May 2013 – Loving Food, Fashion, & Life

This Is Getting Out Of Control

Posted on May 25, 2013 by LFFL

As you can tell, I subscribe to just about every food and fashion magazine there is. Why? Because I’ve always had a thing for food and fashion. And, yes, the Colin Cowie came out in me again with the alphabetization. But that’s neither here nor there. I was trying to organize them quickly into piles.

But here’s the thing—I don’t always find time for myself to peruse these magazines. Hence, each one of these magazines just happen to be about 4-5 deep at the moment. That should let you know about how far behind I am in my reading and perusing.

And when I do find myself with plenty of time on my hands, I am nowhere in the vicinity of these said objects. I’m a dog-gone country mile away when I realize I should have taken these things with me to any destination that requires me to just sit or stand for hours at a time.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, take the time to browse your magazines as you receive them and maybe cut down on the ones you probably don’t care for anymore—especially if you’re out of control like I am.

Take-Away Life Lesson: This clearly annoys the mailman to the extent that you will get personal handwritten notes from him if you do not pick up your mail from your mailbox in a timely manner! Be forewarned—he does not sign off with “Love.”

I Need Therapy

Posted on May 24, 2013 by LFFL

Me with a cinnamon-roll-stuffed mouth.

So what do you do when it’s clear you have a serious problem? You should get some therapy. I, obviously, have a daily sickness and am in dire need of a Cinnamon Rolls Anonymous Group. I have to have these practically daily and I clearly freak out when they’re not available. My friends talk about me all the time.

Have you noticed something about this particular picture? The reason you can’t really see the bottom 3/4″ of the cinnamon roll itself is because there’s at least a 3/4″ pool of frosting it’s lying inside. And, yes, I did ask for it. Not the 3/4″ per se, but for “lots” of frosting as per usual. They know how I roll at my local diner and they clearly love me.

Look at that pool of frosting!

Now, my hometown diner does not normally drown these in frosting as the normal standard. Oh, no. It’s only when I come through the front door that they know they’ll be standing over the frosting bin for a while. Yeah, it’s sad—they know my name. And the ones that don’t call me “that girl” when they talk about me.

One customer that was there before me told them to put her cinnamon roll frosting in ‘a little container on the side.’ My eyes never got so big! Obviously, my brain couldn’t even begin to comprehend what that meant. The word ‘little’ threw me off and ‘on the side’ didn’t register. I tried in vain to understand that line of thinking and finally just gave up.

The poor soul who stood over the frosting bin forever.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, get to the cinnamon roll line before I do to make sure you’re not behind me. Otherwise, it could take a while—and you may possibly end up with a cinnamon roll with no frosting.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Admit when it’s time for you to ask your friends to stage an intervention on yourself.

Lovin' A Pimped-Out Sandwich

Posted on May 23, 2013 by LFFL

Made with 15-grain bread, sliced turkey, sliced Virginia ham, Swiss cheese, butter, eggs, milk, salt & pepper, and topped with confectioner’s sugar.

I, for one, love a well-made sandwich with a side of sour cream & onion potato chips. It was a little bit of work to make this Monte Cristo Sandwich, but it was worth it. I used 15-grain bread for my tasty sandwich, though, instead of white bread—and it was just as delicious.

I had doubts at first about sprinkling the confectioner’s sugar on top (I thought it would mess it up as far as the taste goes—sugar with turkey?)—but it was actually right on time! The touch of sweetness with the sandwich was perfection. Who knew?

Recipe for—Monte Cristo Sandwich

Grilled Turkey Reuben Sandwich

Made with 15-grain bread, Thousand Island salad dressing, sliced turkey, Swiss cheese; topped with angel hair coleslaw mixed with butter, white vinegar, sugar, and salt & pepper.

Boy, now this here Grilled Turkey Reuben Sandwich was DELISH! I think the Thousand Island salad dressing is partly what set this off in the mouth. ‘Yum Yum’ is all I can say. Again, I used 15-grain bread instead of the rye bread. I’m not too fond of rye.

I’m also not a coleslaw person, but the coleslaw together with the salad dressing made this sandwich divine. I ate at least 3 of these sandwiches that day—with two of them being eaten back-to-back.

And I absolutely love, love, love my panini maker. I love the grill marks it gives to sandwiches—and, frankly, it’s just fun to use and press things inside it. I love warming and making sandwiches with the panini press. You should get one, too.

Recipe for—Grilled Turkey Reuben Sandwich

Ham, Gruyere, & Apple Panini Sandwich — Ham, Gruyère, & Apple Panini Sandwich

Made with 15-grain bread, Black Forest smoked ham, Granny Smith apples, butter, fresh thyme, shredded Gruyère cheese, and whole grain mustard.

I was, at first, concerned with putting the apples onto this Ham, Gruyère, & Apple Panini Sandwich—but it actually turned out ok. I’ve just never done the fruit thing on a sandwich before so I was having second thoughts.

But, we all know I like trying new things out—you only live once. Glad I did. It was a new and different experience for me. Once again—I used 15-grain bread instead of the white bread that the recipe calls for.

Recipe for—Ham, Gruyère, & Apple Panini Sandwich

This is just your basic homemade Turkey Sandwich with toppings I threw together myself.

Whole grain 15-grain bread
Oven roasted turkey
Co-jack cheese
Tomatoes
Romaine lettuce
Mayonnaise
Mustard

Eaten with a side of red grapes, sweet potato tortilla chips, barbecue potato chips, and organic strawberry lemonade. Mmm, hmm, yeah.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, throw together a homemade sandwich for yourself and pimp it out with all your favorite delicious toppings and sit back and enjoy that bad boy! Or better yet, try a new sandwich recipe you’ve never had before. You’re missing out on so much yummy goodness.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Invest in a panini press/maker. It makes your sandwiches look beautifully and taste crunchy scrumptious.

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Gooey Butter Cake Heaven

Posted on May 22, 2013 by LFFL

Ooohhhhh, my goodness! What can I possibly tell you people about this fabulous butter cake that would even come close to having you comprehend its divineness?

Now, I didn’t make this particular cake myself. I do, however, have plans to attempt to make this personally at some point in the future once I find the correct recipe.

This particular cake came from a local coffeehouse. This super nice man I know bought one for me one day on a whim. (He surprises me like that sometimes with scrumptious treats.) I had no clue what it was, but it looked yummy. So I took a bite and———OH, MY, HEAVENS TO BETSY!!

Now THAT is some yummy, gooey, crunchy, rich, sweet, heavy, buttery cake if I ever tasted one. This is my personal opinion, of course—but I just couldn’t stop buying it every day since that point once I found out where he bought it from. What has this man done to me!!!

I mean, we all know I’m already on a cinnamon roll kick—but I clearly need an additional addiction. This is now my go-to cake. And y’all know I’m not gonna stop at one slice.

Well, the very next day I called the coffeehouse to find out what the name of this square thingy was and they said, “Oh, you must mean the butter cake.” So the next opportunity I had, I went to the coffeehouse to make sure we were talking about the same thing. Once I saw it, I bought a piece—or two. Aw, yeah!! Now we’re talking.

I am so insane for this cake that I did research on the Internet to find a recipe for it. There were so many different types that I had to search by pictures first to see which picture came the closest to looking like this particular buttery goodness.

Most of the pics that look like this call this ‘Gooey Butter Cake.’ Oh, the ‘gooey’ just makes so much sense.

And you really are not allowed to talk to me while I’m eating this madness. I’m in a whole other orbit not to be messed with. Just let me have my moment to be one with the cake.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, do some research and hunt down this buttery fabulousness in your area to hoard for yourself. And if you can’t easily find it, just bake one yourself from a recipe that looks like the pics above.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Ask the coffeehouse how much it would cost to buy a WHOLE cake next time (if such a thing is possible). I mean, who are we kidding here with these slices? Once you find something that transcends you into another orbit—go and become one with it in peace. It’s a love like you’ve never experienced before.

Double-Up The Fries?

Posted on May 21, 2013 by LFFL

Chicken Tenders with a side of fries and green beans with honey Dijon sauce and ketchup.

Loved my trip to Houlihan’s. The server was great, the food was awesome, even my date was fabulous. Houlihan’s is just like Houston’s. So it felt like home to me.

So the server comes and takes our order. I order the chicken tenders. The server tells me my chicken tenders come with fries and either green beans or asparagus. Well, first off, I thought I was just ordering the chicken tenders as an appetizer by themselves—so I was not expecting side dishes, but whatever. Let’s roll with it.

So the way it was presented to me, I assumed I only had a choice of green beans or asparagus—neither of which sounded appealing. So I opted for the green beans—but it was a tough choice.

Now, my date orders the same thing but tells the server to “double-up the fries.” I didn’t really know what he was saying or what it meant at the time because so much activity was going on around us and the noise level was kinda high with all the babble from other diners. So I just assumed it’s some new side dish they offer that he was asking for with some fancy term word I’ve never used before.

Well, NO, by golly that’s not it. He just ends up with the same dinner as mine and he just has TWICE as many fries on his plate rather than a vegetable. NOW it’s all starting to sink in. Well, NO, I DON’T WANT GREEN BEANS!! Do I LOOK like I want to eat vegetables?!!

Hmmmmm—-fries? green beans? fries? asparagus? fries? green beans? fries? asparagus? Well, that’s a no-brainer! OF COURSE, I would have DOUBLED-UP on the fries had it not been presented to me in such a way that I thought the vegetables were my only two options to choose from. And look how pathetic my plate looks with those sad green beans just sitting there.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, take yourself out to eat anywhere and tell your server you’d rather substitute your vegetable side dish with a much less healthy option.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Never assume your server has your best interest at heart by offering you vegetables instead of more fries.

Juicey Juice Drinks

Posted on May 19, 2013 by LFFL

Carrot Apple Ginger Juice

Gazpacho Juice

Mean Green Juice

Citrus Inspired Green Juiice

Sunset Blend Juice

So I decided I wanted to play with my Ninja Blender/Food Processor. So I happened across a “Weekend Juice Cleanse” with Joe Cross on the Dr. Oz Show. So I figured this is as good as any to play with.

One thing I did discover—you should use an actual juicer if you plan to follow these recipes as is. I have an actual juicer—but, since it’s still in the box and I haven’t read the instructions on it yet, it just seemed quicker to use the blender.

But a blender doesn’t quite work the same like I thought it would. After blending and crushing everything to mush, it still was not drinkable through a straw or anything. It just chopped everything up finely but it was still too thick. So I did have to add some type of liquid (apple juice, lemonade, whatever) to the blending for each drink until I thought it looked drinkable-er (possibly not a real word in the dictionary, but I’m not losing any sleep over it).

Juice #1—Carrot Apple Ginger Juice

This was actually very good. I absolutely loved this drink. It was perfectly sweet with the apple and I loved the taste of ginger in it. I had never used fresh ginger before and wasn’t sure how to ‘work’ that log-looking thing in the grocery store they told me was ginger. It was tree bark, for goodness sake. What do you do with tree bark?! So, naturally, I did some research on the Internet before I screwed the whole thing up. It wasn’t as scary or as hard as it looked. Real easy. Loved the taste it gave to the drink.

Juice #2—Gazpacho Juice

Ewww. Yuck. Good luck drinking this concoction! And I put in only 1/8 of a red onion—not 1/4—and could still taste too much of the onion. I felt like I was being punished for something and that I’ve never wanted to apologize so quickly before in my life.

Juice #3—Mean Green Juice

This was more of a drinkable crunchy. Kale always does that. I was able to muster this down with no problem. I’m convinced some of the apple juice I used helped with the taste. But, nonetheless, I drank my 8 kale leaves with no problem.

Juice #4—Citrus Inspired Green Juice

This was blech! The recipe calls for only 6 clementines—but I’ve never used so many clementines in my life! I ended up throwing in at least a good 12-13 clementines into it and some extra apple juice. It’s not hard to drink your veggies if you can get the drink to mostly taste like fruit. If it tastes sweet enough, I can scarf down 8 leaves of kale and 8 leaves of Swiss chard all day long. Needless to say, I had to concoct this one to my own liking or it wasn’t gonna happen.

Juice #5—Sunset Blend Juice

This was another drink that needed some extra fruit. You can really taste the raw red bell pepper. As long as you keep the vegetables in there, concoct it with fruit and juice to your own liking so you can down it with pleasant thoughts.

Recipes for—The Weekend Juice Cleanse

Now, there are some juice drinks that are straight vegetable that I have no problem drinking straight up—but they have to be made and blended with the right kind of vegetables that I like. Otherwise, as you read above, it will be doused with fruitiness.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, get a juicer and load your body up on nothing but fruits and vegetables and see if your body feels much better than it normally does.

And don’t for a minute think I did this juice thing as instructed—all 5 drinks each day for the 3-day weekend. Pahleese! I just couldn’t. I could only attempt 2 drinks a day at most. To make up for the ones I couldn’t drink, I just doubled-up on the ones that I could. But, I will say, they kept me pretty full most of the day.

Take-Away Life Lesson: If you want to try a juice cleanse, find one you can actually tolerate—otherwise, you’re not really following that particular juice regimen at all by the time you’re done with all your personal doctoring up of it all. But pushing all the different buttons on the blender is always fun.

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Jip Chips

Posted on May 15, 2013 by LFFL

Here is one of my favorite type of chips from the health food store. I just love the Baked Sour Cream & Onion Potato Chips from Whole Foods. They’re great with a sandwich or by themselves.

Now the Sweeet Potato Tortilla Chips were good, too. But do you see where the word Simply Sweeet Potato is located on the front of the bag? Well, that’s right about where the chips started when I opened the bag. What in the world is THAT about? Is that much bag really necessary?

Now, I only happened to buy these sweet potato chips because Whole Foods had their free sample snack stands out at the end of every aisle on this particular day. And since it looked like I was practically the first person to dip into the sample tray, I decided to try one out (but I took the tongs and reached towards the very back of the tray anyway).

Even if I look like I’m the first to sample from the tray, something inside me still doesn’t trust it and I reach for the ones in the very back, regardless. This is how I am with every sample tray of anything I want to try. But if the sample tray doesn’t look appealing and looks like thousands of people have already been there—you can believe I’ll take a pass on it until someone wants to fill it up again with fresh ones.

But this is how I end up buying things I really don’t need in the first place. If it tastes good to me, then I look for the product to buy on the shelf—which is usually right there in your face next to the sample. So I usually try to do my grocery shopping on a full stomach—otherwise if I’m in starvation mode, all the sample trays seem to taste SO good which—in actuality—they probably all don’t taste good enough for me to buy if I’m meandering on a half-way full stomach. The problem is that everything tastes fabulous when you’re “starvin’ like Marvin.”

So, if you have nothing else to do today, try the sample trays of food in your local grocery store—but do it on a full stomach so you’re not tempted to buy everything you sample taste.

Take-Away Life Lesson: If you could actually see how many chips are in a bag before you buy them, you would probably never be able to justify the cost to buy them in the first place.

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Lovin’ A Pimped-Out Sandwich