What You Should Have Eaten #53

I like to consider myself an expert when it comes to food. I’ve been eating it all my life, so I think that affords me some consideration.

I’ve been cooking for a considerably shorter amount of time, but it does run in the family. My grandfather owned and ran a deli then a coffee shop in a little town in Indiana, and my dad has always been a great cook. My sister and my mom are also no slouches in the kitchen.

Besides the occasional sandwich or bowl of cereal, I never cooked for myself until I got my second apartment in college. Anything fixed in my first apartment was usually something frozen and thrown in the microwave. At that time I still doing most of my meals on campus.

My parents bought me my first cook book, a copy of “Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book” that’s still in my kitchen. It’s pretty basic as far as the types of recipes it includes, but it includes TONS of them.

Right now I’m working my way through Rachael Ray’s “365: No Repeats.” It’s a mostly incredible book that I’m about halfway through. It’s taking me slightly longer than a year to get through because I only get to cook from it once a week. I’m a single father of three wonderful kiddos. I learned early on that the key to keeping your sanity while raising a family alone (well, mostly alone) is to have a steady routine. Between homework, baths/showers, extra-curricular activities, and somewhat early bedtimes, I just don’t have the time to cook during the week. Saturdays are a lot more flexible, but I like to fix something fun for the kids, so I rotate grilled meals (burgers, hot dogs, steaks), taco nights, hamburger helper, etc. These are sure-fire meals that I KNOW they’ll eat. Sunday nights, though, those are for me. That’s when I bust out Rachel and get my cook on. I usually end up doing a slight (maybe major on occasion) variation on the dish to make it a bit more kid friendly, but I try and encourage them to try new foods and dishes.

One thing I’m going to attempt in the coming weeks is to fix these Rachael Ray recipes while keeping an eye on how much money I’m spending. I won’t lie; some of her recipes can result in high grocery bills. I’m going to see what substitutes can be made in order to make the recipes a little more cost friendly.

One thing I DON’T tend to skimp on, though, is alcohol. As I think about what to type here, though, I find that my reasoning for not getting the cheap stuff could also be used to not skimp on ingredients for my meals.

It’s not always true that you get what you pay for, but I find if you spend a little more on alcohol, you’re going to be buying a better product. It’s taken me about 13 years to figure this out.

I was pretty much a straight-and-narrow kid growing up. Before turning 21, I know of one beer I had (a Pete’s Wicked Strawberry Blonde). I’m not 100% sure that I finished it. Once I turned 21, though, I did my best to catch up for lost time. In college, my beer of choice was Miller Genuine Draft. After college, I graduated to Amberbock. Sometime after my first kid was born, maybe around 2005, I discovered craft and high-gravity beer. My life was changed. I joined the UFO Club at Nashville Flying Saucer. I discovered some good places to buy good beer. I’m not necessarily snobby about beer, but I usually won’t drink any big domestics like Budweiser or Miller if other options are available.

I’ve also recently started paying attention to the various brands of liquor I’m buying. I can’t afford the TOP top shelf stuff, but I’ll spend a bit more and stay away from the stuff that feels like it’s melting your throat when you drink it. I like Viking Fjord vodka and New Amsterdam gin. I’ve recently discovered Oronoco rum, and I’ve got a bottle of Cabo Wabo tequila that I haven’t opened yet.

My liquor cabinet also contains a wide assortment of liqueurs, from your more common peach schnapps and blue curacaos to your slightly more off-the-wall piscos, Fernet Branca and Galliano. I have WAY more licorice-flavored spirits in my cabinet than I’d like. I hate the stuff. Tastes nasty.

I've peppered this post with pictures of the liquor cabinet and various pieces of glassware I've got. I like to collect beer and shot glasses. Whenever I travel, I pick up a shot glass from the city I'm in. Whenever I plan a trip to The Flying Saucer, I try and go on Wednesday nights when they sell special brewery glasses. It's a hell of a collection to try and move, though. I also collect beer bottle labels, but sometimes there aren't labels...so I collect the bottle. I've also also discovered growlers. Half-gallon of beer? Don't mind if I do.

Next week I’ll be posting meals again. These will be recipes I cook for my family on Sundays, and we’ll see how they turn out. I’ll also be including a mixed drink or two with the meals. Feel free to comment on any of the dishes or drinks. Have recommendations on substitutions? Please, let me know.

                       

BIG BIG BIG REMINDER: When I can remember to add this to the bottom of my posts, I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads. PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit out of it immediately or actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But when you click ads, I get a little bit of money, and as a single father of three, every penny from every source helps. So I’m going to keep this tiny bit of begging at the bottom of my posts, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. The only thing it costs you is time. :) Thanks so much!

What You Should Have Eaten #40

Burly-Man-Size Chicken-Cheddar Barbecued Burgers

Tonight’s drink is a Smith & Wesson. It’s apricot nectar, amaretto and tequila. It’s a very meh drink. The only taste that stands out is the tequila, and that’s not very pronounced. I guess the nectar is dulling the alcohol and the bite of the tequila and amaretto. I was surprised that there isn’t more of a presence from the amaretto since there’s twice as much of it than the tequila.

I bought the ingredients for this meal two weeks ago then ended up not making it. So the meat has been in the freezer, and everything else…well, this isn’t a very involved meal, and it’s perfect for tonight since it’s just me and the kids.

I’m substituting ground turkey for the chicken. Kroger Marketplace didn’t have any. I used to make a great chicken fried rice dish with ground chicken, but I think I always got that from Publix. Maybe I should have gone there.

I also realized that for some reason I didn’t pick up any cheddar cheese. If I had thought to check the fridge before this weekend’s trip to the grocery store I could have solved this problem, but I thought I already had everything. Guess I always need to double-check myself…before I double-wreck myself?

Since it is just me and the kiddos, I decided to go safe with dinner. It’s burgers (I’m not telling them it’s not beef), so I’m going with fries and salad instead of the spicy coleslaw that is paired with the burgers in the cookbook. Nobody here, including me, would eat it. The salad is bagged, and the fries are frozen cheapo shoestring dealies. I’m sprinkling some McCormick Season All on them for a bit of a kick.

I’m adding just a smidge of New Belgium Hoptober Golden Ale.

The ground turkey had thawed, but it was still EXTREMELY cold as I mixed it with the BBQ sauce and beer. And the patties are huge. We’re looking at ½ a pound pre-cooking weight.

I ended up telling the kids that it was a turkey burger, but only after they had taken a few bites and told me how much they liked it. Parker was honest and said that if I had told them before dinner, he wouldn’t have even tried it. He then proceeded to clean his plate.

It was a decent burger, but it in no way compared to a regular hamburger.

Probably for the rest of the month I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads. PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit it out of it immediately or actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But my experiment this weekend proved to me that I actually AM making a spot of cash whenever the ads are clicked. So I’m going to put this little disclaimer on the bottom of all my posts for the next month or so, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. Thanks so much!

What You Should Have Eaten #25

Lettillas (Mix-n-Match Lettuce Tacos)

Let me start off by saying I am neither mixing nor matching anything with this recipe. I’m forgoing the shrimp and sticking with the ground beef. I bet the shrimp tastes wonderful, though.

My drink tonight was not “scheduled” to be tequila based, but I made an executive decision to switch since I’m making tacos. A shot of Patron to begin with, but I’m mixing the drink with Cuervo. It’s good enough. Sweet. Too much lemon juice, though. I’d flip-flop the amounts of lemon and orange juice.

 

I’ve got season 4 of Doctor Who running on Netflix while I cook. I love that I’ve got a laptop that I can do this on. Typing, cooking AND watching TV. Heaven. I think George Costanza's three-pronged Heaven was a little better, though.

I’m chopping up a whole red bell pepper instead of half. I figure this’ll make up for not including any onion. I’m also chopping up a tomato. How can you have a taco without any tomato? I also added some ground cumin. Y’know, for that taco taste.

I’m a little bit surprised that I didn’t have to drain the cooked ground sirloin before adding the other ingredients. I guess I’m just used to doing that when making tacos from a kit.

I bought some taco shells, crunchy and soft, for the kids. I didn’t think they’d eat whole lettuce leaves…and they didn’t. My oldest refused to eat the tacos because of the red bell peppers that were chopped up and added to the meat. My daughter ate the cheese then also refused to eat the meat, same reason. My youngest son, however, wolfed them down.

I thought they were pretty much just run-of-the-mill tacos, but using lettuce leaves as shells was a novel approach. I’ve got enough to take to work for a couple of days, and using the leftover shells will allow me to make a nice taco salad.