Dilled Cucumber Yogurt Salad

This is a healthier version of the traditional yogurt dill salad with cream. It calls for a slice of onion. This means a slice from the widest part of a white onion. I use yellow onion and just eyeball it. This is adapted from Laurel's Kitchen cookbook.

DILLED CUCUMBER YOGURT SALAD

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup water

¼ cup vinegar

1 T fresh dill weed (1 tsp dry)

1 slice raw onion, (see introduction.)

2 cucumbers, thinly sliced

1 cup plain yogurt I used homemade.

½ tsp salt

dash pepper, white pepper if you care about the salad having black specks

Combine first five ingredients and let stand ½ hour or more. Drain. Mix salt and pepper with yogurt. Combine with cucumbers. The yogurt will get watery (the cucumbers release water) by the following day. It looks bad but still tastes good.

S'mores variations

My cousin's variation on s'mores is to replace the chocolate bar with a Caramello bar. This adds some carmel into the mix. I do like this, but it is quite sweet.
My sister's s'more variation replaces the marshmallow. She puts a banana that is still in it's skin into the coals of the campfire until the skin is black. Peel the banana and use the hot banana in place of the marshmallow. I've never tried this since I don't like cooked bananas.
My variation is to add coconut. It's best if you toast it before you pack it to take camping. I also make a s'more where I add peanut butter.

Summer Drinks

These are a few of the drinks I've been enjoying this summer.

Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy. It's like a lemonade beer. But in a good way.

Cave Creek Chili Beer. My new Uncle brought it back for me from Wisconsin. It's a lager with a chili pepper floating in it. It's got quite a kick. Most people drink it with tomato juice, but I personally don't like red beers. Both beers are great in the heat.

All of the Celestial seasonings fruit tea sampler flavors are good iced. They don't need a lot of sweetening either. I've been adding a 1/2 c of the corresponding juice to each quart of iced tea to sweeten. There are enough tea bags of each flavor to brew a quart. Raspberry zinger, country peach passion, cranberry apple zinger, tangerine orange zinger, black cherry berry. Another variation is to replace some of the water with mineral water. It makes a nice fizzy drink. I got my fruit tea sampler at Target.

Turkey on the Grill

Yum. Smoked turkey on the grill. I made this for Thanksgiving a few years ago. A friend of mine who had been to several Thanksgivings that year said my turkey won. Woo-hoo! I won. I even had the last turkey of the day, when he should have been absolutely sick of turkey.

O.K. Here's how you do it. First, make sure you choose a turkey that fits on your grill. Small to medium turkeys are your best bet no matter how you are cooking your turkey. It's better to cook two small turkeys then one huge one. The huge one is much more likely to be dry before it's completely cooked. I have a small Weber grill. On my grill a medium size turkey fits fine. However, I like to choose one that is short from breast to back and wide from leg to leg. If it is long from breast to back there is a chance that it could hit the top of my grill. It's a weird thing to keep in mind while shopping...turkey shape. In the picture, I rubbed sage herb butter on the turkey in a attempt to make it even better. At some point the butter must have made the turkey catch on fire. The bottom of the turkey was totally charred. I don't think that was better after all. I plan on skipping that step in the future. Because of the apparent turkey fire, my turkey turned out a bit dry. It was still very good though. I had planned to have leftovers for future salads and sandwiches. I grilled this only yesterday. But, friends and family taste testers have almost cleaned me out of turkey already. I made carrots and potatoes to go with the turkey. With about 1/2 hour of the turkey cooking time left, add potatoes. I sliced my potatoes in half. Then I inserted a slice of onion, sage butter (or regular butter), and salt and pepper. I double wrapped the potatoes in foil. In a separate foil packet add sliced carrots, sage butter (or regular butter), and salt and pepper. When you take the turkey off the grill, leave the potatoes and add the carrot packet. They will finish cooking as your turkey rests. The potatoes are really good and get a bit of smokey flavor. They are almost like potatoes cooked on a campfire.

TURKEY ON THE GRILL

INGREDIENTS

1 turkey (mine was 11 lbs)

2 gallons of water

2 C table salt

sage herb butter (only if you want to set your turkey on fire)

pepper

1. Rinse the defrosted turkey inside and out. Remove neck and giblets.

2. Dissolve salt in water and place turkey in the salt water and place in the refrigerator for 4 to 6 hours.

OR

Place turkey in a 2 1/2 gallon Ziploc bag. Place that bag in a cooler. Mix 1/4 c salt with 1 quart of water until dissolved. Add the salt water to the turkey. Mix another 1/4 c salt with 1 quart water and add to turkey. Continue to do this until the turkey will be covered with water when the bag is closed. (about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 gallons water) Add ice around the outside of the Ziploc bag until the cooler is full. Place in a cool place for 4 to 6 hours. Why should I brine my turkey and what's a brine? Note- I added more ice after I too the picture. I didn't want the ice to obscure the turkey in the bag.

3. Soak as many wood chips as will fit in a disposable Weber grill pan. About 1 quart. Make sure they are completely covered with water. They only need to soak for about 1 hour, but it is a good idea to start the wood chips soaking as soon as you finish step two so you don't forget to do it. It makes no difference if they soak longer.

4. Obsessively clean your sink.

5. Drain wood chips and place in the disposable grill pan. Place pan over the front burner, put under the grill grates. Do this before you preheat the grill. O.K. Now you can preheat your grill. If you heat the grill first, you'll be sorry. It's the voice of experience.

6. Close all your windows near your grill so your house doesn't smell like smoke for days. This is also the voice of experience.

7. Drain turkey and pat dry. Pepper the chicken, but DO NOT SALT. The brine will make the turkey salty enough.

8. Place turkey in the center of the grill. Turn the burners down until the interior temperature of the grill is 375-400 degrees. Check the temperature often at the beginning of the grilling process to make sure you are grilling at the correct temperature. You can check it every once in a while after that. DO NOT OPEN THE LID OF THE GRILL. Every time you open the grill two things happen. First you lose smoke, and therefore lose flavor. Second, the grill temperature drops and it takes longer to grill the bird. If you must open your grill, be quick. Note- my turkey had a broken wing, so I couldn't bend both of the wings toward the bottom of the bird.

9. Roast the turkey. (times are for an unstuffed turkey cooked at 350 degrees)

6-8 lbs 1 1/4-2 hours

10-12 lbs 2-3 hours

14-18 lbs 3-4 hours

10. Clean kitchen obsessively. Realize that you could have cleaned you sink a little less obsessively before, because you just have to clean it again. Make sure you wash your cooler really, really well. Clean it with disinfectant or bleach. Make sure it is absolutely completely dry before you put it away. If you are concerned about disinfectant, let it dry. After it is really, really dry, you can rinse it out.

11. When your turkey is about a half hour from being done, add the potatoes. At this point your dog will be running around the grill and whining like he's completely lost his mind. What makes you think I'm grilling for you dog? Has it ever been for you? No. Just give is a rest already. Seriously. Knock off the crazy. You're driving me nuts.

12. When the thickest part of the turkey breast reaches 165 or the thickest part of the turkey thigh reaches 170-175 the turkey is done. Transfer it to a cutting board. Add your carrot foil packet to the grill if using. Tent the turkey loosely with tinfoil and let it rest 30 minutes. Why should I let it rest?

13. Now you can carve your turkey and eat it.

Cakewrecks

Even if you don't decorate cakes, check out the hilarious blog, Cakewrecks. Here are some examples. The James Bond Wedding Cake , the Anber "We will miss" you cake, and the creepy cute newborn cake (Eye ate a ba-bay), and the glad we hired a professional cake decorator cake. And that's just on the first page. Too funny. I've already added it to my google reader. The very first cake on the blog totally cracks me up, And underneath that write we will miss you. Did I mention that all the cakes are done by professional cake decorators?

Lora's Barbecue Sauce

I flirted with the idea of making this recipe my "secret recipe". I had this idea at one time that all cooks should have one secret recipe. The possibility of making this a secret recipe lasted until someone asked me for the recipe. I realized how stupid the idea of a secret recipe was. 1. The idea of keeping the recipe to myself seemed greedy. I like to share. You taught me well mom. 2. Like I can really keep a secret. This is great on barbecued chicken or mixed in with hamburger before you grill your burger.

I did some experiments this year, but it looks like the original recipe will stay the same. This recipe is from Gourmet Magazine in May 1994, page 38. (I took really good recipe notes at that time I guess.)

LORA'S BARBECUE SAUCE

INGREDIENTS

2 cups chopped onion

1 cup brewed coffee

1 cup Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup cider vinegar

2 T chili powder

1 cup ketchup

1/2 cup firmly packed, dark brown sugar

1/4 cup chopped canned green chilies (I use the whole can)

1 T chopped garlic

2 T salt

In a large saucepan simmer all ingredients, stirring occasionally, 25 minutes. Cool. In a blender puree sauce in BATCHES until smooth. Seriously. Warm sauce will shoot out the top of your blender. Alternatively, you can use an immersion blender to puree the sauce. Makes 4 cups.
I use this to make Barbecue Chicken Pizza on the Grill.

Lemon Tart Parfait

I've given up on pie crust. I think even really good pie crust is only kind of good. To me, it's just not worth the calories. And, my pie crusts are terrible. I also don't quite get meringue. It's just not for me. I do like the lemon part of the pie however. My Aunt went to visit her cousin in California. She brought me back this lemon from her cousin's (or maybe her cousin's daughter's) tree. It's was huge. I thought it deserved a bit more reverence the just being squeezed into iced tea. So, I made half a recipe of lemon curd and made that into parfaits. I didn't strain out the zest, as called for in the recipe. It's still fine, but you might want to. People with texture issues will want it strained out. This recipe is adapted from "Cooks Illustrated The New Best Recipe". My sister gave it to me for my birthday. She refers to that cookbook as "the dictionary". It's 1,026 pages.

Lemon Tart Parfait

INGREDIENTS

7 large egg yolks

2 large eggs

1 C plus 2 T sugar

2/3 C lemon juice (from 4-5 lemons)

1/4 C lemon zest

pinch salt

4 T butter, cut into 4 pieces

3 T heavy cream

gram crackers

berries

In a medium non reactive bowl, whisk together the yolks and whole eggs until combined, about 5 seconds. Add the sugar and whisk until just combined, about 5 seconds. Add the lemon juice,zest and salt. Whisk until combined, about 5 seconds. Transfer the mixture to a nonreactive saucepan, and add the butter pieces, and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon (or a silicon spatula or a silicone whisk), until the curd thickens to a sauce like consistency and registers 170 degrees on an instant read thermometer, about 5 minutes. Immediately pour the curd through a fine-mesh stainless steel strainer (to remove the zest) set over a clean non reactive bowl. Stir in the heavy cream. Cool in the refrigerator. To serve: layer the lemon curd, berries, and gram cracker crumbles in a martini glass.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

Reese's 'naner butter smoothie, 'naner butter smoothie. I dare you not to sing this over and over to yourself while you make this. Just me? Darn it! It's always just me. Isn't it? I'm not sure if this counts as a smoothie or not. It's not juice based or yogurt based. Whatever you call it it can be a healthier substitute for a chocolate shake. Well...sometimes. Sometimes there is no substitute for a chocolate shake. Freeze the leftover half a banana in a Ziploc bag for a future smoothie.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie
INGREDIENTS
1 C chocolate milk
1/2 banana
1 T peanut butter
7 ice cubes (it's half a tray)

Blend all the ingredients in a blender until it is smooth.

Breakfast Salad

I'll take a few questions.

Q: Why are you eating salad for breakfast?

A: I don't know. It's just what I was craving. And, I have so much fresh homegrown lettuce in the house that's begging for me to eat it. I also feel like I haven't been eating enough vegetables lately. (I have been eating lots of veggies, but I feel that way none the less.)

Q: Why do you think this is breakfast food?

A: Eggs and bacon. For me, spinach and avocado also say breakfast. I'm pretty sure that's just me though.

Q: Hey, I thought you didn't like boiled eggs.

A: I don't. I thought it needed an egg to qualify as breakfast. I could have done a poached or over easy egg, but that didn't sound good to me.

Q: Have you gone off the deep end?

A: Probably.

Q: I've noticed you were craving veggies, but you also added bacon. Do you notice the irony?

A: Yes. I'm off the deep end.

Q: Would you do it again?

A: If I had a craving for a breakfast salad. I enjoyed the first half of the salad a lot. The second half of the salad left me wondering why I was eating salad for breakfast.

I'd suggest serving this for brunch along side more brunchy offerings or for lunch. I put the avocado on top of the salad for the picture, but I ate it on the side. I think the wonderful subtle flavor of avocado gets lost when it's among other food.

Breakfast Salad

INGREDIENTS

1 boiled egg, chopped

1 piece of bacon, fried and chopped

spinach (I used spinach, arugula, and garden lettuce)

tomato, chopped

1 T finely chopped onion

mushrooms, sliced

1/4 avocado, sliced

Creamy Balsamic Dressing

Make a salad.

Beef Roast on the Grill

Roast on the grill is easy and hard to goof up. I once made a roast that caught on fire and ended up looking like a huge piece of charcoal. I was sure it was garbage, but my mom said, "Lets just see." She cut into it, and it was one of the best roasts I've ever had. The roast in the picture was a cheap roast (the label said pot roast) that was less then 2 lbs. It was a little overcooked and I didn't let it rest enough before cutting, but still really good. By the way, sorry about the chart at the bottom of the post. Blogger and I were in negotiations for a while. Eventually we decided this was the best we could do.

Beef roast on the Grill

It's best to start with a room temperature roast, but it will still be fine if your roast is refrigerator temperature. Oil the roast and season with salt and pepper or your favorite seasoning.

Place the roast directly over a grill flame on high. Sear each side of roast for 3-4 minutes per side. If you sear your roast, grill it for less total time then indicated in the chart below. You can skip this step in a pinch, but I think you get better flavor if you do sear it.

Place meat, fat side up, grilling over indirect heat. The internal grill temperature should be about 400 degrees. (the times for grilling roasts are based on 350-375 degrees) I personally like to roast everything (roasts, whole chickens, etc.) at 400 degrees. (I do this in the oven too.) If you grill your roast at 400, it will take less time then it says in the chart below. I strongly prefer medium rare roast. Check the internal temperature of your roast with an instant read thermometer. Let the roast rest 15 minutes before cutting. This will result in a juicier roast.

Medium Rare 145, Medium 160, Well Done 170

brisket, fresh 5-6 lbs Medium 2 1/2 to 3 hrs

rib eye roast 4-6 lbs Medium Rare 1 to 1 1/2 hrs 1
Medium 1/2 to 2 hrs
Well done 2 to 2 1/2 hrs

standing rib roast 4-6 lbs Medium Rare 1 1/4 to2 1/4hrs
Medium 2 1/4 to 2 3/4 hrs
Well Done 2 3/4 to 3 1/4 hrs

sirloin tip roast,boneless 4-6 lbs Medium Rare 1 1/2 to 2 hrs
Medium2 to 2 1/2 hrs
Well Done 2 1/2 to 3 hrs

Tenderloin roast, half 2-3 lbs Medium Rare 45-60 minutes

Tenderloin roast, whole 4-5 lbs Medium Rare 50minutes-1 1/2hrs

Why eat vegetables every day?

The full answer is here. But it boils down to the fact that some vitamins are watter soluble and some are fat soluble. Your body can store fat soluble vitamins, but not water soluble ones. So you need to replace the water soluble vitamins every day to keep your body running optimally. Vegetables contain lots of waters soluble vitamins. So eat veggies every day.

Cute Stop Motion Video

I found this cute stop motion video via Craftzine. It's a video where they "make" spaghetti out of pick up sticks and yarn "cheese". One minute and 41 seconds.

Bleu Cheese Steak

I honestly don't cook that many steaks. I'm a bit intimidated by the many cuts of steak and I don't have the strong steak craving that most men seem to have. When I do make steaks, this is the only way I cook them. They are is sooooo good this way. The first time I made it I was just grilling for myself. I found myself gesturing toward the steak and making Mmmmmm noises to myself. I use chives in this recipe because I grow them in my herb garden. Either chives or green onion tops are fine.

BLEU CHEESE STEAK

4 steaks

4 oz bleu cheese, crumbled

¼ cup sliced green onion tops (or chives)

Mix bleu cheese and green onions (chives). Season steak with salt and pepper steak. Grill one side and flip. Spread cheese and onion mixture on steak and close lid. This chart has the total cooking time for both sides.

Listed in this order: medium-rare (145 degrees), medium (160 degrees) ,well-done (170 degrees)

1-inch thick steaks: 6-7 minutes ,7-9 minutes, 9-11 minutes

1 1/2-inch thick steaks: 10-12 minutes, 12-15 minutes, 15-19 minutes

2-inch thick steaks: 15-17 minutes, 17-19 minutes, 19-22 minutes

Grilled Arugula Salad with Nectarine, Onions, Bleu Cheese, and Pecans

It's not your usual burgers and hot dogs, that's for sure. I was inspired by this post. I changed a few things because I didn't have the same ingredients in my refrigerator. Kristin at Our Kitchen Sink used feta, peaches, walnuts, red onion, all arugula, and a honey/lemon vinaigrette. Mine worked out fine. It's a salad. You can get creative.

I can never find arugula in the stores in Bismarck. I grow my own. Any spicy or bitter green you like would be good with this salad. Or, just plain lettuce would work. The arugula adds a nice bite to the salad however. I used half arugula and half leafy green lettuce. I usually don't like all arugula salads. But in this case, I think I might have liked just arugula. The peppery arugula is a nice contrast to the sweet peaches. Also, I just used my trusty old grill pan instead of threading the onions and peaches on skewers.

Grilled Arugula Salad with Nectarine, Onions, Bleu Cheese, and Pecans

INGREDIENTS (for one salad)

1/2 a grilled chicken breast

1 nectarine or peach, cut in slices

3 1/4 inch slices of red onion or plain ole onion

1 to 2 T bleu cheese (or feta)

1 to 2 T pecans (or walnuts or pistachios)

chives (optional)

creamy balsamic vinaigrette

arugula

green leaf lettuce

Heat the Grill.

Chicken: Season chicken breast with salt and pepper. Cook chicken breast on oiled grates. Boneless chicken breasts take 10-12 minutes total. Turn once. Optional-baste chicken breasts with some of the balsamic vinaigrette while grilling. Cut into chunks or slices when finished.

Onion: Brush the onion slices with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill the onion slices in a grill pan. Onions Take 10-12 minutes total. Flip half way through.

Peaches: Either toss nectarine slices with oil or oil the grill pan (or spray with cooking spray). When the time is right, add nectarines to the grill pan. Nectarines take 5 minutes, flipping once.

Assemble your salad with the remaining ingredients.

Creamy Balsamic Dressing

This is still a bit of a recipe in progress. I haven't decided if I'm completely happy with this or not. I hate oily vignettes. I've tried other ways of lightening up dressings (chicken broth, etc.) and haven't been that happy with the outcome. I do like adding yogurt however. It just gives you a creamier vinaigrette. This recipe yields a very strong vinaigrette with an unappetizing color. I don't care that much about the color, but some people might. The fact that any of my food ends up looking good at all is amazing to me. I hate taking an extra effort to make things look good. I care mostly about taste. Since this is strong I just use a little less.

Creamy Balsamic Dressing

INGREDIENTS

2 T olive oil

2 T yogurt

1 T balsamic vinegar

1 to 1 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard (I can't remember how much I used)

1/2 small clove of garlic mashed to a paste with 1/8 tsp salt

pinch of ground pepper

Optional herbs chives, parsley, thyme, or basil (I used a little of each)

Blend all of the ingredients with an immersion blender (or a blender or a food processor, or whisk by hand)

Grilled Tandoori-Style Chicken Breasts with Raita

Tandoori chicken is usually cooked on a Tandoor oven. A tandoor oven is an Indian clay oven that gets very hot. But, a grill is an acceptable substitute at home. The chicken in the picture doesn't have the skin on, because that's what I had on hand. Grilling chicken with the skin makes for much moister chicken. Toss the skin before you eat the chicken, but still grill with the skin. Serve with sliced cucumber or a cucumber salad. Making extra raita to serve with the cucumbers would be good. This recipe is from the cookbook "The Quick Recipe" from Cooks Illustrated.

Grilled Tandoori-Style Chicken Breasts with Raita

INGREDIENTS

RAITA

1 c whole-milk yogurt (or 1% yogurt, but preferably not fat free)

2 T chopped cilantro leaves

1 medium clove garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 1 tsp)

salt

cayenne pepper

TANDOORI CHICKEN

1 T grated fresh ginger

1 T ground coriander

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne

4 chicken breasts, bone-in, skin-on, 10 to 12 oz each

1. Heat the grill. Oil the grill grates.

2. Meanwhile mix the yogurt, cilantro, and garlic together in a medium bowl. Season with salt and cayenne pepper to taste and refrigerate until needed. Mix the ginger, coriander, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, salt and cayenne together in a small bowl.

3. Coat both sides of the chicken breasts with the spice mixture. Season under the skin if you plan to toss the skin after you cook it. Cook the chicken, uncovered, over direct heat until well browned, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Move the chicken to indirect heat and continue to cook for 10 minutes, grill lid down. Turn and cook for 5 minutes, grill lid down. Chicken should register at least 160 degrees on an instant read thermometer. Serve with Raita (yogurt/cilantro mixture).

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin TX

You cannot underestimate my love of the Alamo DraftHouse Cinema in Austin. It's a movie theater where you can drink fancy beer and eat creme brulee. If that doesn't make you love the Alamo Drafthouse from sitting there in front of your computer, then I'm not speaking to you for the rest of the day. Here's how it works. It's a stadium seating with a wider platform for each row of seats to sit on. In front of you is a foot and a half wide counter to eat off of. Behind you is space for the waitress to walk. Under the counter in front of you are lights so you can read your menu when you place it directly under the counter. The lights aren't very bright so they don't disturb the movie watching at all. When you decide what you want you write it on a piece of paper and put it in a slot that they have for ordering. The waitress comes and takes the piece of paper and your food comes. You can keep ordering whenever you want until last call. That's right...last call at the movie theater. It's so awesome. You don't really notice the waiters and waitresses running around during the movie. Here is their menu. I had the draft house amber beer which I liked. They also have wine, mimosas, and espresso coffee drinks. We had chips and salsa. I've had better salsa in Austin (Texas has some good salsa), but Its much better then any salsa I've ever had in North Dakota. It was really good salsa as is all the food at the theater. We had the artichoke/goat cheese/sun-dried tomato pizza. It was excellent as was the salad I had last year with spinach, dried cherries and candied walnuts. Last year My sister and I split a creme brulee. (Hey, it's hailing. I'll have go close some windows.....O.K. I'm back.) This year each of us ordered ice cream. Big mistake. The ice cream was really good. It comes from a local power house chain Amy's Ice cream which is beloved in Austin. I had the cookies and cream and I highly recommend it. It has several kinds of cookies mixed in and swirls of chocolate sauce in a vanilla ice cream. What was the problem with the ice cream. There was just wayyyyy too much. There were four completely round scoops of very dense Ice cream. I'd guess it was just under a pint. We gave it a good college try, but we couldn't finish it. Not even Julie who seriously loves ice cream. It was great to go to a movie with my sisters. It probably won't happen again for a while. Why? Because, my sisters are both nursing mothers of small babies. But that's not a problem at the Alamo. We went on Baby Day. First movie for both of my newest nieces. We saw Get Smart with Steve Carell of The Office. It was really funny. The picture was taken during the previews for Stepbrothers. Oh man, they're having a Princess Bride Quote Along on July 24th. Wish I could go. This is me (Dread Pirate Roberts/Wesley/Man in Black) on Halloween last year. I only planned on dragging one pregnant sister out on Halloween, but surprise...I drug out two pregnant sisters. They were good sports though.

Globe Cake

I didn't make this cake. My sister Kristy made this cake for her daughter's 3rd birthday. My niece loves globes. This cake is totally amazing and awesome. The cake itself was quite tasty as well. It's a hummingbird cake which has bananas, pineapple, and pecans in the batter. For more about the cake, check out Kristy's post on her craft blog Craftastica. The cake was so awesome, it was picked up by craftzine. Here is that post.

Bacon fun, part five

My brother in law sent me the link to bacon chocolate chip cookies with maple cinnamon glaze on Ooh you tasty little things (a.k.a. Never bashful with butter). Muffin on Ooh you tasty little things also has links to Voodoo Doughnut in Portland Oregon which has a maple glazed bacon doughnut (scroll down for a picture). Voodoo Doughnut also has a Butterfingers doughnut, an Oreo cookie doughnut,and a coco puffs doughnut. She has a link to the Vosges Mo's Bacon Bar, a bacon chocolate bar. They also have a ginger/wasabi (Japanese horseradish served with sushi)/sesame seed dark chocolate bar, a sweet Indian curry/coconut milk chocolate bar and a fire candy bar that is a chipotle chillies/Ceylon cinnamon dark chocolate bar.

See also Bacon fun part one, part two, part three, and part four.

Photo Shoot

I'm back from visiting my family in Texas. When I was there my brother in law and my sister were taking family photos. They are both amateur photographers, but could both be professional if they wanted to be. The family photos turned out to be a bust. My three year old niece was not having it. But since since my brother in law had already set up the lighting, we took some other photos.

My sister agreed to take photos for me to put on my blog. I had this idea floating around in my head for a while now of a campy photo with a nod to the 1950's. Kristy gave me this cool apron for my birthday. I thought it fit my idea for the photo shoot to a tee (or is it to a T or maybe to a tea?). A few minutes of crazy faces and this is the result. Thanks Kristy!

Oh, by the way. I wrote a one paragraph profile if you click "view my profile" to the left by my apron picture.

Obesity in kids

There's an article in the New York Times on obesity in America. 13.9% of preschoolers are now obese. That's not overweight, that's obese. That's three out of 20 obese preschoolers. 18.8% of 6-11 year olds are obese. That means that there is not one fat kid in your class of 20 (like when we grew up), there are four fat kids. We need to do better.