Substitute Dr.

   I got to play doctor. Well kinda of. Yes, I had to sit in for a doctor whom I don’t know. A radiologist to be exact. Truly speaking I was a recipient of a V.I.P. pass to a wine and food jubilee.  Every year my good neighbor puts me on ticket call, saying that there might be two tickets/passes to the local wine and food jubilee for myself and my wife. We usually get at least a six to four hour notice for this event. This time we had the tickets weeks in advance. But these ticket were V.I.P. passes. Quite an upgrade from previous event. This pass came with a limo, a hotel suite, a carnival and we got in an hour earlier than the pedestrian jubilee’ers…….” Yeah Baby ! ” It was very well organized with food, wine, boutique beers, raffles, and an arcade where you could wine tickets bonking automated burrowing rodents.  the tickets that you won could be turned in for prizes. Prizes Yeah. Not your typical plastic backgammon set from Indonesia. But more adult style prizes. I noticed the prize change when my when seeing my wife with an armload or Chardonnays. I exclaimed . “Wow !   Do they have  Pro V’s “? ….”Pro what’s “?…. “Nothing Dear…..Nice booty..” NICE WHAT….who’s ? “…” Forget about it ” After the festivites we limo’d to the hotel for a restful night sleep with 9 pillow on the bed. Must all be part of those vip-passes along with the ubiquitous breakfast they serve at these places.

RANT TIME

 ” Come people can’t anyone get creative.” Every one of these establishments has the same menu. It’s like all they got the ” Cooking For A Crowd Cookbook ” from the Navy. This is the usual rut of culinary laziness that I often see. Here’s the menu. There will be those water cooler sized plastic cereal dispensers. Full of generic cereals. ( who knows when they’ll get to that cereal that was dumped in the dispenser. I wonder what month I am eating now.) There will be that eggy looking mixture flavored with water and a touch nothing. Wow !. You can toast your own bagel and use that real cool bagel cutter. ( the kids like that) They’ll have those .007 oz packs of cream cheese. Hey you want some jelly. Get out your Swiss Army knife and cut it out of that  .007 packagette.  Also there will be those stamped out meaty circles served at room temperatures claiming to be sausages. Yummy!  And if your lucky you can make your own “Lobby Waffle”  you know the old  fill it/ close it /spin it  and watch it ooze out the side waffle. The kids love that one so get in line. And sometime you will get this white lumpy sausage gravy that you can spoon over these flour hockey pucks doubling as biscuits. O.k. you can get a nice frothy citrus mix out 70 gallon juice dispenser. Stay away from the apple juice. ( Best apple juice is Martinelli’s …Just my opinion. Try the unfiltered. It’s creamy). Back home nice five minute drive. Kinda of a strange get away but it worked.  

     It’s Saturday morning and I am going shopping with my wife. Under the impression that we are looking for kitchen gadgets at the weekend blow out sale..So why am I pacing around in front of a clothing store for chicks….” I have a gift certificate I have to use I’ll just be a minute.”  Ok I think I will browse around instead of pace. You know I counted 5 shoe stores with in a hundred yards of each other. Tennis shoe stores. And they all look pretty similar they are either skateboard style of basketball style with maybe a few running shoes scattered about.  Not too many shoes dealing with the sport of tennis.You know there is a tennis shoe sub culture. When I was I kid i remember shoes be highlight of most teenage wardrobe. But not for 159 bucks There just tenies, I don’t know what they call them now. When I was a kid we called them tennis shoes of sneakers.  Our selection was Keds’s, Converse or P. F. flyers. I remember when these really wild foreign shoes turned up in the stores. This wild shoe company named Adidas. Imagine that a shoe with comfort. What a concept. Duh…

 

 Whip it out

Milano Casserole

Pack of Pasta any thing will do  Cook it and drain it

1b Italian sausage (brown and drain)

Jar of Prego Ragu…whatever…

1b Mozzarella grated

optional frozen veggie of your choice 1  bag ( spinach works well )

 

Make layers. Maybe two layers for each ingredient. Have cheese on the top layer.  Bake at 325 for 30 to 45 minutes

 

Earth Day (volunteering is selfish)

Yes, volunteering is selfish. I was being selfish when my girlfriend of 28 years (the same honey I married 27 years ago) suggested that we go plant trees,blackberries and grasses for Earthday. ” Wow Dear that sounds great. Let’s go dig around in the dirt, sun,dust and sweat with a bunch of total strangers. And volunteer in an area almost near our neighborhood. In the same state at least. And we will get a blue t shirt. Cool Honey. I’m kinda of a little bit semi excited almost really thinking about…… ..O……….K …sign me up”. Now that was my first selfish emotion. One of a reluctant and half hearted volunteer. The second selfish emotion one was when the project was done. Well selfish may not be the right word . It’s the only one I can pull out of my thesaurass.  But it made me feel good so that’s kinda selfish way.  My girlfriend and I actually worked on the project together. At the end we finally perfected our planting technique. We we’re planting small seedling. So I would grab a shovel full of dirt making a small hole. Then my assistant would hold the plant at the botttom of the hole and pour dirt in the hole while she held the plant. Then should would let go and stabilize the plant with a little more dirt. Like I said, we figured out this method after 90 percent of the  work was done. You know I think I’ll do next year if girlfriend is willing.

WHIP IT OUT

Louisiana Bean Dip

1 can of refried beans

2 tbls Tiger Sauce

1/4 cup of chopped cilantro

1/4 cup of grn. onions + 2 tbl

1/2 cup of grated Monterey Jack

1/4 Sour cream

Frito’s Scoops, Tortilla chips or Pita chips etc…..

Stir and heat all ingredients except sour cream, cheese and 2 tbl of grn. onion. Heat and stir on stove on low. Or microwave in 1 minute increments stirring in between minutes till  hot.  Top with cheese then sour cream then onions.    Bon Apathy

Shed Makeover “What an exciting life I live”

You bet cha. Shed make over. How stimulating! Yep, the shed had become an outdoor closet. Ya know. Throw it it there and slam the door before anything trickles,falls or crawls out. Well the slam it quickly theory wasn’t cutting it. So it’s time to clean the way I clean most cluttered spaces. Mistersmama style. Which is to take it all out and shove back in. Preferably in a new order.

“”Now we come the point of this blog or “Bablog” ” Bablog” ? . Yea ” bablog ” it’s a hybrid of blogging. A combination of blogging and babbling. Or the super hybrid version “Tanbabloging.” Which is going way off on “over thinking it ” tangents when bablogging . Which is ….come to think of it. What I am doing right now. O.k. back to the seed of this blog. Which is the state of hardware stores. “Hardware Stores” . That’s the old name. I am dating myself. Not doing the moi wine and dine. I am exposing my era. . Alllllrightythen…..”Home Improvement Centers” Now in an Andy Rooney tone. ” I’ll walk all over this home improvement mecca the size of a small Disneyland looking for a light for my fridge. and you know every employee will be playing no eye contact/gotta look very busy game. After finally making through this maze of a store.( A store by the way seems like it was designed by the same guy who designs federal penitentiaries.) I came to the bulb department. This department had thousands of bulbs but not mine. Thousands in numbers not variety. So once again I got to go back to the hardware store that is a half of a blackjack. And it ain’t a face card store. The store that has 1/5 the square footage and 6 times the selection..Yea…. they had my bulb. And a human to direct me and follow me to the bulb section. They had my bulb made by three manufacturers. But they didn’t have 4000 of them in stock !. ” Sorry I only need one” When checking out my “Tangent-man” lightbulb went off. At this store they always have a teaser row of goodies. From a mini pak of ten butterfingers, a weed sprayer,a Christmas candle or an garden tool organizer. ” Yea that looks cool.” A tool organizer for that messy ass open air closet.. Well that’s how the shed tangent started. Now my shed is looking awesome. To be honest with you it’s kinda of a cleansing experience..

Whip it out Time

Sandwich Spread

1 cup mayo

2 cloves garlic

20 leaves of fresh basil

2 green onions

1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

Blend everything in food processor of blender except mayo. Blend well then add mayo. Quick idea…Store rotisserie chicken, avos, mini croissants and red leaf lettuce.. Later

Work Party ?

Blog numero dos

WORK PARTY ?  Sure…( sigh ) it’s the latest trend in the creative social labor bartering techniques. This is how the scheme ..I mean plan  goes.  Someone needs a small task done, a landscaping project or they need to whip out a little asphalt work on the driveway. “Oh just of 1/2 mile  of pavement up this hill. Cake ! “   They thought it would be cool,fun and bonding. All at a bargain price. Work party. Yeah, it’s sounds like fun. Need a new lawn in?…LET’S PARTY! Need your house painted? LET’S PARTY. Need a new deck?  PARTY!  A new sewer line ?  PARTY! An intervention? LET’S PARTY….STOP! . You can only go so far. But the concept does have it’s merits. I was involved this weekend in one of these contrived social events. But it was more like a work/party intervention/inquistition. Which is a more complex way of using the Party/work format. This is how this goes. You plan a project at a venue other than your own dwelling or business. When selecting the target person it helps if they  are contractors, painters or something along that line.. Now you help organize  it and commit to a date and time. With the hope of return labor from the whole group at your place and so on. ” We are putting in a new deck overhanging the canyon next month. All we have to do is rip out the poison oak and start building .Sounds like fun eh… PARTY!!! “. That’s how this  work party concept works or at least my twisted look at it.

Well the Workee Workee gathering went very well and it was quite fulfilling. We built a deck with this rubberized decking. The stuff works great. I’m not sure about the fading and wear. We will see . Moving the stuff was like carrying long lazy noodles on steroids. Very heavy and strong. Fortunately the deck turned out great. Plus we all got in a little ” Tim the Tool Guy ” bonding in ” Urr Urr”. Now it’s tangent time.

Here’s a the first edition of the “Whip it out ” Red wine quick Strogie…

1 lb Hamburger 90/10 (Lean ratio)

1 can of cream of mushroom

1/2 cup light sour cream

2 tablespoons of finely chopped rosemary,thyme,or any fresh herb. No fresh  herbs use half as much of dried.

1/3 red wine

1 tbl of Worcestershire. sauce.

1 tsp sugar

2 tlbs of dried chopped onion.

1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp blk pepper

Milk as needed to thin and a little bit of Buena suerte (good luck)

Brown meat and drain. Add red wine and reduce by half. Add remaining ingredients and simmer. Now watch it till it’s the consistency you like. Serve it over pasta. The grocery store has tons of real cool pastas now. Barilla has many varieties. Some of my favorites are Farfalle,Rigatoni,whole wheat and Rotini. They have these wagon wheel shaped ones that are kinda cool, but I can’t remember the name. All I know is that It ends in a vowel, just like every other Italian word.

Serve the pasta with a green salad and brown and serve rolls. Quick dressing……

1/4 c of vinegar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2teaspoon blk pepper

1 tbl dijon style mustard

1/2 tsp. brown sugar

2 finely chopped green onion

1 cup of olive oil

…..Whisk together everything but the oil ( you can also use a food processor or immersion blender if you please or  have one) ….Now whisk it oil slowly … Da Da your done good luck.  My favorite lettuce is Butter or Boston lettuce. There’s a reason the call it  “buttah”

P. S… Dessert ….Hershey’s syrup on vanilla ice cream with chopped peanuts and a pinch of Ready Whip. Peanuts on last.  Or make an imprint in the ice cream  with a spoon and fill it with dab of peanut butter topped with chocolate sauce…

I’M BACK …quick spread  for rolls ……1/2 cup smart balance (room temperature) , 2 tbls honey, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, pinch of nutmeg 1/2 tsp shredded orange rind. Whip together and serve on rolls

Adios……Bon Appathy

“Blog ?” “Whatcha talkin bout Willis”

O.K mundo here we go. Mundo, meaning world. I obnoxiously like to throw my Mexican/Spanish experience in my blog with words,recipes,feelings or just experiences into the blog . I never realized how much impact a 11 month stay as an Informal exchange student in a foreign county at the ripe age of 11 would be.. Informal as in two people meeting at a Rotary Convention in St. Louis in in the 1940’s. This relationship would pass down though generations and would still be prosperous in the 2000’s. Little did I know that it would influence and mold my character and my view of the world. I stayed with a tremendous family and I mean Family. I was taken in as a family member and stilll am 40 years later. I guess I am bloging now because I am going on a tangent. Just like my great neighbor of calls me Mr. Tangento. I really don”t know what I am about to write. So it will be new to you and I . And there off.. I have been a stay at home Papa for seventeen years now. Doing macho missions like taking the cans to recycling and collecting that twelve dollars and thirty two cents. Or running to the eye Dr. late to pick up Mama’s contact lenses. “What time do you close I will be right there”. An so on.. Anyway I will be posting more stuff later with Mr. Mama Kitchen tricks. Solid quick recipes Kids in college. Coaching soccer. Mr. Mama travel tips. Travels with Iowa Mikey and more.

• Whip it out
  

Smokey Ranchadillas

Mozzarella/Monterey Jack

crumbled bacon

Finely chopped green onion

Ranch dressing (Make your own it’s pretty basic mayo,milk and Ranch powder mix it up . Bingo spingo your done.

Any tortilla will be sufficient

Heat tortilla in pan with all ingredients.Place cheese on bottom. Drizzle ranch on top. When the cheese starts to melt, fold over. Brown of one side or on both. Serving suggestions : refried beans,Uncle Ben’s cooked in chicken stock with cilantro and touch of garlic powder( 1/2tsp.) Sodium to taste. Serve with apple boats and chocolate milk with a pinch of cinnamon.