Bite. Sip. Repeat…

Just some random photos from the last month or so.  Send me any cool/interesting/funny food or beverage-related photos and I’ll include them in the next Random Pictures post.

This one was actually unplanned.  I was making an omelette and and had just halved the avocado and grated the Manchego cheese.  When I diced the bacon, I noticed it looked like a face.  It was much friendlier after I twisted the bacon up into a smile…

We were out of hamburger buns and hotdogs, but had hamburger and hotdog buns.  So I made this.  Not sure if it’s called a hamdog or a hotburger.

Had a quick business meeting at the local coffee place, It’s A Grind.  As I was leaving, I noticed these four guys.  See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, surf the ‘net?

Tags: Picture

When our kids were watching the Peanuts holiday shows, my 4 year old got Charlie Brown’s name a little wrong and said he wanted to watch that “Charlie Barley Show”.  It sort of stuck and that’s now one of my son’s sometimes-nicknames.  I saw the 7 bean and barley mix in the bulk foods aisle at Henry’s market and, of course, had to get it.  The boys were cracking up about me making Charlie Barley Soup.

I started with about a pound of 7 bean and barley mix.  Continue Reading »

Tags: One-Pot, Quick, Soup, Vegetarian

The boys get a huge kick out of breakfast for dinner.  Our #1 son buys lunch at school once a week and they even have a breakfast for lunch option sometimes.  Tonight, it was scrambled eggs, chicken sausage, and toaster waffles for them.  Lisa and I were going to have the same thing (toast, no waffles), when I saw Continue Reading »

Tags: Quick, Recipe

I had been planning to grill some chicken, but suddenly had the urge to do something else.  I had some boneless, skinless chicken breasts already thawed.  I also had a leftover green bell pepper.  I broke out the Le Creuset “French Oven”, seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper, and browned the breasts.  I added tomatoes, garlic, onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, and some seasonings.  15 minutes of simmering and dinner was done. Continue Reading »

Tags: Chicken, Dutch-Oven, One-Pot

My wife was grocery shopping last weekend and grabbed a package of our usual mushrooms, the brown crimini ones. A passerby said she should really get the white button mushrooms because they’ve got better cancer prevention properties. My first reaction to this story was “Horse Hockey!”.  Not really my exact words, but my Mom reads this blog

Of course, I had to check out. Numerous internet searches showed evidence that mushrooms (especially white buttons) inhibit the enzyme aromatase that’s necessary for the production of estrogen. Excessive estrogen has been liked to an increased risk of breast cancer. See one article here.

Another article said the chemoprotective can be seen by eating 3.5 oz. of mushrooms daily. Not a huge amount, but certainly more than we eat on a regular basis. I guess we’ll have to work a few more mushroom omelets and pizzas into the weekly rotation.

Anyway, I thought this was pretty interesting, hope you thought so, too.

Tags: Healthy, Vegetables

You can’t beat a good bratwurst on the grill with a fresh baked French roll.  Except maybe if you add grilled onions.  We had these last night and my kids loved them.  Couldn’t get them to try the onions, though.

The grilling tip here is for cooking the onions.  Cut thick slabs of sweet onion, 1/2 to 3/4 inch.  Then insert two thin bamboo skewers through the onion, crossed.  The easy way to do this is to lay the onion flat on a cutting board, hold it in place with your palm, and push the skewer through.

Crossing the skewers keeps the onions from spinning around after they cook.  A little salt, pepper, and a brush of canola oil is all you need.  Grill the onions on both sides until they’re nicely charred and beginning to soften.

Tags: Grilling

Season finale tonight at 9pm, anyone watching?  Anyone interested?  I like both of the finalists, but I want Melissa to win.  More details here.

It’s still a little hot and humid, so I was looking for a light lunch.  The boys wanted leftover spaghetti and meatballs from last night.  Lisa had a meatball sandwich.  I opted for a toasted pita, schmeared with hummus, topped with arugala, chopped heirloom tomato and blue cheese crumbles.  Quick and delicious…

Tags: Quick, Vegetables, Vegetarian

Lisa was doing an art project with our #1 son. The kids were drawing vegetables and the idea was to have the roots and leaves attached so they could see how the vegetables grew. Long story short, we had several bunches of veggies: carrots, beets, leeks, etc. that I had to do something with. I had also bought some Brussels sprouts and broccoli and had some miscellaneous produce in the fridge. I decided to just season them simply and roast them in the oven.

I cut everything into bite-sized pieces and tossed them with seasoning salt, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and olive oil. I put them all in a baking pan and into the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, just until they were fork tender. Absolutely delicious…

Tags: Vegetables, Vegetarian

I made dinner last week and it didn’t turn out very well. I followed the recipe almost verbatim, but it was not a tasty meal. Personally, I think I blame the recipe author. We had Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Pork from Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller of Food Network.

I made two changes to the recipe that I thought were pretty insignificant. Continue Reading »

Tags: Pork