Zombie Land, The New Detroit? Your Thoughts....

Look, you can almost see the RenCen! There must be a concert at Cobo, look at the lines!

Do You Like Music, How About the Blues.

I did a post not long ago about my favorite baseline favorites. I mentioned B.B. King and Robert Cray in the same sentence, and stated that I thought Robert Cray could possibly be in the same league as B.B. This is an excellent video of four guitar legends. Where is Robert Cray? I guess I must be wrong.

I have always loved the blues, growing up with 11 brothers and sisters could have something to do with it. Anytime you said "can I have" the auto response was "NO". My first musical instrument was of course, the Harmonica, I wrote a song about my sister Mary, but it's still not ready for prime time. I have a "we were so poor"story. One winter we couldn't afford to heat our house, and since my brother Joey was the only one that had a pair of sneakers, my mother would make him run around the block three times. When he got back from his run, he would take his sneakers off and we would all gather around the sneakers, and warm our hands.

Now back to business, I am so pumped to tell you this, I can't wait, this is so huge, I'm so excited, oh,oh the phones ringing and the puppy needs to go out, rug or phone? Rug! If you want to see pictures of our Aussie "Katy" it was on my last post. On April 23rd 2013, at DPAC in Durham NC. at 7pm, one half hour from where I'm typing, only a half hour from Raleigh NC, the Capital city, 20 minutes from Sam's club and Trader Joes, 18 minutes from Petsmart and BJ's Wholesale club, did I mention Bed Bath and Beyond?

B.B. King and Robert Cray are together on the same stage at DPAC (Durham Performing Arts Center)  To see these two together playing at the same venue is incredible to me.

My favorite bass guitarist, Bernard Harris, give a listen.

Til next time~

Yorkshire Pudding, Simple Food, Family Loves It!

Made These Thanksgiving Day

Growing up in Boston, we were taught about the British Red Coats, Paul Revere, the Minutemen, the Boston Tea Party all the events that led us to become a "Free United States". Some customs left with the "yankee" culture, drinking tea instead of coffee is  favored among locals. Za-rex instead of Kool-aid. Dinner is called "suppa"and the bathroom is called the "pissa" which is the second word in describing something fabulous. Something fabulous in Boston speak is of course, "wicked pissa"

I remember every Sunday, my mother would make Sunday dinner. She timed it just right,  home from Mass, a beautiful roast beef with roasted potatoes, baked Italian tomatoes and Yorkshire pudding. It was named after Yorkshire, England, I would guess, with a pat of butter and beef gravy, the stuff is to die for. One thing we always did was save the salad for last, almost like dessert. The reason that made the most sense to me, some of the heavy duty Italian meals, spaghetti and meatballs for example could use a little help in the digestion process, the roughage that salad provides, makes sense. I've looked at a lot of video concerning the proper way to make Yorkshire Pudding, this one came the closest. I'll let you watch it and then I'll give you my recipe, which is similar but with a few Boston tips. He's very close. My little secrets are add an extra egg or two, measuring is unnecessary. Batter should have the consistency of pancake batter, Whisk until all lumps are gone. I use Jumbo cupcake tins . Preheating the pan, #1 most important, Preheat oven to 425 degrees, I use melted butter to grease the cups. Fill  cups 3/4 full. Butter should be almost smoking when the pan is hot enough. If you want the pudding cups darker in color add a drop or two of Kitchen Bouquet seasoning sauce. Oven roasted potatoes were also part of our Sunday tradition. Happy Holidays to you all and enjoy or endure you families for the holidays! I'll put up the roasted potato recipe for you.



"Simple" Cookie Making Tips for the Holidays and Every Day

• Read through the recipe and check the ingredients, pan sizes and any special requirements, such as chilling the dough. Be sure to measure all the ingredients accurately and always preheat the oven before baking. Oven temp. 325 degrees (wait for the beep.beep...beep)
• To easily shape drop cookies, use an ice cream scoop with a release bar. The bar usually has a number on it indicating the number of scoops that can be made from one quart of ice cream. The handiest size is a #80 to #90 scoop. This will yield about one rounded teaspoon full of dough for each cookie.
• When a recipe calls for greasing the cookie sheets,  use shortening or a nonstick cooking spray. What I use is parchment paper instead of greasing. It eliminates clean-up, bakes the cookies more evenly and allows them to cool right on the paper. I have three cooling locations, when they first come out, I lay the paper (hold paper, pull edges until paper  lays flat and put on cooling rack on the left counter) Put the next batch in and move the cookies you just took out, and lay them on another counter to the right counter on a cooling rack and repeat, over and over until you're happy with the number of cookies. Once you get the rhythm,they can go in gift boxes or refreeze for a later time. They will freeze well for 60 days.
• For even baking and browning, bake cookies in the center of the oven. If heat distribution in your oven is uneven, turn the cookie sheet halfway through the cooking time.



Christmas Cookies



Old Fashioned Chocolate Chip

• Most cookies bake quickly and should be watched carefully to avoid over baking. It is better to slightly under bake, rather than over bake cookies

Cookies should bake, edges should start to brown 12 minutes Max. Then take them out! Simple recipe for the simple man or woman!  I love being a simple man.Enjoy the video, thanks for looking and Happy Holidays!

Master Chef, A Sell Out if I ever saw one

Give me a break ! Joe the absolute "King of Cuisine" has torn contestants apart about their cooking attempts, not meeting his standards, Gordon with his comments about quality and "Standards". The only guy that's genuine on this show is the Fat guy!
Let's go back to the show where they first mentioned Wal-Mart quality beef. I asked are you kidding me, forgive me I get caught up in the show, I thought if this is a trend, this show and the guys in it can go to hot place!
Last episode for me was "Cooking on the Trail" with Wal-Mart steaks. You know it would be different, yet still  unforgivable, if they needed ratings, but they don't. I didn't know these guys were for sale, but as far as I'm concerned, Kitchen Nightmares, Hells Kitchen and anything else Mr. Ramsey and his buddies put their blessing on, can Kiss my butt!
Their credibility is out the window with me, the spirit and hearts of  people have been ruined by these clowns.
 I was about ready to shut down Hells Kitchen anyway. Too many F bombs, so little time. The whole concept is beginning to looked staged to me. Are those  people real? Do they really cook in restaurants? Now, the only time we "eat out" is on the patio! The restaurant business is dead, I have a good friend that has to close his place at 3 pm, breakfast is his busy time. Time for new hope and change, the sooner the  better!!

What a crock of poop! Where's Gordon?

What happened to the aging process, the quality purveyors, USDA Prime, everybody and their brother sells USDA Choice. Is Wal-Mart now the "Peoples Choice"? Far from it, Wal-Mart beef sales pretty much suck, and they lured these guys into giving Wal-Mart credibility, the only thing achieved here, was them losing theirs!  Look at Joe's expression at the end, it's like. thank God I didn't say it!

I just got back from a trip to Wal-Mart, Strip Steak and Rib Eye @ $11.49 a Lb. Filet Mignon $14.49 a Lb. Presentation, pre-packaged, looks terrible. Looks nothing like steak presented on video. 1/2 inch steaks on a grill will never cook right. 3/4 or 1 inch steaks will finish properly and at the right doneness. Remember "standards" according to Chef Ramsey. Do they think all home cooks are morons? Picked up these Strip steaks at a local Super market (Harris Teeter) $7.99 a Lb.(on sale) and I hand picked them from the meat case, from a butcher. They were fabulous!  Photo enclosed. Look, I'm not picking on Wal-Mart, but the meat business is way out of their league. Stick to what you do best, screwing over the little guys.
Newsflash! Wal-Mart is the exclusive vendor to Master Chef, produce, meat, everything! Adios, Mu chachos!


(editing requested by my grandkids)

What's That I'm Smellin'?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Perfect Watermelon

Pontiac "Goat Trailer"
Posted 10/12/11

I remember as if it were yesterday, I was driving down I-94 in the  now famous Pontiac "Goat Trailer"It was very warm that day 90 degrees and the AC wasn't working but I did have a back up. In those days we called it a "460" (4 windows down at 60 miles per hour) At that time I was working at the Chevrolet plant in Ypsilanti (pronounced Ipsilati). It was a huge plant which at that time built the biggest POS ever to take the open road, The Chevrolet Nova. The Covair was made and put to rest there. So we were 2 for 2.

This was a very hostile union plant and if you weren't driving a GM product bad things would accidentally happen to your ride, if you know what I mean. Any Ford product parked in the plant lot was a car fire waiting to happen.





Lepus Everywhere!

I'm getting way off track here. Back to the story, my wife worked for a small local grocery in nearby Belleville and she would always take stuff home to feed the goats, horses and rabbits. I say rabbits because my wife didn't want them caged up. So one day we opened their cage and let them run free.


"Honey Wagon"

 I keep Dejevuing, any way I'm driving down I-94 and I keep smelling a "Honey Wagon" (garbage truck) behind me, in front of me, beside me, I was awash in stink! But I was the only car on the road, I'm thinking. the goat poop and pee has somehow returned with a vicious vengeance, I felt like Seinfeld after the BO guy." I've gotta sell this car". It kept getting worse and worse. I finally pulled into the driveway, did a Capt Kirk onto the drive way and  I could still smell it. It was coming from the car! A very strange feeling came over me. Could it be, no, could it be coming from the trunk, did she kill somebody at work and forgot about the body. I was afraid to open it. I finally did, The whole trunk was full of the most stinky, rotten watermelons you ever smelt.
When she finally came home, I asked her about it. Her response "I got them free from work, they were for the animals, I forgot about them!" I asked how long ago did you get them. "about a month ago" Another mystery solved. Wait until you hear the "Horse Apple" story! Oh! my wife wrote a song about me. Take a listen.
til next time