This is not a food blog

By Leo za1 (Own work)
[CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

OK, I noticed that the last couple of posts on here have been about what I've been eating.  In no way do I intend to turn this blog solely into a food blog, but that is one of the better topics of things I like to make mental (and then literal) notes about.  So my apologies if my blog did nothing but to make you hungry of late.  I am sure there are other interesting things to come - in fact, I have a couple of ideas.  Now if only I would sit and write them.

In the meantime, instead of food I'm eating, check out this iguana eating a delicious flower.

Lobster Mac & Chard!

Every now and again, we make some yummy food, and I decide to share.

We get several food magazines, from Food Network to Rachel Ray and Southern Living (and maybe even one more).  This month in Food Network was a litany of cheese recipes, but we both started to drool at the thought of Lobster Mac and it didn't hurt that we had three rock lobster tails in the freezer.

So, we spun up the recipe for lobster mac and cheese (involves whisking flour and butter and milk and adding 3.5 cups of cheddar cheese before adding pasta and chopped cooked lobster meat and broiling briefly).  Note: Don't leave your lobster tails boiling unsupervised, lest they boil over on your stove.  Just saying.

Along with this we had a combination of rainbow and swiss red chard.  If you have never had chard, I recommend you try it.  It's a green but without the usual bitterness, and much more sweet.  Not to mention it has such colorful stalks, and I'm sure there are great vitamins in there.

Anyway, here's how we made the chard (since this is our own recipe, I don't mind just showing you what we made up):

We took a bunch of Swiss red chard and a bunch of rainbow chard from the grocery store and washed it well.  Then slice the stalks of the chard and roll the leaves up.  Slice the leaves along the rolls, creating 1/4 inch ribbons of greens.

Heat 2-3 Tbsp of oil in a skillet over medium heat (let it heat 3 minutes or so by itself).  Add one clove garlic, crushed, and simmer for 1-2 minutes.  Add the shredded greens, and mix up with tongs.

Salt and pepper as desired.

Cook for 5-10 minutes, moving around frequently with tongs until the greens are limp and well cooked.  Any pieces of stalk should be quite soft.

What you'll be left with is a colorful and delicious pile of greens.  Good luck!

Meat Cupcake Delishus

OK, as you know, I have a tendency to share foods that I have consumed here (wait - isn't that what they said Twitter is for?).

So, this weekend, I managed to squeeze into the menu this concoction at right -> the bacon-wrapped meatloaf cupcake (topped with mashed potato "icing").

We saw this in some magazine (Food Network Magazine, perhaps?) and ended up making a version from the internet, and it turned out great.  Even my meatloaf-disliking-spouse said she'd eat these again, and I felt it necessary to share just because of the deliciousness (and sheer absurdity) of a meatloaf cupcake.

I thought they were great myself - the only downside being how to extract this bacon-wrapped-potato-topped-meatball from the muffin tins without utterly destroying them, and the excessive muffin tin cleaning required afterwards.

Kudos to whichever magazine got us to make these, and to the recipe, which we got here:

Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf Cupcakes

Enjoy!

Brushes with Fame

By Photos by flipchip / LasVegasVegas.com
 [CC-BY-SA-2.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

So every now and again, when you are traveling, you run into "famous" people.  It makes sense, actually, since famous people need to travel, too.  In fact, you might could make an argument that many "famous" people have professions that require them to travel, which means it is actually more likely that a person of some stature is traveling than your average Joe or Jane.

Still, it's fun to run into them and have your brush with fame.

The last time I ran into someone of note was in Dulles airport a little over a year ago, when one of my coworkers pointed out Henry Rollins waiting on his plane.  By the time I decided to go talk to him and perhaps get a picture, he had moved on (ostensibly to get ON his plane).

So, when I got on the plane home from Vegas last week, I was treated to a double dose of traveling with fame.

Seated in first class was former WWE wrestler Shawn Michaels - I didn't speak to him, as I'm not particularly a big fan of wrestling, but it was still nice having celebrities on the plane.

It wasn't until I got off the plane and went to the baggage claim, that I saw Doyle Brunson (pictured above). I most definitely am a fan of professional poker playing and the World Series of Poker, so I did not pass up on this one.  He was waiting on his luggage, and I did get a little fan-like giddy and told him I was really glad to see him in person and that I had watched him play for years and was a fan.  He smiled (much like he's doing in that picture), nodded, and said "Thank you."  Kind of a nice interchange except I did leave rather quickly since I was ready to get home.  I wonder if he would have chatted some more.  Anyway, I may retroactively document some of my other brushes with fame (as that provides for nice blog fodder), but I thought I would at least hit this one relatively shortly after its occurrence.

New Year New Tricks?

By Bird33ou (Own work)
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Well, another year has come, and that probably means it is time to make resolutions and whatnot.  So, here we are, a week in, and I am thinking, probably not going to make too too many this year.

Here's why.

When you are looking at having not one but two pretty major life events in a single year (both GOOD ones, by the way), there's not much room to fit in other little goals.  But I still like to throw a little fuel on the fire, so here goes.  Most of these are writing resolutions, so I guess I could move this over to the writing blog, but whatever.

1. Not so much a resolution, but I am going to see how many days in a row I can write "something" of fiction.  I'm at 7.
2. I'm going to post a few more times than last year, but not sure how many more.  But more.  But still scattered around the various blogs.
3. I'm going to play golf more than once - the number of times I managed to play in the last 2 years.
4. I'm going to try to adjust to all of the changes from the last 6 and next 6 months as quickly as possible (and before year end)
5. I'll keep a regular poetry schedule.  Maybe.
6. I'll start revision on a work of fiction.  Preferably a novel-length work of fiction.

That's it.  No more promises.

Things that I also expect.  There will be times I am extremely tired, grumpy, cranky, or generally feeling like that dog's face looks up above.  I will slow down brewing any beer early in the year (probably only 1 more brew day in the near future), and HOPEFULLY will get back to brew a few batches before the end of the year.  And I will, at times, disappear from the internet for a few days.  And then return.

I don't know - that seems like a lame list, but it's a list.  So there.  If you don't like it, tell me what your resolutions are in the comments, and you can one up me.  Happy New Year.