Ringo Baga! おいしい

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Unique Beverages You Should Know About Series #1

 

Arent you tired of the same beverages and sodas all summer?

Lets look at some new beverages to stir things up...

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Quick Chicken Fried Rice

 

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Extreme Organization

The flawed and expensive old spice racks

When I first decided to re-open this blog and get serious about it, I needed to do some serious planning, purchasing, cleaning and decluttering in my kitchen so I could create food ideas on the fly at a moments notice...

I looked at my spice racks and noticed they were not air/moisture proof and all my spices had been destroyed so I set out to replace them...

OMG!

As usual, I went way overboard...

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Garlic Bread Pudding

Garlic Bread Pudding

This truly is a party dish! It is best served where there are lotsa of people to share it with as it is
very decadent, and very addictive!
Everyone will get some but not too much or should I say enough? hmmm!

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Southwest High Falutin' Turkey Steaks and Polenta

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Fried Green Tomato Rings

 

It's the start of Spring, The hard Green Tomatoes are just starting to be seen at the market.

Are ya gonna let em sit on your window sill for 2 weeks till they get pink?
NO! Fry them!

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Sheetz Ready Made Sandwiches

Pic of the Birdsboro, Pa Sheetz from GoogleMaps

Sheetz is a Gas Station / Convenience Store in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina...

They rival the northeast's Wawa Market in healthy and fresh food options (but Wawa's got more healthier options, more on Wawa later)

Today Im just going to focus on 4 of Sheetz's, pre-made ready to go sandwiches.

Im picking these to highlight in a post cause these types of sandwiches arent supposed to be at Gas Stations....

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Cherry Bombs

Cherry Bombs

Cherry tomatoes
Vodka or Tequila
Tabasco (or other hot sauce)
Sugar (optional)
Ice
Kosher Salt
Lemons or Limes
A Marinating Needle

Mix yourself up a nice brew of vodka, hot sauce and sugar.
Use the marinating needle to inject the brew into each tomato! Dont worry if some escapes!
serve in a nice bowl on ice with the kosher salt sprinkled on them

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Indian Style Amaranth Leaves

Amaranth is one of the smallest grains in the world. 

The plant that grows it has beautiful big hunter green leaves with centers of dark fuchsia.

And it makes a simply delicious, un-"gamey" curry.

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New Series -- The 7-11 Gourmet Part 1

Screen shot of 7-11 from GoogleMaps

So years ago I lost my drivers license and couldnt go anywhere. Ill cop to driving my Jeep to the smACME Market at night but once the snows and ice came I could only walk up to the 7-11 to get food, so this is how this series came about...

You too can create a nutritious "Gourmet" meal from things commonly sold at 7-11, in a pinch, if 7-11 is the only place around...

Meal #1

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Mock Guac

This is a low fat version of Guacamole

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No Cook Pasta Sauce

Cook-free Pasta Sauce

4 plum tomatoes, tops removed
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 Large SLICE of sweet Vidalia onion
1 t oregano
1/4th to 1/3rd cup Parmesan cheese
Fresh basil
Salt & pepper

Put all of the above in a blender (I use my Vitamix)
and blend to a sauce, taste, reseason pour immediately over just made fresh hot pasta, grate more Parmesan over top. Serve.

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Before Juicers!

Watermelon Punch

(Great for kids to kelp make out on the deck then hose them and the deck off, lol) 

1 average sized seedless watermelon
juice of 4-5 lemons
1/2  cup sugar
a big bowl
strainer
gallon pitcher or jug
chia seeds (optional)

Cut the watermelon into quarters, then cut the
watermelon meat out of the quarters and into chunks
and place into the big bowl, wash hands and lower
arms well or put on silicone gloves then get to work, with your hands,
squeeze and squish the watermelon between your
fingers till you think you got it all out, then
strain into the jug in small batches, add the
lemon juice and the sugar, chill well ,serve  
If desired sprinkle chia seeds over top of each
glass to simulate the black watermelon seeds enjoy!

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ALDI, My Favorite Things.

For years I would see Aldi and shrug...

I went in a few times mistakenly thinking it was a Scratch and Dent -- I love S&Ds, and upon not finding any of my favorite name brands, walked right out..

But one day I went in and started looking around, and after hearing a few buzzes, I started buying things here and there...and, now I love ALDI.

Aldi is a German company (same company as Trader Joes) who sells QUALITY food under a kinda sorta no name brand.They sell only the most popular items people buy when they go to any Grocery Store. They have no frills, no baggers, no cart retrievers (you have to rent a cart for 25 cents, you get the quarter back) and you can buy bags.  So they can have ridiculously low costs.

These are some of my favorite things about Aldi

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Assorted Food Post

Simple things like a Kiwi, Dragonfruit & Watermelon Salad dressed in lime juice and honey can be made to look impressive with a unique presentation....

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How Cute Are These?

Trail Mix!

For Dogs!

Teeny tiny milk bones, square beefy chews and sweet potato chewy rounds.

Adorbs!

And my dogs love em.

http://www.milkbone.com/

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My Attempt At Making The Ellusive Crystal Clear Ice Ball.

So, the "in" thing right now in bartending is these giant ice balls or spheres. 

Simple you think? All you need is water and a mold right?

Welllll, not really.

The trick is to make them CRYSTAL CLEAR, with no cloudy ice bubbles in them....

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Grow Your Own Tea

 

Black Tea, Green Tea, and White Tea, all come from ONE plant.

 The Camellia Sinensis plant.

I bought the Camellia above 6 years ago, it should have been 5 times its original size but Camellias are hardy to Zone 7 and I was living in Zone 6 at the time I bought it (Climate Change has now put me in zone 7A) I was told to bring it indoors every winter which every winter caused half of its leaves to fall off and half the plant to die and need to be pruned back by half, the past 2 winters I threw caution to the wind and left it outside and it thrived and grew...

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Oh Sooooo Pretty Garden Salad

 

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Philly Phood And Philm Trip

So I had wanted real French Macarons, I called nearby Aux Petits Delices and their 3 flavors didnt interest me, so I Googled "Macarons Philly" and I found out that a bakery on 17th Street sold all the flavors I wanted (or most of them) So I got in my SUV and drove out there....

It was a great day to drive to 17th Street, as they are filming a movie between 16th and 18th on Walnut Street, so I brought my good camera...

Just in case...

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Marmite, Love It Or Hate It! The Tutorial.

 

This is a jar of the infamous Marmite from the UK.

Marmite is the spent yeast left over from British Beer manufacturing with salt added.

Basically it is liquid Brewers Yeast.

It is high in B-Vitamins. 

People discovered it was yummy on toast, and an instant classic was born...

On to the tutorial....

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Chicken Apple Salad With A Creamy Honey Ginger Dressing

 

Chicken Apple Salad With A Creamy Honey Ginger Dressing

This is a recipe I have been making for YEARS, I invented it when I was on a diet and I didn't like the chicken salad recipe I was supposed to eat on it so I created this. If it is too sweet for you, replace the vanilla yogurt with plain. Like sushi, I can eat this every day for life...

Dressing

1 4 ounce container Vanilla Yogurt

2-4 Tablespoons minced Gari (Pickled Sushi Ginger)

2 Tablespoons Honey

Whisk the dressing, pour it over the following:

2 cups diced cooked chicken

1 diced Granny Smith Apple

1 diced Gala Apple

1/3 cup Roasted Whole Almonds

Mix and eat.

YUMMMMMY!!

For Gari without Aspartame (most have it unfortunately) buy this brand:

Roland Gari

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Baked Caprese

I created this years ago when I had extra stuff left over from making lasagne.

Baked Caprese Salad
This serves 6 as a light appetizer

2 big fat juicy Tomatoes
Any tomato or smooth spaghetti sauce
1/2 cup Ricotta Cheese
1 "ball" fresh Mozzarella
1 Egg
2 heaping Tablespoons Parmesan
Just a speck of Garlic Powder
Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper
Fresh Basil
Olive Oil Pam Spray

Balsamic Glaze (not shown in pic)


Spray each of a six non-stick muffin pan (or heat proof ceramic or glass cups)

Cut 6 1/4 inch slices of tomatoes from the fattest part of the
tomatoes and put one slice in each of the
six. Mix the Ricotta cheese, the egg, the Parmesan and the salt and pepper in a small bowl and divide it up onto each tomato, top with a teaspoon of the sauce. Top with a slice of Mozzarella.
Bake in a 325 degree oven for 10-15 minutes or until
they're bubbly and have "risen" a bit from the egg, let cool til lukewarm. Invert each onto a small saucer,
serve with a Chiffonade of Fresh Basil and a drizzle of Balsamic Glaze.

You can get Balsamic Glaze at Wegmans stores

http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10052&catalogId=10002&productId=669323

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