Cake Wrecks

Check out this blog when you have some time to kill: www.cakewrecks.blogspot.com

The "Literal LOLs" are pretty good.

Potato Chips

Have you ever tried those Ridge Cut Salt and Pepper potato chips from Trader Joes? You gotta. They rock.

I grew up on Charles Chips. Remember the tin can? And they would get delivered right to your front door. My mom sold them for a while so we had chips around all the time. As kids whenever we'd go somewhere in the family/business van we'd sit on cans of Charlie Chips.

But even before that, Dad was a huge chip fan. I wonder if it's an East Coast thing? Kinda like Ice Cream, but that's another blog. Dessert would be potato chips and beer. To this day when I visit them I love sitting up late chatting with dad and having chips and beer.

Another one of my newer favorites is the Spicy Thai chips from Kettle. Pretty spicy tho.

I would like to see some Dill Chips. Charlie Chips made them and they were awesome. Tasted like a dill pickle. C'mon, Trader Joe, make 'em!

Christmas Food

As usual Christmas at my parents' house was a constant feast. We ate and drank and ate and drank for a week. Mom always starts prepping for Christmas a few months in advance with plans and menus and games. She must start cooking and freezing food about 3 weeks in advance b/c there's so much and it's all so easy to prepare when we are all together. And on top of the roast beef, shrimp, fish, pork roast, tamales, omlettes, sausages, meatballs, homemade pasta there are tons of pizzelles, cookies and chocolate! And with 25 to 30 relatives around for a week it's no small task to feed them all every day.

I always get put in charge of the cookies. Not only do I love making them but I am the only one that drives (vs. flys) to Mom and Dad's and therefore can take a giant crate full of cookies. I started Thanksgiving weekend baking a few batches a week and freezing them. It's amazing how many cookies 30 people eat in a week - LOTS and LOTS!

One day we gave Mom a break and went over to The Monastery. It's a bar and grill where you order burgers, and you go outside and grill them yourself. We also played sand volleyball, pool, and pingpong while we were there. Great place.
The best was some competition Bro put Mom up to. One day he challenged her to a pasta making competiton. Doesn't he know that he can't compete with Mom's homemade pasta! Anyway, Mom was slaving half the day kneeding the dough and cranking the pasta machine. She did get some help from some of the kids. She must have made 5 pounds of fettuccine! All day we waited for Bro to start making his pasta. It never happened. Was it a set up to get Mom to make homemade pasta?!

Nothing to do with Food

Son #2 just submitted a short animated film to the South Bay Film Festival. Turns out he's a finalist and his film will be shown in it's entirety (all ~3 minutes) at the Festival on November 1st.

Just had to brag for him on my soapbox.

At some point after the festival, the films will be posted online to view. Check it out at http://www.southbayfilms.com/ Just a warning to anyone who needs it, some of the movies posted on that site might be adult themed.

If you want to view Son #2's film only, you can see it on his blog: www.thabno.blogspot.com

Generosity, Trust and Community Service

There really are so many nice people out there in the world. Today I was at Sam's Club buying all the food for our Toberman dinner and a very nice gentleman started chatting with me as we waited in line. I guess he was wondering why I had 40 pounds of pork, 2 gallons of BBQ sauce, a zillion buns, 5 bags of salad, 4 giant bags of veggies, and a gallon of salad dressing. He found out what I was up to, and handed me $20 for Toberman. I was completely caught off guard. How generous! It's nice to know that there are people who are still generous and of course, trusting! Thank you sir! I know that the kids at Toberman will be happy to know of your generosity.

Toberman Settlement House is a place in San Pedro where those in need can receive assistance. There are many ways they help those in the community, you can check it out at www.toberman.org.

Anyway, along with 3 other families, my kids and I cook and serve dinner to about 120 children each month. We started this project about 5 or 6 years ago and have been there every month since. It's a very rewarding project and it's nice to see how much these children appreciate a nutritious hot meal. With food costs skyrocketing and the economy the way it is today we really need to look out for those who are hungry.