sauce and a bit of sweet/hot pickled ginger.
Boog couldn't wait to break into it when we got home. First, though, he had to get his chopsticks out (Hold-Stix), and a small bowl for his soy sauce, then he dug in; I have no idea where he learned to eat sushi, but he from what I know, he did it just right:

Between the 3 of us, we ate most of the pack right then and we all liked it. and Boogie finished the remaining few pieces for lunch the next day. So this weekend, we''ll be returning to try something new again, some nigiri this time, maybe even unagi (or as Ross Geller from Friends would say, Danger!!! or ¡¡¡Peligro!!! I never knew Friends was so funny in Spanish!), aka barbecued eel.

We'll see how long this sushi adventure lasts. So far, it's been pretty interesting.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Grapefruit snacking

2007-03-25T21:45:00.000-04:00

The local groceries are starting to carry some nice citrus again, so for our late night snack we've gone back to eating oranges and grapefruit. We've been fortunate to have some real nice juicy sweet blood oranges (Moro variety, see photo below), although the navel oranges have been a bit ordinary.

The grapefruit have been off to a great start, though, firm, juicy, very sweet, and not too tart, especially the pink ones. I usually peel them, separate the segments and remove the membranes leaving nice bare naked hunks of sweetness. We sprinkle them with a little Turbinado sugar
then grab a fork.
Mmmm, grapefruit...

One word of warning, though: Grapefruit juice has been shown to have some health consequences as well as benefits. Grapefruit juice, even in small amounts, has been shown to have well documented drug interactions with prescribed medications, such as Calcium channel blockers, Statins, and others. See this site for some more details.

So enjoy, but be careful!
Lorence