Some days you just aren't going to eat at home

Well today turned crap-tastic, quite literally, which means breakfast and lunch disappeared into the limbo of 'not going to happen'. Sigh. More than disappointing, although my friendly coffee shop staff are putting a smile to my face right now with smiles, waves, and funny faces. One of 'those' days.

Missing a Good Friend

Not often does erasing a contact from my phone/laptop/business card rolex make me pause and reflect. About two months ago I lost one of my great older friends and fellow travelers to a well fought battle with cancer. Unfortunately the cancer won in the end, but not before he made that evil disease fight tooth and nail to win. He was a fighter and will be missed.

I met my friend Alan Rainey on a study abroad trip to Egypt (the first of many trips for myself) and one of our favorite places to eat was this little restaurant in down town Cairo which several other famous food authors and television hosts have visited (cough, Mr Bourdain, cough). This two story building served only one thing, but it was perfection: Kushari (sounds more like Coshari), a rice & lentil & macaroni dish served with a fantastic tomato sauce and topped with fried onions, chili oil, and/or lemon oil. I learned this recipe the last time I was in Old Cairo visiting some friends that I have there.

Finishing the Pot

Alright, since I have the other half of that awesome turkey pot pie that I made yesterday waiting for me at home, I won't be doing much new cooking today for dinner.

I know, the abject horror! The sadness! The absolute, crying shame of it all.

Bad Kitty! My Pot Pie!

"Mom! Kitty is being a..."

Alright, if you are my age (I just celebrated the 12th anniversary of my 21st birthday. And I'm not in denial, that is a river in Egypt I like to drink gin & tonics on), then you know how this ends, but the kitty seriously needs to remember that he doesn't get people food, no matter how tasty it is. Today can be summed up in a single word: funky.

Bad Reputation

So I'll be the first to admit that when I hear the words "left-overs" I still shudder. The never ending horde of food that you hate to waste but are so tired of eating. After Thanksgiving, this is doubly so, I look at the metric ton (ok, more like 15 lbs...but that is still A LOT!) that my Granny sent home with me the other day.

Granny's Slow Cooked Turkey

So a classic recipe from my Granny on how to do a turkey right. This poor bird stands no chance and will fall right off the bones.

Tis the Season to be Thankful

"So a turkey walked into a bar...."

Alright, so that joke doesn't have a punch line, but hey, it is the season for over-eating and gorging until you explode. I myself spent the last few days at my Granny's house helping her prepare the large family meal that my family enjoys. This of course has meant that I haven't had internet access for the last several days, making me increasingly lazy about posting. (Although if you were staying updated on my blog during Thanksgiving, shame on you!)

Ah, and now you will die....

...Mr. Miller.

So I'm a bit dramatic some days, it is part of my charm (well if you count charm as a sort of neurosis of the mind that takes a scorpio's innability to trust to levels deemed 'unhealthy'). After a long day of texturing a ceiling with mud and a paint brush, then working on several doors, I am more than ready for a simple dinner (at 10pm at night...my diet SUCKS some days). Good thing I thought ahead and have some rice pre-cooked in the refrigerator.

Pasta & Rice & Beans, Oh My.....

As I sip on my evening coffee I sit back and ponder all the important things in life. How much coffee can you drink in 48 hours and not explode. Is it bad that you notice when blood re-enters your coffee circulation system. How nasty is the minor sniffles I'm experiencing that the virus can survive in a 99.9% coffee environment of what used to be my blood stream.

Leftovers

The worst part of living alone has to be the dreaded meal of 'leftovers'.

"No, anything but that!"

"How can you eat the same thing over and over again throughout the week?"

"Bah!"

"Anything but 'that' again!"

Mystery Meat

I wasn't always a fan of what was inside of all the tasty critters that I ate growing up, but that is a product of my American upbringing. Lets face it, the pinnacle of eating the tasty bits culminated when my parents made Liver and Onions as a kid. I love them to death, but they cooked those livers so long that you had to chew for hours just to gag it down. Not a good beginning to my foodie career in fine eats.

Yellow Chili

No, I'm not talking about a new kind of chili made from an exotic fruit, I'm talking about chili that I might have 'accidentally' put too many habanero peppers into this last weekend. Like twenty-five or more. Yes, I am a sadistic monster most days, and the fire is good and will warm you up on a cold autumn day.

So after hiding all weekend I have come to several large and important conclusions about life. First is that you can put too many hot peppers into a pot of chili. Second is that you don't care after burning off your taste buds with the first spoonful. And most importantly, if you like the people you hang out with, don't do that to them.

Mommy, what is the bad man doing?

"Nothing honey, he is making breakfast."

Alright, waking up in the morning cold and cranky has meant that I have gone out of my way to enjoy some traditional cold weather scout food from my childhood, and today is no different. This is what I call a leftover recipe that any uneaten baked potatoes become the heart and soul of this tasty mishmash of flavors in the skillet. Have you ever wondered when you go to a little roadside dinner how they get their skillet fried potatoes so crispy on the outside but still moist in the center? Well it is because they are precooked, all you are doing is making the outside all golden brown and tasty.

With that, to breakfast!

Punishment and Rewards

Well doing a quick update of the pictures of the wonderfully tasty things I'm making, I realized I couldn't find my camera's USB cable. Le sigh. Well after 30 minutes of cleaning/searching I finally found it in the drawer that it was supposed to be in. (Of course it was there...where else would it have been?)

Lets face it, I'm pigheaded and learn the best by being punished. Naughty, naughty author! Well two homemade apple dumplings cooked and eaten later I might have learned my lesson and I 'will' remember to look in the drawer the USB cable is supposed to be in the first place. ;-)

Split Pea Soup (Oi! Not a Brit, get over it!)

Like I said, I'm not a Brit, so you will have to forgive the fact that as an American I have no sense of honor when it comes to improving upon a great idea. Green peas are a weird food, it is a dried out pea that tastes funny when you cook them into something tasty. The trick is that the green peas need some love to make them tasty and if anything I'm more than willing to commit heresy to make a delicious meal (or three knowing me).

The one thing I learned about a good soup is that the longer that you cook it, the tastier it should become, hence the small slow cooker is my best friend for this meal.

Stuffing

Last night for dinner turned into a late night fiasco of course, instead of my healthy-ish ensalada mixta, I instead had a Tostino's pizza. Don't get me wrong, if you ignore the fact that they are designed to taste good through chemical manipulation, they aren't a bad thing sometimes. It can actually be a really good meal if you add some extra spinach, peppers, and onions about halfway through cooking process, then a bit of my favorite hot sauce later when eating it. But that doesn't excuse the stuffing abomination which I made for lunch today that reminded me more of a salt lick than real food.

Devil of a Morning

On a miserable early winter day in Indiana, waking up to pounding rain and wind that screams through the open fields near my house like a banshee, the only thing you can think about when waking up is how bloody cold I felt. Ugh. Mornings like this make me want to crawl back under the warm covers and tell the world to screw off, but I was good and dragged my sorry carcass to the kitchen to make breakfast. Needless to say with a windy day like this all I could think of was fried potatoes and eggs.

Chicken Yellow Curry

Orgasm in a pot: YES PLEASE!!!!!

Food!

Ok, rule one: we do not talk about Fight Club. Rule two: good thing thing this isn't Fight Club.