And So It Continued Both Day and Night

Christmas Day Snack Meal

Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwiches 

I've mentioned before how much I adored Cher's character in Mermaids, especially her snack game.  Sit down meals have always made me feel a heavy sadness, a formal discomfort.  Snacks sitting on a high surface is festive and promotes talking and a party-like atmosphere. 

Loaded Tots - cheese, bacon, green onions and tomatoes

Wedge Salad

Fried Ravioli - Tip:  don't use the small variety as the cheese can tend to leak out and then you just have a hollow crisp. 

Cheddar Crisp Fail Confession - Even though we ate them all, the cheddar crackers were a strange texture and not altogether right.  Butter, Cheddar and flour are hard to screw up but then again, when you're juggling appetizers, it was pretty easy. 

Mini Pizza'd-up Meatballs in marinara sauce, Food Wishes Everything onion dip (so good!) and chips.  Lastly, spicy and sweet toasted nuts

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Somebody's Gotta Win, Somebody's Gotta Lose

I envy the rush that people who care about sports get when their team is winning or losing.  All the high emotions.  I can only watch in curiosity like your pet stares at you when you're dressing.  It's something I can't seem to partake in. 

The way I can participate in this major part of my partners life is to bring on the snacks.  

Cheese Nachos with cherry tomatoes, fresh guacamole and salsa.  This snack may serve as dinner if you overeat, especially if you make two trays. 

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This particular Cardinal's game was played on Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama and they brought out some of the Negro League players.  It was moving, even for a non-baseball fan.  Like much of America's past, the history of this place is both cringe worthy and heartening.  

99 year old Rev Bill Greason (pictured above being interviewed), who grew up across the street from Martin Luther King Jr, mentored a young Willie Mays when Greason was already a 23-year-old war veteran and is one of the last two remaining 1948 Black Baron players, speaks so fondly of those times and keeps a deep love of the game. We can't change the stupidity of the not so distant past but to hear this true American speak is humbling and inspiring,  

You Better Think, Let Your Mind Go, Let Yourself Be Free

Superbowl Sunday

 You never know what you're going to be served up in life.  I took the day off and woke up with a building migraine that grew after sampling my baked goods for breakfast.  Seemed like a good idea at the time. We were inviting friends and considering asking more.  I get a bad message that my sister had an accident the night before and was in the hospital.  Party mode stopped.  I get all the details, migraine goes full blown and I take shelter in bed for an hour to let the storm pass.

 You can't truly celebrate after you know someone you care for is in pain. She was being cared for, but surgery was planned.  I cancel plans.  Most everything was prepped and ready to go, so snacks were brought out sort of half heartedly throughout the day.

 Roasted spicy chick peas. Let them get crunchy, they are better than nuts.  Greek nachos on melba toast. A hummus layer on bottom with cucumber, tomato, red onion and feta with lots of lemon and parsley on top.

 White bean dip with crudite platter and not pictured, black olive pate.

This was my fun and one decadent idea. Pan pizza with a crust made out of roasted polenta! I premade the polenta the night before, pushed it flat in a pan and let it set in fridge overnight.  Then put in oven to get a little crispy before adding sauce, sausage, mushrooms, onions and black olives, with Mozz and Parm of course and fresh oregano.  A favorite combo of toppings.  This was special.  

 
We ate this right before halftime. I cleaned up and was ready to just sort of jelly, daydream and consider my sister, let me head calm it's ass down. The color explosion that was Coldplay was about what I expected. They're a band I don't not like but certainly would never listen to an album.  I'm tortured with their songs all week at my job thanks to Pandora Radio.  Thank goodness Bruno Mars came to bring some much needed life and he's such a great entertainer.  Everything hits me late though.  What's with all the colors and flowers?  P tells me, SF, Gay Pride...oh, got it.  Huh.

 But then before I could decide if all the flowers were too weird as a nod to gay pride, .....Beyonce!  It was less than 3 minutes I believe but she comes from the school of Michael Jackson 'bringing it', doesn't she?  All present. All purpose that gal.  And again, it hit me slower the Black Panther motif. I hadn't heard her single yet, so I was trying to hear the lyrics.  Seemed powerful. Although after checking online I heard half the lyrics wrong.  And her dancing! Dang.  

Immediate outrage ensues.  But for an artistic performance like this, I hope that is the goal, to provoke and engage conversation over important issues.  She did just that although how people could be so offended to me is a little over the top.  The average person doesn't even know enough about the Black Panthers.  The anti-cop accusation, I don't see it.  With that thinking then why isn't Coldplay's performance seen as anti-straight?  Her song, as far as I can tell, is partially about coming from nothing and possibly becoming the next Bill Gates.  That's empowerment.  She was in SF.  It is the 50th Anniversary of the BPP's formation.  Mario Woods. Black Lives Matter. It's Black History Month.  Beyonce, um is a 'Uge black celebrity,  has a new single that ties into her performance, and all of this present history.  Everyone with a conscious should be joining in the protest of police brutality and racial profiling, even the good cops.   I thought this was a positive, strength building artistic performance and the good side of bullshit pop music.  She is a pop star by the way, so why are we shunning growth in this area?  Would we like her better as a cheerleader, assuming no responsibility, no respect for the times we're living in?  Does anyone remember Katy Perry's performance?  Is that what you want?  Let's put this into perspective people.  Sure I would have personally loved to see Metallica, a direct tie in to SF, maybe even an old rocker guest star like Carlos Santana.  But why shouldn't music lead some of the change in this revolution we keep talking about but not having? And what better place than the biggest national sports event? I say good on her, it was a brave move given the unique position she is in.

Living in the Promiseland

A girl at work wanted to trade me last minute for the 4th of July so I took the deal.  I lost time and a half but I gained a small get together with friends.  Everything was last minute so it made menu planning realistic. What could I really do on short notice?  I was going to do the traditional burgers, potato salad, baked beans type of meal but P fears the beer buzz gets squashed when the boys are allowed to sit and make a whole plate so he asked me to keep it to finger foods.  I like those best actually so I agreed.

Nothing was hugely impressive.  The heat was stifling that day so I had to try to prepare everything before they arrived to cool the apartment down in time.  I made green apple salsa and peach salsa with chips which sort of limped out in the heat. Tweren't as refreshing as they could have been.  I did fried pickles and pickled jalapenos in a ranch dipping sauce. Those are best straight out of the fryer but they were sitting out for a bit. Meh.  I had steak bites and bloody mary dipping sauce (pictured from a past event). Those were good especially because it was super cheap steak but I took the time to marinate overnight.  And tiny cheeseburger sliders. Surprised not to find slider buns so I just cut hot dog buns in half! Cool tip! The backstory was a back kitchen queso fundido fail.  Another example of my short attention span with following recipes.  I forgot to add the flour before mixing in the cheese to the roux type of sauce and so the cheese just became one big blob that kept hardening more and more.  I had it flavored so nicely with beer, garlic, pepperoni bits and three kinds of cheeses. I refused to give up on it but finally realized nothing could revive the rock hard mass. It was to be the wow dish too.  But you live and learn and sometimes you screw it up.

So after that, the wow factor instead became the 4th of July Strawberry Shortcake. I baked the shortcake the night before and it was light and fluffy, really good with the fresh whipped cream and berries.

And this was a first for me, making something red white and blue on the 4th.  We were able to talk about how we're failing as a country and what's going wrong, what are we doing right.  Where there is hope and what life has been for each of us.  For me and my personal recession, it was a little bit of a triumph that I could say no to time and a half for the day and enjoy a day off.  They say the prayer of everyman is to know how freedom feels.

I'm a 1000 Miles from Nowhere

Superbowl Sunday is here. The NY Giants were playing in Indiana, my home state. Eli Manning is fun to watch and is familiar like the kid down the street that had good parents and you went to smoke out with in his paneled basement. Looks like Hoosier snack time!

I opted to keep a running theme of my Fort Wayne food memories however foggy and completely wrong they might be.

The first dish was a roasted red bell pepper hummus for my Greek nachos. These were so invigorating with the cool tomatoes, feta, Kalamata olives and cucumber atop a generous painting of hummus on crisp toasted pita wedges. Uh... but those were Hungarians, not Greeks in Fort Wayne that I had admired, apparently not that closely. My sister M also made a really great goulash as I recall now.

Fried Pickles seem like a midwestern thing but I'd done those for the last holiday so I made fried pickled jalapeno slices instead and guess what? Even better Yo!! So good and the heat mellows, so you just get that little hit. Dipped in Buttermilk Ranch dip. Do the whole jar. You won't regret it.

I made a refreshing lime-aid with simple syrup and lots of fresh limes on ice.

A baked apple crisp for dessert with vanilla ice cream to honor Johnny Appleseed who I always thought was from there but turns out was just buried in the Fort. We had apple trees all over growing up though, so this wasn't like the Greek thing.

But the main attraction was to be the recreation of the Pete's Pride Pork Fritter! The frozen pork tenderloin patty that my dad used to fry up and put between white buns (fun fact - Sunbeam Bread is a Fort Wayne factory) with mustard, mayo, lettuce, tomato, and onion. These stood equal to beef burgers in our house. And they were cause for celebration. I didn't even realize it but as I read now, this flattened, battered, marinated, fried, pork patty sandwich was a true local food tradition in Indiana.

And that sandwich was such a pleasant surprise. The taste brought me right there to that good memory. My dad was like many fathers of his time, terminally grouchy and your presence never made that any better. But there were these certain times when my dad was very happy and one of them was in his anticipation of this amazing pork sandwich while he was making it. Back from Avy's grocery store, excitement in the kitchen, lots of clanking around. I could sneak a peak at his red face and white teeth as he cracked jokes while he cooked, probably about how skinny my legs were or something of that humiliating nature.

It almost didn't matter though. I was going to eat too!
All in all a good homage to Hoosier cuisine and my sad sack upbringing.

Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)

Who's to say what is normal? P and I celebrated and I use that term loosely, the 20th anniversary of our union on Halloween this year. Actually the real date is the 29th but we could never seem to remember it so we figured we could move it up a few days and that would make it easier. I know, but we are not good with remembering good things.

Anyway, twenty years? Really? Seems almost impossible. And you'd think you'd reach that plateau and want to go on a cruise or to some exotic place, something special. It is an accomplishment. But then that can become this big pressure and we're not good under unnecessary pressure either. I was getting over a cold and we were both tired that whole week. I figured, food - that would make a fun time. Snacks to be specific. I love making snacks and finger foods. I made a strong effort to get some items together although I'm not sure it was very successful and certainly not deserving of any accolades. There was football or baseball games on all day and I had to work anyway and so I rushed home and P was already in the game coma so it was what it was as they say.

It's funny because the real accomplishment is actually getting through twenty years of your life and living and loving this one person through all the screw ups and good times and the bad. We can 'do' twenty years of being together and working it out and all of that but give us a normal event to celebrate in a traditional manner and we're so lost. I think that's why we're so good together. We don't fit into normal molds. Not because we're so interesting or different or cool, but we're just odd that way.

We ate the snacks and chatted for awhile in between 'plays'.


The snack menu:
Basil pesto on toasted crusty bread

Chipotle-Garlic Shrimp

Jamaican Jerk Chicken Wings

Pepperoni Mini-pizzas