fat year

As fat as this year seems to have been, it has not been as fat as I thought , it has been a year of lean cuts and high prices. Not an easy year to 'get fat' as it were. I made a 'vow' to do 365 blog posts in one year and on its own its seems like an easy task. Many would say that they could do that in one day but that isnt the 'idea' the task is to do something 'relevant' every single day (on average) in a year. I have not been the most 'relevant' but I have stuck to the task at hand, all my jokes aside.

It is not easy to be new every day. I made a lot of repeat dishes and posted jokes to fill in the blanks so perhaps and in reality I didnt do what I 'wanted' to do rather than I ended up doing what I 'had' to do.

365 posts later we are none the wiser definitely older and probably less funny. At least I dont have to be a serial poster anymore. Its like running a marathon - I can say I did it.

In the process of 'doing' this blog I made friends along the way, and some of those friends I ended up doing.....kidding just kidding.......not all of them were my friends.......kidding, still kidding........I didnt always make friends I was doing.....thats the truth, but I did walk away learning a little bit more about communication.

I will have a harder time 'not' having a blog than 'having' a blog.

Here is the year in review.



January



February



March



April



May



June



July



August



September



October



November



December

See you next year!

culturally speaking

As the year winds down it is time for one more bowl of posole. This one is roasted chicken, not the "trotters and tripe" that I usually prepare. Besides tamales, posole is consumed throughout the holiday season in the Southwest. Is there one dish that you culturally eat during the holidays?


Wait there's more.

I made meatballs that are so secret, I dont even know whats in them.....




Not true I know everything thats in them.. No doubt these have a twist, in fact they twist and turn. I used pretzels ground to dust as the bread crumb, they have coarse ground red chile pods, dried mushrooms, marjoram, oregano, fresh garlic, onions and black pepper-salt was not needed as the pretzels brought that to the party and eggs to bind. They were braised in beer and are so soft and tender its hard to slow down when scarfing.

Extreme Live Blogging




I made a tasty bechamel with fresh tomatoes and shallots.

its not easy to live

You have to do it every day. I have tried to quit. I guess I am not that successful.
(edit: I have not ever tried to quit - I was waxing poetic)

scene of the crime

The mystery surrounding this is compelling, yet it does not compare to the sushi 'crime' I once witnessed.



Definite road kill verging on some kind of fruit jerky, situation.




I saw it from a distance and approached slowly. You can trust that when we hear on the news that there is a cow loose in Manhattan we go about our jaded ways but we do so with a little more caution. You can understand, then, why a 'tomato incident' would catch my eye.



I am still on this case and I will keep you posted on any change in status.


Correction:
The anticipated 'drag queen christmas' never got off the ground, its hard to be the only queen around a bunch of beards and no one wanted to be the queens bitches.

tamale time

When you dont know what time it is, then it is probably tamale time.



24 seven, we are tamale central from 11.27 until 01.05



These little beauties are appetizer size and they contain a mixed seafood combo of shrimp, crab and octopus.



Make a dozen or so just to be sure.

lather, rinse, repeat

Cooking is a lot like following the instructions on shampoo and conditioner bottles, for some people it doesnt matter how many times they have done it they still read the directions, I am not one of those people. I read the instructions for all kinds of shampoos then I dont follow any of the directions, I use them as guidelines. Lets use cake mix as an example, I know without looking at a box of ready made cake that it takes an egg or two a third of a cup of oil or some butter and about a cup of liquid, you mix a few minutes and then it goes in a 350 degree F oven for 25-30 minutes, roughly, and I havent made a cake mix since I was a kid. I cook by the seat of my pants mostly, so when banana said "can you make romeritos" I instinctually said "no problem, what is it?" Then I said, "dont tell me, just tell me how to spell 'romeritos' and I will find out"....This is what I did:



Acquired and cleaned some cactus paddles (nopales) and I have a needle stuck in my thumb to prove it.



I toasted some dried shrimp, then pulverized them to dust in the processor.



The dried shrimp powder was mixed in some beaten egg whites.



I couldnt find romeritos, which is a vegetable that is similar to spinach in texture but not in flavor, so I substituted spinach and I boiled potatoes. The spinach was blanched the nopales were cubed and boiled.




The 'tortas de camaron' were fried up.



Usually this is put in a casserole dish and layered alternately with mole and the veggies and the tortas until the dish is full. I thought it would be nicer as indivdual servings.



So I made individual servings, over and over again, a torta, a slice of potato, a little spinach, some nopales and a drizzle of mole, then repeat.



They made me like mole, [ (mole -a) Long sounding a] I usually dont like mole.



They went fast! Go here if you want to see where the gigot du goat came from, warning - it is graphic.

valley of the jolly

Ho, ho ho...green giant. Go ahead and date yourself if you can remember this popular US commercial. I used to race in to watch it. A green giant in the middle of vegetables that I loved, awesome.



Its Christmas. The anticipation is worth the day, alone.



Never in a million years will you guess what this is. This is called Romeritos con Tortas de Camarón, and here is a recipe for you. Typically this is prepared and served like a casserole but I had to do it my way.



We wrapped bacon around everything, including chicken livers with garlic, cocktail franks and dried apricots.



We roasted a leg of goat that sat in a salty juniper bath over night.



Then the skin was drapped back over it then it was rubbed with a chile lime mixture and it was wrapped in banana leaf and foil and roasted for three hours.



I made a cranberry reduction with the pan drippings.



We kept the plate simple, buttermilk mashed potatoes and a couple of slices of meat.




Whoops I forgot about this triple cream cheese that was too creamy for words.



How could I not mention this rich and creamy peanut butter cheesecake with a crunchy pretzel crust.

here s'more

Today and tomorrow are the big days. I now need to see if I can pull off a Drag Queen menu. I will be doing some last minute shopping today to assemble the necessary ingredients and I have decided that it will be only Drag Queen appetizers. Since I am not a Drag Queen I thought it wise that I not try to go 'whole hog' on this one and take little bites instead.

For your viewing pleasure I present to you the 'mega s'more' which is two kicked up chocolate chip cookies sandwiching some mini marshmallows. There isnt a sweet tooth out there that can say no to this bad boy.

Wish me luck and if you have any ideas I am all ears.

sissy town

New York used to be a sissy town, all fashion and la ti da and then we had September 11 and that event toughened this already tough city up a little more, gone was a lot of the frou frou.



It lingers but it is nowhere near what it was, in my mind. So with this theme in mind we will have a drag queen christmas. This year will be complete with recipes from a 1950s cookbook, the bible of drag housewives everywhere. Stay tuned we will be checking out the 'entertaining' section soon and we anticipate weenies wrapped in something.

guess what?

There is a special prize for whomever can tell me what this is and what dish it is part of. Good luck, you need to be specific. (clue: I post about its popularity around the holidays) The winner gets a similar package that was sent all the way to Norway.

I forgot to include 'five minutes later' in my snow post.



Its bitter cold out there today, I bet my friends up north are feeling it.