Tom Jones cast party update

Well, as Robbie Burns used to say, “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men, Gang aft agley”.
Due to lack of ingredients, there’s gonna be a couple of changes to the menu.  I had no luck getting a lamb shoulder.  Drat.  I’ve always wanted to do that.  Big ‘ol hunk roasting in the oven, with [...]

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Tom Jones cast party / Charmed’s (my) Birthday

Lucky and I are in the local production of Red Mask’s production “Tom Jones”.  Tech week has arrived.  As per tradition, cast parties occur usually at one of the cast and crew’s house, post-show.  Much rumination and ribbing over flubbed lines and “long pauses” ensue, with the help of a little libation and nibbles.
The production [...]

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Simple Sides

Ok, sometimes you just don’t have time to have your two veg and meat quickly prepared.  The next couple of posts are  easy side dishes I throw together, when I’m short on time.  Remember, make the most of your “pre-cooked / prepared ingredients” a.k.a leftovers…
Red and Green Rice
This is the easy use for left over [...]

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Fridge Cleaning, again… Zucchini with Shiitake stuffing and homemade tomato sauce

Yep, at it again…  Time to clean out “Ye Olde Refridgerator Bins”.  Add this to the fact that I’ve gone “low meat” lately, which makes it quite a challenge.
So here’s what I came up with.  I had four zucchini needing to be used up.  I had a poor wilted and floppy celery stalk, along with [...]

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End of Summer, end of fresh herbs, maybe…

So as per normal, the end of the summer season provides me with a quandry.  What do I do with my herbs that need to be brought inside?  Usually, this means I bring them in and hope that they can get enough sunlight in the office as to stay mildly productive.  Unfortunately, what normal happens [...]

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Gazpacho Romesco

End of summer means oodles of tomatoes.  So here is a recipe to use some of that victory garden bonanza.  This was inspired by my time spent in Madrid which pushed me to make Romesco sauce.  Romesco is a sauce of fire roasted tomatoes, onion, red pepper, nora chile, and garlic.  It is seasoned with [...]

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TV Debut : Chilis, Soups and Stews 09 March 2009

Here’s a quick draft of snips of my TV debut on PBS at WILL-TV for their special presentation, Chilis, Soups and Stews.  Thanks to Lisa over at Taste of Champaign who posted this opportunity on her blog.  I went ahead and submitted a couple of recipes.  WILL then took the recipes and made a cookbook [...]

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The Wisdom of the Cookie

I’m not one to put a lot of stock into oracles of any kind, however, for some reason, I’ve had a penchant for saving my fortunes from cookies recently.  I’m easily amused, perhaps, but the random prophecies have been eerie as of late. 
I offer you the following sage bits (lucky numbers not included):
1 – “Your [...]

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Refrigerator cleanin’ leads to the best yummies…

Charmed is a culinary genius.  I accept this.  I am lucky to be able to make spaghetti (boil noodles, open jar of sauce to simmer in separate pan – dinner’s ready when noodles are cooked.) so to open the fridge, survey the contents and pull together a meal of the bits is like….well, amazing to [...]

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Thank you, Johnny Paycheck!

I finally did it.  I got up the nerve to say (politely), “Take this job and shove it.”
After many months of soul-searching (and complaining!) I wrote the letter and said goodbye.  While I will miss the people I worked with, the management (or lack thereof) will not be a sad loss. 
To those of you who [...]

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