July 29th, 2010
It is no seekrit that I watch or listen to rather quite a bit of FoodTV. A lot of times they make things that are too complex, don’t sound that good or are otherwise just not any fun. However one day I was watching Ina from The Barefoot Contessa and she made a vegetable dish that looked like something even KLT would enjoy. Now granted I was working hard and reducing my carb intake so this was a delightful addition to the pretty regular piles of veggies I was eating.
Ingredients
1 medium yellow onion, cut in half and sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
4-5 medium round potatoes, unpeeled
1 good sized zucchini
2-3 medium Roma tomatoes
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, plus extra sprigs (substitute a couple healthy pinches of dried, rub in palms first to warm and release oils & aroma)
2 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated (Here we use Monterey Jack as Gruyere wasn’t available)
Instructions
So I have adjusted this to make enough for 2-3 people. The original recipe can be found on Ina’s website.
When shopping for your vegetables you really want to look for veggies of the same size in girth. When slicing your vegetables I find it useful to cut the potatoes thinner as they take longer to cook than zucchini and tomatoes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Slice vegetables and grate the cheese.
In a medium sauté pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil and cook the onions over medium-low heat for 8 to 10 minutes, until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Place the onion and garlic in the bottom of a prepared glass baking dish. I opted for the glass pie plate as it looks pretty and holds just enough for the two of us. Layer on top your vegetables alternating and be sure to fit them in snuggly and completing only one layer. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and thyme leaves. Drizzle with a swirl of olive oil.
Cover the dish with foil and bake until the potatoes are tender, approximately 45 minutes. Remove cover and sprinkle with cheese (or load it on as we like to do) and bake for 30 minutes or until golden. ENJOY!!
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May 13th, 2010
Well the last two days have been REALLY long days. Tuesday I went to work. I did such a great job of wrapping things up that I had nothing to do for the last hour that I was there. Yeah fun times, I had to stay to make sure everyone saw I was there. Then it was off to the bank, home to pack the coolers, load the car and get the dogs to the vet. That didn’t go as planned. Took 1 hour to get to the bank and home. SUCK! So finally at about 10 minutes until 6 pm we rolled out of our Arrington home south bound for the SPACE COAST!! We drove until Macaon GA, which was midnight local. Back up and on the road by 6:30 am in an attempt to get our KSC visitor center passes and spending some time there. WHOO HOO we made it. Oh but that presented a problem, my lack of clothes for this said event. Oh well there is always a Wal*Mart close by. So we spent the day at the space center then to our hotel, out to dinner back and some picture work. We left this morning before 7:30 am and this included showers, repacking, moving rooms, and loading the car.
So let me tell you about our facility and location. We are in a large white tent, with air cond, wi-fi at a nice 6-top round table with POWER!! The location, just a stones throw from the count down clock. NO REALLY. The other greatness, the car with our food and drinks is just a short walk away and there is a bathroom with FLUSHIES!!
Bandwidth here is shaky at best so picture loads may have to wait until tonight.
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January 2nd, 2010
So for the 3rd or 4th time I have made us some rather adult hot chocolate. I have to warn you this is not for the occasional chocolate lover, it’s rich, it’s thick and it contains booze. I believe that after KLT enjoyed a cup the other night he proclaimed that he needed a glass of milk to follow that.
INGREDIENTS
So I have tweaked this to get it to make 2 full coffee cups.
Fill 2 coffee mugs with hot water to preheat the cups. Get out your chocolate sprinkles, whipped cream or marshmallows.
In a small ramekin place the following and save for later.
2 1/2-3 teaspoons of Vanilla
2-3 Tablespoons of liqueur (Van Gough Double Espresso Vodka, Amaretto, Peppermint Schnapps – you pick your favorite)
6 oz of 60% cocoa chocolate (I used Ghirardelli )
1 cup of heavy cream
1 cup + of 2% Milk
Over medium heat melt the chocolate in the milk. STIR constantly until melted. Once melted keep stirring and simmer until a nice steam rolls off. Remove from heat and plunge your boat motor in if you’d like your hot chocolate to be frothy other wise just stir and add the contents of your ramekin.
Pour hot water out of mugs and fill with the chocolate goodness, top with your favorite things and serve.
Tags: chocolate
Posted in Beverages, FOOD, From the Kitchen, Holiday | Comments Off
December 29th, 2009
Well there was an ABRUPT move to Nashville TN in November. I know, I know you are sitting there shaking your head saying “WHAAAAT? You had been planning on moving for a year how was that abrupt?” Well the answer is yes of course we were closing on a house but I had no job and really really did intend on working by either working from home in KBNA or taking long stretches of vacation. But then I fell into a job. They moved very quick and I was surprised.
Here is what I have learned so far.
- NO ONE down here is in a hurray but KLT and I. Honest to God no kidding, they talk slow, they walk slow and they just do things nice and slow.
- Everyone is OMG nice. Like at first it really scared me. Everyone you pass in the store or in the office are like “Hi!”, “How Ya doin’ today?” and all with a nice southern drawl.
- When you add 1+2 together while shopping in the grocery store sometimes people run into you, bump your cart, walk out in front of me cause I am the one in a hurray and honest to goodness they stop and apologize. Something like “I’m sorray I didn’t sea YA”.
- They still help you out with your cart of groceries. No shit! They still push the cart for you and walk you to your car!
- Both of the Publix that I have been to have a REAL MEAT COUNTER with REAL MEAT CUTTERS.
- There really doesn’t seem to be a “dinner time” down here. Sometimes there is a wait and most of the time not. It’s not like in Lafayette where dinning between the hours of 5-7:30 pm could mean an hour wait at Texas Road House.
- Speaking of Texas Road House there is like 1 and it’s far far away.
- KLT drives like a jack ass on the interstate – no seriously.
- CHILDREN ARE ALLOWED in the bar areas of restaurants. WTF BBQ! Now where do I go to drink and swear?
- The sun shines down here a lot more than back home. I am in such good spirits these days and it’s all because I see the DAY STAR!
- I live a short distance from the George Jones. I will post pictures soon to prove it.
- Amerigo is becoming my new favorite restaurant.
- Cozeymel’s has an AWESOME agave cocktail.
- I think I am really going to LOVE it here.
Posted in Everyday Life | 2 Comments »
October 2nd, 2009
So I had this idea for a cupcake, I had been tinkering with the idea of strawberry cupcakes with Malibu butter cream frosting. I decided that the last time I had a strawberry cupcake it was too strong and fake tasting. Today was the day I decided to come home and give this recipe a try. I have to say I LOVE THEM!!!
Cupcakes
1 Strawberry boxed cake mix
1 c. Pineapple (used crushed in natural juice, I got about 1/4 cup of just juice out and put the fruit in the mini-processor)
1/3c. Oil
3 Eggs
Mix and bake as per box instructions. I didn’t want there to be stringy pieces of pineapple in my cupcakes so I used the food processor to get more of a puree. I am sure you could do this either way.
Once the cupcakes are cooled frost!
Frosting
6 cups of powdered sugar
1/2 c. of Coconut flavored rum (may take more or less)
1 tbl of clear vanilla
1.5 sticks of butter at room temp
Pinch of salt
Beat the butter with a mixer slowly add powdered sugar alternating with the liquid. I actually started with 4 cups, 1 stick and 6 TBL of rum but it wasn’t enough for the 20 cupcakes (yeah this time I didn’t get 2 dozen). If you thought that wasn’t going to be enough I would use 2 lb sugar, 2 sticks of butter, the same run & Vanilla and do the rest of your thinning with milk.
Now frost those bad boys and ENJOY!!
Tags: buttercream, Cake, cooking, cupcakes, dessert, FOOD, strawberry
Posted in FOOD, From the Kitchen | Comments Off
September 11th, 2009
Just recently I decided to really get serious about my blog again. I picked up some great ideas from Brent Ozar when he did an entire series on blogging. Awesome now I have some new tools and it’s time to start working out a new design. Before I could get started I was asked to write a blog post for the Lafayette Twestival. I was honored and scared to death. Me, a guest blogger? Much to my surprise I found it easy to write, so much so I had to leave things out and even not mention people that I adore. So here it is, but keep coming back because soon you might not even recognize this place!
http://lafayette.twestival.com/2009/09/11/i-know-there-is-someone-out-there-that-shares-your-interest/
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September 11th, 2009
I decided it was time I shared some of the greatest things I have ever learned. 
Filmy build up on glassware and plates
Let me start with the dishwasher. Did you stop using your dishwasher because it made all your glasses turn white and crusty? Well let me tell you the solution to this. CLR. Nope it’s that simple. I fill the prewash cup plus some full of CLR, pop the soap packet into the wash cup and check to be sure I have rinse aid. I do this every other wash if not every wash unless there are not many glasses and plates. If you have a big buil up on your dishes I recommend you fill the sink and get them good and clean to start. According to their package it’s safe.
Built up, dried up and otherwise nasty coffee stains on your coffee pot?
Wanna get your coffee pot clean without scrubbing? Well grab a couple handfulls of ice, pour in some lemon juice and add salt, swirl around to clean. Amazing how sparkling clean your coffee pot will be!
The best dish scraper, burned on food getter-offer EVAR!
All right this one is more of a confession that turned out to be a great idea. When I bought the house I spent many many months working on it room by room. This meant I had a lot of tools laying around. I was doing dishes and there was someting stuck in the dish, which totally annoyed me. I look in the other sink and there is a pile of tools that I had washed and left to dry. AH HA! I grab the plastic putty knife and use it to scrape stuff out of the dish. OMG! that was the best idea EVAR! From that day on the little yellow puty knife stayed with the other sink supplies.
Cheap cabinet upgrades you can do yourself.
Speaking of the little spatula did you know that you can retro fit your kitchen cabinets with high end modern options? Know those little “blocks” on the front of your cabinet just below the sink, yeah they can become very vital storage space. Run to the nearest hardware store and pick up a hardware kit. Come home grab your tools and prepare to be amazed. First you get to knock those little blocks out with a hammer,they are just glued in there.
Pick up the hardware kit from the local home improvement place and install the storage bins on the back side of your blocks. Next install the hardware that allows them to tip out. DO IT you will be so glad you did. Nothing like hiding all the stuff you don’t want to see yet have handy with out bending over to get it from under the sink.
Quick, eash and cheap French Manicure for your toes
Love french manicures but don’t have time to go get them done and painting that at home is nearly impossible? While this tip is useful it is not a long term kind of thing if you are busy like me. Nail polish hardly last a full 24 hours if I don’t have fake nails. Go to the nearest big box store with a craft department and buy yourself a white paint marker.
If you have med – long nail I recommend a medium tip, shorter nails get the fine tip. Prep your nails as you normally would including a base coat then get the paint pen flowing and paint a nice little white edge around the end of your nail. Wait for it to dry and apply a good top coat. Sometimes I use a pinkish top coat and then a clear super top coat to keep the polish from wearing off. It’s easy to touch up and looks great. I do this on my toes practically all summer as it is easy to quickly touch up and maintain. Your toes are far enough away that imperfections are not that noticeable.
Posted in Everyday Life, From the Kitchen | Comments Off
September 1st, 2009
Last summer I made Lemon Ginger Sorbetto probably for the same reason I am making it now. I needed a lemon and had to buy an entire bag. 
Last year I worked so hard scraping the freezing concoction every 30 minutes while this year I cheated and used the ice cream maker. Gotta love technology. This is a very refreshing and pallet cleansing dish. Even my mom liked it!
Really what you need:
1 Cup Sugar
6 Tbl Honey
3 Cups Water
1 Cup Lemon Juice (about 8, but you can measure and I filled in with the bottled stuff)
2″ peice of ginger
What you need to do:
Boil/heat water so it will dissolve the sugar. Add the honey. LET IT COOL! Meanwhile grate the 2″ piece of ginger into a nice little square of cheese cloth. TWIST, TWIST and TWIST to squeeze out 1 TBL of ginger juice. Once the hot liquid is cool (and by cool I recommend putting it in the fridge till it’s COLD) stir it all together and dump into your ice cream maker (follow its instructions) OR put into a shallow dish and scrape with a fork every 30 minutes.
So what’s really fun to do? Hollow out several of the lemon halves, make nice thin strips of lemon peel with a few and save your self a slice or two. Freeze the 1/2 lemons to make cups and serve your sorbetto in that with a lemon twist and mint leaf on the side.
Tags: cooking, dessert, FOOD, lemon, refreshing, sorbetto, summer
Posted in FOOD, From the Kitchen | Comments Off
August 28th, 2009
So you know I just really wanted to keep my site about useful information reciepes, prodcut and resturaunt reviews and the like. For some reason I just need to get this one off my chest and to be honest it’s not a big deal more like a splinter under my skin. Lately I have started increasing the number of people I am following on Twitter to include more of my hobbies and more of my work skills and that has brought on lost of new things to read. Most would find the information helpful, validating and new; I however have not. I really don’t mean to toot my own horn here but I am just so stinking tired of reading things being presented as OMG NEW! OMG NEW TRENDS in photography. I watched a video clip about the TOP 10 new trends in Photography. That was what pushed me over the edge. I watched the entire clip and loudly proclaimed HELLO AND WELCOME TO 4 YEARS AGO! Then I started reliving things and rememberd something to the effect of how to take good wedding photos and it was really mostly lame.
So I guess there is a market for all the usless knowledge I am carring around in my head. SO if you have seen my site and have any questions regarding any of the things I dable in please send me a line.
Tags: phototgraphy, RANT
Posted in Everyday Life, Photography, RANT | Comments Off