Save it For a Rainy Day

Isn't it nuts how different you can feel from one day to another?  Cloudy rainy days as opposed to clear skies.

Yesterday was breaded chicken cutlets but today, glazed spicy tenders did the trick.

Got A Real Good Feelin' Something Bad About to Happen

Superbowl Sunday.  Hard to get excited about a Katy Perry live show.  The commercials are fun but since I'm not into football at least I want a spectacular halftime performance.  Whenever there is someone super lame scheduled , I always try to come up with someone obvious they could have chosen instead.  At this point I think you can only choose from the pop genre.  You need upbeat songs, or anthem type rock, songs that make people energetic and a true performer.  I think gone are the days we'll get bands like the Rolling Stones.  So I was thinking, how about Miranda Lambert?  

She has some fire and is a current hitmaker.  She is an entertainer in a true sense.  She also has better abilities to duet with other musicians.  She has the ability to play to large audiences and rouse a crowd. 

Katy Perry for me was beyond awful.  She can't sing, she can't dance and I hated every minute of it.  Not only that but I was left feeling ill like I do when I smell a lot of cheap plastic.  Missy Elliot looked great though and it was a slight relief to see her.  Lenny Kravitz made as much sense in the middle of that mess as throwing pickle juice in a cookie dough.  I didn't get that either.  The sets were the focus but it was all show and no talent.  So if I was Katy Perry and I had a rack like she does I would play to my audience and bounce around in my skimpiest outfit looking sexy and dumb.  You have drunk football fans and you show more skin in your mascara ads then you do this show???

Thank goodness for snacks.  Crunchy baked Chicken Tenders with a shared marinara dipping sauce.

Pizza Bites made only with cauliflower, Parmesan and turkey pepperoni.  These exceeded expectations!  They are addictive and I encourage everyone to make them.
https://dashingdish.com/recipe/mini-cauliflower-pizza-bites/

The hardest part is grating the cauliflower and it's a great way to use your lonely mini muffin tins.

Cucumber Sushi Rolls with avocado, dill, lemon and capers.  Most refreshing snack ever!
http://pureella.com/delicious-healthy-hors-doeuvres-cucumber-rolls-with-creamy-avocado/

I had to pull out the mandolin but in the end got a better slice using a sharp knife.

Baked Sweet Potato Chips.  Not quite a success but almost.  You need your oven to be the exact temperature not to burn the chips but to get them crisp.  And I believe there is not an easy way to avoid blackening slightly due to the sugar content in the potato.

Vegan spinach artichoke dip.  This was a real treat but I substituted frozen broccoli for spinach due to a screw up.  Great as a dip for the chips.
http://www.marthastewart.com/317420/baked-sweet-potato-chips
http://sweetroots.blogspot.com/2012/06/creamy-vegan-spinach-artichoke-dip.html

Roasted Spicy Chick Peas.  Just as the name implies but they are like tasty toasted nuts that you can't quit eating, warmed with cajun spices and a squirt of lime.

I'd give this spread a 6 or 7.  It was trying to be fun and was to an extent.  It's hard to make healthy celebrational snacks but it can be done.

If You See Me Walking Down the Street, Walk on By

Much ado about nothing in the news today.  A video of a woman walking in the city and getting lots of attention.  She's looks ethnic, has a pleasing ass, boobs and waistline and everyone is shocked that she got lots of comments on the New York sidewalks??  Really?  

So many social media rants about how there should be a law.  Men do not have the right, blah, blah, blah.

Has society now evolved to say collectively, this is not acceptable?  In New York where we have so many different classes and cultures (thank God!), it would almost be impossible to ask this of men. Don’t we just have to accept this NYC behavior like we do spitting on the sidewalks of Chinatown or Russians speaking comically loud or tourists walking in the bike lane of the Brooklyn Bridge?  What about freedom of speech?

Sure they're assholes. But hell the guy talking on his cellphone barreling unaware through life is just as annoying to me. I do separate the favorable polite acknowledgements from the lewd.  These are not the same and they do not come from the same place.  I don’t think we should lump all these men in the same category either.  

I’m of the opinion that this is a class, societal and culturally driven situation.  I don’t say problem because for a lot of women, it’s not, at least in my observations.

I live in Fort Greene around a lot of strong gorgeous African-American women and I see men giving these 'compliments' regularly and the women are not threatened or many times even bothered.  Same goes for the youth here and at my work. I've seen it work a lot of times!  But from the outside, I see the men so blatantly shopping, if you will, the backsides of these women.  To me, it's a little shameless and not sweet at all.  But then again, it's also not a problem for me.

My flat ass can't get arrested in this town but back in SF, it was all the rage in the Mission district where the Central and Mexican American imports would comment with 'psssts' and 'hey mommy's' that felt like a wet tongue in my ear.  I was the right body type, Latin, and child-bearing age.  Seemed very animal to me but it also made some type of weird sense.  Like I could see the majority of these guys were actually making an honest effort, albeit so off base. And I probably looked a little more hot to trot with my fishnets and boots, so giving off the wrong scent on my end. I actually stopped going to the neighborhood by myself though because there was a real fear, lots of criminals and drunks. But my final advice; Keep walking and 99% of the time, the problem simply goes away. And by the way girls, male attention does have an expiration date. Trust me, at 52 the fan mail is not exactly pouring in.

This is an interesting topic to observe but I don’t know that anyone could control it. And I have no desire to try.


However, I did try to mix ground flax seed, corn meal flour, herbs, and seasonings to coat these chicken tenders.  I baked them on a cookie sheet until crisp and crunchy but still moist on the inside.  I served over a tomatillo-green apple raw sauce and fresh peas.  Hot damn girl, nice (chicken) breasts!

Hehehehehehehehee, Wipe Out!

I'll admit it, I reward with food. I like to think I have a handle on it. I use that bad reasoning like, 'it's not like I'm 300 lbs. I must not have a problem'. But in my mind's eyes I'm 300 pounds at least by now. Obsession is a word that comes to mind. Fixation is another. I like food okay!? I'm totally consumed by thoughts of it much of my day. Doesn't mean I have to eat it. I'm just thinking about it. Like how I stare at P's bottle of cold Vodka in the freezer all icy and ready to take away my worries. I've never touched it. Okay, I've touched it and rubbed it on my longing cheeks but I've never opened it and drank of it.

And like these new McDonalds spicy chicken bites. I musta seen a dozen adds over a one hour period of time while watching Wipe Out. Yikes, I'm their target audience - the mind-numbed couch creature who thinks watching attention starved hipsters fall like noodles into the water is funny. Okay, its a little funny. Anyway, even if I couldn't myself eat them I prodded P to be sure to stop by and pick some up for himself as a reward. He had to do some soul crushing thing for work that involved going to the courthouse in 100 degree heat. If anyone deserves spicy chicken bites, its P on this day.

Well he didn't heed my advice so in my head, my craving wasn't fulfilled. That's it I had to have spicy chicken bites. Desperate times. So I made some of my own. I put an upscale twist on them, lightly coated with egg, then dipped in seasoned Panko crumbs with chopped rosemary and sage then sauteed until just crispy and golden brown. Served with Edemame and Jasmine rice.