Why you ask?

It’s not Black Friday. You won’t catch me near a mall. I refuse to get up at some insane hour just to save $20 on one item and blow it 10 times over on the other things I pick up.

No, the thrill of my day after is this:

Here in lies the sole reason why I host Thanksgiving every year for the past 13 years. LEFTOVERS.

This delicacy is an amazing combination of all the best dishes of the holiday. Fresh turkey, cranberry dressing and home made cornbread chestnut stuffing. What’s missing in this picture is the giant side of gravy for dipping. It’s messy and delicious and a sensory orgasm.

If you’ve never had one…….(the sandwich, not the orgasm), you need to try it!

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Far and away my favorite dinner planner:

All Recipes Dinner Spinner:

 Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

It’s free! And if I have to go on from there, it’s great. Just tap to select the type of dish you’d like to make: main dish, side dish, soup, appetizer, salad, dessert, breakfast or bread. Then select your main ingredient. Next choose how long you’d like the dish to take to prepare and view your matches.

The recipes t hat come up include a picture, user ratings, and complete instructions.  They also include a nutritional information panel that includes fat content, sodium, calories, etc.

 You can add any recipe you like to your favorites for future reference. There is all a search feature as well.

Epicurious Recipes & Shopping List: 

 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Another great free recipe application with the added feature of an integrated shopping list. Here you can choose from categories such as weeknight dinners, desserts, cocktails, lunches, snack and dinner party ideas. 

This app has a great search feature. Choose  main ingredient, the course, the cuisine style, any dietary concerns, season or occasion and dish type.  Select a recipe from the results and the application has the ability to take the ingredients needed and integrate them into a shopping list. You can’t add or subtract anything from the list, but it is still a nice feature.

Here too, you can add any recipe to your list of favorites.

The best application of all goes to:

ShopShop Shopping List:

 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

 This one may even be the best application on my iPhone.

Just open the app, click the + button and add your items to the list. You can add quantities as well.

Once you’ve purchased something on the list, just tap the item and a red line goes through it.  At any point you can click the arrow on the top left and it will clear completed items from the list.

The app saves the items after you have entered them for future shopping lists.  Need milk again? Just select it from the index the list has created for you.

If you have an iPhone, trust me, you NEED this app!

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2. We make pasta from scratch for the very first time, WITHOUT a pasta machine. Create raviolis stuffed with whatever is in the fridge, cook and eat every single, solitary one. Personally, the PB&J ravioli was one I could do without, but hey, he liked it.  However, I had to veto letting him put tomato sauce on that one.

3. There is no basketball, Hebrew school or birthday parties.

4. There is no laundry to do. There are no spills, broken objects or massive messes to clean up.

5. There are no work tragedies, complicated emails to return or domestic malfunctions.

6. My car passes inspection despite the cracked tail light (from the hit and run at the supermarket a few weeks ago) and the inspection line was only 5 minutes long.

7. My son goes to bed without a fight. What’s up with THAT?

8. The tooth fairy is on duty and actually had cash in her wallet. This makes tooth number 5 inside of 2 months. What he is chewing food with is beyond me, especially having just eaten the thickest raviolis ever made.

Today was a GOOD day! Hope yours was too!

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I used to get beyond awful migraines multiple times a month. Brutal. Started getting them at 18  and they were relentless.  Tried everything possible until finally, a doctor suggested I stay away from a list of foods. I’m now down to getting them maybe 4 or  5 times a month. So rule out yogurt, nuts, certain wines, certain cheeses, onions, processed meats.

Another? The women in my family are prone to cystic breasts. So upon advice, I stay away from anything with caffeine.

I grew up with a grandfather who owned a Kosher butcher shop. If you’ve never had kosher meat try grabbing a piece of leather and chew on that for awhile.  There ya go.  Ever been behind the scenes in any butcher shop? Then you’ll understand why the only way I have anything to do with meat is when it’s served to me buried under gravy, sauce or ANYTHING.

And bones? Can’t deal with them either. When my sister served our family individual Cornish hens for her first big home made dinner,  I felt the blood drain from my entire body when she slide a plate of it in front of me.  And the room started spinning on me.  The funny part of that was the look my mom gave me when she saw my sister put that in front of me. It was a look of “I hope she doesn’t pass out at the table: mixed with “suck it up, because it is your sister’s first big dinner”. I sucked it up, because even at 33, my mom said so.

However, I do love ribs. Maybe that’s because the shape of the bones aren’t the typical bone shape? But of course I have an issue here too. The marinades and sauces are so high in sodium that I can’t eat them if I am too close to PMS or my cycle.  The sodium turns into a cranky, irritable witch with a pressure headache.

I won’t eat past 8 PM because I’ll either have indigestion, not be able to fall asleep or have awful dreams.

And I rarely have 3 meals a day. Although it’s not the reason my dad thought it was when I was still living at home.  According to him:

The reason you like soup so much, is because you are too lazy to chew.’ 

Dad? The real truth was that I was too lazy to cook, not chew.  Soup, microwave. Instant meal. Minimal steps. (Or maybe my jaw was too tired from gnawing on Kosher meat.) At this point in my life however, I rarely eat the three meals because ten other things on my “to do” list have a higher priority.

Maybe though, it’s all for the best. If I could and did eat everything I wanted, 3 times  a day I’d be fighting and writing about an entire other food issue:  Self control.

On a side note: I have something new to share with you on December 1st.  Stay tuned….

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Why you ask?

It’s not Black Friday. You won’t catch me near a mall. I refuse to get up at some insane hour just to save $20 on one item and blow it 10 times over on the other things I pick up. 

No, the thrill of my day after is this:

Here in lies the sole reason why I host Thanksgiving every year for the past 13 years. LEFTOVERS.

This delicacy is an amazing combination of all the best dishes of the holiday. Fresh turkey, cranberry dressing and home made cornbread chestnut stuffing. What’s missing in this picture is the giant side of gravy for dipping.  It’s messy and delicious and a sensory orgasm.

If you’ve never had one…….(the sandwich, not the orgasm), you need to try it!

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Cornbread Casserole

1 can whole kernel corn (undrained), 15 oz.
1 can cream style corn, 15 oz.
1 (8 oz.) carton sour cream
1/2 c. melted butter
2 eggs, well beaten
1 box Jiffy corn muffin mix

Mix all ingredients (except corn muffin mix) together. Add muffin mix. Pour in 9×13 inch greased baking pan. Bake 45 minutes, 350 degrees.

Serves 4-6.

Hope you enjoy it!

And on a side note, if you have not seen The Blind Side in the theater yet, SEE IT!  It’s a fantastic movie.  Even my 9 year old son loved it!

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Ramen Noodles

I’m very particular in how I eat them  I never really follow the directions, though how rough is it to boil water, really?  My special (repulsive to most people) version:

Add less than the required amount of water, because who cares about the soup part of it?  Break up noodles and boil until most of the water has evaporated out. What is left is a thick, starchy mush of flavored noodles. Over cooked? Yes. Delicious? Extremely. The perfect beverage to compliment them? Orange Juice.

I broke the habit though. For the next 20 years they were gone from my pantry and gone from my diet.  And yes, I thought about them often. Fondly. But I was strong.

And then I happened upon this great recipe:

Asian Slaw:

• 2 – 1 pound bags of coleslaw.
• 1 bunch of chopped green onions (optional)

Mix with and chill until ready to serve:

• 2 packages of Ramen noodle seasoning
• 1/3 cup cider vinegar or rice wine vinegar
• ½ cup sugar (more or less to taste)
• ½ cup oil

Toss the following ingredients with some oil and toast until brown:

• 2 packages Ramen noodles, broken up (Oriental flavor – or 1 oriental, 1 chicken)
• 4 oz. package of almond slivers(or chopped peanuts)

Do not add the nut/noodle mixture until just before ready to serve.

This is a bad thing. Ramen noodles. You are back, and in bulk. The worst part is that as I type this, a pot of them are cooking. Not for the coleslaw, but for my old friend….the overcooked, starchy, mushy version of soup that I love so very much.

I am a junkie and I am weak.

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year
It’s the hap-happiest season of all…………

Blah, blah

There’ll be parties for hosting
Marshmallows for toasting

Mallomars are seasonal. Did you know that? And it’s that time of year.

There is peace in the land again.

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Watch selected

Funds ready

Best price found

"The" Awesome Watch

I ordered it! An awesome watch ~~~~~>

Thursday night:  I did a bunch of cooking.  I put everything away, cleaned up, took out the garbage and brought it down to the street for pick up the next morning.  Felt incredibly productive.

Friday morning:  Dressed and ready for work and off I went. Checked the time to make sure I’d be on time for an appointment.

Oops, no watch. 

No big deal, I turn around and go back home, because I will be lost all day without my watch.  Pass the garbage truck, head down towards my house and pull up the driveway.

Go into the kitchen where I left my watch. No watch. Check the bathroom, maybe it’s there. No watch.

Oh shit. It hit me.

Yes, I threw the watch out. Stupid, dumbass me threw my watch out when I cleaned up my cooking mess.  And I just drove by the large, nasty garbage truck that picked up my garbage 5 houses ago.

This is not the first time I have lost something due to cleaning. I lost a diamond wedding band that I had taken off while doing some house cleaning. I have lost numerous bracelets and earrings. All because of cleaning.  This issue is how I justified hiring a cleaning person to come in every other week. (I can pretty much justify anything. Contact me if you should need justification for anything at all.)

Will the lost watch justify me hiring a cook?

I can’t begin to tell you how stupid and careless I feel. And add to that, the manufacturer (Michele Watches) has discontinued the style.

I am so incredibly mad at myself. 

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Every year a group of people I have known since I am 13 get together for the annual Super Bowl party and I make these wings.  We are talking 4 bags of chicken wings here.

So I thought I would pass this recipe on to the world……

Hot Buffalo Wings  (multiply as needed)

• 1 bag of chicken wings
• 12 oz bottle of Frank’s Original Red Hot sauce
• 8 oz bottle of Italian Dressing
• 1 large aluminum baking tray with high sides
• 1 marinade brush

1. Mix the dressing and the hot sauce in large bowl. Add defrosted chicken wings and let marinade for at least 3 hours (the longer the better)
2. Individually place chicken wings n the baking tray in a single layer
3. Bake uncovered at 300 degrees for about an hour and a half. Flip the wings about every 20 minutes and brush on a little more of the marinade each time
4. When you are either sick of doing this or they begin to really brown, turn the heat up to about 425 degrees so they get more crispy.

These really are awesome. and I love that they are baked instead of fried. They are also great on the grill as well.

Enjoy!

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