Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Deconstructed Shish Kebabs

Hot town, summer in the city. Or more accurately, summer in the outskirts of a small industrialized town.

One of the best things about summer cooking is the opportunity to grill everything.  I, unfortunately, don't have a grill.  At some point in my life, I'd like to become a real grill master. For now, though, I try to find creative ways around making things sans grill.  This usually isn't too difficult if you are comfortable with your broiler.

This whole "deconstructed shish kebab" fiasco started when I picked up some sirloin tips for a great price at Wegmans.  It being summer, though, I didn't want to make a stew, so I thought-- aha! Shish kebabs! My plan was all set and I was ready to start cooking when I realized I forgot to get one very important thing at the store...skewers. I had reached the point of no return with my preparations, so I did what any good cook (but not great because a great cook would have remembered skewers and probably been doing this on a grill to start) would do and threw everything on a sheet tray under the broiler.

Was the method fancy? No. Did it require any cooking skills whatsoever? Not really. But was the end result delicious? You can bet your sweet patootie it was.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Stoneware Baked Pizza

Hola, mis compadres! Long time no talk. Sorry about the gap, but after so many TV-related rants, I needed to take a break to prepare some more cooking goodness for you.

I know it's a cliche, but pizza is one of my all-time favorite foods, competing closely with ice cream and really good Indian food. I could eat pizza every day and not get tired of it as long as I got to change up the type and toppings. I just had a stroke of genius for an Indian pizza where you take a naan and put some tandoori chicken and a curry sauce on it. My wheels are spinning. That sounds amazing. But I digress...

For a more traditional, Italian style pizza, I've gotten really into making pizza at home. Partially because buying pizza, even if you get a frozen one, can be expensive. When you consider how inexpensive the ingredients are, you realize the pizza industry is a real racket.  And nothing gets my goat more than a racket. (Apparently today is talk like your grandpa day in MiloLand.)

The other weekend I made a pizza for my Dad and I, but I was hungry and didn't want to wait for a yeast dough to rise, so I found a quick bread recipe to use as my crust.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

The New Who

In less than 24 hours, the identity of the next Doctor will be announced, and I could pee myself I am so excited.

After the initial grieving period I went through upon hearing of Matt Smith's departure, I began to get really excited for the Doctor's regeneration. I expect I will love the new Doctor just as I came to love all the others. So I have been dwelling on the question of, Who will the next Doctor Who be?

There are a million lists out there with odds and speculation on different actors who might be given the role. I'm guessing whoever the next Doctor is, his or her name isn't on any of those lists. The powers that be have a way of choosing someone no one had thought of and yet is perfect for the job.

But because I've been thinking about this for weeks, I have a lot of thoughts on the subjects that I'm dying to share with you. So I made a list too, except without odds because I don't understand how betting works...

Thursday, August 1, 2013

The beginning of the end for Parks and Rec?

Did you hear that?

That was the sound of my heart shattering into a million tiny pieces.  It's just been confirmed that Rashida Jones and Rob Lowe will be leaving Parks and Recreation.



Don't ask me to comfort you, I have nothing left to give. I used all my cheering-up energy on myself, and so far nothing has worked. I'll be resorting to chocolate later. You can expect a chocolatey blog post in the near future.

Apparently Jones and Lowe will be in the first half of the new season, and then leave in episode 13. Somehow knowing exactly when it will happen is making it worse for me. I'm just going to be dreading that episode.  Also, knowing they are leaving takes a little of the surprise out of their upcoming storylines.