Steak ala Nonna

Great recipe to share, from my mother-in-law Nonna, which means Grandma in Italian.  This is a great way to make a normal size steak feed an entire family.  We've had it twice this summer, after sirloin was on sale for $3.99 a pound.  Not before!


STEAK ALA NONNA
You'll need:
A plate sized steak: skirt, sirloin, whatever.  Better without a bone.
Fresh garlic - I used 3 cloves - chopped
EEVO - about 1/4 cup or more

Chili sauce - about 1/4 - 1/2 cup
Red wine - about 1/4 to 1/2 cup
Soy Sauce - about 3T
Wor Sauce - about 1 T
S&P

In a small sauce pan, heat the EVOO.  Add the garlic and cook slightly but don't brown.  Add the chili sauce, wine, soy, and wor. sauce.  Let this simmer while the alcohol cooks off.
Meanwhile, grill the steak to medium.  When it's done, let it rest for just a moment, then slice against the grain and put slices on a platter.  Pour the hot marinade over.  DIG IN!

Beautiful & Fragrant Beef Curry

If you don't fall madly in love with this dish, there is something very seriously wrong with you. You may have an incurable disease or maybe you're a Republican. I clipped it out of the Minneapolis Star Tribune years ago, and it's been a fav ever since.
This can be made in the oven OR the crock pot. Your house is going to smell SO GOOD!!!

FRAGRANT BEEF CURRY
2lbs beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch pieces
Veg oil
1 or 2 onions, sliced
6-8 whole cloves
4-6 garlic cloves, chopped
2 cinnamon sticks
1 bay leaf
1/4 t. dried crushed red pepper
1 (15oz) can coconut milk
1 cup strong beef broth - I keep Better Than Bouillon around always!
3 large tomatoes, quartered (or a can of diced tomatoes, drained)
3-4 T. mango chutney (I didn't have any so I used orange marmalade and some Worc. sauce. MG says to add a tsp of vinegar too for the acid)
3 T. lemon juice
2-3 T. fresh ginger, grated
1.5 T. curry powder

Heat oven to 325. Or get out your crock pot.
Sprinkle beef with salt and pepper. In a dutch oven (or a frying pan if you're going to use a crock pot) heat 2T. oil over high heat. Working in batches, add beef to pot and brown on all sides. Transfer to a plate (or into the crock pot).
Heat another T. of oil in the same pot and saute the onions until tender. Return beef to the pot (or put onions on top of beef in the crock pot). Add cloves, garlic, cinnamon, bay leaf, and red pepper and stir one minute (or dump on top of everything in the crock pot).
Stir in coconut milk, stock, tomatoes, chutney, lemon juice, ginger, and curry and bring to a boil (or dump on top of everything in the crock pot and give it a stir).
Cover the pot and transfer it to the oven. Cook for about 3 hours, stirring twice. For crock pot, cook on low about 6-8 hours.
For a thicker sauce, place pot on stove and cook over med high heat until thickened. Or crank crock pot up to high for about an hour.
Serve over rice. Makes GREAT leftovers!

Tamale Pie

Ok, I apologize, I'm not a food photographer. The above looks horrible. But trust me, this stuff is good. Have I ever lied to you??

TAMALE PIE

Filling:
2 cups browned ground beef
1t. chili powder (I used more)
1t. cumin (again more)
1/4 t. salt
1 (16 oz.) jar thick and chunky salsa
1/2 each of a red and green bell pepper, chopped

Cornbread:
1 & 1/2 cups flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup sugar
1T. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 & 1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup veg oil
4 ozs. shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375.
Grease a bundt cake pan.
In a skillet, brown the ground beef. Add seasonings. Stir in salsa. Cook over med-low heat for 5 minutes. Meanwhile sprinkle chopped bell pepper in the bottom of the bundt pan.
In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients for cornbread (flour through salt). Add milk, eggs, and oil. Stir until moistened. Stir in cheese.
Spread 1/2 of the cornbread batter evenly over the peppers in the pan. Top with meat filling, then remaining batter. Spread evenly.
Bake 35-40 min. or until top is lightly browned. Loosen with a spatula. Invert onto a serving plate. Serve with sour cream.

Northwoods Lake

Had a fab-u-lous weekend with The Wonderful MG at his new cabin in the northwoods of Wisconsin. He and his Lovely Partner purchased a serious slice of heaven on the edge of the clearest lake around. Like MG says, it's basically a bowl of sand filled with perfect water. We spent the weekend doing exactly as we had been instructed to do by our hosts: we played in water, ate, played some more, ate, lay around, ate, and slept in. I STILL can't find my USB cable to upload my photos, so I was forced to steal MG's from his facebook page!

Here is my youngest and Lovely Partner on the pontoon. Youngest was never far from the fishing pole - she's a native Minnesotan after all. Only a few nibbles but folks around us were catching nice large mouth bass.

Here is yours truly and hubby. I look more and more like my father with each passing year. Pretty soon I'll be sucking on my front teeth and eating 2 packages of graham crackers dunked in milk at bedtime. But I doubt I'll start smoking Swisher Sweets.

The twins, doing what they do best.

I started a google image search for "old pontoon" and this came up. Funny.
But MG's is much nicer.


The next "old pontoon" image to come up was from his blog!!!!

A HUGE thank you to MG and Lovely Partner for sharing paradise.

Creme Brulee French Toast Saves Easter

I made the cutest darned treasure hunt for my kids instead of the usual egg hunt. I made these darling little cards with bunny stickers, and funny rhymes directing them to the next clue. It ended with the sweetest gift bags, that I mentioned in my last post.

You would have thought I arranged to have the Grim Reaper come in and bludgeon them to death.

OK, maybe it wasn't that bad. But I've decided that no parent can possibly please 15-year-old girls. Unless they exist in a TV sitcom where all problems are solved within 30 minutes and no one wears sweatpants with dress socks nor displays bed head. Like Michael always says, where is that car aerial when I need it?

But they DID enjoy the creme brulee french toast and so did I. It was indeed a hit. That photo is not mine, but it comes pretty close. This is some good stuff; easy and impressive - just like I like my recipes.

CREME BRULEE FRENCH TOAST

1 stick butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 T. corn syrup
1 loaf french bread or Challah
5 large eggs (I suppose you could use egg beaters)
1 1/2 cups half & half (I imagine whole milk might work here)
1t. vanilla
1t. Grand Marnier
1/4t. salt

In a small heavy saucepan, melt the butter with the brown sugar and corn syrup over moderate heat, stirring, until smooth. Then pour into a 9x13x2" baking dish. Cut the end from the bread, and cut enough 1" slices to fully fill the pan. Arrange bread slices on the butter layer - it's OK the squeeze them in a little.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, half & half, vanilla, Grand Marnier, and salt. Pour evenly over the bread. Cover the pan and chill for at least 8 hours or overnight.

Let the pan come to room temp for about 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 350. Bake uncovered until puffed and edges are pale golden, about 35-40 minutes.

This is so rich, you don't need syrup. Fresh strawberries are nice! Next time, I'm going to use a large platter, loosen the toast in the pan, then invert the whole thing onto the platter. This way I won't lose one drop of the wonderful sauce on the bottom.

Broke-Ass Soup: the recipe

Here's my recipe for Broke-Ass Soup:

2 cups any variety dried beans - I buy a mix of peas and beans
1-2 lbs beef stew meat
water
Heaping spoonful soup base, like "better than bouillon" or just use beef bouillon
1/2 cup flour seasoned with any combo of: salt, pepper, onion powder, seasoned salt, garlic powder
Veg oil
2 (15ozs) cans diced tomatoes - if one of them is chili-ready, all the better! WITH juice.
1/2 large white onion, chopped
1/2 red pepper, choppped
1/2 poblano pepper, chopped - or any other pepper, could even used canned green chilies.
Seasonings: seasoned salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, garlic salt, whatever sounds good to you! Don't be shy with the seasoning.
Herbs de Provence

The day before: rinse and drain the beans. Cover with water and let sit over night.

Assemble the soup:
Drain and rerinse the beans, drain again, set aside.
Put the seasoned flour in a bowl or ziploc bag. Add the stew meat. Toss and coat the meat.
Put enough veg oil in your soup pot to just cover the bottom. Heat on medium high, until you see ripples in the oil. Add the stew meat, with flour, and barely brown.
Add 2.5 qts water and a heaping spoonful of soup base.
Add the drained beans and canned tomatoes, juice and all.
Bring that to a boil, then add onion, peppers, and seasonings to taste. I think the herbs de provence really added something special.

Slow simmer this on your stove for over 3 hours. Seriously.

You could use any meat with this: ham hock, sausage, or just go vegetarian!

Those dishes have nothing to do with this post - I've just always coveted Lenox Holiday china. Remember, I said there would be gratuitous Christmas images this month! Here comes another one!

Christmas Books, with recipe

I love Christmas! And I love Christmas books.
Each year, I take out my favorites and reread.

Today's feature is: Four Midwestern Sister's Christmas Book, by Holly J. Burkhalter.

Schmaltzy and syrupy and I love every single word. It's the authors story of Christmases with her large family in Ames, Iowa and their love of baking, music, books, family, and snow. Plus the author worked for Human Rights Watch in DC, which speaks volumes to her humanity.

This book is like a worn-out but much-loved quilt wrapped around me. It reminds me of my two midwestern sisters, and cousins, grandmas, etc. although we're not quite that nice. Plus it's chock full of recipes that are wicked good. When my sister-in-law joined the family I searched the internet high and wide to find this out-of-print gem, and I finally found one much over the original price. If you have a copy, hold on to it, they are rare.

I'll share a recipe that I've tried - yummy!

CRANBERRY COCKTAIL MEATBALLS

Meatballs:
2 lbs ground round
1 cup cornflake crumbs
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley
2 eggs
2T. soy sauce
1/2t. pepper
1t. minced garlic
1/3 cup ketchup
1/2 cup finely chopped onion

Sauce:
1 can (16ozs.) jellied cranberry sauce
1 bottle (12ozs.) chile sauce
1T. brown sugar
1T. lemon juice

Mix meatball ingredients together in a large bowl. Form into walnut-size balls and place in a large square baking dish.
Preheat oven to 350. In a sauce pan, mix together the sauce ingredients.. Stir and simmer until the cranberry sauce melts. Pour over the meatballs and bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Serve in a chafing dish.

Brain Fart of Epic Proportions

Interesting Labor Day!

We had a family day and headed for one of our favorite eateries: Cossetta's in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota. Cossetta's in just one block from the Xcel Energy Center, which is now hosting the Republican National Convention. But we both had a major brain fart and forgot. The blocked streets, police presence, and the large numbers of icky young men in suits reminded us of just who was in town. For those of you who don't know, St. Paul is a highly DEMOCRAT community and I'm proud to say the OBAMA-FRANKEN-ETC lawn signs were out in abundance.


The traffic was just too much so we headed up the hill to beautiful Grand Avenue and had the best ever lunch at Salut Bar Americain. I had the seafood crepes and we all stuffed ourselves with the best french fries I've ever eaten - or as they say pommes frites.

Then we enjoyed a lovely walk down Grand Avenue. Twin #2 and I had a spontaneous walk-in haircut while the rest enjoyed the $1 for 1-minute chair massages.

Then home to pack backpacks and fill out paperwork for tomorrow is the first day of school. I'll miss these little critters!!

Satan's new name is McDonald's

Beelzebub has a new form, and it's iced mocha from McDonald's.

Sometimes I leave work so hungry I could take a bite out of my steering wheel or my own flesh. 90% of the time I can force myself home to make a cheap filling lunch. But today the hungry-shakes took over and I stopped to get the kids and myself some quick lunch at McDonalds.

I ordered one of their new iced coffee drinks because 1. it sounded good and 2. I could then mock their lame attempt to imitate quality coffee. But DAMN that thing was GOOD!!! Lots of strong coffee flavor with just a hint of chocolate and milk, icy cold, all the way I like it. I'm sure there was high fructose corn syrup in there somewhere, it's still a McDonald's product, but it was just really delicious.

And since we're confessing, I really do love Big Macs. I know they are a heart attack in a little paperboard box but they are just SO GOOD!!!

So get thee behind me Satan, and take McDonalds with you.

A Day of Good Things

First, some great things about going "Up North"
1. Truly Northwoods cabins beside one of the clearest lakes I have ever seen in my life.
2. Watching my New York Italian husband catch fish. Of course, he makes his daughters and me bait his hook and take off the fish he catches, but he sure enjoyed the catching!
3. Watching my 9-year-old take to snorkeling like she's done it all her life.
4. Laying in the sun, listening to the loons, feeling the boat sway in the waves, with my line in the water.
5. A king sized campfire
6. Good times with my husband, my kids, their cousins, and my siblings. THIS is what life is about.


Now, today's good things and to hell with Martha Stewart
1. A large homemade iced mocha! With espresso from my stovetop pot, Hershey's syrup, and 1% milk. My espresso doesn't have that deep dark flavor you'd get from a commercial machine but it's pretty darned close.
2. Cleaned out several cupboards and purged old crap. I feel a garage sale coming on!
3. Time to bake a batch of chocolate chip pecan cookies.
4. We'll soon have a Democratic Administration.
5. My job with benefits, something we haven't had since 1990.
6. I'm trying a new tactic with my raging 14-year-old. I'm ignoring everything. This takes about 300% more energy than calling her on her disrespectful behavior towards me. She still has rules, consequences, etc but I don't answer all her teenage drama. It takes all my strength not to fight back.


Excuse me, the first sheet of cookies just came out of the oven - hmmmmmm, warm chocolate chip cookies - is there anything better?? Anyway . . . .

7. The weather is delightful
8. I've got my comfy shorts on
9. Kids are all at friends' houses until 5pm and I have the radio to myself. Can you say Geezer Rock??
10. Time to do some serious laundry. This is one household chore I actually enjoy. I love the smell of detergent and the feel of warm clothes fresh from the dryer.

Up Nort!

We're going Up North, or as they say in Minnesota Up Nort! Early tomorrow morning we leave for a small hidden lake near Itasca State Park and the headwaters of the Mississippi. We're meeting my sister Cheesecake Maven and her band of criminals.

We've split the meals right down the middle: I'm doing one supper and one lunch. However, as I chop and pack and slice and pack I realize that I have yet again purchased and prepared too much. You'd think I was a war refugee the way I hoard food. I'm famous for this.

I have a gallon of fruit salad, pounds of grapes and cherries, two homemade dips, a dishful of crudites, and entire bundt cake, two batches of brownies, peanut butter, jelly, brie cheese, crackers, antipasti salad, and about 1000lbs of pulled bbq beef. In fact, the last 1/3 of that is still cooking on the porch in the crock pot, mustn't forget that.

We don't own a cooler large enough for this! We're going to have to get a trailer to haul our crap up there.

So you all must come over sometime early next week to help eat all the leftovers.

An Interesting Day

An interesting day. My hubby and I traveled to St. Paul, MN to the Minnesota Department of Education building. Their directions were full of errors, and the workshop registration had typos on it, which I find amusing. I attended a meeting to explain the Licensure Via Portfolio path to gaining my Minnesota Public Schools teaching license. John came along because he's thinking that a career change to Math Instructor might be a good thing. Let me tell you, this portfolio program is no cake walk!! It's a highly detailed process wherein you argue that your life experience and education are equal to the standards for a public classroom teacher. It's only slighty less involved than earning a Master's, but a lot less expensive.

After the two-hour workshop, we headed to downtown St. Paul for a burger at Mickey's diner. This place is an icon. It's not a yuppified "redo" with cutesy kitsch and fake history. This place is the REAL DEAL. Rust is holding up most of the exterior. The interior has not changed since about 1942, nor has it been dusted much. The wait staff are funny and will makes jokes at your expense. Within 10 minutes, we became known as the "ding-a-lings at the end of the counter". We also learned by watching that the garbage can right outside our window was a favorite with local trash divers.
My burger and hash browns were perfect diner food. If I'd had access to this stuff in college could have cured many hangovers. Or maybe I'm the only person who craved greasy diner food when hungover. Luckily it wasn't too often. And perhaps lucky this place is a good distance from the University of Minnesota campus or they'd be packed even fuller on weekend mornings.

From wikipedia - Mickey's Diner is a classic Art Deco diner car restaurant in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It was prefabricated in New Jersey, shipped to Saint Paul by rail, and installed downtown just before World War II. It looks much like it did then and is still open 24 hours a day (and according to its employees, non-stop since it started). It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 as the only building of its kind in Minnesota.

On the way home, my husband repeatedly drove IN THE PASSING LANE while everyone backed up angrily behind him. He obtusely insists that he is allowed to drive in the left lane although the facts are staring him, or flipping him off, right in the face. Would someone else please phone him up and tell him to just quit it already? I'm getting nowhere.

Happy Birthday Dear Youngest!

Our youngest turned 9 yesterday! This photo was taken at about 2-years after her older sisters had worked their magic with face paint.

Our tradition on birthdays is to eat out, and for the past 3 years that's always been at Buca de Beppo. We love Buca - the crazy pope statues, the Italian family photos, etc. But what really brings us back is their fried calamari. I'm sure it comes in giant freezer packs and all their kitchen staff do is toss it in the hot oil but we just don't care. We could eat barrels of it.

All week she'd been asking for burgers on the campfire for her birthday. I was all good to go with that plan, even after a very long day at work. Let me tell you, my dogs were barkin! At the last minute she changed her mind and wanted Buca. I almost snapped her in two with my hug. I would have let Dick Cheney cook our food, I was so tired.

So we ate our fill of calamari, and linguine with seafood, and Penne Arabiatta. And finished with another family favorite - the Buca Birthday Cake. It's a giant slice of red velvet cake as big as our toaster oven. It would be hard to choose between the calamari and the cake if forced to pick a winner. All around another great family birthday. The best part? Buca leftovers for supper tonight!

First Night on the Screened Porch

We got all crazed with Spring Fever tonight and had supper on the screened porch. Ours is rather like the one pictured only older, more worn down, and dirtier. But the siding and sliding glass door are remarkably similar.
It was warm and humid in Minnesota all day due to the oncoming rain, and we soaked up every single minute. First we washed the thick winter dust layer off the table and chairs. Then quickly set the table with pasta, salad, bread, wine, strawberries, and brownies. We wolfed down the last bite just before the cold front blew in in a big way. We were wrapped in sweatshirts and holding down the tablecloth by the brownie course but by golly, WE ATE ON THE SCREENED PORCH!! Sometimes you just have to FORCE Spring to arrive here.

Getting Old Ain't For Sissies

Have I ever mentioned I get heartburn? Only about five time you say? Well here is #6. Seems the older I get the longer the list of forbidden foods. I sound just like my Dad.

Last night I made a batch of Heavenly Sauce - a decadent chocolate sauce that is KILLER over ice cream. We only make it about once a year - no kidding - because it's that rich. As a kid I'd eat two bowls with minimal ice cream and maximum Heavenly Sauce. Ice cream is merely a vehicle for the toppings in my opinion.

Suffice it to say I was up all night with crazy-bad heartburn and finished off my bottle of nasty chalky Mylanta. So now Heavenly Sauce is banished to the nether regions of gastronomic Hell along with most other things chocolate, red licorice, cucumbers, watermelon, onions, fresh garlic, etc. So I give you the recipe so that the magic of Heavenly Sauce can live on elsewhere.


HEAVENLY SAUCE
In a double boiler, melt 2 sticks of butter with 4ozs good quality unsweetened chocolate.
When thoroughly melted, stir in 3 cups of sugar
Slowly add, while stirring, a can of evaporated milk and a pinch of salt
Keep stirring until all the sugar is dissolved.
Keep in a glass container in the frig - we always used a Miracle Whip jar.

Ham Deeeeeee lites

I made Ham Delights tonight with some leftover Easter ham. My poor sister had about 5 gallon-size Ziploc bags of it to hand out. I think the meat dept at her grocery store misheard her when she said she was having 27 guests - they must have heard 77. We've been eating ham ever since, which would explain my swollen fingers and heartburn. Pork is not the other white meat - it's the greasy pink meat that tastes good only in moderation.




Anyway, I made my Sister-in-Law's recipe for Ham Delights and I've decided to share it with you, because nobody should go even ONE MORE DAY not knowing how to make Ham Delights. They are easy, tasty, freeze well and the kids love them, therefore the perfect food.

My Sister-in-Law is a true Southern Belle from South Carolina. She's a fierce business woman who just completed her Master's Degree who can also come up with the most amazing food. And since her recipes are from the South you just KNOW they're going to be good. If she's bringing something to the potluck you'd better just loosen your pants now and get it over with.

And Ham Delights always makes me think of the group Deee Lite, with their swingin song "Groove is in the Heart", one of my all-time-favorites, but I digress.

HAM DELIGHTS

1 med onion (I used a small one, did I mention heartburn?)
1 lb ham (I used more)
3/4 lb Swiss cheese (again, I used more and I use preshredded. I'm not lazy, I'm efficient. Actually it won't hurt to alter any ingredient)
2 sticks of butter or margarine, soft (Oh, Nelly! I always use much less)
3T. poppy seeds
1t. Worcestershire sauce
3T. prepared mustard
3 pkgs or more of party rolls = small buns

Preheat the oven to 325.
Using a food processor, chop the onion, ham, and cheese (unless you're using preshredded).
In a large bowl combine the butter, poppy seeds, wor. sauce, and mustard and add the onion, ham, and cheese.
Split the pans of rolls in half horizontally, leaving the sheet of bottom halves in the pan. Spread each bottom with the ham and cheese mix.
Top with the top halves and cut into individual servings by following the outline of the rolls. The rolls can be frozen at this time.
These can be placed in a shallow baking pan or make a "pan" out of foil. Top with more foil and seal.
Heat through: 25-30 minutes if frozen. About 15 minutes if fresh.

Sooooooo-eeeeeeeeee pig pig pig!!

Eh, Paisano!! La Festa de San Giuseppe!

Never heard of St. Joseph? I hadn't either until I married an Italian. St. Joseph aka Jesus's foster Dad, is the patron saint of Sicily and later Italy. According to legend, during the Middle Ages the Sicilian's prayed to St. Joseph to save them from a famine, and he complied by protecting the fava bean crop. To this day, Italian families and whole communities celebrate St. Joseph's day on March 19th by wearing red, and serving non-meat dishes with of course fava beans, and pasta, seafood, stuffed artichokes, etc.

So this year we gathered all the Italians in Northfield MN, all 12 of them, and had a glorious St. Joseph's Day meal. We did have stuffed artichokes along with stuffed shells, spaghetti, meatballs (we cheated), tossed salad, fresh fruit, pizzelles, Italian love cake,amaretti cookies, and lots of espresso with Sambuca. St. Joseph's Day is also focused on feeding the poor - so everyone brought a contribution for the local food shelf.

Our friend Gina brought her Mom, and what a fabulous store of information! Her name is Carmela, and she's a 94-year-old Sicilian spitfire who dresses like a million bucks and is sharp as a tack. She told us the most amazing stories and had the kids listening wide eyed. She was SO HAPPY to be among Italians eating food with flavor rather than the Norwegian crap at her retirement community.

Saturday was the St. Pat's parade in downtown, and all the paisanos at our house decided we needed a St. Joseph's Day parade. Wouldn't we be a spectacle - 20 of us dressed in red making our own parade. But 20 Italians can sound like 100.

Everyone agreed we had just created a new tradition, and would meet again in August for La Festa De San Gennaro to play bocci and eat even more. Everyone was given the assignment to find ONE MORE Italian in town. That's a tall order.

Arrivederci! Ciao Bella mi amici!

A Beautiful Spring Day

It was a drop-dead beautiful day here in Minnesota. Temps in the 40s and lots of sunshine. It's weather like this that renews my faith in the Upper Midwest.


The sky was the most incredible blue, with big fluffy cumulus clouds on the eastern horizon about dinner time. We even got a little rain shower, which was downright cute.





The sunlight was streaming in our western facing screened porch, and the girls got the creative idea to pose behind the shades. Twin #2 is determined to be a photographer and I think she's got the eye.






We even made a "summery" meal that just enhanced the mood. We sliced up that big ol turkey and made the most incredible paninis. Mine included provolone cheese, pesto, roasted red peppers, and pepperoncini on plain old whole wheat - grill that sucker up and it was mighty tasty. We were so hungry that they didn't last long enough for a photo.


We also made some incredible salsas. Nothing gets me in the mood for Spring like chopping up a bunch of fresh cilantro. Lots of fresh garlic and green onion in there too, and I paid for it all night but it was well worth it. The salsa on the right is just your usual tomato variety with some chopped pineapple. The concoction on the left is BOOKCLUB BEAN SALSA. If anyone wants the recipe let me know.

What do ya do with a big smoked turkey ear-ly in the mornin!

My brother recently gave us a large smoked turkey. I've thawed it out now, but have no idea what to do with it. Tonight will probably be paninis with cheese, tomatoes, pesto, etc. Then I considered a shepards pie.

Any other suggestions?

Ewwwwww on so many levels.

Big news - Naked Sushi has come to the Twin Cities. The Temple Restaurant is hosting the event where for $75 a pop you can eat your raw fish and seaweed off nekkid models.

I don't get it. I don't want my sushi anywhere near someone else's uncovered skin and hair except the hands of the chef. This time the Emperor REALLY has no clothes. I'd almost pay money to watch bizarre wealthy people eating that sushi and pretending this isn't the most insane, pretentious, and downright weird thing they've ever done. Guess it's all the rage in Japan. Well, they can keep it. I'll stick with a plate, thank you.