Dinner With Daddy

I recently acquired a new gadget for the kitchen that has completely taken over my counter top. Not in a bad way mind you. I accept it, even welcome it. You see I now have the best appliance I have ever owned. I know, I know, you're all thinking "That's a pretty bold statement.", and you're right, it is. Before I share with you this breakthrough in kitchen gadgetry let me share with you some of the things I've done with it. Here is a small sampling: Scallop, Clam and Corn Chowder Chicken Noodle Soup Rice Pilaf Red Beans and Rice Hot Chocolate Hot Dogs Steamed Vegetables Rice (Brown and White) Just to name a few. Quite a list huh? And I don't think I even scratched the surface of what this thing can do. Alright, I don't know about you but the suspense is killing me. The product that revolutionized my kitchen and all but eliminated the need for my stove is………… Cuisinart Rice Plus™ Multi-Cooker with Fuzzy Logic Technology Here is a link to a video that ex...

Time:   1 Hr. 30 Mins. 15 Mins. Prep 1 Hr. 15 Mins. Baking   Ingredients:   1 ½ Cups Splenda or Equal (they sell the one that measures like sugar) 3 Tbsp. Corn Starch ¼ Tsp. Salt 1 Tsp. Vanilla Extract Juice of ½ Lemon 2 lbs. pitted Dark Red Cherries (Frozen works fine) 2 pre-made pie crusts 1/3 Cup milk Directions: Pre-Heat Oven to 400°   Combine Salt, Equal or Splenda and Corn Starch in large bowl and whisk together. Add Cherries, Lemon Juice and Vanilla Extract to bowl and stir. In a 9 inch pie tin, lay out 1 pie crust, pressing to edges.   With a fork, poke several small holes in bottom of crust. Cut second pie crust into 10 equal width strips. Fill pie crust with Cherry mixture and top with pie crust strips in a lattice formation. Crimp edges with fork, Brush lattice top with milk. (not the edges)   Bake in 400° oven for 15 Minutes, reduce heat to 375° and Bake an Additional 1 Hour. Check edges to prevent burning. If the edges...

Serves: 4 Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cook Time: 30 minutes Ingredients: 2 Cups Brussels Sprouts – Cut in Half 5 Shallots – Sliced 2 Cups Chicken Stock 2 Cups Yellow Squash or Zucchini – Cut into 1 inch cubes (Optional) 3 TBS Olive Oil Salt and Pepper to taste Sautee Brussels Sprouts and Shallots in olive oil until browned, about 10 minutes. Add pepper to taste, add chicken stock. Cover; Simmer until tender, about 15 minutes. (don't add salt yet as the chicken stock is a bit salty) Remove from heat, stir in squash if desired. Cover and let stand for 10 minutes. The Squash will cook enough in the pan with the sprouts absorbing the flavor and becoming tender while retaining some crispness.

At the HB household soda is what we call a very special occasion drink. My Beautiful wife and I find no redeeming qualities in the sugar nectar that as a child my father showed me actually does eat rust. No, we are a little more conscientious in our drinking choices. The popular choices of beverage at the HB table are milk, water and occasionally orange juice. A little side note here for all that follow this post regularly. A few days ago I had mentioned the lack of a nickname for a certain eldest child. After much debate at the dinner table with the entire family including Brötchen , our Oma, we actually came up with nothing. The younger members of the clan, and some of the older, insisted on a name with buns in it. After all that is the family name they said. So it appears that the responsibility is laid upon me to come up with just the perfect name for the young man. I have decided that since he is a pre-teen and coming into manhood, I will respect his wishes and not try to embarras...

As I have mentioned before my Profession actually has nothing to do with cooking. By trade I am an Air Traffic Controller and as such, at least for the last three years, I have been required to wear what my employer refers to as "business casual" attire. Basically that was pants that were not made of denim, collared shirts and no athletic shoes of any kind, basically. I am not one who enjoys wearing ANY of the aforementioned items, so almost every day I would walk into the house and my first task, after greeting the family of course, was to get into something more comfortable (no, not that kind of comfortable). I'm talking about jeans, a tee shirt and sneakers people. Then depending on the amount of time my commute took and what time I strolled into the house, I would usually go into the kitchen throw a towel on my shoulder and begin the evening's dinner. The towel on the shoulder is a little trick I use in lieu of an apron for wiping my hands or utensils. (Always mak...

When most people think of holiday get togethers they think of going to Grandma's to a nice dinner at a fancy decorated table. At least that is what I thought of –as a child that is. Now I'm a middle aged Daddy with kids of his own and a few Thanksgiving get togethers under his belt and I can honestly tell you the only thing true about the preceding statement is that Grandma is there. A long, long time ago I met this beautiful girl. I married this beautiful girl after some years of going steady as I called it back then. Even before we married we were already in the swing of holidays with the family. Sometimes her side, sometimes my side and sometimes allllllll together. When we began the holiday get togethers we already had a leg up on most families. Our collective immediate families totaled an impressive 23 people. Flash forward 25 years. No more small family get togethers for us. This Thanksgiving, as we do every year, we traveled to New Jersey to get together with the family...

One thing I always marvel at is a child's palate. It doesn't matter how well you try to hide something in food they almost always find it. I mean I suppose you could puree all of your ingredients before you put them into your recipe but who has the time or patience to do that? Not me. So I just chop my onions as fine as I can, only use the spices that don't leave black specks in the food, and never, ever let them see little green leafy things. Earlier this week I made lasagna. It was a nice lasagna with sausage that was left over from a pasta dinner a few nights earlier. Of course, Sticky Buns, my youngest doesn't like sausage which created challenge number one. I chopped the sausage kind of small because there were only about four links left and I wanted it to be spread somewhat evenly throughout the dish. I know that a larger slicing of the sausage would have been easier to pick out of the lasagna, but I went smaller. That made it a little more time consuming but he m...