Banana Banana Banana Terra Cotta Pie

I consider this a food posting since the song is about Banana Banana Banana Terra Cotta Pie. System of a Down........such a good listen. Please click to your left for a sample. You WON'T be sorry! This has got to be one of my favorite songs hands down. Not because it is called Banana Banana Banana Terra Cotta Pie, that is just a bonus!

BGE Stromboli

Stromboli on the BGE



I have been grilling so much pizza these last 3 months that I am beginning to think I need to change my name to Guido from the Bronx.

Vanilla Bean Scones

Where the Frick did I put my Tonka Beans and Rolling Papers?????


Vanilla Bean Scones~The other day my wonderful son came home from work at Starbucks w/a Vanilla Bean Scone. It was divine. This weekend has been spent trying to recreate these morsels from heaven. I am close but not quite. Thanks to help from Tartellete, i probably speeled that wrong, on the vanilla bean measurements. And no, you don't want your men like you want your vanilla beans.....long, shriveled, slender with a crimp on the end~bad bad bad.


Hotcha Hotcha right out of the oven.


My attempt at trying to be as cool as fellow bloggers......it is giving me a headache. The pressure is too great. Remember that song......under pressure, bah bah dum dum, under pressure, bah bah dum dum.....guitar strrrrruuummmmmm

The recipe still needs some tweeking........I am out of some of my ingredients so it will be back to the drawing board tomorrow. My son said they were close but needed more vanilla bean......he also said that if I put more vanilla bean powder in them it will dry them out more???? I think I know where my tonka beans and rolling papers went.

EVIL EVIL HONEY DEATH BEAST HATE MUFFINS

Sifting for Death Muffins.......at least we have a cool retro bowl to look at.



Right before Death Muffins hit the oven.....they look so innocent, Death Beast Hate Muffins



Don't they look YUMMY??? There was absolutely nothing wrong with this recipe. It would have been delicious had I realized prior to mixing and baking that I LOATHE HONEY. This was a sweet potato bread recipe w/a praline topping that I found on a fellow bloggers site "closet cooking". I will make this again and omit the honey. I love sweet potatoes. I used a canned organic sweet potato puree and the muffins turned out beautifully.

As you can tell.......I finally learned how to place my pictures on this program. It has only taken me like 150 posts and 5 months to figure it out. Perserverence my friend, perserverence. I figured it out myself too.....I don't need no stinkin help. Might take me 3 times as long, but you can bet your sweet bippy I won't forget how to do it now. I should have been a private investigator.....I never give up, NEVER. I could be a food investigator.....Inspector Clouseau, remember him??? Does this even make sense??? Hells to tha'no. What am I talking about??? I am clearly overtired and in need of a chocolate chip or something sweet from the pantry in order to shock me back into the "now". Or perhaps some sleep. Yes, sleep. I will dream of fluffy fluffy white frosting.......................................

There is a spell check button on this program......why why why don't I ever use it??

I FREAKEN HATE HONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my gosh..........I just finally realized that I friggin HATE honey. I HATE IT!!! This is really weird, I know. I don't dislike many things where food is concerned. In the last couple of months I had been experimenting w/granola's and some whole wheat baked goods w/mulitgrains and flaxmeal etc. Everytime I made most of these items I was not liking them. They ALL had this one background taste to them. I couldn't figure it out........was it the whole wheat??? was it the flaxmeal??? Were the ingredients tastes changing after they were warmed in the oven. I normally like whole wheat, I normally like multigrains, I have flaxmeal in my juice everyday..........what was making this taste???? hmmmmm Tonight I made these sweet potato muffins that have a glaze and a pecan praline crumbled on top. I went to take a bite and this hideous taste YET AGAIN........well there was no whole wheat, no multigrain stuff, no flax, no wheat germ...............VOILA..........it is the honey. All these items were made w/honey. It was quite apparent in this sweet potato muffin that it was the honey. I FREAKEN HATE HONEY, Holy Crap!!!!!! At least now the mystery is solved. Whew! Anybody have any good substitutions for honey out there????

Muncha Buncha Cruncha Cruncha

MMMMmmmmmm muncha buncha cruncha cruncha.....crunch....crunch.....crunch

I MUST SCORE ME SUM O'THEEEESE

I have come across a product that I feel I must seek out and try. I have been reading this great blog by Tartelette. She makes these incredible pastries that are fit for a jewelers window. She aint down here in da'hood like the rest of us. She had a posting about these Pineapple Almond Cheesecakes that she had whipped up and used a "Tonka Bean". Tonka Bean???? HUH??? Never heard of such a thing. I googled IMMEDIATELY. How dare there be a bean out there that I hath not tried.....and a bean for desserts yet. Wikipedia used words such as: perfumed, vanilla, almond, cinnamon, cloves, hypnotic fragrance, and then it went on to say: banned in the USA by the FDA, lethal, toxic and carcinogenic, coumarin and anti-coagulant, commonly used in tobacco, nasal snuff and pipe tobacco. Have I found the end all be all??? A bean that you can use in desserts, possibly end someones life with AND smoke.........say it ain't so, just say it ain't so. I gots to score me sum o'theeeeese beans. I can only imagine what these suckers would go for on the open air market street corner in North Little Rock......mama would git some change in her pocket, baby needs a new pair o'shoes. The hunt begins..............TONKA BEANS!

BBQ Chicken Pizza 2 Ways

Saturday night was the usual Pizza on the BGE. I marinated my chicken in the lemon,evoo and toasted fennel seed and then grilled off. I then made one pizza w/bbq sauce, chicken, mozzarella, smoked gouda and fresh cilantro. The other version was bbq sauce, chicken, tipsy onions (carmelized onions cooked in shiraz-grenache, balsamic vinegar, brown sugar and a splash of sherry), mozzarella, manchego cheese, fresh cilantro. mmmmmm

And the answer to your questions is....YES, I am missing part of an eyebrow now thanks to that first picture of grilled chicken and I also now have bangs....or sort of.

Culinary Injury

A fellow bloggers ankle injury reminded me of a funny story.........................

Back in 2003 I was residing in Apple Valley, CA at the edge of the Mojave dessert on one side and the El Cajon Pass on the other side. My husband was the Shop Director the BNSF railway at the Barstow Shop. He had a fellow shop director in from Montana and they were coming to our house for supper. We were just going to do a simple grill.........hot dogs and hamburgers. This was very informal and very last minute. I was furiously chopping red onion while my husband and said colleague were basking on the veranda with cool drinks........I look down and I am missing part of an appendage.......hmmm where did the other half of my thumb go???? It was just here a second ago. Now mind you, this severed thumb incident would have been an all out 4 alarm fire for most people.....MOST PEOPLE....I am not like most people. I don't freak over illness or injury too easily and can clear up most incidents w/holisitic remedies. I personally think that most people run to the doctor every time they fart sideways and I hate that. I am totally the opposite. I don't drag myself to the doc until I have exhausted every holistic remedy and they are engraving my tombtone plot. Of course, I could not up and leave this intricate dinner of hot dogs to drive myself to the E.R (hells to the no)........which this definately was an incident worthy of an E.R. A self-proclaimed foodie would NEVER leave her entertaining post, you go down with the ship, even if it was just hot dogs. I have standards, I have morals, I had an audience waiting for food.....well 2 people anyway and I guess 1 was my husband so he really didn't count. OK, so I had one person waiting for my culinary delight of hot dogs on the grill and trust me, this guy didn't look like he was starving either. So, I find the other half of my thumb, which was still attached....just dangling off, and I grab for the super glue. I superglue my thumb back on (which is what the ER would have done anyway, DUH) and wrap it up good and tight and continue on with my grilling feast. Hot dogs w/all the fixin's were superb.........there is nothing like a good Hebrew National Grilled Dog w/all the condiments.