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.

Mexican Food in Indiana

Scary thought isn't it? But what the heck, we decided to try it anyway. My sis lives in Indy so we are visting this week.

I wish I had taken a pic of this Mexican restaurant because you would die to see it. We were there for lunch and the place looked like a nightclub just waiting for the darkness. It was like a huge warehouse with a stage, a bar, a row of booths and about 8 tables.

I ordered a margarita because I learned my lesson -- when in doubt of the cleanliness or freshness order hard liquor. Weirdest margarita I've ever tasted. Not sure why. I tried to pinpoint why so weird, but not possible.

I ordered a mushroom quesadilla. Naturally, being in Indiana I expected to see canned mushrooms. I figure if that's what I'm expecting and they miraculously have fresh I'll be thrilled. No such luck. But they did saute the mushrooms along with onions and tomatoes. But you have to hear about the cheese. This was not real cheese. It was likc nacho cheese from a can. Oh my. Can you even imagine?! Why don't they use real cheese? It's beyond me why a restaurant wouldn't use real cheese. It seemed like food from a snack bar at a ball game. That's where I'd expect to see that quesadilla.

Moral of the story - go with your gut (don't eat Mexican food in Indiana).

Unless I go to Japan, I am never ever ever having sushi outside California.

MM's Boring Chicken for The Dave

MM has inspired me to post about chicken. If you want to see her 'Boring Chicken' she makes for The Dave, visit her blog (link at bottom of my page). I actually don't cook chicken very often anymore because it is so dang boring. And it's disgusting how they are raised and killed. I am turned off of any chicken that looks too big and was raised and killed 'normally'. What is normally you ask? I don't know. But if they are abnormally large for a chicken (turkey-sized) forget it! I have discovered that Kosher chicken is really tasty. If you feel like having some boring chicken, this is the way to go. Take a whole cut up kosher chicken, bone-in and skin-on (this is important for flavor -- you may think that boneless-skinless chicken breast is the way to go, but really you may as well just eat your sauce). So take the chicken, loosen the skin but don't remove it. Rub olive oil, lemon juice, kosher salt and garlic all over under the skin and then on the skin. Let it sit for an hour or several hours in the fridge. Now cook the chicken either in a dutch oven, doufeu, or on the grill. It is the tastiest chicken you will ever have!