Most Liked Food Blogs (316)

I'm learning about businesses around my new abode and Saturday while looking for a Post Office, I accidentally turned into the parking lot of a Farmers Market.
Near my house in Miami is and Italian market with bakery and farmer's market. We were shopping there and driving 1 hour to get to the condo. Sure there are lots of other markets closer, but it was our favorite. Not any more!
This newly found market is 2 miles away and except for fighting to get a parking spot, pretty awesome!
Cooked food, meat market, fresh seafood, fruits, vegetables and bakery... it's actually nicer than the market in Miami.

Last night the Washington Nationals beat (5 to 4) the Houston Astros in game 1 of the best of 7 games baseball 'World' Series.

While many of you don't care about baseball, perhaps you might care about Taco Bell's offer.
If a player 'steals' a base during one of the games, they let you 'steal' a free taco.
The first batter of the game stole second base on the first pitch to the second batter.
Thus, we all can get a free taco.
Thanks Trea Turner.

The offer takes effect on October 30th
If you walk into a participating Taco Bell you can pick it up free from 2 pm to 6 pm.
Or you can get it all day by order it online or with their app. free of charge.
Anyone can afford that price. Enjoy !

Fall is a great time although not so much in Florida where everything just turns brown and dies. The weather hardly cools down much. It is just a little cooler in the mornings before the sun starts scorching us. Now it is the time for flavorful aromas like cinnamon, cloves and pot.

I saw a video yesterday introducing the New Instant Pot / Air Fryer Duo. It is the regular IP but with two lids, the second one being the Air Fryer function so you can pressure cook something, then change lids to crisp it up or just air fry wings or whatever. Dammit I want it and spent the day restraining myself from buying it since I already have two IPs and One Air Fryer. These three gadgets I use daily. I use my oven or stove on very rare occasions. I'm not sure how long I can restrain myself from buying the new gadget, trying so hard to use my logic of "I don't need it, I just want it" If I hadn't bought my folks and kids their own instant pots I could justify buying it just so I could give my old one away. Time will tell how disciplined I am or am not.

Mom loves potatoes but she always cooked pasta for Dad as that is what he loved. She ate potatoes when we went out. Yesterday I saw a video for a cheesy Potato Leek soup made in the Instant Pot that looked delicious. Three kinds of potatoes, three kinds of cheese, heavy cream and Pancetta...very fattening and decadent. Since Mom is only 83 pounds I'm making that for her today. I'm changing it up a bit to be a bit more weight friendly for me by adding cauliflower to the potato. Before I add all the cheeses I will take a portion out for me. 8 minutes in the Instant Pot that still blows my socks off.

I've found the best cooking videos done by Jeff at pressureluckcooking.com. I've cooked so many of his recipes in the IP from his videos, all oh so good.

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 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.

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.

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!

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?

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.

Some years ago, when I was working as a building labourer, I was parked up in the pickup on the outskirts of the village where we were working, eating my lunchtime sandwich. On the stone wall right next to me a robin was coming and going and bobbing about looking for food. I pinched off a piece of bread from my sandwich and held it out in offering to the robin and, to my sheer delight, it hopped onto my hand and took it. The incident was over in less than a second but that one little event absolutely made my day.

I still think of that little robin from time to time, even though it must be ten years or more since it happened. The bird is probably long dead now, but, before it died, I wonder if it thought of me, once in a while.