Taking a Break

My dear family and friends, just wanted to let you know that I'm taking a break from blogging for a while.  This has been my first attempt at a blog, and though I'm still having trouble with Blogger formatting (it seems to be a personal problem since other blogs look fine!), I've learned so much.  I want to learn a bit more  about html and blogger tools, and formats, etc. so I can improve my site.  So, 'til the learnin' takes place, and I'm ready to get back to my blog in earnest, I'll miss you.  But I'll be back...sometime soon, I hope.

JoJo

Oh Those Crazy Kids!

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Originally uploaded by Marley700

Cooking While Traveling: All about Carbeque

As many folks celebrate this Labor Day, I thought I’d share a handy tip for those who might be traveling long distances in their cars this weekend:  Carbeque. Yep. Carbecue. 

“Whassat?” you ask.  Carbeque, simply put, is food that is cooked by your car (well, you have to do a bit of work, too, but I’ll get to that). In its verb form “carbeque,” means to cook via the method of carbequing, which is to cook food on car parts.  Carbequing is typically done while the car is in motion, (you know, like when someone is driving it), but can also be done anytime key car parts are hot enough to meet carbequing requirements.

Apparently, there are some folks who avail themselves of this brilliant time, energy, and cost-saving method for cooking and warming. In the spirit of the Labor Day holiday, I thought you’d like to know about it, too.

To be a bit more specific about the method involved here, picture cooking on your engine block, or attaching food to any other parts of your car that get hot enough to burn your finger, such as your exhaust manifold system.  Using these various hot parts, you can cook whole dinners, warm foods, and perhaps even heat your cold coffee.

Wikihow provides great information on the subject, including suggested cooking times, which are usually provided in terms of miles, or number of miles at miles per hour rather than minutes.  (No worries here though --  happily, converting from the convention of minutes to miles or miles/mph is a heck of a lot easier than converting to metrics.)

Some sample cooking times Wikihow provides include: shrimp (30-50 miles); chicken breasts (60 miles at 65 mph); and pork tenderloin (250 miles).  And don’t worry, dessert is an option, too.  Check out Wikihow’s special article on “How to Bake Cookies on Your Car Dashboard.” (On a very hot day, you can even fry eggs on your car hood, but I’m sure you probably already knew that.)

Should you decide to try your own carbeque, word to the wise: Be careful not to damage any important car parts while attaching, cooking and/or warming your repast, otherwise all your time, energy, and cost savings will be lost at the car repair center.  

Carbeque. Think about it. 

For more information about Carbeque, check out the carbequer’s bible:  “Manifold Destiny,” by buddies Chris Maynard and Bill Scheller


Photos shown in this post are taken from the bookcovers of Manifold Destiny.

The Science of Baking: How NOT to Make Good Biscuits!

In a recent post I talked about my newest reality-tv watching craze, Cupcake Wars.  Watching that show, and now another new one I discovered, DC cupcakes on TLC, has really gotten me in the baking mood.  

When I was in my early teens, I purchased a bread making book and began my first foray into baking.  Since I had – and still have -- a penchant for changing the recipe proportions, my baking skills did not progress very well, and lacking sufficient compliments, I soon moved on to other endeavors.  But all those interesting and tasty-looking cupcakes I’ve been seeing lately have re-enchanted me with the idea of baking.

During my teenage baking spree I had gained some concept of what happens when you combine certain ingredients but I had no real understanding of how or why things reacted as they did. Since I’ve always heard that baking is more of a science than anything, I decided to learn about some baking basics. 

Turning to the net, I found several good articles on baking, including one charming article that neatly described the nature and effects of key ingredients used in baking, including baking soda, baking powder, flour, eggs, and salt.  

For my first “educated” baking experiment, I decided to make some good old southern style scratch biscuits, figuring if I could master these, I’d have a good basis to work from.  I envisioned myself baking these routinely for my children and hubby, sending them off in the mornings well-fed with hot, freshly baked biscuits slathered in butter and perhaps some honey or jelly.  (Never mind that I first need to learn to get myself up early enough to do this, but then again, fantasy is an integral part of my life.)

So, I searched the net for a good recipe to use, finding a five-star recipe for Southern Biscuits on Cooking.com from Alton Brown, which called for 7 simple ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder, butter, shortening, salt, and buttermilk. 


I didn’t have any buttermilk on hand, so I searched the net to find a good substitute,  discovering that mayonnaise would apparently do.  I also made a couple of other “minor revisions” to account for other missing ingredients, trusting that they would somehow adhere to the science of good baking. . . 

Using my granite counter top as a substitute for a classic marble top, I dumped flour onto the clean surface for rolling out the sticky dough.  Since I forgot to clean my rolling pin, I instead patted the dough down to ready it for cutting.  Not wise, as this can lead to tough dough – the dough should be handled as little as possible to achieve tender biscuits.

Since I didn't have a round biscuit cutter on hand, I used a moon-shaped cutter intead.Next, I placed my moon-shaped biscuit dough on the baking sheet, nestling them so that they are just touching, just because this is what my recipe said to do.  (I later found out this is so the biscuits will rise higher and the edges won’t brown as much.)

I used the same baking time as the recipe indicated, but when I pulled the biscuits out, they looked quite hard.  And they were.

Determined to serve hot, fresh-baked biscuits to my family and not to waste my efforts, I served them up anyway. My hubby wanted a hard-fried flat egg, so that’s what he got.  The plate looks dry and not so appetizing.

Okay, so the kids tossed the biscuits, and my hubby, in his own sweet way, simply said nothing.

Determined again not to let my efforts go to waste, I decided to try another route.  I heated up some black cherry preserves with a bit of water and some extra sugar ‘til just bubbly.  I poured it over a few biscuits in hopes of softening them, and topped them with whipped cream.

Not  too bad, but not exactly a shining moment either.  Reinvented as a dessert, the dry biscuits benefitted from the moisture of the  preserves and cream, but not enough to make them truly delicious. They looked pretty good, though, I thought.

In the end, what I reinforced for myself is that baking is indeed a science, but you can also turn it into an art.  And that’s what makes baking so much fun.  Anyway, I’ll keep trying to make those biscuits until I get them just right.  

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Cool Stuff at coolhunting.com

Found a great new website today called coolhunting.com. The name quite accurately describes the site, which hunts down the cool, the interesting, and the new, with modern technology being a key topic.

While “hunting” through the coolhunting site, I found a few tech devices that I’d like to add to my home arsenal.  Thought perhaps some of you might be interested, also.  Here goes:

The Doxie Scanner is a small scanner that can be used to scan in old photos and documents, simplifying what is already an arduous task. Documents and photos can be saved as PDF, JPEG or PNG formats, which, as coolhunting notes “is great for sending the images to Google Docs. And, thanks to its built-in Optical Character Recognition capabilities, you can even scan and digitize handwritten notes or longer documents.” The Doxie scanner is both Mac and Windows compatible, ships worldwide and sells online for $130.  

I'm most excited about this little scanner.

Only out since this past July, Belkin has a new energy-efficient power hub for charging your small electronic devices (think phone, ipod touch, digital cameras). As coolhunting.com tells us the new Belkin Conserve Valet provides “a single platform charges up to four mobile devices at once reducing energy consumption by 75% overall, and the station itself draws zero power when not in use…automatically shutting off once all devices have been charged.” The Valet is available on Belkin's website for $40 each.

I like the energy saving feature on the Belkin Conserve Valet

The Q-Link Mini supposedly “harmonizes the frequencies emitted from electronics with your body.” Although the effects of over-radiation from constant use of every-day electronics is still under study, there are undoubtedly some. (Even though I am addicted to the computer, I do tend to feel a bit different – lets say “wired” when I use it – don’t you?) I don’t know if this is just hoodoo voodoo junk, but I’m thinking about getting one for myself and for my children. (Hubby won’t wear it). The Q-Link Mini sells online from Clarus' site for $25.

Yes, its actually a pendant. Another reason hubby won't wear it.  I'll research this one a bit more before I actually buy it!

For more interesting tech items, check out coolhunting.com.

All images are borrowed from coolhunting.com

MoJo Bones in Ocean View – Serving Barbeque, Blues, and Other Great Fare

It’s always fun to discover a new place serving good food, especially when it’s a Barbeque Joint. When it comes to barbeque, I’ll take it anyway it comes, whether simply smoked and pulled or chopped; made with vinegar, mustard, or tomato-based sauces or Cajun-style; whether pork, beef, chicken or fish. I’m not a regionalist about this (heretical, I know), but rather more of a nationalist on the subject. 


For me, a good barbeque is a good barbeque, whether it’s from North Carolina, Tennesee, Texas, Louisiana, Kansas, Missouri or some other great American state, like Virginia – and Norfolk, Virginia is where I found my latest place to indulge. That place is MoJo Bones by the beach in Ocean View. Located in a tiny shopping strip across from and catty-corner to the beach, it could be hard to miss if you weren’t looking. Luckily, I didn’t miss it when I was out that way hunting for a good place to eat other than the fast food joints close by. 

When I went inside, I found a large, dark, and rustic place that looked like it had been there for a good long while. The wooden tables and chairs were mismatched and scarred, the padded bar stools well- worn. There was a large band stage at the front above which hung vintage posters advertising great bands and musicians like the Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, The Doors, and Frank Zappa. The walls were chalked up with the names of upcoming blues bands scheduled to play there, including Otis Brooks & Full Phase, STR8 Blues, and the Hampton Roads Blues Band. A long side wall included a "Dance with the Devil" mural; and still more posters along the walls announced MoJo specials and news, including three Virginian Pilot “Best Of” awards. The bar area, adorned with license plates and a light- up devil head was long, the brew offerings were plentiful, and the patrons seemed happy. 


All in all, the perfect-looking Barbeque Joint, I thought, and a look at the menu offerings provided further support for that sentiment. I took a seat.

It was hard to decide what to order, but I finally settled on a Cajun catfish Po’boy with MoJo’s “Voodoo Sauce.” My Po’ boy was served in a large round bun, with slaw inside, chips, and a pickle for $7.99 and it was delicious! The catfish was fried perfectly and was plentiful enough to accommodate the largebun, spilling over the sides. In addition to the Voodoo Sauce, I also tried it with their MoJo barbeque sauce, and even with some hot sauce and bite-for-bite, it was all good. So good, in fact, that I will no doubt be having MoJo Bones cravings in the near future.

MoJo Bones 

(757) 480-6656

9659 First View Street

Norfolk VA 23503

www.mojobones.com

For further reading about regional barbeque styles, check out: www.bbqreport.com/archives/barbecue/2005/08/29/a-regional-barbecue-cheat-sheet/

Cooler and Greener

Reflection of a Water Lily 

Thank God this recent heat wave has abated! The days are so much more pleasant now.

Just before the heat wave really kicked in, I went to Tanner's Creek Garden Center in Norfolk (which supports the Eggleston Center's programs for the disabled).

Seeking some color and a bit of bright greenery, I checked out their offerings. What really caught my eyes, though, was a lovely lily pond they had installed. Of course, I usually have my camera at the ready, so I clicked away.

Hope you enjoy these photos!

Enjoy these lovely days, and if you get a chance, stop by Tanners Creek Garden Center and check out their lily pond!

Turquoise Dreams

As we suffer through these ungodly hot days, most of us are no doubt thinking a lot about water and ice - refreshing dips in a lake or swimming pool and tall, sweating glasses of our favorite iced libation.

With these thoughts in my mind, I've also been thinking about the color turquoise.  Turquoise has long been one of my all time favorite cooling, soothing colors. I feel good wearing turquoise stones and just being surrounded by the color turquoise.

You can imagine my surprise when I discovered a whole blog devoted to the color turquoise. Yes, it's true and it's called House of Turquoise.

Here are a few samples of some of the beautiful spaces and places you'll see if you visit the site:

Key West vacation home designed by Todd Richesin.

 Scandinavian-inspired bed alcove pictured in-Country Home.

Indian-inspired room found at Avolli Swedish Antiques

Image via: Mix.com

I love the blues and greens in this antique cabinet!

Image also borrowed from Avolli Swedish Antiques

Image via: Mix.com

Image from Alicia Paulson

Image from an article in the May 2010 issue of Coastal Living  called Bring Home the Beach, featuring a beach home in South Carolina designed by Carter Kay. Photographed  by J. Savage Gibson.

So, are you a bit cooler now?  Either way, go grab yourself a tall cool one, relax, and dream of water -- and perhaps a little turquoise.

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Best Damn Gyro Ever?

A simple story about a gyro and it's ironic (but not so laconic) maker...

Several weeks ago, needing a quick lunch while running errands, I stopped at a little sub shop in a nearby shopping center. I was pleased to see that this little shop also offered gyros, in three different sizes no less, ranging in price from $3 to $7.50. I took a gamble that the $3 size and a drink would be enough to satisfy me. 

Although there were only about 5 other people in the place when I arrived, my simple order took over half an hour to arrive, and by the time it came, I was annoyed.


Then I bit into that gyro, and it was the best damn gyro I’d ever eaten. The gyro meat and sauce were flavorful, the veggies were fresh, and the pita was perfectly grilled. I immediately forgave the talkative cook/co-owner who made it for me for taking so long.  

Fast forward to this week, when I stopped by again, craving that delicious gyro. There was the same talkative cook and only one other customer in the joint. The cook was sitting in the booth beside the lone customer, railing on about something. 

Surprisingly, when I walked in the cook immediately said he remembered me from Mother's Day (I wasn't actually there), declared that he liked me and would take care of me (my order, that is). 


I had about 45 minutes for lunch before I had to pick up my children from their summer program and get back to work. Remembering that the cook liked to move leisurely, I let him know in a friendly way that I only had a short time to eat. No problem, as long as I knew what I wanted, he assured me, I would get in and out in plenty of time. 

No problem on my part then  -- I knew I wanted another taste of that $3 gyro and, since the gyro was so cheap, I could afford to treat myself to the good-looking french fries I had seen his other patrons chowing down on during my last visit. Maybe even get a dessert, too.

But no, he said. He didn’t have the $3 size pita bread in. He only had the $7.50 size.  “Okay,” I said, “just cut it in two for me, and I’ll save the other half for my lunch tomorrow. No, he said, he couldn’t do that. Instead, he’d just make two small gyros. 

Confused, I grabbed a black cherry soda out of the cooler across from the grill and sat down, anticipating that delicious gyro. I reiterated that I needed to leave shortly, and hearing a fresh plop and the sizzle of more meat on the grill, was content that my gyro would be on its way to me soon.

I waited. The lone other patron sitting next to me waited. We chatted. I asked him what he ordered. A philly cheese steak, he said. The cook chatted with the man, too, as he seemed to putter around his “kitchen.” His cooking area and the refrigerator where he stored all the condiments and sandwich veggies were inefficiently across the room from each other. He walked back and forth from the kitchen to the fridge, talking all the while as he went.

When I told him that I came back to his place because that last gyro was the best I’d ever eaten, he let open the floodgates. He’d been cooking since he was a kid, and was as good as any chef before he had reached his teens, he advised. He wouldn’t hire anyone in his place to help him in this kitchen, because he was a perfectionist, and no one would do things the way he wanted. Plus, all the people that applied for jobs with him seemed too lazy, and they would undoubtedly talk too much and drive him crazy. He couldn’t handle it, he said. No. No way would he ever hire these people who came to him seeking a job.  They would just drive him crazy.

Sometimes, he said, even his own customers drove him crazy.  They wanted their food too fast; they couldn’t make up their minds what they wanted to eat. They were like little children. He didn’t have to like them. But not to worry, he liked me, and the gentleman who was still waiting patiently for his philly steak sandwich.

I looked at my ipod. The minutes were going by and I was getting worried. Neither my sandwich nor the gentleman’s seemed to be arriving anytime soon. I reminded the cook, now steamed up by his own conversation, that I needed to leave within the next 25 minutes at the most – my kids were waiting.  He assured both me and the gentleman that the food was coming out in just a moment.

We waited. He talked. He was a great chef, he said. He used only the best ingredients. Like real steak for the philly steak, and cucumbers and tomatoes fresh from the garden. Not just anyone could do what he did, he said.


Hoping to get his juices flowing enough to move a bit faster, I asked him if he liked the Bravo reality show, “Top Chef.” “Yes,” he said. He particularly like the “Quick Fire” challenges. “The Quick Fires show who the real chefs are. Real chefs do not have assistants, and they do not cut themselves, ever. Not ever.” He walked across the room to get some items from the refrigerators and headed back to the kitchen, talking the entire time. He had opinions about everything.

At some point, he finally handed the man next to me his philly steak sub. The man jumped up and, with payment already on the table, bolted out of the shop. I was left still waiting. 


Not to worry though, I thought, surely if the other guy had his sandwich, mine would also be handed to me momentarily. After all, I had heard it sizzling on the grill. A couple minutes later, when it still had not arrived, I reminded the man again that I had to leave. No problem, he said, he would have it for me in just a couple minutes. Then more meat hit the grill. Almost 40 minutes had passed and he was just now cooking my food!

A few more minutes passed. I got up from my seat to see what he was doing. He was chopping the lettuce and the tomato. I informed him that it was so late now, that I would have to take my order to go. I was hoping to eat it there while it was still hot, but I’d take it to go now.  

He checked the fries in the fryer. He took the meat off the grill. He contemplated the lettuce, deciding that the lettuce should be chopped just a little bit more. He talked about his chefiness. He went into another room to get a to-go container. He readjusted the tomatoes in the sandwich. He got out the sauce. He ever so carefully wrapped the gyros. He tenderly placed them in containers. I looked at my watch. He checked the fries. I paced. 

Finally, he packed up the fries and the gyros and handed them to me. With a cheerful smile, he said he hoped that he hadn’t made me too late. 

I was off.  By the time I picked up my kids (late) and got back to work, I had eaten most of the fries, my food was cold and soggy, and I ended up having to take more leave than I had planned. 


When I finally got to that gyro, guess what?  It wasn’t so damn good anymore.

Photos are borrowed from the Flikr Creative Commons community and do not represent the actual event.  

Photo credits: Gyro by Marshall Astor.  Hidden Chef by Tracy Hunter.

Paradise at the Garden Center

 

My kids and hubby always tease me about my penchant for garden centers. To me, a well-curated garden center, with its wondrous variety of plants, pots, bird baths, statuary and other garden goodies represents a little slice of heaven on earth.

I'm famous in my family for coming back with way too many plants to handle comfortably, and my husband has all but banned me from purchasing more.

I did not let that stop me, however, when my friend Jenn invited me to join her on a trek to MacDonald's Garden Center in Virginia Beach. She has really gotten the gardening bug lately, so now I have a partner in crime.

Jenn at the Garden Center

 Jenn chose this gorgeous purple clematis for her new side garden.  

Cute little houses planted with herbs and other greenery make for fun mixed garden pots.

Managed to get some good shots of this honeybee without disturbing the little guy (and possibly getting stung!)

I love these sculpted trees.

Jenn checks the prices - too bad we can't just buy everything!!

I want this - so serene.  But I resist...

Jenn succumbs.  Okay, really, so do I, bringing home a lovely fatsia japonica and two pink honeysuckle plants. 

It's getting late, we have to go grocery shopping and make dinner, so we make our purchases and head home. Once there, we celebrate our new garden family members by toasting with a cool wine spritzer (soda water, a nice white wine, and a strawberry slice that later turns the drink a sweet shade of pink).

Cheers!