Travels in the South

Hello sweet friends – welcome to this week’s Travels in the South.  Have you ever heard of macaroni cheese balls?

I had not either… well that is until I found some cool pictures on mom’s i-Phone the other night.  She had some interesting pictures and a lot of explaining to do for sure.

Mom and dad went to a local steakhouse and these delights were appetizers.  These wonderful balls are of course made with macaroni and then they add some fabulous cheeses – asiago, mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

.

They roll them in breadcrumbs and then deep fry them for a very short time. They are so cheesey as you can see from dad’s picture.

The restaurant serves the macaroni cheese bits with housemade ranch dressing.  Of course dad liked them plain straight up without any additional sauces.  He says they hold their own and are awesome all by themselves.

 

Travels in the South

 Welcome my friends to another edition of Travels in the South.  This week mom/dad stumbled onto something that was simply amazing – Onion Rings.

Who doesn’t love a good onion ring?  Mom/dad were visiting a place a couple of towns over from the Hotel Thompson.  They saw homemade onion rings on the menu and decided to give it a whirl.  This alone amazed me because here is a little tidbit for you.  Dad hates onions.  He hates them raw.  He hates them in salads.  BUT, he loves onion rings.  I think that’s a little weird, right?  But then again, we are talking about my daddy – snorts and rolls with piggy laughter.

The onion rings finally came to the table and oh my piggy heavens – look at that mountain of goodness!  These are huge!!  They are fresh cut, hand battered and made to order – thus the ten minute wait to get them upon ordering.

The restaurant serves them with a Cajun dipping sauce (which when mom asked was told it was a ranch sauce with cajun spices).  And it does have a little kick.  Mom/dad asked for extra dipping sauce.  Trust me, they said you needed it because look at how many onion rings you get.  And mom said the price you wouldn’t believe – $4.99 for this tower of an appetizer.

But I just have one question.  Not that they were good because mom/dad both said they were.  My question is why does daddy get to play with his food and I can’t?  Go ahead mom.  Tell me.  I’m waiting.

 

 

Shopping Around the World

Welcome my friends to another edition of Shopping Around the World recipes!

This month we are opening the floor for you.  You can post ANYTHING (desserts, appetizers, snacks, entrees) that you want to share.  Just remember pictures and prices.  So what will you post my friends?  We can’t wait to see.

Now with mom/dad, sometimes the best thing they crave is a good old fashioned hamburger with french fries.  Doesn’t that sound yummy?  And mom does them in an unique way.  So, let me present Mom’s Hamburgers and Fries.

Ingredients:

Buns – we get a package of 8 for $1.00 = that makes each bun only 0.13 each.

Hamburger Meat – Mom gets a package of ground sirloin that costs around $6.50 a package.  Now one package will make 4 burgers = that’s only $1.63 per burger.

1 Tomato (which is optional).  We got big beef steak tomatoes on sale for $0.99 a pound.  One tomato costs us $1.28 and you only need one slice of the tomato per burger so the rest goes into a salad for the next day 🙂  So somewhere in the neighborhood of $0.21 per slice.

An egg.  Yep, you heard it.  1 egg for each burger.  Eggs costs $2.00 for a dozen = $0.17 each.

A baking potato because they are huge = $0.59 for one.

Now – the total price per Mom’s hamburger is around $2.75 – take that Mickey D’s restaurant.  I’m not posting all of the condiment prices because that can vary.

How to Prepare:

Mom works on the potato first to get it started  She cuts the potato in very thin slices and places in a bowl.  She then salts them rather well and starts her fry daddy oil.  Once the oil is hot, she drops the french fries into the oil to cook.  Depending on how brown/crispy you want your fries, depends on the cooking time.  Just watch them so they don’t burn.

During the cooking of your fries, plop your hamburger meat out into a bowl.  Season your meat – salt, pepper, anything you normally use.  Sometimes mom puts some Worcestershire sauce in it as well.  With your fingers, gently mix it together – but don’t overwork.  Once mixed, kind of flatten against the bottom of the bowl and with your hand make a cross sign – that way you are separating the meat into hopefully four even hamburger patties.  Get your pan (preferably an iron skillet because hey we are in the south-LOL) hot and add just a little bit of oil to cover the bottom.  Also during this time, turn your stove on around 300-350 degrees.

As your pan is warming up, take one section of your hamburger meat.  This is the time if you want to add cheese inside of your burger you would do it here.  What do I mean?  Well sometimes mom will cut a piece of cheddar cheese and then wrap the hamburger meat around the cheddar cheese covering it.  Just be careful after you cook it and bite into the burger because it will be H.O.T.  However you do it though, patty your hamburger out and make a small dimple in the middle.  Put aside and do the rest of your burgers.

Once the pan is hot, put the burgers in the pan to cook.  We prefer around medium but some like it more cooked – your choice.  While that is cooking, take your buns and put them on a cookie tray.  Butter them lightly and stick them in the oven to toast – be careful not to burn your buns.

Once the buns are done, take them out and put what condiments you want on your burger.  Once the burgers are done in the pan, take them off the burner and let them sit for a few minutes.  After they have rested a bit, build your burger.

 

Shopping Around the World

My friend Fozzie and I have scheduled a group posting today of Shopping Around the World.   We thought it would be interesting to see the differences between different countries all over.Here are our prices for the following from our area – Georgia USA.

 Items to price this month:

• Spring/Summer is quickly approaching my friends on this side of the world.  On the other side of the world, Autumn/Winter is quickly approaching.  That is if Mother Nature starts playing well with others 🙂  It was suggested to post what you pay during this time of year for the month for your heating and/or air conditioning.  What temperature do you set your thermostat on?  Discuss.  Okay we keep it pretty cool here at the Hotel Thompson.  Mom likes to hang meat sometimes so daddy has to keep her in check.  Our monthly bill is a ‘flat rate’ bill.  We pay the same thing every month for 12 months.  Sometimes we use more watts than other months but it makes up the difference over the year.  We pay right at $205.00 a month in electrical – heating/air conditioning.  Our house is totally electric – no gas at all here… unless you count the gas that comes from this oinker – snorts and rolls with piggy laughter.
• Meat.  Fajita beef.  We buy a pound package for $4.99 at the market.  It’s already cut in small slices.  All you have to do is brown.
• Vegetable.  Head of cabbage.  When we are lucky, we can get this as cheap as $0.29 a pound.  This week though we paid $0.49 a pound.  An entire head cost us around $1.26 – awesome deal.  Have you ever eaten the core of a cabbage?  Mom highly recommends it.  It has a bit of a spicy flavor and is awesome!
• Random Item.   A can of peanuts.  We buy the store brand for only $2.99 a can.
• Homemade Dish.  See Below 🙂 This entire meal costs less than $5.00 for two people – and you have leftovers the next day for lunch!

  A ‘go to’ dish here at the Hotel Thompson is our version of a Chinese dish.  This is easy and takes less than 15 minutes to prepare.  It’s a huge hit!  We take the fajita beef and brown it in a skillet with a little bit of olive oil.  While that is browning, we use two boxes of the Lo Mein noodles that you can buy in the store for $0.99 each.  They come with the seasoning packs.  You open the packs, fill them with water and microwave them according to the package.  While the fajita beef is almost brown, add some chopped up cabbage and cook together.  When the Lo Mein noodles are done, pour them into your mixture of fajita beef and cabbage, add the seasoning mix packets, stir together and cover.  When the noodles have come together and the cabbage is soft but yet still has a crunch to it, top with peanuts and sesame seeds for taste.  There you go – instant meal that will please and is so delicious.  Remember to put a little back for lunch the next day.  Warms up wonderful!

I hope you had fun my friends with this month’s edition of Shopping Around the World.  Hope to see you shopping soon!

 

Shopping Around the World – REMINDER

Me and my pal Fozzie started Shopping Around the World in April 2014.  This has become a huge hit and we all want to know if we are paying more or less than everyone else – snorts.  We are going to do it again this month on – Friday, April 24th.

Do a posting on your blog linked back to mine.  That way we can keep track of all of the different prices.  It should be interesting to see the differences between.  Mark your calendar so you can do a posting with us.

 Items to price this month:

• Spring/Summer is quickly approaching my friends on this side of the world.  On the other side of the world, Autumn/Winter is quickly approaching.  That is if Mother Nature starts playing well with others 🙂  It was suggested to post what you pay during this time of year for the month for your heating and/or air conditioning.  What temperature do you set your thermostat on?  Discuss.
• Meat.  Most of us eat some type of meat in some way.  Post one of your favorites and cost.  NOTE:  If you don’t eat meat, post something that you get your protein from that you eat a lot and discuss.
• Vegetable.  What is your go to vegetable/cost.
• Random Item.
• Homemade Dish.  This went over really well last month.  Post something that you put together, take a picture if you can, and discuss prices in making the finished product.  As last month, you can combine your meat, vegetable and random item for your homemade dish.

We hope to see a lot of homemade dishes and recipes this month.  Let’s share.  Kind of like eating at everyone’s table around the world.  Have fun with this my friends!

 

Shopping Around the World – REMINDER

Me and my pal Fozzie started Shopping Around the World in April 2014.  This has become a huge hit and we all want to know if we are paying more or less than everyone else – snorts.  We are going to do it again this month on – Friday, April 24th.

Do a posting on your blog linked back to mine.  That way we can keep track of all of the different prices.  It should be interesting to see the differences between.  Mark your calendar so you can do a posting with us.

 Items to price this month:

• Spring/Summer is quickly approaching my friends on this side of the world.  On the other side of the world, Autumn/Winter is quickly approaching.  That is if Mother Nature starts playing well with others 🙂  It was suggested to post what you pay during this time of year for the month for your heating and/or air conditioning.  What temperature do you set your thermostat on?  Discuss.
• Meat.  Most of us eat some type of meat in some way.  Post one of your favorites and cost.  NOTE:  If you don’t eat meat, post something that you get your protein from that you eat a lot and discuss.
• Vegetable.  What is your go to vegetable/cost.
• Random Item.
• Homemade Dish.  This went over really well last month.  Post something that you put together, take a picture if you can, and discuss prices in making the finished product.  As last month, you can combine your meat, vegetable and random item for your homemade dish.

We hope to see a lot of homemade dishes and recipes this month.  Let’s share.  Kind of like eating at everyone’s table around the world.  Have fun with this my friends!

 

Shopping Around the World – MARK YOUR CALENDARS

Me and my pal Fozzie started Shopping Around the World in April 2014.  This has become a huge hit and we all want to know if we are paying more or less than everyone else – snorts.  We are going to do it again this month on – Friday, April 24th.

Do a posting on your blog linked back to mine.  That way we can keep track of all of the different prices.  It should be interesting to see the differences between.  Mark your calendar so you can do a posting with us.

 Items to price this month:

• Spring/Summer is quickly approaching my friends on this side of the world.  On the other side of the world, Autumn/Winter is quickly approaching.  That is if Mother Nature starts playing well with others 🙂  It was suggested to post what you pay during this time of year for the month for your heating and/or air conditioning.  What temperature do you set your thermostat on?  Discuss.
• Meat.  Most of us eat some type of meat in some way.  Post one of your favorites and cost.  NOTE:  If you don’t eat meat, post something that you get your protein from that you eat a lot and discuss.
• Vegetable.  What is your go to vegetable/cost.
• Random Item.
• Homemade Dish.  This went over really well last month.  Post something that you put together, take a picture if you can, and discuss prices in making the finished product.  As last month, you can combine your meat, vegetable and random item for your homemade dish.

We hope to see a lot of homemade dishes and recipes this month.  Let’s share.  Kind of like eating at everyone’s table around the world.  Have fun with this my friends!

 

Shopping Around the World – REMINDER

Me and my pal Fozzie started Shopping Around the World in April 2014.  This has become a huge hit and we all want to know if we are paying more or less than everyone else – snorts.

We are going to do it again this month on – Friday, March 27th.

Do a posting on your blog linked back to mine.  That way we can keep track of all of the different prices.  It should be interesting to see the differences between.  Mark your calendar so you can do a posting with us.

List what is your favorite of the items we are pricing.  

Items to price this month:

• Milk.  It seems like milk has sky rocketed lately.  Have you noticed this?  Post what size/product and price you buy.
• Tomatoes.  A lot of us are not as fortunate to have a garden out back these days.  What are the prices of tomatoes in your area/what kind do you buy?
• Canned Product.  This could be anything that you use.  What is it and the price.
• Homemade Dish.  Okay this is a twist my friends.  A lot of us prepare homemade meals on Sunday – especially here in the South.  Tell us what it costs.  What do you prepare?  It could be as simple as a potluck to a lasagna.  Tell us all about it.
• Random Item of your choice.

NOTE:  Canned product and random item choice can be put together in your homemade dish.  Just tell us all about it – description and prices.  Can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with in their choices.

Hope too see you here on March 27th!

 

Shopping Around the World – Mark Your Calendars

Me and my pal Fozzie started Shopping Around the World in April 2014.  This has become a huge hit and we all want to know if we are paying more or less than everyone else – snorts.

We are going to do it again this month on – Friday, March 27th.

Do a posting on your blog linked back to mine.  That way we can keep track of all of the different prices.  It should be interesting to see the differences between.  Mark your calendar so you can do a posting with us.

List what is your favorite of the items we are pricing.  

Items to price this month:

• Milk.  It seems like milk has sky rocketed lately.  Have you noticed this?  Post what size/product and price you buy.
• Tomatoes.  A lot of us are not as fortunate to have a garden out back these days.  What are the prices of tomatoes in your area/what kind do you buy?
• Canned Product.  This could be anything that you use.  What is it and the price.
• Homemade Dish.  Okay this is a twist my friends.  A lot of us prepare homemade meals on Sunday – especially here in the South.  Tell us what it costs.  What do you prepare?  It could be as simple as a potluck to a lasagna.  Tell us all about it.
• Random Item of your choice.

NOTE:  Canned product and random item choice can be put together in your homemade dish.  Just tell us all about it – description and prices.  Can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with in their choices.

Hope too see you here on March 27th!