Travels in the South

One night last week, mom was craving pasta.  Not just any pasta but a New Orleans Pasta from a local restaurant.  Look at this picture.  Wouldn’t you crave it too?  Mom doesn’t usually crave pasta but when she does, she always goes for this one.  It has penne pasta, shrimp, chicken, smoked sausage, peppers, onions and a spicy homemade Cajun alfredo sauce.  Doesn’t it look yummy?

The only thing mom hates about this pasta are the shrimp.  Why do they keep tails on the shrimp when they serve it in a pasta like this?  Mom has to stop and take the time to remove all of the tails so she can jump right in and eat.  What do you think about this pasta?

 

Shopping Around the World

This month my dear brother Phenny is hosting Shopping Around the World.  His suggestion this month was pie, dessert or anything sweet.  Since I can’t just post a picture of me for something sweet – snorts with piggy laughter, I”m going to let mom take care of this month.  Hope you enjoy my friends ❤

Now this month was hard.  Sweets – my favorites of any kind – is something I’m trying to stay away from here at the Hotel Thompson.  But there are times that the inner sweet monster comes from within and you just *have* to have something gooey and wonderful.  A long time favorite of ours here are Whoopie Pies.  Now if you don’t know what a Whoopie Pie is here, you are a sheltered person and need a fix ASAP!  You can fix them as elaborately as you want or in my case as simple as you want.  And you know me…. I’m all about simple 🙂 

So here is a picture of what a Whoopie Pie looks like.  (I didn’t take this picture.)  This is a simple way of seeing what a Whoopie Pie looks like.  They should be gooey and wonderful.  Most of them are made with a cake batter as the top and bottom.  But remember, I have a favorite ‘quick’ recipe.  Here you go:

◊ Store bought cookies (no lying).  Get a package of the soft cookies – you don’t want a hard one.  Or you can make your own.  Now remember to buy twice as many cookies because you will need two cookies for every Whoopie Pie.  I bought a package of 24 cookies from our local market for $3.29 – I bought Macadamia cookies.  Buy and make whatever kind of cookies you like.  24 cookies will make 12 Whoopie Pies.

◊ Here is the tricky part – what do you want for your center?  You have several options.  You can buy a container of Cool Whip.  You can buy those little containers of pre-made frosting.  Or, you can be lazy like me.  I asked the bakery department at my market to whip me up some butter cream frosting.  A huge container cost me $4.99 – and that is more than enough.  

Now the fun begins.  I take my 12 cookies and place them on a cookie sheet.  I then put my butter cream frosting in a pastry bag and start dabbing frosting on my cookies.  After all my cookies have full attention, I then place cookies on top of the frosting.  There you go – instant Whoopie Pies.  No, they are not like the ‘real’ Whoopie Pies but are your guests or family going to know the difference?  Of course not.  Heck, throw some flour on your face and around the kitchen and let them know you slaved in the kitchen for hours.  Who is going to know?  I’m not going to tell.  ❤ 

 

Shopping Around the World

From the Mommy June….

This month we are highlighting grilling foods, something that we fix this time of the year.   To “grill” you don’t necessarily need an outside grill.  Sure they’re awesome but there are other ways to grill inside of your home.  One year, the hub unit got me some very nice grill pans from the basement sale of a well known department store.  I treasure those pans!  Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing like the taste of outdoor food on the grill but who needs all of that mess?  And sometimes – who has the patience these days?  So, here is my contribution this month.  I hope it gets your taste buds having a party in your mouth like it does ours!

Steak and Homemade French Fries

At the Hotel Thompson, we love ribeye steaks – especially those that are aged with the right consistency of fat/meat in the marbling.  Now of course there are those that say fat is bad.  But we are of the belief that fat gives a lot of flavor, especially in beef.  Now, let’s break down tonight’s dinner.

2 Ribeye Steaks (we got an awesome deal on these.  We buy a whole loin and then have the ribeye’s cut in about 1/2-1 inch thickness.  We then take them home, shrink wrap them two to a bag and freeze them.  The last time we bought a loin, it was on sale and cost $78.94 – we got 16 steaks out of the loin.  That makes each steak only $4.93 – winner winner!)

French Fries – two giant baking potatoes my friends.  We buy a bag for $5.00 at our local Sam’s Warehouse.  There are approximately 10-15 potatoes to a bag.  That makes each potato around $0.50 each – so $1.00 for french fries.

Entire Steak and Fries dinner – $5.93 per person.  Is your mouth watering yet?  And to think, that steak was cooked on an indoor grill just by rotating it twice upon flipping.  I’m going to show you a picture below of the grill pan I use.  Happy grilling my friends.

 

Shopping Around the World – Reminder

Thanks to everyone for another great edition of Shopping Around the World last month.  It’s so awesome to see the various prices around the world – and the pictures with recipes!

This month we are highlighting grilling foods.  What is something that your humans grill this time of the year in the Summer?  Something sweet or savory.  Anything at all – just highlight the food (hopefully with pictures) and the prices.

Meet back here on Wednesday, August 31st, 2016 to share your recipe and pictures.

 

Shopping Around the World – Mark Your Calendar

Thanks to everyone for another great edition of Shopping Around the World last month.  It’s so awesome to see the various prices around the world – and the pictures with recipes!

This month we are highlighting grilling foods.  What is something that your humans grill this time of the year in the Summer?  Something sweet or savory.  Anything at all – just highlight the food (hopefully with pictures) and the prices.

Meet back here on Wednesday, August 31st, 2016 to share your recipe and pictures.

 

Shopping Around the World

Thanks to everyone for another great edition of Shopping Around the World last month.  It’s so awesome to see the various prices around the world – and the pictures with recipes!

This month we have a suggestion from my brother Easy.  This month we are highlighting PASTA – what is your favorite PASTA dish?  How do you make it?  What kind of noodles do you use?  What is in your PASTA?  There is no limit count on ingredients – Share your recipe and picture!

I’m going to let mom take care of this recipe this month – she mumbled something to me about not being around while she cooked it.  So we all know what that means.  It must contain P.O.R.K.  Snorts with piggy laughter – take it away mom.

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One of our favorite pasta dishes to make here at the Hotel Thompson involves Cavatappi pasta – which translated from Italian means corkscrew.  As you can see by looking at the shape of the pasta – it does have the twisted look.

So we take a box of Cavatappi and put it on to boil in a pan (a box of Cavatappi is $1.00 for the entire box and that’s a lot of food!).  In doing this so we add salt to the water and a little oil so the pasta doesn’t stick.  Now some peeps will argue about the oil and the salt – you do what you think is best.  Here I prefer to do this.  While the pasta is boiling, you are going to fix the base of the pasta.

In a skillet you are going to add some thick cut chunked pancetta – which is an Italian bacon made from the pork belly that is salt cured and seasoned.  If you don’t have pancetta, regular chopped up bacon or chunks of leftover ham will do.  Cook it until brown.  (Pancetta can be a little pricey – we always keep some in the freezer.  We usually will get two pounds at a time at $10.99 per pound.  For this recipe, we will use an entire pound – $10.99)

When finished, add some chopped tomatoes, pepper, a few pepper flakes and oregano (or any other seasonings you want) to the party.  (Seasonings are something we usually keep on hand and tomatoes run us $0.99 a pound – a pound for this recipe).  Let this all marry together and by this time, your pasta should be al dente.  Drain your pasta and add it straight to your skillet.  Mix all of these ingredients together and let simmer for about 5 minutes.  Right before serving, top with freshly grated parmasean cheese (we also keep this on hand and it ranges $4.99 for a pound – use as much as you want)

Total cost for the meal is around $14.00 and this meal will last us several nights for the two of us.  In the long run, the price far outweighs the servings.

 

Shopping Around the World – REMINDER

Thanks to everyone for another great edition of Shopping Around the World last month.  It’s so awesome to see the various prices around the world – and the pictures with recipes!

This month we have a suggestion from my brother Easy.  This month we are highlighting PASTA – what is your favorite PASTA dish?  How do you make it?  What kind of noodles do you use?  What is in your PASTA?  There is no limit count on ingredients – Share your recipe and picture!

Meet back here on Wednesday, February 24th, 2016 to share your recipe and pictures.

 

Shopping Around the World – Mark Your Calendar

Thanks to everyone for another great edition of Shopping Around the World last month.  It’s so awesome to see the various prices around the world – and the pictures with recipes!

This month we have a suggestion from my brother Easy.  This month we are highlighting PASTA – what is your favorite PASTA dish?  How do you make it?  What kind of noodles do you use?  What is in your PASTA?  There is no limit count on ingredients – Share your recipe and picture!

Meet back here on Wednesday, February 24th, 2016 to share your recipe and pictures.

 

Travels to Israel

Every Wednesday for the month of February, I’m going to bring you a travel story of a trip to Israel that my aunt went on during the Christmas holidays.  This was indeed a once in a lifetime kind of trip full of great scenery, history and wonderful food and people.  I’ve looked over my aunt’s pictures and I can tell you in one word a description of them – AMAZING!  I hope you enjoy us every week this month so that we may all relive her travels.

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A trip to Israel?  Seriously?  Do I have to scream YES?!  Plans to be made – passports to be ordered.  What do I pack?  What will the food be like?  The people?  Okay, I’m getting ahead of myself.  First things first, travel arrangements.  Everything was planned months in advance.

Then the big day came – WOW!  I’m so excited.  I rushed around the house doing final packing and out the door to the airport I was.  I was happily counting down the hours until touch down in the old country.  I get to the airport for the first part of my trip which is to fly in to Detroit for my connecting flight to Paris.  However, this is where I met my first obstacle.  My flight to Detroit was delayed due to damage the plane took on while in flight.  Bummer.  But safety first, right?  So they put us up in a hotel overnight with food vouchers.  Who can say no to that, right?  It was part of our adventure.

The next day, we did it all over again and was able to get on the plane for Detroit.  This flight took us a little over an hour.  Once in Detroit, we then boarded our connecting flight to Paris – the land of love.  This time we would be in the sky for almost 8 hours.  And who says that airplane food is bad – especially served with free wine 🙂 

Airplane food – pastas, lentil salad

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Finally we touched down in Paris where we would have a six hour layover.  Paris has lots of emphasis on style, perfume, alcohol shops and lots of smoking areas – thank goodness. Since our layover was only six hours, we decided to check out the airport and what it had to offer.  Chocolates for one thing – yum!  The Paris Airport has a Fauchon shop which is known for their macarons.  Also at the airport, the have cheese and wine – who would have thought that huh?  It just makes you want to pull up and nibble on some for a while.

Below is a picture of the ‘smoking rooms’ at the Paris Airport.  Crowded huh?  Also below is a picture of a coffee shop.  Coffee in Paris is different than in the States, not only by taste but size.  In Paris, the largest cup size that is offered is smaller than a Starbucks tall.  What a difference!

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Finally, it was time to board the plane for our final connecting flight to Tel Aviv which would take us over 5 hours.  Again, with free wine and great food – we were set for the destination of our travels.  Please join us next Wednesday for more in my travels to Israel.

 

 

 

 

 

Food Porn – To Twist or Not To Twist That is the Question

    Here in this picture we see shrimp pasta – does’t it look delicious?  This comes from one of mom/dad’s favorite restaurants called Red Lobster.  They just love their shrimp pasta.  They were sharing this dish and I was looking at it when it dawned on me about something.  Look closely at the picture and kind of lean your head to the left.  You see there are two forks.  Now let’s talk about techniques in the eating of pasta shall we.  I’ve learned that this is a treacherous position to take with some folks but I’m up for the piggy challenge.  Are you?

Now, personally, I would just chomp that fine looking shrimp pasta all down without coming up for air.  It looks great to me.  But humans, they use forks and manners which dad reminds me of often that I don’t have.  Hmmpphh – so says the man who burps the alphabet huh?

Dad believes in the fork straight down and twist to get all pasta in one giant happy scoop.  Mom is not a twist kind of person.  She believes in ‘cutting’ the pasta and then scooping it up to her awaiting mouth.  Why does she do this?  She says because as a child her dad would play tic-tac-toe with her on spaghetti night.  Come again mom?  Have you been drinking the vodka today already?

Really, she says that spaghetti night was hard for a kid to learn the twist thing.  So her dad would make a tic-tac-toe chart on her plate breaking up the spaghetti and ‘cutting’ it into the pattern.  He would then challenge her to the game and eating it.  Thus, this is why she cuts it.  Does that make sense?  A nearly fifty something still playing with her food.  And mom/dad fuss at me for playing with mine.  Some things are just not fair.

So the question is my friends – to twist or not to twist.