Shrimp, it's what's for dinner (or was last night)

We had some scrimps that needed to be cooked since they had been thawed for a different dinner for someone else. Luckily J asked if that person liked shrimp. They're allergic......eat a shrimp, go meet your maker.....glad she asked, plus we got to eat this for dinner.



What you see on your left, is what I had. It's a grilled shrimp 'n cheese. I think my wife might classify it as "bachelor food", but it was good. J, my wife if you haven't guessed, had shrimp a la carte.

"What did you do to it?" J asks, as
I'm sure you're wondering.


Well, I took the wok, cranked the heat up to HIGH. (very shunned, unless you're cooking with a wok) Took a table spoon of mince garlic (we have a jar I need to use up so I can go back to the real stuff) some oil (put that in first and let it get hot). Drop the garlic in the oil, then the shrimp, toss some pepper, a little salt and some cayenne for some zing. OH! A dash of soy sauce is usually pretty good, too.


That's basically what I did and if I'd had some rice it would have been better, but I didn't get home until late and forgot to ask J to start the rice. She didn't know I wanted to cook the shrimp......my bad.


Hope ya'll enjoy.........................come back to the wampus.


Gotta give some love to my boy, Matt, for those dang chimichurri burgers. They looked great and I might have to run that truck down one of these days.

Good Dessert/Sharp Spoon

Sunday night....hungry for sweets.........whaddya got?

"I got vanilla ice cream"

what else?

"I got some peanut butter"

Now yer talkin'

So, I took a luvin' spoonful of loverly peanut butter, dropped it into about 3 or 4 scoops (depending on who is getting the bowl) of vanilla ice cream (probably the most underrated of ice creams). I used another spoon to make sure I got all of the peanut butter off the first spoon, a soup spoon. (we'll come back to that last statement) And it was good.

I decided to use the soup spoon as my own....to get the extra peanut butter. It's wider than the tea spoon and it rubbed against the inside of my mouth and was extremely uncomfortable. "ah, it's just wider than the teaspoon" I says to myself. It continued to be uncomfortable, almost hurt, but the peanut butter and the ice cream were so good, I didn't really pay attention until I saw a little bit of red mixed in with the vanilla. I grew concerned.

When I checked the mirror, sure enough there was about 1/2" cut on the inside corner of my mouth.

"HOLY SMOKES! Baby, I cut the inside of my mouth!" I yelled to J.

"OK, let's calm down and just get it to stop bleeding", I think,"but the ice cream is so good, can't I just handle it until I finish?"

I decide it's best to handle the loss of blood, which turned out to be minimal and I was able to finish my PB&IC (aka Peanut Butter and Ice Cream, if you can't follow along) after getting a tea spoon.

The soup spoon, in my opinion, had been sharpened by the tea spoon and that's what cut my mouth. J thinks I'm crazy, but I insist that's what happened. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

My lunch today (Salad and PB&J)

When you're in a hurry, what do you do? Let's look in the fridge...............................no, not that....no, no, not that either..........Here we go! Salad that we didn't touch from last night, but that won't cut it for all day. Oh, I bought jelly the other day! PB&J sandwich.....that sounds good.

Since I can't post anything without a photo, I thought I'd let you see the photographic artwork of a 4 year old.

Nutella...hey Kobe Bryant likes it!

Nutella is something I never I would have thought I would buy. That dang Giada De Laurentis had to go and show some crepes being made with it at the Fairfax Farmer's Market. Therefore, we bought some and I made a sad attempt at crepes, but I had no butter. It screwed me up pretty good and couldn't get more than 4 made. It was enough to satisfy the craving, but I was fairly disappointed in myself. I'll do better on the next go around. By the way Peanut Butter and Nutella sandwiches RAWK!

Monkey vs. Godzilla

Hey, can anyone cook for a 2 year old (Godzilla) and a 4 year old (Monkey)? I can't get them to eat anything I cook....unless it's french fries, which I'm not even that good at.


Here's Monkey taunting me with food he says he's going to eat. I think it took him about 2 hours to not eat this grilled cheese.

Now Godzilla will eat, most of his sandwich, but not without me threatening to throw it away if he gets up again about 12 times. I will throw it away on that 13th time, darn it!



Later!

How 'bout them 'crispy thighs'?

Chicken is really the quickest food to truly BBQ. I used indirect heating on this and the skin gets really nice and crispy. The risotto is from a bag, but it was good. Do you like my basil garnish? My photos aren't as good as Matt's, but the food is good and my wife said I can no longer put any posts without pictures. It's not as interesting, she says....I think she might be right.

Chickee Flied Lice.....fit-teen meenut!

I like to make chicken fried rice.....it's good.

I'll never be a "Top Chef"!

My wife bought some of those "snack size" microwave popcorn bags and the cooking time says one minute and a half or less. I took one to work on Wednesday and let it go for 1:30 exactly.

it burned

I took another one today and let it go for 1:20.................................IT BURNED AGAIN, DAGNABBIT!!!!!

Now, I'll never be able to get on one of those TV shows....unless maybe Food 911 gets revived....but I don't think they can get the fried chicken bucket away from that guy these days. He was my server at the Corona Applebee's the other day....no wait, he was just on my TV doing a commercial for them.....but I think he is a server at that Applebee's over on McKinley. Maybe he should read this post and get an application from the above link.

Well, hopefully you've learned from my mistakes and give Tyler a good tip at Applebee's.

Cooking with Country Crock

I know you're really not supposed to because there seems to be something like a water base, but I needed butter in a pinch as to make some crepes. I know I've used it before (in fact, I think last time I made crepes) but this time it just didn't come out quite right.

Could one of my foodies that check in from time to time let me know why one isn't supposed to cook with things like Country Crock? Can one use stick margarine? This is where my lack of training comes into play. I guess I could look it up to find out, but I get distracted when I start looking things like that up.

If I find the answer, I will come back and update.....but right now I have to go an recruit some Java developers...as opposed to coffee makers. (ha!)

Right now...

....I'm eating Potato Salad from a bucket.....directly from the bucket.

(I am so "Fleetwood".)

Flat Bread Mania

OK....so, don't ever watch Jack Bauer's hero, Bobby Flay. He'll make you want to try things that you really have no business trying. I did it and pulled it off.....barely.....none of the kids would eat it....well, the eldest did, but she may have just been nice to me about it.

I made Flat Bread dough and cooked "flat bread pizza" on the grill.......it was cool. I wish I had taken photos. I did meatball, garlic and tomato w/mozzarella and did a bbq chicken pizza w/homemade bbq mulberry honey bbq sauce.

Check out Chef Flay's recipes for it...it isn't really hard, just friggin time consuming. I swear I may have wasted my day just waiting on the stuff to rise. I think next time, I will add something to the dough to give it a little more flava-flav. (yeah, boi!) sorry...that was sad.

At any rate, I didn't turn on the Grill-master Flay today because I was running around like mad trying to get a bunch of stuff taken care of that I only got half done.

Top Chef: Howie???

OK...so I don't have time for a lot of links here, but if anyone watched Top Chef (my favorite show) Wednesday night....how in the heck can Howie keep going up and down each week? One week he's a mess and the next week he's winning. Also, since when did he and Joey kiss and make up from their fight a couple of weeks ago.

The worst part about this show is how long it is taking them to get rid of the dead weight.

CJ is hardly even there.
Sara (non-Asian) is consistently bad, but not as bad as others
Dale is a dimwit that some how thinks he has what it takes.
Asian Sara just doesn't do well under pressure and they should put her out of my misery.
Thanks to the Holy Chef that fool from Mississippi got the boot the first week as well as the Rainbow Warrior with a Mohawk two weeks ago.
I think they're making the right decisions on who to shoo away, but it's just taking so long.
Heck, I even think Hung needs to go. I think that leaves Tre, Howie and Joey.....oh and Casey....but who gives a rat's butt about her....she's consistently bad too.

I'm not saying I could do any better than these people, but they're the ones going on the show. I'm still practicing for The Next Food Network Star. HA! (I'm working on my cupcakes....I hate making desserts -unless it's a cobbler)

Food on TV: Top Chef 3

Does anyone else watch Top Chef on Bravo? I really enjoy watching, but they put it on at a time that makes me hungry late at night. I'm not sure who I like on there this season. I think it's going to have to be Tre because he likes to cook bbq. Dale is just a whiny little beeyotch! (IMHO) and most of the women on there just need to go. I couldn't be a judge on there because I'd send everyone home right away. Hung and Tre would be there the rest of the season getting in to food battles for the rest of the season.

Let me know what you think about it?

Top Food Searches that get people to the Caddywampus

Boysenberry Cobbler - wouldn't have thought that
Chicken Parmesean - has been beaten out by the cobbler

Insta-Lunch

So, on Sunday, I was hungry for something.....but not the usual, like a PB&J or anything. Julie (my food photographer) asked me if I wanted a quesadilla with the left over grilled chicken. That sounded good to me. So, I chopped up a chicken breast while the "carb smart" tortilla was grilling and melting cheese....tossed the chicken on there...added some more cheese another tortilla on top....FLIP the whole thing to let the other tortilla grill. (oh yeah....slather the tortillas in butter so they gets nice and crispy) The whole time my wife and I were also chopping tomatoes, avocados and some red onion for guacamole.

Anyway, we turned out a nice filling lunch..........I even have proof of me eating my own food.

Caddywampus in your home

This 4th of July was fun. We, the fam-damily, went to Oceanside to my in-laws' house. They have a place in a retirement community called Ocean Hills and is pretty nice. It's like a self contained town....pretty cool, actually, which is better than the "retirement homes" that I'm used to seeing in my home town. Well, I got to cook for my in-laws in their home. I did not prepare all the food, but I did BBQ the ribs and corn and I also made a cobbler.

I started out seasoning the ribs with garlic salt, chili powder and pepper (coarse ground). Then they went into a 275 degree oven for 2 hours. Next we went to play paddle tennis and drove the boys around in the golf cart. (hey, we had to keep them busy) Then we went home, removed the hair from the corn on the cob so they wouldn't get all burned and just threw the corn, husk and all, on the grill. (LOL, I almost typed "on the girl"....ha!) While those started, I brought out the ribs and tossed them on the grill for about 5 minutes before slathering them down with BBQ sauce. (keep turning your corn to make sure it cooks evenly) Now, flip your ribs slather more sauce. Close grill and let the sauce set for a few minutes. Remove corn. Flip ribs once more, and turn off the grill. Let the heat set the glaze and remove from grill.



Serve with some homemade potato salad (mother in-law makes this very yummy like) and watermelon and salad and you have yourself a plate that you're so hungry to eat, you'll forget to take a photo. (hence, no photo).



Once you're all stuffed from that, who can even think of dessert? Well, since we made a special trip to the store, I cannot forget about it. I made a boysenberry cobbler. (see previous entry) It was good and the boys even ate their food.

With that being said, we went to the Legoland parking lot and watched their fireworks for $2 worth of parking.

It was a good 4th and I look forward to next year...........I think.

Boysenberry Cobbler...........looks good don't it?

Over here at "the wampus" we love us some cobbler. Usually I make peach, but my wife brought home two cans of boysenberries and a thing of vanilla ice cream.

You can find the recipe with the Peach Cobbler. It's the same, but I used boysenberries.....simple as dat.

Ya'll come back now, ya hear!

Crepes..............when you must have something sweet

The other day, I got a wild hair and felt the need for something sweet. So, I took a recipe from the Good Home Cook Book (what a deal!....I got it gratis for testing the recipes)....this is the second time I've tried the crepes. I'm going to have to come back to this and post the recipe because I cannot remember it, nor can I find the dang blog for the author of the book.

Here it is from Cooks.com:

3 eggs

1 1/2 c. flour

2 tbsp. vegetable oil

1/8 tsp. salt

1 1/2 c. skim milk

24 crepes

I don't know why my formatting is acting up right now...but it is.

Anyway, the recipe I used was not this one. I'll post it later. It ended up tasting great and I had some linginberries for filling. They were very tasty and I hope ya'll enjoy

HEY! GET THAT FRUIT OFF MY GRILL!

I've been reading some foodie blogs recently and found Matt over at Mattbites! He has a delicious looking recipe for grilling fruit.

Now I've never tried grilling fruit, but I have always wanted to. This might get some flack for being a little more uppity than what my "wampus regulars" are used to, but sometimes you have to throw something out there and maybe it will stick.

Before you completely diss the idea of fruit on the grill....check out his Plumb Bar-B-Que sauce.

Coming to a UHF Channel near you.....Hell's Kitchen: Caddywampus Cafe edition

So, today, my 12 year old asked how to make a Grilled Egg & Cheese. It was a fun little treat on Father's Day for her to humor me in thinking I might be teaching her something for a minute.

She's awesome......here is a photo of me showing her how to flip an egg. Thanks, K!

Pot Luck Dessert.....Peach Cobbler

So, my work had a Father's Day Pot Luck on Friday. Unfortunately, I had to leave to get a sick Monkey; therefore I did not get to eat any of it.

I made a Peach Cobbler, which I posted a while back....here. It looked great and I wanted to put a picture of an entire finished cobbler...not just in a bowl w/Ice Cream. Check it out.

Seared Ahi w/Citrus Marinade

OK, now I should be doing some dishes, but I was really excited about making something that was pretty darn good for dinner. The seared ahi w/Citrus Marinade was pretty good. Just enough to taste, but to be honest, it could have used some soy sauce or some real ginger

What I used:

The Juice of 1 orange and 1 lemon

1 teaspoon of sugar

1 Tablespoon of EVOO

1Tablespoon of Balsamic

(truth be told on those last two ingredients, I eyeballed it)

1-2 sprays per side of Wishbone "Asian Silk-Sesame Ginger Vinaigrette" on each slice of fish

3 good size slices of yummy looking Ahi Tuna

We will not discuss the Mai fun Noodles as they did not turn out as good as I had wished. (they were still pretty good)

How I did it:

Begin heating grilling pan or if you're doing it outside, get your grill ready w/medium heat. In a cup, squeeze orange, then lemon, mix sugar then oil then vinegar. (remove citrus seeds) Whisk it all together really fast.(wow! that was easy!) Pour over Ahi, flipping to make sure fish is coated w/marinade. Then spray each slice of ahi w/salad dressing. Then place on grill and pay attention, because this stuff cooks quick. I like mine just barely seared, but my wife likes hers cooked a little more...so if you are cooking two different temperatures, put the more rare piece on last as that will ensure everything gets done about the same time.

Serve over some jasmine rice or some Mai fun or chow main. I bet if I had some bokchoy and other veggies this would have been a longer post.

Until next time.....thanks for stopping by the Wampus!

Angel Hair Carbonera ala West

I originally found the recipe for Spaghetti Carbonera in the April issue of Sunset magazine. I didn't have it near me, but I thought I knew what was in it. I was a little wrong. Go look at that link I just posted. (click here if you're lazy)

I used the following:

Half a box of angel hair

3 cloves of garlic

2-3 slices cooked bacon

about a handful of pine nuts

some olive oil

about a dozen shakes of crushed red pepper

about a handful of Parmesan cheese

Process:

while pasta was cooking, heat skillet w/olive oil, add pine nuts, then bacon and garlic, add pasta(drain it first!) toss to mix, add a little more olive oil, red pepper, cheese. It's really easy to burn the garlic, so be careful with that. Oh, right....the pine nuts take some care too, but over all, this is one of the easier dishes I've done. and it was so dang good.

Serve it up. Who has time for garnish with food this good?

What's your favorite cheese to grill?

My wife made a grilled cheese for breakfast. She used Muenster and it looked very yummy. I wish I had thought to make one of those.

Anyway, it got me thinking..........."if you're going to make a burger or any sandwich with cheese melted on it, what's your favorite cheese?"

Provolone is a personal favorite of mine, Swiss is good too. Any sort of stinky cheese bring a ton of flavor, but you want to make sure you don't mask the flavor of the meat/protein of the sandwich.

So....tell me what you think........

Cooking Tip: saran wrap when breading

Here's a little tip I learned from the always annoying, Rachel Ray. (I've actually learned a lot from her show, but it was before she became the face of the "foodie".)

When using flour, bread crumbs or corn meal for breading your food, cover your dish with saran wrap to keep from having to wash that extra plate.

Just a little tip for today.

Bachelor Breakfast Sandwich, good any time of the day!

My wife calls all of my concoctions "bachelor food". Once I made a breakfast quesadilla with eggs, chopped up hot dog and cheese. It was good....the best part of it was that, no one else wanted to eat it and it was all mine. I think I may have issues with sharing food. I don't REALLY have any problems sharing one bite, but it's when you lose your entire plate to some little moocher that wants what daddy has. (not to be confused with when you ask your spouse/significant other if they want something to eat/drink and they say "no", but when you sit down with whatever it is, they eat half of it.....that's included)

Now let's get started with the "bachelor sandwich". You can do this in a variety of methods. You can use almost any style bread and most sliced cheeses. You can use meat or just eggs.


You'll need:
2, slices of bread (your choice) For this, I used the "institutional bun"
1-2 eggs
2-3 slices of cheese (again, your choice)
optional:
2-3 slices of roast beast, turkey, ham or pastrami....maybe some salami or whatever meat you'd like to include

Directions:
heat skillet, butter bread while heating. Place on skillet butter side down, crack egg(s) on to medium heated skillet, break yolk, (at this point you'll want to season the egg with whatever you'd like. I used cayenne pepper and garlic salt.) flip. Place cheese on egg, flip bread and place cheese on bottom bun. Slip egg on top of cheese bun, close and remove from heat and serve.

You might want to serve with something cold to drink, like a Coke or Dr. Pepper because something this hot and greasy doesn't need to be served with a "good for you" drink. What's the point. Oh, it's also too hot to have coffee with....trust me...I did that the other day.

What you'll get is a yummy, but not all the appealing to the eye sandwich.....if anyone else tastes it, they'll ask you to make you one. (If you give a pig a pancake....)

Explanation to the non-SoCal folk

I feel the need to explain "Fontucky Fried Chicken".

There is this area in the Inland Empire called "Fontana" and it is well known for being a bit of a redneck, hick-ish kind of area. So, it has been dubbed "FONTUCKY". I never knew that it had its own website.....funny. Go get you a "Fontucky" shirt....they look cool!

At any rate, I'm originally from Mississippi and now I live in Riverside, California.......kind of close to Fontana.....I have nothing against the city or anything...don't really know that much about it. But I love to mix two words together...this just fits.

Later, ya'll!

New Look "Wampus"!

OK, let's all thank Brandi for the new banner, logo!

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

People who love photoshop are good in my book!
This is exactly what I was looking for and I love it. Who would be interested in a shirt with this on it?

Does anyone know how to turn this banner into a hyper-link so I can put it on my other blog? Now I'm just being pushy, I know.

New Look for the Wampus

I've been told I need a logo....can anyone help? You'll get a lifetime table at the Wampus.

Fontucky Fried Chicken

Do you think someone could get away with opening a chicken place called Fontucky Fried?

Just a thought.

I've decided that I still like the Caddywampus Cafe, so I'll just title it on the menu, "Fontucky Fried Chicken Fingers".

Have I done the chicken fingers/nuggets breaded in Italian bread crumbs before? Yes? OK...well, here goes. It's the same breading as the "Chicken Parmesan" (which seems to be pretty popular on the foodie searches).

Take a look!

Birthday Cake for Godzilla

OK, so my wife is awesome. She's so dang creative and I'm just not.....it is almost irritating, but how can such talent make you jealous? One should just stand in awe.

She worked very hard on this and even got discouraged at one point cursing me and the cake. I was just in the room. Don't judge. I would have done the same thing to her and the cake.

Godzilla turned 2 on the 9th and his party was today. We were busting our butts trying to get everything pulled together at the last minute (really? surprise!) and my wife busts out this bad ass cake. He is into dinosaurs and we like to enable the kids' habits.

Here's what she did. It's all box cake mix (why not...there's more work to it...why make it harder). She did a 9x13 pan of yellow cake, filled two Pyrex bowls with chocolate cake and carved them in to volcanoes. She took Oreo-type cookies and smashed them with a rolling pin and mixed them in chocolate frosting. With this frosting she thee wed...no really...she pressed against the side of the volcanoes making it look like a rocky surface. Impressed yet? I was/am.

Then she iced the sheet cake w/chocolate and used graham cracker crumbs for dirt and green tinted coconut for grass. Then here's the kicker. She made a pool.....with green J-E-L-L-O. A friggin' pool on the cake. How often do you see that? I'll tell you...."never, that's when!"

When she put the cake together she finally cut the corners off one side to assemble the volcanoes on either side of the cake. Eli loved it (of course, it was cake) and we all "ooh'd and ahh'd" as we saw it.

I love my wife and all the she puts in to her kids' birthday parties. Me...I would have bought a cake maybe had ribs for the adults and hot dogs for the kids. My wife does stuff better than me. I just hope she never takes up the drums.

Grilled BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

So, when you have defrosted meat in the fridge and you're not sure what to do with it. Just stick it on the grill, man. You can do it at 10 p.m. if you want....you don't have to eat it......until it's done and smells all good and stuff.

This was a last minute "what are we going to do with it?" situation. I put it on the grill with just some garlic salt and some pepper then at the last minute basted it with the BBQ sauce.....on a whim, right.

I don't know if we were planning on eating this or not, but I toasted an "institutional bun" with some pepper jack cheese (thanks to Costco). (is this what they use in prison?) More on this later...maybe. My, my, my.....that was some good food. (ever notice I don't talk about the "crap meals" that I make from time to time.....which is why there is sometimes a gap in my posting)

Anyway...short story long....I grilled food that I didn't want to go bad. Tip for the day.

Next will be the cakes for Godzilla's b-day party...the wife is outdoing herself this time. I might try to get her to blog about it instead of my paltry diatribes.

Grilling Series: Propane

Make sure you have it.

Need a logo

OK all you readers out there. All three of you!

I would love to have a logo for the Caddywampus......I just think it would be cool....and is something I have been thinking about for a while.

Anyone? Bueller?

Grilling Chops w/Caddywampus Green Beans and Roasted Red Potatoes w/Garlic & Pepper

When I did this, I had these very thin cut pork chops which are good to have when you're on a limited time frame because they cook so quickly.

What I used:
2-3 lbs. pork chops (bone in)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (aka EVOO)
Balsamic Vinegar
Garlic Salt
Pepper
Season-All

What I did:
A couple of hours before I started cooking, I coated the chops with the EVOO and balsamic, sprinkle (to taste) dry ingredients (both sides), cover and put in fridge. (you can do this the night before if you want, but you at least want to do this an hour before cooking)

Have I told ya'll about the beans in any earlier posts? I think I did, but I haven't the time to look it up.

Caddywampus Green Beans
What you need:
1 - 1.5lbs of fresh Green Beans (rinsed and blanched-please remember to drop them in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process...this will keep the crispness of the beans)
1 yellow onion, chopped
3-4 slices bacon
salt/pepper to taste

How to do it:
Heat skillet over medium heat (approx. 5 min.) cook bacon to crisp remove from skillet saving bacon drippings for cooking the rest of the food. Place onion in skillet and cook until the begin to sweat then place beans in skillet. Once they begin to get just a little soft, remove from heat, crumble bacon and mix in with beans and onions.......Damn! they're good

Roasted Red Potatoes w/Garlic & Pepper
What you need:
2-3 pounds of Red Potatoes, quartered
EVOO
2-3 cloves Garlic, minced
1/2 tspn pepper
season-all

What you need to do:
pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, mix EVOO & dry ingredients in separate bowl. put potatoes in mixture and make sure to get all the potatoes coated in oil, pepper, garlic. place in oven for about 25 minutes or until tender w/fork. again, Damn! they were good.

One of these days I'll write a book.

Today's Lunch: Sausage, Egg & Cheese on Sourdough

This was good. I wish I'd have thought to take a picture, but I was only going to put up the "Grilling Series" and not post about anything else right now.

4 turkey breakfast sausages
2 eggs
2 slices American Cheese
2 slices of Sourdough bread (buttered on the outsides)
= one sandwich

Make sure you start the sausages first (in a separate pan) as they usually take the longest. I did the eggs fried, but mixed them up on the griddle. Set them aside, put the bread on the griddle, cheese on the bread then re-set the eggs on the melty cheese, place sausage on eggs, then place other slice of bread, smash together, then flip (carefully) to finish off. Remove from heat and enjoy. These make great brunch like meals.

Juicy Crispy Chicken Breasts

Now, I made this last year and it was very, very yummy. I have since done it with Chicken Thighs and BBQ sauce on numerous occasions with even better results. Indirect heat is a very interesting way to grill things; especially when you're someone used to cooking with high heat all the time.

Now when you try it, try it with the corriander marinade. I'm not sure if any of ya'll like middle eastern flavors, but that was dang good.

"Spice-rubbed. In step 1, sprinkle your favorite spice rub all over the chicken while you're letting it come to room temperature. We like the Indian flavors of 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1 teaspoon ground coriander, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon cayenne."

There are two other ways to do it, which I haven't tried (unless you count doing it with BBQ sauce) that are good too. You'll see.

Anyway, Sunset is a great magazine with tons of fun stuff to cook.

Somebody try it and let me know which one you liked best. (Tony, since you're now the bar-b-queing fool....I expect you to try it.)

Grilling Conserves Water

"What the heck are you talking about?", you ask yourself.

So, the other day I asked for suggestions and 2 of my 3 commented back. I don't know much about organic stuff or trans fat business, but I do know (enjoy, rather) grilling. 'Tis the season to be jolly. No, not Christmas, but it's warm most of the time and time to get your grill tools together and your coals burning (or propane refilled).

Today will just be a tip on why grilling is good. There will be a few of these in this series. I found some recipies that I havne't trie and I'll re-post some of the things I have already discussed.

Now, let's get started:
Well, when you grill, you usually don't have to wash as many dishes. For example: The other night I grilled checken breasts and put corn on the cob (still in the husk) right on the grill. This meant, I didn't have to wash the corn, boil it, nor cut them in half (3 ears f/5 people) . It saved me time and water.....WOW! I'm a friggin' genius. I also threw some broccoli in some foil w/EVOO, S&P and set that on the back of the grill. Saved more water for steaming and another dish. Dang, I'm on a roll now.

I love being able to cook an entire meal right on the grill and not have to turn the oven or stove on. Hank Hill would be proud.

Now, last night, I did make burgers, but I made home made french fries in the oven. I would have done a separate post, but I don't want to interrupt the flow of the Grilling Series.

What you need:
3-4 good sized potatoes
2 TB EVOO
S&P to taste
Optional:
Hot Sauce or Cayenne Pepper

While your oven is pre-heating to 350F, cut potatoes in half, then in 1/4" slices. Mix EVOO and S&P (salt & pepper) and optional stuff then drop potato slices in making sure to get all slices covered w/mixture. Place on a cookie sheet and put in oven for about 20 minutes, but keep an eye on your fries so they don't get burned.

Serve while warm because cold fries are just bad.

Someone try it and get back to me!

Godzilla likes 'em!

What you'll need to make these tasty little morsels. My picky kids (well Godzilla did, at least) at an entire plate and asked for more. So, maybe this will work for your kids. We also gave them raw broccoli ("brockie", as Godzilla says) with ranch.

3 or 4 good sized chicken breasts, cubed
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup flour (maybe more)
1 cup Italian bread crumbs (or more)
cooking oil (enough to mostly cover nuggets in skillet)

heat oil in skillet while arranging your assembly line for dredging your chicken.
roll chicken in flour
dip in egg
roll in breadcrumbs
drop in oil
remember: don't get the oil too hot or breadcrumbs blacken and do not look appetizing. Be sure to flip chicken if you are using a skillet. Some people use what's called a "fry daddy", but I cannot justify having one. Because if I had it, I would use it and no one needs to deep fry everything in the house.

Fried Pickles (amongst other things)

I swore I wasn't going to eat fried stuff....this is why.

What you'll need:

1 box of tempura batter
1 jar of dill pickle chips
2 or 3 zucchini (good sized)
1 vidalia onion (or Maui) sliced
what ever veggie you would like to drop in tempura batter and fry.

in your wok (skillet, whatever) pour 1.5"-2" of cooking oil and get it hot.
dip desired piece of food to be fried into tempura batter, letting some drip off as you remove from batter
drop into oil until a golden crust forms.

I'll have a picture later. (it's of what was left after I finished plowing through the food)

Letter from Management

Hi Everyone!

I'm just wondering if anyone has tried any of these recipes? Tell me what you liked, didn't like, which were gave good or bad instructions, or just a simple comment on how we can make the Caddywampus Cafe a fun place for you customers. I have somewhat been throwing out what I like to make, because it's my place, but if any of ya'll have anything good, email me and I will try to get it on here. If you send me enough and would like to contribute, I would love to have some contributors.

Thanks,

Management of the Caddywampus

Dinner (not Breakfast) At Tiffany's

Can you find me? Well, I guess if you've never seen me.....you probably won't find me. I'm the closest guy serving dessert in the foreground of the picture. We actually got applause for serving food......I didn't know we were that good.

So, I said over at my general blog that this was a "Casino Royale" themed party for the top twenty-five patrons (contributors) to the Pacific Symphony Orchestra . They even had a fake Dr. No . That's my humble opinion anyways. He had a really, really bad accent and used every single British cliche in the book.

The food on the other hand, was awesome. It was a 5 course meal that Chef Pascal was asked to match with a fitting wine. The first course was the appetizer, "salmon timbales and tuna tar tar" (the tuna was in a sesame seed crepe with olive oil, lime juice and anchovies........it was probably one of the best things I've eaten in a long, long time.) paired with Pino Gris (some French name that I cannot remember, much less pronounce). Then there was a wild mushroom soup with a biscuit style crust on top (same wine). Next was the main course, beef tenderloin (fillet) with steamed lobster tail served with a Syrah (again, I don't read French very well, so I cannot remember it). (OK, now that looked amazing and the wine smelled just as good as the food looked.) Then there was a baby greens salad topped with a fried goat cheese on top. *sigh* why can't I eat like that all the time? because I'd have a heart attack if I did. The dessert served with some stinky French Port, was "Flawless" chocolate cake, pineapple upside down cake, and a (h)azelnut (leave out the "h" when pronouncing it in French)

We had to bust our butts all night long and then I got to drive home to Riverside at 11:15 p.m. Sunday was somewhat of an early day, but I had a good weekend anyway.........did anyone else have anything good to eat?

Chicken Stir Fry

two chicken breasts, diced
hand full of snow peas
hand full of asparagus
hand full of chopped carrots
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2T of Oyster Sauce
2T oil (peanut preferred)

throw in chicken and garlic, when chicken begins to brown toss in veggies (you don't have to use those vegetables, but they were yummy last night) serve over rice or udon noodles and enjoy!

I want my baby back, baby back, baby back...and I forgot to take pictures

DANG! Ya'll missed a good one last night. Easter is usually a boring ol' ham, right? Well, I'm tired of ham for the holidays. My wife asked me if we should get a ham and I said, "Nope, we should get some ribs." I served them with my special green beans, baked potatoes and salad. I'll let you prep your own starches and salads, but we'll talk about the ribs and green beans now.

You're saying, "mmmmmm, ribs.....how did you make them?" Well get a pin or some paper for the printer. I'll wait.......................................................................................... done? good...let's get started.

For Ribs you'll need:
2-4 racks of ribs (I did 2 racks)
Olive Oil
Lawry's Season Salt
Coarse Ground Pepper
Whatever Bar-b-que sauce is on sale (I like Chris 'n Pitts', but I used Bullseye yesterday)

1. pre-heat oven to around 275 Fahrenheit.
2. place the ribs on some aluminum foil, rub them down with olive oil, Lawry's season salt, coarse ground pepper, and minced garlic
3. place in oven for about 2 hours
4. when the 2 hours is almost done, get your grill nice and hot......lower heat right before you put them on (or use indirect heat if you have a large grill)
5. place on grill meat side down for about 5 minutes brush with bar-b-que sauce, flip (be careful because they should be nice and "fall off the bone" moist) and brush the inside with the sauce. let cook for about 3-4 minutes (don't let the sauce burn on your ribs.....)
6. Then make sure you call your mama to let her know she can't cook as good as you.

Caddywampus Green Beans:

You'll need:
1-1 1/2 lbs of fresh green beans
3 slices of bacon
1 yellow (or vidalia) onion sliced
salt and pepper to taste

1. rinse and clean beans (they have these stem like pieces you'll want to pick off....not fun to eat)
2. cook bacon to where they're crispy but not burned
3. remove bacon from skillet and drain, then put in the beans
4. toss them around in the bacon grease for about 2 minutes then add the onion
5. once onions begin to soften, remove from heat and crumble bacon over beans.
6. call your mama again and make her come to your house so you can prove that you're a better cook.

We were so hungry that I didn't have time to take pictures after plating up. Trust me, they looked amazing and tasted even better.

Variations on a theme

The past 7 days have been interesting food wise. We're in a spot where we need "fillers" so, we've had potatoes and rice and such, but the two nights I cooked, I noticed that I actually cooked two versions of Chicken, Rice and Broccoli.

Last Thursday night, I did two boneless, skinless chicken breasts diced stir-fry style with broccoli and oyster sauce over jasmine rice. (sorry, no pictures) This went quick, I defrosted a couple of breasts in the microwave while prepping the rice, chopping the broccoli and garlic. It's good to chop the veggies first so you can use that board to cut up the chicken. While you're chopping your chicken heat a skillet with some oil over medium heat. Throw in the chicken and garlic until chicken begins to cook through, then add the broccoli. Once the broccoli starts to sweat, add oyster sauce until it spreads all around, remove from heat and serve over rice.

Last night, Monday, I grilled the chicken with a "jerk/teryiaki" marinade. And because I'm lazy, I put the broccoli in aluminum foil...then drizzled olive oil, sprinkled salt & pepper....put it on the grill with the chicken. (I don't want to wash any more dishes than I have to.) I cooked the jasmine rice according to directions (or memory...whichever).

Again, Chicken, Rice and Broccoli

2500 points to the first person who tells me how many times I mentioned broccoli.

Lately

it's been quite here at the "wampus". I've not done anything good in a while. My wife has been stealing the cooking thunder from me. She made an amazing casserole (Enchilada) as well as some spaghetti sauce that RAWKED!!!!!

I did, however, make another Peach Cobbler that was better than the last one.....I think anyway.

I'm too lazy to link the Cobbler, Enchilada Casserole and sauce, but go back in my archives and check 'em out. .....really easy and really good.

One of these days I'll get inspired to cook again. Maybe I'll get some ribs and YouTube it.....

Ikea for food?

Yes, Ikea (yes, the furniture store) has some yummy food. Ikea is a Swedish owned furniture store for those of you not in the know and they know you'll be there for a while...or at least they plan on you being there for a while and they have a restaurant upstairs.

The best is their Swedish meatballs with steamed red potatoes and lingenberries. (I guess I'm going to have to give you this definition because I cannot find it on the esteemed "W".) Linginberries are like cranberries, but not as tart. You can usually get the Swedish pancakes w/linginberries at IHOP (a good place for pancakes). My favorite part is that once they get you hooked on these yummy little morsels covered in gravy, they have them in little freezers at the register with the gravy packets next to it..........."you mean? I can? HONEY! We can make them there meatballs at home...we ain't gotta go tuh IKEA just fer thu food any more!" (Insert redneck accent here....sorry...this is The Caddywampus Cafe afterall.)

I wish I had some right now....they make great leftovers......become a good Swede and take this test.......I got a couple of them wrong.....I figured them out though.

Peach Cobbler.....the comfiest of comfort food

Is there a dessert that you did not like as a child because it looked funny? Well, for me that was my mom's peach cobbler. (right) Anyway, I made one once after just an odd craving and OH MY! It was djummy (that's pronounced "jummy" for those of you who do not know what a djembe is....there's a little dorky drummer humor for you......yes, I am that much of a dork.)



Anyway, you need the following:

1 Cup Sugar
1 stick of butter, melted
1 Cup of Milk
1 Cup of Self-rising Flour
1 Can sliced peaches in heavy syrup

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, mix first four ingredients in non-metal bowl with a whisk or fork, pour batter into a square Pyrex pan (or foil if you're taking it somewhere). Pour peaches over batter; put in oven for about 20-25 minutes until top begins to brown and it's bubbling around the edges. Top with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream........then let the sweet heaven begin.

We ate this about 9 p.m. last night and watched School of Rock.

Repeat Offender...Bolognese

So, this time, I used zuccini, carrots and a can of tomato sauce. It added a lot and I wanted to share a photo of the new creation.

Taco Shells "Guerro" Style

So, this is where you start. Corn tortillas from the store...not the uncooked ones, but the soft ones.....heat a skillet pretty hot with a bit of oil. Then do this........................

Once you have this started, maybe you can settle this (monkey #4 likes to have our full attention as soon as we get home)................

OK, so I got that problem settled, well distracted to say the least....and then you have to fold your taco shell so it makes that little cup thing.........once you hold it there for approximately 20-30 seconds it will get all nice and brown then do drop it on to a paper towel to drain.....and you'll get this. (below)

Anyway, fill with whatever taco meat you have prepared, with some cheese, avacado, lettuce, green (or red) onion, sour cream and of course Tapatio. (I'm currently out)

Enjoy!

Easy as cake, piece of pie

1/2 pkg egg noodles
1 can tuna
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

OK, so cook your noodles, do cheese while that cooks and pre-heat oven to 350. mix cooked noodles, tuna (drained), soup and most of the cheddar in a bowl. Place all of that in a cooking pan (those loaf shaped ones are the best) and top with a butt-load of cheese. Put in oven for about 20-30 minutes (until cheese begins to brown) and remove from oven.

Tuna casserole is one of the ultimate comfort foods, especially on a rainy day.

Enjoy!

Tips to remember when baking late at night

First of all, this is why I don't bake. Too much to freakin' remember. I've already got A.D.O.D. (Attention Deficit Obsessive Disorder...yes, I made it up)

OK, so I'm supposed to be making some damn cupcakes for my kids' pre-school/daycare Valentine's Party.....thought it would be cute to make them in this tray that J bought for another project. Tray is too shallow and it just wasn't working. So, I put the cake batter in a cake pan to make a cake....GREAT, not like I wrote anything down for Monkey #3's class....but it was in writing that I was bringing something for #4's class. I go to make the frosting and I realized I didn't buy enough butter......dammit! It's 11:30 p.m. I'm going to the store to buy some damn frosting......f-it! (sorry for the strong language)

By the way, the cake is from scratch and the batter tasted dang good.

Frittata (repeat offender)

So, this morning, I was trying to think of a way to make these fritattas more filling. The first time I made one, I used potatoes and sausage. No one really liked it that much. Today's wasn't much different, but I wanted to share it with you "three".

8 eggs, beaten
1T Veggie oil
1T EVOO
1/3C Milk
Handful of Spinach
1 Potato diced (optional)
1/2 sm onion, diced (optional)
1/2-1C grated cheese (your choice, I used sharp cheddar)
garlic salt
pepper

Dice onion and potato, toss in skillet until potato is cooked through. (season with garlic salt and pepper to taste) Place potato in a bowl and set aside. Beat eggs, add EVOO and milk and mix well. Pour eggs into pre-heated 10" skillet, until eggs set somewhat. Add potatoes, onion and spinach...let spinach settle....then add cheese.....put in oven (350 degrees...right?) for about 7-10 minutes, remove when cheese is barely brown. Slide it on to a cutting board to cool for a few minutes so the cheese is easier to cut and serve.

My kids call it "eggie pizza" and love fritattas. At any rate, give it a try and let me know what you think.

Later!

Chicken Fried Rice.......mmmmmmmmmmmmm

I made fried rice tonight but didn't have many of these ingredients.....still turned out OK. By the way, you can do this with tofu, shrimp, pork or whatever you want to put in there.

2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1T Vegetable Oil
2 diced carrots
1 cup frozen corn
1 cup frozen peas (unless you have fresh)
2 cups cooked jasmine rice
1 egg
3 chopped green onion
1-3T Soy Sauce (I prefer low sodium)

Dice chicken breasts and place them in a bowl with a small amount of soy sauce for about 30 minutes before cooking or while you heat the skillet/wok. Heat wok/skillet with oil, toss in minced garlic and before it starts burning toss in chicken, once chicken begins to brown, throw in carrots and chopped green onion. Once carrots begin to sweat a little, throw in other veggies (did I mention you should be cooking your rice by now....in fact the rice should just about be ready) When chicken is nice an browned, your rice should be done....spoon rice into wok (add a little more oil, if needed) and mix well....I like to do that chef toss thing with the wok/skillet...it makes me feel good about cooking...like I'm doing something. Make a little coliseum with the rice so there is a space for the egg on the pan....crack egg right into the skillet/wok and then start working the egg into the rice...watch it cook before your eyes...ooohh...aaaahhhh.....add soy sauce and mix it in well......

Cheat code: pick up some rice at the Chinese take out place on the way home from work.

Fun garnish: Once you're done chopping your green onion, take the white ends...cut off the hairs, then do a criss cross cut in the white portion...place in a bowl of cold water and watch them bloom like little flowers (Thank you, Wolfgang Puck for the idea) You'll impress your friends and the kids think they're cute.

Penne Pasta w/ Cajun Hot Links and Chipotle Shrimp

Holy Moly! This is one HAWT little number. I got addicted to Food Network's Next TV Food Star series a year or so ago and thought that Guy Fieri was going to win. He did. Anyway, on his show, he brought it with the title recipe.
I have slowly been amassing the ingredients needed to make this luscious looking dish. There will also be a challenge on figuring out what to feed #3 & #4. They won't eat anything but eggs, oatmeal and cheerios...oh wait....Mac 'N Cheese too. (that was the main dish this evening.) On top of that my wonderful wife wasn't so sure about it, but I think I've talked about it enough that she's willing to go with me on this one.
Maybe next year, I will try to get on that show and become the next Bobby Flay....he's a hack.....kidding....he's only like my favorite chef. He would eat Jack Bauer for lunch.

Editor's Note (2/6/2007): Due to a recent bout of Stomach Flu after eating a hot link sandwich, the Caddywampus Cafe will NOT be including this dish on their menu. It looks great and still sounds great, but we do not want to irresponsibly upset any stomachs.

Sloppppppppyyyyyy Jooooooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

So who remembers the Manwich? It's a tomatoie seasoned loose meat sandwich. Who wants to remember to buy a can of stuff called "Manwich"...sounds like bad, gay porn. With that leaving a horrible visual scar on your brain, I'll get on with the food from Saturday night's dinner.

1.5 lbs ground beef
1 cup of ketchup
1-2T of Worchestire Sauce
8 burger buns (whole wheat if you got 'em)
(3 ingredients, really?) Yes, that's right, 3 main ingredients and the bun for functionality.

Brown meat (7% preferred) add whatever seasoning you like. Some people might actually use peppers and onions, but with young children (who still didn't eat the food) you want to get it as edible as possible. Once meat is brown, add ketchup and worchestire and reduce down to a thick-ish sauce.

Slap it on a bun (cheese too...if you want).......and watch their faces light up with childhood memories of that thing I mentioned at the front of the post....I can't repeat that name anymore.

The Weapons of Our Warfare

Hello. I'm Brian, and I'll be guest blogging here occasionally. Since our premise is easy to throw together fare, I thought I'd share a few of the things I consider Kitchen Essentials. Whenever I think of the words, "last minute", "extra guest" and "not enough" in the kitchen, I have a selection of "go to" items that can assist in turning junk in the fridge into edible food.

A selection of various oils and vinegars. Pictured here, Garlic, Red Wine, Basalmic, Spicy and Malt Vinegars. Also, Olive and Aromatic oils. I also try to acquire or create various "infused" olive oils when I can. I guess you can infer from the picture I am partial to the Star brand.

These are my life savers, so I buy them in bulk. Powdered onion, powdered garlic, and a McCormick italian seasoning blend (which contains marjoram, thyme, rosemary, savory, sage, oregano and basil). The onion and garlic are especially helpful for sneaking flavor into food without tipping off picky eaters.

Knorr Chicken and Tomato Chicken bullion. When it just "needs" something. It's saved many a bland soup or sauce.

Last is a personal preference, but I find an assortment of chile and pepper sauces essential. They are all different. Here, I am out of any Chipotle or Taco Sauces, but I usually keep several brands on hand. Also, in my opinion, Gebhardt is the only real option when it comes to Chili Powder. Nothing else even comes close.

Not that you have to run out and buy all this on your next shopping trip, but I find these items invaluable. They all keep for a pretty long time, so they can be picked up a few here and there, until you build a collection of "little tastes" to add to your favorite recipes or improvisations. Next up is a little soup that is easy and fast that I love to whip up.

Homeade Bolognese Sauce

So last night I tried something that Pascal recited to me one evening.


EVOO
1/2 onion, diced
2-20 cloves of garlic, minced
1 lb of ground beef (I used turkey)
4-6 vine ripened tomatoes (rough chop)
1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese
1 package of spaghetti (I used angel hair...I love angel hair)


Heat a pan w/EVOO, put in onion and garlic, soften onions, add meat, brown (salt and pepper to taste), add roughly chopped tomatoes, let it reduce. (You can add some tomato paste if you'd like, I would have had I been in its possession) Sprinkle Parmesan and mix in. Oh, I forgot...prepare pasta according to package. (al dente is best) Depending on how you like to serve it, you can pour the sauce over the pasta or mix the pasta up. I mixed it up because I didn't have enough pasta for a lot....I had to stretch it out a bit

.

Breakfast for dinner, anyone? (edited w/recipe)

So last night on my way home, my wife calls me....."what do you want for dinner?"
We're trying not to eat out/take out so much...so I ask, "Do we have any eggs?"
To which my wonderful wife says, "mmmmmmmmm, bacon and eggs!"
We agreed, hang up and then I get another call, "So I'm standing here wondering if I should get this whole wheat pancake mix."
I say, "we can make it at home, I'm sure I have a recipe at home."
So, we agree on that and once I get way into the process (I'll post the recipe tonight), I find out I am missing Baking Soda.......CRAP! They came out way too dense, but if you put enough butter/syrup on them....they're fine.....if you put enough butter/syrup on them, they're fine....(keep saying that...maybe you'll believe it)

Well, at least the bacon and eggs were good.

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup wheat germ (yes, wheat germ....don't worry, it'll be ok)
1 1/2t baking powder
1/2t baking soda
1/4t salt
3T butter
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
1 cup of milk

Mix all dry ingredients first. (whisk, fork, whatever you like to mix with)
in a separate bowl, mix liquids
mix them all together
Pour 1/3 cup at a time on a medium heat skillet (here's the tip I was never aware of) do not let your skillet smoke (not that kind of smoke.....get too hot). The key is a medium heat skillet as to not burn your pancakes.

Serve with syrup or jelly or both! Of course, bacon and eggs go very well. Enjoy!

P.S. We should be hearing from a new contributor soon.....Mr. PlatypiMuse himself, Brian Norwood. He has a table here.

Repeat Offender

We had the Chicken Parmesean again tonight. It turned out great....but I did not use the flour....and it was pretty dang awesome, I must say. My wife said it was really, really good too.

Someone share a recipe!

The unholiest of unholies in the food world: the Casserole

My wife made this amazingly easy and delicious casserole. Yes, I said it..."casserole". It's called an enchilada casserole, and using "enchilada" in its title is a stretch at best.

Wanna know how to make it? Well here you go!

1lb ground beef

1 can of Hungry Jack (or your favorite instant biscuit)

1/2 an onion

1 sm can of enchilada sauce

1 1/2-2 1/2 cups of shredded cheese (your pick of type...usually cheddar and jack)

Now, take the onion cook it until tender, add beef (or turkey) and brown it. Then pour in your enchilada sauce to cover the beef and let that simmer. Turn oven on to 350 degrees (F)

While your meat stews (ha!), open your canned biscuits (wear protective eye covering due to the explosive nature of opening these things...again, "HA!"..I know I'm not funny to anyone but me) and tear into chunks to line a 9"x13" pan , pour saucy meat over biscuits and put in oven for 20 minutes; add cheese. Let this cook for another 10 minutes or so (until cheese is melted and browning) remove from oven and enjoy!

Like I said, this was one of the biggest surprises my wife has brought to the kitchen and it was wonderful. You can dress it up by adding diced green chili's or use some Tapatio hot sauce once it comes out of the oven.

My wife is one of those I can try anything and usually get it right, the first time, type of people. It's one of the many reasons to love her.

Try it and love it, teach your friends that a casserole can be made and still taste great!

Easy Shrimp Chowder

Alright, ya'll. I finally have another actual recipe up here. This is an amazingly easy thing to make. The hardest part is deveining your shrimp....actually I think finding somewhere that offers tail-off, peeled and uncooked shrimp is harder....but my wonderful wife found it. By the way, I got this from Southern Living magazine a couple of years ago. I'm sure it will turn up there again. They do re-run recipes from time to time.

1.5 lbs of uncooked shrimp (peeled/deveined)
1 sm yellow onion, chopped
2 cans of Cream of Potato soup
3.5 cups of milk
.25 tspn cayenne pepper
1 cup Monterey Jack Cheese

Ready, Go! Sautee onion in boiler with some butter (eyeball this one). Add milk soup and cayenne, bring to a boil. (Now be careful and stir frequently because milk has a nasty reputation for sticking to the bottom or burning easily.) Add cheese continue stirring until melted. Add shrimp until it turns pink. Remove from heat and enjoy. This should serve 12 cups of soup.

OK, I'm hungry.

Someone try it and let me know how you like it.

How do you.....

....get your kids to eat vegetables? We used to make turkey meatballs with food processed vieggies (i.e. spinach, zuccini) in them. Really easy to make.

Take a package of ground turkey (dark meat...white meat ruined #3 on them), mix (by hand) with 1 egg, 1 piece of bread from the food processer, with the veggie of choice. Then roll into balls, place on cookie sheet into a 350 degree pre-heated oven. Cook for about 20 minutes until golden brown.

They're great to put in marinara on a French roll if your kids won't eat them.

During a conversation with Pascal about the same thing, he suggested a 20 minute bolongnese spaghetti sauce and I'll blog about that later.

Share with me how you get your kids to eat veggies.

Catering

Ok, so this Saturday I worked a small Christmas Party Buffet for 16 people. The menu was Free Range Chicken (I noticed they were on the small side probably due to the fact they're not all genetically freaked out) in a wild mushroom and Cognac sauce, Potatoes gratin, and vegetables julienne. (Sorry, I left my camera at home....I'll remember next time)

Anyway, the food was great and the party was fun for the guests. I was working my tuccus off to make sure they were happy. I even did a beer run after I got all set up. I would complain about not getting a tip, but they customer was happy and the Events Coordinator hooked me up with a ton of food once I got back to the kitchen. A lot of my friends and co-workers ask me how this works and I thought I would take the time to have a catering workshop at the Caddywampus.

Usually, I just show up at the event and serve the food, but occasionally, I will get the call to do one by myself. (These are the ones that get the most questions.)

When I do the "solo" gig, I go to Pascal's and pick up a Cambro that gets stocked with the hors'd oeuvres, a tray of entree, and 2 sides. I will also get the lettuce and fixings to mix once I get there and put the dressing on the side or in the salad.

Once I arrive, I set up the buffet with the chaffing dishes brought in by the rental company or provided by the restaurant...these are pretty easy.

There ya go! I just set it up, let them know what it is and that it is ready and they're off to the feed bag.

The hard part is once the customer gets comfortable having a food server in the house, they have you jumping through hoops to get wine poured in all different directions, serving desserts, coffee and just keeping wine around. The other hard part is telling them you're leaving and they'll have to fend for themselves the rest of the night. (ha!)

It was a fun night and I'll re-live a conversation I had with the owner of Pascal's, Pascal Olhat, in a different post.

More about the London Broil

Someone asked me to tell more about the London Broil. All I knew about it is that this is not always the easiest to get right. The night I took this picture, I think it was quite a bit over cooked. I had taken it out earlier, but it was just too pink in the middle for the rest of the family. When one has kids, you must make sure you cook it all the way through because consistency is key. I like to let it marinade for a day or so, but that doesn't always happen.

Some nights are better than others, but it usually turns out pretty well.....just not this well done....ha!

Thank you all for visiting the Caddywampus and please come back to contribute your thoughts and stuff.

My second job

I have a second job as a server for a Pascal's Catering of Newport Beach, California. This is one of his busiest times of year too. So the best part for me is that when I'm serving I also have the opportunity to watch this chef of French styled cuisine. I haven't had the opportunity to ask him too many questions at this point. he seems a little unapproachable, but I'm hoping to overcome this fear. Yes, he is just a man, but he's a little kurt with people from time to time. I like him when I've had a normal conversation with him, but he really gets down to business when it is time to work.

The food is always amazing and this past weekend was no different. He was serving a seafood buffet from the grill. He did

I am hoping to post an interview with some photos of his food.

London Broil, Sauteed Green Beans and what?

Now the other night, I was all excited because I was going to have some red meat. Couldn't wait....big ol' slab of London Broil. Now I had to decide what to have with it. I had just purchased some fresh green beans (subconciously knowing what I was going to do with it). Next I was wondering what my starchy food was going to be. Mashed Potatoes, YUM! No, West, your potatoes are bad; what else do you have? Hmmmmmmmmmm, corn? no. Is there enough salad to have? Oh wait, the kids need to eat something, too. In the mean time, Monkey #1 asked what we were going to have and asked if we could have MacNcheese. "No," I said, "it doesn't go with what I am making." I look in the pantry and could find nothing else. so #1 got her wish. We had a beautiful meal of London Broil, Green Beans sauteed w/sweet onion and Kraft Macoroni & Cheese.

Thanksgiving 2006

Ok, so we went to J's Aunt's house down in South Orange County. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time visiting with the family. Monkey #1 spent the week at Grandma's in San Diego County so it was super great to have all the monkeys together again for the car ride home.

We had a very yummy Turkey with what I'm guessing is the "standard" in stuffing. It's not the same as what I grew up with down south, but was pretty good. We had what was called "dressing" which was a cornbread based stuffing cooked in a 9x13 pyrex pan and it was yummmmmmmmmy. At any rate this was still really, really good. Take a look at the Turkey.

Then J's cousin brought his smoker and smoked a ham. We had a heck of a time keeping it lit....hahahahahahahaha! (singing the Jepardy theme while I wait for the photo to upload)

The best part, however, was that he also did some baked beans! I guess they would be called "smoked beans". Check 'em out.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the side dish of all side dishes. This is a long standing tradition in my wife's family. It was originally called "Berry Mallow Caserole". It is yams, marsh mallows cran berries. Can anyone guess what name has been migrated into? Since I only about 4 readers, I won't let it go any longer. It is now called "the Barry Manilow". Sorry for the build up, but that's about as good as it gets. Unfortunately, my wife will not allow the recipe to be spread all over the internet. (and she is one of the 4) Here is the picture.

As you can see, it was quickly scooped up. I thought it was silly and I'm not that big a fan of the ingredients; so, this took me a couple of years to aquire the taste. Now I love the Barry Manilow (in small doses), but it is a great side for your Thanksgiving.

Anyway, this was my Thanksgiving at the Caddywampus, which wasn't really at the Caddywampus. How was yours?

Last Night's Dinner: Simple Salmon

This was one of the lamest dinners I've made in quite a while, but I got great reviews from the wife.

It was so simple, I'm ashamed to post it, but I haven't posted in a while.

A nice sized piece of salmon filet with EVOO, sprinkled with lemon pepper and garlic salt put in a 350 degree preheated oven until cooked through (flakey against a fork). This piece of salmon had no skin, so I wouldn't suggest grilling one like this. It makes it difficult to flip unless you're really good at greasing your grill grates which I am not.

Anyway, we were kind of out of food, so we had some canned fruit as a side dish and I got great reviews from J and #1.

Well, there you go...I'll have pictures up from the Thanksgiving feast at my Aunt-In-Law's house. (Turkey along with Ham and Baked Beans on the smoker)