My Birthday and Christmas Meals: The Good, The Bad and The Nasty.

12/16

December 16th was my 38th birthday. Yay me! My friend, Basmin, took me out on what turned out to be a "girl date." Eww! But I had the best meal that I have had all year on that "date"-ewww. We had dinner at Riddles Penultimate restuarant in the University City Loop area. She even brought me flowers and champagne. Wow, I really scored on my first ever girl-date! Here's the menu:

APPETIZER: Mushroom caps stuffed with crawfish.

SOUP: New England Clam Chowder. Made with huge chunks of carrots, potatoes and lump crab meat.

SALAD: Romaine and Arugala lettuce with walnuts, blu cheese and a vinagrette.

VEGETABLE: Mashed Sweet Potatoes (Basmin) Pan Seared Spinach (Basmin) Brussel Sprouts roasted with Pine Nuts (Me)

ENTREE: I had the 12 oz. Fillet Mignon (Medium Rare) with grilled Vandalia Onions and Portabella Mushrooms.

Basmin enjoyed the Shrimp Sara, a seafood pasta with Tiger Prawns and fresh vegetables in a creamy white sauce.

DESSERT: Coffee with Kaluha and a scoop Kaluha Ice Cream (All for Basmin. I can't drink either coffee or Kaluha.)

Homemade Birthday Cake- A white cake with Vanilla Frosting decorated with a big ol "T" -Mine All Mine

Everything was prepared to perfection. The mushrooms were spicy and packed full with crawfish. It was baked with a light cheese topping, but I'm not sure what type of cheese was used. We ate those so fast. The soup and salad were served immediately after. ***Our busbaoy was THE BEST BUSSER ALIVE! I mean he was ON IT.*** Our meal was served in wonderful time. There was just enough "rest time" between the salad and the entree. I'm not much of a beef eater anymore, but I really wanted fillet mignon for my birthday. I was so happy with my selection. The meat was grilled PERFECTLY. The onions and mushrooms just melted in my mouth! OMG. I didn't want the meal to end. I savored every last forkful. When I FINALLY rested my fork on the plate and sighed with satisfaction our busboy was right there to clear the area. What a wonderful experience to share with a wonderful friend. Thanks Basmin!

When I got home I popped my bubbly, had a slice of cake and rested well!

12/25

My daughter Jasmine is home from college for the holidays. I knew that we were spending the afternoon and evening at my mother's house for Christamas, as we do every year. My mom usually prepares a huge Christmas dinner with both a traditinal roasted turke and a smoked one, a ham and ALL the trimmings. Since this year was to be no different 9or so we thought) and we still needed to eat before arriving at my mom's, I decided to make a simple Christmas breakfast.

My Christmas Breakfast Menu:

Baked Turkey Ham with Pineapple-Orange Glaze
Potatoes and Broccoli with peppers and onions in a cheddar cheese sauce
Eggs (made to order)
Cinnamon Rolls
Mango
Oranges
OJ, Hot Chocolate or Egg Nog

Our breakfast was very tasty and filling as well. I was a little worried that we might be a bit too full to enjoy the nights dinner. Thanfully we were.
This years Christmas Dinner was a disaster! For some reason known only to God and my Grandmother it was decided that this year's breakfast should come from a box! That's right, they bought one of those meals in a box, a complete pre-cooked holiday meal in a goddamn box! Why???? Not only was it a meal-in-a-box, but it wasn't even from a nice store. This fiasco came from Shop-n-Save. Anytime a store has an "-n-" in it's name you know it ain't so fancy. And to add insult to injury a family member decided to supplement our pre-cooked meal with some homemade side dishes. Apparently crap goes with boxed meals. Here's the menu of shame and horror:

A Roasted, Baked, or possibly Shellacked Turkey: I swear that turkey was stolen from a food magazine shoot. That's not to say that it was a picture-perfect bird, it just looked grotesquely unreal. Apparently you can't buy flavor in a box, because that bird tasted like the box. The cold, lumpy gravy didn't do much to conceal the lack of flavor either.

Mashed Potatoes: It seems that Shop-n-Save likes to take artifical potatoe flakes out of one box, mix them with some water, and then repackage them in other boxes. Tasted pretty much like soggy cardboard with butter.

SomekindofCranberryandOrangeJellywithchunksofunidentifiablefoodproducts: Uneaten.

Not in a box, but might as well have been:

Baked Beans: Why?? Why the hell were there baked beans on our Christmas dinner table?

Green Beans: By the time I got around to these, all appetite had vanished. I remember the feel of the beans and the bite of black pepper. That's all.

Macaroni and Cheese: This was truly the one dish I was looking forward to. I knew I could rely on some homemade Macaroni and Cheese to salvage my taste buds from that unholy meal. There's not too much a normal person with even very little cooking experience can do to mess up Mac'n' Cheese, right? And the family member that prepared this dish had been making it (and USUALLY [see below]very well, I might add) for years. So I was mortified to find out that she (obviously under some Satanic influence ) decided to add GREEN ONIONS and NACHO CHEESE SAUCE to MACARONI and CHEESE!!!!!!! WTF???WHo does that??? OK. I must admit that this years mac n'cheese, as GROSS as it was, was still better than the mac she prepared a few years back. At that time the devil convinced her to put HORSERADISH in it!! That's no way to celebrate the birth of Christ!I have to start a petition. She must never be allowed to bring the mac'n'cheese ever again.

Honey Baked Ham: I don't really know if it was honey baked or not. And since I don't eat ham i dind't taste it. I did hear that this was the best part of the meal. It figures!

My last non-food related posting. Maybe.

THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH FOOD
This is from my former site at Diaryland. I think I will start a new blog next week for stuff like this. I vow to leave Beatloaf a (mostly) food oriented blog.

!!!!!UUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!
Listen kiddies, don't be fooled into believing that when you are older you will miraculously have life all figured out. It's not necessarily true that you will age gracefully into this calm and wise man or woman. If you are LUCKY you will not lose the ability to feel the butterflies in your stomach when you see a new or familiar love; you will continue to learn something new everyday or at least once a week; you will honor your inner child with play days; you will remember to smell the flowers, feel the grass (maybe smoke it if you are so inclined) and stand in the middle of a thunderstorm, quiet and wet.
You will also still be very confused by the opposite sex! I love men and I make no excuses for it, but I DON'T UNDERSTAND THEM AND HOW THEY THINK OR IF THEY THINK! When I was younger I thought that surely by now, at my age, these matters of the heart would not confound me so. If anything, I am more confused than ever. Yes, I have learned a few things in my years but the rules of love seem to change with every man I meet. And somehow the more things change the more they stay the same.
WHY is it so hard to have the simplest of conversations with your love when it relates to your relationship? I am so tired of men telling me what they think I want to hear. WHAT I WANT IS THE TRUTH. Now I am not one of those women/girls who SAY they want the truth and then the truth only makes them upset or mad-well maybe I am, but here's MY truth: Yes, I may get mad at hearing the truth, but I still deserve to hear it and eventually I WILL find out the truth anyway and then I'll be a hell of a lot angrier than I was in the first place. Also, it's a control issue when someone with holds something from you because they may be fearful of your reaction.This is a sure fire way to lose my love, trust and respect. Once that is lost, heaven help you because the wrath of my anger without the balance of my love is awe-inspiring in its ferocity and its veracity.
And that boys, is THE TRUTH!

Go visit Tom Green. He's NOT that much of a moron.

Testing 1...2...3

JASMINE upside down.



Is there a picture here?
Holy Shiznit! It actually worked. Hell yeah!

I'm still on a blogging break. I'll be back next week.

Life Gets in the Way of Blogging

I don't update this blog as often as I'd like to. Now I will be updating even less often for awhile. I have to attend to a few non-food related issues(well, maybe it could be considered food related if I were in Mexico). I have to nurse a baby iguana back to health! Oh, there is much to be said about this situation, but I am far too tired to write about it at this time. There is medicine to be administered and baths to be given-yes, I have to BATHE my iguana-and general TLC to be delivered.

You can check out this site for some tasty Indian food recipes:hookedonheat.blogspot.com



So, Nurse Beatloaf will return asap. Please eat well people and enjoy your lives.


WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY COLOR CHOICES??? I wanted to add color to this entry and my color choices have vanished! Well, I can't deal with this now. The iguana NEEDS me...

What up my people?!?!?

More shout out's:

Hey, what's up Magz!

Magz has a beautiful lil' piece of land in southwest America. She is a great writer with a wonderful sense of humor. You just gotta check out her pictures too. Plus, she loves food!

also check out www.shavar.com he is a well-known actor (formerly "Dudley" on Different Strokes and numerous other roles.) He is now working at becoming a director. His site is full of great photos that he's taken. Pretty awesome!

and I can't forget about chicken little- I just love strong, opionated women!

I don't know if all of these sites will be for everyone, but these people have caught my eye and maybe you'll like them too!

I'm hungry now...

Lies, Lies, Lies...Yeah

I consider myself a fairly honest person. I don't cheat on my taxes (not intentionally), I don't steal from my neighbors, I try not to make promises I can't keep. However, I am guilty of committing a food lie or two. I'm sure you have probably told a food lie (especially you parents) or have been a victim of someone's food lie. Here's my story.
My son, Justus, like many other kids was a VERY picky eater as a young child. He refused to eat any beef or pork (I never tried to force him to either) and very little fish or chicken. He did and does love vegetables so I was happy with that, sort of.
When he was about 4 years-old he tried his best to convince me that his diet should consist of Chicken McNuggets, only Chicken McNuggets. Of course that wasn't happening. But I did find that the quickest way to him to eat meals that I prepared was to tell him that we would have McDonald's for the next meal. Needless to say that "next meal" would only happen about once a week or so. Okay. That was food lie #1. Not too bad. It gets worse.
One of the meals that he would occasionally agree to eat without the bribe of my "McLie" was that delicious dinner staple of the Midwest-THE CASSEROLE. In this instance it was TUNA casserole, but I never told him that there was tuna in it. Tuna had been added to his long list of "food don'ts" about 6 months earlier, so I knew he would refuse to eat it if he heard that word.
As with any lie, this took a lot of work to pull off. The entire family had to be brought in. The word TUNA was never to be used in the kitchen again. Cans of tuna had to be hidden and quickly disposed of once emptied. I managed to pull it off for quite some time. He turned 5 and still unknowingly loved tuna. Then, as it always does, the truth came out. I must have gotten lazy and forgot the first rule of my "food lie club": Don't talk about Tuna.
One evening as Justus sat polishing away his second helping of casserole, I was chatting on the phone with a friend of mine. My friend asked what I made for dinner that night. Unbelievably I answered, "I made TUNA casserole." All hell broke loose then. Justus jumped up from the table, confronted me about my food lie, busted the rest of the family and vowed that he would never trust any of us again. When he finally stormed away he was mumbling something about food conspiracies and I think he threatend to move out.
How could I have been so careless? My carefully crafted lie, all the extra steps to hide the lie-everything fell apart. Justus barely spoke to the family for about a week. He spoke to me the least as he considered me the ring leader of this tuna conspiracy. Eventually everything went back to normal or so I thought...
About four weeks later Justus was supposed to clean his room. I was in the kitchen, cleaning up from the night's dinner when I called out to him to see if he was through with his room. "Yes, Mom," he replied in his sweetest voice. I think we all watched a movie that night and then sent Justus off to bed. When I went to tuck him in I walked into a disaster area, not a bedroom. I brought him out in front of the rest of the family so that we could discuss his lying about his rrom. I told him that I was hurt that he lied to me. Without a pause he looked me squarely in the eye and said,"You lied to me...I lied to you." And walked away! I was dumbfounded as was the rest of the family. I should have dragged his little butt back in the room, but I was speechless. We all sat there dazed and confused. Then it finally registered: he was talking about the TUNA!!!! We almost fell off of our chairs trying to muffle our laughter!
I let him get away with that one. After all, he was the victim of my food lie and he did have a hell of a comeback!

Tag! I'm it...

I am such an idiot! Awhile ago, Scarlett tagged me. I was so excited that my site was linked to someone elses that I didn't register the meaning of being tagged! Apparently, I was supposed to answer a certain set of questions and then, I presume, tag someone else to do the same. Sometimes I'm just so "DUH."

So without further ado...I give you MY ANSWERS:

1. TOTAL NUMBER OF FILMS I OWN ON DVD/VHS:
Not too sure. A lot of my stuff is still in storage at my sister's place right now. My guess would be about 1oo or so. Mostly VHS unfortunately.

2. LAST FILM I BOUGHT:
Hmm...been pretty much broke for awhile now. Haven't purchased any type of recreational material in awhile. I did buy "Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath" for my son's birthday. Do video games count? They have mini-movies on them...

3. 5 FILMS I WATCH A LOT/THAT MEAN A LOT TO ME:

1. The Princess Bride-This is my old stand by. Whenever I need a "pick me up" this is the movie I turn to. It never fails to turn my grey skies blue.

2. Purple Rain- I have to admit that I am a hardcore old-school Prince fan. This movie marked a historical point in the Prince's career and in my life as well. I must have seen this in the theaters at least 15 times. While it's not the greastest cinematic performance, it will always have a place in my heart. This was my generations "Rocky Horror Picture Show"

3. Raising Arizona- What a great comedy! One of my favorite Cohen brothers movies. I actually took a class on the Cohen brothers and had to watch and analyze this movie as an assignment. I loved that class!

4. Like Water for Chocolate- Just had to throw in something with food. I liked the book more, of course.

5. Amelie- A darling french film with a charming lead character. Audrey Tautou is adorable. Very well made film.

**These aren't necessarily my all-time favorite films, just a small sampling of the films that have touched me in some way. I don't think I could ever pick just one film as a favorite. Much like food, I enjoy a variety of movies. Their so yummy!

I guess I should tag somebody next, but I'm not one for the chain-blogging. Sorry!

Damn Spam (EWWW, not THAT Spam)

Okay, I'm back to the old template. I've added a word verification setting in hopes of blocking auto spam. Those bastards finally found my little blog! I hope this isn't too much of an inconvenience for anyone that wants to leave a comment. "Big up" (thanks!) to Scarlett for the instructions for blocking spammers. I hope this works.

Am I a Food ADDICT?????

As soon as I completed my previous post, "The Hunger," I came across this:

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/reviews/article307048.ece

Spooky. I've never weighed 236 lbs. and I don't fill up on sugar...but somethin' ain't right!

THE HUNGER

I am so freakin' hungry. I hate when people say "freakin'," but I just did it. That's how hungry I am! This constant hunger has me worried. I have eaten today. I actually had a substantial meal not that long ago. This was my meal:

7 chicken drumettes;
a salad with romaine lettuce, cucumbers, green and black olives, green pepper and blu, cheddar and provolene cheeses;
pasta with cream sauce and mushrooms and peas.

This was a pretty good size meal and should have been filling. Yet, I was never satiated. This has been happening a lot lately. I either leave a meal still wanting more food or I eat so much I feel stuffed and sickened. What's wrong with me? I know this is probably a mental condition. Perhaps I'm depressed and I don't know it. Maybe I have some deeper issue with food. I don't think so though. Am I depressed?Hhhmmm... The only thing I know for sure is that
I'M STILL HUNGRY!!!

Food Break

These blogs have nothing to do with food, but I hope you'll check them out anyway:

Scarlett-A witty, intelligent woman with AMAZING taste in film and SHOES! She's very outspoken and updates her blog regularly

tobequitefrank-Excerpts from a Midwesterner's upcoming non-fiction book. Looks like it's gonna be a good read...

Young, Black and FABULOUS! -ALL the dish on "Black" Hollywood. I LOVE gossip of any color!

PINK is the new blog-more deep dish celeb gossip. ERE'BODY who's ANYBODY is all up in this blog!

I'll put up links to food sites soon.

Until then-EAT WELL!

THE HORROR REVISTED...

Here's another food nightmare, enjoy!

So about 3 or 4 years ago I was about to start a new position with a big broadcaster here in St. Louis. I was very excited to work for this worldwide company. I was also happy because it meant that I would be working with my sister everday as she was then the receptionist at said company. One day I visited my sister at work. She took me on a tour and introduced me to everybody. In a conference room there was free lunch for employees. I was invited to join in since I was officially a new employee. Free food- I was all over it. There was an amazing pasta and chicken dish, Ceaser salad and much more including the St. Louis food anomaly, "TOASTED RAVIOLI"...
So, I chomped away and pretended to listen to who everyone was and what they did blah, blah blah. About 10 minutes into my free meal I begin to feel a tickle in my throat. The air was blasting because all of the broadcasting equipment needs to be kept cool. I figured the air wasn't good for my throat and thought I better call it a day and head home. At that time my car was busted and I was on the bus. So I hike back to the bus stop, in the sun, throat just as scratchy as ever. I wait about 20 minutes for the bus kinda coughing and trying to clear my throat the whole time. By the time I get on the bus I realize that I must have something stuck in my throat. I try swallowing extra hard, more coughing and massaging my neck and throat to no avail. When I finally arrive home I know I've got a big problem on my hands and in my throat! I franticly call around asking what I should do. I could breathe so the obstruction clearly wasn't that bad, but it was starting to hurt.
Someone had the brilliant idea of eating something to hopefully push the mystery item down my throat. I thought yogurt might help. Yogurt is creamy and will dissolve in my throat if it was to get lodged there alongside the mystery item. Well that didn't work. Although the yogurt was soothing to my throat I could still feel SOMETHING in there. I was going mad. I finally had to call an ambulance and go to the emergency room.
Since I was clearly traumatized and was only in EXCRUCIATING PAIN the lovely people of the hospital only made me wait 5 hours to be seen. When I was finally seen I had to drink (painfully) a barium mixture and was suspended from a Medieval torture device disguised as an X-ray machine. This process took about another 45 minutes. All the while it feels like my throat is being peeled raw by whatever the hell is lodged in there. After another hour or two my results came back...THERE WAS NOTHING IN MY THROAT according to the Medieval machine of death. The lovely torture maids in nursing scrubs gave me a medicine to calm my nerves and SENT ME HOME!
I really felt crazy. What was wrong with me? Will I ever get to enjoy life again? How can I continue to eat my way through life with this pain in my throat. So I took my scratchy, painful throat home and cried. About two hours after finally resigning to a life of tight throated sorrow I suddenly felt ill and raced to the bathroom. I could feel the burning sensation rising in my chest and up into my throat. I knew what that meant: I was gonna hurl. And I did. And my throat opened up and all was right again!!!! I knew it! There was something stuck in my throat! I had to see what it was. Now looking into your own vomit is gross. It's also hard to try to make out what everything is. But there it was right in the middle of my "come uppings"-the culprit- a burnt piece of TOASTED RAVIOLI!!!
I will never eat that unholy abomination again in life! TOASTED RAVIOLI is evil. It doesn't even show up on an x-ray!!! It's a sneaky, silent killer. And it's not even real food. Has anyone outside of St. Louis ever even heard of this monstrosity? Be afraid people, be very afraid. It may be coming to a town near you...

THE HORROR, THE HORROR

As much as I love food, and I DO love food, there are some culinary treats that will never EVER touch my tongue again. I'm sure most of us have had FOOD NIGHTMARES in our lives. Below are a few of mine. Beware. You may never look at certain foods the same way again...some foods are definately NOT good for you...

When I was about 5 years-old my Mom and I had a full blown Mexican standoff at the dinner table. Her weapon of choice was MEATLOAF with RED SAUCE. All I had was sheer inner-will NOT to eat the loaf of death. I vaguely remember her making threats that would bring a normal 5 year-old to her knees. I wasn't caving in. A life of no TV and no playground visits meant nothing. To consume that dreaded loaf with the blood-like RED SAUCE would be a fate far worse than death. I tried every trick in the book. I attempted to fake her out by taking a bite of meatloaf and ever so slyly spitting it into my napkin. She quickly caught on to that. For awhile I got away with stuffing my mouth with the meatloaf and after excusing myself, I would spit the rancid dish into the toilet and out of my life. A little more than halfway through my dinner she wised up to that trick as well. There were tears-hers. I sat stoney cold in my resolve NOT to eat that crap! After two hours or so (and after I actually nodded off, landing face first in the cold deathloaf) I WON!!!!!! I haven't eaten meatloaf with red sauce ever again. My mom only made meatloaf with brown gravy from that day on. I had no problem with the brown gravy. Fast forward about 17 years. I went to lunch at a restuarant. I thought I would have the meatloaf special that day. Of course when my lunch arrived it was drowning in RED SAUCE...I literally burst into tears and demanded a different meal!

Please share any food nightmares that you have!
More HORRORS to come...

I have been near-deathly ill for the past week. I have a wicked cough (for which my docter prescribed a gel-cap, NOT a syrup) and a nasty little sinus infection. So my diet has consisted of meds, OJ and Jalapenos. Yes, jalapenos. For almost one week straight my son and I have dined on bean burritos, turky tacos, nacho salads and pinto beans-all covered in hot and spicy jalapenos. This is mainly because right before I fell ill I prepared a ton of food. So, I had all this food prepared and I was way too sick to cook anything else. So I have serrano, habenero and green chile peppers are coming through my pores right now. I never lost my appetite once this past week. I'm still coughing up a storm but I'm sooooo hungry.......

I must update my blog...
I must update my blog...
I must update my blog...

Until I get the chance or take the opportunity to create a full post I will leave you with this tidbit of useless information:

Today I have eaten:
1 salad with romaine lettuce; red cabbage; mushrooms; cucumbers; cheese and tuna.
1 Healthy Choice "Princess Chicken" (an unfortunate name for a delicious meal) frozen dinner

I have also given into my addiction. I have had 3 sodas today-1 Coke, 1 Seven-Up and 1 Sunkist Orange soda.

Please tell me what you have eaten today (no matter when you read this). I really am interested in what people eat. Please share.

I will update this blog...

Eventually

COMFORT FOOD

food that is simply prepared and gives a sense of wellbeing; typically food with a high sugar or carbohydrate content that is associated with childhood or with home cooking www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn

The term "comfort food" seems ironic at times. Sometimes when I think of the meals I've had with my family I can almost smell the spices or hear the voices of my now gone family members. Sometimes, most times, that is painful. I miss them and it's hard to remember them without longing to feel them near. But when I am preparing a meal that my grandmothers used to cook I feel joyus. Even through my tears. I have to fight through the pain of memory to feel the comfort of the past.

My comfort foods have always been associated with my two grandmothers, Granny and Grandma. For years they shared a two family flat on the Northside of St. Louis City. They would alternate between the first and second floor. When I was little girl visiting from Chicago sometimes the quickest way to tell which grandmother was living on which floor was to take a deep breath. If the smell of country fried chicken or spaghetti came wafting to the front door-Granny lived there. If the air was filled with the aroma of homemade cakes or macaroni and cheese or chicken n' dumplings-you were in Grandma's house!

Up and Running

Welcome to Beatloaf. Pull up a seat. Have a look at Today's Specials. Everything here is T'Licious. Enjoy!