August 26th, 2009
I was watching a local station while visiting Nashville last week and over the lunch hour saw some recipes for summer time beverages. Well it’s been hot down there for a while but it was perfect timing for this Indiana girl.
What normally happens is they use crazy ingredients you don’t have, expensive ones you won’t buy or they leave out some sort of detail. Of course here it was the details. So after some testing, I know such a sucky job to have here is what I came up with.
Ingredients
3 oz of Vodka
3.5 oz of sweet and sour -see below (store bought is good too)
1 oz of Blackberry Sangria -see below
4 mint leaves and 1 for a garnish
Pour ingredients into a shaker, SHAKE and pour into tall ice filled glass.
Take the garnish mint leaf and spank it (you know place it in your palm and smack with the other hand) now lay it on top of your drink. You could asd a splash of diet 7UP. ENJOY!!! *This is a revision. At first I was making 1/2 as much, straining and serving in a chilled martini glass. VERY elegant but difficult to balance and it was to good to sip.
Blackberry Sangria
1 cup frozen blackberries
1/2 cup of boiling water
1/4 cup sugar – this can be adjusted to your sweetness likings
Place blackberries and sugar in heat safe container add boiling water. Let sit until dissolved. Place in blender and liquefy. I also used this same recipe with frozen strawberries, KLT enjoyed it.
Sweet and Sour
1 part simple syrup (2 parts water & 3 part sugar)
1 part lemon juice
Tags: FOOD
Posted in Beverages, Everyday Life, FOOD, From the Kitchen, mixology | Comments Off
August 6th, 2009
Well the Mojito is a special drink and many are confused when I tell them what is in mine but let me explain. A while back we were at the Venetian in glorious Las Vegas Nevada, it was FREAKING HOT. I don’t care how many times you tell me it’s a dry heat 110 degrees is TERRIBLE and when you are 5’4.5″ like me you are close to the black pavement and the heat being bounced back at you. We decided to go sit by the pool for a bit one afternoon. Armed with a wad of cash I ordered a Mediterranean Mojito like the girl next to me just had delivered. We spoke about it and I fell more in love with it, so much so I could hardly wait for it’s delivery! KLT was mortified that I would spend FIFTEEN dollars on a drink. But let me tell you it was worth every penny. My culinary and bartender skills let me sip, savor and detail every taste in that glass. So much so I was able to quickly recreate the drink at home. ENJOY!
10 medium mint leaves (you be the judge it is all about how you like it)
1/2 a small – regular sized lime in two slices
1.5 ounces of Captain Morgan (or Sailor Jerry if you are a fan)
diet 7 up (regular if that is your wish) This beats adding sugar and tyring to get it dissolved.
OJ
Mash the mint leaves (I choose stem and all) – the technical term is bruise add the lime slices and squish with our muddler. Place this mash into the bottom of your glass, fill with ice (this helps keep the leaves down), add your rum.
Fill with 7 up and splash with orange juice. Now the organge juice is a nice touch but you can totally leave it out if it’s not available. You won’t miss it after a couple.
Now let me tell you about mint. It is a weed. You should not plant it direcetly in the yard or else you will end up wit a yard full of mint. Plant it in a bucket with the bottom cut out and then plant that in your landscape. Keep it trimmed. My mint is in pots, however they did not survive the harsh Indiana weather. Let’s hope things work out better this year. Mint propgates easily, just clip some off and place in water, it will root in a matter of days.
Tags: captain morgan, drinks, mint, Mojito, summer drinks
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July 13th, 2009
I have heard from many people that taking the train to Chicago is a PIA. Don’t do it the train is always late. But then others tell me they did it all the time and it was a great experience. So here is what happened.
Upon arriving at the Lafayette Station some older gentleman who had a child in tow announced that the train was 2 hours late. I ask several questions as I have t plane to catch in Chicago. We were told that at 8 am they would be calling to tell us if they were sending a bus or not. At 8 am no decision on the bus AND the train is now 2-4 hours late, hasn’t even left Ohio. The child in tow thought it would be funny to hit the automatic door opener and hit my friend in the ass with the door. When the older gentleman, who we assumed works for Amtrak was asked a question the little boy would sometimes shout out answers. Like we asked “Can we get a refund on the ticket?” Little boy “NO!”. Awesome experience should of listened to everyone who told me the train was a bad idea.
Then while I am waiting to figure out what to do next I contact Amtrak to see how to get my money back and I am told to take my ticket back to the counter. But we don’t have a ticket counter. They guy on the phone seriously said “well how did you get your ticket then?”. Shouldn’t he know these things. So this brings me to the rest of my dismay. WHAT?! I have to pay money to send you my ticket and wait for a refund.
Email sent today to through their website. Response is “sorry” and we are sending this to customer relations. Oh BTW: “Due to higher than normal volume, please allow up to four weeks for a response.” <-more awesome!
Posted in Everyday Life, RANT | Comments Off
June 22nd, 2009
So we decided that upon our “late” arrival to PHX we’d skip the pizza joint and try an irish pub for dinner. I had discovered a place called Rula Bula but once we got into the shuttle the young male driver asked us what kind of place do we like? He followed it up with “party type bar” or a “local joint”. OH YEAH those are words we are always looking to hear. LOCAL JOINT PLEASE! So we ended up at Casey Moore’s which is an Oyster House. That explains the menu.
It was a pretty dark and local joint, you could just tell by all the people sitting at the bar having a good time.
KLT had the halibut dinner special that came with veggies and rice and I had a burger with swiss cheese and fries. VERY good food. Service however was slow. The menu is full of seafood. There was nothing seemingly Irish about the place and nothing on the menu but beer was Irish. There meals seemed to be well thought out and detailed for a pub. But hey that’s a bonus for us, right?
I am not sure this is the kind of place you’d want to visit during the school year, unless of course you like the college campus bar atmosphere.
Tags: AZ, Casey Moore's, FOOD, Phoenix, PHX, pub, Restaurant Review
Posted in Everyday Life, FOOD, Restaurant Review, Vacation | Comments Off
June 21st, 2009
Last summer I discovered Mexican Popsicles, Paletas while watching TV. There was a restaurant that sold them in any flavor you wanted. Funny that place is in Nashville, TN. Las Paletas. When it’s hot out everyone wants something cool and refreshing but what I discovered was that fruit bars and diet ice cream bars were not all the healthy and were loaded with calories. So I thought I would give this Paletas thing a try.
So easy! You will be glad you took the time to make them. I actually have 3 or 4 molds so that I can make a big batch of them all at once. Today let’s explore Banana Paletas. Bananas are a good source of potassium which is probably important as you wear yourself out working in the blazing heat.
Here is all you need:
Popsicle mold (4-6)
2 ripe bananas
1/4 c Sugar
1 t. Vanilla
1 c Milk (I used 2% cause that is what we like)
Today got lazy and put it all in the blender.
Sometimes I just mash them in a measuring cup and stir until sugar is dissolved. It’s really hard to credit this recipe to anywhere because everywhere has it. So you are asking yourself “Where is the Tammy addition?” Well it’s actually in the assembly of our paletas. What goes with bananas? Chocolate and Peanut butter. So fill the molds about 1/4 full then drizzle in chocolate syrup and softened peanut butter (about 15 seconds for a tablespoon in the microwave). Add more paleta mix and drizzle again if you like. You will not be disappointed.
Tags: banana, cooking, dessert, FOOD, frozen, paletas, popsicle, summer
Posted in Everyday Life, FOOD | Comments Off
June 20th, 2009
So I am really far behind. I can’t really come up with a reason except that I just lost my motivation. Suddenly things are picking up around here and instead of doing something constructive I am going to give you a special treat!
I love strawberry shortcake and since NOW is the time to get your fresh strawberries it just felt like a good idea to seek out a recipe for chocolate short cakes. You know nothing goes better with strawberries than whipped cream and chocolate. After making adaptions twice to a recipe I found in FOODTV magazine I finally think I found one worthy of sharing. Next time I will add both baking soda and powder to see if I can get a little lighter taller version. Warning it looks like devils food but is dense.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Cake, chocolate cake, cooking, dessert, FOOD, shortcake, strawberries
Posted in Everyday Life, FOOD | Comments Off
May 23rd, 2009
WOW! It’s 10 pm and I have finally sat down for the evening. What did we accomplish today? We left Lake Havasu City and headed for Blythe to see the Palo Verde Dam. A quick sit down at another Mexican resturaunt. BTW you can’t go 2 feet without seeing a local Mexican Resturaunt. Then to 310 to Yuma, ok not really we took interstate 8. Check in at the hotel and then a quick trip to the Imperial Dam. OH but to get there you had to drive throught the Yuma Proving Grounds. Awesome! Back to the hotel to clean up and then it’s dinner at Burgers and Beer. Oh but we aren’t done yet. We drove “down town” to make a quick visit at the local F.O.E. #398.
Far to sleepy to create a proper blog post with pictures so hopefully this will keep you on your toes till tomorrow or so.
Posted in Everyday Life, Vacation | Comments Off
May 22nd, 2009
Well getting here was no treat. Wednesday I waited patiently at KLT’s apartment packing, cleaning and prepping for our afternoon departure. It had apparently not been much of a good day for KLT and he was pretty much off line. At about 10 minutes till 4 or so I got really mad and called him. NOT GOOD! And of all times to be a line at luggage check in. I sent KLT ahead to get through security, I figure they’d hold the plane if one of us was there and not the other. I RAN through the airport and really wanted to KILL him. Oh well once again we made it and everything was fine.
We arrive in Phoenix and wow was it HOT. Amazing it’s just not been that warm at home yet. We totally abused the Hyatt Place free shuttle for a ride from the airport, a ride to dinner and a ride to get our rental car in the morning. Renting the car the next morning saved us a whole day rental. SWEET!
CaseyMoore’s was our dinner choice based on the recommendation of the shuttle driver. It was really good. The Guinness went down quickly! I had a bloody burger with swiss cheese and KLT had the dinner special of Halibut. Large plates of food and a great local place. Nice outdoor patio to boot.
Hyatt Place is at the top of the list of favorite places to stay. The BED is amazing, the rooms are clean and spacious.
Thursday morning it was off to get the rental car then on the road to visit our first dam in Lake Havasu City. We made our stop at Wal*mart to get lunch, water, diet coke and cliff bars. By noon we had reached Parker Dam. We were saddened by the new rules that had apparently been put in place for security since 911. You can drive across the dam very slow but you can’t stop. You can’t walk across the dam. All of the pull off parking places are covered in cob webs and the informational signs are all faded. Really makes me sad to think that this is something that belongs to the people but we can’t enjoy it. I mean good greif you could load the trunk full of explosives and blow up in the middle but you can’t walk across. After talking to the gate lady she directed us up the road to a fishing spot so we could see the dam and get pictures.
Really tired took a nap instead of doing pictures and blog posting. 
So tomorrow I will tell you all about the OMG mexican food.
Posted in Vacation | Comments Off
May 18th, 2009
OH I know I have sat here before and told everyone that I am getting caught up and I am getting my groove back only to fail. But let me give you a few spoilers!!! This week I am working from home in Nashville. Wednesday evening we are jumping on a Southwest bound for Phoenix AZ. Thursday morning we <strike>steal</>get our car and head for Lake Havasu, Friday it’s off to Yuma, AZ, Saturday we return to Phoenix and fly out on Sunday returning to Nashville. Then on Tuesday I will depart for LAF all by my lonesome. So this means there are going to be daily blog post, picture uploads and some restaurant reviews! I even have a product to test and review while we are out. I am REALLY behind on food post. WOW is there a back log.
So there you have it!
Posted in Everyday Life, Vacation | Comments Off
April 8th, 2009
With KLT living most of the time in Nashville cooking has just about come to a halt around here. Why cook for just me? Who wants to eat left overs for weeks on end? This has really lead me to research cooking for the purpose of preserving. Most importantly freezing. This has been a great adventure and at least I make an excuse to cook which is something I love and most importantly I actually eat. So Beef Veggie Soup sounded like a good idea to work in before the weather breaks and it becomes too warm for soup.
I started with a large arm roast, yes it was some Charlie.
Season with salt and pepper (or steak seasoning) and brown on both sides using an oven safe pan.
Add you basic vegetables used for making stock Onion, garlic, carrots, celery, and seasonings (bay leaves, more salt and pepper, tyme you pick the mix) and water. Place lid on and put in oven (350 degrees) until meat is tender, depending on size an hour. This one was probably in the oven 2 – 2.5 hours. WARNING: Your house will smell totally awesome and cause hunger. 
Strain out veggies and unfortunately discard (feeding them to the dogs is an option) reserve the stock this is the base of your soup. Place meat on plate and cool. Once cool shred the meat or cut into chucks as you prefer. In our soup it’s shredded. Now to make the soup. Here is where your imagination can run wild adding your vegetables. I had an entire bag of frozen mixed veggies that needed a use otherwise I would be cutting veggies at this point. But add what you like. I added extra corn and green beans because those are my favorites. You can also cube potatoes and even add a few tomatoes. Today it’s just the mix, a potato or two and the beef. Noodles of your choice would also be a great option, even barley is nice. Bring your broth/stock to a boil and add veggies, noodles, potatoes and cook until tender. Add your shredded beef and serve.
To store for use later after the soup is cool, I waited until the next day. Place in vacuum seal bags, seal and freeze flat. To serve thaw (place in a bowl of hot water until breakable) and place in pot on med – low heat until warm.
Tags: beef, cooking, FOOD, soup
Posted in Everyday Life, FOOD | Comments Off