Dinner With Daddy

    Before you all get excited about the multi-lingual post let me warn you; most of the words I use outside of the English language don't even qualify as real words. I am one of those people that takes the English word and makes it whatever language I am trying to get across by adding or subtracting letters and I find that faking the accent doesn't hurt either.     I was unfortunate growing up, in the fact that I was not required to take a second language in high school. Spanish was offered in my school but since I grew up in the sticks, as they say, I didn't see much use for it. Flash forward to many years to count and I wish I had taken Spanish. Ay Caramba!        The good news is you don't have to speak the language to eat the food, or cook it for that matter. I mean you could feasibly have a problem if the recipe is written in a foreign language, so watch out for that. Recipe language barriers aside, I find that cooking Me...

Yesterday, like every school day, I picked my three youngest children up from school (O.K. sometimes My Beautiful Wife picks them up). As I walked into the pick-up room I asked the usual question; Do you have any homework? My wife and I have to ask that question or inevitably someone forgets a book, homework packet, assignment book, etc., etc. To my surprise the two older kids jumped out with a resounding “Nope, tomorrow is steak testing!” I know what you are all thinking, typo. Nope, not a typo at all. You see, in the HB household we have a tradition that began way back when Sour Dough was just beginning his schooling. On the morning of the big exams I would make him a steak for breakfast, for protein. Protein gives your brain a little boost and a little boost in brain power is especially good if you are taking a big test. If you ask most children what is the most stressful and un-fun part of school they will probably tell you test taking. I never knew a child to look forward to ...

Yesterday was "National Bring Your Kid To Work Day" and because my children have planned out who goes to work with me through the youngest turning 18, I naturally took Mini Buns because it was his turn.  He has been looking forward to this day since I told him the date a few months ago.  I have been bombarded with the "how many more days?" and the "can I stay home from school that day?" since the day I mentioned it. At the beginning of the week it was a little iffy whether he would be able to go.  I work at a sensitive job and the rules on visitors change like the weather.  After much debate, and the fact that I was the only one out of about 200 people asking to bring their child, my boss gave me the ok.  I was glad too, because that would not have been an easy let-down. Initially when Mini Buns found out I was working an evening shift he started asking if he was still going to get a day off from school.  I surely thought there would be an issue when ...

My number 3 child, my son Mini Buns, is afflicted with pretty bad allergies. As such, he often has a difficult time breathing, especially when he is trying to do things like eat. When his allergies are at their worst he sometimes has to pause his chewing, and sometimes chews  with his mouth open just to prevent himself from passing out. Since the idea of him passing out face first into his plate leaves much to be desired, we have chosen not to hound the child about eating with his mouth open, opting for the subtle reminder on occasion. My oldest son, Sour dough, has not quite gotten to the point of forgiveness when it comes to watching his little brother eat across from him with the half chewed morsels in plain view. Not that I can blame Sour Dough as he IS right in the line of fire. The other night as we were enjoying our delicious dinner of Pork Loin and Mashed Potatoes, Mini Buns began first with a slight heavy breathing with each chew. Before long it was straight up chewin...

There is a great franchise in the U.S. that has taken off over the last few years called Panera Bread. I started going to Panera a few years ago when they first opened a bakery-café, as they call their stores, near my job on Long Island in New York.    Recently they opened a few stores near my home in Westchester, which made me quite happy because Panera just happens to make THE best Cinnamon Raisin bread in all the land. Besides the cinnamon bread, they make awesome sandwiches and pastries, and one of my favorite items the soufflé.  The coffee at Panera rivals that of Dunkin Donuts or even, in my opinion, Starbucks. Being an avid coffee drinker, I often have Panera coffee, and recently on a few occasions, I have begun to notice changes in the Panera coffee cups. Over the past few months my Panera coffee cups have been leaking from the bottom.     Now normally I wouldn't be mentioning this on such a grand scale as to write a blog about it, but this ...

I don't know if you are aware but Sunday April 3, 2011 was the 119 th anniversary of the ice cream sundae . While some in other towns may dispute the date and birthplace of the very first sundae, I am of the firm belief that it was indeed first made in Ithaca, NY 119 years ago. I believe this partly because my research indicates that Ithaca has the soundest story (in my opinion), and partly because I'm a New Yorker. As I have mentioned before My Beautiful Wife has a NEED to celebrate whatever is celebrate-able, and the ice cream sundae birthday is no different. While it would have been nice to have an extra $6000 lying around to get each of us a Golden Opulence Sundae from Serendipity 3 in NYC, we opted for the more traditional Belgian Waffle Ice Cream Sundae from the local diner. The kids enjoyed it and the wife and I didn't have to worry about eating the retirement money to celebrate ice cream. The kids had no idea when we left the house that it was the ice cream sund...

The local supermarket had one of those 10 for $10 sales this week. I decided to take advantage of this so I went and got 10 of every item I NEEDED. I say needed like that because I'm not one of these folks that gets 10 of everything on sale just because it's on sale. If I don't need it or I'm not going to use it in a relatively short period of time, I don't buy it. One of the items I picked up that night was cheese. Blocks of New York extra sharp cheddar, sharp cheddar and mild cheddar; ten of them. There was so much cheese I feared a rodent uprising. Ok, I'm exaggerating a little, but there was a lot of cheese. Let it be known that there is no shortage of cheese hounds, as my Pop-Pop (Grandpa) used to say, in this house. As a matter of fact the cold cut of choice among my brood is cheese; cheese sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, cheese panini's, cheese wraps…..you get the idea. The night of the great cheese flood, if you will, happened to be the first ...