PSA

I would like to make a public service announcement:

None of my friends are allowed to get cancer 

ANYMORE!

Those of you currently battling it 

are Grandfathered-in. 

For the rest of you,

CUT IT OUT!!!

I would like to state for the record that I do not

personally give cancer much respect. 

I pretty much think it should go suck air.

My first real experience with it was when my mom

was diagnosed with breast cancer. 

26 years ago. 

She kicked it's butt. 

And that is as it should be. 

But not everybody has the amazing example of my mom

so most people tend to get scared. 

It's allowed. 

But not when it's my friends. 

I like my friends to be happy. 

In a bubble. 

So, cancer, 

GO SUCK AIR!!

And leave my friends alone. 

That is all. 

Beef Wellzones

Or, another reason to eat puff pastry.

Well, maybe "reason" isn't the right word. Really, does 

puff pastry need a reason or just an excuse?

Brian Boitano was making these this weekend over at 

The Food Network.

He served them with what looked to me to be a 

rather funky cheese sauce. 

This time I actually read the reviews before I 

made the recipe and determined I was probably right in my

 assumption, and so made a nice little pan gravy with 

the remnants of the mushroom concoction left in the pan

and a bit of my previously mentioned Demi-Glace.

I also made 4 instead of 6, and used a ribeye cut up 

for two of them and the tenderloin for the other two.

Just to see if it made that big a difference.

It did.

Use the tenderloin. 

Some of the reviews commented that it was a pretty

involved recipe. 

I didn't find it to be and actually put it all together after work.

It does have to chill out in the fridge for 

half an hour before you bake it. 

Worked out great to sit back, 

have a glass of wine, 

and watch Honey mow the lawn.

Oh yeah, I'm over that!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/brian-boitano/wellzones-with-cheesy-side-sauce-recipe/index.html

A Picture Story

Nuff said.

Oh, but the nurses did appreciate the flowers.

10 Years of Margarita Fridays

Lory and I have a standing summertime date.

Friday afternoons are for us. 

We started out at Mom and Big's pool but when they moved 

we had to adapt.

We did.

It was easier before we had responsibilities

(read "jobs").

And again we have adapted. 

A Margarita Thursday or Wednesday or Saturday

is not unheard of.

Really, the day doesn't matter. 

And truth be told, the margarita is not *absolutely* required. 

(Lory doesn't read these, right?)

It's us connecting. 

Touching base.

Sounding off. 

Reality check. 

Pep rally.

Love.

This year we have made it a point to reach out. 

To share the love, so to speak. 

Most weeks it's just (but not *just*) the two of us.

This past week was fantastic!

Some people came and went, 

like Lyn and Sarah Joy.

Lyn just comes through the back yard :o)

 And some people got here after the group photo op.

A few of the guys showed up later and we all enjoyed a

Meat Extravaganza!

What a wonderful, eclectic, group of women.

No one person knew every woman here

(me included)

before this afternoon.

 But from the sounds of

all the

connecting, 

sounding off, 

lifting up, 

story telling,

no one person was a stranger by the end of the day.

S'Mores Cupcakes Part Deux

What a difference a little torch can make!

So now we have a photo.

These are the same cupcakes I posted about earlier but with 

a few changes.

I made them mini.

I heated the sugar syrup for the

 marshmallow all the way to 240.

And I torched them! Or toasted them if you prefer.

You may ask how I happened to break down
and dish out the cash for the torch?
Um, I didn't.
While relating the whole shopping for a torch
story to Gaye she informs she that she has one.
Brand new.
Never used.
Not sure why she even has it.
I am welcome to it.

Next time I am just shopping at the
Gaye Store.

Potatoes and Chorizo

This was so easy that you don't even need a recipe

but I'm linking it anyway. 

Think hash.

Mexican hash.

We ate ours on tortillas but I can really see this

with a couple of fried eggs on top also.

So here's the deal:

Dice some new potatoes in about 1/4 inch dice and boil them 

while you are browning off some chorizo.

After the chorizo is nice and crispy, remove it from the pan,

throw in some diced onions and the drained potatoes

and cook those a bit to soften the onions

and crisp up the potatoes. 

Add the chorizo back in and,

Wala! 

Deliciousness!

I know, stupid easy. 

My kind of easy :o)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/marcela-valladolid/sauteed-potatoes-with-chorizo-recipe/index.html

Black Bean-Quinoa Burgers

Very Pretty.

This recipe comes from Vegetarian Times.

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/11676?section

You can "Like" them on Facebook, that's how I happened upon 

this little gem. They randomly post recipe links.

I love quinoa so that in the title always gets my attention.

The recipe is pretty straight forward.
The only thing I question is where they have you add 1 1/2 cups
water to the sauteed onions and then simmer it till most
of the water evaporates. That's a lot of evaporation going on.
I think I will cut that back to just one cup next time.
Also, I didn't have dried steak seasoning so I threw in some
Essence of Emeril. Not my best choice but I will say
the patty is neutral enough that you could pretty
much throw in any spice combo that suits you and it would be good.
Just be sure to go a little heavy, it needs the flavor.

The surprise part of this was the little
tomato-olive salad I made to throw on top.
I had a bunch of small heirloom tomatoes that I had bought
at the farmers market the other day and I couldn't
stand for them to go bad so I cut some up, threw in the
left over black olives from Margarita Friday, some shallots,
garlic, olive oil, basil and balsamic. I copped it all up
pretty fine, thinking a tampanade sort of thing
and threw it on top of the burgers.
Yum!

Score one for the Vegetarians!

Blue Margaritas

In honor of Aidan Matthew!

Lory's newest grandson (she's up to 3 of them)

had the good form to be born on a Thursday

so as to not disrupt Margarita Friday.

And in so doing, gave us extra reason to celebrate.

I like this kid already.

I have a couple of hints about the blue margarita.

Use Blue Curacao instead of Triple Sec. 

And if you want truly blue as opposed to 

the kind of green I got

 ( the color in the picture is way better than real life)

use a clear tequila as opposed to the golden 

standard fare. That combined with the yellowish 

lime juice and golden agave gave me a pretty solid

gold that when mixed with my blue

gave me art 101, green!

So, next week if I take my blue/green margarita

and put in watermelon ice cubes will 

I then get

PURPLE!!??

And, can a rainbow margarita party be far behind?

September 19th

I learned something very important this past weekend.

There is an 

INTERNATIONAL 

Talk Like A Pirate Day.

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/

Oh, yes there is!

 And it's the day before my birthday!

These may have found their occasion!

My catering name for the event will be

Captain Chumbucket.

 I have wanted to throw a pirate wedding ever since

Michael and Michelle's Cinco De Mayo wedding.

I have had no takers. 

International Talk Like A Pirate Day 

may just be the next best thing. 

Shanna and Breese can breath easier. 

S'Mores Cupcakes

Sorry, no picture. 

This was another recipe form 

Cuisine At Home

magazine. 

They don't post their recipes on line so again, no link.

Sorry.

I have found quite a few recipes from this publication

 so I need to be sure to let my sister know that 

should she ever decide to stop her subscription 

to give me the heads up so I can get my own. 

Till then, thanks, Gaye!

This recipe was interesting on a couple of fronts. 

To make a really "graham cracker" cupcake

the recipe calls for you to pulverize graham crackers to dust

and then use said dust as the "flour." 

Interesting, huh?

The other fun thing and the point in my story is the 

marshmallow you make from scratch to top the 

cupcakes with and then toast. 

Toast.

Therein lies the problem.

I went in search of a culinary torch, you know, like a

blow torch but smaller. 

None were to be found except for one at 

Williams Sonoma. 

For $40. 

Um, no. 

The sales lady asked me what I was making and when I 

told her she asked if it was from 

Cuisine At Home magazine and that

I was the third person in there looking for a torch 

for the same recipe. 

That's funny but here's part two of that story;

two of the gals who work there and I put our

heads together and decided that people used their broilers

to brown the tops of things before they started bringing

apparatus in from the garage. 

Um, no. 

It just melts the marshmallow down into a flat disc

on top of your now melted ganache. 

Hence, no photo. 

PS, they did taste good. :o)

Jane Eyre

I have one question:

Did Charlotte Bronte have a word requirement?

As in, at least "X" number of words?

188,209.

I looked it up.
A Tale of Two Cities is only
135,420
and that had 2 cities!
Jane Eyre only has shires. 

The median word count for a novel is

99,341.

Looked that up too. 

http://indefeasible.wordpress.com/2008/05/03/great-novels-and-word-count/

I'm just sayin'....

I thought I was long winded. 

A Shower Gift

27 years later

Mike and I received this set of ten 

glass bowls from Crate and Barrel

27 years ago.

They've held; 

pancake batter on Saturday mornings,

pasta salad on summer evenings, 

gravy on Thanksgivings,

cake mixes for many birthdays,

guacamole for countless parties. 

They've been around for a lot.
And bounced around a bit too. 

So have Honey and I. 

And we're all still here. 

Imagine how pleased I was to find the same 

set of bowls on Caitlin's bridal registry.

I hope her bowls will be as durable as mine. 

Her marriage too. 

:o)

Caitlin's Bridal Shower

I actually went to a party that I didn't throw!

It was so much fun to see what other creative people do.

I didn't go around taking pictures of all the decorations

because I didn't want to be obnoxious but I did take a shot of this:

It's the cake!

And it's all edible!

And we aren't anywhere near Charm City Cakes!

And even more surprising was that it was delicious.

I always thought that it takes so long to make one of these works

of art that the cake must suffer for it. 

This cake was great, oh and it was chocolate.

You know they had to have a game. 

 I have never been a participant in this particular game before. 

I have heard of it. 

In folklore.

The guests are divided into teams and they

are given copious amounts of toilet paper and the charge

to create a wedding ensemble. 

I was in charge of the head piece. 

Obviously I missed my calling. 

Oh, and my team won. 

heh,heh,heh.