You know what will get people riled up at Thanksgiving?

Stuffing Vs Dressing

I am betting Becke and I would come to harsh words over the whole thing. She, a tried and true stuffing gal, would never think of of anything other than cramming the cavity of her bird with bits of dried bread, diced veggies and buttery goodness. I, on the other hand, make an argument for baking the mixture in a separate bowl. I think that my turkey comes out so much better because I can control the cooking method.

In fact, this year we purchased a 23 pound bird from Kroger. Nothing fancy. I just can't bring myself to spending $35.00 on a Kosher bird when money is tight. My store brand bird cost me all of $7.50. Easy on the wallet - tasty in the tummy. I had the hubby butterfly out this big old bird. That way I could monitor the temperature of the white and dark meat separately and pull out pieces parts as they got done. No Normal Rockwell moments around my Thanksgiving table - the resultant bird looked like something Victor Frankenstein would have served. Not that my family would have been depicted anyway - when we eat it looks more like a scene from a show on Animal Planet. "The three predators are now moving in quickly - their prey no longer capable of resisting attack. Notice how the big male dismembers the large bird, making way for its mate and offspring to pick the choicest morsels before he too falls upon the helpless turkey."

So - let's return to this stuffing vs dressing debate. In my household growing up, we had both - mostly because there was never enough stuffing to go around. We would get a 16 pound turkey for six people and the cavity just wasn't big enough to hold the monumental amount of bread-y goodness for everyone. My dad got first shot at it - and then it was catch as catch can. I don't think my younger brother ever got any stuffing until he was old enough to fend off the other attackers. My mother was forced to supplement with a big bowl of dressing - usually oyster dressing.

I had two problems with this. 1) I hated getting pieces of shell. My mom would miss some of the tinier bits when she cleaned the oysters. and 2) It was dry as hell. The stuffing was always nice and moist and the dressing needed a ton of gravy to make it palatable.

It wasn't until I worked in a restaurant that I learned a good way to make stuffing. Delores had been cooking in restaurants for many years. She wasn't a chef, she was a cook. And there in nothing wrong with being a good cook. Chefs couldn't be chefs without competent people under them. Delores only worked three days a week - Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Wednesday she was responsible for making the daily special and all the regulars knew they had better show up early to get some. Italian wedding soup, stuffed green peppers, Swiss steak, roast pork - every single dish was good. And in the process of helping her between tables, I got to learn how to make a lot of her dishes.

Every year Delores would make a big batch of dressing for the owner to take to his family gathering. Cheating I know - but hey, he was a man who knew how to manager his resources. That meant I got to see how someone else made this required holiday dish. It was nothing like I had seen before, but it has been the technique I've used ever since. The technique is not revolutionary, but its more akin to a savory bread pudding than the dried out stuffing that my mom would make.

My recipe goes something like this.

2 loaves of quality white/wheat bread, cubed
4-5 stalks of celery, medium dice
2 medium onions, medium dice
1 medium carrot, medium dice (optional)
1/2 stick butter
4-6 cups of broth, warmed
herbs and spices
Salt and pepper
1 egg

1) Start the night before. Take the cubed bread and let it dry overnight. It should be fairly crumbly. If you don't have the time or inclination, you can also dry out the cubes in the oven set on low. The whole idea is to get out as much moisture from the bread as possible so it can soak up the broth and spices. When dry, put the bread in a really large pan or bowl. I usually have to break out a huge bowl I got from Tupperware.

2) In a large pot, melt the butter and saute the onions, celery and carrots until the onions are transparent. Add 4 cups of the stock, and allow to simmer. This is also where you add the dried herbs and spices. What I add varies depending on what I am serving this with and what I have on hand. For the Thanksgiving batch it went like this - 2 T of rubbed sage, 2 bay leaves, a little seasoned salt, pepper, 1/2 t of dried chipolte pepper, 1/2 t of Spanish smoked paprika, 1 t of Mural of Flavor (some new stuff from Penzey's), 1/2 t garlic powder and 1/2 t onion powder. The idea is to make the flavors very intense in the broth. Remember, this is getting mixed in with tons of really bland dried bread. If you have fresh herbs, then you would add then to the bread mixture just before you pour the hot broth/spice/veggies over top. You don't want to over cook them.

This is the right texture.
It's kinda hard to tell, but hey its a tactile thing not a visual thing.

3) Pour the veggie/spice/broth mixture over the dried bread. Mix. You want to distribute the broth evenly over the dried bread. Here is the tricky part. The bread should be fairly moist. Almost like a thick slurry of bread. If it isn't moist all the way through, then you might need to add a little more liquid. (Here are my thoughts on this: When you go to put the stuffing into the bird, you make it dry so that it will soak up the juices coming out of the meat. This means you need to compensate for that extra moisture. Also, when you are baking the dressing, some of the liquid will evaporate. So you have to make it just a bit more moist than you think it should be so that it will "dry out" just enough to make it tasty. Its a fine balance. I ruined a couple of batches before I got the knack of it.) When the texture is right, add one beaten egg and mix well. Pour into a greased oven proof bowl bowl. I use an old 4 qt Pyrex bowl I bought at a garage sale for $.25. It's ugly, but it works.

4) Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-40 minutes. You will know when its done because the top with be all brown and crusty and the inside should be set and moist.

My apologizes for the lack of photos. The final product was eaten rather quickly and pronounced to be "very good - the best you ever made" by the family.

Current Events

Well, I got good news and bad news...so to speak.

The Good News - I will now have more time to cook and blog (hopefully). I accepted a transfer to a smaller store within my company. While it means that I have to travel a little further, I will be working less hours overall. That means more quality time with family and friends.

The Bad News - Less Hours=Less Pay, plus my days off are now Thursday and Friday. Ah well - life is a big compromise sometimes...

Last night I drove to Nelsonville to see the Asylum Street Spankers perform at Stuart's Opera House. I love the Spanker's music - it cuts across a lot of different styles plus it's funny. For those of you who haven't heard of the glorious Spankers, here is a little taste from their kid's album, Mommy Says No.



When I was growing up, November was the birthday month in my family. Me, my mom and my dad were all November babies - the lone exception was my brother who was born in October. The 23rd would have been my father's 85th birthday if he were still with us. My dad loved Thanksgiving. Once every seven years or so, his birthday fell on Turkey Day and he was in hog heaven. You have to admit - that would be the rockin-est birthday dinner ever.

My father could not cook at all. He was from a generation that did not teach their men to cook. When I was about eight, my mom was hospitalized for a week and my dad was in charge of feeding us kids. He asked us what we wanted and we said "Tomato soup!!"

So Dad got the can of Campbell's out of the cupboard and looked at it. "How do I make it?" he asked me.

"The instructions are on the side, Dad." I said.

He studied the can for a moment. "How about McDonald's?"

"YEAH!!!!!!"

Problem solved. We ate out the entire week.

The one thing I remember my dad actually cooking was soft boiled eggs. I was impressed. It required boiling water and a timer. Like my dad, they were not refined in any way. No egg cups or toast soldiers.

A Tasty Mess! I used to eat these all the time in college.

His recipe was this:

1) Butter two or three slices of bread liberally on one side. Tear into pieces and mound on plate.

2) Make three minute eggs. Crack open on top of buttered bread.

3) Mix up. Salt and pepper liberally.

4) Eat quick before it gets cold.

I woke up this morning cold and hungry. So I made a big plate of soft boiled eggs on buttered bread and though about my dad.

Me (age 2.5) and my Dad

Nazareth Restaurant and Deli

A couple months ago, the hubby and I were looking for some place to eat a quick dinner, and since we were near Cleveland and 161. I asked to stop in at Nazareth Deli. Becke from Columbus Foodie had recommended the restaurant a while back. I am always interested in trying new places - especially if they come highly recommended. So the hubby agreed.

We were seated and started looking at the menu. The gal who sat us forgot to tell our waitress we were there. We ended up waiting about 10 minutes before we flagged someone down to place our order. Not an auspicious start to our dinner... I order several appetizers: hummus ($3.95 for a full serving), falafel ($2.75 for three patties) plus the "Special Maza Plate" ($5.50 for a whole serving) . I figured if dinner took as long to come as it did to get noticed, I had better have some fortification.

Yummy - burnt falafel

The appetizers came pretty fast, but they were disappointment. The falafel was overcooked to the point where the outside was almost black, the hummus portion was extremely small for the price, but the item that took the cake was the Maza Plate.

Special Maza Plate

The "Special" consisted of 7 Kalamata olives, a couple of chopped up sweet pickles, a few peices of feta, some cucumber, some pickled eggplant and hot sauce. $5.50? Give me a break!

My hubby ordered the Super Gyro and fries for his main dinner and I ordered the lentils and rice with spicy grilled chicken - a dish that had been recommended by Becke. I also asked for tabbouleh as my side salad.


The food came quickly. The gyro was certainly large and the fries were pretty decent - nothing to write home about, but adequate. The gyro sauce was really runny though and didn't stay on the sandwich. At the end of the meal, Tony had a huge puddle of sauce in the bottom of his basket. Speaking with the waitress, I learned that the sauce was made on site - a definite plus -but that the owner insisted that it be thinned to a milk-like consistency to help control costs. A false economy if you ask me, since most of the sauce served with our meal ended up being wasted in the end.



The lentils and rice with chicken was good. It was very homey. I did a little research online and found out that lentils and rice is a down home staple in the Middle East. The chicken was not bad - white meat, spicy, but a little on the dry side. I think that thighs would have been a better choice. For $8.75, I don't think it was worth what I received.

The tabbouleh was ok - it lacked the traditional lemon based vinaigrette that you find in most versions of this salad and was replaced with the watered down gyro sauce instead. Also, I like a little more bulgar a general rule and flat leaf parsley instead of the curly type.

We declined dessert.

Overall, I don't think we will be returning to the Nazareth Deli anytime soon. The gyro was ok - I like the Gyro Shop on Henderson better. The lentils and rice, while very tasty, will be something that I will attempt to recreate at home. I might be tempted to return if I was in the area and didn't have any other prospects for dining, but considering that MiMi's (MiLi's) cafe and Smackies is right around the corner, I kinda doubt it.

Randazzo Run

A long while back, Gail sent me this report on one of her favorite place of all time - Randazzo's. She has been talking about this place since I met her about ten years ago.

I will admit to being very tardy with posting her report - these pictures are from about a year ago - but better late than never. If you are near the Detroit area, this could be worth a visit.


Randazzo Report by Gail

My first house was in Livonia Michigan - 11 years, second house was in Plymouth, Michigan - 16 years. My Mom lived in Garden City, about 10 miles away. Every time I went to my mothers I had to pass the corner of Warren and Newburgh roads. On the Northwest corner was a large, treed lot.

One day I noticed some building going on and decided to make an effort to notice what was going on with that corner. The lot was cleared, a building went up then the sign went up on the side of the building "Joe Randazzos". What is a Joe Randazzo's I wondered. The next time I went to my Mom's I made a point to leave much earlier than I needed to so I would have time to investigate.

On the way in to the store I grabbed a cart, I didn't anticipate buying anything, but you never know. As I walked the store I noticed the prices and nearly swallowed my tonsils. The entire store was produce. Produce at prices so much lower than the grocery where I shopped that I began to wonder what was wrong with it.

I grew up on a farm, and on that farm we grew potatoes, (EIEIO,- oops got sidetracked there for a minute). When we took our potatoes to the processor they were all dumped into a multi-tiered machine, each tier having different size holes in its board. When they turned on the machine, potatoes would drop through the holes by size. The potatoes that would not drop through the holes rolled off the end of the machine through a chute and into baskets. Those were the ones we kept, the nonconformist sizes that just wouldn't settle for average, the rest we sold.

Well I noticed that the potatoes were many different sizes in one bag and realized that these were the naughty non-conformist potatoes. The green peppers had black streaks (normal), or were curved or warped in some way. WOW non-conformist Green and Red peppers too. At that time they were 7 for $1.00 as were the curved cucumbers etc.

Well I went completely crazy and filled my basket to overflowing with various lettuces, fruits, veges and herbs. Going through the back and outside I discovered they were selling trees, rose bushes, flowers by the flat, etc. Also priced irresistibly well. I further loaded my cart. When I got to the check out, shaking in my shoes hoping my check book balance would handle the excesses, I discovered I had spent a little over $20.00. I decided "I LOVE RANDAZZO'S".

Now living in Ohio it is a bit too far away to go to every week but when we go for holidays or to visit relatives I do a RANDAZZO run. If I have room in my car I go completely nuts and buy for Rosie and Debbie too and seldom spend over $30. I've tried to get Rosie & Debbie to make a trip to MI to do a Randazzo run with me but we seldom get a common day off. I'm sending these pictures to you Rosie, so you'll see what you are missing and we'll make a greater effort to go.

We need one of these here!!!!

As always, Love & Joy; With a Gail Twist

Book Review: The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry

I love a good adventure story. I love putting myself into the shoes of the protagonist - filleting fish, breaking sauces and struggling with the local lingo...

What kind of adventure story is this you ask?

It a tale of a American gal in London who, finding herself without a viable means of support, runs off to Paris to attend the Cordon Blue cooking school. There is love, intrigue, passion, pain, suffering, great food and best of all - its a true story .

Yup - It's for real! Kathleen Harris takes the reader along for the ride as her story unfolds in The Sharper Your Knife the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World’s Most Famous Cooking School (Penguin Books).

After my last book review experience, I was a little reluctant to plunge into another book - even if this was a autobiography, one of my favorite things in the whole world. So consequently, the paperback sat on my nightstand for about two months before I worked up the nerve to dive in.

I am really sorry I waited that long. Kathleen has a nice clean writing style. Her story moves along without getting bogged down in self-pity or false modesty. I love the way she talks about her fellow students, her professors and the shopkeepers she meets during her tenure in Paris. My envy was aroused by her descriptions shopping for food in Paris - the wine shop near on of her apartments where the owner chats with her and makes recommendations to go with her dinners, the bakeries where she picked up fresh bread every day and the other small shops that clustered along a street close to her house.

However, her description of the Parisian branch of the Cordon Blue made me quake in my shoes. The description of her struggles with puff pastry was enough to give me a case of the nerves. I think if you plan on attending culinary school, you should read this book first. True - you may not have to master French to attend the school of your choice - however, the books gives you a very good look at the types of curriculum that you would be following. Personally, I know that I would crap out during the sauces - my Hollandaise usually breaks.

And just in case you like interactive storytelling, Kathleen also includes recipes, so you can eat along with the story. I personally would like to try the rabbit in mustard sauce since I recently located a source for fresh rabbit.

So my recommendation is to grab a copy of The Sharper Your Knife the Less You Cry. It will make a good read while you are curled up on the couch this winter drinking you hot tea and dreaming of your own personal rebirth.

More Meat Deals

A couple weeks ago, I went to the Restaurant Depot with Moose and Eric in preparation for a horror movie marathon that Moose and Tate are hosted last weekend. I offered to become the "concession stand" for the 12 hours of scary goodness.

Some of the other folks attending thought all they would be getting to snack on was popcorn and candy, but personally, I think anything is fair game. Tony and I have been attending the horror marathons off and on for almost twenty years and you never know what you will be eating.

When the marathon was at the Drexel North, we used to go across the street and get G.D. Ritzy's hamburgers and shakes. Later on, when the horrorfest was at Studio 35, we would get pizza and subs,along with plenty of beer. When the marathon moved out to the Drexel Grandview (recently deceased), we would pack a cooler full of sandwiches and snacks to eat while shivering in the cold.

Besides chips and candy, I wanted to make a big pot of chili plus Texas queso dip. I could see lots of possibilities along with tortilla chips and possibly Fritos. Frito Pie anyone?

Once we got out to the Depot, we found that they had some really great deals on all kinds of meat. Between the three of us, we got 40 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $.60/lb, 40 lbs of chicken leg quarters for $.35/lb, 40 lbs of chicken wings for $.75/lb, 15 lbs of bacon for $.99/lb and 15 lbs of pork butt for $.99/lb.

I will tell you guys right now - I know the big push is to eat local, eat organic and grass fed, but when money is tight you gotta do what you gotta do. Split three ways, these prices just couldn't be beat. True - the bacon wasn't up to Thurn's quality, but when I am feeding 10-15 hungry movie hounds, I am not going to buy them $5.00/lb bacon.

So I spent the next 6 hours breaking the meat into portions and vacuum sealing them with my FoodSaver (recently purchased from New Uses). Our freezers are now full of chicken and bacon.

The pork butts I kept out in anticipation of making something tasty. I had really wanted to make some sausage. I am envious of Dave and his experiments. However, I was pressed for time and needed something that would taste great, feed a crowd and be quick to fix. So I ended up with two creations: Pulled Pork and Rosie's Burrito Filling.

These are, once again, not really recipes. They are more like gestalt cooking: something read here, something half remembered from there, add a little of the stuff you have in the pantry and voila! You have dinner.

Rubbed Butt

The Pulled Pork was something I made up based on all the recipes that I have read over the last couple years. I rubbed the butt (hehe) with yellow mustard, then coated it with a basic rub: 1 part salt, 1 part brown sugar, .5 part black pepper, some garlic powder, and ummm, I think, some onion powder. I was flying by the seat of my pants. Whee!!! I then let the butt bask in the coating for about an hour while I fired up the grill.

The grill? you say! Why yes. I had an evil plot. I didn't have time to screw around with watching the Weber all day, so I devised a plan. First I would smoke the pork butt using an indirect method on the grill. Then I would finish it off in the oven.

I can hear the anguished cries of the purists now! "No Rose No! How can you do this?!" Will Dave come over and take my Weber for committing such sacrilege? Well, I figure not - I can bribe Dave with some excellent beer.

I think I saw this technique on tv, most like America's Test Kitchen. Yeah, I am a big enough whore that I'll steal from them. Hell they steal from other people - oh wait. They call it research. Yeah that's it! I "researched" this technique from them.

Smoked Butt

So I did a heavy smoke on the pork and let it form a nice brown crust. Then I tossed the bad boy into a 250 degree oven and baked him until he was really tender maybe 2-3 hours more. I kinda lost track of time, 'cuz I was also doing laundry and other stuff. The key to this is to keep testing it with a fork until it gets to the tenderness that you want. This was pretty soft, I should have pulled it out of the oven a little earlier, but I got into the Zen of Ironing.

Pulled Butt

Now while Mr. Pulled Pork was in the oven, I rubbed the other butt down with a mixture of freshly ground chilies (Guajillo and Ancho), garlic powder, oregano, onion powder, salt and pepper. I then threw him in the crock pot and cooked him long and slow with a couple whole onions.

Chili Butt

Once the pulled pork was done, I then moved this butt to the oven. I love to braise in the oven over the crock pot. I think that the slow cooker really dulls down the flavors. When I finished, I shredded the meat, and set it to one side. I then took the braising liquid and reduced it to about half its previous volume. I also cheated and added a little bit of liquid from the pulled pork pan. It gave it a mild smokey, sweet undertone. I then mixed the liquid back in with the burrito filling.

Ohio-Mex Butt

I know neither of these are authentic, but I will tell you they were damn good. My husband suggested some titles for this column. Among his suggestions were "Smoke my Butt", "A Tail of Two Butts" and my favorite "Spicy Butt Love". Ahhhhhhhhhh I love it when Tony waxes poetic.

So that was my meat field trip to Restaurant Depot. It was a lot of freakin' work, but now I have my freezer stocked full for the next few months. With the economy the way it is right now, I know that my hours at work will be cut back, just like a lot of other folks. So time to hunker down and get ready boys and girls. Time to put in the staples and prepare to conserve that cash.

Ribeye Stew

Tony and I have membership to the Restaurant Depot. I've mentioned it before a long long time ago when I was a happy little blogger, not the ass dragging overworked wage slave that I am now. The recent increase in food costs have driven a few of our friends to inquire about buying costly items like meat in bulk, then divvying it up amongst the group. In particular, steaks and bacon were at the top of the list. (Single guys...go figure.)

As those of you who buy at places like the Depot know, the wholesale cost isn't always as good as a loss leader at a regular store. For example, ten pounds of 80/20 ground beef was $1.99/lb at the Depot. I recently purchased a ten pound bag of 80/20 at Schumann's for $1.79/lb. Not a huge savings, but the quality at Schumann's was better to boot.

Today I picked up a whole ribeye. At $4.99/lb it was not a huge steal, but still good. I spent the afternoon trimming the primal and cutting it up into steaks to be vacuum sealed and put in the freezer against the long dark winter. I had lots of little pieces of meat left so I decided to try my hand at crock pot beef stew.

I will admit to lifting a tip from America's Test Kitchen. Well, they actually got it from someone else. I found lots of references to it on the internet once I looked. The biggest problem with crock pot stews is that they get really watery. With a heavy tight fitting lid, the water never has a chance to escape, plus you have lots of liquid coming out of the foods in the pot - you can see how it would end up meat-flavored water real fast. The instant tapioca was a great fix, and it left no floury aftertaste as if I had poured the broth into a pan on the stove and thickened it with a slurry, which is what I have done in the past.

True, I think its a huge cheat. I would must rather do it the old fashioned way, stews and soups taste so much better on the stove. Of course, when you still have to do things like run your 17 yr old daughter to the store to buy $100.00 worth of shoes, crock pots look real nice. (You still owe me $50 for those boots Annie!!!)

The recipe went something like this:

2 pounds of ribeye scraps, generally about 1" square
3 medium onions, fine dice
4 cloves garlic, squooshed
2 T tomato paste
2 pounds of potatoes, cut into large dice
1 pound of turnips, cut into large dice
1.5 pounds of carrots, cut into large dice
4 oz of dried mushrooms, re-hydrated and rough chopped
4 cups beef broth, from the freezer (yes, some of my stuff was saved!)
3T instant tapioca
Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and 2 bay leaves

Sprinkle a little salt onto the meat. Put a couple of tablespoons of oil into a pan - I used a cast iron skillet. Get good and hot; brown off the meat. Remove to slow cooker. Lower heat to medium. Add onions to skillet and cook until transparent. Add in garlic and tomato paste. Cook briefly until you can smell the garlic. Remove to slowcooker. Add broth to pan and deglaze. Pour into slow cooker.

Add veggies and tapioca. Season to taste and throw in the bay leaves. Cook on low for about 6 hours. Taste towards end of cooking and adjust seasoning. I've been known to saute up another onion and a couple more cloves of garlic to toss in towards the end. The stew tends to have a flat taste after cooking so long and you need to brighten up the flavors. A shot of Tabasco or Worcestershire isn't bad either.

The stew went into the fridge overnight. We'll see how the tapioca reheats. Also, I plan on freezing half for a future dinner, so we'll see how the tapioca freezes as well.

News Flash: The stew reheated fine - but it never got frozen due to the fact that it was eaten very quickly. I also never got a picture of it. My camera is having issues. Ah - when it rains it pours!

When you wish upon a star...

So I am going to finish up my San Diego trip now - this has went on too long. Between my home life and the tremendous amount of hours I have been putting in at work, I just haven't had time to record everything in the detail I want to do it in. I am sure you guys are so done with my "Vacation Slideshow" by now anyway.

I just wanted to finish up by showing you some pictures of the great stuff I got to see.

First of all, here is the thing I would love to have most. It is from Sideshow Collectibles. All I can say is that The Tick rocks.



Since I really don't have $150 to buy the limited edition figure, I thought I would take a page out of Lisa's book and ask folks to send me the money to buy it. I mean its working for her. Why shouldn't I jump on the bandwagon?

UPDATE: My friend Eric said he would buy the figure, but only it I would take the Tick to Amsterdam. He said The Tick is a little too tightly wound and could use a nice week long vacation. So he is spotting me $150 for the figure and tossing in starter money of $100 to buy me a plane ticket to Amsterdam. He said he would pay me an additional $100 if I took a picture of The Tick "enjoying" himself with one of the city's famed sex workers. I've got my seed money - are there any other readers out there who is interested in helping me achieve my dream? Any generous soul who donates will be thanked here in the blog and I will personally send you print outs of all the photos of The Tick and myself enjoying the pleasures of The Netherlands' most famous city.

While I wait for you folks to "support" me, here are the last of my Comic-con pictures...

My hubby posing with his cousin Jabba.

Tony - these are not the droids you are looking for...Now put them back!


I nearly geeked out when I saw the Night Owl's ship. I can hardly wait until Watchmen comes out!!!

Shop smart!

Ahhhhhhhhhhh... Baby Fett

And for everyone who thought that Comic-con was about comics, or movies, or pop culture...
well you can draw your own conclusions...


"Jason - I've heard you've been a naughty boy..."

I love electrons!

My street before the real damage. We lost nine trees on this street alone.

The rumors are false. I did not run away and join the circus.

I just got power back Saturday evening. It was a long long week. I had just stocked up on groceries and wham! Goodbye four dozen eggs. Goodbye motley collection of condiments who had taken over my fridge. I think maybe it was a blessing in disguise - I got to scrub out every inch of my ancient refrigerator with bleach. At least that is what I am telling myself.

Actually, the eggs did not go bad. I boiled them on my grill. My neighbors thought I was nuts - until I used up all the mayo in the fridge and made a HUGE batch of deviled eggs. I think they were gone in about two minutes flat. Tony was sad because he only got three eggs worth.

I also put my collection of cast iron skillets to work on the coals and browned off some ground beef. I was going to try making chili but it got dark - boy was it dark. I could see the stars without any light pollution.

Hard Boiled Eggs!!

My big freezer had been packed full and when I finally opened it yesterday, a lot of things were thawed out, but still nice and cold. I am cooking every thing off that I can.

Part of my bounty was shared with Eric, my hubby's best friend. I cooked off three pounds of Thurn's bacon for breakfast yesterday. Yum. And Eric called me a bacon snob. Hell yes. If loving Thurn's bacon is wrong, then I don't wanna be right.

Now that I have lots of freezer room, I am looking into 'Once a Month Cooking or OAMC, or something close to that. More like "make some stuff ahead so I have something to eat when I am too busy to cook" or MSSASIHSTEWIATBTC. Hmmm... That is a bit much. Kind of defeats the whole acronym purpose. Lets see... Too Busy To Cook... Yeah. T.B.T.C. I don't think it will catch on, but hey, ya never know.

A couple items I am looking at are from Cook's Country, owned by Cook's Illustrated. I read a while back over on Tigers and Strawberries about the problems with reproducing recipes from the publishing group. Well that and Barbara has personal issues with how Cook's Illustrated treats non-traditional foods, such Indian and Thai. I am surprised she doesn't have an ax to grind with other venerable institutions such as Better Homes and Gardens or Redbook as well. I guess having grown up in the era of Home Ec for every gal, I just don't get as worked up about stuff like dumbing down exotic cuisines for American consumption. I think of it as cooking with training wheels. Personally, I use Cook's Illustrated like any other resource, pick and choose what I like and leave the rest. And yes Barbara, Chris Kimball has quite an ego, but no worse than any other famous persona I've encountered. You get use to heads that large when you meet showbiz folks from time to time.

So as for plumbing the depths for ideas, I am looking at the freezer lasagna, the freezer enchiladas and the frozen pot pies from the Cook's Country. I also have a lot of other things like Cincinnati Chili (which I've made for years), spaghetti sauce and beef stew. I've been over the OAMC books plus the sites and most of the recipes leave me kinda cold. Anyone out there have other resources they can suggest?

So that's pretty much it. The next week is going to be hell at work. I don't anticipate having much free time, but if I get a few minutes, I'll make another post. If not, I'll surface eventually. I always do.

Day Three: Swag with a Smile

Yes, I know it's been well over a month since Comic-Con and you are probably all tired at looking at my vacation photos by now. Too Bad!!

Saturday was the big day at Comic-con. The single day passes for Saturday get sold out before full ride tickets do. It was a crush of humanity. I had opted to volunteer at 11 am so that I could get there early and grab some more swag (like I needed more crap!) I went to the Warner Brothers booth first. I had missed out on these huge swag bags the booth had been distributing since Wednesday night. I knew that I needed to grab at least one so that I could carry around all the crap I was going to collect.

Unlike the day before at the Fox booth, the Warner Bros. crew had the whole distribution down to a fine science. Once I made it to the booth, I was through the line in less than five minutes. I then wandered around the Dealer Hall and picked up stuff like posters from the upcoming Spirit movie.

I am a huge Spirit fan and I so want this movie to be cool, but I just have a bad feeling... Not to bring down Frank Miller, the man who resurrected the Dark Knight, the man who made you want to be a Spartan and come home on your shield, but I swear the artwork reminds me more of Sterenko than Eisner. We'll see.

Some of the steampunk folks from the convention

Annie had decided to get into a little cosplay for Saturday. Annie and I are huge fans of the Steampunk movement. I am not sure why - it probably has something to do with reading 20,000 Leagues Under Sea too many times and watching First Men In the Moon multiple times when I was a kid.

Here she is in her partial costume. She has boots, but they are not broken in yet and she opted not to wear them. To be truely steampunk, she needs to obtain some rocking goggles, some bits of neo-victorian mechanical apparatus and a watch. We are working on that. In the mean time, I think she looks very nice. (Being her mater and all...)

Around 9:30 am, I was hanging out with Annie at the WETA booth ogling the awesomeness that is their wares when I discovered that I had not pocketed my credit cards and cash when I changed clothes that morning. PANIC!

I looked at the time and decided I could make it to the hotel and back in time to meet my volunteering deadline. I was wrong. I missed my chance to go to the professional suite again by 15 minutes. Instead I was able to greet folks just coming in the door. Easy work. You just handed out bags of scheduling information and welcomed folks for 3 hours. My cheeks hurt after smiling for that long.

While I was making my dentist proud, my daughter and Tate had gone off to see Howard Chaykin. Annie said she was amazed at how few people were there to see him speak. Afterward she talked to him, telling Howard how she had read all her dad's American Flag comics and he complimented her on her "bosom". Yes - he actually said "bosom".

No, she did not get to buy this. I think it's illegal to tempt men into sinful thoughts if you are under 18.

Speaking of bosoms, I have to say that if you have one, you do get great swag. Annie's shirt popped a button and it allowed her to display a more than average amount of cleavage. (She was lucky I did not have a safety pin!) Her Saturday swag included, but was not limited to: a 4 gig USB drive (shockproof and waterproof), a role-playing guide ($50 retail value), goodie cards for City of Villains, t-shirts, autographs and lots of invitations to after hours parties.

Where was my hubby all this time you ask? Why wasn't he keeping our daughter buttoned up and lady like? 'Cuz he was doing magic. There is a strong magic community in San Diego and Tony went to hang out with J.C. Wagner who performs at a bar on Coronado Island. I was kinda sad I did not get to hang out as well. JC does some amazing stuff.

I had planned on attending the Masquerade - if you love costumes, this is the event you wait on. I went to look for the end of the line, when I found the beginning of the line at about 5 pm. I asked the lady sitting in pole position one how long she had been waiting. "Since 7am," said she. "Screw this!" said I and went looking for Tate and Annie instead. I called Tate on his cell. My journey to find him took me past all the poor souls who were sitting in line to see the Masquerade. It almost wrapped around half the convention center. And this was at 5pm. The damn event didn't start until 8pm. The convention even made an overflow room with a live video feed for people who couldn't fit in the ballroom. The ball room seats almost 4,500 people. You get the idea.

Tate and I grabbed Annie and headed back to the hotel. 6 pm and we were pooped. Tony was waiting and I made him take us to dinner. We found this tiny little Mexican restaurant that said "Mexican Food" over the door, ate some mediocre food, had a few margaritas and went back to the hotel. Jet lag was really getting to all of us by then and we turned in.

Just one more day!! Well actually one more day of Comic-con and two more of vacation... I will try to be brief...I promise.

Day Two: Swag Fever hits!

So the next day - I was rested and ready. Annie and I had decided to volunteer early, so we got down to the convention center at a rather early hour.

My assignment this time was to man the professional suite, which provided a much needed quiet space for the guests who were presenting programming at the convention. The lady who ran this room plus the con suite (being held at a local hotel) had been doing so for over a decade. My job was to make sure things were tidy and that folks who had the wrong kinda badges didn't come in and bother folks (ie press and fans). Sharing my duties were a couple of guys from Jersey - I suggested they check out In and Out Burger before they left the coast.

Annie managed to make it to the Joss Whedon panels.
She is totally stoked about DollHouse, his latest TV series

I had wanted to see Joss Whedon talk about his past and upcoming project, but by the time I got out, the room was totally filled. I later learned that the staff did not clear out the rooms between panels. Hence, even if you had been waiting in line for hours to see Josh, you may not make it in the door unless the folks camped out inside the room left.

So I said screw it and went to the dealers hall. I have a feeling lots of other people said that too. It was then that I developed Swag Fever. (What is Swag you ask? Swag is all the cool free stuff that is being passed out by the various vendors. Mostly it is promotional items pimping out upcoming movies or tv shows, comic books or artists. The main rule is that you didn't have to pay for it!) I had picked up a few posters the previous day, but they had become damaged on the way back to the hotel.

The Fox booth was passing out these poster tubes with a carrying strap. But wait! The tubes were going like hot cakes. The next time they were getting passed out was a 1pm. So I got in the (at present) very short line at 12:30. It was here that I met Byron. (If you wonder why I remember his name, it because he was the only guy to give me a business card!) Byron runs a small website called Row M. He was there on a press pass - which I immediately began to covet. (Press passes let you bypass all the long lines!) Byron and I passed the time talking about stuff - Star Wars, collectibles, you know - geek stuff. Then the crowd started to build. The Fox staff has a guy come up about 5 minutes before the tubes were going to be passed out and started pushing people around to form a line. (You will find this is a reoccurring theme with some booths: lack of planning when it comes to crowd management.) The guy pushed me out of line and Byron yelled at him and pulled me back onto the right side of the rope. Thanks Byron!!

We were watching the beleaguered Fox staff getting the tubes ready for distribution when a lady on the outskirts of the crowd starts yelling at Byron, "I got the last one!!". The last what? Turns out Intel had hooked up with the new Star Trek movie and was having a contest. There were scratch off cards with different "staff positions" from the Enterprise printed on them. If you collected all eight positions, you got a cool laptop bag. The catch? To turn them in, you had to have eight people, one to hold each card. Byron had been working with two other people since earlier in the convention and now had all eight cards. Byron generously offered to let me partake of his swag bounty by giving me a card. I was to meet him at the Star Trek/Intel booth after we got our tubes.

The Fox staff started passing out the tubes and the crowd surged forward. If you have never been part of a huge mass of bodies before, it can be frightening the way you are just swept along by the pressure. I am a large gal so can hold my own, but a smaller person - there is always the chance you would be overwhelmed and lose your footing. We spewed out of the end of the line and swirled away from the main press of human bodies. I lost Byron in the crowd.

I started towards the Intel booth - the flow of bodies was against me. I only had to go over two rows, but it must have taken me 5 minutes to get there. And when I did arrive, there was Byron and his two compatriots, waiting. We still needed four more people, so we grabbed folks out of the passing press of bodies - a kid, some other geek who had a hand full of cards, and two gals who just happened to be in the right place at the right time. We turned in our cards and received our swag. I thanked Byron again, and promised to get him the Hasbro ticket that Annie had left in the room. (To even get into the line for the Hasbro collectibles shop, you had to have a ticket, which they passed out at random intervals. Annie had scored one, but not Byron. And he really had to get his toys.)

My Swag Bag!!

I then wandered around the dealer hall for a little while longer, then went back to the hotel with Annie and Tate. We had wanted to see the Robot Chicken and Venture Brothers panels, but just couldn't get in. The whole wait in line for hours thing was kinda getting us down. I suggested we try this restaurant, Doa Son, I had seen suggested online. It specialized in Asian noodle dishes.

Now normally I would not be so bold in a strange city, but we had rented a GPS unit along with the rental car. (It was affectionately known as "The Bitch" - as in "Shut the F*** Up, Bitch!" because of it's constant talking.) So we follow the Bitch's instructions to the restaurant only to find - there is no parking. This is one of the problems we encountered a lot. We would want to hit these small out of the way restaurants and could not park. So we kinda said screw it. I popped in and ordered take out while Tony drove around the block again and again and again. Tony was greatly amused.



Sorry there are no pictures of the food. By the time we got back to the hotel, we were all so hungry we fell on the food like a pack of wolves. The noodles were really good. The broth was clearly homemade loaded with lots of veggies, meat and noodles. Tate got so much food that he couldn't finish it all, so he said "Screw the noodles! It the broth that make a good noodle soup." and downed the rest of the liquid nectar.

We then passed out to get ready for Saturday - the big day!

Still here!

Hey folks!

Just dropping a note to let you know that I still exist and have not given up on the blog. My work schedule has become insane the last three weeks, working 50+ hours the past week. My paychecks look great, but it's grueling.

The lack of free time in my schedule has forced me to drop out of the Daring Bakers group. I am very sad to have to quit. I was unable to particiapte this summer because of my vacation, and now because of my job. I hope that I get to rejoin the group

My cooking has gone to basic survival level - making a large bunch of food on my days off and eating leftovers the rest of the week. I did treat myself to a Bahn Mi and an iced coffee from Mi Mi - or should I say Mi Li Cafe. Our favorite little Vietnamese place was forced to change their name by the Polaris area restaurant MiMi's Cafe. Of course my chances of going to the Polaris Mimi's Cafe has just dropped to about nil. Bully!

Dosa Corner was featured in the Dispatch today. A great place to eat. It's right next to my work and I have eaten there quite a bit - and I am mostly meat-a-terian. So If you like home-made Southern Indian food - Dosa Corner is the place for you.

A last little something to keep you amused - 100 things you should eat. I did pretty good except for the following items: 99,85,71, 68, 65 (Cognac but no cigar), 64, 59, 55,50, 42,39, 38, 37, 36 (Does Durian flavored items count? No, I didn't think so.), 33, 29, 25,21,17, 12 and 8. Not too shabby and I can fix a few of them really soon. And yes - I really have eaten roadkill.

Here is hoping that my life will calm down a bit. I hope to make it to the Meet-up group at the Cafe Shish Kebab next Wednesday. If you like grilled lamb - then you have to attend.

'Til next time!

Comic-Con Adventure Part Three: Lesson I learned my first day

So, after sitting through a panel discussing the impact of Doc Savage on the development of comic heroes such as Superman and Batman hosted by Anthony Tollin and Michael Uslan (yes, I love pulp fiction too!), I headed down to the volunteer booth.

Annie waiting on her volunteer assignment

Here is where I got my first real lesson about Comic-con: it's all about waiting. Waiting to get your assignment at the volunteer booth, waiting to get into the panel you want to see, waiting to buy the collectible toy you must have, waiting to get on the trolley, etc.

The second thing I learn is there are just too damn many people to manage efficiently. My first assignment was to line wrangle. I stood in front of a door for three hours and made sure no one in the really, really long line blocked access to the fire exit. The folks in this line were waiting to buy limited edition toys from Hasbro. So to pass the time, I struck up a conversation with a guy in line -asking about what he collects, what he was excited to see... and it turns out he is originally from Cincinnati. Very Cool. Chat a little bit more about collectibles - and I mention I had really wanted a Iron Man Mighty Mugg, but that I doubted I would be able to stand in line for the three and a half hours(!!!!!!!!) it was going to take. So this great guy (whose name I forget and I am really sorry!) offers to get it for me and to call me on his cell when he is finished. He says he is standing in line for the GI Joe Collectables so one more figure wouldn't matter.

This is where I learned the third thing about Comic-con. It is filled with great people. About 2 hours later, I get a call on my cell. I was now the proud owner of an Iron Man Might Mugg. So my mystery friend formerly from Cincinnati -thank you thank you thank you. You made my day.

After line wrangling, I bought lunch. This brought me to lesson number four: bring a sack lunch. A hot dog and a can of Coke cost me $6.00.

I then decided that I wanted to go see another panel - this one on Science in Science Fiction, host by Dr. Kevin Grazier (former rocket scientist turned science advisor), Jaime Paglia (writer and producer of Eureka) and Phil Plait (badastronomy.com ). And guess what? I got to wait in line almost an hour. It was worth it. It was a great panel.

I staggered through the dealers hall one more time and headed back to the hotel. The amount of walking involved had been too much for the hubby with his bad knees, so I opted to spend some time with him at the hotel pool, then out to dinner. Of course this meant we missed some of the stuff who should have been standing in line for - and possibly some really cool parties but it was nice spending quality time together.

We went to this place called Santana's for burritos. While it was a local fast food chain, it was still better than most of the Mexican food here in Columbus. We had huge burritos and a variety of fresh made salsas - kinda like what Chipolte would like to be.



Tony got a California Burrito. It had everything a normal burrito had plus fried potatoes. Topped with their tomatilla based green salsa - it was great.


I had the Carne Assada burrito. Really nice... I also got some sides, like chips and guacamole plus some beans - don't bother. Stick with the burritos.



By the time we got back to the hotel, Tate and Annie were back. They had eaten some tacos from a small joint around the corner. Good but nothing to right home about.

The whole group then tumbled into bed. The last lesson I learned: Take along really good walking shoes. My dogs were barking when I finally passed out in the hotel room.

Adventures at Comic-Con Part Deux

So - we get off the airplane in Phoenix about midnight, drive through to San Diego in a rented minivan and show up at registration for the Convention at the buttcrack of dawn.

We pull into our chosen hotel, Old Town Inn, which is located about five miles North of the convention center. Having researched the heck out of the whole shebang before we left Columbus, we chose this hotel for two reasons

1) We could get a room. The hotel rooms downtown were sold out in about two days via the booking service that the convention uses to manage room rental.
2) It was close to the Old Town Transit Station, which provided access to a special light rail route that would take us right to the convention center from our hotel. (Hey Columbus!!! Pay attention here!!! A ten minute ride to a major convention from an outlying hotel!!!)

Oh and one more reason - this hotel get a lot of good reviews online.

So we pull in after 10 hours of travel with little or no sleep, looking and feeling like the winners we are and stagger into the hotel lobby. The hotel staff is great. Of course our rooms won't be ready until 3pm that day, but they might be able to get us in as early as 11am, and yes - we can use their restroom and park our rental car in their lot while we stagger over to the light rail station. Nice nice people.

We then go hit Denny's for breakfast. Not because we really want to, but because we could figure out how to get in and out of their parking lot. Let's just say the little grey cells were running very slow by that point for all involved. One nasty breakfast later - we head down to the convention center.

Annie and I had both volunteered. Annie - cuz she is a cheapskate who was paying her own way (Yes, she had to earn the money for the plane ticket and her part of the hotel room. If you need a baby sitter in the Clintonville area, she is starting to save up for next summer's vacation already!)

Why did I volunteer? Because volunteering lets you do two things. The first is see how the whole convention works from the inside and help out the poor beleaguered souls who give up their time to organize and run the convention. The second? So I could keep tabs on the offspring. (Yeah, I'm such a mom.)

Tony and Tate bought registrations. It's $75 for the entire weekend. That is Thursday-Saturday with a Wednesday night preview. As far as convention costs go, that isn't too bad. Volunteer registration is fairly well organized. We get through, sign up for our assignments, then wander around inside the convention center and look at the mass of humanity pressing against the lobby doors waiting to get in. Tony and Tate join the throng from the outside, queueing up to get their prepaid registrations.

Did I mention there are no on-site registration sales? Too bad if you snoozed. Amazingly enough, Tony says the line went very quickly. They had about 100 people processing entrants in a large hall, then folks were herded into a waiting area for the convention to open.

At 9 am, the doors opened and people rushed into convention center and immediately flooded the Dealer's Hall. The Swag Rush has started. It's like freaking 1849, but for collectibles instead of gold.

(What is Swag you ask? Swag is all the cool freebies that are given out over the course of the convention - it can be anything from posters, to books, to action figures. Some items become very sought after - like the huge swag bags from Warner Brothers, which you need to have to have to carry all your other swag. I ended up with over six swag bags filled with stuff. I'll go more into this later.)

OK - here is how big and crowded the Dealer Hall was. My first panel wasn't until 10am, so I decided to walk the length of the hall. According to my calculations, the hall was almost 900 feet long. It was crowded. It took me 20 minutes to walk from one end to the other. Without stopping to geek out. It was just that crowded.

I had lost Annie by this point. And Tate and Tony. We all had things we wanted to see before we headed back to the hotel, plus I was scheduled to volunteer at noon. Ah - foolish, foolish me. I had -maybe - 3 hours sleep. This was going to go great.

So I leave you here until the next installment, intrepid reader. You'll learn more about volunteering, swag monkeys and San Diego.

The Adventures of a Fat Chick at Comic-con

Deep down inside me is a comic book geek. The affliction started when I was a kid reading my dad's old Sad Sack comics from WW2 and the "funny papers" in the Dispatch. From there my habit slowly increased culminating in a $50/month pull at the local comic shop while I was in high school. Once I got to college, I was too broke to buy comics anymore. When Tony and I were dating I would read his stash containing series like American Flagg and Badger.

Eventually we moved onto graphic novels like The Watchmen and V for Vendetta. Those names are household items now, but back then, only us proud geeks knew how good they were.

Annie has turned into a comic book geek too. She dug out our old comic collections early on and tore through them. Now she borrows graphic novels from the library and spends her hard earned babysitting money on titles like Y, the last man and Serenity.

Last January, Annie came to us and said " I am tired of always going on 'working vacations'. I get stuck in the hotel doing nothing for hours on end. For my graduation present, I want to attend Comic-con in San Diego. I know I don't graduate until next year, but I would like to go this year. They have Howard Chaykin and Kevin Smith !"

After looking over last year's schedule, we decided that it looked like a blast. So yes - we went to Comic-con, the biggest Geekfest in America.

Eric, our usual traveling companion, passed for this trip. He is heading to Burning Man this summer. Ah, to be a fly on the wall for that adventure. However, his roommate and our friend Tate, hearing of our pilgrimage, decided that he too must make the trek.

Tate Enjoying himself at Comic-con

So the four of us headed off to the promised land. If you really want to get to know your friends, I recommend taking long trips with them. You will know who your real friends are after being packed into plane for 4 hours, driving through the desert in the wee hours of the morning and then bunking in a really small room with them for six days. If you are still friends after the end of those six days - the relationship can take almost anything.

Tate, bless his heart, is a planner. He made sure we had water as we drove through the desert. He thoughtfully brought earplugs and a sleeping mask so as to blind himself to the various noises our family is reported to make while sleeping. He was easygoing when it came to the schedule and even seemed to enjoy our adventures as "swag monkeys". The only strike against him was some of his nocturnal poses - usually involving creative yoga-like positions I don't he could have achieved in a waking state. A lesser person would have taken pictures, but I resisted. I am sure our other friends will be disappointed.

Now that you have the cast - next the play!

Ok folks - sorry I haven't been posting lately, but we have been out of town for the last two weeks.

Where did the clan go you ask?

COMIC-CON!!!!!!!

Yup - we actually took a vacation that was not work related. Our inner geeks were fulfilled.

I have been trying to write all the great things I got to see and do in San Diego, but it is gonna take some time. With 125,000 people crammed into one convention center - well you can kinda guess at the bedlam that ensued.

So I will be back soon...promise....