Read Drink & Be Merry

The other thing we decided to do was to take part in the city’s composting scheme.

Since we built a new kitchen in our house last fall we have ended up with two refrigerators in our house. Initially, the old one was going to come to my new store when the move was complete but I don’t really have a good spot for it. So it has stayed upstairs in our house. Besides being a huge waste of energy it’s a bit noisy so it has been getting my nerves. The issue is that it does come in handy. For beer, access to cold sodas with out having to walk all the way down stairs…., and when we have dinner parties. When one is marinating different items, prepping for multiple dishes, and stocking up on adult bevvies, you cannot beat having a second fridge. Carbon footprint be damned!

Last Saturday we had a few guests over so the use of fridge #2 was in full swing. First to let dough rise for the bread the night before and then that day for any number of different things. After the party things slowly went back to normal. Fast forward to last night. Puttering around the house I found myself in the old kitchen and checking the old fridge. Inside I found two forgotten pink boxes. What on earth could this be? Turns out some cupcakes from Veron! The cake was a little stale but not too bad and the frosting was fine. Finn and I were very happy.

Sadly I forgot to take a picture before eating and thought it would be a bit cruel to post a picture of the remains of the cakes.

Still, I should probably unplug that second fridge.

A week has passed since the body of a man turned up in the unlicensed rooming house across the street. Beyond the initial reports of the body having been there for several days prior to ‘discovery’ this is what we have learned so far:

a) The dead 44-year-old didn’t live there.

b) The person who occupied that room and didn’t ‘notice’ the dead body for several days has not been around lately. Speculation among the neighbours is that the body expired elsewhere and was brought to the house.

c) The owners have actually paid the water bill for two months in a row and they currently have running water (it’s been cut off twice this year alone – I guess the owners payment on their brand new Mercedes is more important…).

d) The police, having spoken to people claiming to be residents instead of the actual residents, actually have the death listed as a ‘pending matter’. Considering the house cleaning prior to their arrival I doubt there was any evidence left and they don’t seem to be treating this very seriously. Let’s keep the murder rate down through creative record keeping.

New developments for the house include a return of most, but not all, of the normal residents. Drug activity, which was down over the weekend is starting to pick up again. Oh, and a new city agency has them in their sites.

Yep, we’ve city building and zoning inspectors sniffing around. Normally that makes all of us residents nervous as most of our houses are in various stages of renovation (yes, rain gutters are on my list but I’ve got other things to do first…) but they are all interested in the ‘house across the street’. I don’t know what got them started. It may have been my multiple phone calls over the years. It wasn’t the body (they didn’t know) and it certainly wasn’t Councilwoman Ellen Robertson (who only gets really involved with the community just prior to an election – she comes by our house each election cycle, I complain to her about the rooming house, she says she’ll look into it, nothing happens.).

Whatever it was the city inspector is pissed. There never seems to be anyone home (he should sit in the middle of the street and honk his horn like all their other visitors/customers) and he can’t get in. He says he knows it’s a rooming house but they don’t have the permits for it and it lost it’s ‘grandfather’ status due to a re-zoning (single-family homes only) of the neighbourhood which went into effect when the house last sold in 2004. The inspector has vowed to shut them down. Of all the people in life I do not want to have annoyed at me it’s a city building inspector.

It’s kind of sad. The police have allowed a known drug house to continue operating for years and look to be more interested in managing the ‘numbers’ of the murder rate rather than investigating a very suspicious death. No, instead the most dangerous house on the block will not be shut down by the men in blue but instead by a bureaucrat enforcing regulations. Who needs detectives and forensics when you can just be caught by the red tape.

RVA Foodie’s mother is here visiting her new grandchild and Mr Foodie and I started discussing the possibility of getting together during her visit. Initially we discussed going to brunch, possibly Rowlands, but M reminded us that this Sunday was to be Mother’s Day – quite possibly the worst day of the year to do brunch. Instead it was decided that we would fire up my new grill and cook at home on Saturday. This actually worked well for me as I had already been planning an experiment for that night.

I had been eyeing our new oven and had been considering the possibilities beyond simple cooking. Never had I actually baked bread and, to be honest, hadn’t baked anything for a couple of decades. The target choice was easy, my favourite crusty concoction – Baguettes. How hard could it be? Well, after a bit of research it turned out to involve a few more steps than everyday cooking and while the ingredients seemed to require exact precision the baking was not so precise.

Here’s the standard recipe I culled from a number of sources to create my own base. As we were having guests I doubled the recipe.

French Baguette
4 Cups Unbleached AP White Flour (+1/2 cup for working)
1 Package Dry Active Yeast
2 1/2 Teaspoons Salt
1 1/2 Cups Cool Water
4 Teaspoons Vital Gluten
1-2 Tablespoons Canola Oil

a) Pour water (tap cool not refrigerated) in large glass mixing bowl. Add yeast and gluten, mix and allow to stand for 10 minutes.

b) Add 2 cups of the flour and mix thoroughly. Add remaining flour and combine.

c) On a clean dry surface sprinkle some of the working flour and knead the dough for at least 10 minutes. Add working flour as needed to achieve consistent moisture level throughout. Final result should be a large ball.

d) Coat large glass bowl with Canola Oil. Add the ball of dough and roll to coat. Cover with plastic and place in refrigerator for 14-18 hours. Dough may need to be punched down every now and then.

e) Remove bowl from refrigerator about an hour before you are going to start working with it to allow to come to room temperature.

f) Preheat oven to 475-500. You kind of need to now how your oven works to figure out the best cooking temp for you. Place large dutch oven filled with water on the lowest level of the oven.

g) Split dough into loaf size portions. I wasn’t sure how much the everything would grow in the oven so I split my doubled recipe into 4 portions. I ended up with something closer to a demi then a baguette.

h) Knead your dough out on a floured surface into the desired shape and allow to rest for at least 30 minutes.

i) Cover baking sheet with parchment paper and place loaves on top. With a sharp knife or razor slice 3 or four slices into the dough. Brush top of loaf with water.

j) Bake for 25-30 minutes. Bread crust should sound hollow when knocked.

k) Place on cooling rack.

I baked the loaves in two groups. The first time I the oven was set at 475 and on the convection setting. It baked a little to quickly with the convection and threatened to burn in a couple of spots. The next go I set the oven to normal bake and the temp at 475. This time it seemed to be cooking too slowly so, about 10 minutes in, I upped the temperature to 490 and added 2 minutes to the cooking time. We sampled both loaves at the same time and, while there was no major difference between the two, the second set of loaves was more visually appealing.

The verdict? Not bad for a first attempt. The bread was very dense and heavy but in a really good way. For a variety of reasons I had cut the refrigerated rising time down to 9 hours which hadn’t given enough time for the little yeasties to burp enough into the dough. The Foodies really seemed to enjoy it. I had laid out both a dipping oil and Lurpak butter from Denmark for the bread and surprisingly the butter was the clear favourite. Actually, the Lurpak was such a hit they wanted to know where to get it (Fresh Market).

The rest of the dinner went well, not least of which was due to both Finn and Jasper sleeping through the entire evening. Mr Foodie was relegated to eating more of the bread for the appetizer as I did a very simple flat-iron steak on the grill, sliced it thin and served with horseradish cream. For entrees we had Haibut seared on the grill and sauteed zucchini from my nifty new mesh pan on the grill.

Desert brought an overload of joy. M had made a strawberry and Frangelico trifle, the Foodies brought fresh strawberries from their garden, and there was something else. I had read on Veron’s blog that the Foodies had been by her stall at the Farmer’s Market this morning. Would we be trying her macarons for the first time? Yes, we were. I am at a loss as to describe how good these were. I would say my favourite was the vanilla creme due to it’s amazing taste and simplicity but the salted caramel was a joy in it’s complexity. Either way both went well with my Grand Marnier.

Wrapping up the evening there was and abundance of food left over (hopefully from there being too much and not a reflection on the cook). We put together a take away bag for the Foodies. I was a little hesitant to add some of the sliced bread that had been sitting out for 4 hours for fear of it having gone stale. I touch a piece and found it to be perfectly fresh. Guess home baked fares a bit better than store bought. The two remaining loaves were cut the next day and tasted just as fresh as the day before even though they hadn’t been wrapped. With the cost of bread these days I may have to try baking at home a bit more.

I’ve had my eye on the new infrared grills for a while now. The thought of cooking at over 700 degrees was intriguing. The problem, the price. One company held the patent and was milking it for every dime. Over the past year the patent quietly expired and the free market went to work. While still not cheap these wonders of technology have become much more affordable, so last week I decided to become an early adopter.

Note – I’m not a scientist, I’ve tried to research so any flaws are due to misinterpretation on my part or just plain bad assumptions.

Infrared grills a bit different than your normal grill. Instead of cooking with direct heat the gas jets are encased and heat up porcelain tiles (think space shuttle tiles). These tiles start heating up and at the higher temperatures actually glow red. What ends up cooking your grilling items ends up being closer to light, infrared light and radiant heat. This is the same type of cooking that is used in high-end steak houses where the grills can get up to1500 degrees.

I selected the Char-Broil Red, 3-Zone, grill and made my purchase (already assembled) at Home Depot. The price was still high enough for me to get a grill cover to get a few more years of use and for a chain and lock so it makes it to next weekend. A $19.99 truck rental got the new toy home. Make sure you inspect your assembled grill before you leave. Turns out mine is missing the side burner, not something I use too often, but hey, I paid for it so I’ll be swinging by there today to speak with them about it.

For our first attempt at taking excellent cuts of meat and turning them into charcoal we selected two items: flat-iron steaks, and various sausages. Flat Iron’s, from Belmont Butchery, are a cut similar to flank steak but I think they are much more tender and flavourful. They are great cooked rare to medium rare with a bit of char. M’s birthday was coming up so she got to choose and she wanted them in my special marinade. So the steaks took a bath for a few days in:

Sea Salt
Fresh Ground Black Pepper
Worsteshire Sauce
Soy Sauce
Balsamic Vinegar
Minced Garlic
Crushed Ginger
EV Olive Oil

That’s my basic marinade, don’t ask me proportions, it’s a touchy feely thing but go light on the soy sauce or it overpowers everything else. The ginger is great for meats, especially if they are tough, as the enzymes in the ginger break down the meat making it more tender. It’s also very important to take your meats out of the fridge and allow to get to room temperature. You will find this allows your meats to cook evenly and avoid the burnt on the outside and fridge raw on the inside disaster.

Once we had the grill set up on the side porch we fired her up. The handy thermometer on the lid told the tale, this puppy was getting rocket hot, fast. As it approached 700 degrees I prepared the first of the three flat irons. Normally, for R/MR I cook these inch-thick steaks for 4 minutes per side. Today I did 2 minutes per side. The result was a bit of a char with the steak completely seared. After a 5 minute rest I sliced the steak against the grain with a slight bias. A touch past MR but the juiciness of a rare cook. Success declared.

While I was cutting the flat iron I had placed a dozen sausages (6 brats, 3 sweet Italian, 3 hot Italian) on the upper rack of the grill. When I had nearly finished slicing the steak the people on the side porch were requesting my presence with a bit of urgency. My arrival was greeted by flames shooting out of the sides of my new toy. I turned off the gas and requested the hose I had prepped in case of such an emergency. Slowly the flames died down and I surveyed the remains of the sausages. I decided not to waste the food. Into the kitchen for an inspection under brighter lights. Not too bad, but were they cooked all the way through? They had spent less than 6 minutes on the grill…. I sharpened one of my larger knives and attacked. Cutting at an extreme angle to minimize the meat to charcoal ratio we found they were indeed fully cooked. A few brave souls, and myself, tasted and…. not too bad. While the skin was blackened it didn’t have the burnt flavour one would expect and the sausages were perfect on the inside and extremely juicy. Within a half hour all the sausage was gone. Success grasped from the jaws of a Fire Marshall lecture…

This summer will bring additional posts as we try out this new grill and the successes and failures we may have. One of my questions is what is the propane consumption and will I decide to use the converter option and hook it up to our natural gas line. If it’s stolen will my insurance cover it? We will also invite a few guests chefs over to showcase their particular cooking styles. RVAFoodie and vegetarian grilling? What could Veron bake on a grill? If Brandon cooks on my grill can I bill Style Weekly for part of the cost?….

Across the street from our house is an Illegal rooming house. All the homes in our neighbourhood are zoned single family. This house, without the required rooming house license, rents rooms out to an ever changing array of unsavory characters. I understand all people need a place to live but the revolving door of drug dealers, users, prostitutes, and general troublemakers in an ill-maintained house that frequently doesn’t have water due to the landlords indifference really drives up my blood pressure. The many things they do to annoy me are met with retaliation on my part, most often by ensuring they are always on the 4th Precinct’s radar screen.

For years there has been a feral cat population in our neighbourhood. Not too many, just enough to keep the mouse population under control. I would supplement their diet with a bit of leftover dumped off my back porch. Never enough to keep them fed, just a treat. Two years ago one of the new ‘guests’ across the street started feeding the cats in earnest. Full bowls of cat food and a constant supply of fresh water. The result was an explosion of kittens and kitty immigration from other ‘hoods. The house across the street provided the food and our well landscaped yard provided the bushes and shade for raucous kitty sex and the birthing of the results.

It was an annoyance and subject of discussion but hadn’t risen to the point of action, yet. Then we started noticing the deformed kittens. One old gray tom-cat dominated the colony and over time had started reproducing with his own offspring. This ear-less, nasty old cat regularly mauled other cats and killed many kittens. I had the feline version of the Westboro Baptist Church living in my yard. My call to action came after having to pull Finn away from a dying, twitching kitten on our front steps that he wanted to pet.

The question was what. I wasn’t about to put out poison and calling Animal Control would have a similar result. Except for the nasty tom I didn’t mind the cats too much, even when they nearly killed my tulips by peeing on them. After some research and a few tips I found Operation Cat Nip. These people ran a non-profit catch and release program. Basically, I catch the cats take them to a clinic where they get spayed or neutered, shots and any other basic medical needs are also taken care of. The problem was that they had a waiting list. Bother. Well, sign me up.

Only a month passed and I got the phone call. Four slots had opened up if I was interested. So we trucked on over and got 4 cages – yes, we have many, many cats. Once home I baited them with kippered herring in oil and placed one cage after another in the spot where we normally toss out leftovers. It must be a regular kitty pit stop because I quickly had all four cages full. Three were annoyed but resigned to their situation. The fourth was hissing, spitting, and spraying. Very unhappy cat. Covered the cats and stashed in the basement.

The next morning we went to pack them up for their little excursion. Once again, three were fine, one, not so much. At this point tufts of fur were all over the cage and he looked like he had rubbed his face raw trying to get out. Not pretty. To add insult to injury for this cat when we arrived at the clinic someone tried to get the water off the canopy of the tent we were standing under and completely soaked him. He had a small bit of revenge as he did spary inside M’s Jeep and the smell seems to be lingering. Cats checked in, we went on with our day.

A phone call that afternoon informed me that the mean tom was in pretty bad shape. I was initially concerned that it was from the cage and how he had rubbed himself raw but it turned out he had been attacked recently. The wounds were infected and abcessed. Even if he hadn’t got anything from the bites he was looking at a long involved recovery that he may or may not survive. The decision was made to euthanize.

The three surviving cats (2 females, 1 male) are spending this rainy Monday in our basement. Last night they all had nice tuna dinners and this morning fresh water and dry cat food. Tonight they will be released into our back yard and the people across the street will be wondering why some of ‘their’ cats are half-shaved. I understand they blame a multitude of things on the ‘white people in the brick house’ but this time they will be right.

FOOD
~On a pre-birth visit to RVAFoodies we sampled a dish that really caught our eye, both for it’s simplicity and it’s taste. Grilled Nebulsi Cheese. M procured some from the Mediterranean Market off Broad on Meadow. The cheese is mild with a bit of a tang and I agree with Foodie when he says it’s a ‘taste of spring.’

To prepare heat a non-stick pan (the flatter the better or a griddle would be best) over medium high heat and spray with a bit of olive oil to lightly coat the pan. Slice the cheese into 1/4 inch strips. Place in pan and grill until a crispy coat starts to form, less than 2 minutes. Flip and grill until brown, less than a minute. Remove to plate to cool.

The pieces we did were a bit big so we actually cut them in half so they were bite size for both us and little Finn (he loves this dish). It took a couple of tries to make this come out right. Too high heat and it melts to the point where you can’t flip it but the mistakes were still tasty. The ‘to go’ menu looks really good so we’ll be back to try some of the Market’s other offerings.

FLOWERS
This last week saw our yard come into bloom. The star magnolia (planted 5 years ago and already nearly 20 feet), which failed to bloom last year put up a valiant effort this year and produced a multitude of 8 inch flowers. Sadly, the 70 degree then freezing the next weather we’ve had over the last couple of weeks prevented the blooms from fully opening and the five days of rain we had going into the weekend destroyed the flowers completely. On the bright side the rain made the soil soft enough that we did some major planting yesterday, including an Elizabeth Magnolia, a rare specimen that produces yellow flowers, and a fig tree in hopes of making some sort of fig sauce suitable for foie gras in the coming years.

The tulip beds in the front also did better this year, in spite of the early spring in January and the pack of feral cats that have spent the last couple off months peeing on the poor struggling plants.

POTTY TRAINING

Potty training has been going well, for the most part. It’s been a couple of weeks now that Finn has been sleeping through the night in big boy underwear and we have yet to have had an accident. One small fly in the ointment. Pooping. Can’t get him to do it on the potty for the life of us. We’ve noticed he has a pattern. He’ll go into his room and close the door or, if he’s with me at the store, he’ll lie on his stomach under a table reading a book. Now we just have to catch him before the critical moment and move him to the potty. Hopefully we’ll get through this soon as I am getting a bit tired of dealing with the crap…

With my sister in town the plan for Saturday had been for our mother, whose birthday it was, to come down from C’ville to join us for dinner. Sadly, she came down quite ill. A last minute invite went out and Mr & Mrs RVA Foodie joined us for our feast.

The festivities started around 6 as the Foodies, Cy-n-Ide, and my paint splattered sister arrived. As it had been a very rough week I was desperate for a martini so Cy attacked a lime and I retrieved my Tanq 10 from the deep freeze. Foodie eyed my Talisker single malt and a dram or two was extracted for him. Both Mrs Foodie and Ide are expecting so it was sparkling water and lemonade for the ladies.

We settled into our new kitchen and laid out a bit to nosh. Olives and pickled herring as well as a rather large shrimp cocktail with M’s increasingly famous sweet Thai chili cocktail sauce.

A little before 8 the activity in the kitchen increased markedly. For the entree a pork shoulder had been braising all afternoon and my faux mashed potatoes (suitable for people like me on South Beach and Mrs Foodie who is also avoiding carbs).

BRAISED PORK SHOULDER

7lb boneless shoulder of pork (provided by Belmont Butchery)
Several cloves garlic
4 lbs sweet onion
2 cups apple cider
1 can Boddington Ale

Preheat oven to 300. Salt and pepper pork. Sliced garlic into thin slices, cut pockets into pork and slid slices in. Olive oil in braising dish, heat, sear pork. Remove to a plate. Add sliced onions and caramelize. Return pork to dish add cider and beer. Cover tightly and place in oven for 4 hours or until fork tender.

Problems – An hour or so into cooking the pork unexpectedly expanded blowing the lid off. Not good for braising. Transfered to a roasting pan and covered tightly with foil. Added 1/2 hour cooking time due to transfer. Onions didn’t add a whole lot and the jus would have been better without. Next time will caramelize onions as a side (better colour and flavour) and add more cider to the braise.

Faux Mashed Potatoes (Mashed Cauliflower)

2 heads cualiflower
Garlic
Stock (Veggie or Chicken)
Onion
Pine Nuts
Parmesan Cheese
Cream
Butter

Cut cauliflower into florets and place in stockpot with 2 table spoons minced garlic. Cover with stock (I typically use chicken but as one of the guests was a vegetarian I subbed veggie stock) and boil over medium high heat until tender. Mash. Add a large pat of butter and a half cup cream. Salt and pepper to taste (white pepper works best if you have it). Reduce heat to low and allow moisture to reduce, 2-3 hours.

Yeah, I know, sounds like a long time. The key here is not just taste but mouth feel. The mashed cauliflower ends up very moist and while the taste is good it just isn’t enjoyable to eat, kinda mushy. The slow cook to reduce the moisture makes it much more enjoyable. I tried high heat once and the result was pretty bad.

Just before serving you can add a number of things. Parmesan cheese, fresh grated, helps with the textures issues. Chopped caramelized onions go great as well as toasted pine nuts. Other items can be chopped chives and sour cream. Remember, this is low carb not low fat.

As Mr RVA Foodie is a vegetarian, of the meat is murder but fish is justifiable homicide sort, we had a nice piece of Rockfish for him.

On The Fly Rockfish Almandine -

Fillet Rockfish
Sliced Almonds
Butter
Olive Oil
White Wine
Lemon

Toast almonds lightly in a pan with butter and a little olive oil. Add white wine and cook off alcohol. Squeeze in one lemon. Reserve sauce.

Salt fish. Sear top in pan with butter and olive oil, flip to sear skin side. Pour sauce over seared fish trying to keep almonds on top. Place in 400 degree oven to roast off (8-10 minutes).

I cooked it to the rare side and warned Mr Foodie, easier to cook longer than deal with dry overdone fish. It was either good or he is very polite as no fish remained at the end.

M had made a chocolate cake for the occasion. Very tasty.

After dinner we settled into some heavy beverage consumption. Cy and I introduced Mr Foodie to the joys of Aalborg Akvavit. Silliness ensued and in the grand tradition of gatherings at our house the upstairs toilet broke. Unlike some other incidents, like the collapse of a bathroom ceiling a few years ago, no person was involved in this, it just spontaneously happened. Ah well, we wanted a new toilet for that bathroom anyway and it’s a good excuse to get Cy over for beverages later this week.

Things threatened to get really silly when I came across a bottle of Patron in the freezer and people started looking for salt and such. Fortunately we got sidetracked and the tequila was forgotten.

Initial thoughts were that a good time was had by all until we realized we were missing a cat. She turned up the next morning, happy that relative quiet had returned to our house.

I suppose it was a bit of karma at work. A number of years ago we experienced a bit of an ice storm on Super Bowl Sunday. The crowd at my house started very small but grew throughout the evening as people called to ask if we still had cable service (we did). We all huddled around my big screen, warmed by the fireplace and by drink.

During half-time I got up to stretch and walked out into the stairwell. From the window by the landing the flashing of lights caught my attention. Investigating further the entire block was back to back fire trucks. Poking my head back into the den I said – ‘I think the house across the street is burning down’.

We all filed down the stairs and from the relative safety, and dryness, of my front porch spent the half-time show watching a house burn to the ground. Cy(pre-n-Ide) went back in first as St Louis was playing. We found out later that an electrical fire had started inside one of the walls. By the time they noticed it was too late. Fortunately no one was hurt.

When the game was over we discovered no one could leave. The fire trucks were blocking everyone in and no one really felt like asking them to move… HBO had timed the Sopranos premiere to start after the game so we settled back in and watched that. By 1:30 in the morning all the fire trucks were gone and we slid everyones cars to the end of the block. The spray from the fire hoses had created the most amazing sheet of ice on the street.

The people who lived there left and never came back. At that time my neighbourhood was still a bit scary. Drug dealers and shootings and all. The people who lived in that house were part of the less desirable culture of the ‘hood at that time. They managed to squander the insurance money and the city seized the property and one of the rehab agencies in town built a very nice house there.

Over time this story gets re-told every year during our Super Bowl gathering along with callous jokes about ‘urban renewal’ and all. As terrible as that sounds the fire did start an overhaul of our block. Every house is now occupied and if it hasn’t been fully rehabbed is well on it’s way. Only two ‘bad’ houses remain and it’s only a matter of time before the police seize them for drugs or some other event turns the places over.

Fast forward to Super Bowl 2008 – All is going well until Cy(n-Ide/with bun is home feeling unwell) finds me downstairs to tell me they smell smoke upstairs. I go to investigate. The fireplace is cracking nicely and does not seem to be blowing smoke back into the house. The smell is in the upstairs hallway.

My first concern is electrical. Many older homes in Richmond have really old wires. The first floor of our house was rewired last year but the second floor still has the original wiring from 1927. Pull down the ladder to the attic but all is fine there too. I’m worried, more so that I can’t find the danger but am sure something is going on. M gets upstairs and we step into the bathroom to talk.

She’s concerned. I’m perplexed. The smell of smoke is strong. Something had to have happened. M looks at the sink (which she had cleaned earlier today)….

‘Why is this sink stained?’

‘Why are ashes floating around in here?’, I ask.

‘What is she holding?’, she says pointing to a nine-year-old girl walking away in the hall.

Behind her back was a lighter. Warm to the touch. Parents were summoned. The ashes were pieces of toilet paper she had been burning in the sink. No idea where the lighter came from. Thank (insert personal deity/savior/demon or expletive here) no one was hurt and the house was undamaged. Finn was happily oblivious to it all. I went to get another drink and contemplate getting a couple of extra fire extinguishers…

In a few hours our house will be filled with an array of people. TV’s have been rearranged. Shopping has been done. Food prep has commenced. Speculation has started on who will hook up… No really. One marriage and a current engagement have come from our Super Bowl parties.

The food for our Super Bowl parties is usually very basic. Not nearly as ambitious as our dinner parties are. One of the big players this year will be pigs-in-blanket. Traditional recipe, M prepped them last night.

I’ll be making the traditional Super Bowl Spackle -

Massive amount of Velveeta
Cooked Hot Sausage (Crumbled)
Additional Spices Based on Mood or Availability
1000 mg Lipitor (kidding… but think of the market for a statin infused cheese..)

Place all that (except the Lipitor) in a crock pot 45 minutes prior to the start of the game. Add a cup or so of milk to adjust thickness. Have lots of bowls on hand and serve with white tortilla chips. Left overs are suitable for fixing cracks in old Richmond plaster…

Now I’ve got to go research if there is any benefit to doubling up on my statin dose for a day. Have a safe day!