shrek

Oh my, that last post was truly awful Several years ago, my soon to be SIL and her boyfriend decided they wanted to have a Grey Cup party(the Canadian equivalent to the Superbowl) so she invited several of us to come watch the game and have dinner. The menu was roast beef, roasted carrots and potatoes, and gravy. Sounds OK, right? Seems pretty basic. Well as we have since found out, her attention span is that of a gnat, and her patience and attention to detail are sadly lacking. She put the roast in at 400F because she changed her mind about the timing for dinner, and decided to throw the carrots and potatoes in with the roast to save time. Two hours later she informs the gathering that she has decided to go out, because she doesn't like football, and we should take the roast out of the oven in an hour and a half and go ahead and eat. She never mentioned that she had turned the oven up. So when the boyfriend opens the oven to take out the roast it looks like an old boot, and the carrots have disappeared,and the potatoes are hollow. Crispy skin, with nothin' inside. We tried to eat the meat, but it was impossible to chew. So the boyfriend says, well we have chocolate cake for dessert. So we cut up the cake and bite into it, and it is overcooked, dried out and tastes like cardboard. The guys resorted to licking the icing off and tossing the cake. We opened some potato chips and that was dinner. She has now been my SIL for fifteen years and while her culinary skills have somewhat improved, dinner at their house is still pretty hit and miss, depending on her attention span that day. We usually eat a large, late lunch, and then if the offering is inedible we aren't starving for hours.

Cuisinart toaster, Sunbeam two cup coffeepot, Kitchen aid Mixer, Panasonic Bread machine, and a Cuisinart food processor are currently residing on my kitchen countertop. They all get used weekly, some daily.

I too go for Pho when I have a cold. The other thing I crave is potato chips. But then I crave potato chips most of the time any way.

I often give cookies as a gift. My friends have been known to raid my freezer in search of cookies. I also like to give a small bottle of 8 year old balsamic vinegar as a gift.

I too grew up with the iceberg, tomato, cucumber salad, and to this day the only salad my father will eat is iceberg lettuce, with well chilled tomatoes cut in wedges, covered with Kraft french dressing, sprinkled liberally with table salt. We had a garden and grew all of our vegetables, but for some strange reason all of the salad components had to be nearly frozen before they could be made into a salad. Blech.

Barbequed chicken, french green beans, baby red potatoes, and tomato with buffalo mozzarella, dressed with basil, EVOO and balsamic vinegar. I took the picture of the tomato with my Palm, hope it is clear enough to see.

A ripe, juicy freestone peach for breakfast. Yum.

I usually make food I like, but there aren't too many foods i don't like. I often try to make dishes that I know my guests probably wouldn't have tried before, just to give them a new experience.