Food Blog: Cusina

[Squeat Mungry]

Great looking pie! That panini sounds good, too.

[ronnie_suburban]

That apple peeler does look like a lot of fun :-)

We have one too and it is

Beautiful pie Cusina.

=R=

[Cusina]

It was a tasty thing too, that pie. Like I said though, the crust was a bit too crisp, very cracker-like and it broke easily. Grandma's recipe called for lard and I subbed butter. Must not have made the translation well.

Squeat, I added The Food Taster to my list of books to read. It does sound good. Thanks for the tip!

I'm eating the very last malted milk ball from our trip to the candy store and damn, is it good.

Dinner tonight was at Red Robin. I had their classic cheeseburger and a salad with an apple crisp for dessert. For that genre of dining, it wasn't bad. It is awfully loud in there though. My son was a bit bewildered by the entire staff singing happy birthday to him, but he still seemed to enjoy the sundae they brought him.

Mom and I did the annual thanksgiving dinner plan tonight. The feast is at her house this year so she is doing the bird, stuffing (hers is marvelous), potatoes, gravy and rolls. I'm doing cranberry applesauce, sweet potatoes, a pecan pie and green beans. I think I'm going to do the beans this year with a cheese fondue like sauce and almonds.

I'm wiped out. Quite the busy day today and tomorrow will be even crazier, so I'm off, g'night.

[spaghetttti]

Hi Cusina,

Your son is absolutely gorgeous!

I am enjoying your blog very much...that pie looks like it smelled good, too!

[snowangel]

Enjoy (?) the birthday party. A note...Peter's birthday is Nov. 29. I leave every Thanksgiving afternoon (whether I've eaten the Turkey Feast or not) to a posh resort on the North Shore of Lake Superior with three close college friends. The only birthday I've been around for was Peter's first. I leave that to The Dad and Husband. 'Tis a good thing. Until Peter pointed out that in 2004, 2005 and 2006 I will be in town for his birthday. When he informed The Dad and Husband of this fact, Paul calmly looked at me and said "payback is a bitch."

Lard is the way to go for pie crust. Savory or sweet. Word.

At my local asian market, if I'm lucky, I can get "store rendered" (as opposed to hormel or armour or whatever name brand, in a nice shiny container) lard. Yes, I'm lucky. If they've got it, I buy it and freeze it.

[mighty quinn]

Oooooo, I almost forgot to tell you all this great thing!

Went to a closeout store today and found a beautiful red le creuset 10" cast iron skillet for $40. Woo hoo! Nothing like a good bargain I tell you. Can't wait to use it.

cusina-cool to see someone else gets excited about discount cookware!! was the store"tuesday morning?" also cool to see that i cook my brats the Lambeau Field way. would love to visit your neck of the woods, but in the summer...i hear that the mosquitoes in wisconsin are some of the biggest around. fact or fiction??

[Cusina]

Oooooo, I almost forgot to tell you all this great thing!

Went to a closeout store today and found a beautiful red le creuset 10" cast iron skillet for $40.  Woo hoo!  Nothing like a good bargain I tell you.  Can't wait to use it.

cusina-cool to see someone else gets excited about discount cookware!! was the store"tuesday morning?" also cool to see that i cook my brats the Lambeau Field way. would love to visit your neck of the woods, but in the summer...i hear that the mosquitoes in wisconsin are some of the biggest around. fact or fiction??

Quinn, My pan did indeed come from a tuesday morning store. That place is like a treasure hunt. So much crap, but every once in a while a serious jewel. As fpr the mosquitos... well, the real title goes to snowangel over there in 'sota. Ours are pesky, it's true, but nothing like the monstrosities they have over there. ;) I think Wisconsin is beautiful in the summer, especially Door County and the Kettle Morraine area. Worth a visit, but I might be biased.

Thanks spaghetti, he is a doll. Those blue eyes get me every time.

Speaking of treasure hunts, I have to set one up for the party. Woo hoo! I think it might be tomorrow before I get back to this blog, but I'll let you all know how it works out.

[Cusina]

Whew, success! Everyone seemed to have a good time.

Lunch was great pizza from a local pizzaria. I had two slices of the gourmet vegetarian which had olives, peppers, onions, artichoke hearts, zucchini and some other really good stuff on it. The meal rounded out with fruit salad, baby carrots and of course, birthday cake. Thomas the tank engine from the local bakery.

Whee ha!

[guajolote]

are you watching the badgers? they're looking pretty good.

[kimabima]

Great writing Cusina! I love getting a glimpse into the livs of others (especially when it's about food). I once asked a friend what she was having for dinner. She gave me such a strange look and then I realized she thought I was hinting for an invite!!! No I just like talking about food!

I can't see any of the photos. Can someone tell me why that might be???

[GG Mora]

I can't see any of the photos. Can someone tell me why that might be???

Me too neither. Just get a text line that says "user posted image". But it's intermittent. I've seen the cherubic child, the carefully pre-opped chicken, and the brilliant new pan. Now I can't get any of the images to load.

Hey, Cusina, hold your breath -- I'll hit the deck in the morning.....

[Cusina]

Thanks GG Mora, I'm really looking forward to reading your blog. Take it away!

This has been a lot of fun. Writing down what you eat and how it impacts you is an interesting exercise. Good food for thought, literally even.

I'll go out with a bang. Last night was Sesame Street Live, during which I consumed 1 Miller Lite and a handfull of plain M&Ms. Afterwords we came home, put the kids to bed and I had some of that awesome dark chocolate and two fingers of scotch. Healthy living at it's finest!

Where else in the nation do they serve beer at Sesame Street Live? In hindsight that is just plain weird, but hey, I was happy they did.

Hope you all enjoyed this glimpse of North Eastern Wisconsin and my life. Thanks for joining me and giving me great feedback. eGullet is a damn cool spot.

~Cusina

p.s. The Badgers blew it... ah well. Maybe the Pack will do better today. And if you can't see the photos you might want to check that cookies are enabled for this site on your browser. Not sure if that's the issue, but it couldn't hurt.

[Squeat Mungry]

Thanks for a great blog, Cusina! Hope you enjoyed writing it as much as I've enjoyed reading it!

What kind of scotch? Dewar's is my ordinary, though I do enjoy the single malts when I feel like splurging.

Cheers, and thanks again!

Squeat

[ronnie_suburban]

Thanks again Cusina...it was a pleaure

=R=

[Toliver]

Noooo, it can't be over, yet.

We haven't heard how the treasure hunt birthday party came off.

And we need the recipe for the Mississippi Mud Cake.

Please?

[Cusina]

Tolliver, sorry. I didn't mean to leave you hanging!

The treasure hunt went really well. I took pictures of obscure things in our house and used them as clues. The kids had a great time scrambling around finding their prizes. It was cool as the kidlets ranged in age from 3 to 9, and I was worried about finding something that would amuse them all. The pizza lunch was awesome, this particular pizzaria does the best za this side of chicago. Delicious! Total treat for us. The cake was, well, a bakery cake. Next time I need to do one from scratch but I caved in and let him pick one out of the glossy picture book at the grocery instead. I found it ironic that the side of the box said "we use only the finest ingredients". The icing on that cake was so blue it hurt. How that can possibly qualify as the "finest" I have no idea... Didn't seem to faze the kids though, they loved showing off their blue tongues.

And I'll PM you the Mud Cake recipe. I can't say for sure if there are copywrite issues with it, so better safe than sorry I think.

Now, go read GG Mora's blog, she's off to a great start!

~Cusina