Dinner With Daddy

The good folks at the California Raisin Marketing Board contacted me a few weeks back and asked if I would be interested in trying out a recipe for a grilling sauce. Being an avid griller and always looking for new and exciting recipes, I accepted. The recipe they sent was the Raisin Chipotle Grilling Sauce . When I looked at the recipe the first thing that came to mind was how simple it looked. Add some ingredients to a pot, simmer for a while, and blend? Sounded pretty easy to me, and it was that easy. The most difficult part of the entire recipe for me was finding tomatillos. It did take me a little longer because I also made my own simple barbeque sauce as well. One of the best things about this sauce is I know exactly what is going into it. I have made the sauce a few times now, adjusting the hotness for the little ones, and we are quite happy with it. The first time I made it I followed the recipe to the letter, using 2 chipotles. While I enjoyed it immensely, the rest of t...

A few weeks back the temperature outside soared to near 100 degrees.  It was actually too hot to grill outside, AND too hot to cook inside.  It was a perfect day for Chinese takeout. My children are very particular about what Chinese food they eat, usually opting for wonton soup, ribs, and rice.  My Beautiful Wife and I eat pretty much what the kids want, but we also get eggrolls. I like to use soy sauce on my eggroll while My Beautiful Wife prefers duck sauce. Sticky Buns was enjoying his ribs when my wife asked for a packet of duck sauce.  He turned to her and asked "Mom, what do they put in duck sauce?". My Beautiful Wife replied that she wasn't sure, but she thought maybe it was orange based. "Oh", he replied. Watching him we could see that he was still thinking about it, when My Beautiful Wife, without looking up from her eggroll, said, "No honey, there isn't any duck in it." His face visibly eased from the strain of thought, and wi...

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog about the Zagat's Food Truck Frenzy. In that blog I had mentioned the La Cense burger and commented that it was "Heaven on a Plate". Tonight was Cheddar Buns' class appreciation night at school for the parents. There was music, crafts, yearbook signings and the like. There were drinks and snacks, and one of the parents brought in a chocolate fountain. That brought appreciation to a whole new level for Cheddar Buns. If you were to ask my little girl what her 5 top food choices were, chocolate would be at least the top 4. The PTA had put up a bulletin board with blank cards to fill out for the kids thanking parents and teachers for all they've done. Most were the generic "Thanks for feeding me", or "Thanks for being my teacher". Cheddar Buns had written "I appreciate you because: You Love Me!", and to her teacher: "Thank you Mr. Grace for being the best teacher EVER!". I could see just fro...

As I sit with my family night after night enjoying dinner, telling stories, and generally just marveling at my children, I often wonder if other families have the same sort of interactions as we do. As I have said before, some of the conversations that come up at our table are really just over the top. For instance, a few nights ago my little precious Cheddar Buns, a girl in the dawn of her tween years, is telling us a little story about school that day. It seems that her teacher was working with the class on an assignment and asked the class if anyone could give a word with a certain syllable requirement. I don't recall what the lesson was and in a moment you will understand why I don't remember what the lesson was. Apparently the teacher asked for a word with whatever criteria he was looking for with one syllable. He then asked for a word, same criteria, two syllables, then three, and so on and so on. After weeding out the rest of the class, my little angel comes up with...

Monday, May 23 was Zagat's very first Food Truck Frenzy and I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend. On my way there it was raining and I wasn't sure if it would be as enjoyable in a terential downpour. Since I am more like a flying monkey than the Green Witch and water doesn't melt me, I decided to make the best of it. I'm glad I did too, because it was wicked .   When I arrived, the first thing I noticed was how many others braved the storms and came down to 21 st and 22 nd streets for some vehicular vittles. Initially I just wandered around taking in the sights, admiring the colorful trucks, marveling at the lines formed at each truck. The experience was sort of like being on a mid-town cruise ship; lines for food, food with lines, and more food and more lines. The mobile chefs and their crews were obviously preparing for long lines though, because all of the lines I stood on moved rather quickly, bar one. The line that took the longest for me was the ...

    In the HB house we almost always start dinner the same way. We all sit at the table, we join hands for grace, say amen together and dig in. I would like to particularly point out the part where I said sit at the table because usually that is the last time everyone is sitting voluntarily. My Beautiful Wife and I like to start off with a round of "how was your day" to each of the children followed by an attempt at a civilized conversation. Typically, this ends with the adults completely frustrated and no meaningful conversation had by anyone. This is not meant to sound like a bad thing, kids apparently just aren't built for conversation. After a few tries at drawing out factual information, we lose all hope of such an accomplishment as the children begin to morph into, well, little me's. I am self diagnosed, and My Beautiful Wife agrees, with adult onset ADD. As a matter of fact most of the people in my life agree. For some reason, and I can only assume it...

I know that this isn't my usual genre but I feel the need to speak up on this one. I will probably do this from time to time just to vent, so please bear with me. I am a native of New Orleans so maybe that is why this is bothering me so much. It's not that I care more or less about one group over the other, in fact I think they are all suffering. In case you are not following where I'm going yet, I'm talking about the Mississippi flood gates being opened. For those of you not following the news, The Army Corps of Engineers this weekend opened the floodgates in northern Louisiana flooding the Morganza Spillway to try and save Baton Rouge and New Orleans. They later opened two other flood gates which, when combined with the Morganza Spillway, will flood roughly 3000 square miles to a depth of 6 – 25 feet under water. Don't get me wrong, I understand the whole greater good, and sacrifice the few to save the many. I understand it, that doesn't mean I like it....