Last Thanksgiving in GA....

So as most of you know, we are moving once again.... This time to Maine!! That is exciting as we will be much closer to Eric's family. As I type Eric and the kids are spending Thanksgiving with his family which is fabulous. We have not spent a holiday with either family in 13 years.

Today Andrew and I spent T.G. with my friend Dawn, here in Georgia. We had a great time!! Kind of reminded me of my family, loud and boisterous... Makes me sad to be leaving here as I have made a lot of great friends. It's actually harder than I thought it would be. I thought I had protected myself from the emotional ties like what I had in Michigan but as I am realizing, I have not done as good a job as I thought of protecting myself from the pain of leaving yet another group of people... Luckily I have about 7 months to spend with my good friends here before I have to say goodbye and move on with my life. You try to not make deep connections but end up doing just that... So I am doomed to leave those I care very much about throughout my life...... WOW what a depressing entry........... LOL

It's all about the food!

My family and I are going to WA State this summer and I am so excited! Of course I am most excited about seeing my family and friends but this blog is about the food!!

It's been 8 years since I have been back to WA and there are some things I miss in the food department that I have not been able to have in the states I have lived in. Here's a list of must haves over the 2 weeks I will be there!! In no particular order.

Chinese Village Restaurant in Hoquiam! Love their BBQ Pork and Chinese mustard!! You know it's good when your eyes run!!

Jack In The Box!! I know what you are thinking, fast food??? There are no JITB in any of the areas I have lived since leaving WA. The sourdough burger was my favorite! I can feel the buttery goodness of the bread as I type! And yes I do mean "feel". You need a napkin when you are finished! On the trip from MI to GA I did see a JITB off the Interstate in Tennessee about 6 in the morning. If it had been open I would have turned around...

Bridges Restaurant in Aberdeen. I have to get a Long Island Iced Tea!! Yes you can get those anywhere but I am here to tell you, no place makes them like Bridges!! Of course my sister could just give me the recipe since she was the bartender for years...

Billy's Restaurant in Aberdeen. I HAVE to have some Rattlesnake Eggs!!! I know it sounds gross but let me tell you, they are a surprisingly good time!!!! If you like I can bring some back for you. They travel very well! A little cocktail sauce and lemon and mmm mmm good!

Blue Beacon Restaurant in South Aberdeen. The fish and chips are soooo yummy!!!

Pike Place Market Seattle! I don't know the name of the vendor but they Gyro's are the best!!!!

And last but certainly not least.

13 Coins Seatac Restaurant. This place will be visited more then once. Guaranteed... They have such a good Antipasto w/sourdough bread and that's all the entree I need even though it's not a entree. But the real reason it's my absolute favorite place is the "Fried Ice Cream" Whenever I am at a restaurant that has fried ice cream on the menu I order it, just hoping that it's comparable to the greatness of 13 Coins. But no, have not found it yet. This stuff is so delicious I can taste it now!! Eric took me here when we were dating, my first time ever having escargot and sweet breads... I knew what the snails were but had no idea what sweet breads were..... It was not horrible but I would not order it again nor would I order the snails.. But I tried them. Now if you decide to try 13 Coins, I am talking about the one in Seatac near the airport. Not the one downtown Seattle. Been there once and I prefer my Seatac location. http://www.13coins.com/index.php

It's Voting Time...

It's the first week of America voting on Idol! This is where the contestants really have to show us what they have to offer. So why oh why is it that every year they sing the worst songs during this time? Can someone explain this to me because I am baffled. I know these people have watched the show and have seen what happens during this time. You have to come out and rock that stage, it needs to be upbeat and get the voters at home clapping and going YEA!!!! Don't sing ballads people..... It's slow, boring and a great way to get your arse sent home... So here is my breakdown of the two nights.

First night is the girls. There were some that were ok but pretty much the whole night was boring. I called it a girls season this year... Right now after both nights, I am not sure anymore.

First up is Paige Miles. Did we ever see her in Hollywood? I think she can sing but she's a unknown so I would not be surprised to see her in the bottom.

Janell Wheeler I predict will be in the bottom for sure. Sorry Janell but you don't sing Heart.. Come on now.

Lilly Scott! She is so different then anyone else and she is good!!! No worries with her.

Katelyn Epperly singing "Oh Darling" I thought was really good! I love her voice, there are parts of it that remind me of Kelly Clarkson!! And Kara with the whole makeover comment, I love it when people change their looks!!

Haeley Vaughn.. She sang "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" What can I say about that performance.. WOW.. Not good at all. I agree with Simon about her smiling the entire time and she was so screechy it was painful......

Lacey Brown. Song was "Landslide" I have such high hopes for her. I really love her voice but oh my goodness it was scary Tuesday night.... I really hope she stays but I think she's going to be in the bottom.

Siobhan Magnus, not good...

Crystal, Crystal, Crystal.... She's really talented and I do hope next week she will bring something other then coffee house performances. No doubt she will be here. She has a lot of followers.

Katie Stevens was the biggest surprise for me. I was not expecting her to do much but I have to say I thought she was the best of the night!! Yes she's 17 and yes the Michael Buble song may be old for a 17 year old but so what.. She sang that song and I completely disagree with the judges. If we remember right, her audition song choice was "At Last" so maybe that's just who she is...

Ashley Rodriguez, Michelle Delamor, Didi Benami just ok. I think they will be fine.

Now onto the fellas...

After the girls I was hoping the guys were going to bring it and blow me away... Unfortunately once again that did not happen. I don't know maybe I have just watched this show to long, I find myself commenting on things such as their upper and lower registers, pitch and technical things like that... And like Simon, I am usually right... LOL So a quick run through of the the boys here.

Todrick Hall singing "Since You've Been Gone" was just weird.. Hated the arrangement, completely killed the song in a bad way. He has a good voice but with that performance and with the scandal surrounding him, I think he's leaving us soon if not tonight.

Aaron Kelly, Big Mike, Alex Lambert were good. Not much more to say.

Jermaine Sellers. Dude should not go that high....

Tim Urban, they brought him back after Chris Golightly was removed for apparently having a 2 year contract with Dream Projects Entertainment when he auditioned for Idol http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1632463/20100223/story.jhtml

Anyway back to Tim's performance.. Let's just say we will not be seeing him on the big stage unless a miracle happens..

Joe Munoz, I just did not get him..

Tyler Grady :( I was sooooo looking forward to his performance over anyone else. Way to disappoint Tyler.... Next week you need to do something drastic..

Lee Dewyze was great! One of the best of the night, unfortunately that does not say much.. LOL

John Park, I could see him in the bottom tonight.

Casey James...... Yes it's obvious he's nice to look at. He also has a great voice. So why did he come out and sing a ballad? Come on Casey, looks can only take you so far. Are you safe? Of course you are. The judges however have to cut the whole Kara thing off. It's distracting for the voters and it's distracting for Casey. It's not right to do that at this point of the competition.

Andrew Garcia, everyone loves him! But like Casey he should not have sang a ballad. I think some of these people think they have such a following that they don't need to go above and beyond to impress us... It will eventually bite you in the arse, I am here to tell you..

So basically the ones in jeopardy tonight are as follows.

Girls

Paige

Haeley

Lacey

Janell

Siobhan

Boys

Todrick

Jermaine

Tim

John

Shameful I know...

Yes I am using this blog to get myself something.. Shame on me I know. But I could not resist. Check out this site not only for the giveaway but also just because she is a fabulous photographer. Of course winning a trip to Seattle would be soooo cool to!!!

http://www.rachelthurston.com/blog/?p=1860&cpage=1#comment-3283

Is It Real Or Is It Memorex....

Aubree is a vegetarian. (well recently she has switched to Pescetarianism) If you don't know what that strange word means, don't feel bad. I had never heard it until she introduced me to it. Basically it's someone who eats dairy and fish but no land animals. The word itself sounds like a religion to me....

She's the only one in the family that is. Which means when I make meals if there is meat in the ingredients I take out her portion before adding the meat. You know like spaghetti sauce. I make the sauce and take hers out before I add the burger. She's been a veggie for over 4 years so we are pretty used to it. At first though it was a real pain... Here is last nights dinner that she has wanted to make for awhile now. It's called Vegetarian Ribs... Now that's a oxymoron if I ever heard one. We made them without telling the rest of the family what they really were... Reminds me of a time when I was a kid and we were eating at my Aunt Ruth's. We had beef along with whatever else.... After we (kids) were done eating we were informed by our mother that the beef we just ate was cows tongue..... I remember being quite grossed out by the thought. But we all grew up so I guess it did not harm us to much....

Ok I got sidetracked, back to last nights dinner.... The process of making the 'ribs' was kind of gross for Aubree. Note I said Aubree. Hey she's the veggie so any mixing of weird stuff is her job.. Once they were in the oven and I was making the risotto to accompany the 'ribs' Andrew comes upstairs and says "mmm something smells good. Smells like meatloaf." Aubs and I gave each other a look and a grin.. :) Anywhooo to make a long story short, they came out of the oven looking surprisingly good. Much better then they looked going in. We sat down to eat and Sloan my other son took a couple of bites and was like "mmmmmm" The Aubs told him they were not 'ribs ' at all. He still had two so he liked them. I thought they were good. Andrew and Eric both did not like the texture and Eric said to me this morning that he hopes we don't make those again... lol Now the Pescetarian in the family did not like them at all...... Go figure..... Here is a link to the recipe just in case you are feeling adventurous..

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Vegetarian-Ribs/Detail.aspx

Only 6 ingredients so not to bad. Gluten. That's a funny word don't ya think?

Speedy Gonzales chopping the onions. No tears were shed during making of this meal!!

l

Yep this is what it looks like before the shaping of the 'ribs' Want some? I know you do......

Out of the oven and bbq sauce is applied. They do kind of look like mini meat loafs...

Here is our accompaniment to the 'ribs'

Risotto recipe is on the back of the container. It was just ok... I have made it before, using a different recipe and it was much better. I hear that my sister Jennifer's risotto is wonderful so if she makes it out here in March she can expect to be making some!!!!

Time in the kitchen.

Home cooking.. I am not talking about pulling a box of precooked preservative filled something out of the pantry or freezer. It's the flour, sugar, baking soda, real ingredients that I am referring to. Let's live in reality here for just a moment. We (my family) have been eating out of boxes and ready to cook freezer foods for years. As a matter of fact if there is nothing quick and easy to make my family get's nervous. "You mean I have to prepare my food??" Then of course it's a run to the store or drive-thru to take care of the problem.... Now it's not that I don't enjoy cooking, I really do. It's that we (I) have gotten lazy. Sooo I did not conciously make this a new years resolution but it's close to the new year and I have decided to change this issue, 'close to the new year and changing a habit' feels like a resolution......

I have been looking on the web for home cooking sites and although there are a unlimited amount them out there I have yet to find what I am looking for. I don't know what I am looking for but will know it when I find it. Of course I do have a boatload of cookbooks at my disposal. I could actually pick one up and turn the pages...... Keep your fingers crossed for our taste buds.... It's been awhile...

Yum, Yum, Yum!!!!

My daughter Aubree has discovered that she loves to bake. Her father's favorite cookie is Chocolate Chip so she made him a batch a couple of weeks ago. Basically following the recipe on the back of the Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip bag. I mean that's what we all use right?? Well as always they come out of the oven looking good but after sitting for a bit they get crunchy. If you like your cookies crunchy then forgive me. I prefer mine to stay soft!!! Not only are they tastier but they make eating while laying on the couch much easier. You know, no crumbs falling on your chest!!! Anyway... Aubs found a recipe that guaranteed soft cookies. Every review said they were the best homemade cookies ever!!! Well she went ahead and tried them and I have to say they are the best Chocolate Chip Cookies made at home I have ever had. And to test the softness staying power I left one on the counter unwrapped all night. It was still just as soft the next day!!!!!!

Forming of the dough!

Getting there. This little clump is what's left of a rather large clump. Unfortunately I did not think to take pictures before this stage.

Now I should not have to say this but just in case... Aubs pre-rolled the dough. These balls are just in storage waiting their turn to be loaded on the stone much farther apart from each other!!!

Of course if you are looking to make one GIANT cookie then by all means bake away!!!!

Baking away!! It was chilly in the house so the warmth from the oven was nice!!

Are they done?

Yes they are!!!

Cookie anyone!!!

Pant’s on the ground!!!

2nd night of Idol. It’s in Atlanta and I have to say I was not impressed…..

Bridge jumper Vanessa was better then I thought she would be. Typically Idol’s pre-story on a contestant let’s you know if they are one of the many who think they are good but are horrible. I thought the pre-story on Vanessa was on the ‘let’s make fun of this country girl’ side so I was waiting for her to be not so good. I am very glad she made it to Hollywood and I hope she does not get eaten up by the piranhas out there….

Guitar girl was good, she reminded me of Kelly Pickler, her voice that is.

Now Skiibo Ski was a shocker for me…. Very interested to see him in the big H… Will he take the judges advice and clean up his attire or will he head out west with the double ii’s???

Lauren and Carmen BFF’s for life. Will Lauren back up Carmen?? We will wait and see.... I agree with Simon, I don’t think Carmen will be gone for long… She won’t make it past the first cut in Hollywood…..

The others that I liked were Keia with the Titanic song, Jermaine the church boy who sang What If God Was One Of Us, which I happen to LOVE that song, was really good!!! Oh and the cop. He was not bad.

But over all there was no one that made me clap or go YEA tonight…… I have a feeling that most if not all of our Hollywood bound ATL contestants will be heading back this way quicker then they think…. Get a good look at the Pacific folks, it may be the last time you see it…….

Now 62 year old General Larry Platt mister “Pants On The Ground” himself will be around for awhile… I predict we will be seeing him in the final show of the season!!!!

Goodbye Atlanta... Get your windbreakers out everyone we are heading to Chicago!!!! Magnificent Mile here we come!!!!!!!!

American Idol 2010!!!!!

Hello Boston!!!!

First exciting news is Paula is gone!!!!! I know that sounds mean but really 8 years was enough. Lets be honest here, 5 was probably the max she should have been there but no one ever listens to me.....

I was surprised to see Kara as a judge. I thought she was gone and I know Ellen is stepping in for Paula, I just thought it was going back to 3 judges. Maybe Kara is only here for the audition part of the show?? I hope she is here for the entirety of it though... If I really wanted to know I could pause, open a new window, research and find out, but let's not.....

The show started off with the very energetic Janet who's name is wayyyyy to close to mine... Holy Buckets she was something..... I do believe that the American Idol Wii game has a major flaw... I loved it when she walked out after being told no and said to Ryan "they said I was bizarre" Ryan's shocked I don't know why they would think that reaction was great!! LOL

Now Maddie after Janet who sang Hallelujah was really good!!! I don't think she will make it past Hollywood but she was good

LMAO Pat the kid that wore the blue and white striped shirt who sang Womanizer was hilarious!!!! Not a good singer but he is going to be a politician or actor I think... LOL

Amadeo was GREAT!!!! Sing it boy!!!!! I bet sitting around his Italian families dinner table is a blast!!!!!

Gradgetating toward music???? Is that a new word?? Derek the blonde spiritual dude was, uh different.........

I mean really...... Do people not listen to themselves???? "Singing is my life, it's all I do" How many people have said that on this show???? It's amazing....

Clark Kent wannabe Andrew was WEIRD...... My favorite quote of the night is "I'm singing The House Of The Rising Sun, do you know that song?"

Ashley was good, the one who sang Alecia Keys "If I ain't got you" She won't make it all the way but she was good! I could be eating my words in a few weeks but I don't think so.

Tyler Grady without a doubt was my favorite of the night!!!! WOOHOO GO BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There were some good ones but really until Tyler showed up I was just so-so. He made me clap and go YEA!!!!!! And yes I really do clap and yell out loud!!!!!! Tyler stay out of tree's dude.....

Others I liked were Katie, Justin the dude with cancer I really hope he makes it past Hollywood, I think Simon was awe struck by him actually LOL... Mike Davis Codzilla boy, second favorite quote "you wanna go out, maybe grab a steak sometime?" LOL. The last girl Leah she was definitely my favorite girl.

Of course I cannot end this without mentioning Norberto......... WOWSER........... Really?????

Goodbye Boston. Hello Atlanta!!!!