Last Commented Food Blogs (315)

One of our new employees asked if there was a pizza shop near the office. Yes, I replied... due west about a mile in a little shopping plaza on the left. He didn't ask if I wanted to go with him. My answer would have been yes. This place does real hand thrown pizza, thin crust and real tomato sauce and not like that corporate pizza that comes on a conveyor belt or the one with the 1" thick crust that has the texture of a sponge.

As a kid, we lived 1 block away from 2 really good pizza restaurants. Different recipes but both had great flavor. My parents used to order pizza with anchovies. They used the Italian word 'alice' pronounced ah-leege and the baker knew what they were talking about. It's tiny salty fish you get from a can. Much smaller than Sardines. Awesome taste but you will drink a gallon of water soon after because they are really salty.

Mmmm... PIZZA !!
Reminds me of my childhood.

We stopped at the Asian Market yesterday and bought a few things. After a brief conversation with the woman at the meat counter, she went in the back and returned with the head of a salmon. My wife said we would have soup. Knowing what to expect, my only request was to cut the eyes out first!
I didn't want to know about the rest of the preparation.

Do you remember the commercial Lipton's put out in the 1970's for their 'instant' soup? I believe it was a little kid that asked the 'Mom' - is it soup yet? That was when they thought pre-packaged stuff was a good thing.

It must have been a pretty good commercial, because I still remember the tag line. However, nowadays, I'm more into making my own soups than buying anything with a bunch of preservatives in it.

As I planted my tomatoes late this year, of course, my crop was late. I finally had to just tear out the plants and pick the tomatoes green. I put them in some cardboard flats with newspaper over the top so they can ripen slowly. Last week I made some tomato soup as I have far too many to be able to just eat.

Today was the last bowl of that batch and I see there's enough ripe tomatoes for me to make another one. Yes! The recipe I found last year had an apple added to the soup, along with turmeric and dill. The soup is absolutely delicious!

As the soup on it's own is still too acidic for my stomach, I add some cream before heating it up. Yum! I'm thinking if I add a little less vegetable broth, it'd probably make a really nice tomato sauce. Hmm... that over zucchini noodles with some chicken - sounds like a meal to me!

Tonight will be chicken peanut satay over zoodles to use up some of my zucchini. I already have several bags in the freezer of grated zucchini for soup, but I may just have to add to that.

I absolutely love home-made soups! Right now, though, time is tight with photos due for exhibition night by tomorrow, and my calendar needing finalization of the images, and a craft fair coming up which I'll have to have enough product for ahead. Busy time!

Still, I'll make time to make more tomato soup, just because it's so darn good.

Is it soup yet?

There must be some scientific explanation as to why I can open a container of yogurt and the top surface is smooth and solid. After taking a scoop or two and putting it back in the refrigerator, liquid floats to the top making a small lake. I pour it out before taking another serving and the next time I get more yogurt... yeah, more liquid at the top!

I was around 7 years old when my family moved from New York to Miami. Life here was pretty simple. My neighborhood was a place where you didn't always lock your door as friends would call your name as they entered your house... much like a brother or sister.

Two houses down, lived Junior... he was a chubby likable kid, maybe a year or two younger than me. If you remember the breakfast cereal commercials where the older boys were afraid to eat it... they got "Mikie" to try it.... "Yeah, let Mikie try it" Well, Junior was the the "Mikie" in my neighborhood. He had no fear of the unknown... We could convince him to eat just about anything. Milk and Tabasco sauce? No problem.

We would line up our toy solders on the table and pay Junior 5¢ to snort pepper and 'sneeze' the solders off the table! He was that kinda kid... if you could think of something stupid, Junior would try it.

We couldn't figure out why Junior was so chubby. His older sister and parents were of normal proportions yet he was overweight.

Now, further down the block lived Tom. He was my older brothers age. When all of us got together, my brother and Tom (by age) were the leaders. Tom was a baseball player and very athletic.

Tom's house was slightly larger than the other houses on my street and his parents added a utility/laundry room to the back of their house. They cut a rectangular hole in the dividing wall between the main house and the utility room and fitted a 'box' used as a giant hamper, in which they could put dirty clothes and 'flip' the box to the other room. It was a really great idea... otherwise, you would have to carry the laundry outside the back door and and walk around to the utility room.

One night, Tom's family, got in the car and drove away. Junior saw this and went around the back of their house. He entered the utility room, climbed into the hamper and 'flipped' himself into the main house. Junior headed to the kitchen... He had fixed himself a late night snack on Tom's parents dining room table.

Just then, headlights appeared in the front window and someone quickly walked to the door and opened it. It was Tom's mother... apparently she had forgotten something and they drove back home to get it. Well who was more shocked... Junior or Tom's Mother when she found him stuffing himself at the table?

As the story goes, Junior's parents found out and he was punished. This led to the confession that Junior was daring enough to sneak into their house at night (while they were sleeping) to raid the refrigerator. That ended the mystery Tom's mother had, as to the 'constant' disappearance of food from the refrigerator. Tom and his father were both very slender and she never suspected it was someone coming in the house.

Remember those mesh bags of chocolate coins we got as kids ?



Well, what can I buy with them now ?

I might be willing to make an investment.

I often wonder if we change as we age, or we just find our true core values and follow those instead of trying to please others? I was brought up as an urbanite with the focus being on how much stuff you had determined how successful you were.

Somewhere along life's paths, I've either developed a penchant for living in farming communities, or it's always been there and I'm just following my natural tendencies. I'm not sure which it is, but I love living in an agricultural area (well, maybe not the smell of freshly spread manure, but everything has it's ups and downs).

The wet, cold June we had morphed into a hot, sweltering July and between the two, the fruit, berries, and nut trees flourished. The abundance of apples on the trees has branches breaking from the weight of it's fruit. All the fruit seemed to be ready at the same time, and one simply could not eat as much as was available.

The only thing I've noticed lately is that there are numerous houses and areas of apple, pear, and nut trees, laden with their harvest, dropping their fruit on the ground to rot. I just don't understand that. If you can't, or don't want to pick your fruit, why not ask if someone would like to come and pick it? We have a fb page for our community that you can mention something like that and whoever answers first would be the one you'd give your contact info to, so you're not inundated with people.

Along the trails in the US I noted the same thing, apple trees sagging under the weight of the fruit - and the fruit just going to waste. I noted one house in the community next to me has bags of pears and apples they sell out front of their house. Sure, they had to pick it, but at least it's not going to waste. In fact, I'm going to drive by there today and pick some up.

I think the most unfortunate part is that there are people that would willingly pick the fruit to can or whatever they do with it, to help feed their family in the winter. Many of these same people will give the owner of the tree some of what they've made as a thank you. Seems like a heck of a deal to me, so I wonder what kind of circumstances people have that they don't utilize the harvest nature provides for them?

It's just an observation, as I grew up with fruit trees in our back yard, and picking and canning the fruit (along with eating it fresh), was all part and parcel of owning these trees. It helped feed us over the winter, especially when money was tight.

I might be tempted to just go and pick some of the fruit I see going to waste, but not before checking with the homeowner. Unless it's on a boulevard - then permission isn't necessary.

Waste not - want not.

Sometimes it's not so easy considering the same word has different meanings.

If a guy has a birth defect (as in a dark round often raised mark on his skin) it's called a mole. The same defect on a woman is called a beauty mark.
Gotta love those dual standards.
You cannot wipe those moles off your face and need to see a dermatologist for professional treatment.




Another mole is a rodent sized mammal with sharp paws that burrows underground. They leave a small opening with dirt around it when they come to the surface...
Don't consider touching any of those moles... you could get scratched in the process.



A third mole is the traditional Mexican sauce that often contains fruit, chili pepper, nuts, black pepper, onion, cinnamon, cumin and chocolate.



So get some mole sauce and pour it over your tacos, burritos or enchiladas.



When you're done, you can wipe this mole off your face!

Most of my meals are cooked with thin slices of ginger. I'm okay with powdered ginger, but my wife insists on cooking with fresh ginger and that's much healthier.

Pan fried meats cooked with a minimum of olive oil make the ginger take on a terrific flavor... especially when cooked with salmon.

I cannot say if it's from an age-old traditional Chinese recipe, but I do look forward to fried ginger at dinner!

Note, that's fried ginger, not to be confused with Fred and Ginger...

I'm a few miles from Johnson & Wales University. It's been called 'the cooking college' because they specialize in careers in the food service industry. Masters of the culinary arts.

Years ago, my dentist raved about their Sunday brunch. I never tried it, but I've seen their TV commercials where a chef single-handedly cracks an egg on the edge of a bowl impressed me.

Okay... I can do that... NOT!!!

Maybe with practice I could, but I'm not inclined to eat scrambled eggs for breakfast, lunch and dinner while I learn the technique.

I guess if you go to a cooking college you have to be an 'eggspert' to make it to the next level!