Dinner was served

Thanks to this wonderful recipe that I found at 101 Cookbooks I enjoyed a lovely dinner. Matt was not converted to my new interest in cabbage, but I was very impressed with the flavor that this soup had. I left out the beans, used beef stock instead of vegetable stock, added some pork tips to the mix - because I knew Matt would probably avoid even a spoonful unless a little bit of animal was involved, and topped it off with a bit-o-cheese. Maybe I should have added bacon.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Cheap is embarrassed at you right now

I enjoyed free pancakes with my wonderful boyfriend at IHOP this morning. For lunch I treated Matt to $5 foot long sandwiches at Subway. I don't mind being a cheap date. If it's free pancake day, you can bet that I am going to suggest that instead of eating oatmeal at home we go for the free pancakes.

There is a difference between being thrifty when thinking food and being classlessly cheap. I felt terrible at breakfast when our waiter was running around like a crazy person. He looked like he was having an awful day, and I knew he probably wasn't being tipped very well if at all. When people are thinking free meal, they normally aren't thinking about that poor waiter; so I made sure I tipped him very well. I hope other people thought the same thing and were nice to that poor waiter.

Chow.com highlighted a piece today about this woman who went on youtube to talk about how she steals stuff from all-you-can-eat buffets. Warning this is pathetic.



She literally gives examples of how to snag bags of food. This girl does not look starving. She looks like she is wearing half decent clothes with obviously semi-impressive video and editing software.

I am not a fan of all-you-can-eat dinners. I don't eat enough to make the meal worth it. That does not mean that I would stoop low enough to take extra food, because I might be hungry later. Pardon the rant, but I just couldn't handle this low-class display of cheap.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Oh Baby

I have some bad news for you. Hot dogs may be a choking hazard. Cheese may also be a choking hazard. And you heard it here first, broccoli may also be a choking hazard. You should probably stop feeding your little kids these things immediately; you should probably start with the broccoli.

According to USA Today pediatricians are calling for a warning label to be put on hot dogs. They also said it might be time to change the shape and texture of the hot dog, so it is less likely to be lodged in a child's throat. Really guys, what self-respecting mom doesn't cut up the hot dog before feeding her toddler? I know my mom always did.

The best part of this whole article lies in the numbers. Ten thousand children under the age of 14 go to the hospital every year because they are choking. But the real groundbreaking stuff here is that 17% of these 10,000 choking cases are caused by hot dogs.

I was never a math person, but even I know that 17 is not a large percentage. So what caused the other 83% of choking issues? Why are hot dogs being unnecessarily attacked? Most of us know hot dogs are not terribly healthy. - Matt still tries to argue otherwise.- But really do we need to hate on hot dogs even more?

Hot dogs, like almost every other kind of food, may cause a kid to choke, especially if said kid bounces up and down with food in their mouth while screaming at the top of their lungs. So what's the life lesson here? Watch your kids! Sheesh this isn't hard stuff, people. Make meal time, meal time, not play time. And for little little kids cut up the food, so it's easier for them to swallow.


In other news, I made pork tips for dinner and they were absolutely wonderful. I fried them up a little then cooked them in bbq sauce for almost an hour. They kind of tasted like faux ribs. Hope your Monday was full of good food and not too much work!

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

On my way to the food pyramid

It is a Sunday. I left the house once to go to church. The rest of the day I spent in my room doing homework. Days like these really test my real-meal-for-dinner goal. I try really hard, but quite often I resort to eggs and toast.

I ate the last of my eggs, but yesterday I bought b-e-a-u-tiful asparagus at Whole Foods. That's half way to a great meal! I thawed a pork chop that was too small to make when Matt's over, and dinner is served.

Well ok raw asparagus and a thawed pork chop don't exactly make an edible dinner. I chopped off the ends of the asparagus, placed them on a baking sheet, drizzled them in olive oil a good friend of mine brought me from her journeys in Italy, and sprinkled them with Adobo. I stuck them in the oven at 375 F and roasted them for 20 minutes. You can see how amazing they looked when they came out of the oven. Imagine the self-control it took to actually take pictures and not just devour the asparagus.

I broiled the pork chop. Broiling is such a wonderful way to cook meat. Just broil on one side till it has some color to it, flip it over, and cook till done. Amazing! It was Matt who turned me on to broiling meat, so I'm going to give credit where credit is deserved here. It is just so easy and fast; leave it to a guy to give it a try first.

Once the meat and asparagus were cooked, I had a completely amazing meal. It's not easy cooking for one. I think the hardest part is motivation, but when a complete meal is only 30 minutes away there really are no excuses.


Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Chocolate nuf said

What is wrong with these pictures? Chocolate tortilla chips. Oh yes weirdness has reached a new level of crazy. I don't think I could eat a whole bag of these chips, that I bought at Whole Foods this morning, but I was surprised by how strangely tasty they were. The first bite was a tease, because it tasted like a regular corn chip. After a few more bites the cocoa flavors really stood out.

In case you are seriously worried about where this world is headed, don't forget the wonderfully chocolaty chicken mole. Just like a good mole these chocolate chips do lend themselves to a savory flavor. The bag challenges you to try them with salsa. I really want to try that. Maybe all day in my apt doing homework makes me feel bold about my food choices.

While I am not buying every chocolate product I can get my hands on, I am actually working on another blog. Oh yes I am a blogging fool lately. This blog is for class. It's all about Pennsylvania Dutch food and culture. Today I blogged all about dinner, fried cabbage and noodles. At least I'm eating well! Now I think it's time for some more chocolate chips.

Happy Eating!!!

Be our guest

Slashfood created a top 10 food songs. I have to admit I didn't know half of them, but #5 made me kind of happy inside. I must say I miss the days when weekends were spent wishing I was a Disney princess and not occupied with oodles of homework. Growing up is overrated. I suggest you just don't do it.

In case you haven't already become bored of me and looked up the Top 10 list, "Be Our Guest" from Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" is #5. In a world where shows like Hells Kitchen and Top Chef focus on the drama and underworld of kitchen life, it is easy to forget that the food industry is a hospitality industry.

Whenever I think of hospitality, I think of Chef Lou. He was my executive chef at the Bar Harbor Inn in Maine and, well besides being a wonderful wonderful man, he liked to remind everyone in the kitchen that this was an industry where hospitality was the most important thing. He despised Anthony Bourdain - who I love - because he felt that men like him who uncovered this dirty underbelly of the food industry hurt the industry. Every guest at the hotel was his guest.

Of course that didn't stop him from leading guests on in his kitchen tours and telling everyone that I was the pastry chef or that the pastry chef did not speak English and had been working since 5 that morning - we didn't actually go in till 7. He told his white lies while winking like a little boy causing harmless mischief. In the end every guest at the Bar Harbor in was given the royal treatment, and Chef Lou appreciated anyone who went the extra mile to make someone happy.

Cooking is a social sport. Where is the fun in a wonderfully executed meal when no one is there to share it with you. Don't have any idea what I'm talking about? Invite a friend or two over this weekend and try that vegetable lasagna recipe you've been dying to try. I promise you will have a lot of fun, and you might start a lovely tradition of sharing food and gossip with close friends. Look how wonderfully happy the characters at the Beast's castle were over one lovely guest.



Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Oh the snobby Brits

Thanks to Salon.com and WBZ TV's "One Last Thing" segment I was informed that Tesco supermarkets in Britain are actually requiring a dress code. No more pajamas and you better be wearing shoes.

I want to know where these snooty people who run Tesco get off thinking that penalizing a mom who runs into the store in her pajamas to buy a pound of butter is a good idea. Because it's a TERRIBLE idea. If I want to wear my plaid pajama pants into a grocery store, then the people who work at that grocery store better smile and tell me to have a nice day as I walk out with my bags of food. Sometimes you just don't have the time to put on real clothes, or if you haven't slept in a few days and that 10 page paper is due tomorrow, you might not have the energy.

Supposedly Tesco's excuse for this dress code debacle is that women running into stores in their pajamas and slippers are embarrassing to other customers. Hello sexism, where have you been hiding?

For the record I love grocery shopping. All of that yummy food in one place! I try to wear normal clothes, but what are normal clothes? My purple striped socks with brown pants embarrassed Matt, and we went grocery shopping while I was wearing them. The day that the fashion police have to guard grocery stores is the day I will begin using Peapod. Leave it to the British to suck the fun and pajamas out of life.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

And so ends fat Tuesday

On the end of this not-so-very-fat Tuesday my bedroom is a disaster, my boots are still wet, and after an hour of straightening up the apartment is clean. Wasn't my little sister the most adorable little kid?

Days like these I miss PA. A Fat Tuesday, or Fastnacht Day as we like to call it, was not complete in the Keystone State before a visit to Nana and Papap's house to get some doughnuts. Back in the good old days, we would go over to Nana and Papap's house and make the yeasty potato doughnuts. My sister appears to be throwing the dough in the picture, but we really were frying most of the dough.

If I were to make a foodie list of things to do before you die, eating fastnachts on Fat Tuesday would be #10. You really have not eaten a doughnut, before you tried these doughnuts.

Since I obviously was deprived of my doughnut today, I decided to take a peek at the USDA's newest web tool. If the food environment atlas actually worked the way it was supposed to, it would be super cool. Unfortunately it has a few glitches and didn't fill in every map for me. It's still wicked cool and definitely worth taking a look see. Did you know PA eats way more pounds of veggies than say Eastern MA? This is the kind of way cool facts you can find out from tinkering around the food atlas. The journalist in me is dying to know why these different areas of the country have different eating habits and what exactly America can learn from this map.

Honestly I feel like that time one of my friends showed me Google Earth. It is simply mesmerizing. I hope my PA friends had their share of fastnachts today. I will be talking my mom into a belated fastnacht day over spring break.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Secrets Revealed

When I was a little girl Puerto Rican food was a mystery to my mom. She wanted to make food like my Abuela did, but her blonde hair just kept getting in the way. Ok ok maybe it wasn't her blonde hair, but my mom and I shared a few laughs today over the many oopsie meals that we pushed around our plates till mom admitted that it didn't turn out. Did I mention how much I love my mom. I mean really if I were to marry into a Puerto Rican family and red rice and beans just weren't my thing to make, I would probably have given up. Not mom. She just kept going, and then one day it wasn't wallpaper paste. She was beaming. We were so proud of her.

Today I promised Matt's family a Puerto Rican meal. I decided against red rice and beans -the wallpaper paste rice nightmares are too close of a memory. Instead I made white rice and beans and pastelillos. The white rice and beans are super easy and even though the pastelillos require deep frying they are well worth the work. If you're not into the work of deep frying, buy frozen rolls (the kind that are the dough and not par-baked), fill them and bake them. They taste almost as good.

Beans:
1 can of pigeon peas
1 tablespoon recaito
4 oz tomato sauce
1 packet of sazon
Adobo to taste
water

Pour all of the ingredients into a pot. Don't drain the beans. Add water till it is about a 1/2 inch above the beans. On my hand, I normally measure to my second knuckle. If you add too much water, don't fret just boil it off. Boil the bean until they reduce and thicken a little. Serve over white rice.

Pastelillos:
1 can of corned beef
1 eight oz. can of tomato sauce
1 packet sazon
2 tablespoon recaito
2 packages of frozen Goya Discos – empanada dough

Empty the can of corned beef into a frying pan. Add the can of tomato sauce, packet of sazon, and the two tablespoons of recaito. Chop up the corned beef with a spatula. Cook on medium heat for 15-20 minutes or until the corned beef had all broken up and the mixture has thickened.

Let mixture cool. Thaw the frozen discs. Place about a tablespoon of the mixture into each piece of dough. Crimp the edges with a fork or pinch together. Heat the oil on medium heat till it starts to make noise or until a drop of water sizzles when dropped into the oil.. Fry the meat packets till golden brown. Drain on a paper towel.

Every major grocery chain has Goya products, so finding these ingredients shouldn't be terribly hard. I am not loyal to Goya products, but normally they have all of the ingredients I want and need. If you find something cheaper in another brand, buy it.

Culture is not something you are born with. It is something that the people in your life teach you, or something you teach yourself. I am so thankful for a wonderful mother, who thought it was important to teach her children not just her own culture, but also her husband's culture. But I definitely don't miss those days of her rice experiments.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

A stuffing fool

After the amazing response I got to the stuffed hamburgers, I decided that I would try my hand at stuffed meatballs for our Valentine's Day meal. Matt was such a fan. And I've come to the conclusion that if I stuff something with bacon, Matt will eat it. The mise en place of this dish was crucial, well not crucial but helpful. I set up the bowl, plate of bacon, and chopped up cheese. This would be such a fun thing to make with kids. They were definitely a nice flavor combination for spaghetti and meatballs.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Just call me Mrs. Wonderful

My computer crashed. Blue screen. I'm in tears. MY LIFE IS OVER! You know, all that jazz. If you haven't experienced a computer death, then you will soon. Bwahaha. No but seriously my life runs off a computer. While my computer was down, I tried to watch TV. Turns out I don't know how to watch TV without a computer. I stared at the screen and on comes commercials COMMERCIALS. It was awful. I wanted to do some work, write a post, or cruise around facebook, and instead I was watching commercials. What had my life come to!

After a lovely chat with India, my knight in shining armor was on his way from Providence with a Windows XP CD to save me from my sad pathetic life of commercials and lack of homework.

I knew that I could not greet Matt on his day off with nothing but a teary face and a broken computer. I was probably going to make his day hell enough by screaming at him when my computer didn't get any better. Don't judge. If you haven't yelled at someone when you are in a frustrated state, you don't have a pulse or you're an alien. And if you're an alien, what are you doing here on planet earth? Don't you know everything is going to end in 2012. Go back to your home planet while you still can.

I got this brilliant idea while I was waiting the LOOOONG hour that Matt was taking to get to Cambridge. He said he wanted a cheeseburger for lunch, but he didn't want to get stuck in traffic going back to Provi, so I couldn't take him to get some good greasy fast food. I went to Trader Joes and stared at the cheese section for a good 10 minutes until I found a block of Monterrey Jack cheese that wasn't $500 or created from raw milk in Ireland - does Irish cheese really taste better? I was skeptical. I bought two pounds of hamburger meat. 80/20 so I knew it would be good and greasy, and I sped home.

I had honestly never really experimented with stuffed burgers, but I just knew I could pull it off. My bacon was frozen, so I chopped off the edge and stuck it in the frying pan. Matt walked in and asked where the orange chicken was. I try to make a nice greasy guy meal and he asks where the orange chicken is. Oh I love this boy.

So I cut the ground beef in half. I add an egg, some breadcrumbs, a splash of milk and mix it up. Supposedly, according to Matt, I was making burgers wrong, but that was how my mom made burgers. Can we remember that my computer is lying on my bed NOT BREATHING! I mixed up the burger stuff and cut up some cheese in blocks. I took a patty sized amount and put a piece of cheese in the middle then I grabbed two one inch pieces of the now thawed and sort of fried bacon and put them on top of the cheese. I squished the meat around the cheese and bacon and reformed the patty making sure that there wasn't any cheese or bacon poking out.

One pound of ground beef made 3 burgers. I put them under the broiler and 10 minutes later Matt was gushing about how these were the most amazing burgers he ever ate. Of course 15 minutes later we might have been yelling about my computer and

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO IT?

DO YOU REALIZE MY LIFE IS ON THAT COMPUTER?

DON'T EVEN MENTION WIPING MY HARD DRIVE CLEAN!

But the burgers were good. And for the few minutes we were eating lunch I was a pretty amazing girlfriend.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Hot and bothered...

I am a lover of food. Just the thought of my mom's fried cabbage and noodles or my Titi's red rice and beans gets me all hot and bothered. I am still unsure about whether food actually makes me more loving or lovable. The NY Times article about aphrodesiac foods today made me even more skeptical, sort of.

The article basically said in order for chocolate to work you'd have to eat 15 pounds of it. For some reason cherries lower a woman's libido, and spicy peppers might spice up your love life. Then again they might not. The whole article was so objective it didn't come to a point. Well no, that's not fair, basically the article said there is really no science behind any food being an aphrodisiac.

DUHHHHHHH!!!

The whole sexy mystery behind foods being aphrodisiacs lies in the fact that it is a mystery. Has no one ever seen or read Chocolat? Imagining that there is this food of love that works kind of like cupid's darts may be as silly as believing that relationships are always like the fairytales. That doesn't mean that a kiss on the cheek while being handed a perfect red rose doesn't still send shivers down my arms. Or that dipping a strawberry in warm chocolate and taking a bite doesn't make me feel kind of romantic.

Love is a hardcore mystery. What makes a woman fall in love? What makes a man fall in love? No one really has a straight answer. Of course there are plenty of old-wives tales. Just as there are plenty of old wives tales about love, there are plenty of old wives tales about food. You know chocolate, oysters, and all that jazz that the NY Times article kind of shot into.

Before you lose all faith in the Times, I did find one piece of information in the article rather interesting. All of those fancy meals that restaurants are making with supposed aphrodesiacs might not create the desired result. All of the rich food actually makes you kind of sleepy. I love it! One more reason to make your own food and avoid the sleepy drive home.

I am proud to announce that I am completely done with my Valentine's Day shopping, and have a bag of candy hearts sitting in my room just waiting to be enjoyed.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Hearts for Haiti

I haven't really said much on here about Haiti and the horrible earthquake that changed the lives of so many people in Haiti and in the US. I was sent an email today that reminded me of the importance of continuing to remember Haiti and the help that is still needed.

River Gods in Cambridge has a special program this Sunday, Hearts for Haiti. There's going to be Haitian cuisine, raffles and all kinds of aren't-you-glad-you-gave-back fun. They are asking for a $5 donation at the door, but maybe you could forgo those two dozen roses for $50 and impress the love of your life with a generous heart for the people of Haiti. All of the proceeds are going to Partners in Health, a Boston-based group that has been helping the people Haiti for more than 20 years.

For all of you single people, coming and giving back to the people of Haiti might be the perfect way to do something on Valentine's Day. The laidback atmosphere of River Gods would be perfect and less awkward than trying to go out for something to eat amidst the many happy couples.

If you're around the Boston area, check it out and give back to the people of Haiti.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Chocolate solves all of life's problems

I am a big fan of the powers of chocolate. So is Matt, but I think that's just because if he stuffs some chocolate in my mouth I'll most likely shut up and apologize for being mean. According the Daily Beast Peru is beginning to learn the powers of chocolate.

Farmers in Peru are beginning to plant cacao, or the bean that makes chocolate, instead of coca, the plant that makes the very real and scary drug, cocaine. Supposedly Peru is number 2 to Columbia in Cocaine production, and a special U.S. agency is trying to change things around. They want Peru to be known for chocolate.

I really want the best for Peru. I mean if I were a country, I wouldn't want to be known as a second biggest cocaine producer. Can you imagine being number 2? It's like saying yeah you're almost a bad ass country that everyone is scared of, but not quite. That's just sad. Now IF I had the opportunity to be known as the country that was producing the most amazing cacao (chocolate) anyone had ever tasted, I'd be totally running the UN.

Chocolate creates happiness. My roommate received a package from her mom a few days ago. On the top of the package was a bag of chocolate. Her face lit up and instantly she was saying how amazing her mom was. She hadn't even eaten the chocolate yet.

Sharing a chocolate fix is almost as good as getting one for yourself. I already shared the recipe for these chocolate peanut butter Kandy Kakes bars on the blog, but in case you forgot about it check it out and get your chocolate-peanut butter-Tasty Cake-fix. Your world and the world of the person you might have freaked out at, because you were running low on chocolate, will thank you for it.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

And the countdown is on

In case you were so busy buying the chips and salsa and making the wings for your Super Bowl party - I am really not at all sure why wings became the "it" thing this year to make for the Super Bowl. I do have an amazing recipe for parmesan cheese wings, but you've all made your wings. I'll save that for another day. - Like I was saying, in case you were too busy focusing on the Saints/Colts showdown, next Sunday is Valentine's Day.

Last night I listened to a woman in a store talk about how it was just another Sunday and how she and her boyfriend had decided to just treat it like any other Sunday. If that man brings her a dozen red roses, I bet she wouldn't complain. But that's besides the point. Most men would be lying if they said they could care less about the Super Bowl and would rather just treat it like a regular Sunday with Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters on the agenda. Most women would be lying if they said they could care less about Valentine's Day.

I have already talked about knowing your significant other's chocolate preference. - No dark for us milk girls! - You also have a perfect spaghetti and meatball meal that you can make. It is super easy and would be a fabulous suprise for any Valentine's Day meal. As Matt and I were discussing yesterday, all of these things are wonderful, but it's that silly gift that you feel you have to get that makes things a tad bit tricky and uber stressful.

After realizing that my boyfriend didn't own a non-stick pan, I have come to the conclusion that kitchen gadgets never go out of style. My parents who have been married for 25 years don't have a good can opener. Unfortunately for my mom I already solved this problem. Maybe this is why Matt says I'm so hard to shop for. I tend to buy the things I need. Oops!

Anyway there are some very cool foodie gifts this V-day that I think are definite must-haves. Lucinda Scala Quinn's new book Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys looks AMAZING!!! It would be a great gift for the guy in your life, or for the lady who's always looking for new recipes and bacon-filled meals.

I am also a huge fan of all of the adorable little animal gadgets at Target. I don't know if you've ever wandered toward the kitchen gadget side of Target, but you know you've always wanted a Toucan pizza cutter. I mean this stuff is just adorable.

For the very serious cook in your life a copy of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking 1 or 2 would really bring a HUGE smile on the day of love. I'm normally not a huge cookbook person, but this is the bible of French cooking. And Julia and her wonderful self has come back like 80s fashion; you'd be so in for buying it.

Think a little more creative this year for V-day. Think about the basic things that might make your love's life a little easier. And think of something that would keep on giving all year. Pretty red Kitchen Aid mixers are always welcome. What says love more than a beautiful red mixer?

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

It's a little fishy

I am baffled by fish. They are overkilled, overfarmed, and not many people care. Many vegetarians will eat fish. I always love when they tell me this.

"Oh well I eat fish." It's kind of like their saying, yeah I eat those ugly creatures because I need nutrients. Little do they know that the politics of fish are even more sketchy than those dirty chicken farms. I guess fish don't squawk or have cute fuzzy babies; they don't have the fan club other animals have, and I personally think that is a sad sad situation.

I am no vegetarian. In fact I am exactly the oposite. I appreciate and love the animals I am able to consume on a daily basis. I do try to eat smart and when it comes to fish the jury is still out. Salmon, the one fish I know that EVERYONE just loves to eat, is not really a part of my diet. They are very much overfished and terribly overfarmed. If I can find salmon in every restaurant and every grocery store in every city in the US, there is a problem.

France took a stand in the fish battle this week by listing Bluefin Tuna on the endangered species list. This would mean that next month the EU would have enough votes in support of a Bluefin Tuna ban. I hope that the ban would give the tuna a chance to replenish so people could then be able to enjoy eating them again in reasonable quanities.

Fish can be very tasty. My mom used to buy fish and broil it with some lemon pepper. The one thing fish is not good for is leftovers, so if you're going to consume this soon-to-be rare product make sure you eat it all. And to all of those pescatarian out there. HAVE YOU NEVER SEEN THE INCREDIBLE MR.LIMPET??? Fish have feelings too.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Feeding men, understanding men, oh boy it's been a long day

I spent a marvelous 35 minutes on the phone today with Rhonda Ricardo, author of Cherries Over Quicksand, about her book and what she has learned from speaking to men all over the country about their relationships. I promise I will be writing an article and I will be informing you all, but for right now let's just say she suggested getting your man a calendar for Valentines Day. I bet they're really cheap now that it's February already, but from what I remember from elementary school, calendars don't taste nearly as good as chocolate covered strawberries.

Speaking of strawberries Valentine's Day is only a few weeks away and women and men everywhere are probably already starting to freak out. Do I get the DVD card from Hallmark or do I spend a week's salary on dinner in a cramped restaurant? I'm not freaking out, because I have already made plans and bought construction paper to make some fabulous Valentine's Day cards. I'm thinking, paired with some ganache and strawberries, it will be a fabulous day. Of course guys are even easier to please than me. Guys can be pleased with one simple thing.

BACON!!!!

This may not apply to all men, but it has applied to all men that I have met. When I posed the question of what do men want on facebook, Rob, the Sous Chef at Brookside Country Club, answered a woman who knows where to find the best bacon. I can not stress enough how important bacon really is to a red blooded American male. Matt ate a soup made purely of vegetables, because it had bacon fat in it. This is the guy who will only eat broccoli if I make it the way his mom makes it with garlic and butter.

Instead of going out and sitting in a cramped restaurant with all of the other "happy" couples this year just make dinner. Start with some of the amazing potato soup a few posts down.

Make meatballs. I would say use turkey or ground beef, but it is Valentine's Day so just go with the beef. Mix in an egg, some milk, breadcrumbs, and some parmesan cheese. Form them into balls and either place them on a baking sheet and bake at 350 or fry in a frying pan. I'm not a real sauce kind of girl, so buy the sauce that looks the yummiest. Pour the sauce into a pot and heat with the finished meatballs. Cook some spaghetti, and make it a Lady and the Tramp kind of night with one giant plate of spaghetti and meatballs.

Finish the night off with a lovely bowl of ganache and some fresh strawberries. Ganache is so easy to make. Heat a cup of heavy cream till it boils. Pour over a cup of chocolate chips or whatever kind of chocolate you like best. Whisk from the center until the chocolate and the cream have formed one happy gooey chocolate mixture. Serve that warm with the strawberries. You will never go back to those chocolate covered strawberries at the candy store again.

Maybe save some bacon from the soup and try dipping it in the ganache. Matt was a big fan of chocolate covered bacon. I not so much. I told you. It's a guy thing. I pride myself in being able to become almost a man while working in a kitchen, but I don't think women can really appreciate the amazingness of bacon like men can. Gotta love that mysterious, or maybe not so mysterious Y chromosome.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

The grocery shopping challenge

Every week I clipped coupons. I worried a lot. I knew when my dad was paid, and I knew I could help my parents save money. I was 15 and felt ingenious for thinking of clipping the coupons. My mom and I would go shopping. I knew all of the coupons that actually saved money and the ones that weren't really worth it. I was never hungry or without what I wanted or needed, but I was a quirky kid. My mom put up with the quirkiness, and let me control the coupons as we shopped.

A few weeks ago Matt decided that he wanted to save money. This is Matt's life mission, so the idea wasn't terribly groundbreaking. His new money-saving scheme was coupon clipping and ad searching for groceries. I was a much bigger fan of going to the ghetto grocery store where we had to bag our own groceries.

Saturday was week one of the ordeal. Matt had clipped coupons, studied the store ads, and planned out our course of action. We had 2 options for stores. The ghetto store wasn't in the running. Bacon and hotdogs were on sale at Stop and Shop. Shaws was cheaper for most everything else.

Shaws was our first stop. Halfway through Matt realized he couldn't hold coupons and drive the cart. He handed them to me, and deja vu where have you been for the last 7 years. I organized which coupons were worth it. I asked him what exactly he was going to use, and narrowed down the pile. Shopping sales and the few coupons Matt decided to use saved Matt $16. I saved $13 (Matt hogged most of the coupons, since he clipped them.)

That sounds like a pretty good savings. 15-year-old Emily would have been proud. Of course this wasn't my mom's typical shopping trip. Matt and I don't have 3 kids, and thousands of other things to do on a Saturday. Off we went to store number 2. Hi-ho-hi-ho it's off to Stop and Shop we go! (Dear Taylor Swift, I can write my own songs too. Does that mean I can win 4 Grammys?)

Stop and Shop was a much quicker ordeal. Matt had an actual list, something Mom never made unless she was sending Dad out, so we had 4 specific things that needed to be had from the good folks at Stop and Shop. I added string cheese to the list. I love string cheese. Checked out of Stop and Shop with a final count of Matt saving $13 (not sure how this number happened, because I think he only spent $11) and Emily saving $3.

We saved $42 combined. I was impressed, and exhausted. Shopping and shopping and shopping really isn't my idea of a good time. Saving enough money for a whole other shopping trip was definitely worth it. All I know is that yesterday, when I was scouring newspapers for errors for a class assignment, I took out all of the ads and started clipping coupons. There are a lot of uncertainties in the world we live in, but it's nice to know that every Sunday the coupons are in the paper and the world keeps spinning round.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily