Need a spicy end to your weekend...Louisiana Bloody Mary!

I'm back! Did y'all miss me? I should warn y'all that I do tend to pop up, blog a bit, then fiddle off and focus on something else, and then come back. Nasty habit. It seems to be my online life. I seem to go through spurts of Facebook attentiveness, followed by internal group Facebook attentiveness, followed by attentiveness to my personal email, followed by attentiveness to the blog, followed by attentiveness to my bedroom closet and sock drawer...  ;)


Not all in the same day...

Obviously.

I have not forgotten about the cookie challenge I gave to myself just over a month ago. My official cookie taster is on a little mini vacation so that will pick up again when she comes home. My other cookie taster seems to like Snickers Bars a lot...so I'm working up something along that line. That might take a bit. A long bit.

A very long bit.

I just returned from Shreveport Louisiana and I was so excited about the trip. I was really looking forward to being inspired by the food and the different tastes (different to me that is, I moved to Texas after spending my entire life in San Francisco less than three years ago). I had big plans, for food...I researched and researched and researched...really thought about what I'd do if this or that was on a menu...and then I went to the Dr. last week and he said those words that every bariatric patient loves to hear. "Liquids for seven days."

"Excuse me?"

"Full liquids for seven days."

Ummm, and it was Tuesday. Heavy sigh.

Okay then, plan "b". Protein drinks in an ice chest...yeah me! Yahoo.

It wasn't that bad.

No really, well I'm only on day five, but it could have been worse.

So off my boyfriend and I go to Louisiana early Saturday morning. He'll tell you I was running "late", but ignore him. We were on the road by 9:00 am. I drank my first protein drink of the day in a Loves gas station parking lot just past Canton by 10 am, so we made good time, despite me feeling the need to put on "my face" prior to a three hour ride on a black cherry Harley (named Cheri)...with blue...nah, I'll save that story for later.

Because we arrived in Shreveport several HOURS before we could check into the hotel (see I didn't make us "late"), we ate lunch at a Harley dealership in Bossier City. Eh...well he ate lunch. I envied his hot dog (I love hot dogs) and I drank a protein shake. Little piece of trivia, in case you've never had a bbq hot dog/hamburger in a Harley dealership parking lot. They serve beer. Now, square that I am, this totally shocked me. I was told it was common and that was that. Neither of us had beer...too hot, plus the bubbles make my stomach full. I was very thankful he ate the hot dog before the hamburger, because as I mentioned I was on my fourth day of liquids only and I love hot dogs. I then was tortured by a six-year-old eating a hot dog as slowly as she possibly could. I believe she even got in trouble for playing with it. I knew I had been on liquids far too long when my only thought was offering to help her eat her hot dog when no one was looking.

I survived hot dog gate without a bite and we drove a few miles to the hotel. Which was really quite lovely. So to recap, I've been up since 7 am drawing a perfect face on my face, spent just over three solid hours of riding on the back of a motorcycle (we stopped every 60 to 90 miles so the ride itself wasn't bad), and it was H O T. Did I mention it was hot? And I was wearing a helmet (because Louisiana has a helmet law). I think my brains are still cooking even though I've since taken off the helmet. So the first thing I want to do when we get there was nothing. I was tired and a whole host of other things related to being mandated on liquids for four days.

By the time 5 pm rolled around, the band (Creeper) was there checking into their rooms and the hotel bar had just opened, so I went down for a cocktail with two of my favorite people, Mina and Carrie.

I should offer in advance that I've returned my second camera in a few weeks, so there are no photos of us having cocktails, but we had so much fun!

Mina and Carrie ordered Bloody Marys (and I ordered a Manhattan). I tried to keep my face grimicing down to a minimum because the idea of vodka and tomato juice just never "struck" me as something I'd be interested in.

I did watch the bartender, because I am currious at this point. I don't think I've ever been in a room, much less inches from someone who was drinking a Bloody Mary. The bartender did not use what I would have considered a traditional glass, it was more of a round, tall margarita glass with a stem, something that could hold eight plus ounces. She used a lime to prep the rim of the glass for salt and poured ice into the glass. As she was mixing the drink she asked if they wanted Worchestershire sauce and both practically jumped off their bar chairs and onto the bar with excitement as they both said "Yes!"

Then they told me that Worchestershire isn't used in a Texas Bloody Mary...okay, so now I'm really currious so I HAD to ask for a sip...okay I had a few (thanks Mina). Technically it was a liquid vegetable and I really, really really had been lacking in the vegetable department for the past few days.

;)

Mina and Carrie also spoke of their use of celery salt, so I had to throw that in as well.

In honor of Mina and Carrie, I had to post my conception of the Louisiana Bloody Mary.

Louisiana Bloody Mary


Makes 2

Ingredients

3 oz quality vodka

6 oz tomato juice

The juice from two fresh lemons

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Dash freshly ground black pepper

Dash freshly ground white pepper

Dash kosher salt

1 tsp dijon mustard

1/2 tsp celery salt

Tabasco sauce to taste

Louisiana hot sauce to taste (optional...makes it spicy)

1 lime wedge (to adhere salt mixture to rim of glass - lemon works too)

1 tbsp horseradish (optional...makes it spicy)


And for an extra special kick of flavor, 1 tbsp A-1 Steak sauce (my kids fav, so it's always in my pantry...works rather nicely. Hey...I have to sample what I blog about!)

Celery stalk for garnish

Kosher Salt and Celery Salt mixed for rim of glass. 3/4 Kosher salt to 1/4 celery salt.

Prep glass with lime wedge and salt mixture. Add ice to brim. In a pichter mix ingredients and serve in glass. Garnish with celery stalk.

Want more variations?

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Mary_(cocktail)

My Favorite Restaurant in the World is in Atlanta, Georgia and it's called...

Confession...

In 2007, just as I was "thinking" about starting my weight loss journey, I traveled to Atlanta, Georgia on business. When I arrived, I was informed that I was going to be a dinner guest at a restaurant named "10 Degrees South."

I nodded...and didn't think that much of the name. Not that I didn't like the name, I didn't think about what type of food it would be and then my host volunteered. "You'll love it, it's South African Food."

I think at that moment you could have heard a pin drop.

I was...am...one of the most finicky eaters in the world. I'm getting a little better in my old age, I mean I'll no longer cry if someone accidentally puts mayo on my burger, but I still want nothing on a deli sandwich except mustard...and meat...and cheese. Mustard first though, that's the most important ingredient. Same with hot dogs. No mustard, I'm not eating it.

(And I love hot dogs.)

My boyfriend is on a Harley two week road trip that will take him from Dallas to Laconia, New Hampshire and back in 14 days (respectively). Tonight I got a phone call from Georgia and I immediately remembered that eating at 10 Degrees South, was literally the most magical food experience I've ever had in my entire life.

I remember they'd pair beef with cherry sauce, and lamb with apricot...I love love love meat, so I fell in love with the restaurant. Sadly, I've only been there once, but...I found out they sell one of their sauces, so I intend to buy it, and I'll try to replicate one of their dishes...(wish me luck).

I haven't forgotten about the cookie challenge. More recipes and the photos of the Peanut Butter Bon Bons are coming.

Really, I promise.

:)

Ref: http://www.10degreessouth.com/index.aspx

Party Like a Rock Star with Pulled Pork Nachos

About a month ago, I challenged myself to come up with a menu for my boyfriends birthday based on Creeper's heavy metal album, "Welcome to Room Number 9".

The good news is that I finally purchased a new camera. The bad news is that the food was such a hit, it went fast, so I wasn't able to get photos prior to serving...lol.

:)

Menu

Timmy - BBQ Pulled Pork Nachos * The Magic - Deep Dish Antipasto Pizza

Push It - Mini Cheese Cakes

Pulled Pork Nachos

Ingredients:

1 bottle Merlot

1 Pork Tenderloin

1/2 cup BBQ sauce
Tortilla chips
2 cups shredded Mexican style cheddar and jack cheese

2 oz Chipotle Mayonnaise

3 Tbsp Sour Cream
2 tsp Sweet Relish

1 can Green Chilies

The night before.

Sear tenderloin in fly pan along sides to brown. Placed seared tenderloin in a crock pot and fully cover with a bottle of Merlot wine. Place on warm and let set until ready to serve.

The next day.

Just prior to serving, remove tenderloin from crock pot and using two forks "pull" pork meat so it has a shredded texture. Place in sauce pan on low heat with BBQ sauce. Set aside.

Preheat over to 500 degrees. Layer a deep dish aluminum pan with a single layer of tortilla chips. Cover with shredded cheese. Top with another layer of chips, and repeat at least 3 layers. Set some of cheese aside to cover once pork is added. Place chips and cheese in oven for a few minutes, only long enough to melt cheese. Remove from oven and cover chips and cheese with pulled pork tenderloin and place back in oven until the cheese has melted. Add chipotle mayonnaise and sour cream to a zip lock bag. Snip end with scissors and draw mixture in a thin line on top. Top with green chilies and sweet relish.

Having a fabulous Sous Chef always helps. Thanks Sparkie.

Deep Dish Antipasto Pizza

This is a recipe

http://www.pamperedchef.com/our_products/recipesearch/recipedetail.jsp?recipeId=9576

Mini Cheese Cakes

Ingredients:

3 8 oz packages cream cheese

1 cup sugar

5 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

Topping

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup sour cream

1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix until smooth. Line a cupcake pan with metal cup cake tins. Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes. Do not brown. Once complete, mixed 1/4 cup sugar, 1 cup sour cream and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Dab 1 tbsp of sour cream mixture on each cake and bake an additional 5 minutes. Refrigerate until ready to serve (or freeze).

This was my mother's recipes, and pulling out her personal, cookie bake, recipes lead me to my quest to make each of her cookie recipes (133) over the course of this year. I vowed to myself I wasn't going to change the integrity of her recipes, but I did decide to add 1 tsp of cherry pie filling just prior to serving as a variation. Typically my mom would use fresh strawberries.

I am so thankful I had not one but two Sous Chef's. My friend Shannon came over the night before the party and we made the cheese cakes and toffee (which I decided not to serve) and my friend Tal assisted with the pizza and nachos at the party.

Link to digital download:
http://www.amazon.com/Welcome-To-Room-9-Explicit/dp/B007FH3F94

Metal music was relatively new to me...but I was a big 80's hair band fan and I must confess...I love love love Creeper, the album and the amazing friends I have because of metal.

:)

I'm ready to make my grocery list and plan for the first few cookie (I use the term loosley) recipes

One of the secrets to baking and cooking is to have a plan and the ingredients at your finger tips. I decided that as I venture out to the grocery store today for the ingredients for the Peanut Butter Bon Bons, I should have the ingredients for the next few recipes I'm planning on making on hand.

Day 1 - Sunday (Today)
Peanut Butter Bon Bons (recipe was posted yesterday)

Day 2 - Monday
English Toffee

Day 3 - Wednesday
Lil Butter Cookies

Day 4 - Friday
Mini Cheese Cakes

Grocery List

9 sticks butter
7 eggs
6 Hershey bars
4 cups flour
4 cups sugar
3 8 oz Cream Cheese
2 cups graham cookie crumbs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cans frosting (1 vanilla, 1 of any choice - I'm thinking chocolate)
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sour cream
25 foil cupcake cups 

1 large package chopped walnuts

lemon

concentrated lemon juice

salt

Okay...I now have no excuses. While I'm at it, I'm going to pick up the ingredients I need for Paula Deen's Sour Cream Muffins. It's a fabulous muffin that I make often. That adds 2 additional sticks of butter to my grocery list, 1/2 pint of sour cream and 2 cups SELF rising flour.

Peanut Butter Bon Bons - Cookie Recipe #1

First thing tomorrow morning, Alyson and I will begin production of cookie recipe #1, Peanut Butter Bon Bons.

Warning - since these recipes are from my Mother's collection, I'm not making any changes, even when mincemeat is required (bleck).

Peanut Butter Bon Bons

Ingredients:

1 can ready to spread vanilla frosting

1 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup butter or margarine softened

2 cups graham cookie crumbs

1 can any flavor ready to spread frosting

Combine vanilla frosting, peanut butter and margarine until well blended, stir in crumbs until mixed, form into balls and chill one hour.

Melt remaining frosting over low heat stirring occasionally. Dip balls into frosting, allow excess to drip on racks over waxed paper, let stand about six hours at room temperature.

Makes 48 to 52.

--------

Pretty obvious why Aly and I decided this recipe MUST be done first. Easy, yet scary. Kind of like a traffic accident, "can vanilla frosting", "any flavor can frosting"...this is a I can't look away from recipe. I've never seen anything like this. Got to love the 1970's.

:)

133 Days of Cookies (Respectively)

My mother was a fabulous baker. My cousin Gina can both bake and cook. I think people who can do one of the two is amazingly talented, but people can do both, just take my breath away, so just like in the that movie, where the writer (yea...I've got several hundred pages of fiction stuffed in a drawer) aspires to make every recipe from that famous cookbook.

I can be more specific...but I know everyone already knows what I'm talking about.

Anywho...I believe someone can do anything if they try, over and over and over and over. I'm that way with everything, kind of like a bull in a China shop. I will succeed over my own dead body. And yes, one day I'll get going my novel again. A quick side note, in 1993, it was read by an editor who thought it could fly as juvenile fiction. Well I was insulted. I felt I had been completely misunderstood. Today I look back and think...umm Harry Potter, Twilight...uggg, I missed my window.

Enough of that.

:)

Back to cookies. The number 133 (1133, 33) is my lucky number. Since 1988 that number has given me strength and courage, and persistence and the feeling that I'm not as alone as I feel sometimes. One of the treasures I have from my mother is her personal cookbook of cookies from her Cookie Bake parties when I was a child. I pulled the recipes down a moment ago because I'm going to make her mini cheesecakes next Saturday for my boyfriend's birthday and I thought, I really should bake more. I wonder how many recipes there are in this book...

Guess how many there were...133.

Okay, so now I know I MUST do this. I'd love to do a recipe a day, but sadly enough, my daughter and I are wimps when it comes to food volume. Last Thursday we went to an Italian Restaurant (shhh...don't tell anyone, it's all stuff I can make with my hands tied behind my back at home, but I wanted to be catered to) and I ordered an appetizer, and soup. She ordered soup and a main course. Three bites into the appetizer and soup both our of our eyes were rolling back to our head from being full. She ran to catch the waiter and cancelled the entree.

We're total wimps...ohhh and we still took food home.

So if I make a batch of cookies a day, even if I only make a dozen, that is 10 that will be put into a jar or the freezer. So at the end of the week, that is 70 cookies in a jar or the freezer...931 cookies after 133 days. My freezer won't be able to take it. I have a refrigerator with french doors and two pullouts for the freezer...no bueno. I don't have room for anything in there.

So ship my cookies off with my kiddos...well my older 2 don't eat nuts, so that won't work. My boyfriend's daughter is a baker...(let's get it straight, he's a biker, she's a baker - we spent several minutes last week specifically talking about cake balls) and a good one, so he's surrounded by treats all of the time, and for the most part, doesn't eat them when he's here. Now if I didn't have bananas and yogurt...that would be another story...

I'm not sure how I'm going to make it work, but I'm going to try for 2 to 3 recipes a week. That should take me the calendar year. Wish me luck.

:)



Finally...I've made Quesadillas without using the Microwave!

Sigh, I must confess, when my parents purchased a microwave, I started making Quesadillas. Ummmm or so I thought.

Less than 30 years later (I'm sure it was less than 30 years, 25 years...well...who knows) I was watching my cousin Gina in my kitchen making Quesadillas for her daughter. And she didn't hit the power button on the microwave once.

I noticed she used 6 qt, stainless steel pot. Very smart.

I didn't think about it again, I'm sure my daughter still made Quesadillas the way I taught her, in the microwave...but I made a mental note that if "I" was making Quesadillas, I'd make them Gina's way.

Flash forward 20 months later...yea, I mentioned I don't "cook" often...to continue, flash forward 20 months later and a coworker, Chris, casually mentioned he made Quesadillas.

I went flying down the hall to his desk and said, did you use a 6 qt sauce pan?

"I used a griddle." he replied.

"Ohhh a griddle." I said. "How?"

He gave me some brief instruction and I merged the two ideas together in my head. I made a mental note that "when" I was going to make Quesadillas again, I would not use the microwave.

As it turns out, my youngest daughter committed to making Quesadillas for a school project. Nice timing huh?

You should have seen the look on her face when I informed her we were NOT going to use the microwave. I thought she was going to fall over.

Today we went out for the ingredients: 8 inch flour tortillas, shredded Mexican style cheese, sour cream, salsa and...wait for it...butter.

Now, everyone who still uses the microwave is confused...(I know for a fact I wasn't the only one)..."butter". Yes butter.

Step 1, butter the tortillas on one side
Step 2, put a small amount of butter in the pot, set burner to high
Step 3, after the pot has a moment to preheat and the butter is bubbling, place the first tortilla, butter side down in the pot. Cover with 1/4 cup of shredded Mexican style cheese. (You can never use too much cheese, so if you use more, no worries).
Step 4, place last tortilla, butter side up on top of the cheese
Step 5, after several moments, use a spatula to check if the tortilla on the bottom is browned, if it is, it's time to flip
Step 6, once both sides have browned cut into 8 pieces and garnish with sour cream and salsa if desired

This was so quick, easy, tasty and CHEAP (my favorite), I know it will be a go to dish I'll make often. A picture will follow soon, my camera is broken so I have to use my cell.